23rd Thing

iHCPL has help broaden my perspective of the internet to beyond Google searches and email. I hadn’t realized just how many blogs, websites, and internet services are out there and how much people are using them. iHCPL has made it obvious to me that to stay informed and connected in the “post-print” world, I need to spend a lot more time devoted to the exploration and use of the internet. It seems like everyone that I know under age 30 has a Facebook or other social netwoking site. As with the concept of the "free" public library, I like the concept of the “free” public internet, although how the internet actually works is still a mystery to me. I am still concerned about privacy and paranoid about “big brother” every time I log in.

#22 Downloadable Media

After looking at the Librivox and Wowio sites, I can appreciate the different types of media available through HCPL and the cross referencing tools we have (as opposed to Librivox). As further service to the public we do provide links to free sites to enable patrons to find those titles we may not have or have in limited quantities. I do like Wowio's site maybe it's just the contrast between the book icons and black background. The flashing book titles on that site are also a plus. RSS feeds about new materials as in Librivox may be something we may want to consider.

# 21 Podcasts

Used Yahoo podcasts directory to find LibVibe a bi-weekly library newscast and Just One More Book a site that provides podcasts about children's books. Added the LibVibe feed to my bloglines account. Although less colorful than the Yahoo podcast directory, I'd prefer the Podcast.net for my research over the Yahoo directory because of it's organization and structure.

#20 YouTube

While I was thinking about a topic I could research on YouTube, I remembered that my mother's 80th birthday was near. There are so many videos on YouTube, so I thought that maybe there'd a video out there describing the "good old days" in her home town and that I could show it at her party. Sure enough there was. Although some of the other searches I've had on YouTube didn't quite get to what I was after (the tags didn't quite fit), that particular search zeroed right in to what I was after. Attached is one of the videos.

#19 Zoho

Zoho Writer seems to have the MS Word features I normally use. I was able to import a picture, perform a spellcheck, print a test document to a local printer and even select an "emotion" icon from the software toolbar. I like the idea of open source software with applications I typically use which are accessable from anywhere 24/7. As with most internet operations, I am concerned about security/privacy issues when using this tool

#18 Social Networking

As for structure and looks, of three popular general sites listed in the discovery exercise, I prefer Facebook over Ning over Myspace. Facebook's look and content appears more targeted and serious. Same with Ning. Some of the specific sites like threadless and ratemyspace don't have that slick look, but I guess that's the point. Wouldn't rate some of the spaces in ratemyspace very high but there are some good ideas and some of those spaces certainly rate higher than my own. Once again, didn't realize the volume of users and the breadth of topics in these types of sites. Definitely an area that I want to explore further.

#17 Technology

Our dependence upon technology was reinforced today when the power went out at the ADM building. Other than being limited by lighting conditions, all work ground to a halt because we couldn't use our PCs. Despite all the great technology, our dependence upon it leaves us vulnerable. We'll still need our manual backup systems like having actual books in a library in the "post print" world or going outside to play real tennis when the Wii breaks down.