I have heard from many of you that you are very much enjoying the Rosetta Stone product which is available with your Arapahoe Library District card. Language learning is a popular subject, whether you are travelling or using it as a school resource. We were not happy to report its demise effective June 30, 2008 but the company changed its distribution methods which means that you would no longer be able to access Rosetta Stone from your home computer.
I am happy to convey that we have found another product, Tell Me More from Auralog, which we hope to have in place July 1, 2008. Also featuring language learning online through your computer remotely, I hope this product meets your needs.
Please let me know if you have concerns or questions.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
More Library 2.0
As of this writing, there is nothing new happening with website updates to report. We have posted the rfp for website designers and should know more a month from now.
So this post will delve more into the 2.0 world as it relates to that which we all love - books! You've probably heard about librarything - a site for people to catalog their books, talk about their books, tag their books and share their books. It is very popular and keeps growing its features. It is a fun project to watch as we librarians play with the features and discuss how libraries should be more interactive. Would you like to enter your own subject headings for things you've read? If I tagged something "civil war historical fiction" does it make more sense than remembering the official subject heading is United States - History - Civil War. 1861-1865 - Fiction?
Another product that I've been playing with is Shelfari - something similar to librarything as far as community for sharing and remembering books. I can post my own comments, tags, and retrieve the book cover to put on my own bookcase (disclaimer: I just started entering titles and those on the bookshelf were only those I could recall at the moment!).
Do you have an account with librarything or shelfari? Care to share your story about it? Do you interact with it? Use it regularly? It is, indeed, an interactive world if you're using tools such as these.
So this post will delve more into the 2.0 world as it relates to that which we all love - books! You've probably heard about librarything - a site for people to catalog their books, talk about their books, tag their books and share their books. It is very popular and keeps growing its features. It is a fun project to watch as we librarians play with the features and discuss how libraries should be more interactive. Would you like to enter your own subject headings for things you've read? If I tagged something "civil war historical fiction" does it make more sense than remembering the official subject heading is United States - History - Civil War. 1861-1865 - Fiction?
Another product that I've been playing with is Shelfari - something similar to librarything as far as community for sharing and remembering books. I can post my own comments, tags, and retrieve the book cover to put on my own bookcase (disclaimer: I just started entering titles and those on the bookshelf were only those I could recall at the moment!).
Do you have an account with librarything or shelfari? Care to share your story about it? Do you interact with it? Use it regularly? It is, indeed, an interactive world if you're using tools such as these.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Library 2.0
In the library world we tend to throw our jargon around with expectations of understanding. We say "periodicals" instead of "magazines" and we say "reference" instead of "books that don't check out" and we say "juvenile" instead of "childrens." I hope we are doing better but please let us know when you run across terms and phrases which have no meaning for you - it means we need to do better!
The term "2.0", however, is not really library jargon. It refers more generally to the phase of the internet when it became more interactive. If you remember way back when (and I'm giving my age away!) we used the internet to read and to learn cool stuff but it was never to respond back to anything. Now, technology has made the internet interactive. We can blog and have conversations, look at photos online, watch videos and comment, too. There's even talk about web 3.0 but that's a different blog post altogether!
The reason for mentioning 2.0 is to let you know that we will be incorporating elements of interactivity in the redesign. To get a preview, visit the teensite where you will see comments on various materials and programs being made by the public. Our hope is to make the website a community centered around great reading and great interaction!
The term "2.0", however, is not really library jargon. It refers more generally to the phase of the internet when it became more interactive. If you remember way back when (and I'm giving my age away!) we used the internet to read and to learn cool stuff but it was never to respond back to anything. Now, technology has made the internet interactive. We can blog and have conversations, look at photos online, watch videos and comment, too. There's even talk about web 3.0 but that's a different blog post altogether!
The reason for mentioning 2.0 is to let you know that we will be incorporating elements of interactivity in the redesign. To get a preview, visit the teensite where you will see comments on various materials and programs being made by the public. Our hope is to make the website a community centered around great reading and great interaction!
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