Thing #18 YouTube

This is a fun one. I thought I'd try to link to the late Randy Pausch's Last Lecture.
Here I go:

Thing #17 ELM Productivity Tools

I'm familiar with Minneapolis Public Library's databases, which is a variation on this, I suppose. I use it for a couple of databases we don't have access to at work, one is JSTOR which is a terrific resource for older academic articles not found on NEXIS, and the digital archive of the New York Times.

I also refer public calls to the public library databases, when people want to be able to do fairly sophisticated research, but don't know how to get started.

An incredible resource. I wish more people knew about it.

Thing #16 Student Tools

I don't work in a student environment, so this was of much interest to me. It looks like research in a perfect work and it makes me wonder if kids REALLY use this. All very idealized. I'm going to be curious to look at the other participants comments about this. Gee I sound cynical don't I?

Thing #15 Second Life

Second Life: what a strange, alternate universe! I wandered around a bit. Kinda creepy. Not at all sure what role libraries could play in it. yikes.

Thing #14 Library Thing

I know I'll probably be in the minority on this, but Library Thing just didn't interest me. Not for my personal collection nor anything work related. I'm moving on.

Thing # 13 Productivity Tools

At home I work on a Mac, and the productivity tools like igoogle etc. are very similar to the widgets you can load on the Mac's dashboard. I have to admit that i rarely use dashboard, it's nice to be able to check the temperature once in a while, and i have a sticky note that i sometimes use, but that's about it. I'm not seeing the productivity aspect of it yet, but i'm interested in seeing what else is out there, so i'll read and experiment on.

I couldn't get the countdown widget to work. it's very cool though.

The to do lists. I'm a list maker, and these were something I really wanted to like, but really, they looked like more work than they were worth. I just keep a simple to do list in Word and when I complete something I cross it out in yellow (my little flourish). Good enough for me. And what's with all this damn sharing? Enough already.

As for the calendars,again my Mac has a perfectly useful one built in. I confess I still use a paper book-type calendar, the problem with that is that i use it for both my business and personal stuff and it's a little cumbersome to coordinate. After seeing the igoogle calendar, I'm thinking I could use it for both work and home. So my New Year's resolution is to ditch the paper calendar and use igoogle instead. Did I mention that my paper calendar is a lovely moleskin? But I can see this switch is indeed efficient and easy. I'm choosing igoogle because I'm liking the idea of consolidating stuff under one brand. they seem to have good quality products, so unless a competitor has a feature that blows me out of the water, I'll stick with them. I don't have any use for calendar sharing.

What I keep looking for in a sticky is one that I could attach to a document I'm sending someone so I could add a note or clarification. I've read through all the stickies featured here and I don't see that application. Did I miss it? I'm going to think about the sticky that you can attach to websites, that might have some usefulness, other than that, they just seem to be glorified notes.

As for the other stuff, I dragged the tinyurl to my toolbar, that'll be useful. I'm always sending people links.

In conclusion, I found a few useful bits here, new ways of doing things, but I think productivity might be too strong a word.

Thing #12 Social Media Sites.

Dumb, dumb, waste of time. Let's move on.

Thing #11 Tagging and Del.icio.us

Tagging is a simple enough concept, so i added a couple of tags to the blog.

Del.icio.us will take some experimenting with before I commit. I downloaded the software. I'm intrigued on a couple of fronts. One is that we have a nonnetworked pc in the library that is on a dsl line. We use it when the internet goes down, but since it isn't networked, none of my vast number of work-related bookmarks are on it. If I used del.icio.us I could easily get my bookmarks when I need them. In addition, it would also give me access to my work bookmarks at home without clogging up my home computer with work stuff. So it makes sense.

As for the social networking part of it, I'm not interested. I just don't get the appeal.

Thing #10 Wikis

The most impressive wiki link on 23 Things backgrounder for this topic was undoubtedly the MN Historical Society's MN 150 wiki where they solicited public entries for historical topics. I thought it was brave and creative all at the same time.

Some of the backgrounder links totally lacked any participation. Kind of duds.

I noticed one library wiki stated at the top that they'd had trouble with vandalism and had to initiate more careful registering.

I'm thinking my book club could definitely benefit from a wiki.

Thing #9 Google Docs

I've sent in my requests to be a collaborator on the 23 things docs in Google Docs and Zoho Writer, so I'm waiting for admittance to those to try them out. I set up a small doc in Google Docs and invited a colleague to make some edits and comments. I'm sort of favoring Google Docs so far, because i kinda like keeping everything under one brand, gmail, google reader and now google docs. But I'll experiment with Zoho as well. I really do see applications for using this at work right now, as I share a project with another librarian and this would really seem to work better than our current methods of working independently and then trying to merge our work. So I'm definitely going to try this.

missmillies23things

Thing #8 Communication Second try.

Hah, this worked!

Thing #8

First thing I'm trying is thumbstacks. Two problems, I don't have a presentation prepared, so I'm trying this lame bit on the fly. It was going okay, but I couldn't figure out how to post more than two slides. Let's see if I can load it, shall we?

Nope, that didn't load. I'll try another one. Later.

Thing #7 Web Communication Tools

Staff doesn't use text messaging nor instant messaging as a way to communicate at work. People either phone or email. So that's not in our culture. We aren't working with teenagers and that probably makes a big difference. It's also a company that doesn't issue blackberries to its staff. Most people are issued cell phones, but not the librarians. I'm also one of the last people (I think) who doesn't have a personal cell phone. So I don't see this kind of messaging happening for me.

I have, however, participated in several web conferencing seminars, mainly for Nexis training, but a couple of other vendors as well. I think they are highly effective.

So this "thing" is kind of a bust for me. I'm not in that kind of environment.

Thing #6 Trading Cards

Once again, I'm not seeing the usefulness of this.

Thing#5 More Flickr: Mashups

Okay, I couldn't get the link to my mashup to work. Since I'm not finding it something terribly useful or relevant, I'm not going to take the time to figure out how to add it. Maybe later, maybe not.

Ah! Tried one more time. Success! Though it would be nice if it were all on the same line. and this is small. needs shorter word, i guess. but still, what's the point?

Thing #4 Flickr.

Uploading your own stuff is pretty easy. I'm going to try a caption below.

This is Parker. Isn't he a cute kid?


Okay, this took me a few tries. it's a photo I downloaded from Flickr to my desktop and then posted to the blog. I couldn't figure out how to link to the photo on Flickr.



Wish I were here!

Very cool.

I also created a Flickr account and put a couple of photos in it. If you want to look at it the url is http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertasphotogallery
I don't know why a hyperlink didn't work for the address.

As for Flickr, I get the part about sharing photos with people I know, but having strangers looking and commenting on my personal photos is creepy. And I have no desire, nor time to wander around looking at other people's photos, let alone commenting on them.
There must be alot of people out there with a whole lot of time on there hands.

Thing #3 RSS feeds

Okay, i admit it, i do things the old way and check my favorite blogs one-by-one for updates. and some blogs don't update very regularly, so that's a bummer. i set up a few rss feeds but i stayed away from news blogs that update constantly like the nyt or cnn. i can see that using the reader is much more efficient. i'll just have to remember to stop at google reader. one of the blogs didn't seem to have an rss feed, but i'll go back and try again. i didn't immediately see that the rss symbol is up in the url box. i also like the idea that google reader is separate from google mail, so the rss feeds won't be clogging my in box. i would like to have an icon for the reader on my toolbar, i'll look and see if i can figure that out.

Thing#2 Library 2.0

Haven't heard of Library 2.0
copied this from the Blyberg blog

“Library 2.0 simply means making your library’s space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.”

Not clear in how in applies at our library. I haven't finished the reading yet for this week, so maybe i'll learn more.

"L2 is about being relevant. "
"What do libraries need to rethink?"

So maybe you don't keep doing things because you've always done them. Maybe you rethink the collection. Really weeding it down.

One of the readings said that if an online service can't be used without training then the service needs to be fixed. he pointed to stuff like this blog where it's user friendly enough that people use it without training. That's certainly something to think about.

Oh, and I added a better avatar!

Thing #1

Setting up the blog was MUCH easier than I imagined. Though I need to give credit to the excellent instructions on 23 sticks. The template does all of the heavy lifting. The avatar was just plain weird and as you can see i got a little silly. There are probably better sites out there with a better selection. I'll try to find time to google "avatar" and see if I can find something more to my liking. As you can see I even added a photo. Pretty fancy, huh? It certainly demystifies the process, as I had no clue as to how people did this.