Rollyo

It was easy to register for and use Rollyo. I can definitely see myself using this site at home to search my favorite craft websites. When I told my friend about the site she thought it would be great to use when you are doing research to buy some new electronics. You could set up Rollyo to search key websites like Best Buy, Amazon, etc, all at once. This is a great find!

Library Thing

Library Thing was easy to use, but once again I need to read about how libraries are incorporating this into their website. It would be nice if patrons or staff at our branch libraries could add some descriptive tags, rather than just the LC subject headings.
For now, I just entered a few favorite titles to get the feel for the program. I liked being able to look at the covers of the books, rather than just a list of books. It seems like kids and teens would especially enjoy Library Thing to keep track of their books at home or just some books that they have read. I really don't see myself using this at home to catalog my own books, but I might use it to look for other books to read. In that respect Library Thing is like Novelist.
I can also see using Library Thing for collection development. For instance, I think our teen/adult fantasy paperback section needs improved. It looks like there is a FantasyFans Group that has a list of toughstone works and since I am not into this genre, this might be a good starting point. If people are passionate enough to write about these books, they must have some merit for other fantasy readers. Other groups on Library Thing , like the Knitters, have a list of the most commonly shared books. This is another example of how this site could be helpful in updating some subject areas.
Finally, it looks like this can just be another online social gathering place for people with similar interests. Librarians have a group and it looks like all sorts of issues are discussed, like problems with homeless people, not just book topics.

Teaching Others

Teaching others about some of the technologies I have been learning about is actually number 22 on the list, but I have been doing this each step of the way. It's exciting when you learn about a new website and personally I want to share the information right away. Our teen library assistant is already using one of the Flickr mashup sites and other FD Flickr Toys to create some fun displays and to help generate some images for an upcoming craft program, decoupaging cigar boxes. I have also been talking to one of our library student interns about some of the sites, although she has already been introduced to some of them throught her classes.

Online Image Generators

I could spend hours playing with the online generators! Some of them could be really helpful in generating posters for programs or book displays in the library. I am anxious to try some of them at home using my vacation photos. Some of the tools available help make pictures very professional and unique and some generators are just fun. I especially liked using the links on FD Flickr Toys http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/.

Twitter

I signed up for Twitter and posted 2 entries. I was also able to easily link my Twitter updates to my blog. Although teens might find Twitter a fun way to keep up on their friend's activities, I am guessing most of them would just use their phones to text message each other. I am not sure how we could effectively incorporate Twitter into our library web site. I will have to do some research and find some libraries that use the site.

RSS Feeds on Blogspot

Turns out adding an RSS feed to this blog is also fairly simple. I added a feed to CNN top stories to keep up with what is happening in the world.

Class and RSS Feeds

Well, my Infopeople class was cancelled because the venue could not get wifi access. I was looking forward to learning about Web 2.0 from an instructor and getting some hands on practice with new tools, but the class will be rescheduled for a later date at a new location.

Although I thought adding an RSS feed would be difficult, I gave a try and found out it was much easier than anticipated. I added a cooking blog for fun, 2 news blogs, and a book blog. I like the idea of being able to check one site and get the top news stories for the day.

At this point I only used Bloglines to set up the RSS feeds and not to blog, so I have no comparison there. My next question is how to add an RSS feed to this blog.