YouTube

I like YouTube, if I have something specific I'm looking for (such as the latest Glee performance or some crazy animal video). I would never just dive into YouTube and do general searches. It's too massive, like the www itself.

Benefits of YouTube for the library would be that we could post instructional videos for our patrons and post the links to the relvelant pages on our website. We could post how to download digital titles, maybe post links to a computer class. I'm not sure what the legal aspects are of any of these, so that would have to be looked into.

A short version of a Glee favorite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2FMdOLyRcA

Pandora

I've used Pandora for a few years now. I really like it. I like its ability to find other artists based on your choices. I like that you can create different "play lists" too. I've told many family and friends about Pandora. This is an easy one that any person can get into.

Google Docs

Google docs has many possibilities, some good some bad. It all depends on what you need, what you want to be able to do with it and what kind of access you have. I think Amy gave a good breakdown of pros and cons of Google docs.

Google Maps

I love Google maps. I like dragging the little person to the street view. I like turning my view 360 degrees. These maps, for directions, also tend to print off better than mapquest. I also like the random comments and lists people post, depending on what you're mapping. I looked up directions to the Williamsburg Regional Libray in Williamsburg, VA.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=6101+Frisco+Square+Boulevard,+Frisco,+TX&daddr=515+Scotland+Street,+Williamsburg,+VA&hl=en&geocode=FczW-QEdh2s6-ilNiLfuBzxMhjG6FoyE77LsiA%3BFcbBOAIdJoZt-ylzSqCEDImwiTGZnaSKwf8i6g&mra=ls&sll=34.741612,-86.791992&sspn=25.485143,39.331055&ie=UTF8&ll=35.603719,-86.748047&spn=25.224861,39.331055&z=5

I had wanted to show directions for riding a bike to WRL, but couldn't get that link to post.

You Send It

I see the benefits of You Sent It. Being able to send larger videos through emails and not having to edit them down is nice. I was going to send myself one of my Flip Videos, because those are huge and I can never get those to go through on an email, but apparently I lost them somewhere in the vast void of my computer. Instead, I sent a generic video already available from Microsoft.

Tiny URL

This is a pretty cool website. The benefit of this site is quite obvious. It is much easier to send and url to someone with 26 characters rather than 92... or more. I copied the link to a new book by Patricia Briggs via Barnes & Noble, http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Silver-Borne/Patricia-Briggs/e/9780441018192/?cds2Pid=18016 , and Tiny URL turned it into, http://tinyurl.com/ydtc67p, but then I decided to customize it and turned it into this, http://tinyurl.com/newpbriggs. Very nice and more memorable.

Facebook

Like most I, too, have a FB account. I've found many friends that live out of state and that I hadn't talked to since graduations (high school, college) or from my own move out of state (I'm Okie originally, Boomer Sooner!).

I'm a "Fan" a few different groups, but must say, I never visit those sites. I mostly use it to chat with friends. While having a FB page for the library might be useful, I think our website is still the best way to advertise ourselves and our programs.

Linked In

This is a pretty neat site. I can see the benefits of creating an account and posting your resume. It does seem, however, to work best if you already know people out in your industry. For new comers or recent graduates, it might not be the best fit. Playing around in it more might give more insight.

Delicious

I'm boycotting Delicious. Been there, done that, and don't want another "free" account on a site that I will use for this one purpose... for 5 minutes, and then forget about in ten minutes. I don't even remember how to log on to my Google Reader.

I'm sure people find Delicious very useful in having an online home for all of their favorites. If your computer crashed or (as we experience often at the library) your hardrive is replaced, then this sort of thing would be useful in retrieving all of your favorite bookmarks. Personally, I won't do it. I don't have that many that I can't remember what they are. There are so many sites to remember, to belong to, to log on to, to access, to... I lost my train of thought.

There is too much out there in internet-land to keep track of all the places one can store, retrieve, or save information.

Tagging

Tagging is a good idea, in theory. If everyone understood how to spell, what words truly correlate to the book, etc., etc. If the tagging system itself could translate or merge words that were supposed to be the same, instead of listing all variations of "young adult," "young adult fiction," or "paranormal," and "para-normal."

You can still get a good idea of the basis of a book no matter what, but it can make for a mismash of tags.

IMing

I have IMed before. I've used the Communicator at work, although I do not think it works any quicker than email. I've also used it when on Facebook.

I'm not a big fan of it on Facebook because sometimes I just want to make my little statement for the day and get off. If someone IMs me, though, I feel obligated to chat, or I ignore them and use the excuse that something was wrong with my computer and it wouldn't go through.

For work, with Communicator, if I'm here I'm here and I don't see much of a difference whether someone contacts me via phone, email, or IMing. It all depends where I am at the time on whether I can actually respond "instantly." When you're out on the desk, nothing is guaranteed instant - you have the phone and patrons to contend with.

Using IMing to aid our patrons could be useful IF (key point here) we had one or two librarians whose duty, at least for the time period allotted, it was to sit at a computer (with no interruptions allowed by phones or staff) and just answer questions recieved from IMs. That's the only way to guarantee the kind of service our patrons would expect from something with "instant" in the name.

Digg

Digg offers a variety of news links. I read over articles ranging from late night talk shows, a dog driving away sea lions in San Francisco, and a new movie starring Paul Rudd (whom I think is one of the funniest actors out there besides Vince Vaughn). While it is intersting seeing all of the articles, it's no different to me than going to msnbc.com and seeing the news highlights there. I guess the main point (the fun part?) of this site is getting click if you "digg" the article or not. I probablly will stick with msnbc.com for news.

Sharing pictures

I'm skipping this one, at least for now. It's too much for me to get into right now. I've emailed pics before and shared them through shutterfly and stuff. When we switched over to Windows 7 I lost all of my pictures (that or they're hidden somewhere and I haven't found them yet- sneaky little folders). To go home take pictures, upload them, then share them, all with a crazy 2 year old and a 3 month old, just isn't going to happen.

Twitter

Gotta say, I didn't like Twitter. It seems pointless. I thought it was difficult to get a handle on, but maybe that's my age raising it's weary head. It's too much to rifle through to actually try and find something interesting. It seems geared more towards people who have a lot of free time and no other responsibilities.

RSS Feeds

So excited to find the feed to NPR's book page. Actually, I like the whole website.

Blog Readers

Blog Readers are pretty handy. It was really easy adding blogs to follow and creating folders for them. Like I mentioned before, my sister-in-law has a blog that she adds to almost daily. I put her in my list of subscriptions and now can stay up-to-date when she adds anything new.

My First Blog

My first blog entry. Not going to be very exciting because I'm not sure what to say. My sister-in-law has a blog and she's a great writer on it. Not sure mine will measure up. We'll see!