Hah! I finished! I seriously didn't think I'd get through all 23 things. Now that I'm done, I wish there was more. I will definitely make it a higher priority to keep up on new technology.
I already blogged a bit about my experience in my last post. I will say that my favorite things were Flickr, Digg, and Facebook. I had no idea how many of my friends were out there on Facebook! What fun. I actually found several old buddies from high school and college that I've lost touch with over the years. Great stuff.
Here's hoping this is just the beginning and not truly the end!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Froggy finds Thing #22 inspiring
I have to keep this up, huh. Well, I guess.
First of all, I'm going to find out who else in my library has finished the program so that we can chat about everything. I have to say I learned a lot. As part of my resolution to continue, I'll work towards actually using many of the tools that I did find useful. It's a bit overwhelming to put it all together. And I have to confess that I kept at it with Bloglines and like it more now. That was one of the things that I just struggled with, and complained about, in my blog. After I kept with it, it wasn't so bad.
I had originally thought I might turn this blog into a children's reading blog for grades 3 - 8 to talk about all the books that I'm reading for the Maud Hart Lovelace Award nominees. But since I have to keep going with this one, I guess I'll just have to create another blog. Or just use LibraryThing. Something to discuss with my supervisor for a fun task. I've hit babble now. Will stop.
First of all, I'm going to find out who else in my library has finished the program so that we can chat about everything. I have to say I learned a lot. As part of my resolution to continue, I'll work towards actually using many of the tools that I did find useful. It's a bit overwhelming to put it all together. And I have to confess that I kept at it with Bloglines and like it more now. That was one of the things that I just struggled with, and complained about, in my blog. After I kept with it, it wasn't so bad.
I had originally thought I might turn this blog into a children's reading blog for grades 3 - 8 to talk about all the books that I'm reading for the Maud Hart Lovelace Award nominees. But since I have to keep going with this one, I guess I'll just have to create another blog. Or just use LibraryThing. Something to discuss with my supervisor for a fun task. I've hit babble now. Will stop.
Froggy finds Thing #21 a little bit of old, a little bit of new
I'm sitting at home with a crummy cold in front of the tv with nothing to watch, so thought I'd play around more with the 23 things. Yes, I have a book sitting next to me too, but my eyes hurt. And my head hurts. I'm not sure how looking at a screen is any different than looking at pages in a book, but it doesn't seem to hurt as much.
Thing #21: I read the two articles, which seem to validate what we're hoping to learn by doing the 23 things. Get out there in the webspace as a library or librarian and make it work for us. Sounds good to me. I joined the 23 things ning, put my picture up with my cutesy little girl when she just turned a year old. And posted a comment on a couple of co-worker's pages. Hi Louise and Pam!
I looked at some of the other sites that were listed. I'm gonna have to find a scrapbooking network out there somewhere one of these days. I had joined WebJunction a while ago. One of my colleagues is always sending out articles from the site. It must be a great way to share information. They've just undergone a total revamp of their website. I need to set aside some time to explore all the changes.
That means, Thing #21 = done!
Thing #21: I read the two articles, which seem to validate what we're hoping to learn by doing the 23 things. Get out there in the webspace as a library or librarian and make it work for us. Sounds good to me. I joined the 23 things ning, put my picture up with my cutesy little girl when she just turned a year old. And posted a comment on a couple of co-worker's pages. Hi Louise and Pam!
I looked at some of the other sites that were listed. I'm gonna have to find a scrapbooking network out there somewhere one of these days. I had joined WebJunction a while ago. One of my colleagues is always sending out articles from the site. It must be a great way to share information. They've just undergone a total revamp of their website. I need to set aside some time to explore all the changes.
That means, Thing #21 = done!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Froggy finds Thing #20. Yep. I found it.
I actually appreciate that MySpace and Facebook are part of the 23 things. This is another one where my husband's whole family is involved in this kind of sport. I did check out Hennepin county's MySpace site. They're always on top of the web world. I heard that they have a whole department devoted to their website and web work. If only we had that at our library.
I signed up for a Facebook account. I'm not telling what I signed up under, though, because I'm actually going to use it for "real". It turns out that lots of friends and family have already signed up! This is another thing that could turn out to be addicting.
I signed up for a Facebook account. I'm not telling what I signed up under, though, because I'm actually going to use it for "real". It turns out that lots of friends and family have already signed up! This is another thing that could turn out to be addicting.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Froggy finds Thing #19 good for her MP3 player
Podcasts are lots of fun, and I haven't played with them as much as I would like. I have a really great MP3 player that was gifted to me by my techie husband who may have been planning to give me a present that would last me my entire life. I definitely don't plan on upgrading any time soon. I went to MPR and subscribed to their How's the Family podcast. I listened to the podcast called Families are Consuming MORE! I agree. You can see the list of recent podcasts for this show here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/podcasts/hows_the_family/.
I can see using my MP3 player a lot more to listen to podcasts, where I haven't used it for that in the past. I see there's a lot out there that's library-related also. My husband was just telling me the other day about a podcast that the creators of Digg have out there. I might have to go check that out. First, I'll have to check back with him to see what it was about... Can't go too overboard, here.
I also checked out Gcast. I have nothing to create a podcast about at this point. And I don't want to put anything out there and waste space and time. We're thinking about posting a class by podcast on our staff wiki in the future. I'll consider using this site to do that.
I can see using my MP3 player a lot more to listen to podcasts, where I haven't used it for that in the past. I see there's a lot out there that's library-related also. My husband was just telling me the other day about a podcast that the creators of Digg have out there. I might have to go check that out. First, I'll have to check back with him to see what it was about... Can't go too overboard, here.
I also checked out Gcast. I have nothing to create a podcast about at this point. And I don't want to put anything out there and waste space and time. We're thinking about posting a class by podcast on our staff wiki in the future. I'll consider using this site to do that.
Froggy finds Thing #18 already done!
Yay! The other night, I was reading Little Loon and Papa by Toni Buzzeo to my 2-year-old daughter. It has loon sounds in the text that you're supposed to make. Honestly, I'm from Oklahoma. We don't have loons. I've heard the loon song, but couldn't replicate. Anyway, my daughter couldn't sleep, for whatever reason 2-year-olds can't sleep, and insisted on being downstairs with me in the den. I was on the computer (probably working on my 23 things) and thought it would be fun to find out what a loon really sounds like. So on to YouTube to show my little girl what a real loon looks and sounds like.
This is one of the videos that we found:
There were more that had better video of the loons. My daughter thought this was so great! And what a cool way to bring a fiction book to life for a little girl. It was very easy to find more like this one. In fact, we moved on to moose videos, and beavers, and so on with all the animals featured in the book. So fun! And it seemed to calm my daughter down so that she finally decided to go to bed, you know, so that we could read the book one more time...or two or three times...maybe more.
This is one of the videos that we found:
There were more that had better video of the loons. My daughter thought this was so great! And what a cool way to bring a fiction book to life for a little girl. It was very easy to find more like this one. In fact, we moved on to moose videos, and beavers, and so on with all the animals featured in the book. So fun! And it seemed to calm my daughter down so that she finally decided to go to bed, you know, so that we could read the book one more time...or two or three times...maybe more.
Froggy finds Thing #17 familiar
Thing #17 contained a lot of to do's. I think I got through it all. I'll recap. ELM. I worked with these databases a lot while I was getting my library degree, which was not too long ago. I set up a search alert for myself. Search alerts were a new find for me. I think I got it to work okay, even though there was a lot of confusion. I mean, confusion on the 23 things blog and as I fumbled around with it. I made up a webpage in EBSCO. I really don't see a use for it for me. So, I deleted it after I played around a bit with it. I e-mailed the ProQuest webpage to myself. That was interesting. And I set up an account with NetLibrary (I thought I had one already, but couldn't remember the login) and made a note.
I like NetLibrary. I don't use it much, but it has some awesome features. I did a presentation on it for my colleagues at one point when we first started using it at our library. I even remember mentioning the cool notes feature. I didn't realize there were so many new features in EBSCO and ELM. I learned a lot on this Thing.
I like NetLibrary. I don't use it much, but it has some awesome features. I did a presentation on it for my colleagues at one point when we first started using it at our library. I even remember mentioning the cool notes feature. I didn't realize there were so many new features in EBSCO and ELM. I learned a lot on this Thing.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Froggy finds Thing #16 helpful
I wish we had something like the Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculator when I was an undergraduate student. I would have used it if only to keep myself on task. Working in libraries all my life, I knew how to do the research, but sometimes needed help with the non-book related research. There's so much more out there now.
These tools will be useful to help students do their research papers. It seems that research is dying, in that students no longer know about any resource except for the internet and Google. We're constantly explaining to kids that it has to be a reputable site and you have to know how to tell the difference online.
I find it strange that kids are so trusting of anything that's out there. Our world is getting so small because of internet access. You can visit with people halfway across the world. Identity theft is rampant. There's a new type of stalker, a new type of pervert trying to meet young kids. And kids seem so naive about all this. My rant for the day, I guess. It's late. Tangents happen.
I'm glad this tool is out there so that we can help students learn about true research.
These tools will be useful to help students do their research papers. It seems that research is dying, in that students no longer know about any resource except for the internet and Google. We're constantly explaining to kids that it has to be a reputable site and you have to know how to tell the difference online.
I find it strange that kids are so trusting of anything that's out there. Our world is getting so small because of internet access. You can visit with people halfway across the world. Identity theft is rampant. There's a new type of stalker, a new type of pervert trying to meet young kids. And kids seem so naive about all this. My rant for the day, I guess. It's late. Tangents happen.
I'm glad this tool is out there so that we can help students learn about true research.
Froggy finds Thing #15 to be a part of her every day life...
Yeppers. That's right. Every day life. No kidding! I've mentioned my husband, the software engineer, and all of his techy-ness that rubs off on me. I watched the Second Life video of Info Island and have to say that the graphics are not that great compared to some of the awesome games that are out there.
Our family (extended) is a family of WOWers. For a while, family didn't call, they chatted on World of Warcraft. All my husband's family had accounts, even his dad. It's odd, how it becomes one of your social circles. I had my own account for a while, and it was fun. I realized after a certain point, that it took up too much of my time. I played a lot while I was pregnant with our first child because I wasn't playing soccer or biking or doing much active for that matter. For some reason, it wasn't that relaxing for me, though. I'm too goal-driven. I wanted to finish all the quests, and there were always more.
It's something that my husband does to get away and relax. I think gaming is for him, what reading is for me. MMORPGs are so big for socializing! My husband has conversations with people from other countries while he's playing. Our world is getting so small now. It's just amazing!
Now there are systems like the Wii that are revolutionizing console play and making it that much more like online socializing. Our library has a teen game night with Wii, PS2 and computer games, which I think is so necessary, since this is the world that our kids are growing up in. I'm excited to see what else the future will hold for my little ones as they get older.
Our family (extended) is a family of WOWers. For a while, family didn't call, they chatted on World of Warcraft. All my husband's family had accounts, even his dad. It's odd, how it becomes one of your social circles. I had my own account for a while, and it was fun. I realized after a certain point, that it took up too much of my time. I played a lot while I was pregnant with our first child because I wasn't playing soccer or biking or doing much active for that matter. For some reason, it wasn't that relaxing for me, though. I'm too goal-driven. I wanted to finish all the quests, and there were always more.
It's something that my husband does to get away and relax. I think gaming is for him, what reading is for me. MMORPGs are so big for socializing! My husband has conversations with people from other countries while he's playing. Our world is getting so small now. It's just amazing!
Now there are systems like the Wii that are revolutionizing console play and making it that much more like online socializing. Our library has a teen game night with Wii, PS2 and computer games, which I think is so necessary, since this is the world that our kids are growing up in. I'm excited to see what else the future will hold for my little ones as they get older.
Froggy finds Thing #14 very useful and fun!
I explored Library Thing for Thing #14. This type of program has come up a few times in one of my committees. I am a reader for the Maud Hart Lovelace Award in MN. One of our members has brought it up a couple of times, but it seems like our group is more of a notecard collecting type of group. Now that I know what this is all about and have taken the time to explore, I think I might support that committee member in her wishes to start this way of organizing the group. Or I'll at least join her in keeping track in this way.
As part of Thing #14, I added my most recent reads to my Library Thing account. These are books I have just read, am reading, or am getting ready to read. I didn't review them yet, but I think that would be a nice way to keep track. Enjoy!
As part of Thing #14, I added my most recent reads to my Library Thing account. These are books I have just read, am reading, or am getting ready to read. I didn't review them yet, but I think that would be a nice way to keep track. Enjoy!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Thing #13: Not too bad
Ah, productivity. I must already realize that I'm terribly disorganized and am try, try, trying to fix the problem.... constantly. I think I mentioned in another thing post that I already use My Yahoo as a homepage on my home computer. I love it. It's so very simple. I checked out all the other tools mentioned, but I am one of those people that uses a PDA. It keeps me going. I carry it everywhere because it is also my phone. And I try to keep my work and private life separate, so I don't worry about syncing the two calendars (and etc.) together. I could see where these would be handy to those who are inclined to use them. I love to do lists. But that's just too tempting to constantly do that, so I have to restrain myself on that one. I'd be doing it all day long and nothing else. I'm considering this one done.
Thing #12: Addicted to News
I have to say that I have a love-hate relationship with news. Thing #12 is one that I have to be careful about how much time I devote. My father was a news reporter. It's a rough life, and I got to hear about all the horrible car accidents, bombings, riots, etc that he covered. Being a radio journalist, his main goal was to get a "sound bite." Generally this means that you either have to get someone saying something, or you have to get the "boom" of the explosion, the "honking" of the traffic jam caused by the accident. Anyway, because of my father's all-consuming relationship with news, I'm not so big on it. Not only is it depressing, but it's all too overwhelming. I like to scan. Just the headlines. I don't read the really bad stuff. It's enough to know it happened. I don't need the details.
That said, the sites that compose the articles by vote are kinda interesting to me because I truly can just scan. Every once in a while, I like a good long read, like the New York Times provides. I looked at Mixx, Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit. I liked Digg the most. I was sad to see that Ian Hibell passed away in a car accident, on his bike. Mixx was okay. I didn't like the other two at all. They seemed to be all politics right now. Not too big on politics either.
I tried to "share" the op-ed article Sarah Palin Speaks! from the NY Times, but YahooBuzz didn't work for me. I signed up for Digg, but have to do all the verifying etc. Cool tool!
That said, the sites that compose the articles by vote are kinda interesting to me because I truly can just scan. Every once in a while, I like a good long read, like the New York Times provides. I looked at Mixx, Digg, Newsvine, and Reddit. I liked Digg the most. I was sad to see that Ian Hibell passed away in a car accident, on his bike. Mixx was okay. I didn't like the other two at all. They seemed to be all politics right now. Not too big on politics either.
I tried to "share" the op-ed article Sarah Palin Speaks! from the NY Times, but YahooBuzz didn't work for me. I signed up for Digg, but have to do all the verifying etc. Cool tool!
Thing #11: Delicious, but not tasty
Neat-oh. I think that's something that my dad always said as I was growing up. It might date me a little. This particular thing had to do with the website del.icio.us. I could have a lot of fun with this site. I'm always trying to set up bookmarks, but don't often use them. If I actually saw them and could organize them like delicious does, I think I'd use them more.
Well, for record-keeping, I watched the podcast, checked out the Minn23 account, took a look at Lookybook and went through Lemons Are Not Red (a book I have to check out for my two-year-old), made my own account (which I hope to play around more with in the future), and I tagged my Thing #8 post with biking/Freewheel tags. Fun stuff!
I remember mention of this being discussed at this year's PLA conference, about using this type of tagging in library catalogs. It sounds revolutionary to me. A lot of people would be able to find books on Native Americans if they didn't have to look up "Indian Americans." How useful this would be for local communities that have their own way of saying things: dialects could be used. It all reminds me of Sandy Berman and the work that he did in revamping subject headings.
Well, for record-keeping, I watched the podcast, checked out the Minn23 account, took a look at Lookybook and went through Lemons Are Not Red (a book I have to check out for my two-year-old), made my own account (which I hope to play around more with in the future), and I tagged my Thing #8 post with biking/Freewheel tags. Fun stuff!
I remember mention of this being discussed at this year's PLA conference, about using this type of tagging in library catalogs. It sounds revolutionary to me. A lot of people would be able to find books on Native Americans if they didn't have to look up "Indian Americans." How useful this would be for local communities that have their own way of saying things: dialects could be used. It all reminds me of Sandy Berman and the work that he did in revamping subject headings.
Thing #10: Wikis!
I like wikis. Our library has a staff wiki for their intranet. Pretty cool. I've created a page or two on it. Still learning, but it's fun. I watched the video that the 23things blog says too. Neat presentation. And I put in the "more blah blahs" in the Meta:Sandbox. I kind of feel funny about changing stuff unless I'm actually knowledgeable about it. And even then, I hesitate. I think it'll be fun to browse through the bookie/library wikis mentioned also.
Thing #9: Not sure about this one
Thing #9 had to do with online word processing software. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm trying to think of applications in the library world, and I come up with all those people out there who can't afford Microsoft Office. And yet, they can come into their library and get on the internet. Where I think this might get a little dicey is when you have these personal documents floating around online that people might be able to hack into. And then again, no one is really safe, because your personal computer can just as easily be hacked into. It's kind of an interesting debate and/or thought.
One other pro that I can see would be the ability to NOT carry around a thumb drive/disk (does anyone use disks anymore)/whatever you use to carry your documents around. Hmmm... I like it, minus the security issues.
Oh, and for the record, I edited on Zoho. Mine was the Texas comment, as they truly think they are their own nation, per my mum and good ol' Lance Armstrong, among others who have claimed this untruth. I couldn't get the document to come through on GoogleDocs, but am still working on it. I requested access.
One other pro that I can see would be the ability to NOT carry around a thumb drive/disk (does anyone use disks anymore)/whatever you use to carry your documents around. Hmmm... I like it, minus the security issues.
Oh, and for the record, I edited on Zoho. Mine was the Texas comment, as they truly think they are their own nation, per my mum and good ol' Lance Armstrong, among others who have claimed this untruth. I couldn't get the document to come through on GoogleDocs, but am still working on it. I requested access.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Thing #8: more photo fun
I really enjoy photo fun. I don't have a ton of time to play around with it, but I really wish I did because there are some really cool tools out there. I did take some time to use picturetrail.com and set up an awesome slideshow. The really neat thing about this slideshow is that my husband, Mr. Programmer, was working on something very similar to this for our family website. It was very cool-looking. Unfortunately, our family website broke, and with two little ones and lacking time, he didn't have the time to fix the code. Now, using PictureTrail.com, I can post the same type of thing on Flickr or whatever phot-sharing program I choose! Awesome!
So, here it is. While biking across the state of Oklahoma on the yearly organized bike ride called Freewheel, I had my husband snap shots of me and libraries along the way. We've since done this bike ride another couple of times, but in different areas of the state.
So, here it is. While biking across the state of Oklahoma on the yearly organized bike ride called Freewheel, I had my husband snap shots of me and libraries along the way. We've since done this bike ride another couple of times, but in different areas of the state.
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