FINALE......

Yeay...... The end is here! I've really enjoyed this training course, it definitely was a learning experience and this has been the funnest training that I have ever done! The creators of this training should receive an award for their unique, but fun project. The funnest thing that I learned was how to create my own blog. I have a webpage that is mine, which I can post my views on there, and make it as colorful and interesting as possible. People can leave me messages about my posts and that is a cool thing. I also enjoyed playing around with avatars, comic strip generators, watching videos on YouTube, listening to podcasts, and getting the latest news information on my very own blogline. The only unexpected outcome about this program that I noticed, was how long it took to complete the weekly projects. In the first few weeks, I could finish the projects in less than an hour, because we only had one or so exercise to finish. As the weeks went by though, it seemed that we had more exercises to do (one post on Monday, Tuesday, & also Wednesday). These took longer than an hour to finish, so I think that this project took much more time to complete as the weeks went by. The training hours should be higher than 10 hours in my opinion. If I could take this training course again, I definitely would. I would also like to learn how to set up my own website, this could be an idea for the next round of training sessions...... This was a pleasant journey and I am happy to have learned new things during the past few weeks.... :)

Adios......

Week 9: #22

I've always wanted to learn how to search and check out an e-book. I think HCPL's digital site is very organized and it has a lot of material to offer the public. The free digital site LibriVox doesn't seem so structured, you basically have to scroll through the alphabet to find your item. Wowio was ok, it was similar to HCPL's site. I saw a title that caught my eye, "The Ultimate Party Drink Book", because I am having a bachelorette party next month and this will give me some great ideas.

Week 9: #21

I visited the PodCast Valley site and I enjoyed listening to the "Butterball Turkey Talk". Since I am the one who will be responsible for cooking the turkey this year for my whole family, I really needed some much needed advice. I learned the difference between how to select from a fresh or frozen turkey, how big the turkey needs to be to feed my family (1.5 lbs per person, so 10 people=15 lbs turkey), & what temperature the turkey needs to cook in the oven (325). They also played a very interesting segment that happened a few years ago when a customer called the Butterball Turkey Line to say that she had washed her turkey with dish soap and water, but the turkey would not stop sudding. No need for this, just pat the turkey with a paper towel and it is ready to be cooked! I also added the feed to my Bloglines.

Week 9: #20

YouTube was a lot of fun to look at. I enjoyed watching the video, "How to Do Nothing at Work and Still Get Paid" (warning: don't try these tips at work people). I think that if some of the features from that site were applied to the library's website, there will be a lot of ideas and information sharing. Every library can get a visual idea on what other branches are doing as far as crafts, entertainment, bulletin boards, etc.

Week 8: #19

I think Zoho Writer is an interesting tool, but I don't think I will be using it that much. I bought a computer a few weeks ago, along with Miscrosoft Office, so I am using Word a lot to create documents.

Week 8: #18

I think the social networking sites are a cool way to keep in touch with friends or share photos of your life. I think MySpace is one of the most popular ones, and I have a few friends who have set up their own page on that site. The only thing that bugs me about that site is how unsafe it is, and also the nudity that you see occassionally. I know you can set your profile to private and that's a huge plus, but I think that kids need to be monitored closely when using that site. I also peeked at Rate My Space and I liked it! I can get remodeling ideas for my house. I want to re-do the shower and expand the kitchen.

Hello.....

Week 7: #17

Technology is something that is always changing and unless you keep up with it, you will fall behind and not know what is cool these days. I am not technology saavy at all, I do have a computer at home and have Internet, but that's as good as it gets. I don't even own an ipod, but my five year old niece does, something is wrong with that picture! I'm glad I am taking this iHCPL training though, because I have learned a lot about what is in these days. I used to have a digital camera and I loved downloading the images onto my computer and e-mailing them to my friends, but I lost that camera a few months ago. I am now on a hunt to buy a new digital camera and continue that practice. ;)

Week 7: #16

I really found the wikis to be very interesting. I never actually knew what a wiki was until today. I've heard the term before, but I always assumed it was some type of hand-held gadget. I like the fact that you can voice your opinion on a certain webpage and type in your two cents worth. However, since anybody can literally edit something that you typed, there is the possibility of editing wars. I think that libraries can benefit from using wikis, especially in the form of creating a favorites book section, where the customers can have a say on their favorite reads (even though this is a feature that is already part of our website, but not in a wiki format). Customers can also create and edit a wiki webpage to advise other customers on their library research experience. For example, if they had a research project to do on a certain topic, they can state exactly what books were beneficial to them. Another example would be if a customer was searching for a certain recipe, say green enchiladas, they can share their book recipe hunt on the wiki ("use this recipe found on this book" or "stay away from this recipe on this book", etc).

Week 6 #15

An example of a library that has opened it's arms to Library 2.0, is one that has acknowledged the fact that we live in a world where change is constantly occurring. With this change, comes the need to update resources, products, and state of minds to meet the needs of society. The libraries of today do not look like the libraries of the past. People who haven't visited a library for a few years will be surprised to find out that books are not the only focus of a library. Who would of thought that you could actually borrow a DVD or CD for entertainment purposes? Libaries will be the next cool hang out places for people of all ages.

Week 6 #14

Technorati was an interesting tool to use. I did the advanced search for "Learning 2.0" under the Blog Posts and I got back 6,850 hits, the tags came out with 663 hits, & the blog directory 681 hits (and it also contained a brief description regarding what the blogs were about). I typed in the keyword "recipes" and got a whopping 57,341 hits, wow! When I am bored at home and having nothing to do, I will explore Technorati's recipe collection for a few tips!

Week 6: #13

I think the del.icio.us tool is very helpful because I can bookmark all of the sites that I like, and I can access them from both my home and work computer. I enjoyed viewing the food links that the site had to offer, I will now visit meals.com on a regular basis.

Week 5: #12

I signed up for a Library Elf account and it was very simple to do. I will get an e-mail sent to me the day before my items are due. I think this service is helpful to those people that hardly ever check their library accounts. I tend to check my library account once a day, so I always know when my items will be due. So, Library Elf will not be that useful to me. But, I learned something new today and that is what matters.

Week 5: #11

Library Thing is a cool site to group all of your favorite books together and add them to your list........This is a great way for me to keep track of all of the books that I have read. I must confess, before I started working at the library, I used to never read! I thought it was boring and a waste of time. This all changed as soon as I started to see all of the interesting books that crossed my way. I was hooked and I now try to read as often as I can. Reading a book is relaxing and you learn new things! Years ago, I used to write down every book that I had read, but I stopped that practice, so I am glad that Library Thing can actually help me start up that project again.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/SUSY100

Week 5 #10

I enjoyed playing around with the Comic Strip Generator website and also the Yahoo! avatars. Above is a comic strip picture of Hello Kitty that I customized, here is the link to that picture:

http://www.txt2pic.com/comic/kitten-hello-kitty-cat.htm

Week 4: #9

I think the newsfeed icons are self explanatory and with a click of your mouse, you can add these feeds to your bloglines. I searched for a topic on Feedster and the number of results is amazing, I had @ 18,000 hits. Syndics looked too confusing to try and the site also looked dull, it looked like spam. I also visited Topix and I typed in my zip code and some newsfeeds appeared. It did provide a story that was on the Houston Chronicle, but that was at the bottom of the list. I was surprised that a news report coming from a San Antonio website appeared first; A news article from Dallas was also displayed on there. So, I guess this site grabs information about your city and the closest cities around it.

Week 4: #8

I thought setting up my own Bloglines was easier than last week's task. I like the fact that all of my favorite links can be combined under one roof. This makes it easier for me to get up-to-date with the latest news or just general information. I enjoy browsing through the food websites and gossip columns.

Week 3 #7

I used the website Snipshot to customize this picture. I enhanced the brightness of it and enlarged the size.

Mashup

I enjoyed the Captioner! mashup... I like the fact that you can add sayings to any picture that you want.

Enchiladas

Doesn't that look yummy? Who's hungry?

BEAUTIFUL SUNSET....

Mistake?

Ok, so I go to Jack in the Box for lunch today, and I am trying to eat healthier, so I think to myself "order the chicken breast sourdough jack & not the beef sourdough jack (chicken=530 calories & beef=710)." Ha, yeah right, as soon as the lady says may I take your order over the intercom, I blurt out "sourdough jack" please! I couldn't take back what I just said (or could I?), so I sped away with a guilty feeling, but it was delicious!!! Mmmm, that is a very yummy burger. Has this happened to anyone before?

LEARNING

I learn by actually doing the thing that I am trying to learn. I am a hands on learner, I have to manually do it myself. I can't just hear it or read about it. I have to do it in order to learn on my own. So, I'm doing it, I'm blogging. Pretty neat stuff!