Well, we are at the end of this learning journey. I thought it was a very useful way to learn about a lot of things I had never experienced. I don't feel like such a dummy around my kids anymore, I actually know what they are talking about now. I feel the only downside to the program was a huge deficit in the amount of time the steps actually took. It was originally thought it would only take 15 minutes to half an hour to complete each step, when in actuality it sometimes took that long just to read through the exercise directions. All in all, it was fun and heck yes I'd do it again. I just wish there was a way to do these things under one password. I now have about 10 new accounts and passwords, which just adds to the middle-aged angst and confusion of my day-to-day existence. I was always worried that I'd lose my little, tattered cheat-sheet. Thank you to everyone who came up with a new and exciting format to teach us things which will help us to serve our customers better while having a little fun ourselves.

Over, and out.

Today we are blogging about MOLDI or The Mid Ohio Library Digital Initiative.

"The Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative is the result of a grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), awarded by the State Library of Ohio in 2004 to the Grandview Heights Public Library. The original members of the grant were Grandview and Upper Arlington Public Libraries. This grant eventually enabled nine libraries in the mid-Ohio region to band together in a project focused on cooperatively bringing online audio and print books to the public. The need to create a new identity beyond traditional service boundaries led to the creation of the Initiative."

The website it well laid out and easy to navigate. Personally, I would use this service for homework help and reference rather than reading for enjoyment. I never have been able to get into books on tape/cd. I lose my concentration if I'm not actually reading, and it makes me very sleepy. Not recommended if one is driving:)

I like the language component. I think it would be very useful to be able to work on language skills through this medium.

I think I will be visiting MOLDI again.

http://www.podfeed.net/rss/2.xml

Item 21 in Learn and Play was to learn about podcasts. I was not impressed. I went to both podfeed and podcastalley and couldn't figure out how to make any of the podcasts play. However, not one to give up easily I did scroll through the offerings in search of something that interested me. Not too much did. As I stated way back when, at the beginning of this adventure, I think the majority of blogging, podcasting etc is just regular people who want to be heard. Well, if you want to be heard, and understood, your best bet is to talk to someone, old school, face-to-face. There is no communication without emotion and body language. I believed that at the beginning of this odyssey and I still believe that. It's been fun but there isn't a lot that will engage me in the future.

I didn't really know a lot about You Tube until my daughter introduced me to Charlie. We love Charlie probably because his big brother an adorable accent just like my husband. It gives us some insight into what David must have sounded like when he was small. We watch Charlie and his brother all the time and the clip is most definitely a family favorite. Maybe it will become one of yours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Revolutionary radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedure, principles, etc.: a revolutionary discovery.

We were asked to visit the Tooling Around blog on the CML website and comment on something which we had not learned about yet. I discovered Highlighter and I consider that to be revolutionary. It will certainly change the way I pursue my passions, books, movies, music cd's and all things new. I love to search sites like Amazon and Borders for new items which I may be interested in borrowing from CML, and Highlighter will make my life a whole lot easier. This is how it works: "Let's say you're browsing through Amazon and come across a book or CD that strikes your fancy. Highlight the title and voila! The text you highlighted automatically appears in the toolbar search box ready and waiting to be searched in the library's catalog."

Can things get any better? Today, I think not.

This exercise revolves around all the applications associated with Web 2.0. We were asked to visit Semoz.org's site and choose an award-winning application to explore. I decided to explore Wufoo, primarily because I really like the name:) What is Wufoo? Wufoo strives to be the easiest way to collect information over the Internet. Our HTML form builder helps you create contact forms, online surveys, and invitations so you can collect the data, registrations and online payments you need without writing a single line of code. I think the library would be able to use this site in many, useful and interesting ways. How about putting a small survey on the self-checkout stations, after patrons had checked out their items, asking what they like and dislike about the system. You could build a similar form for the CML website which could ask customers what they think of the reserves system. There could be a computer at each branch dedicated to patrons wishing to leave comments regarding the library and what we could do differently. A survey could also be inserted into CMLsi asking employees what our thoughts are, the possibilities are endless.

This morning I learned about Goggle Docs. This is a revolutionary concept which will make the sharing of information much easier. Recently my daughter and I experienced more than a little aggravation trying to get a resume from her computer to mine. She has Vista operating system and we do not. The document would not transfer in a format which we could open. Finally my husband figured out how to change the format of her document. All this trouble could have been avoided if we had simply used goggle docs. And we are three individuals with many years of computer usage between us! I think it will be useful for businesses but also schools, libraries and home. I have several spreadsheets at home, but like the ease of the templates provided on Goggle docs. I could see myself using them in the future instead of the old fashioned spreadsheet. I also liked the layouts for the online photo albums.