#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

Queens Library provides access to digital books, videos, music and audiobooks through the eMedia center.

For this discovery exercise, you merely need to familiarize yourself a bit with the structure of the digital catalog and get an idea of the types of titles you can find here. Take a look around and locate a few titles of interest. Be sure to check out the Advanced Search feature.

Discovery Resources:

OverDrive Digital Media Guided Tour
Digital Media Quick Start Guide

Discovery Exercise:

1. Click on the eAudiobooks link and explore some of the 900+ titles.
2. Create a blog post about your findings. Did you locate a title that you might want to try out and download once you have your player?

OPTIONAL: If you are doing this from a home computer, try downloading a title. You don’t have to have a portable player to isten to audiobooks, you can also listen to it from a computer.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

Listen to a podcast about podcasts.

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS.

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting, it's easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minutes commentaries to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There’s a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don’t have to have an iPod or a MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portal device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don’t have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you’ll be automatically notified of their existence.

Discovery Resources:

There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just three of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download:

• Podcast.net
• Podcastalley.com
• Yahoo Audio

What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too?
(Optional Resources for those who want to learn create podcasts)

• Odeo’s Studio – online recording studio.
• How to Create Your Own Podcast
• How to podcast tutorial

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?

#20 I Tube, YouTube

Video hosting sites allow users to easily to upload and share videos on the web. Among all the web 2.0 players in this area, YouTube is currently top dog serving up 100 million video views a day and allowing users not only to upload their own video content easily, but also embed clips into their own sites easily.

Do some searching around YouTube yourself and see what the site has to offer. You'll find everything from 1970s TV commercials and the rantings of two brothers to library dominos and how to charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion. Of course, like any free site you’ll also find a lot stuff not worth watching too. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explore and see for yourself what the site has too offer.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Explore YouTube & find a video worth adding as an entry in your blog.
2. Create a blog post about your experience. What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did? Can you see any features or components of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?

OPTIONAL: Try placing the video inside your blog using the copy and paste code for the for "Embeddable Player.” Note: you'll need to use Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting this code.

Other popular video hosting sites:

• Yahoo Videos
• Google videos
• Dailymotion*
• Metacafe*
• Others - top video site list

NOTE: Videos, like music downloads, are bandwidth hogs. It is recommended that you complete this exercise during light internet usage times.

*Edited to Add: We've received a report that these two websites are blocked by Queens Library. We'll submit them for review. In the meantime, enjoy these sites at home, and we apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks to Library thoughts and musings for the heads up.

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

Speaking of the Web 2.0 Awards ...

Throughout the course of this Learning 2.0 program we’ve explored just a small sampling of these new internet technologies and websites that are empowering users with the ability to create and share content. But given time there are so many more we could explore. Although time will only tell which of these new collaborative, social networking and information tools will remain on top, one thing is for sure, they're not going to go away (at least anytime soon).

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to select any site from this list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees and explore it. With so many to choose from, it might be handy to first select a category that interests you (like Books or Personal Organization) and then simply select a tool/site to explore. Be careful to select a tool that is Free and that doesn't require a plug-in or download. The majority of these free, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Select any site/tool from the list of Web 2.0 Awards nominees. (If you prefer to select from just the winners, here’s a link to the short list.)
2. Explore the site you selected.
3. Create a post about your discovery. What did you like or dislike about the tool? What were the site’s useful features? Could you see any applications for its use in a library setting?

#18 Let's Collaborate and Have a Good Time

The availability and use of online productivity web-based applications (think word processing and spreadsheets) has exploded over the past few years and for good reasons! These powerful applications provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications. Some experts speculate that this emerging trend may mean the death to Microsoft Office and other software-based productivity tools, while others think web-based applications have their place, but not in the office. But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place.

One large benefit to web-based applications it that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing.

For this discovery exercise, participants are asked to take a look at a web-based word processing tools.

Discovery Resources:

The following sites received 2007 Web 2.0 Awards for Collaborative Writing and Word Processing:

1. Google Docs
   
2. Writeboard
   
3. ThinkFree
   

Discovery Exercise:

1. Create a free account for yourself in one of the above.
2. Explore the site and create a few test documents or two.
3. Create a blog post about your discoveries.

Please Note:

Things 18 and 19 will be posted later in the week, probably Wednesday and Thursday. Please use this time to catch up and read each others' blogs.

#17 1/2 Explore Facebook and Social Networking

As you know, this program is based on one originally implemented by The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. Most days we merely copy and paste, checking links and tweaking the language for Queens Library. We add a new article or discovery resource here and there.

However, Thing 17 1/2 is a new addition. For this Thing, we'd like you to discover how libraries use social networking sites to reach customers and offer more services. One of the more popular social networking sites, Facebook, was originally launched for students at Harvard College. Over the last three and a half years, its membership has been opened up and expanded to include almost anyone who has an e-mail address. Users, in addition to setting up profiles and linking to people and networks, can also pick and choose from thousands of applications.

Discovery Resources:

• Facebook Site Tour
• How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job Over It
• 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally
• Facebook's plan to hook up the world
• List of social networking websites
• Top Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians - Part One
• Top Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians - Part Two
• Top Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians - Part Three

Discovery Activity:

1. Read through the Top Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians (links above).

2. Blog about your findings. Which applications do you like? Which ones do you think QL customers would like?

Optional: If you're up for the challenge and curious, join Facebook and explore the popular social networking site. We've asked you to register for many different accounts during 23 1/2 Things. Joining Facebook is optional.