summary

First and foremost I am glad to be done! I think the Technology Fair was fantastic and opened the eyes of many who attended. The 23 things was an extension of this, but for me it was bad timing during SRP. I feel that lot of this new technology and websites fit into a certain, unique cubby hole. I was interested in most, though I found a use for only a few.
My favorites were creating the Meez, LibraryThing,the 2.0 perspectives, and You-tube.
I am part of a generation/population that finds use for and takes advantage of the internet for some tasks. It seems that there is another part of the population (and I may be discriminating to say the younger generation) that sees the computer and the internet an extension of themselves. In this way it is second nature to post thoughts/ideas into blogs or journals, to publish pictures online, and to look for socialization there. For me, I felt like a voyeur into others lives, many times thinking "why would I care?" and "why would you say/show this online?" I realize that the internet has created a wonderful, enormous , sometimes compelling, sometimes mundane, but ever changing world in itself. I guess I am more comfortable with little pieces than the whole ball of wax. All in all though, if asked to do so, I would do this again.

audiobooks

Overdrive--need to download at home, not at work
NetLibrary---very informative, but disappointing to find out at the end that it won't work on iPods!
Project Gutenburg---seems to be a site for college courses. Titles included classics in literature, history and science. Nothing contemporary, even under the sci-fi genre. Looks easy to use, but I can't see the point of reading a book online.

podcasts

Again, this enabled me to share with my kids. They seem to always be listening to "1up yours" and I got chance to listen in. It was like the teacher on Charlie Brown----"wha, wha,whu,whu" Maybe if I played the games they were referencing I would have understood.

Now, onto a podcast I may enjoy. Odeo.com lead to me "lifespring" which I amy download once my new MP3 player arrives. I do enjoy audio books and talk radio, so this could be a real treat to save a podcast until my schedule permits to enjoy it.

you tube

It is rather disturbing to see what vidoes are being watched right now. We are such voyeurists.I just am out of tune with todays Pop culture

On the other hand, I took the time to view "robot chicken star wars top 10" and it jut cracked me up. My 3 kids have been re-enacting these clips for the last few weeks, which made it all the more funnier to watch. This seemed to be a great use for this technology.

P.S. this also gave me a perfect opportunity to remind Rosemary of her outstanding performance last Staff Day!

awards list

I explored the top Real Estate websites since my husband is a realtor. First, I went on Zillow.com and thought the information, especially the arial maps were out of date. I searched my neighborhood and noticed that the kitchen addition we added in 2004 is not pictured, so the satelite images they are offering are not very recent. Being in the business I know that the market changes frequently, so this is very misleading. The site also pinpointed houses that recently sold in the neighborhood, but some information, like # bedrooms was incomplete. Not a very useul site.
Second, I went on Housingmaps.com which is listed as a "Craigslists – Google Maps mashup". the maps are just street maps and the listings shown are classified ads submitted to Craigslist. Yuck.

zoho

After trying repeatedly to publish my zoho document to my blog, I was unsuccessful. Don't know why, lots of messages about "blog not found" and "password not matching". So I am frustrated. I could see a use for the system, but it did not work for me.

I think that Zoho would be useful for patrons that don't have microsoft word and need to create a document to be shared or printed. They could use this to create the document and make changes, edit, add, whatever and have it online for use when needed.

wikis

I like the idea of a "Book lovers" wiki--a book discussion online.
I also used a wiki for an LATI assignment where we had a "worse case scenario" that we had to brainstorm solutions for. In theory it shoul have worked well, but one member got over zealous and became the guru of our wiki. This is one of the pit falls of a wiki. Everyone can edit, or in some cases, expound on something they are the resident expert on. Good starting point for research, but in no case 100% reliable resource.
http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/great%20books%20for%20kids