Thing #23 - I'm Done!!!

This learning experience was fun, but time consuming. I wish I had more time to complete the optional exercises in each Thing. Sometimes I was able to do them pretty easily, but other times I just needed to keep going.

My favorite part of this learning program was setting up my own blog and each of the components that we added to it. I feel like there is a little part of me on the Internet now.

I learned a lot from this learning program. I would definitely do it again. I do think that some of the directions could be better written. There were a few Things that took way more time than they should have because I was trying to figure out exactly what they were asking me to do. I saw this with other staff too. I loved seeing the staff get really into this exercise. They jumped in at full speed! Even the staff that said they were not tech savvy got really into it. How great is that!

Great program, but I'm glad I'm done.

Thing #22

Our library has access to Overdrive. There are many titles available to download - ebooks, audio books and movies. I browsed around in the audio books that are always available. This is a nice collection especially for those that don't like to wait. Unfortunately, I don't have high speed at home, so I won't be able to download the audio I found that I'd like to check out, so I will read the book instead!

Thing # 21 - Podcasts

This was a fun exercise. I found some podcasts of teens doing book reviews at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. They were so cute! It gave me the idea that maybe our TAG group could do something like this for our Teen MySpace page.

Ode to Joy

This is my friend Matt's band, Odin's Court. So cool that he's on YouTube!

Thing #19 - Squidoo

I explored the site Squidoo for this exercise. It is a great place for small businesses, non-profits and a place for people to share what they know about different topics or advertise their business or non-profit. The first thing I clicked on was about energy saving tips. Good information. This is how they describe themselves:

Your signpost about something that matters to you.
A place to recommend your favorite stuff.
A popular way to get found more on the web.
A free (yes, free) way to earn a royalty. For you or for charity.
Word of mouth at your fingertips.

I loved the Stupic Library Tricks lens especially the YouTube videos of Library Book Cart Drill Teams. Ha! I didn't see any libraries with a lens. Maybe we should have one!

Thing #18 Google Docs

I love Google Docs. I used it to put my previous comment on my blog. Cool!

I love the idea of being able to carry your documents from one computer to another. And, that you don't have to worry about different versions of the software they are using. There are so many times when a customer has typed up their work on a different version of MS that for whatever reason won't open on our computers. I think this would make things so much easier for them. Now the hard part is getting them to use one of these free apps. We are all so trained to use the MS products.

Thing #17

This exercise was really difficult to follow. The directions were terrible! They say wikis are easy to use or user friendly, but it took 2 of us to figure out how to add a link to the page. And, I know HTML! Like I said before - wikis are not my favorite.

Thing #16 - Wikis

I'm not crazy about wikis. They are just too much in flux for me. I noticed that a lot of wikis haven't been updated in a while. Maybe people think wikis a great tool, but then they don't have time or get bored with it and don't go back to update it? I think the idea of a wiki has value, but I'm not sure it's something I want to create on my own.

Thing #15 - Library 2.0

It's scary to think that people are already talking about Library 3.0 and Library 4.0 when we haven't reached Library 2.0 yet. I think our library system is on the right path, but we still have a long way to go. We still need so many things - federated search, RSS in our catalog, tagging in the catalog, a library Flickr account....

We do have a Teen MySpace page though! :)

Thing #14 - Technorati

Wow, people have a lot of time on their hands. I don't know how people can spend so much time talking about nothing, which is how I feel about many of the blogs I saw on Technorati. When I looked at the top searches for today, I had no idea what or who most of them were! I must be living under a rock.

Honestly, I'm not sure how we would use this in the library world except of course to see what other people are blogging about libraries.

Thing #13

I created my own Del.icio.us account

http://del.icio.us/maryanne6828

Not much on it at this point. I need to re-train myself to use this instead of my bookmarks. Old habits die hard. I like the idea of Del.icio.us though. It will be great to access it from anywhere.

This could be a great tool for our Reference staff especially when they work Sundays. It's nice to have all the websites you use to answer customer questions in one place. Perhaps the Reference staff could create a site that they each add things to.