Thing 14

Lulu.com, the1st place winner for the book category of the  2008 Web 2.0 awards, is a great resource for self-publishing. Pdf files of documents can be designed in a separate program, for example, InDesign, and then uploaded to Lulu and made available for order online. Many writers choose to self-publish in this way, as it allows consumers to buy their books one-at-a-time. This way, the writer does not need to order a large number of printed books up front and be unable to sell them. Lulu is also used by many online literary journals who wish to have a printed option.

Thing 13

Google Docs has been invaluable to me as student. It is a great resource for students who are working on collaborative projects and need to produce a single document together. While it is hard to compose documents in Google Docs as there can be a lengthy delay between hitting keys and the letters actually appearing on the screen, it is quite simple to compose documents in Word and copy them into Google Docs to be shared.

Thing 12

The customized search engine could work beautifully for job searching, pet finding, apartment hunting, etc. Perhaps there a few sites you find dependable and frequent often. This is a great way to combine all of these similar sites and search them all at once. For my search roll, I combined various sites for library job postings. If you are searching for postings in a particular state or city, this is an easy way to narrow down your search over multiple sites.

Thing 11

This will be, by far, the easiest 'thing' for me! I already have both a goodreads and a Library Thing account. I am no longer active on Library Thing, because goodreads is such a great alternative. Library Thing does not seem to have enough server space to accomadate the high volume of users. Goodreads, on the other hand, is fast, user-friendly, and much more involved. Goodreads has also become a social networking tool for authors. Authors can maintain their own pages, make blog posts, promote their books, etc.

Thing 10

Web 2.0 and its library counterpart Library 2.0, are nearly out-dated in their significance. Articles from 2006 about the changing world of libraries, are, quite obviously, five years old. Since 2006, the world has changed, the United States has changed. Budgets are disintegrating, cutting funding to libraries everywhere. Rick Anderson's article seems the most relevant to the situation libraries face today, especially the idea of having a popular materials library. This fits with present day budget concerns.

Thing 9

Of the resources listed on the 23 things blog, I found Technorati to be the most user-friendly. The other sites had pop-ups, were under construction, or simply had a design that did not benefit someone new to RSS feeds. I first ventured to search for "library", but the results were very far-flung. Next, I searched for "library funding", and the results were much more specific and relevant to my search. Here's one result.

When searching on my own, however, I did find an RSS feed search engine that seems to pull from more sources than Technorati, the simply-designed RSS Micro. Searching for "library funding" on this site produced at least twice as many results.

Thing 8

While I do enjoy trolling websites daily, I can see how RSS feeds provide a much simpler navigation stream. No more favorites bar. I do not see myself using RSS feeds, but, as I said, I can see how this technology leads to a very simple way to subscribe to a website. I enjoy websites as complete experiences. I enjoy the atmosphere of a website, which is about much more than content. Libraries, on the otherhand, can do nothing but benefit from this. Librarians can subcribe to blog feeds for readers advisory, and library sites can make themselves more user friendly.