Week 15 #20 Online Productivity Tools

Take a look at online productivity tools (word processing, spreadsheets, and more)
One major benefit to web-based applications is that they eliminate the need to worry about different software versions or file types as you email documents or move from PC to PC. Another bonus is that they easily accommodate collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit the same file (with versioning) and provide users the ability to easily save and convert documents as multiple file types (including HTML and pdf). And, you can even use many of these tools, such as Zoho Writer and Google Docs (Formerly known as Writely) to author and publish posts to your blog. It’s this type of integration with other Web 2.0 tools that also makes web-based apps so appealing. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at a web-based word processing tool called Zoho Writer, create a simple document and then document your discoveries in your blog. If you are up to the challenge, you might even export your document as an HTML file or publish it through Zoho to your blog. With Zoho and web-based applications, the possibilities are endless. This document is authored and published online using Zoho Writer.Discovery Exercise:1. Create a free account for yourself in Zoho Writer2. Explore the site and create a test document or two.3. Try out Zoho Writer’s features and create a blog post about your discoveries.Optional: If you’re up for the challenge, try using Zoho’s publish options to post to your blog.* Note: You can also explore Google Docs (formerly known as Writely), Google's online word processing, as an option for this exercise. FYI: On Oct 11th, 2006, Google re-launched Writely (which it acquired in Spring 2006) as Google Docs.BTW: Here’s a Zoho-created document (viewable as a webpage) about some of the beneficial features of Zoho.Discovery Resources:A short list of web-based productivity applications – Note: This list was authored in ZohoWriter and exported as HTML.Connections:
Idea #1: Challenge your colleagues to count all the books in their house (not including cook books.) Have them sort them by type (fiction/nonfiction, mystery, sports, subject, size, color -- their choice) and list these on a spreadsheet. [Note: you may want to limit the books to 200.]
Don't forget to write a comment on this blog about your thoughts experience in using these tools.

Week 14 # 19 World Cat & NZ Libraries Catalogue

WORLDCAT
WorldCat is the world's most comprehensive bibliographic database. Updated at a rate of nearly one new record every 10 seconds, WorldCat contains more than 100,017,500 bibliographic records and 1,256,923,495 holdings contributed by more than 9,000 libraries around the world.See the latest WorldCat record here

New Zealand Libraries Catalogue
When the Catalogue went live some of the larger library management systems had already been successfully ‘deep-linked’ from the Catalogue to individual library catalogues. The library holding s in the tepuna search when clicking on library symbol now link to the home catalogue to enable you to straight away see if it is available. Check It Out!
http://nzlc.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=first

Week 13 #18 Ning & Web 2.0

Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list OR Ning and write a blog post about your findings. Do you thing Ning is useful?

Week 12 # 17 Twitter

Sign up for a Twitter account. Track your activities using Twitter for a few days. How might Twitter be useful linked on a library website? Don't forget to blog it.
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Possibilities for Libraries quick reference exchange among staff and different Libraries, Reference intereview, for Reference Librarians to communicate with each other?
What do you think?