Ciao - Reflections on Learning 2.0 Activities

What a fun trip this has been (and will continue to be)!   My favorite discovery of this program has been that if there is something you’re looking to do, organize, or share, there is probably an application out there to help you do just that (and probably for free, too).  There also seem to be very active online communities surrounding most productivity tools, so if you just google the names of ones that you are interested in, you can find out a lot of information before joining and even after joining you can learn things that the tutorials don’t necessarily cover. 

Zotero definitely wins for best find out of all of the tools we’ve explored.  It will make collecting info for class projects and research an easier process.  All of the tools, however, were important to explore - even the ones that I will probably never use again, because a lot of other people do use them and those people will be our future library patrons.  Also, just because I can’t see myself personally utilizing these tools doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be effective tools in a library setting.

Learning 2.0 has definitely made me look at how web 2.0 tools can be adopted by libraries and for patrons.  One of the tenets of 2.0 technology, interactivity, is imperative to the library, especially if we are to remain relevant in an increasingly web-based world.  By reaching out to our patrons and involving them in the creation of content and online community, they will hopefully be engaged enough to continue to utilize library resources and services, in whatever format or space that takes place.