Beyond Method 12~~~Last Dance: Reflection and Evaluation

Some of my favorite discoveries while doing the Beyond Two-Steppin' program were how easy it was to label and embed a google map to personalize it, social cataloging (LibraryThing - because I like to do this on my own time),  and screen casting. The majority of the steps in this program were things I was not familiar with and things I really had no interest in so I never sought out to find information on them.  It was a good thing to have to step out of my comfort zone and find out about some of the new(er) technologies that I had been avoiding. 

I had the same suggestion in the last program, but the main thing that could be improved upon is to make sure all links work and sound quality is good in the videos that are required to view.  As technologies change and websites go down just as quick as they went up, it is probably  a hard task to make sure the program stays relevant and current.

If there are more programs to learning Web 2.0/Library 2.0 options I would be happy to take them. I think it is important for librarians to stay on top of the emerging technologies in order to at least stay aware of current trends and options to engage our patrons.  We may not see the need or have the means to always try the new technology but it is good to know what is going out there on the Web and in library-land.

Beyond Method 11~~~Survey Says! (Polling)

I personally have never created an online poll before. I have taken many and I am usually happy to give my opinion when a survey pops up on a website I use often.  I don't see us using online polls in the library unless we somehow attach it to the public access computers and poll the patrons to see their opinion about library services that day/month/year or what they were in the library for. I do not know how our library currently polls patrons regarding their opinion of services/staff/programs.

Beyond Method 10~~~ Meet you Online (online meetings)

Online meetings and conference tools are quite foreign to me.  The main experience I have is from a previous job, in which our help line for our software would use WebEx to help solve our issues.  I have sat through a few webinars but only one so far at the library.  I personally have never used Skype nor would I have a need to.  Anyone that I would want to Skype with does not have the technology in order to do so - for example my grandparents.  Our library is not currently using any type of online meeting/conference tool at the time for patrons to contact us or to use. I don't think our patrons would use a "Skype a Librarian" type of service but they might like if we had a computer station in order for them to Skype with others.  As noted in one of the articles a lot of people like to multitask when on the phone and if you are doing a video chat with someone it is nearly impossible (esp. to not be rude) to do anything else but concentrate on the call/caller.

Beyond Method 9~~~ Tell a (digital) story

Free digital scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

As you can see I used Smilebox to create an online photo scrapbook.  I found the site extremely user friendly and thought it was put together well.  I didn't really have a story to tell so I found some images and put them on the pages. 
I do not see a use for this for the reference desk.   The Children's Library might be able to use something like this to display pictures of past programs in a fun way.

Beyond Method 8~~~Capture your screen/ ScreenCasting

Screencasting is not a tool I ever thought to use, but after doing a quick non-voiced screencast of how to get into the Mango Languages from our home page, I really liked it.  I'm not sure I'd like to record my voice while doing the screencast but I can see how it would/could be beneficial.  I used the Screencast-o-matic to create my screencast.  It was a very simple process (probably because I didn't record my voice) and all you have to do is press record and start pointing and clicking.  Our library currently does not use screencasting and I'm not sure anyone would offer up their voice to do a voice over, but I can see how non-recorded screencasts could be just as beneficial to help our patrons navigate through our site or learn how to print from our public computers.

Beyond Method 7~~~Next Gen Presentations

Library 2.0 Prezi

I tried the presentation tool Prezi.  I was not familiar with any of the different programs that we learned about and Prezi seemed to be the "it" presentation method. I thought about trying the Google Docs Presentations since I am a fan of Google/Google Docs but thought I'd reach out of my comfort zone and try something completely new to me.  I haven't needed any sort of presentation software since I was in graduate school so it was a little bit baffling at how far these types of things have come.  If I needed to do a presentation on anything, I certainly would now know to look past PowerPoint and go to one of the next Gen sites. 

I found Prezi to not be very user friendly and more than once got frustrated and almost just posted something really plain.  My presentation was not anything special, but I did play around with some of the settings a few different times and tried out different things to make it look more exciting than a PowerPoint slide show.  I like that you can put YouTube videos and graphics easily into the presentations and liked the search feature that was used to find graphics. That was the easiest part of my presentation.  I also could not figure out a way to embed my Prezi which I would have liked to do.

I sincerely doubt we'd ever have a patron ask about Next Gen presentation websites but I feel comfortable enough now to know that there is a such thing and would be able to give them options of programs and possibly help navigate the sites.

I do not see a use for this Web 2.0 program whatsoever in our library.  We don't do presentations and I think if we did a simple PowerPoint would be adequate.

 

Beyond Method 6~~~ eBooks and eReaders

1. On your blog, add a link to the book record that you viewed and post to your blog about this exercise. (Please include “Beyond Method #6″ in the title of your blog post.) Was Project Gutenberg easy to use?  Do your think your patrons would be interested in a public domain service like Project Gutenberg? If a patron wanted help putting a title from Project Gutenberg on an eReader, do you think you would be able to help them? 

I visited Project Gutenberg and looked up Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.

I had heard of the phrase Project Gutenberg but have never looked at the site. I am not a Classics reader so the books that have been made into eBooks are not the type of genre I seek out.  The site was easy to use and I liked that they had different formats of the book available so you can download the one that you need for your device.  I thought the HTML version was easy enough to read, but I don't like to sit and read novels at my computer.  Our patrons might like Project Gutenberg if they are looking for Classics and I think it would be easy for them to figure out how to get the book to their device on their own but if they needed help, it didn't look that difficult to download.

My problem with eBooks in the library is that I have no personal experience with the different devices  so it is hard to help with specific questions when patrons come in asking how to do something on their device.