Reflections

I learned quite a few things from participating in Sno-Isle's Web 2.0. Although I had heard of or had personal experience with some of the applications, there was always something new to learn.
The only improvement I would make on "discovery program" is to have more interaction with other staff members about their experiences. I didn't get very many comments on my blogs and it was interesting to see that I got 2 comments from random bloggers outside of Sno-Isle!
Thanks to the Web 2.0 team for an educational experience!

Gaming

Online gaming is not something that is new to me. Kids that come into libraries love to play games on the public computers! Coming from a public library in California to the Snohomish Library, there is a vast difference of how many kids play games. At the library in California, there were tons of kids playing various games from Habbo to Runescape pretty much all day. This led to a problem of computers being unavailable for research and/or adults that wanted to use them. As a result, timers were installed on these computers, but these tech savvy kids found a way to bypass that timer! The IT guys had to come up with another way to prevent the kids from bypassing that timer!
Gaming doesn't seem to be as prevalent at the Snohomish Library. It is interesting to see the difference of how young kids are using libraries in different states. It is possible that more of the kids that came to the library in California were latchkey kids because the use of computers for online gaming seemed to increase in the summer. Parents would drop their kids off at the library while they went to work, leaving these kids at the library all day.
Regardless, online gaming is a trend that seems to be popular with young kids today, and even for some adults that are kids at heart!

Google Earth

Google Earth is a pretty fascinating tool, but I'm not sure how useful it will be at the reference desk. Although they do have driving directions, it doesn't give street by street directions like GoogleMaps or Mapquest. It was neat looking up my place and my parents' places and you can even see the cars parked on that street! Neat tool by Google.

Second Life

Creating an avatar can allow us to experiment with the alternate version of oursleves -- the one we desire to be. Second Life allows us to live vicarously through our avatar. Nobody knows who we really are, so we take risks in Second Life. I have never actually experimented with Second Life, but it seems like a really neat thing. I'm not sure if I will ever live in Second Life because it seems to take up a lot of time -- something I don't have. It is great that a lot of libraries are starting to become aware of the power of technology to reach out to patrons, therefore creating a community within Second Life.

Online Sharing

The concept of online web applications is new to me. I love the idea of being able to share and have access to Office documents online. This makes life easier by eliminating the need to send attachments back and forth and having to wait for the other person to respond with changes. I read some of the Google Docs comments on the "read user examples," and some users have come up with clever ways to incorporate Google Docs. For example, the Red Sox season ticket holder created a spreadsheet of available tickets allowing his friends to access it to claim their dates. A "Fever Pitch" style of distributing these tickets would have been more fun, but this works. I am even further impressed by the options that Zoho offers, such as online invoicing and web conferencing. Zoho would be a great asset to local businesses. While the Snohomish Library offers classes on basic internet and email, they could expand their classes to teaching patrons how to set up and use Google Docs or Zoho to their advantage.
While these applications are great, I have a few complaints about these programs. One is that the graphic and font options are limited on both Google Docs and Zoho. I created a PowerPoint presentation on Google Docs, but I am limited to a few font styles and background. The same goes for Word documents. I understand that these are still new concepts, with Google Docs being in the beta stage. I guess it will take some time before its kinks are worked out, but I am now a fan of online web applications.

Meta-search Engines

Rollyo - I'm not sure how reliable this would be working at the Reference desk. It is a neat feature to be able to customize your personal search engine to search specific websites. I found some of the categories provided a little odd, such as Nintendo Cheats (for a kid that is looking for cheat codes for a specific game) or Angelina Jolie (I guess this could be used for somebody doing a biography report). I would "roll my own" search engine, selecting websites that I feel are helpful and credible.

Mamma - Using this search engine is a possibility for me. I would have to play around with it a little more to see if it is retrieving the search results that I want within the first few pages.

Dogpile - I remember being introduced to Dogpile while I was in Library school, but never got in the habit of using it. This is another possible meta-search engine that I might use. The interface seems more user-friendly than the other two, so if I were to use a meta-search engine, I'd most likely use this one.

Plus, you can't beat that cute dog.

I'm a huge Google user, so it would take a lot to lure me away from that site. If Google doesn't work out for one of my searches (like this will happen...), then I will resort to one of these meta-search engines.

Podcasting

I am a little familiar with podcasts, but I was not aware of how libraries could use podcasts to their advantage until I worked for Sno-Isle. Last year, several librarians were asked to participate in the Sno-Isle pocasts for children by volunteering to read a children's book. These audio books are available to anybody with internet access. The library I previously worked at had a "dial-a-story" in which parents could call and hear a story being read. That format probably works in that library because a reasonable percentage of people in that community did not have access to the internet at home. Pocasting children's stories is the most likely option to better serve the residents of Snohomish.
I checked out several public library podcasts and found them to be interesting. Worthingon Libraries' "Programs to Go" podcasts feature songs and flannel board stories from storytimes. The Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County has a "Readers Club" podcast which contains booklists, reviews and author spotlights. San Mateo High School has gotten hands on with allowing their students to booktalk a book.
The options in which libraries can use podcasts to reach out to their patrons are limitless. However, it is a matter of patrons being able to latch onto this trend. This may be worth a shot in experimenting with, here at Sno-Isle.