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.