Thing #13 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

Yay... a new Thing that I like! I must say, I've avoided del.icio.us up to this point for the single reason that I don't like the way it looks. Now that I've forced myself to really try it though, I'm pretty excited about it. Since I don't have my own computer at work, I'm constantly switching workstations and having all my bookmarks available online will help a great deal - no more deluding myself into thinking that I can just remember everything! A team that I'm on has been considering making a shared del.icio.us account for reference use, and now I can see how helpful that would be - especially since it could be made available for the public as well.

Thing #22 - Downloadable Audiobooks

Eeek! Not for me. Audiobooks are something that I've never been able to get into. I don't have a long commute, nor do I often drive anywhere that's far enough that I could listen to a significant amount of an audiobook. When I do go on long drives, I'm usually too afraid of falling asleep to even bother. And my 'portable listening device' of choice is my iPod, which isn't compatible with downloaded audiobooks. So there's my litany of excuses.

Now, for the purposes of LATI and 23Things, I went through the steps of downloading an audiobook from my library's subscription to Overdrive, and I have to admit it was a helpful exercise. Since I've done it, I'm much more able to help patrons and answer questions about the process. Also, I've found that I'm much more likely to recommend it to patrons and explain the process, since I can say that I've done it, and it really is simple.

Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

Hmm. I feel kind of blah towards these tools. I've experimented a bit with Zoho Writer and Zoho Creater, as well as Google Docs. As a google user/addict, I like that Google Docs is available and used with the same log-in that I use for Google-everything else (mail, calendar, etc.) Very user-friendly and not something that I'm likely to use once and then forget my password for. Zoho is also simple to use and seems to have a few more things that it can do. Even so, I still prefer using the regular office applications and transferring them with either my flash drive or email attachments, mostly because I like knowing that my file is saved in more than one place, not just off there in cyberspace. On the other hand, working in a library where more than half of our computers are internet-only and do not have access to word processing software, I do see the value in these internet-based tools and recommend them to patrons who do not have their own computer, or who have forgotten their disk, etc.

Thing #11 - LibraryThing

Originally uploaded by chotda

In case anyone was wondering, all of today's posts are for 'Things' that I've already done, and I'm just now getting around to blogging for 23Things. LibraryThing seemed cool when I first set it up many moons ago, but I only ever got around to adding 6 books, and for some reason I never went back to it. Since then, I've been introduced to a similar tool that I much prefer - Goodreads! I've added about 90 books to my Goodreads library, and it's something I check often. There are two main reasons why I prefer Goodreads over LibraryThing: the ability to categorize your library into 'shelves', and the ability to connect to your friends and receive feeds of their recent updates. The shelves feature lets you add and label books that you've read, are currently reading, and want to read, as well as create a variety of other categories. This makes it a useful tool for keeping my 'to-read' list on, as well as a way of rating what I've already read. The friends updates are even better - as soon as I log in I can see what new books my friends have added, and what they think of books they've just finished. This is a great way to get ideas for my 'to-read' list, as well as a way to open up conversations about shared books.

For those of you who are so inclined:

My LibraryThing

My GoodReads

Thing #8 - RSS Feeds

I set up a bloglines account a few months ago as part of my LATI work. I selected a few feeds from sites that I check often, and tried to get used to going there instead of checking sites individually. After a few weeks, I realized that the only one I was actually looking at was the Unshelved comic strip. For the rest, things like local and world news, I reverted to just checking the sites. Maybe I'd find RSS more useful if there were more places that I check often, or sites that are harder to remember. To me, RSS is something that doesn't really save me time, it's just one more thing that I have to remember a log-in for.

This 23Things thing is making me sound like a crotchety old grump. I swear, I'm really not!

Thing #6 - Flickr Mash-ups & Third Party Sites

I started looking through some of the Flickr mash-ups pages and was a bit disappointed. The first one I tried was Mappr, but there was a notice that as of 2007, mappr is no longer processing Flickr images on maps. Perhaps because Flickr has its own map feature, one that I might add is more intuitive anyway. Next I tried Montager, the photo mosaic creater. This is a really cool idea, but the site (or perhaps my computer) was frustratingly slow. Also, I couldn't come up with a photo mosaic that was clearly the picture it was supposed to be, and I really wanted to try to make a mosaid of one of my own pictures but didn't see that it was possible. Perhaps I gave up too soon. Finally I tried Flickr Color Pickr, where I was a little bit more satisfied. The site was quick and the little kid in me got a big kick out of picking my favorite colors and quickly finding photos of different things (flowers, graffiti, circles in squares, etc.) As I was playing with that, though, I couldn't get away from wondering - what's the point?

Thing #5 - Flickr

Ahh, Flickr. One of my many internet addictions. Photography is a bit of a hobby of mine, and I love how easy Flickr makes it to keep my pictures online and be able to show anyone, any time, my favorite and most recent shots. Also, when you become 'friends' with other people on Flickr, you get a feed of their most recent photos every time you log in. This makes it especially easy for lazy people like myself to be able to keep up with friends' pictures without having to check them individually. I haven't spent much time exploring pictures by people I don't know, mainly because I always look at photos of places I haven't been, and then that little (or in my case, bossy and insistent) urge to indulge in my wanderlust kicks in, and I get distracted from the pictures and start looking up airfare to places like Bhutan. Very dangerous indeed.

By the way, I took this photo of Schloss Hohenschwangau last fall in Germany.

Thing #2 - Lifelong Learning

The 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners tutorial made me think about learning a little bit differently than I have before. Habit #3, viewing problems as challenges, is one of the easiest for me. Problem-solving has always been fun for me, because it's like a puzzle. When someone feeds me information, I might think about a little and remember for a while, but it never last as long as when I have to solve a problem to get the information.

Habit #1, beginning with the end in mind, is much harder for me. I don't like to over-analyze problems or tasks, I much prefer to jump in and figure out where I want to end up later. This often leads to learning a little bit about a lot of things, and not necessarily taking on larger projects. The most obvious way to see this in myself is my foreign language ability. I've always been fascinated by other languages, and have studied quite a few at the elementary level, but I've never set a firm goal that I want to be fluent in another language, so I've never pushed myself to pursue a single language past the 'conversational' level.

Hmm. Something to work on. :)