On to Something New!

The 23 Things has gotten me into a learning mode. I hurried to finish them before Wednesday's deadline because I signed up for an 8-week Spanish class. The class starts tomorrow night. I don't have a particular reason for taking the class and don't have a strong interest in learning Spanish, but the class was available at the right time and I feel like doing something new!

Thing #23

I just finished the 23 Things survey and sent my completion e-mail to Metronet.

I have been so impressed with this program! I did it at home, because I don't have a lot of extra time at work.

One of the best features of the Things are the participants' blogs. I enjoyed reading my coworkers' blogs and I used them as a resource when I found myself getting stuck on an activity.

I liked the exposure to so many different topics. The Things are a great introduction to Library 2.0. We covered a lot of ground very quickly. I think we have to do that to stay even remotely up-to-date in this ever-changing web environment.

I would love to see more trainings like this one. Thank you, Metronet and Ann!

Reblogging Thing #22

I wrote a post for Thing #22 and lost it. This is the first time it has happened to me since I started the 23 Things. Every other time my posts have been autosaved and I've found them by going to Edit Posts, but I couldn't find by Thing #22 post.

So, I'm going to continue to use Google Reader. I like it and check it once or twice each day. I want to do more with del.icio.us and get better acquainted with LibraryThing and Flickr. I'm still not confident about the photo sites and image generators.

I'm completely surprised by how many people have friended me on Facebook. I contacted three people to complete the exercise, but nine others have contacted me in the past day. I'll definitely stay with Facebook for a while.

I feel more confident about using these technologies overall. There has been a lot of conversation around the 23 Things in my library and people have been supportive of each other. I hope the group learning continues.

Moving Through Thing #21

Gather looked less youth-oriented than Facebook and MySpace. It looked like it could be rewarding if you put time into it. I don't get the Gather Points--the gift cards and cash thing though. I've looked at WebJunction in the past, but I haven't used it much.

I registered for Ning, joined a Ning group, and left a comment.

I really like last.fm. I bookmarked it months ago. I looked at Bake Space, What's on my Bookshelf, and Good Reads.

Thing #20 Again

Wow! I was right in thinking that Facebook could take up large amounts of time. I set up my account last night and have already gotten 17 Facebook-related e-mails. Way more than I expected! It is kind of fun though. I have nine Friends now, have written on a couple of walls, have been poked again (still dumb!), and have been sent more photos.

Working on Thing #20

I watched the Common Craft video and set up a Facebook account. I sent requests to be friends to my husband, daughter, and a coworker. Then, I left the house for three hours. When I returned, I found e-mails from my husband and daughter--they accepted my friend invitation and wrote on my wall. I also found friend invitations from my nephew and one of my kids' friends.

As I've been writing this, I've been poked and poked back (pretty dumb!) and I wrote on a wall. I've also been tagged in a photo on a my husband's Facebook account! I can see that if you add a lot of friends, you could spend way too much time on this!

I joined the group Librarians and Facebook and the American Library Association group.

I looked at MySpace and then viewed the Denver and Hennepin County MySpace pages. Both were very impressive!

Getting Current with Thing #19

I listened to podcasts from MPR and ended up adding The Current Song of the Day from 89.3 to my Google Reader account. I looked at most of the directories. I'm not sure which one I prefer. I'm hearing more and more about podcasts, so I'm sure I'll be using the directories again.

The YouTube Thing--Thing #18

I never go to YouTube and just browse, but I'll look at videos that people recommend to me. My husband showed me the one embedded in this exercise just last night--someone had recommended it to him.

For Thing #18, I watched the librarian Grand Marches, I did a few subject searches, and followed the link to embed a YouTube video in a blog. However, I didn't sign up for an account. The embedding instructions seemed easy to follow, so it feels like something I could do without too many snags.

One of the questions I have as I work my way through these Things is how to identify copyrighted graphics and what is the appropriate level of citing when you import graphical material into a blog.

On to Thing #17

I've used the ELM databases for years without realizing that you could get podcasts and radio broadcasts. I did a general keyword search in the student edition of Infotrac using the words "audio file" and was surprised by the results.

I looked at Ebsco's folder feature, but I must have been looking at the wrong time. I couldn't get the sign-in page to load. The Proquest "create a web page" feature was fun and interesting and was also new to me.

I have not registered for a NetLibrary account at the library, so I can't access it remotely right now. This will be something to try later.

Pondering Thing #16

I don't see many public library applications for the assignment calculators. We don't get that heavily involved in homework assignments, but I would guess that they could be very useful in a school library. They seem like valuable resources for the right kind of student. I like the detailed breakdowns of each step in the project process. The calculators probably motivate some students and reassure others.

Ahoy Mateys! It's Thing #15

Okay, I have to confess that I tried Puzzle Pirates very early on in my foray through the Things. I created a cute pirate girl and played the game. I was much more interested in the Puzzle Quest game I was playing on my DS, so I didn't save my character and never revisited Puzzle Pirates.

I've played a range of video games on the Wii, Playstation, and older Nintendo systems. My favorites are puzzle games like Puzzle Quest or the Tetris version where you rescue the professor. I've tried a couple of versions of Final Fantasy and similar games and find them a little frustrating, so I'm guessing that Second Life is not the game for me. I don't quite get the appeal of virtual reality games. I was given a copy of Nintendogs as a gift. Boring! I have enough to do without adding virtual chores to my list!

My favorite online game right now is Zoo Keeper. It's addictive!

I think gaming definitely has a place in the public library. We've done a few gaming programs for teens and will be doing more of them this spring. I suspect that games like Wii bowling would be a hit with seniors.

The LibraryThing Thing (#14)

I've been hearing a lot about LibraryThing over the past six months and haven't done more than glance at it. So, I set up an account and made a list of some of my favorite classic picture books. I copied the list into my blog.

I don't have any urge to catalog my books or to keep a reading list, so I'm having a hard time understanding the attraction of LibraryThing. I do like to read about books and authors. Usually when I want information, I look for websites. Most recently, I've been reading up on Margery Allingham after listening to some of her books on CD. Maybe I didn't go far enough into LibraryThing, but it doesn't seem to have the kind of information I want.

Return to Thing #13

I looked at calendars, but decided not to sign up for any. I use Outlook's shared calendar at work, iCal at home, a Franklin planner for work and home combined, a Palm calendar and a cute calendar on my refrigerator.

My Franklin planner is still my most reliable calendar, but I don't necessarily record all of my personal events on it. I tend to update my shared calendar at work once or twice a month--whenever I think of it. And, I'm always in trouble with the people at home for not recording events in the shared family calendar on iCal.

I signed up for a Ta Da List account, but don't really see why it's any more useful than typing a list in Word. I looked at Remember the Milk and wished I had gone there first. It looks like fun! But, I don't want to sign up for another list, so I'm going to let it go.

Backpack looked interesting. I have a large family and have been thinking that it would be nice to have an online interactive method of group communication.

I believe I'll stay with my paper Post-It notes. They are quick and easy; multi-colored, sized, and shaped; and very portable. They can reside by my terminal (don't have to think about for a while) or my phone (deal with this soon) or the edge of my desk (take care of this today) or the edge of my planner (urgent!). What more do I need?

More on Thing #13

I looked at the iGoogle, PageFlakes, and My Yahoo options for customizing a home page and changed the page on my home computer to My Yahoo. I liked the combination of national and local news, weather, and TV listings.

I'm getting too tired to go on to part 2 of this Thing, but I am curious about the Post-It notes. I keep organized at work by a combination of weekly to-do lists and Post-It notes. Tomorrow, maybe!

Ready for Thing #13

I've read the introduction to Thing #13 and am already wondering if I'll find anything I can use at work. I already use a shared calendar on Outlook. Since I'm used to Microsoft Office, I'm not sure why I'd want to switch to online office tools.

I'll forge on...

Thing #12

I looked at Reddit, Digg, Mixx, and Newsvine, but didn't want an account with any of them. The Reddit concept of filtered content based on my likes and dislikes does not appeal to me at all. Of the four, Newsvine looked the most interesting. It looked like a site I might enjoy.

I get most of my news online now. I've bookmarked the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, CNN, BBC, Kare 11, Star Tribune, and Pioneer Press websites and try to cruise through them in the morning while I drink my coffee. I enjoy comparing the headline news and feature stories--they can be very different from website to website.

I'm not sure how any of the four (Reddit, Digg, Mixx, and Newsvine) could be used in my library.

Revisiting Thing #8

I hated to give up on the Flickr badges exercise, so I went back to it this morning. My husband directed me to the Layout feature on the dashboard and I was able to import my hastily-made badge into my blog.

Thing #11 Is Done!

I spent an hour working my way through Thing #11 yesterday, but decided not to register for an account. I rethought that decision overnight and went back to Thing #11 tonight. I can't believe the number of typos and stupid mistakes I made trying to register for an account. I finally got it right though and linked and tagged a couple of websites.

I'm not sure how much I'll actually use del.icio.us. I have bookmarked very different sites at home and at work. I don't need my home bookmarks at work and usually don't need my work bookmarks at home. So, I don't really care if all my bookmarks are in one place.

I try to keep bookmarked sites to a minimum on my desktop--I've mainly bookmarked news sites at home and library-related sites at work. Del.icio.us might be a way for me to keep track of interesting sites. I'll have to think about it.

Thing #11

Tracy Arm Fjord
Originally uploaded by manofwywbt

I feel like I climbed a mountain with Thing #11! It took me forever to get it right when I registered for a del.icio.us account.

Thing #10

I viewed the Common Craft video on wikis. One of my co-workers uses a wiki for a team trivia activity, but I've never considered using one for travel planning. A wiki might work well for coordinating big family get-togethers, especially the ones where everyone brings food. I'll have to think about it.

We're using wikis in limited ways at work. Some of the librarians have piloted a reference wiki for staff use.

I added a comment to the 23 Things on a Stick wiki.

In Pursuit of Thing #9

I've been caught up in an online game called Zoo Keeper. I've been spending my free time trying to get past level 8 instead of working on the 23 Things.

I looked at Google Docs and Zoho and at the edited Declaration of Independence. After reading several comments on the difficulties people experienced trying to edit the document I decided that I would not send an e-mail requesting permission to edit.

I'm going to move on...

Reluctant Return to Thing #8

I went to the Twins game after work last night and avoided Thing #8, but I'm determined to make some progress tonight. I've been fooling around with Flickr badges. Since I only have three photos on Flickr, I tried using the Everyone's option, but didn't want to take the time to find photos I really liked. I went back to my cat photos and made a badge. I copied and pasted the html code into this post, but the photos did not show up. I asked my son for help and this is the first time that he was not able to solve the problem for me with a couple of mouse clicks. So, I'm moving on!

I tried to look at the Award Winning Fiction database on Lazybase, but the page was taking so long to load that I gave up. I looked at eFolio and hmmm....it didn't really resonate with me. I followed the link to 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story--since I can barely cope with one or two ways, 50 was way more than I could even browse.

Thing #8 reinforced the Flickr lesson and did demonstrate the seemingly endless possibilities for photo sharing and photo editing.

I Have to Stop Avoiding Thing #8

I've been sidetracked by Easter (38 for dinner at my house) and by the PLA Conference, but it's time to tackle Thing #8. I've read the description several times, but find the many parts of this one rather daunting. I'm just not that interested in photos and design tools. So, I decided to approach this piece by piece, even if it takes me a week to get through it all.

I viewed the slideshow "Web 2.o Tools in Your Classroom" and the Thumbstacks presentation and I looked briefly at the other two presentation sites. I'm not sure why I would use a web-based presentation tool--PowerPoint works well for me right now.

I looked at Picture Trail and thought about signing up for an account so I could do a Bling Maker photo of my cats. But, I decided not to sign up for an account I would not use again. Picture Trail did have some fun options.

Back to Thing #7

I'm not particularly excited about web conferencing, but it's a tool that works rather well in the right circumstances. I read the WebJunction article for Thing #7. Since I've participated in web conferencing activities, I'm not going to attend a webinar specifically for this Thing.

I have a Twitter account and post occasionally, but I check my account most days, often several times a day. Today I learned that my son was on a train from Prague to Munich; my daughter was scornful about fellow students lining up in body paint for seats at a basketball game; my daughter's friend was lamenting the snow; and my nephew was in pursuit of a Pink Martini!

Thing #7

My library has had e-mail for years and I have a couple of personal accounts. I use folders at work to archive important e-mails and try to keep my inbox at less than 300 items. Most of my home e-mails are advertisements from retailers or jokes forwarded by friends and family. It's easy to keep those accounts down to almost nothing.

I've been using IM for several years now, mainly to communicate with my college-age kids. It seems pretty commonplace to me. My 78 year-old father and my 79 year-old mother-in-law use IM.

My library system offered staff IM accounts last year. It's a great way to communicate between buildings and to reach staff working on another desk or a different floor. We don't offer IM reference for the public yet, but we use IM in the reference process. We'll IM another library to ask them to put a book on hold for a patron. We occasionally do group brainstorming on a tough reference question via IM.

Text messaging isn't my preferred method of communication, but I use it. I probably send one or two text messages a week, often to respond to a message someone has sent to me. I find it useful when I want to contact someone but one of us is not in a good place to make or receive a phone call. I find the auto-spell feature on my phone annoying to use, so I type every word, letter by letter, and I use very few abbreviations.

National Treasure is on TV in the same room as me and I'm having a hard time concentrating on Thing #7. More later...

Thing #6

Originally uploaded by Lynn Marie2008

I found the trading card activity more fun and more intuitive than some of the activities in Thing #5. I managed this one on my own without any assistance from my son.

Thing #5 in Progress

My work on the 23 Things has been delayed by a week of vacation followed by a cold. I'm trying a few of the Thing #5 options today with occasional assistance from my son. My current groggy state and my lack of interest in the topic are making Thing #5 the most challenging one, so far.

Thing #5

Thing #4 Is Done!

I signed up for a Flickr account a few days ago and took a few pictures of the cats. Tonight with my son's help and using my son's computer, I loaded the pictures on the computer, got them into my Flickr account and moved two of them to my blog! (My son informed me that blogger etiquette requires me to link to his blog).

If I weren't still packing for a morning flight, I might have tried to clean up the duplicate photo headings/captions. But, it's approaching 10 pm, the last of my traveling clothes are in the dryer, and I still haven't packed any shoes! Thing #4 is done!

Neko daring me to take her picture

Neko daring me to take her picture
Originally uploaded by Lynn Marie2008

Emily and the scratching post

Emily and the scratching post
Originally uploaded by Lynn Marie2008

Still on Thing #4

I signed up for a Flickr account on Friday and was pleased to find that my Yahoo password worked for it. I just needed to come up with an account name. Since I was at home and couldn't take library photos, I took a couple of pictures of the cats. I went to load them on the computer and ran into a problem. I didn't want to load all 500+ photos that were on the camera and that was the only option I found.

My computer-savvy family thinks that the problem lies with the computer I'm using. I use a computer at home for e-mail, IM, and Internet. Since I'm only doing basic stuff, I always use the oldest computer. Right now, I'm using an iMac that must be 10 years old--it's been passed around my husband's family for years. Since everyone at home except me is a college student, we have three laptops at our house that were all purchased in the last year. I'm going to try again tonight on a new computer.

I'm enjoying the interactive aspects of this training. I'm following my coworkers' blogs and am learning a lot from them. One of the things I've found most interesting is how, generally speaking, the younger of them are much less guarded in their posts and in the personal information they are providing.

My first impulse on setting up this blog was to make it as anonymous as I could, so no one could tie it back to me. I moved beyond that by using a signature that within the 23 Things framework would likely identify me to people who know me, but I still wanted it to remain impersonal.

After reading the 23 Things newsletter suggesting we add personal information and following the examples of some of my colleagues, I added to my profile and started to let more of my personal life drift into my comments.

I am so ready to get past Thing #4, but I want to feel that I really did it. Well, time for coffee, exercise, and getting ready for work. More tonight, I hope!

Thing #4 in Process

I've been viewing photos posted by family and friends on Flickr for a while now, but I don't have a Flickr account. I'm not particularly interested in photography--my husband takes the family photos and keeps up our photo albums. So, my initial feeling is that I'm not going to sign up for a Flickr account as part of the 23 Things.

I watched the video--short, snappy, and fun--perfect for my attention span! I explored the Flickr site (located some photos from last summer's vacation). I've done enough to conclude that Flickr isn't as much fun from the outside looking in. I'm going to set up an account and take some pictures as soon as the camera recharges. I'll have another post-it for my password wall!

Approaching Thing #4

Well, I'm feeling like a slacker! I really hoped to make more progress last week but was sidetracked by shopping, some excellent dinners, and a round-trip drive to Winona. I'm home today after a medical procedure. My instructions are to NOT drive, make critical decisions, drink alcohol, or do anything that requires balance or coordination for the next 12 hours. It seems like the perfect time to try Thing #4.

Thing #3 Completed

I closed the Google Reader page and found it again--a most basic step, I know! But, I did wonder if it would just go away after I closed it. I've bookmarked it, so it will be easy to find. I also played with blog formatting a little more. I created another sidebar heading and moved it around. I'm tired of copying and pasting right now, so the heading doesn't have any content yet and doesn't show up on my blog.

The curious thing about the Things is how completely paperless I am NOT. I have a cork wall behind my computer and with each Thing I add to my collection of notes on the wall, mostly passwords and logins. How do people keep track of them all? Is there any reason to make them all different from each other?

I'm going to overcome my urge to start on Thing #4, exercise a little, get dressed, and head to Albertville to see if the Coach outlet is any good.

Time to Get Moving on Thing #3

I plan to take advantage of the long weekend and make some progress on the 23 Things--at least to get through Things 3 & 4. So, I'm sitting here on a Saturday morning in my jammies pasting links into Google Reader.

I skimmed the wikipedia article and watched the video. Then, I randomly chose Google Reader. I've added a dozen or so 23 Things blogs--that was pretty simple (after my husband reminded me to use the apple button instead of control on the Mac). Now, I'm not so sure what comes next. Time to go back to Google Reader and explore!

Thing #3 Delayed

I should be working on Thing #3 tonight, but we got a new iPod today via Amazon.com. It's going to be my dad's birthday gift and I need to load it with music before his birthday on Friday. My husband and kids are the big iPod users in our family, so loading an iPod will be another new technology experience for me.

Challenge #2: Library 2.0

I just watched the Abram's video. My first reaction was that I would rather be "doing" something new than listening or reading, but then he caught me with his comment about learning through doing and reflection.

On to the Blyberg post...

He wrote about "shifting money around a budget for a coder instead of another reference librarian". The really difficult choice for many of us is to fund a coder at the expense of an existing reference position when the reference staff is dealing with patrons waiting in line for assistance.

The final article led me to the Ann Arbor and Darien Library websites. I've looked at Ann Arbor's website before, but Darien's was new to me. I'm impressed. I love the IM feature.

The Avatar

I had a busy weekend, so I didn't get to the avatar part of task one for several days. I'm doing the 23 things on an iMac and I'm not very familiar with them. Safari closed twice while I was trying to set up a Yahoo account, so I switched to Firefox. The avatar set up went smoothly. I've created characters with a Nintendo Wii and this was a similar process. I ran into problems trying to export the avatar. I had to consult with my son. He told me to use open apple instead of control with the iMac. I'm going to pass on the optional challenges for #1.

So far, so good! Signing up for a blog was easier than I anticipated. Finding a "23 Things on a Stick" name and an available url were the biggest challenges. On to the next step...