Thing 23

The 23 Things definitely took longer than I thought they would. It was easy to get side-tracked and spend a lot of time on YouTube or just following interesting links. But it was just so much fun to actually get things to work in the blog and it helped a lot to write about what I learned. I think one of the most useful things is the file converter. People are always bringing me odd files that they can't open.

As others have said, the Things made me explore things I never would have and did things I never thought I could. Thanks for a great program.

Thing 22

It will be a challenge to keep up with what I have learned. My goal is to incorporate one or two Things into our library website. In addition, I bookmarked a bunch of Things that I will go back to when I am done (using Google bookmarks that I can get to from any computer). I will also use my Google Reader to keep up on news and new technology. I feel much more daring and empowered than I did before I started.

Thing 21 Other Social Networking

Just before I finished library school, I joined a Yahoo group to study for my comprehensive examination. That was the smartest thing I have ever done. So even though I had done my entire degree online, I developed a close sense of community with the others in the last six months--a feeling, I am sure, born of the extreme terror of flunking the comprehensive exam and wasting two years of classes. By the time I went to Milwaukee to take the exam, I felt I knew a lot of the other students because of our shared terror. So I really like the idea of interest based groups. You start out with something in common. I have also used Web Junction which I think is a great resource for learning about all kinds of library related topics.

Ning is really easy to use and I like the interest groups it has. I have bookmarked some that I really want to delve into more deeply. I am especially interested in the Academic Libraries and Library 2.0/Web 2.0 group because it looks like it gets into some of the technical issues of Web 2.0.

Thing 20 Facebook and MySpace

This is the Thing I was looking forward to the least. MySpace and Facebook always sounded like they are just for young people. It just seems so "high school" to invite friends and then wait for them to approve you. That said, I continued with the assignment.

In Facebook I joined the American Library Association Members, the Library 2.0 Interest Group, and the Librarians and Facebook Group. ALA updated their profile a week ago. Library 2.0 updated their profile 5 months ago and the Librarians and Facebook Group have not updated their profile for the last 12 months. I joined these mostly because the link was right on the 23 Things page. I have since noticed that it is easy to find groups to join, so if I were really interested, I could join some that are more meaningful to me.

I read a couple of online articles that suggest that MySpace and Facebook are losing some of their popularity due to things like being assaulted by advertisers and marketers. See
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/03/networking_sites_myspace_faceb.html
Others suggest that application developers have flooded Facebook with too many applications and have been bothering users with messages to try their apps. See
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/have_facebook_apps_peaked_in_popularity.php
Young people have a tendency to lose interest in things when adults show too much interest. It's like when a parent helps with a child's science project so much that the child loses all interest and the project really belongs to the parent.

I looked at a few MySpace library pages and see that they provide links to things on their library websites that they think will interest young people. One library had a catalog search on the page too. It's just another form of advertising and it goes to where the young people are, so that should be very effective.

Thing 19 Podcasts

I listened to some political podcasts and then I listened to some of the ones posted on other 23 Things blogs. I really like the NPR podcasts and News from Lake Wobegon. The podcasts themselves are very easy to create and access. Having just finished an online degree, I can see many uses for them in distance education. I am not inspired to making my own podcast yet, but I will try to get some on my mp3 player.

Thing 18 YouTube

One of the first videos I ever saw on YouTube was Michael Richards having a meltdown in response to some hecklers. I also remember reading a cartoon about a teenager who said he fell down in the lunchroom and spilled his tray of food all over himself. He friend replied, "yeah, I know. I saw it on YouTube." Because phone cameras are so ubiquitous these days, no one can get away with anything. I am sure everyone agrees that this is both good and bad. I enjoyed looking through the videos, old commercials and the march of the librarians. I was at ALA last year, but did not see myself nor did I recognize any of the librarians in the video.

My favorite video is also from ALA last year. It is Dewey Decimators Book Cart Drill Team - MLA 2007. I take part in a drill team here, but these guys are great! I hope you enjoy it.

Thing 17 Elm Databases

The Elm databases are a great resource for Libraries and people in Minnesota. Many libraries would never be able to afford such a variety of easy to use, reliable information sources. The databases help librarians answer their users' questions. In addition, the information is available online 24/7. Features like RSS feeds, emailing capabilities, and web page creation facilitate collaboration between users. Moreover, teaching our students about these reliable information sources helps them with critical thinking. They will be less like to try Google and Wikopedia for their research if they have better options.

Thing 16 Student 2.0 Tools

At the state fair last summer, I volunteered at the Minitex booth and Research Project Calculator was one of the tools that we demonstrated. Everyone who saw it was quite impressed and said they would show it to their children and students and encourage them to use it. We also have it as Assignment Calculator on our Library web site. The staff in the tutoring department on campus think that it is a very useful tool. They work with students who just don't know where to begin when they are faced with a writing assignment. The steps really help the students to approach the assignment in a methodical way and gives them resources to use at each step. This is a link to our Assignment Calculator

For myself, I am giving a presentation at a conference in August. While I have a general idea of what I am going to say, this will help me make it more complete. I have already entered my dates and signed up for email reminders. I think it is a great tool.

Thing 15 Games

I tried the Pirate game, but didn't get it to load-maybe there were already too many pirates online on Sunday morning. So I turned to Second Life. I have seen several demonstrations for Second Life, one of which showed learning applications and one by someone who just played the game. The one who played the game did so for at least twenty hours a week and she was married with children, employed, and probably spent other time online doing email and other things like the rest of us. I am mindful and worried about those who spend more time in virtual interactions than in real interactions. I am always preaching moderation to my children. That said, I can see the uses for Second Life. It can be used for distance learning; classes can be presented in a virtual classroom in Second Life. I can imagine a person with disabilities attending the class and not feeling any different from other students as apposed to how different they may feel in a face to face class.
I also found an article about a free tool for educators for creating 360 virtual reality rooms in second life. The article can be found at VRR Demo

My photo is from a gathering in Second Life which imposes avatars imposed on the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago.

Thing 14 Library Thing

This is very easy to use. I wish I had time to do my personal collection, but it would be great for sharing titles with reader friends and people in my book club. Libraries are using it for new book lists and reader advisory. I didn't try it, but it looks like one can import lists into Library Thing also. Here is a link to my books: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/plawre

Thing 13 Productivity Tools

PageFlakes was very easy to use as were iGoogle and MyYahoo. I am already using iGoogle and MyYahoo, so I didn't set up an account on PageFlakes. We use shared Outlook calendars at work and I put my personal stuff in there too. I can see where these things would be useful for collaboration outside of work or for people who don't have something like Outlook available.
Instead of to do lists, I often flag messages to follow up and make tasks lists in Outlook. It works very well. Outlook also has a notes feature like sticky notes.
The tool I liked the best is the Zamzar site. We often have to convert file formats for students in our library. The most frequent is Microsoft Works documents to Word and .docx to .doc. It will be very useful.

Thing 12

I looked at Digg, Reddit, etc. and wasted some time looking at what other people on these sites are sharing from news. I don't think I would use this for myself, but it would be interesting if I had some time to spend looking at what others have rated.
I found some great podcasts on technology that I would like to listen to, but I would be interested in them regardless of how they were rated.

Thing 9 Online Collaboration Tools

I accidently skipped Thing 9, so this is out of order.

Google documents was much easier for me to use because I have used it quite a bit but just for myself. I had a bit of trouble allowing someone else to edit my document at first, but we figured it out.
I think the Founding Fathers would be shocked that other people could get in and edit their prose.

Thing 11

I can definitely see uses for Del.icio.us tags and bookmarks. I am forever wishing I had my bookmarks if I am away from my computer and have some spare time to work on research. Several years ago I had a class where the instructor had us use MURL which was an early bookmarking site. It worked very well for organizing and exporting lists of bookmarks for class projects. I did not create a Del.icio.us account because I cannot bear another account and password. I intend to investigate IGoogle bookmarks since I have a Google email account, blog account, and other Google stuff.
After seeing what other libraries are doing, I am wondering if I can use it to create a site map for the web site. I am going to look into that soon.

Thing 10

Wikis are a really great tool. We have one set up for our staff intranet and allow anyone to edit once they have their supervisor's permission and take a short instruction session on how to edit it and add content. Ours is restricted to on campus use and registered users.
While it is fairly easy to edit pages, setting them up and formatting them can be tricky. Wikis do not use all standard html code and users need to learn some different formatting codes. On the other hand, allowing more people to edit gives them a sense of ownership and collaboration. I think the content gets updated more frequently and is more relevant.

Thing 8 and 9

I managed to miss my Thing 9 post and couldn't figure out how to get it in order. So I am adding Thing 9 to my title but my post for 9 actually appears between Thing 11 and Thing 12. Doh!

I see both personal uses for these tools and uses for libraries. Slide sharing is handy for people who travel and do presentations. I have been to conferences where the speaker forgot his/her presentation and was scrambling at the last minute trying to get it or recreate it. Slide sharing would be one more way to make sure you have your presentation when you arrive at a conference.
Picture sharing like Flickr is handy for families spread around the world. Lazybase looks like it would be very easy to post a list to a person's own website. I could make a list of DVDs that we own and share them with my kids.
One tool I have used is eFolio. It is easy to sign up for and easy to set up. I have to update my resume every year and keep track of my professional development. This site makes it extremely easy to do.
There is a huge variety of Web 2.0 tools available and something will be useful to everyone if you can take the time to look.

Thing 7

There is a lot to cover under this topic.

My library uses the Outlook program for email and calendaring functions. We have set up shared calendars to schedule things like rooms and equipment. We also have shared contacts and distribution lists. We communicate so much that some days I cannot get through all my mail and just read a few sentences of some of the longer messages. So in some ways, email is very efficient, but in others, it has hampered productivity.

Our library does online or chat reference through QuestionPoint, an OCLC program. For that reason, we have never explored other ways of doing it. Instant messaging would probably not give us the transcripts we have of each session or the statistics.

I have used text messaging on my phone once at a concert. However, our campus has the ability to send text messages to our phones in case of an emergency. I have yet to set that up, but intend to do so soon. I also took a class at one time where the professor required us all to install Yahoo Instant Messenger and to use it at least once to send him a text message. It was a good way to communicate with him because I could see when he was logged in and then I could expect an immediate reply.

I have attended Minitex webinars in the past. It sure beats driving for a couple of hours to attend a workshop that can be done in one hour, so I think they are just great.