Wordle - Tag Clouds

I really like Wordle! It is so fun to use. And you can pick and choose the colors and fonts you want to use for your tag cloud. Pretty neat huh?

I used the option of using the tags from a blog. I used the School Library Monthly Blog.

Podcasting

I have listened to a lot of podcasts, but I have never made one myself. It's weird listening to myself talk.

I found a cool website that does podcasts about books that could be beneficial for a school library to listen to in order to find new books for the library.The 2011/2012 Isinglass Booktalk Podcasts are pretty cool. It is a real project that Hopkinton High School & Hopkinton Middle School Library students have been part of. 


The website says, "Welcome to our Library's podcast series. We chose Isinglass booktalks because the Isinglass Teen Read Award is such a great project. It is real! Actual 7th & 8th graders (as opposed to their parents, teachers, or their librarians...) nominate the books, read the books, and choose the winner each year. Our hats are off to the Barrington Public Library, Amy Inglis, and the teens who have spearheaded this effort since 2002."


I listened to the booktalk for Matched by Ally Condie. You can listen to it here. I've read the book and agreed with most of what the podcast stated. Overall, I learned that podcasting is a great way to get out information to a lot of people. And it is nice because it is a break from reading. In one of my classes, we got to listen to NPR stories instead of reading. It's nice to have multiple ways to learn about a subject. Plus, with NPR, there is usually a transcription of the story as well as the audio.

I like subscribing to podcasts via iTunes. One of my favorite podcasts I subscribe to is Stuff You Should Know by How Stuff Works. It is all about random facts and I love learning about random things. This podcast also gives you a great way to start conversations with random facts.

YouTube

I really like YouTube (for the most part). I actually posted a holiday song video from YouTube every single day in December on my personal blog (if you want to check it out, let me know). Another video website is Vimeo. It's pretty cool as well.

This video is for "libraries of the future" and even though it's on the long side, it brings up a good point that libraries need to stay on top of technology in order to be successful. It starts with a 1950s movie about libraries and then moves into a parody by Mr. Eugene Oregon. Libraries will still be needed, maybe not for the same use, but are still important.


This video brings me back to my childhood. It's from Arthur and it's pretty funny. But you know, "having fun isn't hard, when you've got a library card!" It's a catchy song.

Twitter

I never thought I would get a Twitter account. I have other social media sites to keep track of, why would I need another one?


After playing around with Twitter for a while, I enjoyed finding libraries, news stations, and TV shows to follow. It's nice to have one place to get updates (it's like Google Reader, but more condensed). I have not started following my friends and family that have Twitter, but I am sure once I get more into "tweeting," I will have more conversations with them via Twitter. It's also nice to keep my profile and tweets private.


Once I got over the fact I didn't want a Twitter account, I found that Twitter isn't that bad. And I actually enjoy reading the headlines and fun facts from my favorite sources.


I think Twitter is a great way for libraries to get information about events or cool news out to huge amounts of people in a very short time. As long as the library has a lot of followers, it can use Twitter for its benefit. I know I would love to know what's going on with libraries and what events are happening at the library.


Tweet Tweet!!!