Week 9 #20 Boldt Castle - 1,000 Islands

I choose this clip because the castle is close to my summer home. There's nowhere like the St Lawrence Seaway!

There is definitely a grainy and amateurish quality to this -- extreme conrast in both quality and content from my Holocaust selection.

Week 9 #20 Never Again-The Holocaust

I recently had a patron extremely interested in educating herself about the Holocaust so I had recent experience looking for information on this topic.

I did find all sorts of garbage (skinhead types)while I was looking, in addition to powerful videos like this one. I chose this as a sampling.

I am finally conditioned enough by 23 Things to skim through the postings (by strangers) after blogs and videos as opposed to dismissing them out of hand, and I'm glad that I did because I discovered the translation of the song that accompanies the images.

I found this presentation to be poignant and penetrating.

Week Eight Number 19 Googles Doc Test 1 Blog

Google Docs Test 1

After exploring the options on this site, I found that they are far more comparable to Zoho than I first thought. Though the word processing features are not so easy and obvious, they are available.

For example, I ever could find a spellcheck though until I went to the FAQs. There I I discovered spellcheck in many, many languages. Zoho has spellcheck for English only so Google is more advanced on that feature. (Also, I felt a bit dimwitted since the spellcheck option is highlighted in bright yellow on the bottom of the page I was typing on.)

There are several other differences, such as the word count feature listed under File as opposed to its automatically appearing in Zoho, but all in all with perseverance it seems straightforward enough to eventually create a document without having to resort to the HELP section.

Google Docs seems as though with practice it would be very close to the effectiveness and versatility as Zoho, though as a novice I still find Zoho easier to work with. Google Docs remains my second choice to share with patrons until I wrestle with it more. I am very excited about both though. I repeat -- just when I thought that Wikis were my favorite lesson -- the word processing lesson came along!

Week Eight Number 18: Zoho/Google Docs

1. Created an account in Zoho and Google Docs. Read the FAQs in Zoho. Looked at Google Docs. Decided I far preferred Zoho and that I would save Google for part 2 of this section.

2. Easily created a test document (the easily part not often applicable to my experiences with different aspects of 23 Things) and just as easily posted it to my blog -- see entry below. It was simple enough to combine my test document with my blog posting about my Zoho experience.

3. Went back to make sure I could retrieve my document successfully.

4. Turned cartwheels.

Week Eight Number 18: Zoho Test 1 Blog Post

First Zoho Document August 9, 2007

I looked briefly at Google Docs for part 2 of the word processing week and I like this site infinitely better. It's just like the software! All the right features, easily identifiable, and never mind the collaborative part -- patrons can write letters at home even on their limited creaky old computers.

It's interesting that the Zoho spellcheck identifies Zoho as a questionable word - something objective and universal about that. I appreciate the word count and character feature and all the fancy, easily identifiable icons on the toolbars on top. Just when I thought Wikis were my favorite part of 23 Things.

Week Seven Part Seventeen: Sandbox Wiki

1. Created Maryland Libraries Sandbox account.

2. Added my blog to Favorite Blogs page.

3. Created a page called Serenity = Syphoning; a paragraph about vacation. Purely a "play" exercise.

4. Added a posting about the wiki Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day to an established page of "favorite wikis"

Week Seven Part Sixteen: Wikis

I have been using Wikipedia for some time as a good jumping off place to track down "reputable information". I knew that wikis were open and that the information was not necessarily substantiated, that they were subject to biased reporting, and that teachers wouldn't permit them to be used as a source for research. I wasn't aware, until this exercise that wikis could be contained and controlled.

I am very impressed with the opportunities that Wikis offer for collective sharing of valid information. I am also delighted with the ease of my being able to contribute. I knew theoretically that wikis were many-authored but I didn't know how the process worked before playing with this exercise.

My favorite examined wiki was The Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day. I found it simple (encouraging), thorough and a great resource to guide patrons to, which is always 50% of my goal in this whole 23 Things process.

The Book Lovers Wiki had some useful aspects since there were many varied titles -- always nice because it alerts patrons to what's out there in the reading world, but some of the books reviewed were outdated, i.e., Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and Deception Point. Likewise, the Best Practices Wiki was sporadic between flush with information and sparse; having headings listed didn't mean there was content: "Readers' Advisory/Leading Book Groups", for example, merely had a list of possible titles and not a how-to for leading a book discussion.