Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Thing #23 - Summarize Your Thoughts

Wow. I'm done already? I want to keep exploring. And exploring is oh-so-much easier if someone gives you a map. ;)

I am surprised to discover that I do like RSS feeds. I have set one up through Google Reader. I'm still trying to figure it out.

It was rather cool to be able to more fully investigate some of these sites that I've heard about but never really gone to. I'm very interested in continuing to explore the Web 2.0 awards page to find new exciting things. I definitely am the most excited about discovering Pandora.

I couldn't help but feel frustrated about the dead links that I encountered. Also, my experience with Thing #17 - playing in the sandbox was just upsetting. I'll keep a look out for a response to my request for authorization to join the sandbox, but I'm not too optimistic at this time. It's too bad that one whole Thing just doesn't work. Perhaps a new Thing could be substituted.

What would be great would be if this training opportunity would change every few years. Web 2.0 is mercurial and by definition will change constantly. So, if you took the course 2 or 3 years ago, you could take it again and have an entirely different experience. The static-ness of the blog page that hosts this training doesn't really go with the medium it's trying to teach.

Or, if changing 23 Things itself isn't doable, than perhaps 23 More Things (or some other number, say...10 or 15) would be interesting. We didn't delve much into social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. I'm sure there will be even more popping up.

Not only that, but we didn't look at dating websites - which are a part of Web 2.0. Now, don't get me wrong...I'm not suggesting we all go out there and pretend to be daters on these sites. However, in the library we do have quite a few customers who come in specifically to do online dating. I see Librarians looking down their nose at this all the time, but I believe that if it were one of the Things, it would help to educate Librarians about what goes on and how people meet, and what information a dater will put out there. Also, when someone comes to us with a problem, we might be able to help them instead of send them away upset and disappointed.

I would completely and totally participate in another venture such as this. I enjoyed my time with the 23 Things, and I enjoyed learning new things on the computer! What would be even more fun would be to include a little HTML (there are simple websites for that).

A description of my learning experience: What a fun way to learn about the emerging electronic world around us!

Thing #22 - Downloadable Audiobooks

I've been working with books on Project Gutenburg since I was an undergrad. I had a really cool class that was designed to be advanced math for english majors and we got to use some really awesome software to analyze texts. And I got my texts from Project Gutenburg because they were, full, complete and already typed into the computer.

That isn't to say that I read any of those texts. I just copied them and pasted them into the program.

I have a NetLibrary account because MCPL subscribes to them and I thought it would be a good idea. After spending one extremely frustrating afternoon trying to download (and then find and play) an audiobook on NetLibrary about 2 and a half years ago, I haven't been back.

For the sake of my CEUs, I returned to NetLibrary.

It seems that the only ebooks available are Cliffsnotes. Eh. I'm not a huge fan.

Oh, but wait! Here is an ebook of Robin Hood! I guess you can't just browse through the ebooks, but search for specific books. (Funnily enough, if you look closely, you'll see that this comes to NetLibrary from Project Gutenburg.)


Okay, so I got a little carried away with talking about the books you can read online. Since this is about audio books, I suppose I should talk about the audio side.


This time my experience was a lot better. I especially liked the box at the bottom of the page:


I guess they heard that people were getting frustrated.

Anyway, I did get to download a Robin Hood audio book, too. (I am so on a Robin Hood kick ever since watching the BBC's series.) I'm looking forward to running it on my little netbook as I walk on my treadmill.

Thing #21 - Locating Podcasts

Argh! I have discovered another place where the links are dead or incorrect on the 23 Things website. Podcast.net didn't work. Neither did Yahoo! Podcasts.

Luckily, Podcastalley is still working.

I'm kind of wanting to smack my head on surfaces at this point. Even in Podcast alley, I was bumping into old and out of date links. Rrrrrr.... I suppose these are just more examples of how Web 2.0 works. It's mostly user driven, and so somethings are not going to be kept up.

I was able to find something interesting to add to my bloglines feed. Open Stacks was very interesting and enjoyable. The podcasts were on the side of his blog and opened in different windows.

I'm not sure this is what we're supposed to be looking for. Perhaps I should try again...

Okay, once I started looking outside the "Library" arena, I found many podcasts to subscribe to.

The one thing that I noticed is that the humor podcasts are all...crass. I find that in my "old age" I want things that are funny by being witty, not by making fun of others or referencing anatomy or using vulgar language. I'm sure that this isn't something the library itself could break into, but it seems to be a void in the world of humor - especially in podcasting.

Thing #20 - YouTube

I love the muppets. Luckily for me, so do a lot of people in the YouTube universe. :) And it seems that the muppets have been creating new skits just for internet viewing. I never would have known that if I hadn't been working on Thing #20!

I hope this makes you laugh as much as it made me laugh.




If you really like Muppets, I would highly suggest the Muppets Studio on YouTube. I'm so excited to find this.

The only thing I don't like is that it's hard to find things if you don't know the right tag. Or if you can't quite remember where it was you saw it. The site is just so huge and user driven that somethings aren't labeled correctly. However, I notice that this is one more place where Google is taking over the world.

It would be great if we could put successful library programs - or trainings - on things like YouTube. That way, we could post them on our website or in our Check Us Out program as a "Missed It?" section. I know that personally, I have missed a few library programs I would have loved to go to because of work or health problems.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Thing #19 - Web 2.0 Winners

After 5 minutes I am completely hooked on Pandora. OMG, this is the best thing ever! An internet radio station that I can choose the music for...how cool is that? No wonder it won an award - okay, it was second place, but still...

I loved that I could type in an artist and make a radio station with just that artist. Not only that, but no one was there to judge my choices. I could add more artists to my radio station and create other radio stations. Since I'm a bit of an eclectic listener, and a bit of a cheapskate, too, I think this is the best thing. Not only that, but I can share my radio station with others through email.

Sadly, I cannot figure out how to share my radio station on blogger. (If this were on Facebook, I could share it.) But, I can email my radio station to people. So, if you're interested, comment on this post and be sure to include your email. I'll send you an email from my Pandora account with a link to my radio station and you can listen, too!

I'm going to have to peruse some more of these winners. Pandora really fills a hole in my life that I never knew exisited!

Thing #18 - Online Productivity Tools

You're probably sick of hearing me say things like this... I love Google Docs! I live on Google Docs.

I recently got a netbook that has a trial version of Microsoft Office installed. I have 60 uses, but then I have to pay for it. And paying for it is pretty expensive. So, I use Google Docs.

Then again, I've been using Google Docs for years. My parents live in Denver, Colorado and I'm here in Maryland. A few years ago, I was planning my wedding and needed to be able to work on the guest list with my parents easily. We created a Google Docs spreadsheet and I have been using it (Google Docs...and the spreadsheet, too) ever since. It's now my address book.

I also use Google Calendar to coordinate with my husband (who lives on the computer). I love it because I can't lose it and I can have access to it wherever there's a computer. If I'm going somewhere where there won't be access and I will need a calendar - I print it out and take it. That way, I can see my schedule. Plus, it keeps track of my changing Library schedule for me and I don't have to wonder if I'm working this Friday or next Friday.

Because of all the different places I have accounts, I chose not to create a Zoho account. I would like to explore it more at a different time.

a quick aside

(check out my fish gadget at the top of my blog. cool, huh?)

Thing #17 - Add an entry to the Sandbox

I have found this Thing to be frustrating. I have an account with PBWorks and have been on PBWorks for a while. However, when I click on the link to create an entry in the Sandbox, I get a page asking me to login. Once I login, I then get another page that says "You aren't a member of this workspace."

I can't possibly be the first one to get to #17, so I'm wondering either: a) what I'm doing wrong, or b) if something has changed on PBWorks or with 23 Things since it's creation that is preventing me from getting to the right place.

Will have to update later.

Thing #16 - Wikis

Ah, the wiki, useful and informative yet the bane of teachers everywhere beacuse of unreliable material. Oh, how I love wikipedia and urbandictionary. I'm excited to learn more...

(oh yeah, and we have a staff wiki here at Olney.)

The more I explore wikis, the more I really like them. They are just so useful - especially when there are a lot of participants. Sadly the ones I'm really interested in seem to not be very used or updated:
Maryland's Young Adult Librarians
Somerset County Teens
Book Lovers Wiki

It seems to me that there is too much going on in the online community and too many kinds of resources for libraries to keep all of their online presences up to date. So there are some great ideas languishing in obscurity, or disinterest.

Most of these wikis seemed to be account based - in order to add information or comments, you needed to be a registered user.

What seemed to be the most successful wikis were nationwide or without specific titles holding back collaboration. YALSA's wiki is cool. And one of the wikis from the discovery excersize is so cool that I need to see about adding it to my RSS feed reader, and that was the Library Success wiki. I also liked that they had the same wikipedia look that the world has gotten used to.

I have to say that I really like the staff wiki that our Assistant Branch Manager (Andrea Castrogiovanni) set up for Olney through PBWorks. It's a free service and is a great place to emphasize what is going on in MCPL and Olney Library. I also like that we can manipulate it, too. I've created a set of links on the sidebar so that no matter where you are in the library, you can access the same links everywhere using the same web application that we already use.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Thing #15 - Perspectives on Web 2.0



First, I would like to say that the YouTube video really made me think, and that's why I've posted it here. I know that we're all supposed to watch it, and I'd like to emphasize it. In my life, Web 2.0 has been a gradual and organic transformation into something that I take for granted. It definitely has affected my life in some ways that would never have happened without it. Uncomfortable situations with having to "unfriend" someone on Facebook, bringing up censoring issues on a blog, ettiquitte in a way that no one has ever dealt with before. The world is no longer separated by which forks you know and how you dress, per se. It's more of a who you know, where you are connected and what you have to offer.

I was taking a class earlier this fall and was very surprised to hear one of the students (who is working on getting an MLS) say that libraries have no business being on something like Second Life, Facebook or MySpace. After working in public libraries since 2002, I have consistantly heard that libraries need to be in those specific places.

People are usually shocked to find that MCPL has a Facebook or MySpace presence, and I never understood that. As I read these perspectives on Web 2.0, I see it's because typically, libraries haven't been there.

The aforementioned student said, "People know where the library is and if they want your services, they'll come to the building." It seems that many of the people that the library is trying to reach out to feel the same way.

I think that ultimately, if libraries want to be succesful on Web 2.0, the library stereo-type needs to be changed. And that, well, I just don't know how that will happen.

Thing #14 - Technorati

The first thing I learned about Technorati is that sadly, the links are out of date on the Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 website. The "claim" link no longer works. :( And that was the feature I was most interested in exploring.

Ah well, no matter, on to other things on this happy green website. What shall we find?

Well, Blogging is definitely a much larger enterprise now than it was when I read my first blog (or as it was called at that time "blawg") in the late 1990s. I enjoyed reading the reports on the State of the Blogosphere from 2009.

It's crazy for me to realize that I - coming late to the game - started blogging in 2005. And when I started, I felt silly for starting something that I was sure was going to die out soon. But now...4 years later and blogging is stronger than ever. (Though my personal blog posts have died down in frequency.)

I really like how Technorati really separates everything out. You can no longer search by tag, but you can look at the most popular tags (there's another place where our instructional blog is incorrect - ah, the mercurial state of the internet!), and you can search by blog or post. What I also like is that the sections each have their own page, so that I can look under the "Lifestyle" section and go to the Family page. (Which, I'm sure you've realized by now is one of my interests.)

I do like all the possiblities and the ability look through blogs in a way that is a little more structured than normal. Plus, this helps me discover bloggers I never would have found before!

Thing #13 - Del.icio.us

I use Del.icio.us almost daily on my personal computer. I love being able to take my bookmarks with me wherever I am. It's also very helpful in case I find good resources while I'm surfing the web at home - I can tag them with "library" and then when I'm at work, I can find them easily without trying to remember what it was exactly or how I got there in the first place.

I'm not too involved in the social aspect of it. My friends who del.icio.us aren't very active, and we're friends in so many other areas (typically facebook or goodreads) that we communicate there. I'm beginning to believe that you can be far too connected to someone - through the internet.

I see a huge potential here to share knowledge. The internet is uncatalogued information and this can help librarians everywhere find what they need.

Thing #12 - Rollyo


I have never seen anything like this before. I'm very excited to learn about Rollyo and to play with it.

I had a fun time creating my own search. Here's a box for you to play with. I put together a few popular and helpful parenting websites.








Powered by Rollyo

Thing #11 - LibraryThing

Man, it's really interesting that I have accounts at places that are either similar or direct competitors with what we're doing on 23 Things. I'm a member of GoodReads and love it. I have friends on LibraryThing...and I might have a really old account that I have no idea what the username or password is by now, but I don't use it. Most of the people I communicate with are on GoodReads.

So here's my LibraryThing catalog.

It's so cool to be able to keep a record of the books you read or have read. And what fun to share them with others!

Thing #10 - Image Generators

This was really fun. I had a great time playing with image generators. I like Meez a lot, but I'm tired of them and want to find others. So I went a-searching...

I found a fun one at jellymuffin.com.




Which was really fun to play around with. But...it's not really "avatar"y. So I kept going.

This site was also fun. But...a huge pain to actually get your image. You have to use the PrintScreen button and paste it into MS Paint and then augment it from there. Pain in the tushie!





So, I journeyed on, having a great time. I then found UNIQUE. It has a fun interactive site that doesn't take toooooo long to update your changes. And it was fairly easy to download and use your avatar here.





I couldn't help wondering though, what is the aversion to noses in avatars? Both of these sites do not give a nose option. So, I was off in search of a nose.


This was hard. The library computers weren't upgraded enough to use FaceYourManga, which looked really really cool. I can't download Zwinky (and I'm not sure that I want to) at the library, either.


Finally, I opted for Yahoo. (Once I remembered my Yahoo login, that is.) And voila! An avatar with a nose. It was an extremely complicated one, though. And I couldn't choose my own nose. :(

All in all, it was a fun Thing to do. I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for more!

Thing #9 - Explore MERLIN and locate other library feeds/blogs

MERLIN is cool! I particularly like the Library Lingo section. I wish that it had existed when I started in libraries.

I love Reader's Advisory, and so I check out the earlyword blog a lot. I just love it. They have all kinds of good information on books I will probably never have the time to read, but should know about for the customers.

I also like the Librarian Avengers. Sometimes you just want to be a warrior Librarian and she really helps dispel some frustrations because she's going through the same things. :)

Another place I like to hang out is Reference Quarterly. It's good to stay on top of reference news.

And they are all now part of my RSS feeds on Bloglines. Whenever I move over to Google Reader, I'll move them over there, too.

Thing #8 - RSS Feeds

I've known about RSS feeds for a long time, but I've never used one before.

It is a lot more helpful than I thought it would be. Though to be honest, I don't follow many different websites - perhaps 2 or 3. And the one I visit the most often - mentalfloss - didn't really work right on Bloglines. I think that since I'm a huge Google user, I'd be more interested in using Google Reader. (Perhaps a choice of RSS readers to use instead of specifically Bloglines would be more beneficial to explore this Thing - especially since the internet moves so quickly and Bloglines is now not the preferred RSS feed reader anymore 2 years later.)

I did want to share my Bloglines feed. Here is the link.

I would like to further investigate the Google Reader service as this is one I would actually use on a day to day basis. The Bloglines is more cumbersome for me as that is another username and password to remember out of the hundreds for all the sites that require them that I use.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Thing #7 - Technology

I just think that technology in itself is cool, to be honest.

I love that I have a cellphone in my pocket at this minute and it goes everywhere with me.

I love that digital cameras can look like the kinds of cameras we're all used to, or can be tiny buttons on our phones, or small & cheap little things in the shape of a clunky carabiner.

Something I find very interesteding is the Kindle that Amazon has come out with. Not only that, but Barnes & Noble also came out with their own version. I don't want to see an end of bound and printed books. I like the paper, I like the heft of it in my hand, I love the smell when I turn the pages. I like that since the 1500s, people have been reading books in the same way that I do. Umberto Eco feels that printed books will decline and eventually perish (from his afterword in The Future of the Book). And I believe he may be right. But that doesn't mean that I don't mourn this, and wish it not to happen.

At the same time, I think that the Kindle is a super cool device and would love to see one in action. I'm interested in the technology that it uses - especially the "electronic ink" that they use instead of a backlight. If it does what I think it does and replicates the look of a printed piece of paper...well...perhaps the decline of the book won't be all that bad.

I'll be more interested when it can replicate the smell, too.

Thing #6 - Flickr Mashups and 3rd Party Sites

Sadly, mappr no longer exists, however, Flickr now provides that service. I had a great time looking at pictures taken in Takoma Park. It's really cool to see things I've participated in through someone else's eyes (like the Antique Car Show and the Takoma Park Street Festival). Or to just see my neighborhood in a new way.
It was fun to turn my grandparents' iconic wedding picture into a trading card (using the tool at Big Huge Labs. I'm not sure whar they would have said about it, but I think it's neat.

Thing #5 - Flickr

I've been using Google's Picasa for so long and I'm rather attached to it that I've been avoiding Flickr. Flickr is cool, though I hate that I have to have yet another log in on the web. (But, I suppose Google can't own everything, can it?)

So here's where that "I will try to keep an open mind" thing comes in.

Wow, right off the bat, I'm interested to see that there have been 5,248 uploads in the last minute ! (I assume that changes minute by minute.) People are out there uploading like crazy.

Stella's pet-peeve about online photo posting #1:

Pictures without correct orientation:




Though... that is really a very cute picture by holasoylulu. I love the look on the baby's face.


Pet-peeves aside, I love love love pictures like this:


If I'd have been wherever Christophe Szpajdel had been, I hope that I would have had the sight to take that picture too. Then again, looking over Christophe's photos, I doubt it...though it looks like he lives in a fairy-tale world full of beautiful woods. I really like that I can view his pictures without being signed in to Flickr. But...I worry about the saftey of it. Luckily, he has mostly unidetifiable woods, but I can see a safety issue with Flickr that anyone can see the photos. (Then again, I never would have been able to enjoy these wondeful photos.





Thing #4

I registered with Kate Tavakolian.

I also used my 23 Things Tracking Log. I find it very helpful! I can follow what I'm doing. I love lists, especially lists I can check things off of. It makes me feel accomplished. :)

Thing #2

I love that there are seven and a half habits. I love the fractions when applied to things you wouldn't normally associate fractions with. (Though Naked Gun 2 1/2 wasn't as good as I would have hoped.)

So, let's get down to the 7 habits...
1. Begin with the end in mind.
2. Accept responsibility for your own learning.
3. View problems as challenges.
4. Have confidence in yourself as a competant, effective learner.
5. Create your own learning toolbox.
6. Use technology to your advantage.
7. Teach and mentor others.
7.5. Play!

I'm really great at making goals, and even better at never reaching them...so I would say that that first habit is the easiest and hardest for me. It's the staying power that fails me. I've been working hard on changing that.

These are all sound habits, and most of them I have (especially the habit of playing). Now, I just need to polish them up and have them ready for company at all times to be a more effective learner.

Sadly, I could not open the Learning Contract attachment. :( I will just have to make one here.

I would like to do 23 Things in order to have an even deeper understanding of the technological world around me. To do that, I will follow the links found here and try to enjoy doing them, and find the positive to everything I work on. I will also try to be open-minded and not assume that I know something just because I've worked with it before. There is always something new to learn - will be my mantra. If I have trouble, I will ask for help from the people around me, and not be worried about not being a world-class know-it-all. And I will make sure that I keep my flash drive with me at all times when I am learning in order to save my progress on my Tracking Log.

I liked the thought that we spend so much of our time signing our lives away to everyone but ourselves. I will try to remember to sign to myself sometimes by following my Learning Contract.

Thing #1

This was an interesting read and listen. I'm really excited to do this program and am looking forward to learning more about web 2.0.

I enjoyed the podcast as well. I have to admit, I don't see the draw for podcasts, though, when there's video technology prevalent throughout the internet. I do like the idea of fun-infused training, though. I'm looking forward to learning, learning, learning!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Created!

(This is actually Thing #3...in case you are wondering about the discrepancy between #2 and #4.)

Today I created a blog for 23 Things.

Hip-hip-hooray!