Week 9, Thing 23

There are many adjectives I can think of to describe 23 Things. Informative, cool, helpful, techno-crazy (made that one up) and overwhelming. I kept a folder with all my new, fun sites and I have post-its all over the folder with all my new logins and passwords.

This course contains an incredible amount of information. Many of these sites are ones that librarians should know about and be able to use to help customers and to help our selves. I love LibraryThing, RSS feeds and Bloglines. Some of the perspectives we read about in Thing 15 should probably be re-read once a week to remind us to keep up with the changing world. It is truly the only way we will stay in business.

I can now stay connected to what is happening in the library world through blogs and podcasts. And, of course, I will always remember to play!

There are only two ideas I have that may improve the program, at least from my viewpoint. I learn better when someone shows me how to do things the first time, especially since I'm not super intuitive on the computer. An introductory class on permalinks and a few of the trickier-to-figure-out "things" would have helped me. I would also recommend to children's librarians who have very busy summer programs not to do 23 Things during the summer. I found it difficult to devote the time I needed to really play with a lot of new stuff. But I know where it is and how to find it and I will go back to many of these "things."

Now---if someone would only come up with a 24th Thing that would keep all my logins and passwords straight...............

Week 9, Thing 22

Downloadable audio books are definitely the wave of the future. I took the tutorial on Overdrive Digital Media. It's very well done and very informative. Our library is looking into downloadable audios to add to our collection. Circulation of our books on cd has risen --many people are enjoying this format.
I think the commute to and from work and vacation roadtrips have bee a big part of this.

Unfortunately, our library does not subscribe to any downloadable audio program so I wasn't able to try this. We have even been asked to subscribe to a product of downloadable video with topics such as Do It Yourself and Recipes. I think we are almost to the point in our community where more customers of our library have computers as opposed to those who don't. Still-----I hope that books don't completely go away because I just don't want to crawl into bed with my computer---yet.

Week 6, Thing 13

Del.icio.us was down when I tried it the first time. I went back to find this site. I can see a lot of wonderful use for Delicious. Using different computers, as we do at the library, will now be easier. You can tag all your sites and have them available wherever you are.

I set up an account so now I'll be able to use Del.icio.us. So easy to do and so convenient. I can see using this to share sites that we need to book mark for students. Just makin' life a little easier.

Week 9, Thing 21

Podcasts - another great way to share information. I browsed around on Podcast.net and typed in the keyword 'library.' This brought me to the Sunnyvale, California, Public Library where I was able to listen to a story time for pre-walkers. It was fun to listen to and, although the material sounded very
similar to my material, I still got some new ideas.

For libraries, podcasts are a great way to share ideas. I was able to add this RSS feed to my Blogline and now I'm really feeling like I accomplished something. The trick here is to keep looking at Bloglines so I get used to viewing them often.

Week 9, Thing 20

You Tube. What a crazy site. My first experience with You Tube was logging on to Instant Messinger and clicking on the You Tube listed on my son's IM. It was spring break. Sure looks like they had a lot of fun (at least it was viewable.) I actually found this video using the tags auburn, spring break on the You Tube site.

I think You Tube is a great way to share anything visually with someone who can't be there, such as video-ing a house in an out-of-town community that you may wish to buy, or taking video and sharing your vacation, or how to make a complicated recipe. Think of how cool it would be to share video of a newborn with family or someone stationed overseas who can't get home for the holidays. For some recent politcal debates, the questions were submitted via You Tube!

But, as mentioned, there is a lot of trash and filth available that you just have to ignore. I guess that comes with the territory.

Week 8, Thing 19

I visited a site called seomoz.org where so many of our 23 Things are listed and rated. I chose to play with the real estate sites that where ranked. My favorite one, by far, is Zillow, Map & Search. It allowed me to enter a neighborhood into the search bar and then it would show me what is available for sale, what has been sold (comparables) and all the info that you need about the house. It is a very cool site if you are planning to buy, sell or are just wondering aboout the value of the house. You have the option for maps or aerial shots as well. This site had more options than realtor. com which I have used in the past. But, combining the two would allow you to do a lot of leg work from the comfort of home at your computer.

Week 8, Thing 18

Hello~
This is my first experience Zoho Writer. What a convenient service. This is great for a computer where no software has been downloaded or programs are incompatible . Love all the options that are included with the program. This just may help students who come into to the library without a disc (or any money) to save their papers to the computer. When our computers cut off and are rebooted all material is lost. I've seen more than a few tears over lost papers and documents.
I like for students (or anyone ) to have this option.

Week 7, Thing 18

I messed around wth Wikis. I love the fact that you really don't have to be super computer literate to create and/or post to a Wiki. It's fairly easy to do and that is the beauty of it. I also was able to add a posting to the Sandbox.

Week 7, Thing 16

When Wikis were first introduced to us at our library, I wasn't sure if I thought they were a useful product. Anyone could add to a Wiki and anyone could edit a Wiki. What if these folks where not the expert in the field? Could you trust who was adding and editing?

I would still steer students to other valid websites when doing reports and researching, but now I see a great use for Wikis. The Library 2.0 Wiki will come in handy when I have finished with 23 Things and want to refer to something that I learned. I imagine that this Wiki will have new additions all the time. The Booklovers Wiki looks terrific as a place for recommendations. Why not send people there who are looking for what they might like to read next? I love the idea of adding a Wiki to the library home page to share community ideas and information. It's hard to know who is a good seamstress or a good mechanic. This woudl be especially helpful for newcomers to our growing community.

My favorite Wiki (which I bookmarked and will refer to often) is Library Success - A Best Practices Wiki. This one will be very helpful in determining policies, practices and finding new ideas. We obviously are not the only library dealing with the homeless and the poor.

The library is a dynamic place and I think a Wiki is a good reflection of what we are becoming.

Week 6, Thing 15

These articles for Thing 15 need to be carefully considered and constantly reviewed, in my opinion. There is no doubt that in the 10 years that I have been in the library things have changed dramatically. Gone are the days when we constantly flew to the stacks to find material for reports. It happens now, but much less often. Many of our customers have computers at home and only come to the library if the teacher says they must have a book source. Non-fiction circulation has dropped because of this, but at the same time, customers don't believe that a magazine on-line is actually that magazine. They think it is an internet source.

Many customers will do the work at home with our online catalog and then come in for what they want. We seem to be often improving our online catalog so that doing the work at home is easy and user-friendly. I don't think that you can underestimate the need for a living-breathing technology plan.

We received a teen grant at our library to be able to give to teens the technology that they want. This population is ahead of the game were technology is concerned. Some of these kids don't read or spell well, but they have a My Space site.

We are no longer the information marketplace-----we must adapt and live on the cutting edge of technology because if our customers can pass us by with all things technological, then there is no longer a need to come to the library. It's not just staying current for the heck of it-----it's called 'survival.'

Week 6, Thing 14

Wow! You just don't know all the stuff that is out there on the web until you spend a little time with something like 23 Things. That being said, I find that Technorati leads me to a million places at once and then I forget what I'm doing there. I'm a little dazed and confused---or maybe I'm just not the most fervent of bloggers.

Week 5 Thing 12

I spent some time playing with Rollyo. It is an effective tool to quickly bring you to the sites that are your favorites or the sites that you use the most. Unfortunately, I want to link to sites that include the boutiques and my credit card limit just isn't high enough. So, I just think I'll stick to recipes and news http://www.rollyo.com/index.html.

Week 5, Thing 11

Here is the link to my LibraryThing which I found to be a useful and fun tool. How many times have you gone to look for a title to something that you wanted to read and just could not remember what that title was??? So now just catalog everything on the LibraryThing and there it is. So many books, so little time. Here is my link to my catalog:http://http://www.librarything.com/catalog/beegraham

Week 5, Thing 10

Here is my posted picture from Wacker Drive, courtesy of LetterJames. These are fun things to play around with. I just need more time to play.

Week 4, Thing 9

After setting up my Bloglines newsreader account, I found a few library-related links that will come in handy. Among these are the New York Times book reviews, the USAToday book reviews and New Urban Legends. You'd be surprised how many times we get asked about urban legends. I'm looking forward to checking in with these.

I was not familiar with Merlin (had heard of it but had not used it) so it was nice to be introduced to that.

Week 4, Thing 8

I set up my RSS feed in Google Reader and now I'm certain that you have created a monster. I have listed several news sources and other websites that I'm interested in. The problem is going to be not sitting at the computer for hours to review all my favorite stuff. I can definitely see how this could become addicting.

Actually, I think it will be fun to pop in ever so often and check in on the latest. I found the video on setting up RSS feeds to be cute but very easy to follow.

Week 3, Thing 7

What amazes me most about technology is the speed at which everything changes. What is cool today is obsolete tomorrow. Take for instance the example of cell phones. A cell phone can do an amazing amount of techno things. Each time I upgrade my phone I need to relearn the new one which has the ability to do even crazier things. I need to take the time to learn of all its capabilities. For instance my new razor will take a video and it will be showing as my son is calling. I'm watching a video of him as the phone rings. It's very Harry Potter-ish.

I guess the key is to always try new things and keep learning. One of my favorite tools to use now is Instant Messinger. Who would have thought? Because of IM my house phone never rings any more.

Week 3, Thing 6

OK...woo-hoo...I successfully posted a picture from Flickr onto my blog. With a little bit of help form my friends (Katie to be exact) it worked.

Week 3, Thing 5

I explored Flickr, messed around with it and actually posted a picture. This is a big deal for me as I'm still trying to find someone to show me how to post a picture to the web. I often go on the message boards at HGTV where people post pictures and ask for ideas with paint colors, etc, for decorating their rooms or renovating their home.....one of these days I'll actually be able to post a picture!

Week 2, Thing 3

As noted earlier, I set up my own blog and added my first post. I was thinking about this after the fact, but blogging could have been of a handy use when my husband was going through chemo for lymphoma. There are so many friends and relatives who were concerned and wanted to know what was going on while at the same time we were exhausted (physically and mentally) by the whole process. What a nice way to keep everyone informed and receive the well wishes and prayers that they wanted to send. Blooging is great way to stay in touch.

Week 1, Thing 2

I spent some time looking over the habits of lifelong learners. The easiest habit for me is Habit 71/2----Play. My philosophy is to work hard but then to play just as hard. As I tell my Laptime group, "I don't do it if it isn't fun." One of the ways that we play hard at my house is to go boating. I've just finished a Safe Skipper course where I have learned to skipper the boat in the event that something happens to my husband and I need to take over. My last task is to master docking (it's a 36' boat) so I'm a bit intimidated but deteremined to do it. We use technology on the boat as we plot our course with a GPS (you can buy computer chips for any body of water ---the chips have your course plotted)and radar.

I'm taking 23 Things to become more familiar with technology because with many techno things I feel clueless. Oftentimes, I will ask one of my 3 kids for help. I do accept responsibility for my own learning (which is a must for keeping you brain vital), I do view problems as challenges and not problems and I usually confident in myself to learn new things that I perceive as difficult.

Blogging for fun

This is my first time setting up a blog. It was really pretty easy. Actually, this would be a great way to keep up with my kids who will be living in different cities this fall