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.