Web 2.0 Training: Lesson 7 - Social Networking and Facebook

Finally! The Arlington Heights Memorial Library has added Lesson 7 of 13 on their Baker's Dozen Blog for staff training in Web 2.0 applications.

As you may recall, the last Web 2.0 lesson was on Web-based music programs such as Pandora. I have enjoyed my Pandora Radio stations where I can customize the kinds of music that I want to hear. I don't have to download, just listen. If a song comes along that I don't like, I just click a thumbs-down and it goes away! I'd sure like to do that on the radio in my car sometimes! I hope you have checked it out.

Lesson 7 is on Social Networking and specifically, Facebook as a social networking tool. Most of you realize that I have a Facebook account already. I joined about a year ago and today I have 183 folks I call my FB Friends. Some are my friends in real life that I see every day - like Wende and Curtis Holtzen. Some are old friends I knew in college, high school, or even junior high! I have some FB friends that I used to work with and some of my FB friends are family. I am FB friends with John Rowe, Gary Tiffin, and Tyrone Wells (and I'm a FB fan of his). I am also FB friends with a number of former Library employees like Caleb Acton, Hana Kim, John Davies, Krystal Harris, Solange Christmas, Kevin (& Ina) Thomas, Jason Hensley, Jennifer (Hensley) Prest, Dionne (Glenn) Sincire, Allison (White) Mangrum, Allison (Otey) Goldsworthy, and others.

Why? Well, truth be told, the first reason I wanted a Facebook account was to be friends with my daughter. I can see her friends and some of the interactions between them on FB. Then, I went to a workshop at Pepperdine last May where I heard a presentation on the use of Facebook by libraries and librarians -- including a history of FB and some tips & tricks, and dos & don'ts. I wanted to also keep up on the current generation of communication tools. As you know, our students come to us with a new set of communication technologies almost with every four years. Their expectations for access to information evolve quickly. I feel we need to be prepared and not caught off guard as we plan for future generations.

So, here's our Lessson 7 assignment:

1. Read AHML's Lesson 7: Social Networking and Facebook on their blog. (You do NOT have to create a Facebook account or become a fan of their library as they require of their staff, but see #4 and 5 below.)
2. Read at least the first page introduction to the article "How Facebook Works" by Jonathan Strickland on HowStuffWorks.com.
3. Watch the YouTube video on Social Networking in Plain English (It's 1:48 min. and SO easy to understand!)
4. If you have a Facebook account already, you must send me a message on Facebook telling me what you think of this lesson.
5. If you do not have a Facebook account, I will not require you to create one. But you must have someone who has one give you a five-minute tour of their account and then have them send me a message on Facebook telling me you have completed the tour... or you can take a tour of mine. Besides me, here are some people in the library who have a Facebook account: Nicky, Terri, Bethann, and probably every student Library Assistant.

Have fun. Let me know if you have any questions.

Web 2.0 Training - Lesson 6: Music 2.0 Style

This is an optional assignment.

Go to Baker's Dozen blog, Lesson 6: Music 2.0 Style. Read the post and do the 3-step assignment if you choose. However, when you get to step 3, make a comment about it on our blog instead of theirs.

Your assignment (if you choose to accept it):
1. Create a Pandora account.
2. Create your own "station".
3. Share what you think about Pandora by "commenting" on this blog post.

I'll be learning along with everyone on this one.

Web 2.0 Training - Lesson 5: YouTube

Go to Baker's Dozen Lesson 5: YouTube then come back here for your assignment.

Assignment Modification:
Their assignment requires their staff to create a YouTube account. However, I don't think you need to create a YouTube account to prove you know how it works well enough for our purposes -- but you can do it for extra credit! :-)

But please do:
1) Search for and find 3 videos on your topic of interest
(Joe, Did you know there are hundreds of videos on watching trains? Just search for "railfanning" and you get over 15,000 hits - over 200 just in Fullerton!)
2) "Share" each one on your del.icio.us account and tag it.
3) Then "Share" them with one of your co-workers by email - use the "Send Video" option.
4) Please share one with me so I know you've done it.

Have fun! Any comments?

Web 2.0 Training - Lesson 4: del.icio.us and Social Bookmarking

Go to the Bakers Dozen Lesson 4: del.icio.us and Social Bookmarking. There is no modification of the lesson or assignment. Follow the directions on their blog.

In case the video on Social Bookmarking in Plain English is not there, you can use this link and watch it on YouTube instead.

You guys are my favorite lifelong learners... and great sports!
Thanks!

Web 2.0 Training - Lesson 3: LibraryThing

Go to the LibraryThing Lesson in Bakers Dozen. There is no modification of the assignemnt.

FYI - Terri has a LibraryThing account she has expanded beyond the 200 free entries. You might ask her about it. She even posted about LibraryThing on our Darling Library News & Events blog in May this year. If you had been subscribing to it back then, you'd know that! :-)

Web 2.0 Training - Lesson 2: RSS and Feedreaders

Go to the Bakers Dozen Lesson 2: RSS and Feedreaders

When you get to the video, come back here and click on the link below. (Their video was no longer there when I tried it.)

See the Video: RSS in Plain English (3:44 min.)

Your assignment:

1. Register for a free Bloglines account.

2. Find and subscribe to a minimum of 5 feeds. (You can always unsubscribe afterwards.)

Hint: Use Bloglines’ search box to find feeds. You’ll need to change the default "Search for Posts" to "Search for Feeds." Then try to find feeds for your favorite news outlets such as CNN, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, etc. Once, you find a feed that you like, click on "Subscribe to feed."

And guess what? You can even find and subscribe to the Baker’s Dozen blog and the Darling Library News & Events in your Bloglines account. If you watched the video on RSS Feeds in Plain English, you will know the first step is to sign up for an RSS Reader (i.e., Bloglines) and then go to your favorite sites (i.e., Darling Library News & Events). Look for the orange icon in the right column. Then you will be given a choice to subscribe with Bloglines. Click on the Bloglines icon or choose it from the dropdown menu... scroll to the bottom and click the Subscribe button. Done!

Also I recommend the Blogs in Plain English (2:58 min.) as an excellent explanation of blogs from the same guys that brought you RSS in Plain English.

Web 2.0 Training - Lesson 1: Blogs

From Baker’s Dozen: 13 Web 2.0 Technologies (http://community.ahml.info/bakersdozen/)

Guess what! We're starting an in-house training program on Web 2.0. If you're like me you've heard of it, but don't know what all it entails. I'm preparing to do a presentation on it to the PCC faculty in October so I was looking at it more in depth. I think we all should at least be familiar with it and since another library has done a training program on it for their staff, I'm going to ask that you all complete the training too. It's called Baker’s Dozen: 13 Web 2.0 Technologies and is written for the Alington Heights Memorial Library staff. It looks like they put lessons up once a month and each lesson has an assignment. The first 5 lessons are available now:

1. Blogs
2. RSS and Feedreaders
3. LibraryThing
4. del.icio.us and Social Bookmarking
5. YouTube

This means we should finish up the 13th lesson in May 2009 but we're 5 lessons behind so we need to catch up! (It's not urgent to get "caught up," but I will ask you about it during the performance reviews in January or February.)

The first lesson on Blogs is pretty elementary but I think we'll go ahead and follow their lesson plan anyway except... This is your first assignment:

Read the lesson but where it says to make a comment on that blog don’t do it! Instead add a comment to our blog here:

• Scroll down to the bottom of this entry and click on the "comments" link. You’ll then see text that says "Leave your comment" as well as a large box that you can type text in.


• Enter your comment and push the orange "Publish Your Comment" button.

If you have a Blogger account (I think most of you do) then you will be asked if you want to use that identity or not. I'm not sure, but I don't think you will be able to publish a comment on our blog unless you do have an account because we don't allow anonymous comments to our staff blog.