Patsy Carruthers , who participated in our version of Blue 2.0, is taking the program to staff in the University of Kentucky's Integrated Academic Services (IAS), which consists of TASC, Academic Enhancement, Central Advising, Experiential Education & Career Services, and Retention and Student Success. Their program blog is:
http://connectedcampus.wordpress.com/
Check out the progress of the IAS version of Blue 2.0 throughout the summer. Let's check in on their blogs and cheer them on!
Friday, June 6, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Grand Prize
Congratulations to Courtney Crepeau, our Blue 2.0 Grand Prize winner!
Courtney was actually in attendance when her name was drawn! Here she is with some of the workgroup representatives holding her prize, an iPod classic. Congratulations Courtney and happy listening.
Courtney was actually in attendance when her name was drawn! Here she is with some of the workgroup representatives holding her prize, an iPod classic. Congratulations Courtney and happy listening.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Blue 2.0 at the Libraries Faculty meeting
We've been asked to talk about the Blue 2.0 experience at the next Libraries faculty meeting. Several participants will talk about what they learned, any work-related projects that resulted, and generally what they thought of the program.
These are the specific Blue 2.0 examples we will demo at the meeting:
These are the specific Blue 2.0 examples we will demo at the meeting:
Monday, April 14, 2008
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the Blue 2.0 class of 2008!
Kerri Baunach
Terri Brown
Patsy Carruthers
Sharon Clark
Benita Clarke
Michelle Cosby
Courtney Crepeau
Gwen Curtis
Cheri Daniels
Martha David
Laura Davison
Carol Diedrichs
Shell Dunn
Alex Grigg
Benjamin Hall
Crystal Heis
Tag Heister
Peter Hesseldenz
Miranda Hines
Julene Jones
Tari Keller
Krista King
Kathryn Lybarger
Cindy Parker
Valerie Perry
Peggy Phillips
Tanya Reeves
Mary Spencer
Kopana Terry
Ryan Valentin
Alice Wasielewski
Amanda Williams
Remember that finishing "on time" is only important as far as the prize drawing this week. But the real prize is the experience and all the good stuff you've been learning. So if you're close but not finished, keep up the good work!
Kerri Baunach
Terri Brown
Patsy Carruthers
Sharon Clark
Benita Clarke
Michelle Cosby
Courtney Crepeau
Gwen Curtis
Cheri Daniels
Martha David
Laura Davison
Carol Diedrichs
Shell Dunn
Alex Grigg
Benjamin Hall
Crystal Heis
Tag Heister
Peter Hesseldenz
Miranda Hines
Julene Jones
Tari Keller
Krista King
Kathryn Lybarger
Cindy Parker
Valerie Perry
Peggy Phillips
Tanya Reeves
Mary Spencer
Kopana Terry
Ryan Valentin
Alice Wasielewski
Amanda Williams
Remember that finishing "on time" is only important as far as the prize drawing this week. But the real prize is the experience and all the good stuff you've been learning. So if you're close but not finished, keep up the good work!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Happy Hour - Graduation Celebration
What: Happy hour to celebrate the Blue 2.0 graduates!
When: Wednesday, April 16, 5:00-7:00
Remember: You still have time to finish! The Blue team will be reviewing blogs on Monday, 4/14 to get the list of names for the drawing during Staff Appreciation on 4/16. You can do it!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Home Stretch!
We're coming into the home stretch for Blue 2.0!
The Grand Prize drawing will take place during the big Staff Appreciation on April 16, 2008, 2pm-4pm, WTYL Auditorium.
We have many participants who are right on schedule - great job! For those of you who are maybe a module or two (or three or more....) behind, YOU CAN DO IT!
Confidentially - don't tell anyone - we are easy graders! And remember that if you need help, post a comment to the given module or to the Need Help post.
So let's get out there and do some Blue stuff!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Weeks 11 & 12: Social Networking
Introduction
Objectives: Explore the wonderful world of social networking. Get in deep with two of the most popular services (MySpace and Facebook) and touch on some of the others that are out there. Get a feel for the similarities and differences, and blog about what you think!
Social networking sites give libraries just another option to reach our clientele in new ways. As we utilize these new tools, it makes us realize that it is truly an exciting time to be in this profession!
Applications
We will all look at the first two. The remainder on the list are options for your own exploration. Choose one or sample several!
- MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/). “MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends.”
- Facebook (http://www.facebook.com//). “Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.”
- Ning (http://www.ning.com/). “Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds.”
- LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/)
- Orkut (http://www.orkut.com) "Social networking and discussion site operated by Google" Try it! You may be the first on the block, or at least the first in the UK Libraries.
- Classmates.com (http://www.classmates.com/)
- Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/)
- Find one on your own! See this wikipedia list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites. (Sort by number of users to find most popular services)
Activities
Activity 1: MySpace
MySpace is the most trafficked internet site in the US. A MySpace profile can be created by anyone with an email address. The ability to customize the “look” of your profile makes it popular with high school students and anyone looking to advertise to a young audience. Independent musicians create profiles to advertise their music directly to listeners. Movies geared toward teen audiences are also being promoted directly on MySpace. Libraries – particularly public libraries – have also begun to create MySpace profiles as another way to reach this set of their user population.
For this activity, you'll create your own MySpace account. Blog about your experience and include a link to your profile in your blog entry to get credit!
Suggested activities: Fill out the forms to include information about yourself in your profile (how "personal" you get is up to you!). Use the built-in editor or find layout sites (google “myspace layouts” to find some sites) to do some customization. Upload images, especially one to use as your profile default. Find friends, such as the UK Libraries, on MySpace and comment on their profile. Security: Read about the options for restricting access to your profile, reducing comment spam, etc. Choose whether to restrict access to your profile. (If you restrict, please friend at least one of the Blue 2.0 organizers so we can check your profile and give you credit so you’re in the prize drawing! ) Update your status, add some calendar events, try out the blog, add a video or music to your profile, join a group (there is a group for Libraries on MySpace, but you can join any group.)
Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour+
Facebook is particularly popular with college students. On a sprawling and unfamiliar campus, Facebook can serve as a lifeline to staying connected with old friends and can aid in meeting new people. Facebook users can easily connect with individuals from one’s high school, hometown, etc. Links within Facebook profiles make it simple to find others who share the same interests (favorite bands, movies, hobbies, etc.), live in the same dorm, participate in the same school activities, etc. Students can create groups based upon interests which can further help in connecting with others.
For this activity, you'll create your own Facebook account. Blog about your experience and include a link to your profile in your blog entry to get credit!
Suggested activities: If you use a UK email address, you will be added to the UK community (recommended). Fill in the text boxes to include information about yourself. Upload photos. Search for UK Libraries pages and profiles belonging to your library colleagues. Join the “Blue 2.0 at UK Libraries” group. Seek out other groups and join at least one, e.g. the UK Library group, other library organizations, interest groups, etc. Poke someone. :-) Add a Facebook app. (Be a ninja, add a library utility, link to your flickr account, chuck a book at someone.) Some utilities are just for fun, others enhance the functionality of Facebook in cool (or even library-relevant) ways. Play with several. You can always un-install a utility. Update your status.
Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour+
Activity 3: Choose another social network site
Establish an account in at least one other social networking site. Play with your settings, explore any options that are similar to or different from MySpace or Facebook. Does the site offer anything not available in the other two? Anything missing now that you have experience with the Big Two? Blog it!
Estimated Completion Time: 1 hour+
Examples and information (Note that you have to have established your own Facebook account to see other Facebook sites)
- UK Libraries Facebook (find profiles from your colleagues there, too!)
- Hub Facebook
- UK Law Library Facebook
- Mitrano, Tracy. “Thoughts on Facebook.” Cornell University Office of Information Technologies Policy Office. April 2006, http://www.cit.cornell.edu/policy/memos/facebook.html.
- Abram, Stephen. “What Can MySpace Teach Us in Special Libraries.” Information Outlook. v. 10 no. 5 (May 2006): 34-5.
-
The Technological Tortoise. http://technologicaltortoise.wordpress.com/
-
Bedford, Anna and Dr. Jennifer Golbeck. “Facebook as a Pedalogical Tool?” Teaching & Learning News. 17.3 (2008) <http://www.cte.umd.edu/teaching/newsletter/2007-08/Feb_March_HTML/Facebook.htm> March 1, 2008.
-
Mathews, Brian S. “Do You Facebook?” C&RL News. May 2006: 306-307
-
Lipka, Sara. “For Professors, ‘Friending’ Can Be Fraught.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. December 7, 2007.
Help:
As always, Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! If you need help, IM a co-participant or post a question to the blog (as a comment on this post on the Need Help post). Contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck. Beth is the primary contact for this topic, but we all have experience in social networking.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
And the winner is....
We had our second prize drawing for Blue 2.0 (as if the fun and learning isn't prize enough!) on Tuesday. Prize 2.0 for Blue 2.0 was an iPod Shuffle. Our lucky winner was Ben Hall!
Thanks to Ben's colleague Crystal for her excellent photo editing skills! I hear that the current Blue module Photos, video and podcasting will also be put to good use in relation to Ben's good fortune. Be sure to watch Crystal's blog for more!
[Remember, even if you were not on schedule this week, you can catch up! Blue 2.0 ends (sniff!) the first week in April. Our grand prize drawing - for an iPod classic! - will be held April 16 (note the new date!) during Staff Appreciation. Plenty of time to make up lost modules.]
Congratulations, Ben! Happy iPoding!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Podcasting
Good Day 2.0ers
For those of you opting to do a podcast, here are a couple of places that offer free limited hosting.
http://www.podbean.com/
http://www.movedigital.com/
For those of you opting to do a podcast, here are a couple of places that offer free limited hosting.
http://www.podbean.com/
http://www.movedigital.com/
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Party 2.0!
Don't forget! Our second party/support session/prize drawing/get-together is Tuesday, March 18, 10:00 am in the Gallery. The prize up for grabs this time around is an iPod Shuffle! You don't have to be present to win, but if you're not we might have some fun at your expense. You have to be current through Play Week to be included in the drawing. We'll check blogs at 5:00 pm Monday to get our list of names. Hope to see everyone there!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Blue 2.0 Happy Hour
We gathered at Pazzo's for another Happy Hour. The conversation and fellowship was enjoyed by all. Evidence
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Photo and Podcasting
Weeks Nine and Ten Photos, Images, Podcasting, Video
Introduction
Congratulations!!! You have made to the end of Blue 2.0. (almost – there’s one module after this one!) This week you will create photos podcast, and videos. In addition you will learn how to share them with family friends, and most importantly patrons. Web 2.0 is an excellent way to spread or share more than words
Activities
Activity 1: Create Photos
Beg, barrow, or steal a digital camera. Film works but the front-end work is easier with digital. If you need a camera, the Library System has purchased one. Please go to the WTYL Circulation Desk
- Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site. Create an account. ( or use your Picasa Account if you already have one)
- Upload some picture.
- Have some Flickr fun and discover some other tools
- Create a blog post about your experiences and point to your photos. Share them with your friends and colleagues. Describe what you like and don’t like about the process. Also describe any uses for the library system.
Resources:
Flickr Interesting-Last 7 Days
Now not every picture or image you take will be perfect. In fact some of them may need a bit of help. Try this software packages
Also see some of the online image editors suggested during Play Week!
For help on how to take better photos and or editing them, refer to following sites.
Activity 2: Podcasting
Podcasting is an alternative to blogging. Instead of writing, you are recording and spreading the word. Podcasting works really well with complex ideas or music. It allows the patron to download the material on their mp3 player or listen to it on their computer at leisure.
In addition to a computer, you will need a microphone, a quiet place and some recording software. Audacity is nice free package, available for Windows; Apple or UNIX based machines that installs easily. This may be a time to take some fun work home.
However to complete this activity, you do need to create a Podcast.
1) Read How to Podcast or Podcasting News or How to Create Your Own Podcast.
2) Listen to few podcast to get a feel for the medium. You can locate some at Podcast Directory at NPR or at Podfeed. One of the more popular is Coverville, a podcast only about cover songs.
3) Plan your podcast and record it. The podcast does not need to be long. Your first try should be about 2 to 5 minutes. Some ideas for content include some explaining aspect of your job, a narration of an event, or even the current state of UK Basketball
4) Write a blog entry linking to your podcast or better yet record your entry as a podcast describing your experiences. If you are not happy with the results of your podcast or feel a little insecure about the broadcast quality of your voice, post a review of a podcast you like or dislike. Here is a handy link to remind you about to write a review
Activity 3:
The next natural extension of this media manipulation is video. We have moved from words to audio to a combination of both.
By now we are all familiar with YouTube and the infamous UK repelling video. YouTube is more than folks goofing on each other. It can be an effective means to spread your message. In fact the three remaining major party presidential candidates are YouTube. Here take a look: Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, and John McCain. Politicians are not the only one using video. Many Libraries are using YouTube to push information to students about research or to make public relations spots.
So here is your assignment:
1) Conduct a search for “Libraries” in YouTube.
2) Pick your favorite video, write a review of it and post the results to you blog.
Optional Activity
1) Beg, borrow, or otherwise liberate a digital camcorder. If you don’t have one, no worries. The Libraries bought one for Blue 2.0. You can check out the video camera at the WTYL Circulation Desk. Note that the still camera can also capture short video clips.
2) Get a YouTube Account.
3) Create your masterpiece of video magic and upload it to YouTube
4) Post to you blog announcing to the world that you are the next George Lucas.
5) Post a follow-up blog post describing your experience with recommendations of what worked and what didn’t.
Creating a masterwork is sometimes easier said than done. The University has been a help. Editing your videos is as simple as you nearest Mac Lab. All Macs on campus are equipped with Apple’s IMovie. IMovie is fantastic and is easy to master. It can upload any format include the Libraries’ camera. Just plug the camera with the supplied USB cable and download the video directly to the computer. But to use the Mac, you need an account. Accounts are available via a Macintosh Consultant or via the myUK system
For help try these:
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Happy Hour 2.0
If we keep practicing this Happy Hour thing, I'm sure we can get it right. So...
What: Happy hour 2.0 for Blue 2.0!
When: Monday, Mar 10, 5:00-7:00
Spread the word to your Blue 2 friends in case they are not reading the blog faithfully every day!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Weeks 7 & 8: Play Week
Introduction:
We hope you've been having plenty of fun so far in Blue 2.0, but with this module in particular there is no excuse not to enjoy yourself! This time, it's all about you. Explore sites and applications of interest to you. And just a reminder: we have headphones, microphones, and a still and video digital camera at Young Library Circulation. Have fun, Blue crew!
All are optional, or you can seek out your own. You need to explore at least two applications but the only requirement for the week is that you blog about your activities! Note: Some of these applications require admin access to your computer before you can install. It may be easier to try those from a home computer. If you do want to load one of those apps at work, contact LIB-TS@LSV.UKY.EDU for temporary admin rights. The fine print from IT:
RESOURCES
Examples of Rollyo search engines:
RESOURCES
Download the software (requires admin rights to your computer!) and create your account at http://secondlife.com/.
Explore educational uses of Second Life at the Second Life Education Wiki.
Read about the Second Life Library Project and explore their home base in SL, Info Island (This is an SLURL, which will launch the Second Life application and take you to Info Island. Info Island is a great place for SL "newbies" to visit.)
Find out about UK's island!
See some additional resources Beth posted from a workshop.
RESOURCE: Wikipedia article
8. Mozilla Firefox.
Almost everything we’ve covered in Blue 2.0 are web-based applications. And how do we access the web? Through a web browser. Internet Explorer is the web browser that comes with most computers and is part of our Microsoft Office package here at UK. You do have other options – options that will enhance your web experience and may make all of your Internet based time more pleasant.
One of the most prevalent alternative web browsers is Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is an open source browser, which means that thousands of people volunteer time and energy developing it and creating additions to it. These additions are called “addons” or “extentions”, depending on who you talk to. The full list of extentions can be found here.
Activity: Play with the Mozilla Firefox browser and try out at least 5 addons
Not sure what to download? Here are some ideas:
9. Microblogging.
You know, sometimes you don't really have enough to say for a entire blog post. Sometimes you can update your followers in 140 characters (including spaces!) or less. This is called microblogging.
Activity: Try microblogging service Twitter and add a another twitter-er to follow.
10. Chat Aggregators - Try meebo!
Okay, now you've tried chatting on AOL. However, a lot of you already had accounts on other chat services like google or yahoo. How can you chat with your old buddies and your new AOL buddies too? Chat aggregators, that's how. Also called "multiprotocol instant messaging applications", chat aggregators allow users to chat with people on other chat platforms.
Activity: Try meebo
Note: If you're doing the Firefox activity, you can download a Meebo Addon! Also, if you're doing the Advanced Blogger activity, you can add create a Meebo Widget. This allows people to chat with you via Meebo even if they have no IM account at all. Check out UK Law Library Blog to see an example of this.
11. Advanced Blogging.
During week one you created a basic blog. Here's a chance to jazz up your blog with some additions.
Activity: Bling your blog
12. Advanced Wikis - Wikipedia.
Now that you know the basics of wiki creation, why not give the 800 pound gorilla of wikis a try? Maybe you can bring some library organization and know how to the table!
Activity: edit wikipedia
A little hestitant to make edits? Check out the following pages first:
Wikipedia has 1000s of pages on 1000s of topics. Try editing one or create your own page. Here's some that you may have some information to offer about. Don't see your library listed? Create a page for it!
13. Clone yourself.
Okay, Web 2.o isn't advanced enough to clone yourself. However, not all of us are blessed with the photogenic gene. (At least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night!) Alternatively, not everyone feels comfortable with posting actual pictures of yourself on the Internet. What's the solution? Create an avatar!
Activity: Explore an avatar creator
Each avatar creator site is going to be a little different, so specific instructions will vary.
Avatar Creation Sites:
14.Promote your Blog - Try Technorati!
15. Share Presentations with Slideshare
Looking for some ideas on how to craft a class presentation? Or did you come up with an awesome presentation that you want to share with the world? Well, then, you need to check out Slideshare.
Slideshare is commonly referred to as the "YouTube of Powerpoint." It allows people to upload and download presentations in a variety of presentation formats. (ppt, pps, odp, pdf, keynote, and the presentation software on Google docs) There is also a social aspect of it - registered users can have a "contact list" and form groups, such as this one for people interested Library 2.0.
Activity: Try Slideshare
Some Slideshare examples:
Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. We don't have a particular workgroup member as primary contact for this whole module, but here's a list of the applications we feel particularly comfortable with:
Or feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck!
We hope you've been having plenty of fun so far in Blue 2.0, but with this module in particular there is no excuse not to enjoy yourself! This time, it's all about you. Explore sites and applications of interest to you. And just a reminder: we have headphones, microphones, and a still and video digital camera at Young Library Circulation. Have fun, Blue crew!
Activities:
All are optional, or you can seek out your own. You need to explore at least two applications but the only requirement for the week is that you blog about your activities! Note: Some of these applications require admin access to your computer before you can install. It may be easier to try those from a home computer. If you do want to load one of those apps at work, contact LIB-TS@LSV.UKY.EDU for temporary admin rights. The fine print from IT:
Note that we take no responsibility and offer no support for software you install. If problems result (or occur independently) the best we can do is ghost your computer clean so it's back the way you got it. Be sure to keep current backups of files you keep on your local hard drive.
1. 
Get creative with an online image generator. Upload your favorite photo and play with goofy effects. Some examples are listed below, or just do a Google search to find others. If you create a cool image, post it to your blog and include a link back to the editor you used!
- Photo Spread Effect Generator
- Letter James
- ImageGenerator.net (collection of sites)
- Free online image editor
- Concert ticket generator
- Warning label generator (download option only works with IE)
RESOURCES
Review of online image editors (includes links to several)
Another one, with more links2. Personal Portals.
- Pageflakes (http://www.pageflakes.com/). “Pageflakes is your personalized start page with news readers, RSS feeds and various other features.” Dublin City Libraries even used Pageflakes to create their library website! http://www.pageflakes.com/dublincitypubliclibraries/.
RESOURCE: CNET video demo - iGoogle (http://www.google.com/ig). iGoogle is another personal portal. You can customize your iGoogle page with weather, RSS feeds, email, and much more! A list of all the gadgets you can add is here.
3. Make your own search engine! 
Give Google a run for it's money and make your own search engine. Rollyo is a yahoo based search engine that allows users to create a search engine that only searches certain websites. After you create your search engine, Rollyo will generate html code so you can post it on a website, blog or wiki.
- Go to the Rollyo website.
- Create a profile by entering a username, password and e-mail address
- Enter up to 25 websites to limit your search to.
- If you want to add your searchbox to your blog or a website, visit the Rollyo Create a Searchbox page and it will churn out the code for you.
Examples of Rollyo search engines:
- Search other Learning 2.o programs
- Search Library Organizations
- Search for Library Humor
- Search for Library Cats
4. Encore (http://ukty-mt.iii.com/iii/encore/app). Check out the UK Libraries’ 
new catalog! What are the web 2.0 features? What do you like / not like about it? What will patrons think?
5.Web 2.0 Award Winners (http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/). Ok, we have a lot of options for you to choose from in this module. But, hey, you may not really like any of 'em! That's OK. If you want to find your own Web 2.0 application, take a look at this site for some other choices. Choose any site on the list and give it a try! Just be sure to blog about it.
6. Seond Life (http://secondlife.com/). A 3-D virtual world application that is being used by Libraries and educators around the world. This activity may take more than the 3-hour estimate for all of Play Week. It can take a while to become comfortable with the application and there is a whole virtual world to explore!
RESOURCES
Download the software (requires admin rights to your computer!) and create your account at http://secondlife.com/.
Note about installation on UK Libraries machines:
The SL cache can make your roaming profile huge. Please re-direct the
cache after you install thhe software:
Preliminary step:
Launch the Second Life client. Before logging in, click on
Open My Computer
Pull down Tools>Folder Options
Select the View tab
Select the Show Hidden Files radio button
Okay your way out
Preferences. Choose the Network tab. Click on the Clear Cache
button. Click on the Set button and change the cache location to this path
(you will need to make a new folder there): c:\Documents and
Settings\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\SL Cache
Explore educational uses of Second Life at the Second Life Education Wiki.Read about the Second Life Library Project and explore their home base in SL, Info Island (This is an SLURL, which will launch the Second Life application and take you to Info Island. Info Island is a great place for SL "newbies" to visit.)
Find out about UK's island!
See some additional resources Beth posted from a workshop.
7. Investigate open source software with SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/). “The world's largest development and download repository of Open Source code and applications.” Download something and play with it!
RESOURCE: Wikipedia article
8. Mozilla Firefox.
Almost everything we’ve covered in Blue 2.0 are web-based applications. And how do we access the web? Through a web browser. Internet Explorer is the web browser that comes with most computers and is part of our Microsoft Office package here at UK. You do have other options – options that will enhance your web experience and may make all of your Internet based time more pleasant.
One of the most prevalent alternative web browsers is Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is an open source browser, which means that thousands of people volunteer time and energy developing it and creating additions to it. These additions are called “addons” or “extentions”, depending on who you talk to. The full list of extentions can be found here.
Activity: Play with the Mozilla Firefox browser and try out at least 5 addons
- Go to the Mozilla website and down load the Firefox browser. (NOTE: requires admin access to your computer.) http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
- After that is downloaded, go to the addon site and download 5 addons to Mozilla to personalize your experience. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox//
Not sure what to download? Here are some ideas:
- Firefox's Recommended Addons Link
- iLibrarian's 40 Useful Firefox addons for Librarians. Part one. Part two.
- Computer World's 20 Must Have Firefox Addons. Link
- Quick Online Tips 50 Best Firefox Addons for Power Surfing Link
9. Microblogging.
You know, sometimes you don't really have enough to say for a entire blog post. Sometimes you can update your followers in 140 characters (including spaces!) or less. This is called microblogging.
Activity: Try microblogging service Twitter and add a another twitter-er to follow.
- Go to the Twitter website
- Create a profile. All you need is a user name, password and e-mail address.
- Find at least one other twitter-er to follow. It will form an RSS like feed in your Twitter page.
- Other librarians (Sarah Glassmeyer, Jessamyn West, The Librarian Avenger)
- Libraries (Dublin City, Houston Library, NEIU)
- Presidential Candidates (Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Ron Paul)
- News Organizations (CNN, BBC News)
- Fun sites (I Can Haz Cheesebuger, Craft Magazine, A Word a Day)
10. Chat Aggregators - Try meebo!
Okay, now you've tried chatting on AOL. However, a lot of you already had accounts on other chat services like google or yahoo. How can you chat with your old buddies and your new AOL buddies too? Chat aggregators, that's how. Also called "multiprotocol instant messaging applications", chat aggregators allow users to chat with people on other chat platforms.
Activity: Try meebo
- Go to the meebo website (meebo.com)
- Create a user/name password and enter in all of your instant messaging account information.
- See if you can chat with someone on another IM client with meebo.
Note: If you're doing the Firefox activity, you can download a Meebo Addon! Also, if you're doing the Advanced Blogger activity, you can add create a Meebo Widget. This allows people to chat with you via Meebo even if they have no IM account at all. Check out UK Law Library Blog to see an example of this.
11. Advanced Blogging.
During week one you created a basic blog. Here's a chance to jazz up your blog with some additions.
Activity: Bling your blog
- If you're using blogger, click on the "Layout" link on the dashboard for your blog. Then click "page elements."
- By clicking "add a page element", you will have a list of elements you can add, such as a picture slideshow, a link list (perhaps you could create a blogroll of some of the Blue 2.0 blogs!), and RSS feeds.
- There is also the "HTML/Java Script" option. This is for adding "widgets". Many sites will have a link that says something like "add as a widget to your blog." (Another option is to get a list of widgets here.) It will then provide you with some code that you cut and paste into the box that appears when you click the "HTML/Java Script" link. After you cut/paste the script, click "save changes" and then you can drag the box anywhere you want on your blog.
- You can add as many "HTML/ Java Script" boxes as you want. One that doesn't appear on the list linked above is "Sitemeter". This free service will allow you to see how many people visit your blog, where they are (both geographic location and domain name), and how they got there.
- Blogger has also made it easy to change the look of your blog.
- You can change the color of the basic provided templates by clicking on "fonts and colors" under the "layout" tab/link. You can change colors either by clicking on one of the colors provided, or by entering a "hex color code". A list of those can be found here.
- If you're feeling really adventurous, you can change your blog template to one that's not an official "blogger" provided one. A list of template resources can be found here. Most of these require a simple cut/paste of provided code. You'll click on "edit HTML". This will show you the code that provides the look of your blog. Blogger will give you the option of saving your current blog. Do that. Then you'll erase your current template and paste in one of your choosing. NOTE: You shouldn't lose any blog content (the posts you've written) when you switch templates. However, you'll lose any extras you've added such as widgets or blog rolls.
12. Advanced Wikis - Wikipedia.
Now that you know the basics of wiki creation, why not give the 800 pound gorilla of wikis a try? Maybe you can bring some library organization and know how to the table!
Activity: edit wikipedia
- Go to the wikipedia main page
- On the top right hand side, there is a link that says "login/create an account." Click that.
- Create an account by entering a username and password. After that, you're good to go to make edits. Scary, huh?
A little hestitant to make edits? Check out the following pages first:
- Introduction to Wikipedia
- Where to get help/ask questions about edits
- The Sandbox - to test out your wiki skills before you "go live"
Wikipedia has 1000s of pages on 1000s of topics. Try editing one or create your own page. Here's some that you may have some information to offer about. Don't see your library listed? Create a page for it!
- The University of Kentucky
- The William T. Young Library
- The Margaret I. King Library
- The Lucille Caudill Little Library (has no content - fill 'er up!)
13. Clone yourself.
Okay, Web 2.o isn't advanced enough to clone yourself. However, not all of us are blessed with the photogenic gene. (At least that's what I tell myself so I can sleep at night!) Alternatively, not everyone feels comfortable with posting actual pictures of yourself on the Internet. What's the solution? Create an avatar!
Activity: Explore an avatar creator
Each avatar creator site is going to be a little different, so specific instructions will vary.
- Choose an avatar maker. A list appears at the end of this section, but if you find another one you like, feel free to choose that.
- Create an avatar.
- Either post it on your blog or upload it to your blog profile.
Avatar Creation Sites:
14.Promote your Blog - Try Technorati!
Blogging can be as social of an activity as you want. You can just blog for yourself, you can only allow a certain select group of people read your blog, or can keep your blog open to the entire world and hope that as many people as possible read your blog. One way to get more traffic is to link to other bloggers (who may then choose to link to you) and sign up for Technorati.
Technorati is a blog indexing service that measures the linking between blogs. The more times a blog is linked to, the more "importance" it is given. It also measures when blogs link to an item like a news story on the web. Technorati then lists the blogs that link to this story.
Activity: Try Technorati
- Go to the Technorati homepage
- On the top right/central part of the page in the green (above "technology") there is a link to "sign up." Click that and a window will pop up. Enter a username, email address, and password and this will create your account.
- Click on "blogger central", which appears on the right hand side of the page, under the search box.
- In the middle of the right hand column, there is a link to "claim your blog." Enter the URL of your blog.
- You'll be given the opportunity to choose three different methods of claiming your blog - open ID, quick, or post claim. Choose whichever one you feel most comfortable with.
- You'll then be given the opportunity to fill in a little more information about your blog.
- You can also check your blog settings to make sure that Technorati is getting "pinged" every time you update your blog. Instructions on how to do this for the different blog hosts (including blogger) appear here.
15. Share Presentations with Slideshare
Looking for some ideas on how to craft a class presentation? Or did you come up with an awesome presentation that you want to share with the world? Well, then, you need to check out Slideshare.
Slideshare is commonly referred to as the "YouTube of Powerpoint." It allows people to upload and download presentations in a variety of presentation formats. (ppt, pps, odp, pdf, keynote, and the presentation software on Google docs) There is also a social aspect of it - registered users can have a "contact list" and form groups, such as this one for people interested Library 2.0.
Activity: Try Slideshare
- Go to the Slideshare website (http://www.slideshare.net/)
- On the top right/center of the screen (next to the search box), there is a link to signup. Click that and provide a username, password and e-mail address. (This actually isn't necessary to explore the site or upload presentations, but you'll get the full use of the site with a profile.)
- Check out some of the presentations that have been uploaded. You can enter a term of interest in the search box, click on one of the terms that appear in the tag cloud, find a group that interests you and see what its members have, or maybe even see a conference that you didn't get to go to.
- Try to upload a presentation! Take one you already have or just create a quick one with 2 or three slides. Click "upload", which appears in the bar under the "Slideshare" symbol. Click the "browse and select files" button to choose your presentation and upload it.
Some Slideshare examples:
- Meredith Farkas' profile
- Libarians Slideshare group
- Slides tagged "web 2.0"
- Future of Learning in a Networked World Conference
Estimated Completion Time: 3 hour+ It really depends on which applications you choose to play with.
Help:
Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. We don't have a particular workgroup member as primary contact for this whole module, but here's a list of the applications we feel particularly comfortable with:
- Beth: Second Life, online image editors, Encore, SourceForge
- Sarah: Meebo, MicroBlogging, Mozilla, Advanced blogging, Rollyo, Wikipedia, Avatars, slideshare, technorati
- Jen: iGoogle, Second Life, Meebo, microblogging
- Stacey: I'm willing to help with any of these things. Have fun!
Or feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Happy Hour!
It's almost Play Week, so why don't we kick it off with a little fun?
What: Happy hour for Blue 2.0!
When: Wed., Feb 20, 5:00-7:00
Where: Charlie Brown's
Charlie Brown's kinda looks like a library. They have books. So call it a meeting and come early! (oh, just kidding....)
Spread the word to your Blue 2 friends in case they are not reading the blog faithfully every day!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
First party & prize drawing!
We had our first Blue 2.0 get-together/party/Q&A/prize drawing yesterday afternoon. Several Blue participants showed up to eat food....
talk about our experiences so far, and choose the first winner in our incentive prize drawings! The names of all Blue 2.0 participants who were currently on-schedule were put in a basket, and Shawn drew our winner:
Congratulations to Christina Zavos, who won a $50 restaurant gift certificate!
[Christina was unable to attend the party, but we're sure she was just this happy when she found out that she won!]
So stay on schedule and get ready for our next drawing, Tuesday, March 18, 10:00, when the prize will be an iPod shuffle. Good luck, everyone!
[BTW, someone left brown gloves at the party. They are being held for ransom in Beth's cube. Complete the next modules or the gloves are a gonner!]
talk about our experiences so far, and choose the first winner in our incentive prize drawings! The names of all Blue 2.0 participants who were currently on-schedule were put in a basket, and Shawn drew our winner:
Congratulations to Christina Zavos, who won a $50 restaurant gift certificate!
[Christina was unable to attend the party, but we're sure she was just this happy when she found out that she won!]
So stay on schedule and get ready for our next drawing, Tuesday, March 18, 10:00, when the prize will be an iPod shuffle. Good luck, everyone!
[BTW, someone left brown gloves at the party. They are being held for ransom in Beth's cube. Complete the next modules or the gloves are a gonner!]
Friday, February 8, 2008
Weeks 5&6: Tagging, Folksonomies and Online Applications
Introduction
During this unit, you will learn to use del.icio.us, a social bookmarking website. You will also explore some of the word processing capabilities of GoogleDocs.
Tagging and Folksonomies
Sharing and collaboration are major characteristics of Web 2.0 applications. Tagging and folksonomies are somewhat synonymous terms. "Tags" are labels that people can apply to objects found online and a "folksonomy" is a taxonomy created by a community. Both allow people to share how they categorize items found on the web – be it pictures, webpages, blog posts, etc. Hmmm.....organizing information? This module should be a natural for library folks!
Activities
Activity 1: Create a del.icio.us account
Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) is a website that allows you to store your Internet bookmarks online. This means that you can access your bookmarks from any computer. When you book mark a webpage, you can “tag” it with keywords of your choosing which will help you organize similar pages. This is more versatile than bookmark folders since you can “tag” a website with more than one descriptor. For example, one could save a link to this blog on del.icio.us and tag it with “blog” “web 2.0” “UKBlue2.0” and/or “library.” Later, you could easily see all other websites that you’ve labeled with “blog” as well as “web2.0”
Del.icio.us is most commonly known as a “social bookmarking” site. This means you can share your bookmarks with friends if you choose (but you don’t have to!) You can also see what websites other people are bookmarking and what tags that they assign them. Many libraries use social bookmarking sites as a way to create online resource guides. Some examples of these appear at the end of the module.
So to recap, for this activity you will:
1) Create a del.icio.us account
2) Post 5 websites to your del.icio.us account
3) Tag this websites with whatever terms make sense to you AND “UKBlue2.0”
4) Add the Connected Library del.icio.us account to your network.
5) Post link to your del.icio.us account in your blog.
Optional Activity 1A: LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a website that allows users to post their book collection, assign the books tags (or catalog it) and then share their collection with others. You can also use LibraryThing to find people who have similar reading tastes to yours. Many libraries use LibraryThing as a way to highlight their collection, supplement their OPAC and, in some rare cases, completely replace their OPAC.
Joining LibraryThing is as simple as creating a username and password. There is an option for creating a profile, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t wish. After that, you can add books to your library by searching for them in sources provided by LibraryThing, such as library catalogs or online retailers. Alternatively, you can upload your library by, for example, using your Amazon wish list.
Here are some things to check out in LibraryThing:
Online Software Suites
As we learned in the last module, wikis are a great way to collaborate with others. However, sometimes you may need to use a document, a spreadsheet or want to create a presentation. This is where Online Software Suites come in handy. As an added benefit, they’re free!
Activity 2: Explore Google Docs
Google Docs is a free, online version of a productivity suite like MS Office. With Google Docs, you can create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Besides the obvious benefit of being free, you can also co-edit these projects with other people and then easily publish them to the web or post to a blog. We're going to just look at the word processing aspect of Google Docs.
So to recap, for this part of the module you will:
1) Go to google docs
2) Write a brief summary of your experiences with del.icio.us and/or google docs.
3) Publish this document to your blog
4) Share it with Sarah Glassmeyer
Estimated completion time: 30 – 60 minutes.
Resources
For more information:
Tagging and Folksonomies
Social Bookmarking
Folksonomies
Tagging
Del.ici.ous Examples
University of Georgia Libraries Cataloging Department del.icio.us
This is a nice example of subject specific del.icio.us account. These resources are for library employees, not the public
Dublin City Public Libraries (Ireland) del.icio.us
Notice how they bundle tags by subjects.
Colorado State University Pueblo del.icio.us
Here is an academic library that uses subject bundles.
San Mateo Public Library del.icio.us
This library chooses to use the Dewey Decimal System numbers for its subject bundles.
Libraries Using LibraryThing
Librarians who LibraryThing - This is a group for librarians.
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Duke Law Library
Kingwood College Library
Morris County Public Library
Other Examples of Sites that use Tagging.
Social bookmarking sites – These websites are going be very similar to del.icio.us in that they are used to manage webpages. Some of them have “extras”, such as the ability to discuss the saved websites with other users.
Digg
Furl
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Fark
Social citation sites – These websites act very similarly to EndNote or RefWorks.
citeUlike
Connotea
Refbase
Social cataloging sites – These sites allow you to catalog and share your book collection, like LibraryThing.
Shelfari
GoodReads
aNobii
Online Applications
For more information:
Office Suite
Lifehacker Faceoff: Zoho Suite vs. Google Docs
Office Suites
Google Docs
Zoho
Need Help?
Remember, Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. Sarah Glassmeyer is the primary contact for this topic, but please feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck.
REMEMBER: There will be a party and prize drawing on Wednesday, February 13. Come with questions if you have any! Blue 2.0 participants who have completed Modules 1 and 2 (Chat, Blogs, RSS and wikis) by Feb12 are eligible for the $50 restaurant gift certificate drawing. If you're not caught up by that time, don't worry...you can still catch up and be eligible for the iPod Shuffle drawing on March 18 and the Grand Prize 80GB iPod Classic drawing at the Staff Appreciation Event during the week of April 7.
During this unit, you will learn to use del.icio.us, a social bookmarking website. You will also explore some of the word processing capabilities of GoogleDocs.
Tagging and Folksonomies
Sharing and collaboration are major characteristics of Web 2.0 applications. Tagging and folksonomies are somewhat synonymous terms. "Tags" are labels that people can apply to objects found online and a "folksonomy" is a taxonomy created by a community. Both allow people to share how they categorize items found on the web – be it pictures, webpages, blog posts, etc. Hmmm.....organizing information? This module should be a natural for library folks!
Activities
Activity 1: Create a del.icio.us account
Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) is a website that allows you to store your Internet bookmarks online. This means that you can access your bookmarks from any computer. When you book mark a webpage, you can “tag” it with keywords of your choosing which will help you organize similar pages. This is more versatile than bookmark folders since you can “tag” a website with more than one descriptor. For example, one could save a link to this blog on del.icio.us and tag it with “blog” “web 2.0” “UKBlue2.0” and/or “library.” Later, you could easily see all other websites that you’ve labeled with “blog” as well as “web2.0”
Del.icio.us is most commonly known as a “social bookmarking” site. This means you can share your bookmarks with friends if you choose (but you don’t have to!) You can also see what websites other people are bookmarking and what tags that they assign them. Many libraries use social bookmarking sites as a way to create online resource guides. Some examples of these appear at the end of the module.
- Go to https://secure.del.icio.us/register/ and create a del.icio.us account.
- Del.icio.us provides easy to follow, step by step instructions through this process.
- As part of this process, you will be offered the opportunity to install “post to del.icio.us” button on your web browser. If you choose not to do so, that’s okay! You can always go to http://del.icio.us/post/ and enter the URLs of the websites that you’d like to post to del.icio.us.
- Find five websites that interest you (they don’t have to be about Web 2.0).
- Assign them tags based on whatever organizational scheme makes sense to you.
- If you make a mistake or think of another tag later, don't worry...you can always go back and edit your tags.
- Additionally, tag all of your sites “UKBlue2.0”.
- You can also import bookmarks from your browser.
- After finishing this, look at your list of bookmarks.
- Click on “saved by – other people”
- Click on one of the usernames of the people that have saved your page. See if they have saved some pages that you may find interesting.
- Go to the Blue 2.0 del.icio.us account (http://del.icio.us/connectedlibrary) and add it to your network. Also, you may want to check out some of the websites that have been tagged in this account.
- Write a quick blog post in your own blog with a link to your del.icio.us account.
So to recap, for this activity you will:
1) Create a del.icio.us account
2) Post 5 websites to your del.icio.us account
3) Tag this websites with whatever terms make sense to you AND “UKBlue2.0”
4) Add the Connected Library del.icio.us account to your network.
5) Post link to your del.icio.us account in your blog.
Optional Activity 1A: LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a website that allows users to post their book collection, assign the books tags (or catalog it) and then share their collection with others. You can also use LibraryThing to find people who have similar reading tastes to yours. Many libraries use LibraryThing as a way to highlight their collection, supplement their OPAC and, in some rare cases, completely replace their OPAC.
Joining LibraryThing is as simple as creating a username and password. There is an option for creating a profile, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t wish. After that, you can add books to your library by searching for them in sources provided by LibraryThing, such as library catalogs or online retailers. Alternatively, you can upload your library by, for example, using your Amazon wish list.
Here are some things to check out in LibraryThing:
- After creating your LibraryThing account, you can join the UK Blue 2.0 group. This will allow you to find other Blue 2.0 participants and check out their libraries.
- You can also make a widget and add a link to your LibraryThing on your blog.
- Not sure what to read next? Use LibraryThing's Suggester.
- Oh, look! LibraryThing has a blog with an RSS feed you can add to your list to keep up-to-date on LibraryThing enhancements!
- Finally, LibraryThing has a wiki component of its website called Common Knowledge . This allows users to contribute information on authors and works.
Online Software Suites
As we learned in the last module, wikis are a great way to collaborate with others. However, sometimes you may need to use a document, a spreadsheet or want to create a presentation. This is where Online Software Suites come in handy. As an added benefit, they’re free!
Activity 2: Explore Google Docs
Google Docs is a free, online version of a productivity suite like MS Office. With Google Docs, you can create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Besides the obvious benefit of being free, you can also co-edit these projects with other people and then easily publish them to the web or post to a blog. We're going to just look at the word processing aspect of Google Docs.
- Go to the Google Docs page (http://docs.google.com/) You can also find it by going to the Google homepage and then clicking on "more" on the top left hand side of the page.
- If you have not already done so, login to your Google Account that you created when you created an account with Blogger.
- On the left hand side of the blue bar, click on the word “new” and select “document”
- Write a brief summary of your experiences with either del.icio.us or google docs or both.
- Save the document by clicking on “save” in the gray button on the top right hand corner
- Publish the document to your blog.
- Click the “publish” tab.
- There will be two options: “publish to Internet” and “post to blog.” You want “post to blog” You will likely have to set your blog site settings, which just involves providing your blogger login and the name of your blog.
- NOTE: This only works with select blog hosts. Blogger and Wordpress are supported, which I think almost everyone in Blue 2.0 is using. If you’re not using either of these blog hosts, just write a blog post about your experiences the normal way.
- Share the document with Sarah Glassmeyer (kentucky.sarah AT gmail.com)
- She will make a revision to your document and send it back to you.
- When you get it back, click on the “Revisions” tab. There you can compare previous versions of the document.
So to recap, for this part of the module you will:
1) Go to google docs
2) Write a brief summary of your experiences with del.icio.us and/or google docs.
3) Publish this document to your blog
4) Share it with Sarah Glassmeyer
Estimated completion time: 30 – 60 minutes.
Resources
For more information:
Tagging and Folksonomies
Social Bookmarking
Folksonomies
Tagging
Del.ici.ous Examples
University of Georgia Libraries Cataloging Department del.icio.us
This is a nice example of subject specific del.icio.us account. These resources are for library employees, not the public
Dublin City Public Libraries (Ireland) del.icio.us
Notice how they bundle tags by subjects.
Colorado State University Pueblo del.icio.us
Here is an academic library that uses subject bundles.
San Mateo Public Library del.icio.us
This library chooses to use the Dewey Decimal System numbers for its subject bundles.
Libraries Using LibraryThing
Librarians who LibraryThing - This is a group for librarians.
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Duke Law Library
Kingwood College Library
Morris County Public Library
Other Examples of Sites that use Tagging.
Social bookmarking sites – These websites are going be very similar to del.icio.us in that they are used to manage webpages. Some of them have “extras”, such as the ability to discuss the saved websites with other users.
Digg
Furl
StumbleUpon
Fark
Social citation sites – These websites act very similarly to EndNote or RefWorks.
citeUlike
Connotea
Refbase
Social cataloging sites – These sites allow you to catalog and share your book collection, like LibraryThing.
Shelfari
GoodReads
aNobii
Online Applications
For more information:
Office Suite
Lifehacker Faceoff: Zoho Suite vs. Google Docs
Office Suites
Google Docs
Zoho
Need Help?
Remember, Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. Sarah Glassmeyer is the primary contact for this topic, but please feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck.
REMEMBER: There will be a party and prize drawing on Wednesday, February 13. Come with questions if you have any! Blue 2.0 participants who have completed Modules 1 and 2 (Chat, Blogs, RSS and wikis) by Feb12 are eligible for the $50 restaurant gift certificate drawing. If you're not caught up by that time, don't worry...you can still catch up and be eligible for the iPod Shuffle drawing on March 18 and the Grand Prize 80GB iPod Classic drawing at the Staff Appreciation Event during the week of April 7.
Friday, February 1, 2008
The prizes are here!
The Blue prizes are here!
Prize #1 (drawing is Feb 13) = $50 restaurant gift certificate
Prize #2 (drawing is Mar 18) = iPod Shuffle
Grand Prize #3 (drawing during Staff appreciation) = iPod Classic
So stay on schedule! Good luck in the drawings...
See the Prizes and Parties! post for more details about the drawing party events, where we'll also have an opportunity to talk about experiences, show our work and get help.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Weeks 3 & 4: RSS, Newsreaders, and Wikis
Introduction
der the Feeds tab, click on Add, then paste in the URL and click Subscribe). You'll know a page has a feed if you see the little RSS icon on the page or up on your browser toolbar:
Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. Stacey Greenwell is the primary contact for this topic, but please feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck.
To stay on track and receive credit for participation, you'll need to complete your RSS and wiki activities by Sunday, February 10. Then we move on to tagging and online applications!
-Stacey
In the first two weeks of Blue 2.0, you created a blog. Want to make it easier to keep up with the blogs of your colleagues and friends? This week you will learn how to use a feed reader to subscribe to RSS feeds from websites and other blogs.
You will also learn about different uses of wikis and will create one.
Activities
Activity 1: Explore a feed reader
Even if you don’t become a regular blogger, you can still enjoy the benefits of RSS! A feed reader will allow you to quickly and easily keep up with numerous websites—whether the Blogger blogs of your fellow staffers participating in this program or RSS feeds from various websites (see the list of examples below to get an idea). Still not convinced? You can easily track packages, set up custom searches, and even have email sent to an RSS feed if you wish.
What is RSS exactly? It stands for Really Simple Syndication, but we're not going to get into the technical jargon here. There's plenty of reading out there if you want to know more. Just know that RSS feeds allow you to view the content of many different websites on a single website--a feed reader. The feed reader we'll be using is Bloglines.
In this activity you’ll set up a Bloglines account (http://www.bloglines.com) and subscribe to the feeds of several websites.
This video provides step-by-step instructions for creating a Bloglines account:
Using Bloglines Tutorial (how to Keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) – This online tutorial walks you through how to setup a Bloglines account and add newsfeeds. Follow Steps 1 to 3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4 – 9 are optional and cover how to subscribe to different types of feedsIt takes just minutes to get an account. Once you have set up the account, you can subscribe to feeds highlighted by Bloglines (under the Directory tab) or you can search for feeds directly (under the Search tab). Most likely you will want to add the URLs of feeds you discovered elsewhere (un
der the Feeds tab, click on Add, then paste in the URL and click Subscribe). You'll know a page has a feed if you see the little RSS icon on the page or up on your browser toolbar:See the Resources at the end for more videos, reading, as well as some blogs and other feeds you might want to subscribe to with your new Bloglines account.
At a minimum, be sure to add the feed for the Blue 2.0 blog to your new Bloglines account:
1. Scroll down to the bottom of the Blue 2.0 blog.
2. Right click on "Subscribe to Posts--Atom" (RSS and Atom are different standards for feeds, but that's not really important here. If you're really interested, see the readings below) and choose "Copy Link Location."
3. Go back to Bloglines. Under the Feeds tab, click on Add.
4. Paste the link location into the "blog Feed or URL" field and click on subscribe.
So to recap, for this activity you will:
- Create a Bloglines account
- Add feeds to your Bloglines account, including the Blue 2.0 feed
- Write a brief post about the experience to your blog. What are some of your favorite RSS feeds?
- Post in the comments of this blog entry the URL of your blog post about Bloglines and RSS.
Estimated time to completion: 60 minutes+
Activity 2: Create a wiki
Why wikis? Wikis are great because they are web pages that can be edited quickly and easily by multiple people. Edits can be tracked so that you can easily go back to a previous version of the wiki if needed. To edit a wiki, you don’t need a lot of coding or technical know-how. Just type your text and go!
We all may be familiar with wikis simply because of Wikipedia. There are a number of uses for wikis. I’ve used them to organize places of interest for a trip, disc golf scores, and recipes. In addition to personal uses, wikis are a great tool for libraries. See the examples section below for a short sampling of wiki uses in libraries.
For this Blue 2.0 training program, we will be using a free wiki service, www.pbwiki.com. Why pbwiki? Because it's as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich!
In this activity, you’ll create a wiki following the instructions on the pbwiki.com site. On your page, feel free to write a few sentences about yourself or your experience with the program. Experiment with the various types of text formatting. See the resources section for an overview of using pbwiki.
So to recap, for this activity you will:
- Look at some example wikis (Wikipedia, plus some other wikis mentioned in the resources at the end of this post)
- Create a wiki at http://www.pbwiki.com
- On your blog, give your opinion of the wikis looked at in this activity. Do you see possible uses for wikis? Include a link to your wiki in your blog post.
- Post in the comments of this blog entry with the URL of your blog post about wikis.
Estimated time to completion: 60 minutes+
Resources
For more information, take a look at these resources:
RSS
CNET Video: RSS – Feel the Need for Feeds (3:32) – a good over view of what RSS is and the benefits to users
Feed Me: A gentle introduction to Internet feeds - a good tutorial from Palinet, a library cooperative
Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines - A short YouTube video showing how to add feeds
Hot! Fresh! Delivered to You! - how to use RSS to keep up with multiple information sources, including useful section about using RSS with library electronic journals
Wikis
PB Wiki Tour - find out how this collaborative tool can be used
PBWiki Video Gallery - short videos of PBwiki features
Wiki, wiki, wiki – general overview from the Core Competency blog of the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County
Wikis: A Beginner’s Look – an excellent short slide presentation that offers a short introduction and examples
Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how wikis can be used in libraries
Examples of RSS Feeds
RSS feeds are everywhere! Here are a few examples of sites with RSS feeds, including some blogs of libraries and librarians. Consider adding some of these to Bloglines, or find your own. The blogosphere is a big, exciting place!
Sample of Library Blogs
Ohio University Libraries Business Blog
Kansas State University Library Blogs
Virginia Commonwealth University Library Suggestion Blog
UThink Blogs at the University of Minnesota
Shaver Engineering Library Blog
Western Kentucky University Library Blog
Sample of Librarian Blogs
The Kept-Up Academic Librarian
Some Sites with RSS Feeds
University of Kentucky Libraries News
Unshelved (library comic)
Cute Overload (puppies, kittens, more!)
Examples of Using Wikis in Libraries
Wikis are used in myriad ways. Some libraries use them for knowledge bases or places to organize training or committee information. Librarians working on national committees or meetings may use them to organize information among participants around the world. Here are just a few examples:
LibSuccess – a library best practices wiki. Lots of good stuff here!
BizWiki – subject guide for business created by a librarian at
Library Instruction Wiki – compilation of resources related to library instruction
ALA 2006 New Orleans wiki – an example of a wiki created to support a specific event
The Albany County Public Library Staff wiki – an example of a wiki created for library staff to document procedures
SJCPL Subject Guides – an example of a public library using a wiki for a web subject guide
Librarian Sarah’s Wiki – Sarah uses a wiki to organize her presentations and links of interest
Blue 2.0 is about helping each other! IM a co-participant or post a question to the “Need Help?” blog post if you need (you guessed it) help. Stacey Greenwell is the primary contact for this topic, but please feel free to contact any workgroup member if you’re really stuck.
To stay on track and receive credit for participation, you'll need to complete your RSS and wiki activities by Sunday, February 10. Then we move on to tagging and online applications!
-Stacey
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