Audiobooks

I like the whole audiobook thing, I think it is a way for the library to keep up with the advancements in technology. With that said I think that improvements could be made to our digital collection page. When a customer searches the catalog, he is unable to see the Overdrive titles that are available, and this would not be so bad if the search tool with in the digital collection page was not as useless as it is. Another problem, a lot of the audiobooks are in WMA format, this means very little to me despite the fact that I know it will not work on my device. And I can download it to my computer and listen to it, but the only time I spend alot of time in front of the computer is at work or while doing homework. And I am not interested in burning the book to a cd, that just seems wasteful. So I think the ability to do an advanced search that enables you to search for titles that are compatible with your chosen device is essential, then I could find all the titles that are MP3 format, and that have some use to me. I'm sure we will get to that point someday though.

Podcasts

I like podcasts. I use them a lot for some of my favorite radio shows, like Car Talk. On Pod Cast Alley I found a podcast called Free Beer, I am currently listening to it, and it seems somewhat entertaining. I think the show's hosts sample different types of beer, but it kind of sounds like they just drink a lot of beer and become somewhat incoherent by the end of the hour long show. I also searched Pod Cast Alley for 'library' and the results list was rather long. It seems like there are a lot of public library podcasts, which would be a good idea for any library. I think that library's could do book reviews and events discussions, and provide an easy way for people to be informed about a multitude of different things going on at the library.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pw_eX97TUw
Well I could not embed this video by request of I guess the poster. I really like The Office so this is the video that I chose, its really long. Um I think that some aspects of youtube could be useful for library websites. If the library posts how-to videos for using online databases or something similar, then people can comment on the videos and creators can assess through the comments the usefulness of the instruction.

list dump

I found a website called List Dump (maybe its just one word?) at www.listdump.com
It was pretty neat, I make a lot of lists myself, and constantly have those "top 5" discussions with my friends. I think it could be useful for a library. People could create themed lists, say All Time Greatest Books on the Circus. THen people could add to the lists the books they believe should be on there. And then everyone who wanted to had access to these lists, and they could find out about all sorts of favorite books on the circus. I can also see this being useful for coordinators. They may keep up with the lists and if they find that the library does not carry a popular item then they may choose to order it, and they could post into the list that this item is now on order upon finding out about it via this list.

Google Docs

WOW! Online documents is the most exciting thing ever! I have opened email attachments in gmail using google docs before and, wow, google stored them without my knowledge. Not really sure how I feel about that. Oh well. Oh and just now it gave me a random message saying that it cannot save my document and that they are sorry for the inconvenience. And the spell check doesn't work so I cannot be help accountable for my misspellings. Not sure how much I really like this Google Docs things, the error message keeps showing up every time it tries to automatically save. Oh it just saved finally. Well this short experience has not convinced me to write a paper or complete a group project on this application.

TCCL Wiki

Interesting. I can see why wikis can be of a lot of use. I think the next time I take a trip I might search for a wiki on that city. I never really trust the formal travel websites on "Things to do" in a new city, and many wiki posts give enough detail about the topic to actually get a feel for it.

Wikis

I enjoyed the 16th thing. I am pretty familiar with the creation and use of wikis but I never really thought about how useful they can be in the library environment. I really like the idea about using a wiki in the catalog, I think people would love to be able to review books like that, and I know that I always find the Amazon.com reviews of some use.
I can see a wiki being successful in my department as well. Often times we find ourselves doing new and unfamiliar tasks and trying to figure out the most efficient way of completing the tasks. With a wiki then people could post ways they discovered to quickly complete the task.