My Thoughts

At first I was a bit overwhelmed by this project. Not sure if I'd find the time to even do the assignments, but as I progressed, I found it to be fun and at times rewarding (love those coupons!) Thank you for opening up a whole new world of technology. I was quite familiar with many of the applications, but never had any hands-on experience with many. My kids think I'm a real pain in the ass when I write on their Facebook walls, but it's been fun. I use many of the applications regularly, but Google Docs and Flickr are two places I was not familiar with and will definitely explore them in the future.
Plus, these dress down days have been wonderful. Some mornings I just don't feel like going through the wardrobe, ironing and fussing.

Craigslist

I use Craigslist all the time to browse through merchandise, plus housing from time to time.
Thought this apartment sounded nice!
http://longisland.craigslist.org/apa/1068009162.html

Google Docs

I created a presentation in Google Docs using a picture of the dock in Greenport. I have to admit this is a pretty cool resource.

What's a wiki?

I checked out Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, and browsed through Programming and found some good suggestions for adult programming. I use Wikipedia regularly as a starting point for a basic reference query, and follow up with other resources. I don't trust Wikipedia as an authoritative source, but really like the whole concept of wikis allowing a group of people to collaboratively develop a website with little or no knowledge of HTML.
My college aged son thinks the world of Wikipedia, even after I've explained to him that sometimes you need to consult professionally edited resources like Encyclopedia Britannica or accurately documented research databases when doing serious research.
As far as the possibilities for what libraries can do with wikis, they are a place for quick and easy collaborative work to share information. For instance, various subjects guides can be posted and the librarian doesn't have the burden of constantly having to update it.
I think our OPAC should have wiki functionality like Amazon.com. Patrons have access to a summary and various reviews in our catalog on a particular book, why not allow them to post synopses and reviews for books they've read. Why leave all the work to the professionals to review the books?

Finding New Feeds

I used Bloglines & subscribed to an Astrology blog. Used Technorati and subscribed to a BBQ Addict's blog. Logged into my Google Reader account and subscribed to a Healthy Cat blog. I think they are all fairly easy to use. Technorati's page is very busy looking with too much text; versus Bloglines which is so plain and the search box is most visible on Bloglines. Useful information can be found by subscribing to feeds, but it can become overwhelming. I just don't have enough time in the day to sift through it all on top of everything else I have to do.
http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.myhealthycat.com%2Fhealthy-cat.xml

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/bbqaddicts/

It was actually fun browsing through all the feeds!

Discovering Feeds

I found the feeds easily in the catalog. There is a wealth of information right at one's fingertips, but will the public even notice it? Do they even know what this is? On the new webpage the RSS link is easily found. Maybe we need to educate the public about these resources. An article in the newsletter to profile it and give a brief explanation might be helpful. On our website, I utilize links of interest quite regularly when answering reference queries.
http://www.communitylibrary.org/RSS/Adultnewfic.aspx

Google Reader

I subscribed to Simply Recipes Food and Cooking Blog while browsing through Google Reader. http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-search/simply%20recipes//
This is definitely a resource that I will enjoy using. This was fun!

Suffolkwave

I took the Suffolkwave guide tour, then downloaded the OverDrive media console software. I checked out a video: Meditation for Beginners by Jack Kornfield. Now it is time to relax!