The 23rd Thing

I did this course for the CE credits I need to keep up with my public school library certificate and I'm so glad I did it. I think I learned so much more from a course like this instead of going to a conference. Anything you can do hands-on is more beneficial than just hearing information.

My favorite "things" were learning about Flickr, del.icio.us, and wikis. These are all definitely things I will us time and again.

Thank you for offering this program!

Audiobooks

I am personally not one for listening to books - maybe I'm just not a good listener - but I am impressed with the extensive list of books on LibriVox. I especially like the fact that you can volunteer to read a book. I searched around for several Christian fiction authors and didn't find my favorites but I did come across several familiar names. I didn't realize that the Wizard of Oz author wrote so many stories! One thing that I didn't see that would make it easier to search for titles would be a genre category. Maybe I just missed it, but I often forget authors and titles and sometimes just seeing a list of books in a certain topics would be helpful.

Podcasts

I now understand podcast better and see that anyone can do one and anyone can listen to one!

I went to podcast.com and searched for James Dobson. I am always missing his Focus on the Family talks on the radio and so I realized this would be a good way to catch one. I found it very easy to register and search for topics. I listened to Dr. Dobson's discussion with a group of women on mothers in the workplace and it was very good considering I am a mom and I am decided whether or not to go back to work. It is great that resources such as these are so readily available.

You Tube

I've been to You Tube several times over the last few years - as has everyone else that owns a computer! I wouldn't say I am a frequent visitor, usually I visit through a forwarded email from a friend who is recommending something.

I went to the site and had a brain freeze about what to type in the search box. I scrolled through a few "video's being viewed right now" and saw one on the footage from the airplane crash/water landing last week. That was so fascinating, I figured I would watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvjtx9Qstgo&feature=bz301
One of the best features, especially if you are watching a news story, is the related links on the side of the page. This allows you to get the same or similar story from multiple viewpoints. I also viewed some of the videos from the presidential inauguration today since I missed it on TV. There are tons of those posted!

You Tube would be great in a library setting as just something to do while patrons are taking a break from studying or working. I suppose you could also do some research through some of these videos - mostly just the news ones.

I'm sure that as our kids get older we will want to post some favorite video moments on You Tube for friends and family to view.

Web 2.0 Awards

I never realized how many sites I visit regularly are actually web 2.0 sites! I visit Craig's List regularly and I'm happy to see it is an award winner for classifieds. I chose to visit the award winner for the food category, Im Cooked - http://www.imcooked.com/index.php. It's motto is "Cook It, Film It, Share It." It is basically a site for people to film themselves cooking and share it with the public. Some are very serious with serious recipes and others are just hilarious. For a good laugh, I recommend watching the one about eating coffee cake. The site seems very popular and videos were being added as I was visiting. It seems very user friendly, which is probably why it is an award winner. This site would be great to use in a library setting b/c it is basically a video library of cooking demonstrations. A library could reference this site in literature about cooking or there could be a video creating night at the library using recipes found in the libraries cookbooks.

Zoho Writer

I think these web-based applications are really great. I don't really see why an office would want to continue using the Microsoft word to write reports, etc., other than just the initial task of switching over. It seems to have all the features of the traditional word processors plus additional ones like organizing by tags.

I created a test document and tried inserting a picture. I found it very easy! I would consider using this program in the future when I need to collaborate with others on a project.

Playing in the Sandbox

Now I really understand how wikis work! http://ctls-23-things-sandbox.pbwiki.com/
I added to the favorite books and movies lists. Since I will be returning to work as an elementary librarian I am thinking about how to apply wikis to that environment. A wiki would be great for getting teachers to sign up for library visits, letting parents and students give book suggestions, great for older students to post questions and sign up for research topics, etc. This would be a great resource in the school setting b/c it has the power to take away the paper trail that is often so frustrating!

Wiki's

I have been hearing the term wiki for awhile now and of course I'm familiar with Wikipedia, but I never really understood what it meant. (BTW, I think the CommomCraft videos are so helpful at explaining things!) I totally related to the video instructor saying how complicated planning things with a group can be by email. For years our church group has been doing sign up list for meal delivery, etc. by responding to emails and it invariably turns into a complicated mess. Recently we have started to use a web page that lets us all sign up for things w/o overlapping and filling inboxes - I just never realized these web pages are wikis!

I went to the Best Practices Wiki and think it is a great idea. http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page I especially thought the link to the page of Continuing Ed opportunities is a great idea. It is wonderful to find so much information in one place. One other thing I noticed it that the wikis seem to be free of advertisements! It that is the case, that is nice and more user-friendly.

Library 2.0

I think the world is definitely ready for library 2.0! The world just needs to know about it! It is great that libraries are changing to update and fit in with out technology, customer driven world. Hopefully the world is paying attention. This is a wonderful way to libraries to compete with the Internet and play a major part in it. I am a librarian and honestly when I am helping my husband with his MBA research I do use library websites first! I just google web out of habit because in the past it was more difficult to go through a library website. So, it is great that once aspect of library 2.0 is making the info more accessible.

I visited http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/, Library 2.0 - An Academic's Perspective and although after reading I realized it is not an active blog anymore, I found it to be very informative. I liked that he said that just because a "change" may not be working out as expected that doesn't mean the whole 2.0 idea is a failure. Changes take time and they may morph into something else entirely. Library user may help guide a change their feedback is invaluable.

Technorati

To me Technorati is information overload! I didn't like the layout of the site and I found it difficult to search for learning 2.0. I only saw one place to enter the keyword and I didn't get any results for learning 2.0. Did I miss the blog post and tags keyword entry blanks? Clearly this is useful to those who search for blogs often and I'm sure it is easier to navigate once you spend more time.

I tried to search for a popular blog that I check daily, but it didn't come up and I was suprised by that.

Del.icio.us

This has been my favorite of all the website organizing exercises. I think it is very useful if you are going to be doing research. My husband is working on his MBA and I usually help him with the research for his papers. I will definitely be using this for tagging research websites. In the past I have just scrolled through my bookmarks to find the saved sites - pretty time consuming.

I tried to sign up for del.icio.us, but I had trouble getting the button to show up on my browser. I guess I didn't really understand the directions or my system is not updated. I'll keep working on it.

Online gaming

I decided to try solitare and "free rice." It has been several years since I have played solitare and I have to admit I was a little rusty, but it all came back to me pretty quickly! I had to spend a little more time than I wanted downloading Java so it would work, but now I should be good to go whenever I feel like playing and zoning out for a while.

I chose the interactive game, Free Rice, for the second game. It was great to exercise my brain a little and donate to a needy cause as well. I used my brain power to donate 500 grains of rice to the hungry. I should play a little every day!

Facebook

I've had a Facebook page for several months now and I log on every few days or so or when someone requests me as a friend. It is fun, but I certainly do not know all the applications it can do. I find it somewhat uncomfortable posting things about my life for all to see, evenif they are my "friends."

Link to the "note" - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/note.php?created&&suggest&note_id=40371074389&id=

Link to my profile - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1300911644&ref=profile

Google Talk

Last week my best librarian buddy and I used google chat while our kiddos were napping. I honestly have chatted with people maybe 10 times in the past - not too much! (I rarely text, either!). But, it was fun and very easy to use for the purpose of this exercise. I like how you do not have wait for an email response and that it happens in real time. It was easy to keep up with each other for the most part. I would prefer a phone converstation since you can talk and do other things as well. IMing keeps you tied to the computer instead of being able to fold laundry while you are communicating with someone. If you were chatting with several people at once I could see how it would be easy to mix up the conversations and unfortunately once you hit send you can't take it back!

Finding Feeds

I don't really think this exercise was too useful to me personally, but now I guess I can help library patrons find news items if they need help. I do not get all my news info from the Internet during the day, so I don't really have a need to subscribe to news feeds. Yahoo is my homepage and news items pop up there during the day for me to browse. I would rather use just my bookmark icon to keep track of other websites I visit instead of sifiting through google reader and if I do continue with this blog after "23 Things" is over I will use the "Blogs I visit" manager to keep up with those.

I did visit the sites mentioned in the discovery exercise. Topix.net was the most useful and I liked how I could put in my zip code for local news feeds. That would be worth using for me. I did not like syndic8.com b/c it wanted me to subscribe with a password and log in. I get tired of subscribing to everything! Technorati.com was full of feeds, but most just seem to be a time sucker! I don't mean to be so negative, I just find all this business of finding feeds and adding them to a reader to be nothing more than watching hours of reality TV - not a very useful way to spend your time. But, I will learn how to do all this so I can stay current!

RSS Feeds

I had always wondered what the RSS icon meant on various websites and now I know! This is a great function for those who visit several websites daily and need to save time checking around. I liked that when I logged in to Google Reader it automatically tranfered the blogs I was "managing" in blogger to my subscription list. Currently I subcribe to http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2008/12/believe.html and several friends websites. For this posting I subscribed to http://www.mycharmingkids.net/2008/12/merry-christmas.html which was recommended for me on google reader. I might keep that one around because it is about a mom and her kids, which I can relate to. I also subscribed to www.librarian.net because it sounded interesting, but it is probably not one I will check on everyday. The third one I chose is http://www.librarystuff.net/ to try to keep current on the happenings in the library world.

Image Generators

I tried out the website http://www.imagechef.com/ic/final_widget.jsp and found this birthday cake photo. I was able to add the candle number and create a message. My dad's 60th birthday is this week so I thought this would be appropriate.

Trading card

How fun to make a trading card! I have a few
librarian friends who need to get started on this!
Not sure how my husband will feel being on
the card! I'm sure this one will be worth a lot! I never traded baseball cards like my brother did, but I sure remember getting my mom to buy us "Garbage Pail Kid" cards in about 3rd grade!









I also checked out Flickr Color Pickr and it is really cool! What a great idea to take public pictures and sort them by color. This would be great to use for presentations, or just for spicing up a webpage or blog posting. I've bookmarked this one for future use.

Flickr pics

I decided to explore Flickr images using the Christmas tag. The image of this cute little Christmas elf caught my eye(http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeit_snapit/3103161367/). He is adorable and I love vintage Christmas decorations. I'd like to decorate my house with items just like this little guy. I think I had a Christmas bell similar to this that my mom would let me keep in my room when I was little.

(I tried to post the image here, but if just kept coming up blank, so I just did the URL.)

7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners

The easiest habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. I enjoy seeking out opportunities to learn more and develop my skills.

The most difficult of the 7 1/2 habits for me, is viewing problems as challenges. I tend to move quickly through life and if a problem cannot be taken care of in a short amount of time I am ready to be done with it and move on to something else. This probably means I am lacking patience!