CPL 2.0: 2010

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Big Wrap Up!

Thank you for participating in CPL 2.0! And thanks to those of you who filled out the survey. We are carefully considering all responses, and will use your feedback if a program like this is offered again.

We have sent the last batch of names to Human Resources to get credit for the training. If you're done but haven't been given credit, you may not have been registered, or your blog URL may not have reached us. Please email Kari (kari.brawn@calgarypubliclibrary.com), and she'll work with you to figure it out.

If you have been given credit, you may choose to delete your blog. To do this:

1) Sign in to your blog.

2) Click the blue "Settings" link near the middle of the page. This will take you to "Basic" settings.

3) At the top of the page, the first option is "Blog Tools." Beside this, there is a link that says "Delete Blog." Click it, and Blogger will ask you to confirm that you want to delete the blog.

You're done! We hope that you had fun and learned some practical skills during CPL 2.0!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Completed Training!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Congratulations and Reflections

Thank you for participating in CPL 2.0. We're delighted to announce that Robyn Lambert from Country Hills is the winner of the iPod Touch!

Some people have been asking about Facebook and privacy. Here are two articles you may be interested in:

This Time magazine article is called "How Facebook is Redefining Privacy," and it includes a link to info on how to delete your Facebook profile:
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1990582-1,00.html

This Mashable article has some privacy tips. Mashable is a great source for web 2.0 and technology information.
http://mashable.com/2010/05/18/facebook-privacy-tips/

For the most current news on Facebook, check Mashable's page here:
http://mashable.com/social-media/facebook/

Are you done? Congratulations!! Send Kari an email when your blog is complete (by July 31). We'll check it out, and you'll get your training credit from HR.

As always, feel free to ask us any questions, or pass on any feedback!

Cheers, Katie and Kari

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Go Riley!

Congratulations to Riley- first branch done!!

Email Kari by midnight Saturday, June 5 to be entered in the draw for the iPod touch.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Wrap-Up

Congratulations!! You've made it to the end of CPL 2.0 Training! We have heard from many libraries that staff members are helping each other out and having fun, and we hope everyone had a similar experience. Right now, there are 327 people participating - way to go, CPL!

This week, you have two simple tasks:

1) When you are completely done, email Kari.Brawn@calgarypubliclibrary.com with your BRANCH OR DEPARTMENT AND NAME. (this link may not work with all logins)

2) Go to the CPL 2.0 Evaluation (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/35W5P7K), and evaluate this training. We are looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

NOTE: If you can't fill out the survey, it's because of cookies. (We are tricking you into learning more here!)

SurveyMonkey doesn't allow a computer to fill out a survey more than once because someone might try to spam us with compliments! It tracks the computers that have responded with "cookies"- a little text file. The easy solution is use another computer. To delete the cookies, see comments section below.

We will be creating another post after June 5th which will list all the pseudonyms or names of people who are done the training. You can check this list to ensure we got your email. Remember - if you complete the training by June 5, you will be entered to win an iPod Touch!!!

But if you need more time, don't worry. You'll have until July 31 to complete all the tasks. As always, just ask if you need any help!

P.S. As another wrap up activity, you may want to tighten your Facebook security measures.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Twitter

What is it?

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/
is a “micro-blogging” site that allows you communicate with people in 140 characters or less. Twitter posts (or “tweets”) sent by people you choose to follow (friends, celebrities, or even strangers) are automatically added to a list of tweets called your “feed. “

1) Go to Twitter and click on “About Us” at the very bottom of the page. Try searching for something that interests you in the search box.

2) Check out some of the following CPL Twitter accounts:

- CPL Teen Zone: https://twitter.com/cplteenzone

- CPL Central: https://twitter.com/CPLCentral

- Country Hills: https://twitter.com/CountryHillsLib

- Fish Creek: https://twitter.com/fishcreeklib

- Shawnessy: https://twitter.com/ShawnessyLib

- Village Square: https://twitter.com/vilsqlibrary

- Community Services: https://twitter.com/LibraryPrograms

3) In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:

• Armed with a bit of knowledge about what Twitter is all about, share your thoughts on this fast growing online phenomenon.

OR

• What kind of information is being posted by the library accounts above? What kind of information should libraries post?

Note: you don't have to sign up to Twitter to complete this exercise.

Monday, May 17, 2010

LibraryThing

What is it?
LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/

is a social media site for book lovers. It allows you to share your book collection, review books, maintain reading lists, and chat with users who have similar tastes in literature.
You can import records from Amazon.com and various national library catalogues (including the National Library of Canada), and tag books with keywords of your choice.

1) Learn a little about this site. Take the LibraryThing tour at:
www.librarything.com/tour

2) Search LibraryThing for your favourite book or a book you’ve read recently. Read a few reviews, and check out the tags and recommended reads.

3) In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:

• Was the site user-friendly? Did you find it difficult to navigate?

OR

• Do you see any practical applications for LibraryThing either at home or at work? Will you start using this site?

OR

• If you already use LibraryThing, what’s your favourite part?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Goodbye Heather, Hello Kari!

As some of you already know, the fabulous Heather Keeling is leaving CPL for the bright lights of Ontario. As such, Heather will obviously no longer be your trainer and troubleshooter extraordinaire.

Heather - thank you for all of your hard work on CPL 2.0!

On a happier note, you have a fabulous new trainer! A big welcome to Kari Brawn, one of the wonderful Librarians at Crowfoot.

If you have questions about the training, you can email Kari Brawn (kari.brawn@calgarypubliclibrary.com).

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Great YouTube Videos

I saw this video about Social Media today, and thought you all might find it interesting since we just finished learning about Facebook!

This isn't an assignment - just a way to further your learning if you're interested. To see the full screen instead of the weird cut off blog video, just right-click and select "Watch on YouTube."

And here's the relevant video from a previous post, in case you missed it.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Online Productivity Tools

What are they?

Online Productivity Tools are applications designed to make your life easier. There are dozens of these tools, and we can’t cover all of them, but most fall into these categories:

Calendars

The most popular is Google Calendar (http://www.google.com/calendar/). Google Calendar can sync to your Outlook calendar at work, which makes it easy to organize your life. You can also share your Google calendar with others.

Yahoo! Calendar (http://www.calendar.yahoo.com), 30 Boxes (http://30boxes.com), and Scrybe (http://iscrybe.com/main/index.php) are other options for online calendars.

Document Preparation

Once again, Google stands out. Google Docs (http://www.docs.google.com) is free and completely web-based, so your documents are available online from any computer. With Google Docs, you can access applications similar to Microsoft’s, including a word processor (Word), a spreadsheet program (Excel), and a presentation tool (PowerPoint).

1) Pick one of the sites mentioned above. Learn more about it through a tour or the “help” function.

2) Create either a calendar or a document online. If you use a Google product, you won’t have to create a new account - you should already have a Google login from your blog!

3) In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:

• Do you see free online tools like these eventually replacing expensive software like MS Office?

OR

• Do you see yourself using these tools or will you stick to more traditional methods. If you were to use one of these tools regularly, which would it be and why?

Monday, May 3, 2010

Flickr & YouTube

What is it?

Flickr (www.flickr.com) and YouTube (www.youtube.com) are two popular social media sites that allow you to post, share, and comment on photos and videos.

Flickr is a Yahoo product that allows users to tag photos (like you tag websites in Delicious). People use Flickr for a variety of reasons:
•    To organize and share photos with family, friends, and the world
•    To search for photos on a certain topic
•    To edit photos

YouTube is for sharing video, rather than photos. This site allows you to upload videos, thus giving the average user an opportunity to reach millions of people for free.

1) Check out Flickr’s website and “Take the Tour" (link is near right side of page). After you’ve learned about what Flickr can do, try searching for photos on topics of interest to you. Search Flickr groups on the same topic. Do you get different results?

2) Go to YouTube and watch a few videos. We suggest:

- Did You Know 4.0 – fascinating information about web 2.0 technologies, including YouTube!
- Dramatic Chipmunk – if you need something short.
- Alberta’s Libraries, Books and Beyond – the award-winning commercials.

3) In your blog, do ONE of the following:

•    Comment on Flickr and YouTube. Were they user-friendly?

OR

•    Comment on the quality, entertainment value, or usefulness of the content on these sites.

Monday, April 26, 2010

RSS

What is it?

Not many people know about RSS, but it's one of the most useful tools we'll learn about. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Basically, an RSS reader will watch blogs or websites for you, and then tell you when they are updated. These updates are called “feeds.” All of the updates / feeds are brought back to a single website for you to read. This saves you time because you don’t have to check lots of websites every day – you can just check your RSS reader.

You can use RSS readers to get feeds about news, weather, jokes, comics, information on hobbies, book reviews, etc.

1) Bloglines is a popular RSS reader. Check out the website at http://www.bloglines.com, and learn a little about the service.

2) Sign up for a Bloglines account. The easiest way to learn about RSS is by using it! Bloglines will suggest some popular feeds that you may want to follow – choose one or two. Try reading one of them through your Bloglines account.

Now go to a website or blog that you regularly visit. Look for a link that says “RSS,” or the orange RSS icon (see image on right).

Here are some examples of sites with RSS feeds:

- CBC Calgary: http://www.cbc.ca/calgary (scroll down - small orange link is in a horizontal line near the middle of the page)
- Mashable: http://mashable.com/ (link in box on right side of page)

To add a feed to Bloglines, you can do one of two things. First, you can click on the link or icon, and add the site to your RSS feeds in Bloglines. When you are signed in, you should automatically get a box that says “Subscribe to this feed using Bloglines.”

BUT the second way is probably easier, especially on work terminals!

Second way: Go to your Bloglines page. There is a link above your feeds, that says “Add.” This will give you a box where you can type the URL (address) of your website. Hit “subscribe,” and Bloglines will automatically check for feeds on that site.

3) In your blog, comment on the following:

• Were you able to successfully set up your RSS feed? If not, where did you run into problems? If you were successful, does this make information-gathering more convenient for you?

Monday, April 19, 2010

Google Universe

What is it?

Everyone knows about Google’s search engine. But did you know that Google has a ton of other products? Go to the Google site and click on “more” at the top. If you click “even more,” you’ll get a full list of Google products.

Google's products are so much fun! There are specialized search engines (like Scholar), an email service (Gmail), a program that lets you edit and share photos (Picasa), and an internet browser (Google Chrome).

You may have used Google Maps, but have you tried Google Earth? Google Earth lets you zoom in and examine virtually any place in the world, sometimes seeing landmarks in incredible detail. You can also view oceans (including shipwrecks) or Mars, and take a guided tour of the moon!

1) Go to the list of all the Google products (go to google.ca, then click “more” at the top, and “even more” in the drop-down list). Choose one or two products that interest you, and click on them to find out more. Try clicking on “labs” to see what Google is working on right now. Some of these labs will become products and others won’t.

2) Try out one of the Google programs or services, and write a brief blog post reviewing it.

3) In your blog, comment on the following:

• What do you like about the Google product? What do you dislike? Would you recommend the product to friends and colleagues?

Monday, April 12, 2010

Social Networking

What is it?

Social networking sites allow users to connect with friends online. The most popular sites are Facebook and MySpace.

On these sites, users create a profile with personal information and a picture. Privacy settings can be used to protect this information. Users then add each other to their “friends list.”

On MySpace, once you are someone’s friend, you are notified when they update their blog. On Facebook, you are notified when your friends update their status (what they are doing or feeling), when your friends write on your “wall” (message board), and when your friends invite you to play games or take quizzes within Facebook. On both sites, you can share pictures, video, links, and music with your friends.

Step 1

Go to the Facebook website (http://www.facebook.com) and click the “About” link at the bottom of the page. This will take you to Facebook’s profile for themselves. This gives you an idea of what a profile looks like. Note the wall (message board area) and the “Info” and “Photo” tabs at the top.

Step 2

Sign up for a Facebook account. Add as much or as little information as you like, and adjust your privacy level (go to “Account” and then “Privacy Settings”). Become a fan of CPL on Facebook: search for “Calgary Public Library” in the search box at the top. Click on “Become a Fan” at the top of the page. Comment on one of the notes or photos, or write something on the wall!

In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:

• Why do you think social networking sites are so popular? What are the main appeal factors?

OR

• For you, is Facebook useful or a time-waster?

Please note that for those of you that already have an existing Facebook account, please feel free to use that account.

~Heather & Katie

Monday, April 5, 2010

Wikipedia

What is it?

A wiki is a website that’s developed collaboratively by a group of users. It can be edited by anyone. The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org). Wikipedia is the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the world with over 13 million articles on every conceivable topic. It’s currently the most popular reference site on the Internet.

Step 1

Explore Wikipedia to get a feel for the site. Click on the language of your choice. Click on “About Wikipedia” (in the column on the left, under "interaction"). Read a little about it.

Try looking up a few topics to get an idea of the scope of Wikipedia. This is a great resource for learning about pop culture, and for very recent updates. However, it is not very reliable because anyone can edit the articles.

Step 2

Find a Wikipedia article in an area where you have a strong interest or expertise. It can be an article on anything – your branch of CPL, your favourite author or movie, gardening, etc. Read the article and edit a section that you feel is poorly written or factually incorrect. Your editing doesn’t have to be extensive - you can change facts, grammar, anything at all.

You may want to create an account to edit in Wikipedia, but you don't have to. You can edit articles without an account.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even write your own article on a topic that Wikipedia doesn’t yet cover!

Step 3

In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:

• How easy or difficult was it to find articles that needed editing? Were the errors you found factual or grammar / spelling?

OR

• Were you able to find a topic obscure enough that Wikipedia doesn’t cover it? If so, congratulations! If you managed to publish an article, comment on the process.

Note:

Katie is out of town this week. If you have questions for us, please email Heather at heather.keeling@calgarypubliclibrary.com.

Have fun!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Delicious

What is it?

Delicious (http://delicious.com/) is a “social bookmarking” site. Basically, social bookmarking is the process of tagging, organizing, and sharing content on the Internet.

It’s similar to the “favourites” list on Internet browsers, except bookmarks that are saved using Delicious are accessible from any computer. Because of this, you can share "social bookmarks" with people all over the world.

With Delicious, you can also “tag” bookmarks, which means you can describe them using your own words.

Here's your three-step assignment for the week. Remember to post your answer to the reflection question on your blog - no need to email your response.

1) Explore the Best Websites on Delicious (http://delicious.com/CALGARYPUBLICLIBRARYFAVORITES). Experiment with the display options: you can sort the bookmarks in lots of ways, or display more on each page.

Note: To change the display options, click the “display options” link. There’s a grey bar near the top of the page – on the right side, it says “Bookmarks 482.” Right under that is the “display options” link. If you click this link, it gives you options for sorting and displaying the bookmarks on the Best Websites.

Think about reference topics you deal with often. Try searching for relevant sites by using the tags and tag bundles displayed on the right side of the page. Get as comfortable and familiar with the site as you can!

2) Check out some of the staff blogs on the CPL 2.0 Delicious site! (http://delicious.com/cpl20) These are the blogs that your colleagues are working on. Does someone have a question you can answer, or an experience you can identify with?

3) In your blog, comment on ONE of the following:

• What are the advantages of storing, sharing, and tagging web content this way? What are the disadvantages?

OR

• How comfortable are you using Best Websites, after this practice? Do you have any tips for using Best Websites on Delicious?

CPL 2.0

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