Week 9, Thing 23: Final Thoughts

I have completed my 23 Things! While it is a relief to be finished, I have to say that I enjoyed participating in this program. Here are a few final thoughts:

Cataloging my books in LibraryThing was a great way to keep track of what I read as well as a reference for readers advisory. Out of all the accounts I set up, I could see myself keeping up this one.

Participating in this program helped me gain a better understanding of blogs, wikis, RSS feeds etc. I have heard the term "blog" so many times yet I had never blogged until this class. And blogs are not so scary after all:) I also gained a much better understanding of podcasts and online productivity tools. Until the exercise, I had no idea that Google docs existed.

There were a lot of accounts to set up and passwords to remember. A lot. Fewer accounts in a future program would be better.

I would definitely do this again if a program was offered in the future. 23 Things gave me a much better understanding of the current technologies and I really liked the hands-on approach for the learner. Even if we cannot immediately or directly use some of these technologies in a library setting, I feel it is very important that librarians have a general knowledge of the terms. If our customers are blogging and talking about wikis and RSS feeds then we should at least know what they are talking about.

Week 9, Thing 22: Downloadable Books

Looking at Overdrive was a good way to refresh myself with the downloadable services that BCPL provides. Downloadable audio books are so popular with the customers that it is great the library can offer them. Of course if they could be compatible with mac that would be even better. Perhaps in the future the library will be able to offer this service for ipods. Some of the features I liked about Overdrive are the browsing directories and the selection of titles-especially picture books. So many times I have had parents looking for more picture book titles on CDs. I could also see the project gutenberg site being useful for students. When that last copy of the Tempest is checked out, the student can read it online.

Week 9, Thing 21: Podcasts

The Podcast exercise was a surprising discovery for me. To be honest, I do not listen to audiobooks but I found that I could listen to the podcasts. I looked at Podcastnet and Yahoo Podcasts. Overall, I found Yahoo easier to search. Using Yahoo Podcasts I located some great CBS 60 minute podcasts, one of which was about a American soldier who deflected to North Korea. I could see myself using podcasts for news stories/history segments but not so much for book reviews. I did try to listen to several book reviews but again would much prefer to see the print version. Went ahead and added the podcast to my bloglines.

Week 9, Thing 20: YouTube

After exploring YouTube, I have come to the conclusion that the popularity of this site is due to the fact that anyone can post a video on just about anything. From a killer tortoise to Les Miserables-the Lego version, there are some very creative videos out there. The YouTube video I decided to post, is a National Geographic video on a cheetahs. I selected this video because my husband and I recently visited the National Zoo and saw the cheetahs of course! I could see using YouTube in libraries for marketing programs.

Week 8, Thing 19: Web 2.0

I really enjoyed looking at the short list of Web 2.0 award winners. There were several sites that I could see myself using or that library customers would find helpful. Some of my favorites included:

Farecast-I really liked how it would indicate if the fare was rising,staying steady or about to decrease. A nice option other than travelocity or expedia.

Lulu-How great it that if you can publish and sell writings and artwork!

Zillow-I looked up my address and my parents adreses and was amazed how much information this site provided. For customers house hunting this would be a good resource.

Week 8, Thing 18: Google Docs

When I first started looking at Google Docs I thought to myself, "This is neat but how could I use this, or why would I want to use this feature"? But then I started talking with another librarian and I began to realize the advantages of online productivity tools. I saw that you could work from any computer on a Word document even if that computer did not have Word installed. I liked how easy it was to create documents in Word, Excel, PDF and then upload the documents to a blog. I created Some Great YA books in Google Docs and then posted the list straight to my blog. Which was much easier than trying to figure out how to list my blog in the Wiki.

Some Great YA Books

Elsewhere

Harry Potter

A Great and Terrible Beauty

A Certain Slant of Light

Wicked Lovely

Week 7, Thing 17: SandBox

Ok, I listed my blog in Favorites and yes, it is still up there:) I also added my comments to the Favorite Food wiki. Overall, I thought it was very easy to edit wikis but I would probably not create one unless it was for teaching or work related.

Week 7, Thing 16: Wikis

I really enjoyed exploring and learning more about wikis. Being familiar with wikipedia, I knew that information on wikis can be edited by different people. My first thought for how a public library could utilize wikis, was a wiki for customer book reviews. I thought Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki was a great example of such a wiki. I especially liked the review index, which allows easy access to certain types of reviews. Merlin Wiki learning link was helpful in that it showed the different types of wiki resources. I looked at pbwiki, in fact I attended a class in which the instructor used her pbwiki to teach the class instead of a PowerPoint presentation. I also checked out wetpaint and came across Nancy Pearl's wiki Book Lust with Nancy Pearl.

Week 6, Thing 15: Web 2.0

I found the articles To a Temporary Place in Time and Away from "Icebergs" to contain interesting viewpoints on the direction of libraries. I really like idea of the library as an ever evolving community place. I think it extremely important in today's age of Borders and Barnes and Nobles that the public library create a welcoming and comfortable space for the customers. The customers should want to visit the library. Not only that, but the library itself must offer relevant materials and services such as wireless, magazines, books and yes, even a coffee bar. In regards to Rick Anderson's article, I agree that the library must not forget the customers' ability to utilize the technology.

Week 6, Thing 13 & 14: Del.icio.us & Technorati

After viewing Del.icio.us it was information overload! All those tags, all the links. I did explore Del.icio.us but I felt that my searches were not yielding the information I wanted or was interested in. Now Technorati on the other hand, I can definitely see myself using, especially for professional development and interests. Searching under YA literature and teen books, I found several blogs dedicated to that subject. I also searched for for my own blog and surprise, I am not the only everythingbagel out there! Through Technorati I was also able to find the blog Pop Goes the Library-one of my favorites

http://www.popgoesthelibrary.com/

This blog was founded by Sophie Brookover who is an amazing teen librarian in Camden County, NJ. Lots of great ideas on how to use pop culture for programming at your public library.

Week 5, Thing 12: Rollyo

I explored Rollyo and created a search roll titled What's For Dinner, which lists severals recipe websites. (Epicurious is one of my favorites) While I think Rollyo is a good idea, I couldn't see myself using it for my personal searching of the web. Yes, I would still wade through google. However, I think Rollyo would be useful is if one was searching for more obscure information such as rare books, statistics etc. And if a library customer wanted a list of websites on a specific topic, then Rollyo just might be the place to look. I also agree with Chicken Amuck's comment that your Rollyo is only as good as the websites you put in it.

Week 5, Thing 11: Library Thing

I have found Library Thing somewhat addictive. Once I created an account, I just kept adding titles, trying to remember all the good books I have read. I really enjoy doing reader's advisory so this may be a good tool in helping me organize the titles. It seems easier than keeping a spreadsheet which was something I had considered. I probably wouldn't use Library Thing to interact with other readers but instead use it to keep a list for my on personal use.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/kwarhaftig

Week 5, Thing 10: Image Generator

I had so much fun creating an avatar! It took me a couple trys to upload the image but I finally figured it out once I found the directions on the yahoo avatar homepage. There are a lot of clever generator blogs out there. I am going to try out the Simpson Generator next.

Week 4, Thing 9: Merlin & other related blogs

I had no idea that a site like Merlin existed. After subsribing to the feed, I am thinking that maybe I can stay more up to date on the technology. Anyway, I went ahead and checked out the list of search tools. Out of the four, I really liked Topix.net. I found this the easiest to search and the yielded the best results, especially for news related stories. I really liked the interactive graph that allowed you to access news items from individual months-NYC, L.A and London keyword searches produced this graph. On the downside, I had a difficult time searching Feester and Technorati. By using a keyword search, I received feeds that did not relate to the topic and I found pages difficult to navigate and a bit overwhelming.

Week 4, Thing 8: RSS Feeds

I had often heard the term RSS but I never knew what it meant. So after an extensive reading and listening to the tutorials, (found the tutorials helpful for this discovery exercise) I feel I have a better understanding of this technology. Now, when I use the internet to catch up on my news, I generally search website to website. I have only 4-5 websites that I regularly search, so at first I couldn't really see making a large list of bloglines. But I find the more I look at my blogline account, the more I'm starting to like it. And by listing several professional feeds (Yalsa, shifted librarian, popgoesthelibrary) I think it will be easier to keep up on the library trends.

Week 3, Thing 7: Anything Technology

This past December I received an ipod which I had been wanting for some time. I usually don't spend a lot of money on technology, which is why I tend to be on the tale end of things, technology wise. But now that I have an ipod I absolutely love it! The best part is that you can pick and choose what songs you want to download. No longer do I have to buy a CD for only 1 or 2 songs. I even have the special armband so you can bring your ipod to the gym. And now when I go on long car trips, the ipod comes along too.

Week 3, Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

Colr Pickr is really neat! I could spend an hour just looking at all the pictures and editing the colors. I especially liked the textures and urban decay images. I liked Mapr too, but I noticed that if the group of pictures are located in the same location, ex. California it is very difficult to view the images because they are layered on top of each other.

Week 3, Thing 5: Explore Flickr

Hooray, it finally worked! It took a long, long time to figure this one out. I was able to upload photo into Flickr but then I couldn't figure out how to get the photo into Blogger. I tried using Flickr's blog tool and then I tried the URL upload in Blogger. The URL posted but the picture would not appear. I was using the URL directly from Flickr and I think that may have been the problem. I eventually ended up downloading the photo back from Flickr and uploading from the computer. Does any have any helpful hints or explanations on what I was doing wrong?

Anyway, this is Marmalade, our beloved cat. He used to be the number 1 cat in the house, he's now number 2, and he tends to drool when he's happy.

Week 1, Thing 2: 7&1/2 Habits

Watched the online tutorial. I thought it was an interesting approach on how to organize oneself so that one can continue to be a successful learner. The easiest habit for me would be #2-Accept responsibility for your own learning. I really enjoy attending classes, conferences etc. to meet other librarians further my education, especially if it's on a subject that I have very little knowledge of. The hardest habit for me would be #3-viewing problems as challenges. I suppose addressing something as a challenge instead of a "problem" would be a more positive mindset.

Week 1, Thing 1: About this program.

Ok, here it goes, my first attempt at blogging. I have heard people talk about blogs, I have read blogs but I have never actually blogged myself. I have been checking out other people's blogs and I think this is going to be a lot of fun (and educational too!)