Potluck #50: Global Nation

The two websites I found to be most helpful were tripbase.com and igougo.com. I thought tripbase was very accurate. I put in my trip interests and it recommended several cities that I would love to go to like New York and San Francisco. I decided to go with San Francisco and I found igougo.com very helpful in planning my dream vacation. On Igougo.com I was able to find information about the many attractions the city has to offer, like Alcatraz, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, and Lombard Street. I would also like to visit the city's diverse neighborhoods like Nob Hill, the Mission District, the Haight, Noe Valley and North Beach. While I was there I would also have to include a stop at the famous City Lights Bookstore. San Francisco is known for its great restaurants. I was able to find lots of information and reviews on igougo.com about San Francisco many great restaurants. San Francisco has restaurants owned by many celebrity chefs like Wolgang Puck's Postrio and Michael Mina. Both tripbase.com and igougo.com were very helpful in planning my dream San Francisco vacation. I would definetly use these sites again.

Spring Cleaning #30: Take a Load Off Our Drives

For this excercise, I looked at the three different drives. I am familiar with all of them. I have used the S: drive before to look at photos of events that get placed there for everyone to see. So I am familiar with how to use it. I do not have to create alot of documents for my job. We mostly have templates and communal files that we all use to make our labels, barcodes, etc. There were not any files that I personally needed to delete. I do not have many personal documents saved.

Spring Cleaning #29: Email

I went through my work email and deleted all the old emails that I do not need anymore. I also moved the ones that I want to keep into folders. I created several folders so, that when I get emails I can delete them if I don't need it, or if it is something I need to keep I can put it in its appropriate folder. Now my email is much more organized and it is easier to find an email when I need it. I think that this will be very effective way to keep my email organized.

Spring Cleaning #28: Don’t Clutter Up Expensive Cyberspace

I read the article about GTD on wikipedia and it is a very simple method to staying organized. The basic principles of GTD: collect, process, organize, review, and do is very similar to how I stay organized. I have a monthly planner that I keep on my desk and I write down all the things I need to accomplish. This way I have everything in one place and I can see at a glance what I need to get done. I looked at google calendar and I thought it was very easy to use. However, I am not always in front of a computer, so I think that the best organizational method for me is the one I am using now.

Week 10: #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

There were several components of this training that I enjoyed. I really liked the library elf and library thing. I think these are two sites that I would continue to use. I also was really happy that I had the opportunity to learn more about photo sharing, because that is something I was interested in learning more about. I also liked that the fact that this was a collaborative effort. Everyone got together and helped each other out, and I think it was a good bonding experience for the staff. It was really interesting to look at other peoples blogs. I came into this whole experience in the middle of it and it was a good way for me to get to know all my new coworkers. I would definetly be interested in continuing this training. I think that this experience was good for everyone because it gave us an opportunity to learn about things that we might never have done without iHCPL. I think the next step now is just to take it to the next level. I would interesting in applying the things I learned and doing more advanced applications. I think that the program was a great success and I am really happy that I completed it.

Week 9: #22 Downloadable Media

I think that compared with the other sites I looked at the HCPL site is really good. I like that we have this available for people that want to use it. As far as I am concerned I really don't see the point of eBooks. I would not check one of these out. When I read a book, I don't want to have to stare at the computer screen for a long time. However, I did like the fact that there are music and movies on the HCPL site, that is really cool. I had actually never looked at the overdrive site before and I am glad I did because I do think it is a good thing, that we have this avaible for our customers. We had a lot of really good items on the site for people to use, so I think it is good. I am just not sure how much I would actually use this sort of thing, especially since I use a Mac at home, and according to the site its not compatible with Macs or iPods. Which I think is definetly a disadvantage because so many people have iPods now.

Week 9: #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I was familiar with podcasts before starting this excercise. I already had the new york times book review in my bloglines account. I subscribed to a podcast about Las Vegas tourism, since I am going there next month. I used podcastalley.com and I thought it was really good. the site allowed you to browse for podcast based on subject, and they had thousands of entries. If you are looking for a podcast and you don't have itunes the I think this is a good site to visit. I think podcasts are very useful, because they are easy to make and anyone with a computer can access them. I think podcasts are going to become more and more popular. I heard alot about colleges used podcasts in classes, which I think is a great option for students. I took several online classes when I was in college, and I think I would have taken advantage of a class that used podcasts, if it had been available to me.