Monday, February 11, 2008

Thing #23 The End!

Eureka! The knowledge that so many of you participated and made it through the program gave me a huge push to finish even though I will not participate in the laptop drawing. Thanks to everyone for their effort in getting through this. I'm so impressed by your energy and stick-to-it-ness and I'm fascinated by some of the cool things you learned and accomplished.

This program was challenging for me. I attend conferences and workshops on this stuff and read about it all the time, but I rarely make the time to actually try out some of the technologies. Humbling for sure, but extremely valuable and instructive in that it gives me new understanding and appreciation for all that library staff do as you, my colleagues, take some risks and try new things.

Thing #22 Pass It On

A few days ago I was telling my husband about this self-paced program we were offering and he was really interested in some of the explorations I had accomplished. He was particularly interested in del.icio.us as a great way for his work group to share articles and information. I shared the 23 Things project with him so he could play with some of the technologies and he's starting to create some items in del.icio.us for his colleagues.

Thing #21Podcasts, Smodcasts

It was eye opening to explore some of the directories. I mostly ended up in NPR sites and particularly enjoyed the News letter with Jim Lehrer and a discussion of why read by several authors. I also added a feed to my Bloglines account for some classical music.

Thing #20 YouTube

YouTube is a great resource for travel sites. I spent some time getting excited about my trip to Cabo. While there is some quality stuff here, there is also some bad home movie stuff. Previously, I've seen a wide variety of library applications with some quite good. It certainly can be less expensive than using the Media Center if you are doing something short and quick. It might also be an alternative to some of the screencasts or it could be effective as a short introduction to library services. This is a very popular application among our students so they may enjoy a few YouTube creations on the library's website.

Thing #19 Best of the Web 2.0 Tools

Owning a home, I like to look at real estate listings. When I checked the Short list, I found Zillow that I am very familiar with, but then I found 2 others I didn't know about. I spent some time in HousingMaps.com and searched for apartments where I grew up. It was fun to see what the prices were and then check Google maps for the exact locations. I found an apartment I used to pass every day on my walk to HS. It was fun to see the street names of my home and it made for some pleasant memories.

Thing #18 Web based Apps

I first learned about Google Docs at a library workshop last spring. I was really excited about it when a faculty member told me how useful it was to her work with colleagues in Third World countries that don't have the resources to purchase MS Office. I use MS Word and track changes to share documents, but they really fill up my mailbox quickly. I can see how this could facilitate sharing documents and keep a neater mailbox.

Thing #17 PB wiki

I added my link to my blog in the SandBox. After taking a look at some of the blogs, I can see how information can be shared quite easily and updated. The reference staff seems to be making good use of their wiki and I look forward to it being extended to other departments.

Thing #16 Wikis

When looking at some of the wikis, I came across the sequel to Learning 2.0. I had seen the update many months ago but couldn't put my finger on it, so I was delighted to find it in a wiki. For those who might be interested, visit http://explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com/2007/02/adventure-continues.html for THings 24-49!

Princeton's wiki got me thinking about a book review wiki--perhaps focusing on our New Books and Popular Collection (including audiobooks). There's a faculty book club that might want to contribute reviews of their readings. I'm reading a book that a faculty member mentioned to another librarian as great and I'm enjoying it although I probably wouldn't have picked it up without her recommendation. Sometimes I pass the New Books area and a faculty member tells me that just read a particular title and really enjoyed it. You probably have had the same experience. I know many library staff are great readers. This might be a great way to create community and promote our resources.

Thing # 15 Library 2.0

I read OCLC's NEXT all the time and particularly like their visionary articles. Library 2.0, etc. is bandied about all the time but it was good to see the differentiation between Library 1.0 and Library 4.0 in these articles and particularly in Wendy Schultz's article in http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm.
We are at the Librarians 2.0 stage and this is particularly timely after our staff retreat.

"Librarians 2.0 plans for their users. This librarian bases all planning and proposals for services, materials and outreach on user needs and wants. User-centered libraries breakdown barriers and allow users access wherever they are: home, work, commuting, school, or at the library. This involves users from the get go in planning and launching services based on their needs. This librarian asks what new technologies or new materials users need."

I found the comments on 3.0 interesting. I hadn't thought of us as being librarian superstars.

Library 3.0
"Who’s the best librarian avatar? How many Amazon stars has your avatar collected from satisfied customers? This could create librarian “superstars” based on buzz and customer ratings. People will collect librarians rather than books—the ability not just to organise, but also to annotate and compare books and other information sources, from a variety of useful perspectives."

And I haven't thought of the library as a "knowledge spa" as noted by Library 4.0.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Thing # 14 Technorati

My mind is spinning from the amazing # of blogs out there. By using the Advanced Search, I found how to look for blog posts, tags and the blogs directory. The hits were quite different for each.

Thing # 13 Tagging

I continued my Cabo theme and discovered many more interesting sites. The tag cloud is cool and the tags really pop out. I found the DNL report. The Web Committee uses del.icio.us for sharing materials. It keeps our mailboxes free from links and attached articles.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Thing #12 Rollyo

I created an account and set up a searchroll for my upcoming vacation. http://rollyo.com/search.html?q=cabo+san+lucas&sid=10802


It pulled together so many sites that I wouldn't have thought of before I knew about this. I looked at several flickr sites and now I'm really looking forward to my trip after seeing the local sights chronicled by other tourists.

Thing #11 Library Thing

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I created an account and set up a library of 6 titles. It was fun to see how many other people chose some of my titles. I was also interested in the display choices. I thought I was creating a widget and see the text code in my "compose" but it doesn't appear in my post.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jtoverfield. Here's the link to my library.

Thing #10


You may recognize this as the daylight picture of the front of DNL. I used the warholizer http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/warholizer.php.

http://www.oreillymaker.com/link/12214/crabs-in-the-workplace/
I made a book cover in an image generator.


I also made some glitter signs at http://www.glitterizer.com/?allow=102306480&text=Library+Glitz&sparkle=americas-gold&color=coral&fontsize=40&font=Joy&moveh=&movew=