Week 5: Thing 11

I explored the Web 2.0 awards list by browsing the topics and winners and was surprised to see that I had heard of many of them. I was already familiar with Craigslist and use it regularly. I decided to try a couple that I had heard of, but not used. I explored Yelp to look at reviews of restaurants and wineries in Petaluma where I live and think that would be very useful if you are visiting a new area and just trying to find new places to go near where you live. I had heard of Google Maps, but hadn't used it. I typed in Petaluma and was surprised to see my address pop up with a photo of my house!! I clicked on the photo and could then move the picture around to see up and down my street. That was really amazing!!! I will soon try out Pandora, as my husband and daughter love it. I know we will also be exploring many of the other sites in the upcoming activities. I think the Web 2.0 awards list is great- easy to use and very helpful.

Week 5: Thing 10

I explored the Flickr Toys again and Comic Strip Generator, but really liked the Image Chef. I created this image, just to test it out, but think it would be a lot of fun to play with.

Week 4: Thing 9

For this activity I looked at the Edublog Awards and really liked the best library blog- Hey Jude. I'd like to go back and explore that a little further- just not sure if I want to add it to my Google Reader yet- feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment with all of these blogs and newsfeeds. I tried out the various blog search tools and am not sure when I would really need to use them. I did remember reading about the Casa Grande High School Library blog in the SLJ and searched for that using Google Reader and Technorati, but found it easier using a regular Google search. As I become more familiar with blogs or need to find something I might use these, but right now it seems like there is more than enough for me to explore without searching for more!! This activity did make me want to set up a blog for my library as a way to share photos and library projects and activities and I hope to get started on this soon.

Week 4: Thing 8

I set up a Google Reader account and then subscribed to the New York Times Book Review. I have checked this a few times and found it a little overwhelming. I also added the subscribe button in the Google Reader to my bookmarks bar which made adding other subscriptions very easy. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to get in this format and how much information I would need to manage, but I did subscribe to the 5 newsfeeds for this activity. In addition to the NYTimes site I added Unshelved, the library comic strip and the blogs of the other members of my team. This was very easy to do. I also went through a tutorial to give me a little more background on RSS feeds and why they are useful. I am sure I will be much more aware of them now and will probably add more as needed.