Information=Deformation

Method 12: Reflection and Evaluation

A Dozen Ways to Two-Step: Essential Web 2.0 Training for Texas Librarians has been a great way for me to get my feet wet with Web 2.0. I now feel more literate and able to answer questions that my patrons ask about these technologies. I am happy that I will be able to use what I have learned to make my library more efficient and up-to-date. Using RSS Feeds and reading other librians', futurissts, and technologists' blogs will keep me current. Using wikis will help in my collaboration efforts. Delicious will help me to organize the many wonderful sites I find and it will also help me find new sites--I will share with my teachers, students, and parents so learning will be more fun and relevant for my students. Computing in the cloud opens up a whole world of opportunity for me, personally and professionally and will impact my library in ways I have seen in this training program and in ways that I haven't even thought of yet. I would definitely take part in this program if it were offered again. It would be especially helpful to me if there was an extension of this program.

#11-The Wide World of Podcasting

I found a lot of podcasts that I did not find interesting before I found MuggleCast on PodcastAlley.com. This podcast is all about all things Harry Potter and created by guys who even play the movies in their bathrooms. I found factoids that would be of interest to my Harry Potter readers. One such item of interest is that Daniel Radcliffe's favorite movie is Half-Blood Prince because of his relationship with Sirius Black. I am sure that after looking around more and asking my friends and colleagues for recommendations, I will find more podcasts that interest me.
Podcasting will be possible with my students and I already have all the equipment I need to create them. I think, though, for podcasts to be enjoyed by my students, they would have to be vidcasts because many of the children are second-language learners and need the pictures for comprehension.

Method 10: This Wiki World

I enjoyed this method, especially browsing favorite blogs that were recommended on "Library Development A Dozen Ways to Two Step Favorites" wiki. I learned that wikis could be useful in my library, especially with collaboration efforts. I have been trying to collaborate and plan lesson/units with classroom teachers, but due to scheduling conflicts, I have only been able to plan with one teacher at a time. A wiki will be very helpful in collaboration. I plan to use a wiki to enhance collaboration efforts. I will be able to work with entire grade levels, asking the teachers to contribute to the wikis when their schedules permit.

#9 Chat and Instant Messaging

Option 1
I have been familiar with chat. I have chatted on Facebook and also with businesses such as printer supplier when I was choosing a printer for my library. I have also chatted with Norton 360 when my laptop was crashing. Chat is easy to use. I think chat and instant messaging could be very useful in a library. Real-time answers to questions and responses to thoughts could be very useful to patrons. I thought the best idea for school libraries would be Meebo widgets embedded on catalog searches. Meebo would be very helpful when catalog searches had no results.

#8 Social Networking

Social Networking has many possible implications for libraries-- and I have read the social networking sites of many libraries that are employing them for information, public service, and publicity purposes. Twitter has many possibilities for informing patrons about services and books that are relevant to current events. I think that Twitter Search can be very useful, because the library can "pop-in" and help when people are making queries or "tweets" about the library.
Privacy continues to be an issue with social networking sites. I already have a personal Facebook Page and when I get a professional social networking presence, I will keep it separate from my personal presence. Of course, some things/sites/thoughts will be posted on both personal and professional sites but many will be obviously either personal or professional.
It is very important for my students (and my children) to understand privacy issues and implications that are possible and probable with social networking sites. I will post and teach information and lessons about these sites in my library.

Method 7: Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Delicious

Delicious may help with collaboration between teachers at my elementary school. Our teacher portal has been getting crowded with links to many sites that I think will be valuable to our teachers and students. Tagging and social bookmarking, perhaps with tag clouds rolled on our website, should help alleviate the crowding on our website and help encourage our teachers to try new sites and a new way of collaborating. It will be easier for teachers to share sites they have found useful.

Of course, it will be great to have my favorite sites in the cloud, so I can access them everywhere.

I've created a Delicious account and am most excited about exploring the sharing aspect. I am thrilled to be able to follow the sites/tags that respected, tech-savvy librarians are employing, exploring, and finding useful.