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.