Final Thoughts

I've enjoyed learning about all these different applications. There is so much out there for free and so little time to explore and find it. Thank you Robin and Bobbie for taking the time to create these lessons and introducing me to an online world of new options.

I would also like to say thank you to Bill for giving the staff extra time to complete the lessons. I'm not sure what my time line has actually been, but knowing that I had a few more weeks, made it less stressful for me and I was able to concentrate more on the lessons instead of how long it was taking. Since I'm doing all my lessons at the circ desk (except when I did some at home), it was hard to find time to work on this. I know I re-read a lot of things, because I needed to assist patrons. I really did think I was going to be doing at least half of the stuff at home just to have enough time. So, Thank You Bill! The snow/ice days did help out since we had fewer patrons some days.

I feel like I've learned so much in the last few weeks that I may need some time for all of it to sink in and really take hold. I'm already learning more about flickr by working on the OCP, Inc. page and would like to set-up a private section on my own flickr account to share family photos. I hope I am able to use these applications in the future and I now feel more confident about helping patrons with questions when they come up. I think I may need a personal tutorial (FYI to Robin and Bobbie) on MySpace however, to be able to help any patrons with questions about it besides the very basics, as I found it difficult to use to customize my page.

These lessons have brought out the best and worst points about Web 2.0. That it encourages people to use the Internet in a collaborative way and a social way is good. Encouraging people to share everything about themselves however is dangerous. I think most people are trusting and don't think about the possible ways their data could be misused. On one hand, we're all being cautioned about identity theft in financial records, medical records etc., then on the other hand we're being encouraged to share what's even more personal, like choices of reading material, music preferences, thoughts, values, opinions and the stuff that really gives each of us our own individual identity.

I would like to learn more about Google Docs. Perhaps some practical "assignments" like we did with the Microsoft lessons that Michael had the staff do a few years ago. I would also like to know about more features in Flickr. Perhaps a lesson on Facebook to be able to compare it to MySpace. Any of the other tools from the Web 2.0 awards list that could be useful in a library or that we might need to know about to help patrons. But, I think our first lesson should be on how to use the mp3 players. That's only partially a joke. I'm sure we can all figure out the basics but it'll probably do neat stuff that some of us will never know about without some assistance.