My Final Project- Delicious Bookmarks

For my final project option for LIS 635, I wanted to pick a project that would directly benefit the staff and patrons of my library. To this end, I chose the option of reviewing the ALA/RUSA Best Free Reference Web Sites- Combined Index, 1999-2006 and developing a Library 2.0 strategy to promote it to users and our library staff.

For the purposes of this project, I chose to create a Delicious Bookmark account and compile these websites in the Delicious account to share with our library patrons and staff. After the project and course are complete, promoting the finished product will be easy. Delicious offers the ability to embed a link to the Bookmark account directly in our library website by inserting the HTML code into the hypertext of the webpage. At that point, anyone who visits the library webpage will be able to access this Delicious Bookmark account just as easily as you will here. This project will be great for patrons, because the RUSA/MARS Combined Index of Best Free Websites is truly a terrific reference resource.

But, the project will also be very useful for staff- they will be able to search subjects by keyword, tag, tag bundle, or tag cloud. Not only will the bookmarks aid them in locating dependable free reference websites, but they can add their own tags as well!

Setting up the account was easy. I just followed the directions on the Delicious website, which were very through and easy to understand. Each website had to be added individually, which was somewhat time consuming. Although saving Bookmarks can be done manually by typing in each URL, Delicious also offers a bookmarking tool named Bookmarklets. Information on how to save a Bookmark can be found by clicking on the Save a New Bookmark link. The Delicious websites describes them as follows: "Bookmarklets (Buttons) are links you add to your browser's Bookmarks Toolbar. These are the easy way to post and view your bookmarks on the Delicious." I chose this option. It still took a fair amount of time to import all the RUSA websites, but using the Bookmarklets tool streamlined the process and eliminated the "human error" element- typos!

I think one of the best features of Delicious is the ease of use- the site provides easy to follow instructions, so that a near novice can create a list of bookmarks AND figure out how to promote it to others. Obviously, the Bookmarks are also available to other Delicious members because it is a social bookmarking site.

Thanks to the ability to embed a link in a website, I am able to embed the same link here for you to view the final product. So, without further delay... just click on the link below to view my final project option- SchmalingRef Bookmarks from the ALA/RUSA Best Free Websites Combined Index now available on Delicious!

Thing 23- The End of the Road!!!

Wow!! This has been quite an experience. When this project began, I had never created a blog, much less incorporated all the features, bells and whistles as I have done here. This exercise had provided a great sense of accomplishment. But, most importantly, it has provided me with skills that I can readily apply to my work in my library. As a result of the "23 Things" I have already created library accounts on: Library Thing for our library Book Discussion Group; and Delicious for a list of Reference Bookmarks based on RUSA's Best Free Websites. These are both tools that will directly benefit our patrons and staff.

Wiki's, tags, Flickr, YouTube & podcasts... all things I was aware of but had not spent much time really investigating or experimenting with. The best part of the exercise was the whole concept of the 23 Things. Breaking this bundle of tasks down into small manageable assignments made the concept of learning Web & Library 2.0 far less daunting. Sixteen weeks ago, I would have never believed that I would have experimented with all of these different technologies and accomplished some of the tasks that I have on this blog. It all would have sounded a bit overwhelming. But, by breaking it down into 23 tasks, it was manageable and fun.

For the most part it was pretty easy as well. The "Thing" that was the most challenging for me was the Image Generator. I had to spend a little more time on that exercise, but even that wasn't too bad. But, importing pictures and graphics offers so much variety and makes the blog more dynamic.

I really enjoyed the YouTube and podcast "Things" because there is so much out there to be viewed and sampled. ZoHoWriter and Technorati- All truly amazing.

The most gratifying aspect of this exercise is that this is knowledge that I can see applying directly to my work at my library. It was a very good experience and I really did learn a LOT! I can't wait to apply these "things" on the job! Really terrific- I'll never look at blogs and blogging the same way again.

Thing 22- NetLibrary & Audio Downloads

I had a little advantage here as I had already created NetLibrary account for our library. I think it's a great service. But, so far, it hasn't been a big hit at our library. I think this is because most of our patrons find the site rather complicated and because they still tend to prefer the text-in-hand or pre-recorded audio versions. Downloading the versions seems to be too much trouble for them. Although, I can see where this would be different in other demographic groups. It is a service we promote, but it is not highly used.

It is a good place to find the classics. For this exercise, I accessed Jane Eyre by Bronte. It is a good service, but at the institutional level it is limited to the titles that your institution purchases. So, it may not have a great deal of variety. It has been my experience that people prefer to either read text-in-hand or listen to a pre-recorded audio version. Text versions of the classics can also be found on Project Gutenberg which offers 25,000 free books with less hassle. But, NetLibrary has a lot of options that Gutenberg doesn't.

Thing 21- Podcasts

Podcasts! For this exercise I accessed podcast.com . To find a podcast I wanted to listen to, I clicked on the Music tab and searched by "Christmas" to see what they had and I found a podcast of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which is one of my favorite Christmas specials. I expected it to be just the song. But, it is a podcast of the entire program! Very Cool. I have included the link here...

http://podcast.com/episode/30413293/

I also browsed the general categories and spent some substantial time in the music section. I could spend hours here. I also liked the politics and news sections. But, the variety is staggering. I could see that people could spend hours or even days browsing here.

I also checked out some of the other options for podcast directories, but I like the format of podcast.com best.

Thing 20- You Tube

I have previously viewed many videos on YouTube. So this aspect of the assignment was pretty fun and familiar. But, I thought I would try to embed a video on the blog. We'll see how it goes. In honor of Thanksgiving a picked a video on Roasting a Turkey by Alton Brown. Bon Appetit!!

Thing 19- Web 2.0 Awards

For this Thing (19) , I accessed the Web 2.0 awards and the 1st Place Winner for

Food- A site called imcooked-Cook It, Film, It, Share it. It offered a variety of interesting aspects including videos. I was able to watch a video of Christopher Walken Roasting a Chicken called ManMaking Chicken With Pears and Paul McCartney Making Mashed Potatoes! Hysterical, if not a bit surreal! Just in time for Thanksgiving :)

Thing 18- Online Productivity

Hooray! Below this post you will find an entry I created through Zohowriter and posted directly from there to this blog! What a great asset! I am definitely going to play with Zoho some more.