Week 9

Thing 20: It is an understatement to say, YouTube is huge. I noticed that many of the videos posted on YouTube are also posted on the other video sites. A lot of cross-posting going on here.

The idea behind the sites is interesting: give everyone a place to have fun, to be creative and display an idea, however quirky or silly or serious it may be. The participatory nature of the site is its value.

Thing 21: Search tools for podcasts: There are so many different search tools for podcasts that it would be impossible to review them all. I would suggest simply googling podcast search tools. This will bring up pages and pages to choose from.

Thing 22: Downloadable audiobooks: I took a look at one of the sample audiobooks on the Overdrive site. The client was pretty good--easy to download and setup, and then easy to use. It did seem to be a waste of computing power, but I didn't have a portable e-book device to use so I was unable to get the full and real experience of an audiobook. I do expect this to be one of the faster growing sectors of accessing books..., and I also hope that vendors will open their standards so that multiple formats can be supported.

I also took a look at the Project Gutenberg site. This is a great site, but their collection of audiobooks is still very limited. Of course, converting a book into audio format is time-consuming and difficult. Not just anyone can read/record a book--it takes a special person, one who can speak clearly and with inflection.

Thing 23: Summary: This "23 Things to Learn" is a good and well-placed step forward toward helping librarians and staff learn the basics of how technology is used in society today. In my view, this represents what should be the first of many, continuing steps that expand our understanding of what we must do to continue to meet the challenges patrons present us. This is a very good first step. Nice work!