Wow, this has been fun!

I have survived Project Play First Semester!! This has been a very fun experience. I feel I can converse with my computer-geek sons a bit more about online tools and fun stuff. I have created a flickr album and a wiki for our family to share memories. I am looking forward to expanding my librarything collection so I can use it with my library teens.

Blogging still doesn't feel natural -- I have to almost force myself to keep up with this blog! (I've never kept a diary or journal either, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at my reluctance to blog on a regular basis.)

I will definitely be back for second semester!! I am especially looking forward to learning about IM and customized search engines. Three out of my four children use IM to converse with one another daily. I want to be part of the conversation!

The format for this course has been wonderful for me. I like the opportunity to explore. I wouldn't use step-by-step instructions. The topics we have covered have been very useful and fun. I especially like the little extras at the end of each lesson!

Thanks so much to all of our Web 2.0 coaches! Keep up the good work!! Oh, and did I mention this has been fun??!!!??

That was scary!!

Well, it took me two days to work up the courage, but I actually posted our library website URL on Wikipedia!! I am surprised at my timidity. I have been posting on message boards for years. But I just didn't feel like I had the authority to edit the world's largest encyclopedia!! I finally did it, though! I want to be a part of Web 2.0!! (I did enjoy playing in the Project Play sandbox!! I also LOVE the term sandbox. What a wonderful image!)

Tonight I created a private wiki for my family. I have been trying to compile our family history. Now everyone in the family can help me!! I wish my aunt had a wiki to help us plan our upcoming family reunion. She has been going crazy trying to keep up with emails. I think I will feel more comfortable with a wiki than with a blog. I like the freedom to organize information -- blogs can be so linear.

I'm going to encourage our youth services department at the library to use a wiki format to plan for summer library programs. This tool really enhances collaboration.

Being social, playing tag

I just created tags for my previous posts. I am finding it difficult to shed the idea that there are "right" and "wrong" tags. In other words, I found myself agonizing over what words to use for my tags. Then I reminded myself: there is no right or wrong. I can use whatever tags work for me!!

I'm curious to know if this fear is more predominant among us baby boomers, as opposed to the millennial generation!

I actually created a del.icio.us account for myself about a year ago. (I love that name: del.icio.us!!) My computer crashed and I lost all of my bookmarks. I saw del.ici.ous as a great way to back up my bookmarks! I also wanted to be able to access my bookmarks on multiple computers.

Currently my del.icio.us bookmarks are private. But I'm beginning to see the advantages of social bookmarking. I'm going to start a family history project with my extended family (I'll explain it more fully in my blog about wikis.) I'm going to introduce social bookmarking to my parents and grandparents and sisters. (I'm sure my children already know about it!!)

As far as library-related applications, I plan on using social bookmarking when we update and upgrade our teen library website. It will be an important part of our homework help center.

Still playing......

Librarything might be useful after all!

I will admit I didn't want to get involved with Librarything. I don't really want to take the time to catalog my personal library or maintain said catalog online. (Maybe it's because I spend a lot of time cataloging new books at the library!)

So I begrudgingly created a Librarything account just so I could fulfill my assignment. I started entering a stack of childrens' books, thinking it would help me remember what I own. Then the light bulb turned on!! I deleted my entries and began again in a new direction.

As a teen library specialist, I've been trying to find an easy way to keep track of the YA books I have read. I've wanted to organize reviews and descriptions of these books, along with my own opinions, and make this information readily available to teen patrons at my library. Voila!! Librarything to the rescue!

So my Librarything "shelf" includes YA books I have read within the past year. I don't have all of them listed yet by any means. But I have begun... I hope to create a way to share this list with my teens via our website. A work in progress to be sure.....

Now, LibraryThing is a huge database. There may be other websites more suited to sharing smaller booklists. But I will experiment with LibraryThing for now and see what it can do for me.

The Suggester was interesting. I dislike the Amazon suggestions, so the LibraryThing option is refreshing: based on reading preferences and not just purchasing preferences. I actually used the Suggester to add books to my catalog. Many YA books seem to be inter-related, so every time I entered a title for a book I had read, I would find more titles that belonged on my list, so all I had to do was click on the link! I'm always looking for timesavers!!

You can see my short but ever-growing list by clicking here: PJ's List of YA books