Web 2.0 tools...

I took a look at the award winners - love the one where you can play around with haridos, hair color, etc.

Then i checked out wufoo.com and immediately set about creating a customer survey to put up on the lib's website. Wasn't rocket science and I'm sure there are better surveys. However, for a first try it wasn't bad and the site was easy to use. Sometime I'll have to go try out surveymonkey though - more precision there, I think.

Web-based apps..

We don't have the full MSOffice software at home, only the piddly little program for wordprocessing and spreadsheets included with the PC we bought. So, whenever I receive docs that are in MSOffice format, I go to my Google account and open them in Google Docs. It's a real lifesaver!

Wiki's, or, I'm terribly behind..

Ok - my take on wiki's - what a way cool way to get things done. I have participated in our library's wiki, a professional association's conference planning wiki, a local event planning wiki; I have looked at wiki's and drooled about what could be done, if only, if only I had more time (and now I'm planning on jumping into the world of online courses in January... so, I get wiki's and there must be so much more we can do with them... family genealogy, parties, who wants what for Christmas-birthday-Hannukah?

update:
Ok - added my fav library-scene-in-a-movie to the wiki...

A hand-made spinning wheel...

and gorgeous at that!

See more photos here...

Ravelry, knitting, online societies and life

Oh lordy, another blog to follow. But, really, how could I possibly NOT follow a blog that combines French cooking with German... cafe creme and pretzels. Really.

One thing we Amis (German shorthand for Americans) miss out on is the Advent calendar... loads of them out there with different themes. My favorites - the DROPS calendar with cute holiday knitting ideas and the the culinarily themed one from Kochtopf (aka the Cooking pot, stock pot, etc).

And it gets better - here's a flash-back to the eighties (in case you were feeling nostalgic) - as someone commented somewhere else, the hairdos alone are worth looking at here!

Never seen an Advent calendar? Well, the idea is that it helps you count down to Christmas from December 1. Children are big fans - lots of fun stuff for them. For the grups (grown ups) it's themed calendars, with everything from craft ideas, to recipes, to knitting patterns, to, well, who knows.

We are missing out! Demand your local Advent calendar today.

Library 2.0

I think some of the discussions referenced have become moot: people are using library/web 2.0 in libraries and out.

Personally, I think the Web 2.0 tools are just that: tools to use in our work. I use what works, learn about what I don't know yet (like how to create a fabu Facebook page for my library a la Jerwood Library of the Performing Arts, Trinity College of Music (Greenwich, UK). They have RSS feeds from their OPAC to the Facebook page to show new books. Not to mention a catalog search button, and other good stuff.

So, for me Library 2.0 means learning lots of new stuff, fast, in order to keep up with the world which is where my customers are.

Dancing Border Collie...

Remember, if you want to get a Border Collie as a pet - they need something to do. They MUST have something to do - then they're happy happy dogs....

In which I do not conquer Technorati..

However, it has its uses, especially in the serendipity department, or wow, look at what I found.

So, I started out with a search on library management. Not so good. Tried that as a phrase. Hmm. Better. Looked through the blogs listed and found, sigh, ANOTHER one to add to my bloglines blog roll on library stuff.

Browsing through that blog's posts (see link above if you've already forgotten my newest find) led me to the infamous Annoyed Librarian. Ok - the AL, as those in the know call this blogger, generates an inordinate amount of comment, far more that this blogger is due. Some say they know who it is, some are incensed this person blogs anonymously and at LJ, too boot. Here's a fine example of an AL post with 176+ comments. The comments are worth reading, too; lots of self-impotent peeps gassing away there, too. Yes, I posted there. Booby prize to you if you figure out which post is mine.

Some folks think the AL is funny - well, not ha-ha funny, but funny as in tongue-in-cheek so. I'm not so sure. Sometimes I think the AL is out to cause discord in the ranks for no better reason than, "because I can." Francine Fialkoff quotes the AL as saying that the AL is no more "the writer" than Charlotte Bronte was Jane Eyre. Well, that don't warsh. Publishing one unified story, that comments on society and mores, is not the same as publishing a long string of posts in the blogosphere that masquerade as serious commentary and then asking us to believe it's all in good fun. Besides, all fiction entails autobiography.

As to whether the AL is fostering necessary discussion - well, I'd say the AL isn't adding anything new or original to the debate on "whither the library." Tina McElroy Ansa has a much better written and thought through, though old, argument about books and reading in the November 30 Atlanta Journal-Constitution; it's worth reading this essay, pondering it, and discussing the issue.

So, there you have it. My technorati odyssey. I'll be back for more.