Podcasts

I have listened to numerous podcasts, but haven't really thought about podcasting until I considered the population my school library serves. We have many ESL students and families in our district. Perhaps we could podcast school and library news and information in English and other languages. Of course, we would need to rely upon ESL support, but those staff members who are now translating for our schools may find it more useful to also podcast.

23 Things Recommended

I would give this course five out of five stars. When a teacher asked me this week to help her set up a college course for beginning teachers which will include the use of WebQuests, I thought of first showing her Delicious to help her and her students research, bookmark and organize their resources. I will also have her add Web 2.0 resources to her Delicious bookmarks. I’ll show her Quest Garden for the WebQuest, and PBWiki and Wetpaint for collaboration and coursework feedback. I’ll show her Skype and TeacherTube for live communication and video sharing. Thank you for giving me the background in using these great Web 2.0 tools so I can pass it on.

Web 2.0 find

Biblio.com I could have used this week. A patron came to me wanting an obscure book published forty+ years ago. She did not have a title, nor author. She told me some details from the story, and luckily I was able eventually find the book since one of the libraries in our district still had a copy listed in their on-line catalog. I did test drive Biblio.com by looking for a book I treasured as a child, giving neither title nor author. Biblio.com did find a few copies of the book. However, if the book hadn't been listed for sale on this site, I may have needed to look for it on Amazon.com new and used. Not all listings in Biblio.com have full descriptions of the subject matter of the book, so it may be difficult determining if a given book is the one you are seeking. Having another source for out-of-print books is useful....if at first you don't succeed.....

Delicious

Summer is a great time for getting organized as well as finding ideas and resources for the upcoming school year. Delicious is a useful tool for doing both. I may run into school to add my bookmarks from there to my Delicious account before my library office computer gets recycled. I also have found plenty of useful links by doing tag searches.

We all know that too many links can be as bad as attics filled with treasures you just might need some day. When that day finally comes...now just where did you put that item? Delicious gives you more than one clue (tag) for finding that item (link)...works like cross referencing....and everything is kept in one location...not some in your camp, home, attic, office, etc. Now if I could only find a program for organizing that attic!

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This is a good anti-aging gimmick.

Social Networking sites set up by public libraries could be a good way to attract and draw teens into a circle of reading enthusiasts. Reading is often a solitary endeavor. Shy kids who may be socially challenged could find this a good way to initiate contact with their on-line peers who have common interests. I particularly like the Denver Public Library site that shows reading to be a cool activity.