I think the most interesting thing about Technorati is not how easy it is to search for blogs (very), but the sheer number of blogs involved. Does everyone now have their own blog? How many of these blogs actually have something worthwhile to say? How many blogs have anyone reading them? (not this one anyway!) I did find some library related blogs that I can see myself coming back to in the future, particularly a couple of storytime/programming ones.

RSS Feeds - I subscribed to a variety of news and library/literary feeds. I really like the idea of the RSS Feeds and can definitely see how this could be a time saving device. For the purpose of using this technology for the library, I mainly envision this to be a part of professional development. I can subscribe to Library Blogs, book reviews, tech news, etc.

Downloadable audiobooks - I took the training for this thing at Central a couple of months ago, so I was already familiar with the system. The book I chose did download much faster than at the training - a couple of minutes versus a couple of hours - so I hope that trend continues. I did however spend a lot of time trying to find a book to check out. I think I tried 8 or 9 titles before I found one that wasn't already checked out! Hopefully all of these titles will be checked back in before the library takes this program public!

Podcasting - I tried to use a couple of the podcast directories, but found many out of date and inactive sites. I finally used the NPR directory and found Nancy Pearl's podcasts. I always enjoy her recommendations, but rarely listen to the radio anymore so it was a nice treat to find them on the podcasts. I listened to her most recent podcast about science fiction/fantasy books (a genre I know next to nothing about) and found a couple of good picks I could recommend. Of all the tools we have explored so far, I think that podcasts are something I would be most likely to utilize in the future.

YouTube - What I disliked was all of the nudity/prostitutes/porn/etc. Definitely NOT a site I'm excited about my young children finding. But, I love all of the flashbacks to my childhood. My children have recently discovered the Electric Company - the best T.V. show of all time (only in competition with the School House Rock segments). So I had a great time rediscovering Morgan Freeman as an ultrahip swinger - check out his threads!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTGd22xn2B4#

Anything tech related - I read an article not too long ago that referred to digital immigrants (those of us who have come of age without technology - my first computer class at school was in BASIC and the mainframe filled half a room!) and digital natives (i.e. everyone who actually understands and uses all of the features of the IPhone). A recent survey of young adults showed that they now list cell phones and laptops as needs instead of wants. My daughters' school will be moving to the 1:1 laptop classroom next year - every middle school student will receive their own laptop on which they will complete assignments, take tests, do papers, etc. The kindergartens already use the school's mobile ILab in the classroom. Is technology changing everything? Yes and no. Technology is a tool that is only as useful as a person's ability/knowledge to utilize it. I must admit that I am not part of the online community (who actually has the time to devote to this????), but I am finding it interesting and useful to learn about the world that is out there so, if need be, I can utilize it.

For this exercise, I looked at the create your own movie poster from BigHugeLabs. I can see a lot of really fun applications for a tool like this. We could promote upcoming workshops for teens, Summer Reading Program, book clubs, etc. I can also envision a workshop for older kids, say 10+, for creating some of these mashups. I have to admit, however, that I can't see myself using any of these tools personally. Although some of the apps would make some cool gifts, my first thought was, "Wow! Don't these people have anything better to do with their time!" Then I saw the Flickr DNA application and I knew that privacy is definitely a thing of the past.

Well I spent quite some time on Flickr trying to find some pictures of Early Literacy Environments for a project. While the tags have some use, I found it pretty frustrating that they could be so random. One could assign a tag for a photo, like children's libraries, that really has nothing to do with children's libraries. I was really impressed however with how many different photos were available. As someone whose family is scattered all over the country, I can appreciate the ease of sharing photos with whomever I wish. I just wish the searching made a little more sense! Here is the link of the photo I finally(!) found -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/acplinfo/1073609313/in/photostream/