Rollyo

Rollyo is a search engine that allows you create your own personalized method of searching. It has been set up for specific searches for gossip news or reference for example.

There are all different types of search engines people have made on Rollyo. Knowledge Managament, Ask Mr. Fix-It, and The Search Search are just several that appear when you explore the various Searchrolls already made. I tried to create a Young Adult Searchroll, but I think I need to work on it a little more...I still have not gotten the hang of the Rollyo.

Web 2.0 Awards

I visited SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Sites in 41 Categories to find that Web 2.0 technologies received awards. I had no idea that this even existed. I did not even know about several web 2.0 technologies.

When I dug a little further to find out which social networking sites were ranked the highest I was surprised to discover Bebo.com. So, naturally I signed up for it and created an account. It is very clear and simple much like Facebook but very similar to Myspace. It seems to be more for youth rather than adults since there a great deal of games and applications.

I also discovered Rollyo and 50 Matches among many other sites and technologies. I think SEOmoz's is going to be my go to website to hear about the latest web 2.0 trends.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing allows you to create a shelf to help keep track of what you have read or what to read next. We often get patrons who come up to the desk and cannot remember if they have read the book they are about to check out - this site can act as an excellent reference in cases like these.

So, after reading about LibraryThing I created my account. I realized that they had the most hillarious security question: "To Verify Your Humanity Please Type The Name of the Author". This was too funny - I knew right then this site has to be good! Here is my profile.

Flickr

Several years ago I created a personal Flickr account. Now that I work at the library we have been using a Flickr account for all our youth programming. Visit the Hoke Library's Flickr account to see all the recent programs we have had.

Flickr is a useful and fun way to capture and promote special events that the library holds. Once the community can see what we have been up to, they seem to have a different outlook as to what our purpose is. We were also able to use our Flickr account as a way to save these special moments and submit them when budget cuts hit.

Is That Really MY Voice?

So creating a podcast was a little more complicated than I thought. Once again I thought almost everything in this course was going to be easy peasy lemony squeezy and yet I am proven wrong. The creation process is very involved and does not always require one step. Each assignment thus far has shown me that there are several steps and many tasks to accomplish before going on to the next level. The podcast is an example of this discovery. I used Audacity to create my podcast but be sure that you also download the Lame encoder or else all the hard work you have put into your project will NOT pay off.If you are indeed interested in making your own podcast (which is REALLY cool), check out this tutorial offered by Audacity.

Some useful things to do with podcasts in library youth services:
-Record your own storytelling.
-Create Book Talks to intrigue young readers.
-Make podcast tutorials for:
- Teaching the Dewey Decimal System
- Educating on proper citations - Database training
- Webinars

I suggest just trying to create a Book Talk for your first podcast and see what you can make of it. Even if you do not like the sound of your own voice you can get someone else to read what you wrote and still create a podcast.

Happy recording!

Blog, Blog, and Blog Some More!

Blogging is a great way to communicate with other librarians, co-workers, other departments, friends, and even strangers. Our library set up a NING account for awhile. It was a short-lived idea that was able to allow all of the branches to communicate in an alternative way. We were able to share information, discuss, debate, and as a result communicate more often.

I encourage all librarians to create some sort of means to communicate digitally, whether it be a blog for your young adults to submit book reviews, or to set up a homework helping blog, or even a reader's advisory blog. There is always a reason to blog. So give it a try and you will see you will not be able to stop yourself from blogging all the time!