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.