SUE'S SITES FOR STUDENTS

I loved this week's work. Sites for Students could truly be a godsend.

I toured 4 of the sites as I just couldn't get enough of them and wanted to see as much as time would allow. I loved Zoho Writer and Backpack and signed up for both of them. It seemed to me that Zoho Writer was so intuitive and could be a great help to anyone with a computer but not able to afford purchasing Word. It was so simple and fun to use! I am hoping that I will be able to spend some more time on Backpack. I am a person who loves to make "To Do" lists, so this is right up my alley. The other 2 sites I visited were OpenOffice and Stikkit. Neither of these appealed to me very much. OpenOffice might be nice, but it just seemed way more difficult than Zoho Writer.

I think that both Zoho Writer and Backpack would be useful to almost anyone--students on up to anyone still able to use a computer. I know that I will recommend them to my patrons.

I FEEL LIKE A TWITTERING OLD FOOL

I think I had the most trouble with this one. I did the assignment, but so much of it is still unclear to me. I guess I just have to remember that these lessons are just introductions to the various forms of social networking and not expect to be proficient.

I must admit though that I do like the short and sweet messages and not having to write long essays.

I found Annabelle at unionforge and also others in the generic kitsaplibrary account. It sounds like TS is quite busy changing the itypes on all of the large print books!

I am not sure how Twitter could help us here at KRL.

TO FACEBOOK OR NOT TO FACEBOOK

After taking the Facebook tour and reading the article by Meredith Farkas, I am still not so sure if I like the idea of this particular site's place in the library. I have always been a rather cautious person and the whole idea sounds a bit scary to me. The other social networking sites didn't have this effect on me. In fact, I readily signed up for most of them. I did not sign up for Facebook.

So, I guess I would have to say that at this point I would want to wait as I am just not so sure about it.

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL WIKIS

Today I added 2 sections to our branch wiki. Time permitting, I will enjoy finessing this a little at a time. So far, I have worked alone with the additions, but I would like to have all of my staff have input, especially concerning their skills and hobbies.

I am enjoying the whole krl2.0 curriculum although at this point I am a few weeks behind. There is just not enough time for everything and sometimes this gets shoved to the back burner.

I would really like to see all of the branches have info about their branches in their wikis. This is what I miss the most about our website. Years ago when we first had a KRL website, there was a little section of history, etc. on each branch. Since that part is now gone, maybe the wikis could be an alternate way of having a little branch history, etc.

Little Boston Library's Wiki

So far, I have only had a chance to edit our wiki. I wrote up a short history of the branch. I am sure I forgot much, but will keep working on it as a work in progress. One of our staff members (Claudia) will maybe work on this tomorrow and get some photos posted. I would like this to be a joint venture including all of our staff.

I would like to see all of the departments and branches tell us a little about themselves with history and other interesting tidbits.

I think that I would rather have these wikis be internal only--just for KRL staff. I already shared in my earlier blogpost how KRL as a whole could have a Readers' Favorites wiki. This one could have input from both staff and patrons.

Kitsap Readers' Favorites

I really liked the Stevens County wiki. It looks like they thought of almost everything.

I thought about what KRL could offer on our wiki and the idea came to me that we could have a similar one to Stevens County, but we could call it "Kitsap Readers' Favorites." We could ask for input from all of our staff and patrons and have a website of lists of favorites, including: Books, Restaurants, Galleries, Movies, Schools, Parks, Neighborhoods, Recipes, Churches, Outdoor Activities, Indoor Activities and any other lists of favorites that we could think of.

Sometimes I find that I would just like some new ideas and would love to see lists from others in our area. Guidebooks are usually written by someone off in New York or wherever and I would just like something written by our neighbors right here in Kitsap County.

The value that I see in wikis and especially in one using my idea is that it would be continually in a state of change, with favorites being added often.

YouTube is Probably for You but Maybe Not For Me

YouTube really is an exciting way for anyone to share their videos with the world. I enjoyed picking some of my favorite subjects and viewing what was offered.

I did have a major problem with it though on some of the videos I attempted to watch. My vision is not the best and I found that I had a hard time focusing my eyes before the videos moved along to the next scenes. I know that it is just a problem with my vision that I have had for years, but it did frustrate me.

I didn't have a problem with all of them though. I particularly enjoyed the 2 KRL videos I watched--the one featuring Dottie Mae and also the one about the notorious and smelly salmon. They seemed to be a bit better quality and my eyes didn't have a problem with them.

To sum it up, I probably will not use this very often, but it is nice to know it is there and available.