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 #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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