What Do We Do Next?

It's been a fun seven weeks crammed with a lot of information and exercises to usher you into the Web 2.0 world. Now that we are finishing up this class, there are a couple of things SEMLS asks of you to tie up loose ends and that you can do to continue your learning.

Post-course evalution - I did a couple of evaluations during the course of this class, but I am pulling together a post-course evaluation for everyone to complete. I will e-mail the link to everyone so that I can reach those who did not follow through to the class's end as well as those who are still on the wiki. If you do not receive this link via e-mail in the next couple of days, please let me know so that I can get it to you.

This is the first time SEMLS has done a homegrown online class, and your feedback will be important in helping us determine if we will do other online classes and how they should be done. Please take the time to fill out this evaluation so that we can continue to provide services to meet the needs of staff at member libraries.

Continue working with tools discovered through this class - Now that you've had a crash course in all of these different tools, pick the ones you like best to use in your libraries and in your personal life. See if you can use at least one of these tools to improve services to your users. If you come across stumbling blocks along the way, you can always contact me for assistance. I am also available for on-site consultation.

Keep Learning about new tools - I obviously didn't cover every Web 2.0 tool in this class (I don't think it would be possible) so there is a lot of exploring yet to be done. Here are some places to find more sites to explore:

• I adapted the original Learning 2.0 class offered at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County to fit the needs of our libraries and to be contained within a six-week time period instead of the original eight-week period. The original 23 things included some tools that I didn't have an opportunity to explore. If you liked Flickr, you may want to explore some Flickr mashups. Rollyo is a great alternative to providing links on your library's Web site.
  
• The original Learning 2.0 program was loosely based on an article from Stephen Abram, 43 Things I Might Want to Do This Year. Check out some of the things he listed.
  
• Learning 2.1 is a blog from the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County created to support on-going discovery and learning of Web 2.0 technologies as an extension of the Learning 2.0 program.
  
• Subscribe to RSS feeds from library technology blogs. You can find a bunch if you click on the link for Kathy L.'s RSS subscriptions and then click Library Reads. You don't have to learn about every technology mentioned in these blogs. But if you start seeing the same thing posted over and over again, you may want to check it out.