Shelfari!

Some of you have already discovered Shelfari. This is a social networking site that is about books. You can see my bookshelf on the right.

You can

• Create a virtual book shelf or list



• Visit the Shelfari blog



• Read reviews



• Add reviews



• Explore authors



• Invite friends to join

It is a virtual place to gather and discuss books. There are even applications that will let you place your bookshelf on your blog. You can also find Shelfari other popular social networking sites- Facebook, and Myspace.

What are people doing online?

I have been hearing lots of feedback on the program. Some good. Some bad. I wanted to show you what each age group is doing online. Think about yourself and where you fall. Maybe you aren't the majority. That is OK. This visual said a lot to me and I wanted to share it.

Spectators are rampant. And as people age they are more inactive users. I got this visual from Business Week, July 11, 2007

Week 3 RSS Readers and Feeds

Have you seen this small funny tags on websites? Do you know what it means? If you are not sure of the answer to either of those questions, don’t worry you’re still in the majority, but this is changing rapidly. This is a sign for RSS. In the information world, RSS is not only revolutionalizing the way news, media and content creators share information, but it also is swiftly changing the way everyday users are consuming information.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.Just think about the websites and news information sources you visit every day. It takes time to visit those sites and scour the ad-filled and image-heavy pages for just the text you want to read, doesn’t it? Now imagine if you could visit all those information sources and web pages in just one place and all at the same time … without being bombarded with advertising… without having to search for new information on the page you’d already seen or read before… and without having to consume a lot of time visiting each site individually. Would that be valuable to you? Well, it’s available now through a newsreader and RSS.


This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines or GoogleReader account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.

Discovery Resources:
Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative

Google Reader In Plain English YouTube tutorial on Google Reader

Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feeds (podcasts, Flickr albums, etc)


Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video created showing how to add feeds.



Additional Bloglines news feed subcription information (screenshot image)


Don't forget to tap the knowledge of your co-workers. Working through the discovery process to gether can be fun.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
2. Create a free online Bloglines or Google Reader account for yourself and subscribe to at least 3 newsfeeds to your reader. See Using Bloglines Tutorial steps 1-3 for instructions.

Newsfeeds:
Subscribe to several of your co-workers' feeds.
This is as easy as typing the blog URL into the subscribe field in Bloglines. Try it, it's easy!
Then try adding a other types of news feeds that you will enjoy personally.

The Learning 2.0 blog feed
Charlotte.Com news feeds (pick at least one)
Reader’s Club new review feeds
Unshelved - Library cartoon feed
RSS Feeds from the Daviess County Public Library

Create a post in your blog about this exercise.

Don’t know what to blog about?
Think about these questions:

• What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
• How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?
• How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
• Which customer do you want to tell about our RSS feeds?
  
  
  

Week 2 Wrap up

I am so glad to have lots of people helping me learn with this project. And boy there is a lot to learn.

What I have learned:

1. Attended a 23Things Summit


2. You can work faster than I can


3. I had to skip a week so I can catch up


4. We need a work together time.

So I am working on catching up. And I am checking my calendar to see if we can gather at the computers on the first floor to work together. Bear with me, I am learning too.

Thanks to everyone for participating. This has turned into a great experience for me and I hope for you also.

Week 2: Blogging & Registration

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and understand how this program will work, it’s time to setup your very own personal blog to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries and exercises in.

For this program, I recommend that you use Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use.Creating a blog using Blogger takes just three steps:
1. Create an account

2. Name your blog

3. Select your template.

Once you’ve created your blog here are two important things to know:

To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/ Be sure to write down your login and password. To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered in Step 2.
Be sure to also write down your blog address. If you run into problems or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger here are some discovery resources you can use: Freevlog’s Quicktime Tutorial: Setup a Free Blogger Blog

Blogger’s Quick Tutorial OK -- Now, it’s your turn...

Discovery Exercise: Setup a blog for yourself through Blogger. Add a test post or two. Note: Use one of your test posts to create an entry about the habits among the 7 and 1/2 lifelong learning habits that is easiest and hardest for you & why.
Have fun!!!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: How you choose to identify yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself. However, in order to qualify for the staff incentive will need to register on DCPL Wiki. You may use a screen name. But remember, your blog is registered at the DCPLSandbox wiki.

* Use of Blogger is only a recommendation. If there is another blog hosting site that you are more comfortable with, please feel free to use it.

Register your blog on DCPL Sandbox wiki on the page Library Staff Goes 2.0.

You are now on the journey to becoming Web Savvy.

WEEK 1: Getting Started

During week 1 we will set up gmail accounts, and learn about lifelong learning from others.

Setting up a Google account
1) Go to Gmail's website.




2) Click on "Sign up for Gmail!"


3) Fill out the required fields, including choosing a login name/email name. (As a suggestion, think about what you might use this email address for before picking "onehotmomma".)
4) Click on "I accept. Take me to my account." to accept the Terms of Service and create your account.
5) From your new email account, please send mail to me at twenty2dot0staff@gmail.com.

Explore the lifelong learning sites.

1. Open up the 7 & 1/2 Habits online tutorial and view the online tutorial. This requires speakers.

As you watch and listen, write down which habit among the 7 & 1/2 that is easiest for you and which is hardest. You will use your personal blog (which you will set up next) to post your thoughts about lifelong learning.


1. Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective Adult Learning Programs by Dorothy Bullington



2. 15 Steps to Cultivate Lifelong Learning by Scott Young
   
   
   Have fun! If you haven't jumped on board yet, it's never too late to become a lifelong learner.

What is the program?

The DCPL Staff goes 2.0 is a self-directed independent study course in social web tools and technologies. We will be learning 20 2.0 technologies. The Every week, participants are asked to try out 2 to 3 Things, each one a different piece of the 2.0 world -- blogs, wikis, RSS, photo & video tools, comments, tagging, online applications and more. Each person that completes the 20 Things, will receive time off as approved by their manager. Full time people (40 hours) will receive 4 hours, 20 hour positions will receive 2 hours.

The objectives of this program are to:
1. Encourage staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.

2. Give participants a structure in which they can play with these tools supported by their peers

3.Support the Daviess County Public Library missions of improved customer service by helping staff become more familiar with the web tools their patrons use

4. Reward staff participation for self-directed learning

This site will serve as an information archive for administrative notices, detailed instructions and other extra bits linked to from the main program blog as needed. DCPL Staff goes 2.0 is not the first library to experiment with 2.0 technology. This program is modeled on the Learning 2.0 Program from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County. Visit the original site for examples of similar programs.


Over the course of the next nine weeks, this website will highlight “20 Things” and discovery exercises to help staff become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.To familiarize yourself with this project, be sure to read the About page. The FAQs should answer most of your questions about this program. If not, then please add your question to the FAQ page as a comment.

A note about the date on this post: Blogs are designed to display entries in reverse chronological order, with the most recent entry on top. I am trying to figure out how to keep this post on the top. Until then, Try the archives.