YouTube, Video fun

I think these are just fun... i've already voted but I am so glad the political season is almost over! I'm a big fan of online video sites- i've always been a huge collector of music videos. YouTube of course is loads of fun for all the random viral videos! lots of fun below!

Bob Ross!

Web 2.0 Awards

I found myself drawn to the travel category as I am going to be traveling to Philadelphia and Atlantic City at the end of the week. While I am not a fan of Live search- Microsofts beta Farecast seems handy at first glance. It will give recommendations about whether you should purchase tickets now, wait because prices will drop, or wait because rates are steady. It also provides an option to search other travel sites. Kayak is different because it not only does flights and hotels but also cruises and vacation deals- plus it searches over 140 other online companies to get the best deals!

Another notable mention that i've used in the past is Pandora it's a really cool music radio site that you can build your own radio with- it'll recommend artists according to the artists you choose so it's a really fun way to be exposed to new artists and music out there that you otherwise would never have heard of!

CML Toolbar

I love the toolbar! I've been using it for awhile now quite honestly.. i check the newly ordered dvds and cds not to mention i can quickly access my account and go right to the homepage without having to go to a favorites menu, typing it in or whatever! It's all just so convenient. I have been looking at the other sites in the toolbox- i tried stumble upon awhile ago and it has yet to catch on with me, i pay just need to explore it further. The idea itself is cool but i don't know..
and of course i LOVE gmail- i've had it for about 3 years now, since it was a beta and you had to be invited to use it.. i love that it keeps all the messages in the same email string together instead of listing each and every individual email. It helps me keep my inbox much more organized than it was with my yahoo or school email accounts! Having a gmail account of course allows you to access all the other lovely items google has to offer- apps, reader, products, maps- if you're signed in it saves the places you've looked at. Google history keeps a record of all the sites you've visited which can be scary and handy all in one!

Zoho

i've had this site bookmarked for awhile Zoho

From first glance it has everything imagineable, and you can login using your google or yahoo login! Some of the items only allow a certain amount of uses, but it's still pretty cool- one stop shopping so to speak.

In my search for different apps- i found this site which lists a bunch of them. The convert it will especially be helpful for those documents that you create in word and don't want others to be able to modify them- so change them to pdf format and you're set! I've discovered a lot of different apps that i may start using but need to delve into further!

Wiki!

I generally really like Wiki's. There's a Harry Potter wiki- http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page a Halo wiki http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page or just the gaming wiki root site http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia_Gaming In my other job i've come across some really wacky wiki's some of which i can't post here, others I can't remember but just remember laughing at.

One interesting library wiki I found was http://liswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page which has a section on RFID which i found helpful as this technology keeps coming back to libraries- whether to use it or not. This wiki could have potential http://libraryzen.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page except that it seems like a place for external links instead of actual info.


Fun wikis
http://www.thegreysanatomywiki.com/?t=anon
http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Main_Page it looks funny
http://www.zombiesurvivalwiki.com/?t=anon who doesn't like Zombies after all
http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombie_Wiki
http://www.wikihow.com/Communicate-With-Your-Cat always important..
http://heman.wikia.com/wiki/He-Man_and_the_Masters_of_the_Universe oh the potential..
http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

more to come...

The Sandbox

And no we're not talking about cat litter...

It seems cool, as long as people put their favorites up with their names, otherwise it's just a lot of random things, facts and stuff that are favorites of someone out there! I also like that we have to be approved to post, that at least gives some sort of "quality" control.. or at least control over who can put their ramblings into the box!

Rush, Colbert, Rockband!

The Learning Commons..

One really cool local example is OSU- Sullivant Hall on Campus has a huge space set up with group workareas where students can work on projects and presentations with a lot of privacy but with all the technology and library sources right there. Banks of computers, laptops available- it's all very modern and cool.
http://library.osu.edu/sites/sullivant/learning_commons.php
http://commons.carnegiefoundation.org/
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ugl/lc/
http://libraryconnect.elsevier.com/lcn/0602/lcn060203.html

Web 2.0 Liberry 2.0

I think it's quite easy for libraries to jump upon the Web 2.0 bandwagon. New technology is great, using that technology to help patrons is great- but sometimes we need to step back and look at the bigger picture- where web 2.0 can take the future. Allowing enough time to absorb what the new technologies bring is essential. We can't expect patrons to be able to jump on the technology wagon with as much ease and excitement as we do. This does not mean we ignore the technologies obviously- it just means we need to take into account how our communities will react and be ready for it.

In the future we need to design new libraries around technologies- the learning commons is an example of what i think is an awesome "newcomer" to libraries. I've mostly seen them in university libraries- but I don't see why we couldn't have one in a public library. It would need to be tweaked a bit but it could be an interesting turn..