Weeks 11 & 12: Wrap - Up

Congratulations on making it to the final weeks of Adventures in Technology! While we have some closing thoughts included below, we’re going to take it easy on you for the next few weeks and give you some time to catch up and finish up your AIT stuff.
Be sure to take a look at the video and info below. If you have any questions about anything , be sure to contact us - we’re happy to help!

Wrapping Up
In Week 1 we started things off by having you watch a video about Web 2.0. The video’s creator, Michael Wesch, recently created another video entitled Information R/evolution. Play the video below to see his latest installment.



The world is changing! And it’s changing fast. We need to be willing to take a look at what we’re doing and re-frame things in light of what’s happening around us. Will every tool we’ve shared with you be something you want to use at your library? No. But we hope you’ll be more willing to play with new tools when you discover them and more open to how they might the library solve a problem.
We also hope that you’ll use at least one new tool and come up with some ideas to share with the Emerging Technologies team to invite our patrons to share their thoughts about the Racine Public Library. People expect to be able to participate when they visit online services. By providing opportunities for patrons to interact with our services, to let us know what they think, we show them that we value them and want to provide the best service possible. Take a look at David Lee King’s post, Valuing Users by Allowing Comments. He does a great job of talking about why inviting participation is so important.

Besides using these tools to communicate with the community, we might consider using them to find out what your community is saying about the library. Our patrons might be blogging about their library experiences, and it is important for you to know what they’re saying. Do a Google or Technorati search once in a while to get a reading on what people think about what you’re offering and how your services are being received. And then take it a step further - if you find something, add a comment to the post! It shows that you’re out there and willing to start a conversation.

Our Favorite Blog Posts
We have enjoyed reading your blogs and appreciate the thought and time you put into creating your posts. We hope that you'll continue sharing exploring new technologies and sharing your insights either via your blog or through email or face-to-face communication with the Emerging Technology Team. There's a lot out there and we can't do it without you.

The Last Assignment
Your last assignment for Semester 1 of Adventures in Technology is to reflect on your experience with the Adventure so far. Have you started using any of the tools we shared, personally or at work? What was your favorite week and why? Do you think you’ll continue with the 2nd semester? Let us know what you thought about the process and how it has (or hasn’t) affected you. We'll take your feedback and incorporate it into how we proceed with Semester 2. We also need to know which of the incentives you would like to receive, so remember to include that in your final posting. Semester 2 begins September 8, 2008 so sign up today!

Fun Extras
We couldn’t resist including additional tools that we like but didn’t have time to cover. Take a look when you have a minute or two and play at will!

Relaytor
“Email your messages, files and polls in seconds to query your friends and get the results and comments aggregated automatically for you!”

I can has cheezburger
A blog of LOLcats (or, basically a bunch of pictures of animals with funny captions)

Western Springs History
Not a tool, but an interesting use of a blog from the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. They’ve posted historical pictures of houses to a blog and given people the ability to comment on the pictures. Thomas Ford Memorial Library also has created a newspaper obituary index with a blog.