Thing #23 - One Last Thing!

I actually finished - I can't believe it!. Doing this was a real accomplishment. I've gone from someone who had only a vague knowledge of a few of these sites to someone, who if not totally proficient in them, at least has a little experience. Having to actually participate and actually"do things" was so much better than just reading about them. Even though I've already forgotten many of the actual how-to's, I know I can go back to the 23 things on a stick site and review them, and perhaps they will become second nature at some point.


Anyway, I'm grateful for the opportunity I had. Now I just have to concentrate on how I can use them in a library situation. I seem to be little weak on imagination, but I'll be working on that.

Thing #22 - What Have I Learned Today

I don't know how I'll ever be able to keep up with all I've learned. I like the idea of 15 minutes a day. It doesn't sound too overwhelming. so I should be able to do it. I'll try to keep up on some of the RSS feeds that I've subscribed to, and will add any other sites I come across that sound interesting to me. There is just so much out there, that I don't know how anyone keeps up regularly.

I'll try to keep up (or at least visit occasionally) WebJunction Minnesota, Ning's 23 things Minnesota, and the Minitex Webinars. Flickr and YouTube are wonderful time wasters. I'll try to think of a way to make them more usable for me as a librarian, though. I have the "Librarian in Black" and "The Shifted Librarian' on my RSS feeds as well as several other sites, so all in all, I think that will definitely cover my 15 minutes a day.

Thing #21 - Beyond MySpace

I think if I were ever going to join a social networking group it would be something like this rather than Facebook or MySpace. It seems for the most part to be directed toward adults rather than teens or young people. I read the articles, and came to see that there is a place for social networking within the library. I don't know if our library is quite ready for it, since it seems to take us a great deal of time to set up anything new, but it may happen someday.

I explored Ning and set up an account, added some pictures and posted my Ning badge on my Blog. (I even got a comment from someone and replied to her.) I visited Gather and looked around there. I have to admit I am amazed that there are so many social networking sites and so many people who are a part of them and contribute regularly. I don't see that I would ever do that, but maybe if I had more time or had a really specific interest I wanted to share, perhaps I would get involved.

Thing #20 - Libraries and Social Networks

I spent some time on MySpace because I didn't want to set up a profile on Facebook in order to simply look at it. After checking it out, I'm not sure about a library page on a social networking site. I know I'm going to sound extremely old fashioned and prudish, but so manyof the pages I saw were crude and full of profanity. However, I did look at Hennepin County's page and it looks like it offers a lot of reading lists, new book suggestions, programs of interest to teens, photos, etc. It looks good, but all the comments that I saw on the page were from authors pushing their books. Most of the "friends" on the Dakota County Library page also seemed to be authors. Are we really reaching the group the page is directed at? Lots of libraries around the US have pages. Is there a way of tracking who is accessing them?

Is this more appealing than a web page? Is it just because it's on MySpace that makes it more appealing to teens? I suppose they might be more likely to access the library from that point than from any other entry point, so if that's the case it does make sense to have a presence in MySpace or Facebook. (However, after looking at a few library pages, I can see room for improvement on many of them...misspellings, lack of ability to connect to the library catalog, etc. My own library system is at fault here, too. I don;'t know who is responsible for it, but I suppose after learning all about Library 2.0 we should be able to make improvements...)
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Thing#19 - Podcasts

I checked out a couple different types of podcasts - one by Nancy Pearl on book reviews which was a radio-style podcast, and another podcast by an elementary school which was a television style podcast. It was interesting to listen to Nancy because she added much more to the book review than the material that was printed on the website. http://www.kuow.org/programs/books.asp

The elementary school podcast seemed to me to be very professional, considering the age of the kids. http://todaysteacher.com/rocketcast.xml In a way, it made me think of when my kids were in middle school a hundred years ago and had to do a "radio broadcast". The kids doing the podcast each had a subject they were responsible for and appeared very much at ease in front of the camera. If nothing else, being exposed to this technology at an early age will prepare them for life as a newscaster in the future...

I thought the directory podcast.com was easy to use, but the Educational Podcast directory was more confusing and harder to locate a podcast of interest. I can't imagine that I would personally ever do a podcast, but while talking to another librarian, she mentioned that they were having a teen contest in their library - that might be fun and a draw for kids.

Thing #18 - YouTube

I knew a little bit about YouTube before I started doing 23 Things, but I guess I had no idea of how much was available there. I had lots of fun checking out the various films that came up under "Libraries" or "Librarians" Here is the video I decided to upload to my blog as a possibility for our staff day entertainment. Perhaps our library director would like to lead us...



Another video I really enjoyed was the laughing baby - not library related, but really, really cute.


Once again, however, I have a hard time figuring out how these things apply to the library. It seems like there would be lots of library uses for a video for teaching purposes, but If you spend your time making a video, how do you guarantee that your intended audience sees them? It's not like a public library has a built in audience like a school library or a classroom where viewing it can be an assignment. Library patrons might only find it by accident.

Thing #17 Elm Productivity Tools

I'll have to admit I had no idea that all these things were available through ELM. I've used the databases for a long time, but never explored any other options. However, as usual, I had some problems...

Gale Cengage: I couldn't get an RSS feed from Infotrac to Google Reader - I just kept getting an error message. It sounds like I wasn't theonly one who had problems when I looked at the comments at the end of the write-up on Thing #17.

Also- Infotrac Student Edition looks much different on our library website than it does when I access it through Elm4you.org. I think our student edition is for younger kids. It certainly doesn't look like it's directed at high school level searchers. Also the video shows another interface from the two previously mentioned ways of accessing Infotrac Student Edition... What's going on?
I did manage to listen to the broadcast via NPR and add the NPR news feed to Google Reader.

Ebsco Academic Search Premier: Ebsco also has some material I didn't realize was there. I did manage to set up a web page. However, it seemed to be rather a lot of work. I don't know if I'd be particularly inclined to do this. It's probably just as easy to email citations and links to people. I did manage too set up the link to the Ebsco Search Box and put it on the web page.

Proquest: I wasn't able to find a radio button for "suggest topics" It seemed like other related topics just appeared at the top of the search results. I thought it was much easier to create a web page in Proquest, although there were no options for backgrounds, etc. I think I might use it more often, though, compared to the Ebsco database web page composer.

NetLibrary: Once again, I don't think I knew that you could add notes to pages in NetLibrary. I can see that it might be handy for those doing research in NetLibrary books, but at this point, I don't see much use for me to use it.

I don't collaborate much with other librarians on doing searches for information, so I don't think I'd do much with shared folders. However, I do see that there are lots of tools that I wasn't aware of that, even if I don't use them, would helpful for certain patrons to know they are there.

Thing #16 Assignment Calculator and Research project Calculator

I wish some of these online tools had existed a million years ago when I was in school. I really like the fact that every step is laid out so clearly. I think that because the Research project caluculator is laid out in 4 steps and the Assignment Calculator is in 12 steps, that the high school students we see would probably choose the former (even though they both cover the same material). I am curious to know whether teachers at our local schools know about these sites and recommend them. I haven't heard students talk about them.

The biggest problem I see is that nearly all the time when we get a student looking for materials in our library, the assignment is due within a day or two (or- worst case scenario - it was due last week...). Obviously, what I think seems like a great idea is not going to work if there is no time to do the assignment. I had a college student in last week looking for materials for an 8 page research paper due the next day and he was wandering around trying to think of a topic to do it on. Obviously, the assignment calculator wasn't going to work for him. These are great ideas for classroom teachers and school media specialists, but I'm not sure how many students would look in the public library for this type of help. I suppose we could print out some of the handouts and have them available for students if they seem to be open to this idea. I don't like to sound so negative, but often we have parents coming in to get materials for their child because he or she "just doesn't have time". If they don't have time to do their own research, I get the feeling that an assignment calculator may not be something they are particularly interested in.

Thing #15 Libraries and Games

This is soooo not me... I have no interest in sitting in front of a computer pretending to be someone I'm not in some virtual world, interacting with someone who exists somewhere else . If I'm playing games I want to have people around me I can laugh and talk with and interact with directly. I do enjoy playing games, though, although they are the old fashioned board type games. Also, I've somewhat managed to figure out the Wii and play with my grandchildren.

Online gaming is a whole different story. I can see that there is a demographic that this does appeal to, and probably there is a place for the library in appealing to this group. Our manager is a gamer, and he has held some relatively successful dungeons and dragons programs as well as Guitar Hero and DDR. although these are not online, who knows, perhaps we will be moving in that direction at some point. (just so I don't have to have anything to do with it....) I watched the video tour on Info Island, and frankly, it made no sense to me at all. I'm really missing something.

Thing #14 - LibraryThing

I like this Thing #14. I always mean to keep track of the books I read, and have tried several times over the years to do exactly that, on paper, in notebooks, on my computer, etc. Unfortunately, these attempts have never lasted too long (mostly my fault since I'd forget to do the entering...) LibraryThing has made it so easy to enter titles, that even I may be able to continue this project. At least I'll make the attempt for a while. I've even added My Library to my blog, where as I understand, my 5 most recently added titles will continue to update from my Library to my blog. We'll see. I'm not doing this so much for the social aspects as for my own convenience of having a place where all the titles are together in the same format in one place.

Thing #13 - Online Productivity Tools

I don't think I find these tools very interesting or very productive. I really think you have to spend nearly all your time on the computer to find them helpful. I tried igoogle. It was kind of fun to set up my own homepage, but I can't really imagine why I would do it. The home pages that are out there already seem more than adequate , and the widgets or gadgets that I added to my igoogle page seemed more like time wasters than productivity tools. Probably not for me.

I have a hard enough time remembering to put information into my Outlook Calendar, I can't imagine having to keep track of more than one calendar.

I tried Stikkits and found the screencast so confusing that I'm really not sure what they are supposed to do. I guess they keep track of things and "peeps" and numbers and meetings, etc. Not for me, though.

The to do lists are fine, but I need my list when I'm not near a computer - when I'm out doing errands. Real Post-It notes work fine.

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Thing #12 - Do You Digg?

The quick answer to that is "No, I don't Digg and I haven't "Reddit" and I can't see why I ever would Digg, or Reddit, or anything else that is offered on the other "social news sites". I'd much rather get my news from the morning paper and not rely on netizens to tell me what I should find most interesting. I'm just not into this "social" stuff.

I can't see how I would find this useful in my library work. It seems to me if something is newsworthy, I should be able to find out about it without going to one of those sites. Besides, most of what I saw that is most popular seems to be pretty much without any value that I can see... (Boy, do I sound old and crabby....)

Thing #11 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

Well, I tagged my blog. It seems to make sense to do the tagging, but more for my own benefit than for anyone else's. I guess I'm not so into "sharing" as I could be.

I also explored del.icio.us. I can see it as an easy way to always have your bookmarks available, no matter what computer you are at. However, once again, I have a problem with this "sharing" thing. The things I looked at that were already bookmarked were so varied, that putting in one tag and searching what came up was almost overwhelming. I can see where I might use it for myself to keep track of sites that would help with a reference question or project, but I can't see it extending farther out than that.

Thing #10 - Wikis

Wikis are an interesting concept, but it seems that there are so many possibilities for information to be altered. I remember many months ago reading a posting on Wkipedia, when I was just checking on it to see what it was like. I read about some subject which I can no longer remember. The beginning of the article was fine, but after the first paragraph, even I, who knew little about the subject, realized that whoever entered the information was highly prejudiced against the material that had probably been originally entered, and had entered his own - obviously wrong and a little improper. How many people will take what is written on a site like wikipedia as the gospel truth?

Our library system has just started a staff wiki. It will be interesting to see how many use it. We used to have a staff blog, but frankly, it wasn't very successful - hardly anyone used it.

Anyway, I have now "wiki"d. I went into the 23 things wiki and fortunately, someone was clever enough to post a list of "wrong" titles and authors and suggested someone correct them - so I did! (at least I corrected one title and added a picture.) I feel like a published author now - and it certainly was easy.

Thing #9 - Online Collaboration Tools

I tried out Google Docs and think I can definitely see some library applications for this. If you are on a committee with someone from another branch, it would be an easy way to collaborate on a document or presentation. I think this is a great idea! It seemed to be quite easy to use. I read the testimonials from other users and it seemed like everyone found lots of different applications for Google Docs. However, I didn't see how to edit the public document without first setting up an account. I didn't try Zoho because it looks like you have to set up an account before you can do anything there, too, but I imagine it works in much the same way.

Thing #8 - Sharing your Creations

Holy Cow! I think I actually made a slideshow on the first try! Amazing - although I had to use other people's pictures since I don't have any of my own. They took much better pictures than I ever could have - so-Thank You. Anyway, it was pretty easy, so I'd recommend it although I'm not exactly sure of the library applications. This is what I'm having the hardest time with. It's fun to play with these things, but how do I use them? Also this constantly moving slideshow is driving me crazy already. I'll probably have to get rid of it!

Thing #7 - Web 2.0 Communication Tools

1. Email is old hat. I use it at work and at home. However, probably not to the extent that others do. Unfortunately, I still find myself occasionally reaching for the phone when I should be emailing. Probably my age - I grew up when phone numbers still had only 4 digits and there were no computers. Emailing groups is a whole lot easier than emailing (or phoning) each individual person. Email is a wonderful thing, but you're right, it can be a time waster, too... However, I can't imagine life without it now.

2. Instant messaging is something that I know very little about. Our library is trying to start virtual reference using IM, but I was on vacation during the training session, so I'm not familiar enough with it yet to know how successful it will be. We're going to be using Meebo.

3.Text Messaging. never tried it - probably won't. I know my kids do it, but typing on those little phone keys is way to difficult for me. I've watched people do it, and am surprised they can still move their thumbs.

4. Web conferencing. I watched a Minitex webinar on starting up an IM reference program. There are lots of things about it that I hadn't thought about before. Since we are preparing to start up, I'm curious to see who takes advantage of it, and how effective it is. It sounds like it might be the way of the future.
Our library system had a seminar on customer service recently that we were all required to attend. I think this would have been a perfect use for a "webinar" Instead of having everyone travel to a different location for the meeting, we could have stayed in our own branches and gotten the information in a much shorter time. It would have been much more convenient.

Thing #6 - Even More Fun with Online Image Generators

I think I finally got my trading card. Since I don't have many pictures on my computer I had to go to Flickr and use someone else's photo.. Thanks to Carla 216 for the unauthorized use of her photo I hope when it says "all rights reserved" and "public" it means I can use her photo as long as I don't make any money off it. if not, Carla, I'm sorry, but I liked your photo.

As far as using some of these ideas in the library, I think they'd be really fun and different. However, it took me so long to do these assignments that I don't think the library would want to pay me for the wasted time I would have to spend doing these clever little mashups. maybe if I got really good, and could whip them out in a few minutes, it would be a different story, but right now, I don't think it's for me.

Anyway - I'm off on vacation tomorrow! Yaaayyy!

Thing #6 - Online Image Generator

I actually finally got an image into my post - thanks to some help from a co-worker. I'm still not sure exactly what I was doing wrong, but things worked this time and there are some results to look at. I was hoping to completely finish thing#5 before we left on vacation, but if I can't figure out how to make a trading card tomorrow, that will have to wait until I get back. The Dominican Republic awaits!

Thing #5 - Fun with Flickr

Brennan Puzzle
Originally uploaded by Librarian Sue 113

I think I might have done it this time - with a little luck this picture will show up on the blog post for today. I find it very frustrating that it's not easy to find directions for doing something that should be relatively simple. Nowhere could I find that I had to upload this picture puzzle I made to Flickr before I could put it in my blog. Why do techies only write for other techies? I could upload it to my blog directly, but it wouldn't appear in a particular post. It appeared on my blog, but not where I wanted it too. Then after I uploaded it to Flickr and then downloaded it to my blog it was fine.

I think it would be fun to make posters for the library using pictures from Flickr. It would be really nice to be able to make big posters, but I don't think we have the capability here to do that.

It's fun using these toys, but I wish I were more creative to figure out clever things to do with them.

Thing # 5 - More Flickr Fun

I 'm trying to figure out how to upload my Flickr picture puzzle to my Blog. So far nothing has worked. I am certainly not too impressed with the fact that I can't find any instructions on how to do it. I can't remember how I got the picture into the last post, and whenever I try to put this picture in, it ends up either above or below the post.

Oops - maybe I got it this time. Let's see. No, I guess not. Now my grandson's picture is over on the side. What am I doing wrong? So far I'm not having so much more Flickr fun... I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Thing#4 - Flickr

Hastings, Minnesota
Originally uploaded by Punchup

I've spent the last couple of days exploring Flickr. I can't believe the number of photos that have been posted there. At first I wasn't sure of the reasons people would post their pictures on the internet, but after watching the video, I realize that it could be a safe storage thing. I also wonder if people are looking for compliments on their photography or if professionals are marketing themselves. Anyway, it sure gives us lots of good pictures to look at.
I think I've followed the directions for uploading a picture from Flickr to my blog. (I've personally never seen a sunset that looks this good, but I think perhaps this guy is a professional photographer. Thanks to Punchup for the use of his (or her) photo.

After looking at the pictures of the St. Ben's/Alcuin library I am quite impressed with the creativity. It's a great idea for marketing books, but I think it would be even better if there was a summary of the book rather that just a link to Amazon. Who has time to figure out these things?

Thing #3- Rss Feeds

Well, I guess I have finished #3, but I'm not quite sure why. I managed to register in Google Reader and located some rss feeds. I've put the blogs and feeds into Google Reader - now I guess the next step is to keep checking on them regularly to see how they have been updated. Somehow, it seems like this just makes it necessary to spend more time on the computer checking on other peoples blogs, etc. Do I care that much? I'm not sure... I guess I just have to find some feeds that are on subjects that I am passionately interested in... Oops - maybe there lies the problem...no passions.

Thing#2 - Library 2.0

After reading all the posts and documents, I'm not really sure what to think about Library 2.0. I can see why it's important that we are aware of the new technologies, but I'm not sure how much public is interested in all this. Yes, maybe the young, technologically hip are ready to plunge into these new technologies, but is the general public?

Mostly, the people I see and help every day are not interested in learning new technologies. They just have a question and want an answer as soon as possible. In general, the 8o year old who needs to print a boarding pass but doesn't have any idea how to use a computer just wants me to say I'll print it out for him. He doesn't want to learn how to use a computer, or any other technology. He just wants to get a boarding pass (which the airline used to issue to him when he bought his ticket with no effort on his part.)

Possibly, some of these new technologies will help me find the answers faster for some questions,
but to take full advantage of them, you have to be willing to spend a great deal of time on the computer. I don't know if I have the time or the interest, and I don't think that a great majority of customers want to spend time learning it. Perhaps in another generation ot two, when everyone has grown up with technology from day 1 and learns it all when they are very young, it will seem more feasible.

The ideas may be great, but it is becoming more and more difficult to simply find a book that has the answer a person is looking for and give it to them. Telling someone they can look it up on one of our databases is not always the most helpful answer...

(I think I'm still a Library 1.0 person)

Thing #1 - Confused Newbie

This is all so new to me. I hope I'll be able to figure it out as I go along. I titled this blog 23 Years 23 Things because I've been working at the library that long and I just hope my semi-calcified brain will be able to figure out all these new things. We'll just have to see. Now I have to figure out how to make an avatar. (I did it on my grandson's Wii- how much harder can it be to do it here?) Well - it was harder...