Thing Number Ten - Image Generators

I played with a number of the suggested image generators. Here's a badge I made at FD's Flickr Toys. I also created a Meez avatar in addition to the ones I had saved in the Spring - so many personality and accessory options! My Garbage Pail Kid, Estella, is probably the all-time, least yukky GPK on the site. I like to work with images, so it's nice to have a better idea of the variety that is available.

Thing Number Twenty - YouTube

I became immersed in the story of Geriatric 1927, viewing his first video post from August '06, and learning how within a week he had become a YouTube phenomenon with "telly" spots on both BBC and Austrailian news networks. That first post currently totals almost three million views.

Geriatric 1927's story is a microcosm of the social networking environment. The human potential for both harm and good plays out in the hate posts: "I hope you die" and in the responses to them: "u have to realise that there will always be people posting bad comments on every video, because its easy to be a jerk behind a keyboard where noone can see you"

The creative product resulting from Geriatric 1927's fame can be viewed in the posting embedded on this page. New vocabulary word - ZIMMER!

Utilizing YouTube with senior memory circles or with YA groups and poetry might be a fun way to implement "poetry in the branches" in my library system.

Thing Number Fifteen - Library 2.0

Library 2.0 means a continuation, a never-ending exploration of ideas, technologies and information service models that I first encountered at the University of Michigan School of Information's evolving program during the years 1994 to 1997. In the first class that created the Internet Public Library, under the leadership of Joseph Janes, we debated how to build a public library on the Web. What would it be? What would it look like?

Library 2.0 is firmly rooted in the traditional principles of librarianship, including equal access to information, efficient design to enable that access, and emphasis on user-driven services. As collaborative Web technologies continue to develop, creative professionals in supportive library systems are still asking how library services can benefit users in these new environments and are creating resources that answer the question.

This evolution is the theme of the article by Dr. Wendy Schultz,
To a temporary place in time...
On the way to the library experience of the future
"This too shall pass: The ongoing Library 2.0 debate frames library renewal within the current trends transforming our information infrastructure. But those trends themselves will evolve, even mutate, under pressure from emerging change. A futures perspective asks us to reconnect this dialogue to the grand sweep of time from the treasured past to the adventure of the future—and to put people and meaning at the center of our concerns."

Thing Number 14 - Technorati

Searching Technorati with term "Learning 2.0" led to 27,614 blog posts and 519 blogs in the blog directory. The advanced search brought different total hits. It wasn't clear what was actually being searched in each category.

I spent a lot of time poking around in the tabbed Popular category - watching a YouTube Filipino detention center practice of "Thriller," and an Xtreme sport smashup, checking out the Huffington Report, among other things.

I was somewhat put off by the use of the word favorite, as in the instruction to Favorite It and Top Favorited Blogs. Guess I'll never be cool.

Our Reference Training piece on Search Engines needs updating. An introduction to Technorati would be a good addition for folks new to the reference desk.

I hope to return to sign up to the watchlist and to claim my Mossman Guitar blog as soon as I finish the 23 things and have time to work on it.