So, this is it. Finally I will finish Library 2.0. All in all, I think it has been a pretty good program. Some of the best lessons, in my opinion were YouTube, Map your Travels, Flickr, LibraryThing, so pretty much all of the "fun" lessons. I enjoyed the program because it introduced me to all sorts of things out on the internet that I would probably never have known about but I'm not really sure how to apply some of them to a library setting. There are a few of the sources that I think the library could use to provide some cool features, especially on the SLCPL website. Some of the easy ideas are utilizing Flickr and YouTube/Online Video to allow us to record programs like storytimes or maybe even some of the computer training courses and allow patrons to watch them online. The SLCPL MySpace also could become a great resource to connect with teens and promote teen programming. I don't know if this is possible but I think it would be cool if we could somehow use LibraryThing to make booklists on the website. How cool would it be if you could add Staff Lists to the website and have them link to LibraryThing? Patrons could see what ratings staff gave certain books and even see a short review. Well, I think it would be cool.

Emily Explores Mash-Ups and Image Generators

I'm not exactly why i initially ignored these lessons because they were actually semi-amusing, possibly even the most important lessons in the whole library 2.0 experience. Why, you are probably asking, are these the most important lesson? Well, that is a good question. They are the most important because I finally know that my Roller Derby name is MOLLY CALAMITY! It seems fitting to me. The lessons don't seem particularly relevant when compared to the rest of the lessons but they were sort of fun which is a good thing, I guess. Meh, that's just about all I can come up with. The trading card pretty much explains itself.

Emily Explores NetLibrary

I am surprised that the collection on NetLibrary seems so small. Only 223 Children's Fiction titles and only 228 Fiction titles seems really small compared to the large collections of books on tape/CD we have available for checkout in the library. I suppose the only advantage of NetLibrary over checking out a book on CD is that I can have it on my mp3 player. Woo-Hoo. I don't usually listen to books on CD anyway so I don't think I will use NetLibrary all that often anyway. I like to take it old school and just check the book out. At least I got to create yet another account, which takes my tally of accounts up to somewhere around the thousand range probably.

Emily Explains Podcasts

This lesson was slightly confusing for me mostly because I couldn't really remember how to use Google Reader, which probably tells you just how useful this lesson was for me. I had not logged on or even thought about logging onto Google Reader since that lesson many weeks ago. After stumbling around Google Reader for a few minutes I dived into the vast ocean that is Podcastalley.com. I found a podcast that my coworker Paul had told me about("That's What She Said" - an analysis of The Office) and it seems semi-interesting so I just added that one after looking through impossibly long lists of podcasts for several minutes and deciding that podcasts don't actually mean that much to me. I suppose the usefulness of this lesson comes in the form of knowing what a podcast is, being vaguely aware of the thousands nay millions of different podcasts out there, and knowing a few resources where they can be found. I don't see myself really using podcasts in the future, but you never know. For now I'll just stick to trusty ol' music on my mp3 player.

Emily Explores YouTube

Emily Explores the Web 2.0 Awards Site

While looking at the list of Web 2.0 Award Winners I couldn't help but notice how many different awards they had and how many of those sites I had never heard of. I was shocked! I've have always considered myself somewhat up-to-date on the internet, but apparently not. Anyway, I do agree with most of the awards and sites I recognized, but mostly I was just glad that MySpace did not win in the "Social Networking" category. I will admit that the list was a bit daunting because of the sheer number of categories and it is not too easy to find one to look at when there are so many. All in all, not a super useful lesson because I am still not exactly sure what I am supposed to be looking for in the list of winners. It appears to be yet another website I could potentially waste time on.

Emily Explores Google Labs

Google constantly amazes me, but I was somewhat disappointed with the Google Labs. I am definitely a fan of Google Maps and so I expected to enjoy Google Mars but it was a huge let down. They only got one very small satellite image and decided to repeat it several times and it wasn't even a very interesting image at that. The only redeeming feature of Google Mars is that the elevation view is so colorful and therefore amusing for a few minutes. The Google experimental searches with the time line is pretty cool as well as Google Suggest and Google Trends. Overall, it was semi-entertaining and semi-useful, but not much more than that.