iHCPL - Spring 2009

New to the system? Been here awhile, but haven't done the original iHCPL? Now is the time to catch up and see what you missed out on! The program will run between Monday, February 2 and Friday, May 29 and is worth 10 training hours.

To get credit, you need to do all 23 things. At four times during the program, you will submit your exercises through electronic forms to get credit and bling.

• Week 2 #3: Register your blog (covers weeks 1 & 2)
• Week 5 #12: Submit your exercises for weeks 3-5
• Week 8 #19: Submit your exercises for weeks 6-8
• Week 10 #23: Submit your exercises for weeks 9 & 10

This is an optional and voluntary program. You can work at your own pace during the program; just be sure to complete all exercises to get training credit by Friday, May 29. Note: All blog posts must be dated after February 2, 2009 to get credit.

iHCPL - Fall 2008

New to the system? Been here awhile, but haven't done the original iHCPL? Now is the time to catch up and see what you missed out on! The program will run between Monday, September 1 and Friday, November 21 and is worth 10 training hours.

To get credit, you need to do all 23 things. At four times during the program, you will submit your exercises through electronic forms to get credit and bling.

• Week 2 #3: Register your blog (covers weeks 1 & 2)
• Week 5 #12: Submit your exercises for weeks 3-5
• Week 8 #19: Submit your exercises for weeks 6-8
• Week 10 #23: Submit your exercises for weeks 9 & 10

This is an optional and voluntary program. You can work at your own pace during the program; just be sure to complete all exercises to get training credit by Friday, November 21. Note: All blog posts must be dated after September 1, 2008 to get credit.

iHCPL - The Next Go-Round

Didn't have time to do iHCPL last fall? New to the system? Now is the time to catch up and see what you missed out on! The program will run between Monday, February 18 and Friday, May 16 and is worth 10 training hours.

To get credit, you need to do all 23 things. At four times during the program, you will submit your exercises through electronic forms to get credit and bling.

• Week 2 #3: Register your blog (covers weeks 1 & 2)
• Week 5 #12: Submit your exercises for weeks 3-5
• Week 8 #19: Submit your exercises for weeks 6-8
• Week 10 #23: Submit your exercises for weeks 9 & 10

This is an optional and voluntary program. You can work at your own pace during the program; just be sure to complete all exercises to get training credit by Friday, May 16. Note: All blog posts must be dated after February 18, 2008 to get credit.

iHCPL - The Final Tally

By the Numbers...

• 328 staff registered or 71% of the staff
  
• 261 people completed the entire program (80% of registered participants)
• 2610 Staff Training Hours were earned
  
• 100% of the registered participants complete the program at 9 branches and 4 administrative departments: Aldine, Barbara Bush, Crosby, Katherine Tyra, Kingwood, Maud Marks, North Channel, South Houston, West University, the Director's Office, eBranch, Marketing & Programming, and Materials Selection-Adult.
• 2500+ pieces of bling were sent out using hundreds of envelopes and thousands of labels.

Thanks go out to the iHCPL Team:
Melanie Atkinson Metzger - CYF
Daisy Camarillo - FM
Sandra Dies - ADM
Dave Eames - NC
Bruce Farrar - ADM
Mark Haywood - ALD
Shane Harris - TOM
Beth Krippel - ATA
Grace Lillevig - ADM
Monica Norem - CYF
Rhiannon Perry - LAP
Sandra Silvey - BC
Linda Stevens - ADM
Fay Wood - ADM

Special thanks to:

• Beth for writing, directing, and producing the videos
• A whole cadre of staff - who are too numerous to name - who acted in and helped out with the videos
• Fay, Grace, Monica, and Rhiannon for reading and tracking thousands of posts
• Abby Buchold, Grace, and Linda for packing and sending out bling each week.

Week 10: #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

Please click here if you are unable to view the video.

Wow! Congratulations!! You've reached the 23rd thing. Be sure to give yourself a pat on the back for completing the program. Just one last discovery post.

For your last and final exercise for this program please reflect on your learning journey and post a few thoughts. Here are some questions to prompt you if you're drawing a blank.

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?



• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?



• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?



• What ideas do you have for using these technologies at Harris County Public Library?



• What else do you want to learn about? What other web 2.0 applications are you interested in?

• Submit your week 9 & 10 exercises for credit and bling.
  

iStar would like to thank everyone who helped put together the iHCPL program and everyone who participated. Stay tuned...there's more to come!

Week 9: #22 Downloadable Media

Now it's time to take a look around OverDrive and downloadable content.

Downloadable eAudio, music, e-books and video are provided by a company called OverDrive and made available after being purchased by the library. There is no need to set up a separate login and password for this service. You simply use your library card at the HCPL digital media site. You will have to perform a one time download of software for the type of item you are interested in. eAudio, music and video use the OverDrive Media Console. Adobe Reader and Mobipocket Reader are the two different types of e-book software.

For this discovery exercise, you merely need to familiarize yourself a bit with the structure of HCPL's digital media site and get an idea of the types of titles you can find here. Take a look around and locate a few titles of interest to mention in your blog post.

Some sites offer audiobook downloading for free, like LibriVox. Other sites, like Wowio, offer free e-books. Take a look at these sites and compare them to what is offered by the library.

Discovery Resources:

Digital Media Guided Tour - Tutorial that offers step-by-step instructions for checking out and downloading digital media.

Discovery Exercise:

1. Visit HCPL's digital site and explore the different types of materials available.
2. Create a blog post about your findings. Did you locate a title that you might want to check out? Were there any differences between the library site and the free sites?

Try downloading a title from the library's collection. You don't have to have a portable player, you can also listen/read/watch on a computer. (Only the designated OverDrive terminal in your branch will have the software installed. Ask a colleague if you are not sure which computer this is.) (optional)

Week 9: #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet. What differentiates a podcast from regular streaming audio or video is that the delivery method for podcasts is often done automatically through RSS.

In 2005, "podcast" was named the "word of the year" by New Oxford American Dictionary and with the growth of podcasting it's easy to see why.

Podcasts take many forms, from short 1-10 minute commentaries to much longer in person interviews or panel group discussions. There's a podcast out there for just about every interest area and the best part about this technology is that you don't have to have an iPod or MP3 player to access them. Since podcasts use the MP3 file format, a popular compressed format for audio files, you really just need a PC (or portable device) with headphones or a speaker.

iTunes, the free downloadable application created by Apple, is the directory finding service most associated with podcasts, but if you don't have iTunes installed there are still plenty of options.

For this discovery exercise participants are asked to take a look at some popular podcast directory tools. Do some exploring on your own and locate a podcast that is of interest to you. Once found, you can easily pull the RSS feed into your Bloglines account as well, so that when new casts become available you'll be automatically notified of their existence.

Discovery Resources:

• Wikipedia explains the history of the podcast.
• There are many, many podcast directories and finding tools out there. Here are just three of the more popular ones that, unlike iTunes, don't require a software download: Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com, and Yahoo podcasts.

What? You want to learn how to be a podcaster too? (Optional resources for those who want to learn to create podcasts)

• Publish a podcast on Blogger
• Odeo's online recording studio
• Tutorial on how to podcast

Discovery Exercise:

1. Take a look at one or two of the podcast directories listed and see if you can find a podcast that interests you. See if you can find some interesting library related podcasts here like book review podcasts or library news.
2. Add the RSS feed for a podcast to your Bloglines account.
3. Create a blog post about your discovery process. Did you find anything useful here?