Wordl

I've been itching to play with Wordl ever since I heard about it a while back now. So I took a minute to do one of my del.icio.us tags. Here's what it came up with:



Pretty cool to see very quickly and visually what my interests seem to be these days!

Next Play Date

From the Project Play blog:

Our next Play Date is scheduled for Friday, July 25th at 10 a.m. online in OPAL. The topic will be “More on Google Apps.” Since this is a continuation of an earlier topic, be sure to do Week 2 of Semester 2 so you’re up to speed on the topic before the OPAL session. If you’d like to attend the online Play Date please register on the SCLS web site, so we’ll know how many people to expect. If you can’t make it to the Play Date, the content will be posted here on the blog so you’ll be able to go through it at your leisure.

“See” you on the 25th!

Sign up today!

Screencasts

In Week 8, Semester 2 of Project Play, Stef talked about screencasts, and we tried out a free tool called Screencast-O-Matic. I recently returned to screencasts as part of my work on an LSTA grant received by OWLS this year and have spent the last 3 days learning Camtasia and creating screencasts for new InfoSoup features.

It has been a fun process - I love learning new things - and I'm convinced more than ever that libraries should be creating screencasts as help tools for their patrons. They're easy to create (especially with the help of awesome software) and not only give help, but shows your patrons you're moving ahead with technology in order to provide point-of-need service.

Try it, you might like it!

A little off topic

This post may be a little off topic for Project Play, but maybe not... I watched a video last night entitled "If you're not gaming you're losing!" It's a 40 minute documentary about gaming and libraries and was created by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer of the DOK Library Concept Center in the Netherlands. I thought the video was fascinating and very well done, which is why I'm sharing it here. They share some insights into potential benefits of gaming for libraries through interviews with library bloggers and library staff in the States. If you're on the fence about whether or not your library should offer gaming opportunities, this video might help you decide once and for all. Check it out!


If you're not gaming you're losing! from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

(Found via Librarian In Black's blog)

Play Dates

Our first Play Date last Friday was great fun! A small group of 10 people gathered online in OPAL for "Do More With Del.icio.us." There was good discussion of how to use some more advanced features of this social bookmarking tool, and I'm happy to say that Joy has done a wonderful job of getting all of the content from the Play Date onto the Project Play blog. Take a look if you couldn't join us for the OPAL session and see what you missed!