#20. Podcasts

I did not take long this time for me to get hooked. I decided to try Yahoo!Podcast search right after I finished the " What is a podcast" tutorial. I tried "Robert Frost", and immediately came across a site that interests me: "Poem of The Day." I already have iTunes on my Mac, so all I needed to do was go to the podcaster's website, www.sonibyte.com, and subscribe. From there I went to check out the Podcast.net directory, specifically poetry, and hey!, I found a podcast mentioned this morning at the University Inn presentation by Helene Blowers, the original creator of the Learning 2.0 program: LibraryLoft Podcasts by the Public Library of Charlotte. Somethings's wrong here, though, all hits on this site are dated November/December 2006... Strange. Refreshing doesn't help. So on to podcastalley.com. A German book review podcast (Guten Morgen Buchtipps) also slips effortlessly onto iTunes. Adding the feed to my blog doesn't work, though. Back to Yahoo, where I discover "Das Literatur Cafe", also a German book review podcast, now the latest addition to my sidebar.

Würzburg

#19. YouTube

Hard to believe, but true... What I'm most curious to hear & see right now, a clip showing the Franconian poet Fitzgerald Kusz, was not to be found on any of the 8 listed sites. It seems German poetry is just a tad to obscure even for YouTube. Searching for the better known Durs Grünbein, I still find only one video of very poor quality on YouTube, and a link ("played from www.zdf.de") that doesn't work on Yahoo!Video. Let's move on to some nice, mundane images from my hometown. Voila!

#18. Firefox Add-ons and Extensions

I've been using Safari. I probably keep using it, but I have to admit that the Firefox Search Engines Bar is pretty niffty. Adding the CruzCat Search could not have been easier. It's definitely something we can recommend to patrons. I aso added LibX and Zotero, but haven't played with them yet.

#17. Online Applications & Tools

I picked Zoho for the exercise, but I'm not entirely happy with it. I imported a couple of documents. It is easy enough, except that I have to refresh the page every time for the document to actually show up. "Post to blog" doesn't work at all; the "blog settings dialog box" never opens. Strange, since the other three publishing dialog boxes pop up without a problem. So I opt for "Doc Roll":
Post Scriptum: Viewing the blog I realize that the document posted to the blog faster than lightning without the dialog box detour. WOW! Never mind then, great tool!

#16. Library 2.0

Of the 5 articles, I liked John Riemer's best, offering what seems to me the most level-headed and pragmatic approach. Emerging technologies should not cause librarians to breathlessly declare every fad the next grand earth-shattering innovation in how libraries operate. Let's stop shaking in our boots and take a deep breath here. We only need to stay informed, tuned in to our patrons' needs and expectations, and show flexibility in implementing changes that are actually useful.

#15. Custom search engines

Since I already have a Google account I added a Google Custom Search Engine to this blog. Belinda already covered the VRC relevant artist search, so I indulged a personal interest by creating a search engine for German language poets and poetry.

#14. Instant Messaging and VoIP

I've used MSN Instant Messenger in the past. It's too late in the day to chat with the Learning 2.0 Team, but I left an offline message. I agree with Mitternacht about reference staff use.

#13. Wikis 2

If I'm not mistaken, Belinda had already introduced the Visual Resource Collection on the Learning 2.0 Wiki. I only completed the paragraph with content from our site ("About Us") and figured out how to link to SlideCat. How easy, how fun. I love wikis!

#12. Wikis 1

What I find most surprising about Wikis is that they're so self-regulating. Every article I read mentions how vulnerable wikis are to spam and vandalism, but as Wikipedia shows, amazingly enough the forces of Good and Evil do balance out in the end.
I like the suggestions on webjunction.org ("What can my library do with a wiki?")

#11. Folksonomies: LibraryThing

Favorite title: In Search of Lost Time. Clicking on one search result, "In Search of Lost Time: Proust 6-pack (Proust Complete) by Marcel Proust," leads to "Remembrance of things past [sic] by Marcel Proust; French title: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu," which, in a way, already is a recommendation. The different titles indicate different translations/translators, so if I'm looking for In Search of Lost Time I'm not necessarily looking for C. K. Scott-Moncrieff's early translation Remembrance of Things Past.
The "LibraryThing Recommendations Machine" produces very obvious results like Proust biographies, books by Proust contemporaries, but also recommendations that seem far-fetched at first, like The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, or Leonard Woolf's autobiography. Hitting the "see all recommendations" button, of course, immediately explains the connection.
The LibraryThing tags, e.g. "20th century french literature" are much broader and more general than Cruzcat's very specific subject heading "Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922 -- Translations into English"
I like this site a lot. I'll definitely be back for more.