Week 9, #23: Summary

Because I knew I would get sucked into these 23 things, and feared I wouldn't get out with time to do anything else, I did these exercises mostly the "quick and dirty" way - by scanning much of it, and getting the idea, and checking out a few examples along the way.

The speed with which technology is changing, and the need for us to stay knowledgeable about it is exciting and scary at the same time. It seems apparent that we all need to make time to learn about and try out new technologies, and 23 Things has been an efficient (even though the "things" took far longer than we thought they would) way to do it. Now, on to our next challenge of determining how we will continue the learning and doing and implementing!

Week 9, #22: OverDrive, NetLibrary, etc.

I've looked at these lists before, and I really want to try them out, but I haven't taken the time to figure out the download process on my PDA, or on my home computer yet. When I get an MP3 player, I guess there will be another means of downloading to figure out, but I really want to learn and I think it is important that we all do so, since our library does offer these formats.

Week 9, #21: Locating podcasts

I didn't have the plugins to actually watch any podcasts on the computer I am using, and downloading them was taking forever, but in searching for podcasts, I found a seemingly limitless array of topics, including genealogy, church services, exercise programs, middle school news, etc. It was amazing and I can't wait to start taking a look at some of them! I used podcast.net and yahoo to search. I've looked at the SIRSIDynix Institute's list of podcasts, and I think I may have watched one or two in the past, though I can't remember which they were. You can link to them through MERLIN. They do have an interesting selection of library topics.

Week 9, #20: YouTube, etc.

I love You Tube! I usually use it to find music videos, but it has so much more than that, as we have seen from these exercises. Google Videos is good, too. It's amazing that there is so much posted, even older, "pre-web" clips. There are some Sam Cooke performances, from the early 60's and clips from "my era," the seventies.

Week 8, #19: Web 2.0 awards

Wow, the "short" list is none too short! I tried out Upcoming.com to see what events are going on in western Massachusetts, where I'll be for the weekend. I like the fact that it is easy to use, and that events display in a simple list, with links for additional information. It has a list, with links, of popular venues in the area, and you can filter by type of event.

Week 8, # 18: Online productivity

Since software compatibility and document types have so often been issues for posting on the web, I look forward to trying out some of these applications!

Week 7, #16: Wikis

I like the collaborative potential of wikis, and the fact that contributions can be made without difficulty or special technical knowledge. Because I am interested in online local historical information, I would love to see an online community of users who would share their recollections of places and experiences in Caroline County, linked to, among other things, the online historic postcard collection. A wiki may be a good avenue for this. Bringing local users, particularly older ones, up to speed on wikis, and generating interest for them in contributing to it, is something that I think may be a challenge, however - but still worth looking at.

Week 6, #15: Web 2.0, etc.

Michael Wesch's video was great, and, in a concise way, summarized what is happening with the Web now, and how profoundly it can alter culture and individuals. It also tells librarians that we are in for quite a ride in terms of keeping up with it all, in order to best serve our customers!

In Michael Stephen's article, here are some of the words and phrases that struck me:

the need for libraries to adopt a strategy for constant change while promoting a participatory role for library users.

The need for librarians to become "strategy guides."

The notion of customers "creating content."

Being available for the customer all the time, whereever they are, and through whatever means they may want to access library services.

"Perpetual beta."


One question I would have is, how should these concepts be formally included in the library's strategic plan?

Week 6, #14: Technorati

This sounds kind of like Google, and the use of "meta" tags to ensure that your site is included and ranked highly in the user's search results - except this is specifically for blogs. I like the fact that both blog subjects as well as the content of actual posts can be searched.

Week6, #13: Social bookmarking

The idea of social bookmarking is interesting, especially since standardized subject headings are frequently not that user friendly. On the other hand, some standardization can be helpful, and, as one source mentioned, perhaps a hybrid approach could be most useful. I did not feel especially comfortable with del.icio.us, but will take a look at it again at some point.

Week 5, #12: Rollyo

How about a Rollyo for Caroline County students looking for local information for homework, or for their parents wanting important school related information?

Week 5, #11: Library Thing

I liked Library Thing and would like to look at it some more, later . Searching, seeing the covers, and links, reading the forums in the various categories, and imagining its potential uses , make me want to return to this site.

Week 5, #10: Online Image Generator

Lots of fun, but I had too much trouble deciding " what to wear!"

Week 4, #9: MERLIN, newsfeeds, etc

MERLIN - most immediate relevance, in my opinion, and also the best source for quickly finding other library-related blogs. I especially like Stephen's Lighthouse, by Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix's VP of Innovation. I also like his job title:) Libworm.com - a feed I found by searching Blogline that contains the latest headlines from journals and sites in the : Public Libraries category. It is straightforward and quickly scannable enough to perhaps get ideas by seeing what other libraries are doing. Feedster - Retrieved mostly ads and irrelevent hits when I searched the topic of libraries.

Week 4, #8: RSS

Because time is of the essence, I just read about RSS feeds and viewed the tutorials, but did not subscribe. I think the message from one poster sums them up:

"... a "time saving" utility but most of the time the users get addicted and probably end up spending more time on newly discovered blogs."

I can totally see myself subscribing to several and discovering far more of interest than I would ever have time to delve into.

Week 3, #7: Technology Related Post

So much technology, so little time! There are so many possibilities that I would like to explore further. Since I just bought a new car which has an MP3 player connection, I want to get an MP3 player and see what it can do (I know, I'm probably one of the few who don't already know much about them...) I want to look more at Google Earth, I'd like to explore more of SIRSI's capabilities, and I really want to look more into video, sound, and interactive possibilities for the library's web pages.

Week 3, #6: Flickr mashups & 3rd party sites

In looking at Flickr, it is obvious that it is not just a photo posting site. It is amazing how people use it and apply their own creativity to expand upon its capabilities. I must say, though, the Flickr mashups and third part apps, while inventive, didn't particularly seem interesting or useful to me. Wait, scratch that: I did get way too engrossed with the Retrievr mashup: drawing little sketches to retrieve photos with similar colors and shapes. Some of the photos that popped up were breathtaking!

Week 3, #5: Flickr

Well, after quite a gap, I am back and will hopefully finish before the end of
August! With Flickr, however, I'm afraid my goal of limiting myself to just the essentials and limiting my time pretty much dissolved.

I did see that tags are keywords by which to label your photos and make them more searchable. Similar to subject headings, but with out the relative consistency of LC subject headings that libraries use. Groups are categories to which users can add their photos, for example, Libraries, etc.

Once I started actually looking at the photos is when my time limitation goal disintegrated. For example, the Library Signage group has some cool ideas! ...and so many beautiful nature photos, people photos, etc. I just got caught up in them.