Lesson #1: Second Life

Second Life is interesting but as of now I have no interest in participating. I watch a lot of television and recently saw an episode of CSI:NY in which Gary Sinise's character had to solve a murder by going into a 3-D virtual reality world to find clues. He had to create an avatar, chase a little animal creature, and battle a monster to gain access to an exclusive area. It was pretty cool especially since they used a wall to project the image of the virtual world so everything was life-size. As for the library's use of Second Life I think it would be good to have some events and programs similar to those at other libraries which were mentioned in the presentation on Internet based Virtual Worlds.

Lesson #10: The Dark Side of the Web

As far as I know I have never been the victim or target of a phishing scam. One of my favorite activities is deleting e-mails without opening them so that probably helps. Shopping online is one of my other favorite activities which could potentially make me a future target. To protect myself I don't respond to solicitations. I figure if I don't initiate the contact I shouldn't respond. And I NEVER give out personal information to someone who solicits it. I think intuition and common sense play a big part in preventing these types of scams. Paying bills online is something I've avoided for safety reasons, but my environmental side keeps nagging me to give it some consideration. After all I find no problem with consuming online, but I can't manage my finances or pay bills? It just doesn't make sense and I am nothing if not sensible.

Lesson #9: Life Long Learning 2.0

In the professional development category I liked the Positivity Blog. I definitely consider myself a pessimist which is why I am constantly looking for ways to change my view in both my professional and personal life. Sometimes this tends to be difficult when you are surrounded by negative people and a negative environment. Negativity seems to love company, but if you can remain positive it can be infectious. One of the articles that I was drawn to was "7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People". I can relate to a couple of the habits like procrastinating and thinking too much. Instructables was the website I liked most in the personal growth category. The idea of learning how to make things appeals to my thrifty side. One of my nicknames is Simone Parsimonious. However, I tend to watch a lot of shows or read a lot of books about making things without ever actually following through. I guess that would be one of my personal goals. Maybe I could start with one of their 5 Minute Projects.
FYI- I was finally able to post a photo to the History of OCLS blog on Orlando Memory. I chose the picture above with the caption "Technical Services Renovation". The photo shows our department after being renovated in the spring of 2007.

Lesson #8: OCLS and Library 2.0

I was having trouble creating an account for Orlando Memory so I'll just blog about my memory here. When I was younger I remember coming to the children's department at the Orlando Public Library which was then in the basement. There were little wire carousel racks for the books and the room seemed small compared to today. The employees were always very nice to me and I looked forward to the trip all the way downtown. I stocked up on books because back then I would read one per night. Lots of things have changed since then. The children's department is not in the basement anymore. It seems bigger and brighter. Also, I now work in the basement of the library I used to visit as a child!

Lesson #7: Web 2.0 Continues

In the book category I liked Lulu because you can publish your own book. I also checked out VuFind because it uses open source software. I tried the demo of the site to look up pickling. With just a click I narrowed the search by genre (cookbooks) and topic (canning and preserving). The layout would take some time to get used to but I liked the ease of use. It's something different than the OPAC we are used to at OCLS. I think we could all get some ideas about different catalog search methods. Another good site, mango, is under the education category. Learning languages is very popular. When we had the Rosetta Stone as a free database, I always got comments about how patrons thought it was such a great tool. Since we no longer have Rosetta Stone, I guess mango is an alternative to that software. I like its total immersion learning approach. On a personal note, I love shopping so I naturally gravitated toward the retail category. There's a site called Etsy that sells really cool handmade items. They have a blog on the site with craft how-tos, videos, reviews, events, etc. There's also a section where you can request to have custom items made.
Just for fun: Want to bring out that inner artiste? I recently stumbled upon a really cool site where you can create your own Jackson Pollock painting using your keyboard. Check it out! jacksonpollock.org

Lesson #5: Chain, Chain, Change......

In the mission statement I connect with "brings value to the residents". To me this part has many different meanings. One is value as in monetary value because we provide so many services free of charge to Orange County residents. We also bring value as in the importance of our services to the community as well as the importance we place on our community and its residents.
I see us creating a "well-informed, well-connected community" by marketing our services, reaching out to the community, and staying ahead of technology to remain relevant.

Lesson #4: Open Source Information

Before working at OCLS I had very little computer experience even though I did have a computer at home. Now I don't have a computer at home, but I'm much more experienced with using different software and searching for information using the computer. Go figure! I've never used any open source software. I don't work with the public, but I do use Millennium every single day. I hear that in the near future we're going to be experimenting with some open source software to take the place of Millennium. That should be interesting. I have a couple of things I wish we could do in Millennium that I hope could be changed by using the open source software.

On Answerbag I asked why the snooze on most alarm clocks lasts for 9 minutes? Anyone.....

Lesson #3: Health, Wellness, and Technology

I love the idea of combining exercise and video games. Separately I really don't enjoy either (Rock Band might be the exception), but together they are like a Reese's peanut butter cup. I've played Wii tennis, bowling, and golf. The workout is fantastic provided you don't injure yourself. The first time I played my right shoulder hurt for a week. I read an article about the use of Wii in retirement homes. Here's a link: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-05-14-wii-retirement-medical-centers_N.htm

On Nutrition Data I looked up my favorite Starbucks beverage, a Grande Peppermint Mocha. WOW! Without whipped cream this drink has 312 Calories, 13 grams of Fat, and 44 mg. of Cholesterol! The good news is that I can order it with non-fat milk reducing the Calories to 232, Fat to 2 grams, and Cholesterol to 8 mg. That sounds much better.

Lesson #2: Blogging

With this course I hope to learn about some new technologies that I'm afraid to try on my own. It would be fun to upload a video to YouTube or create a web page, but I don't have a computer at home so I've never really tried. I'm really open to discovering some new applications for Web 2.0 that I've never heard about before.

The Academy Is...: Summer Hair= Forever Young video