A Thing or Two or Twenty-Three

Thing #23 - Summarize thoughts about 23 Things

2008-04-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! The last Thing! 23 Things has been an interesting journey for me. I've tried lots of things that I've either avoided or never heard of, and have found quite a few that will be particularly useful to me either at work or at home. Flickr and Goodreads are my favorites, and they are purely fun and social things. As for the more useful Things, I think blogs and wikis have a lot of potential for projects that I'm currently working on at my library, and this program has helped me get more familiar with what they can do and got me thinking about the different ways the library can put them to use.

Thing #21 - Podcasts

2008-04-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Podcasts have long been part of the group of techo-gadgets that I wanted no part of. As a rule I don't like recordings of people talking, as I discussed back in the audiobook Things. However, I made a good faith effort with this Thing, and was rewarded with a compromise that I think I'll be happy with. I've been trying to make myself listen to NPR, as coworkers are always telling me about interesting things they've heard. Using Yahoo Podcasts I found NPR's Book Tour Podcast, which I added to my bloglines feeds. This way, I'll have notification of things that I might want to listen to without having to pay attention to the times for the radio. I'm still not sure how often I'll actually listen, but at least I'll be aware of what I'm missing :) I did listen to Dinaw Mengestu's reading of 'The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears,' which I enjoyed more than I expected, and look forward to reading.

Thing #17 - Add an entry to the Sandbox Wiki

2008-04-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

I had fun playing with the Maryland Libraries Sandbox wiki. Lots of interesting, if random, posts and blogs. Librarians make me smile :) Anyway, I added my blog to the sandbox, and it was even easier than I remember wikis being. I stand by my thoughts from last week that wikis can be incredibly useful for libraries, though with completely open access, there will always be room for problems and chaos. I liked this exercise - good to have a format for how and what to do the first time you try something like adding to a wiki.

Thing #20 - YouTube

2008-04-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

I tried to explore YouTube today, but found it very difficult to get into. I can see why it's useful, but I'm not much of a video person, and I don't have the patience to dig around just to find something that may or may not be worth watching. The only exception I can see for myself is using it for music videos. I did find a couple of travel-y videos when I did a Cambodia travel search, and they were mildly amusing, but this really isn't a tool that I see myself using on a regular basis.

Thing #16 - Wikis

2008-04-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Wikis are neat. I haven't had much experience with them before, with the exception of Wikipedia and a wiki that I had to add to for a final project in college. I spent some time going through the Library Success wiki and some of the reader's advisory sites like Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki. I think that these are great uses for wikis, and I have a feeling this is one of the Things that will really prove even more useful in the library community as it catches on more. My library's Interlibrary Loan Coordinator created an ILL wiki for staff that is very helpful for us with FAQs about ILLs, and I'm sure we could put this idea to use in many other areas.

Thing #12 - Rollyo

2008-04-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

In theory, I really like Rollyo. I can think of a lot of instances where it could come in handy, particularly when providing reference assistance. In practice for personal use, however, it's not quite as perfect as I'd hoped. To create my search roll, I went into my del.icio.us account and used links that I had tagged with 'travel' and created an 'Icy Travel' search roll for sites that have both general travel info and specific arctic and antarctic travel info. When I was creating my search roll, I kept thinking that since the websites I was adding are ones that I'm already familiar with, it makes more sense to just go to the site that I know will have the best information. Rollyo seems to just create an extra step. I think, though, with lots of time and thought, reference librarians could come up with search rolls for particular areas where not all staff have the same level of expertise. A business or legal search roll would be excellent if put together by staff who are familiar with sites that they know to be reliable, and then staff who are unsure of these areas could use the search roll to answer questions more confidently.

Thing #14 - Technorati and Tags

2008-04-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Oops - I guess I got ahead of myself with Thing #9 and did some of this stuff already! I did go back into Technorati and tried keyword searching "Learning 2.0" in posts, tags, the Blog directory, and photos too. I was a bit surprised how different the results were. I dug around a little bit in the top blogs and top searches, but I'm still just not that into blogs. No more blog Things please!

Thing #15 - Perspectives on Library 2.0

2008-04-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

Being new to the library world myself, I think I have much more fluid ideas of libraries and how technology could be used in them than those who have been in the business longer. After reading the various perspectives, I realized that if pushed to choose a stance, I must fall somewhere in the middle. I really like and agree with what Rick Anderson said in his perspective, Away from Icebergs "No profession can survive if it throws its core principles and values overboard in response to every shift in the zeitgeist. However, it can be equally disastrous when a profession fails to acknowledge and adapt to radical, fundamental change in the marketplace it serves." I think he's right - libraries need to focus on the best and most useful ways to adopt 2.0 technologies; not necessarily try to find a way to use as many as possible, but certainly not be afraid to give them a try and see what works.

Thing #10 - Online Image Generators

2008-04-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

Yay, more photo fun! I played around with FD Toys and created a few mosaics of my own pictures from flickr. Unfortunately, I was having some trouble saving the images and I've had to jump back and forth between different computers with different software, so the one that I've place in this post isn't my most creative one. I like it though - as many people know, I take 'foot pictures' everytime I'm up really high (as in skydiving or paragliding or other such things) and any other time I'm in a notable place. These pictures, clockwise from top left, are my feet over a fault line in Iceland, on top of Table Mountain in South Africa, covered with silica mud in the blue lagoon in Iceland, and paragliding in the Swiss Alps.

This type of image generator is definitely something that I'll play with even after 23 Things. Not sure how often I'll be able to use this with patrons though...

Thing #9 - MERLIN & feed searches

2008-04-10T07:39:00.000-07:00

MERLIN appears to be a handy library site. I explored a bit and read lots of blogs about the CIL conference that was going on earlier this week. I was excited that I was able to remember how to add it to my bloglines account, which I set up months ago and haven't added to since. Then I tried using syndic8 and technorati to search for more feeds. Unfortunately, since I'm not really interested in finding more feeds, I wasn't able to come up with anything exciting. I was able to look at some of the most popular feeds, but nothing really appealed to me. Oh well.. not for me..

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Awards

2008-04-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a recent library program - Going Glocal - I decided to try out www.begreennow.com This site has information about global warming and 'being green.' A neat feature is the carbon calculator, which allows you to put in your annual car mileage, air travel, electricity, and natural gas consumption, and calculates your carbon dioxide emissions - in metric tons. Fascinating stuff. One thing I didn't like is that the site has things for sale, and is constantly trying to get you to click into their store. Aside from that, it's a pretty interesting and educational site.

Thing #7 - Anything-technology-related

2008-04-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

My iPod died this past weekend. This, in itself, does not particularly interest me. As it tried desperately to turn on, it displayed a very moving picture of an incredibly sad-looking iPod with a warning sign and a message to go the the apple support website. All in all, I can't really complain, as it has served me well over the past 4 years, travelling through more than 20 countries with me, and lets just say it was not always treated with 'first-class' level care. Now, since I have a cross-country road trip coming up next month, I need to quickly replace my poor dead friend. I was looking at the apple website yesterday, and comparing the different models. Yes, yes, I know there are other brands that might have more capabilities, but I'm a mac-snob and I have no intention of changing. I think I'm going to go with an 8 GB iPod nano. I'll never be able to fill it up usefully with music, and I know I won't use it for video. Then it just comes down to the color. I must say, I wasn't thrilled with the choices - the green of my poor dead mini from a few years ago is much more to my liking. I was leaning toward the red anyway, and then I noticed the (product)RED logo next to it. I clicked on a link to find out what this means, and it turns out that there's a whole line of corporations that have exclusive (product)RED products, and when purchased, a portion of the money goes to a global fund to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. I haven't had time to research this too much, but if I'm spending the money anyway, I like knowing that some of it will be going to a good cause. Neat, huh?

Thing #13 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

2008-03-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

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. :)