Thing 18: More Social Networks, continued...

Okay, Linkedin looks like a great professional social networking site. It's a place to go to exchange information with other professionals all over the world. People are able to stay current with all of their business contacts. I like that they don't identify the people asking or answering questions and they offer it in six languages. I would recommend this site to those patrons or friends that are looking for a new job as well as small business owners who just want to stay in the loop with the professional community.
From what I could see, WebJunction is where anyone in the library profession can go to build knowledge and skills by sharing resources as well as experience toward common goals. They offer over 600 training courses on customer service, computer technology, library management and basic library skills. The computer training classes are self-paced (begin, stop and restart anytime), convenient to access and affordable. We can also purchase course sets, which are groups of 5 courses on key topics for specific staff skills or volume courses at discounted rates. I think that using the discussion group forum and training courses would be beneficial to our library staff.   

Thing 18: More Social Networks

Well, I checked out the 5 Fun & Safe Social Networks for Children and I found pros & cons with all of them. While they all looked fun, I'm not convinced that they really are safe. I'm still not comfortable joining any of the adult social networks, so I'm sure I would be hesitant for my kids (if I had any). Togetherville required the parents to create the child's profile and invite their friends for them. There's no ads, no outside links and no unapproved friends, which I thought provided some security and encourages the parents to participate. They offer preset comments, discouraging cyber bullying and inappropriate language, but all the child has to do is agree to a code of conduct and they'll be allowed to send original messages (a bit too easy in my opinion). What's What uses facial recognition software and a photo ID taken with a webcam to provide a secure log-in. The site only allows the child to "friend" kids that are within one grade above or below them to encourage interaction only with other kids in they're own age group. Also, they have a feature that encourages users to "Report it!" which reminds me of a neighborhood watch system. The parent and child sign up together using the parent's credit card information and a temporary password. But, I wonder how easy is it to change the password as soon as the child gains access to the site and their profile? Also, once the password has been changed, does the parent still have access? ScuttlePad didn't allow much exploration without signing up and I was not interested in doing that. But, it looks like they ask for a lot of personal information from the user to register. Also, they only allow preset comments which I believe is a bit restrictive to the older kids (above 6 or 7). The Barracuda Web Filter denied access to giantHello. Skid-e Kids seemed pretty cool because it has educational games, full age appropriate movies and they are continuously improving. They rely mostly on human moderators for their security features, but who are these people and why should we trust them? This one doesn't require as much parental control as some of the others, which gives the older kids a little more freedom, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. But, still the reviews were all very good.

Obviously, each parent has to research the idea for themselves in order to decide whether or not to allow their children to become involved in social networking. But, if it were me, I think I would discourage it at least until they were a bit older. Besides, between social networking, television and gaming... it's no wonder our kids today have issues with obesity!

Thing 12

Thing 17

I watched the Common Craft video and checked out Gather, Ning and Library 2.0 Group as instructed. I thought that Gather was very well organized and user friendly. I could understand the interest in using this site to get in the loop on your favorite topics and the current headlines. I explored the Gather Food Essential group and read through some interesting recipes. I did some keyword searching and found a recipe for Sweet Chili Rubbed Pork Loin that I thought looked great. So, I might find myself using this one again... and who knows, maybe I would even like it enough to join the group.

Ning seemed to be mostly for those who wish to create their own social website. Since I am not one of those people, I exited that one pretty quickly.

I though that Library 2.0 Group was interesting and a good way to see what's happening around the world with other libraries. I would probably visit this site again.

Lastly, I explored the Dogster site. If you have a soft spot for dogs, you will love this one. There is a lot of information here, including frequently asked questions, behavior & training tips, health care for dogs, as well as lots of photos. If you were considering a new puppy, this site can help you determine which breed is right for you and your family. I enjoyed this social site, and although I haven't joined it (yet), I'm probably going to re-visit this site again in the future. 
After visiting these social websites, I can understand why people are using them because for the first time, I actually had some interest in a couple of them myself.

T15

I checked out Podcast.com and Podbean.com and found Podcast.com easier to access. Out of the podcasts that I listened to  ESPN Daily and 60mins were the ones I liked the most. The only way I would listen to a podcast would be if I was stranded on a deserted island without my phone or mp3 player and had nothing left in my brain to think about or any song to sing. I think the library would come out better posting information on the blog.

T14

I looked at some of YouTube Videos of other libraries and I have to say I like it.
I think YouTube is a good spot to use for training as well as entertainment.

Thing 16: Streaming Music

Streaming music is awesome! I tried Pandora mainly because I've heard of it before, but also because my husband loads my i-pod shuffle with music from our i-Tunes library and it was mentioned that you can conveniently purchase songs from i-Tunes through a link on the Pandora site. In my opinion, Pandora is fabulous! Listening to music is one of my favorite things and if I could, I'd be plugged into the Pandora site 24/7.

So, I registered and began to create my first station by searching an artist that I like. The first song was, of course, by that same artist. But after that, Pandora just kept a variety of great songs coming one after the other. I only rejected a few of them, and there were some that I had never heard before (along with a couple new artists). They have a "thumbs up/down" feature that reminds me of Tivo. When you click the thumbs up button, you're telling Pandora that you like that song, and from there the site actually gets to know you and what music you will probably enjoy... very cool. The only negative thing that I've noticed so far, is that you're limited on how many times you can skip a song. If you reach the limit, a note pops up to tell you that you can't skip any more songs. Therefore, I tried to click thumbs down on it and the message was an apology and a promise that once the song was finished, it would never be played for me again. But, I still had to listen to the entire song anyway. 

Anyway, the station I'm creating has a lot of variety and is a work in progress. I will definitely be visiting this site in the future and exploring all it has to offer for personal use. Thanks for the introduction!