Thing 23

I have gotten lots of great ideas from Library 2.0. I was lots of fun looking into all of these things and taking the time to do them. Life is going so fast, it's have to find the time to just learn something new. Like I said in Thing 22, I have made a resolution and I hope to continue learning. I would have to say the the image generators were the best fun. LibraryThing was something I had already used and I hope to have a teen review/blog section on the Teen Page sometime soon.

If you did something like this again, I would be happy to participate.

Thing 22

I found this YouTube video when I was l0oking at the LISNews site. This was under Cool Sites. I am one of those people that has strange dreams, so I found this interesting.

I am making my resolution now. I will continue my Web 2.0 education. I will revisit all the sites I used and see what's new and improved. I hope to be setting up a mini- book review blog like section on our teen.

As for "What did I learn today?" That isn't hard. I usually find out something new. If I don't my husband always has some new technology thingy to show me.

Thing 21

I found this section of the Webjunction article to be so helpful, I am going to paste it into my blog for everyone to read. During these Web 2.0, I have gotten some good ideas, but this was the most strait forward article I have read yet.

The next step in building an interactive library — the most difficult and frustrating part of the project for us —involves convincing a few key people in the organization to consider integrating social networking into existing library activities. This means adding endorsement and coordination to the social web work we've already set in motion.
Let's say, for instance, the library hosts an author visit. We already have a book blog, so we can review the author's latest book. We have podcasting abilities, so perhaps we can arrange a short telephone interview in advance. The same publicity that advertises the program can now mention the review and the podcast. That magnifies the vitality of the library: not only have we arranged for the author to visit, but we’re showcasing his work, linking to the catalog, and providing avenues for his readers to talk back, share their thoughts, and get excited about the upcoming program. The event host should mention the blog and podcast and announce that photographs from the evening will be available on the library's Flickr page. Patrons visiting those photos later in the week might leave their thoughts, discover pictures from other library programs, and partner with the site or subscribe to the blog so they don't miss the next event. Coordination helps every social web tool reinforce what we already do, and the tools themselves add an online interactive dynamic we've never had before.
Once patrons know we're sharing these tools and welcoming their participation, a host of additional opportunities will open up. Fun community events might spring from a social site geared toward seniors; an online teen photo project could ignite untapped creativity; monthly book clubs could add discussion opportunities between meetings; the library can spotlight its special collections or services; and social web workshops for the public could enrich the community and foster still more interest in the library's networks.



View my page on 23 Things on a Stick

Webjunction, Gather and Ning were fun to use. I loved the Library of the Month article on the Webjunction page. What a change in their childrens services. Bravo!!!

I also took a look at the Crafter website. Very cool. My sister is a big craft person. I will send her to this site.

Thing 20

Facebook, was interesting. I did join a couple groups from my high school in Adrian MN and my college, Northern State University. I found a couple people that I knew and added them to my group. I'll have to check the account later and see if anyone responds. I can see that this would be a great place to network with people you may not see or haven't seen since high school or college. You can find out info from their profiles and start a new social system online.

I can see why libraries would use MySpace as a communications tool. Althought the profiles are very oriented for individuals, not institutions. I didn't know that Hennepin County has a zodiac sign. I didn't create a page. Sarah, a coworker has created one for RPL and finds it hard to keep up with. From what I see of the teens using it here at the library, it's something that you can do constantly. Forget school, family and physical activities. I can relate with MySpace. Not. I don't think any online relationship will ever replace face to face communications.

Thing 19

I listened to a few podcasts, I don't know why but I got all these religious sermon like podcasts. One was trying to find religious symbolism in VanGogh's Potato Eaters painting.

I didn't listen to the whole thing, I was irked by the things the guy was saying, trying to making this into a peasant last supper. NOT.

I found that YahooPodcasts was very easy to use. I never did get a Podcastalley link to run. I got lost trying to figure out if I needed to create an account or not.

I was not inspired by this Podcast thing. I can see how some people would like it. Being able to search for specific topics to listen to can be good, but I guess I like to just listen to the radio talk shows and take my chances on what they are talking about today. My XM satelite radio in my car has a talk radio category that I enjoy.

Thing 18

I found this video last week when I was looking at Rap videos. As part of our volunteer appreciation party in a couple weeks, I had somehow volunteers to do a 90's Rap skit with a co-worker. I was looking for some popular rap songs and ideas for clothes, slang sayings and dance moves. I have used YouTube a lot over the last year or so. My favorite YouTube post is the one for Don McClains - Vincent. It's a slide show of VanGohn paintings to the song. Very calming. I enjoy watching it on my break on those stressful/cranky days.

We currently have the winning films of our film contest posted on YouTube and linked to our web page.

Thing 17

OK, I went to the Gale InfoTrac search pages and I easily found the RSS feed. However when I repeatedly tried to post it on my blog I got an INVALID FEED URL message.

I can see where it would be nice to get updates on currently changing topics you may be researching or are interested in.

Thing 16

The RPC and the Assignment Calculator were very indepth. I was kind of puzzled as to why the Assignment Calculator even asked what topic they were research since everything it connected you to was the same. The examples weren't even topic related.

Both of these sites would be great online tools for teachers and school librarians to teach student research skills. I doubt however, that high school students would use these tools unless you required them too.

I don't see where I would use this for any kind of library project. It's more of a tool to refer people do if they want help organizing themselve for a big project or presentation. I guess if I ever had to do some sort of big presentation on a topic that was very indepth and I wanted to keep myself on track I would use these resources.

Thing 15

I took a look at the Second Life site. Its very interesting. At first I thought it would be a place were I could create my own virtual place. It would be fun to create a mini Rochester and our library, you could re-create all the different parts of the library and it could be a cool on-line tour of our library. Patrons could go to the reference desk and talk with a librarian or find out more about the nooks and cranies of the library.

I think that gaming for kids at home or at the library is good, as long as there is some balance. I don't think that people should spend their whole day or week playing games in a fantasy world and only talking to other people playing the virtual game. There is some much more to life that we need to experience that gaming can not do.

Thing 14

I used LibraryThing for quite a while last fall. Here is the link to my catalog:http://www.librarything.com/catalog/michaelynette I attempted to create a list of every book I have ever read, until I realized that if you added more that 500 titles you would need to start paying for the service, so I stopped. I loved the recommendation options. When my list was small and only included recent things I had read, it was really great for finding other things to read. I liked the comments that other could post about a particular book. Once I expanded my list to include things I might have read in High School or College, the recommendations became to broad and ineffective. As for a use as a tool for library patrons, I don't think it's for every user. However it is a great online place to keep track of what you have read and look at what others are reading and what they think of it. The site is well used by book lovers.

Thing 13

I took a look at PageFlakes. It seems to be a lot more work than I would want to do. If I have lots of time to waste I might want to us its cool layout system and templates.

My husband and I have been using 30Boxes as our shared calendar for the last year or so. Since we do not have access to each others electronic work calenders, its an easy way for us to let each other know about evening meetings, plans with friends & family, shared activites and appointments. My husband can sync it to his Iphone. Its very basic and no frills. I would recommend it to others.

I don't know that the t0-do-lists would be helpful. It might be good for a small business with 2-5 employees that could have access to the same lists. I might us it for keeping track of birthdays and anniversaries. I have a task list as part of my email program, that seems to work well for me. Backpack looked very extensive. It would be good if I did a lot of traveling and I wanted an online place to collect info on-line for easy access where ever I might be. I can't say that I was jumping up and down about any of them. I'm that type of person that doesn't us computers very much when I am not at work. At home its all about the piece of paper/list on the refrigerator.

Thing 12

I think that it would be good to have link to these website on our teen page, to give them a variety of viewpoints and outlets. I liked the Bury option on the DIGG site. The Reddit site was a bit text heavy. Teens would not find that appealing. Newsvine was my favorite. Topics are very extensive, loved the ODD NEWS category. It also have great tags/vines to follow. I didn't know that the Smithsonian has a furniture collection. MIXX was a big strange for me. The photo section was weird, categories very random and odd, Mixx was my least favorite.

I have read the NY times and BBC sites before. The NY site has some html issues with links that don't display well. BBC is great for that non-US perspective.

I think these sites are an enhancer. They are great if you have a certain interest or just want to see whats out there.

Thing 11

I can see the potential for using del.icio.us . I just don't know that I really need it. I don't have a real need for keeping track of website and blog postings. The libraries Wiki has a great deal of website lists for me to reference instead of using tags or labels. If I was a big blogger I could see where I would want to tag things for easy reference.

I could see how a library could use tagging for frequently used website. If our library didn't already have a system in place through our website and wiki, I would say the del.icio.us would be a great site to use. The San Mateo Library had quite and extensive list of site tagged by dewey number. I did see many readers advisory sites listed. (They should have more YA/teen sites tagged, especially the YALSA site with all it's book lists.)

Thing 10

Wikis are great fun. Our library has one (created by our tech savy BrianL) that we use for staff use. It is great for finding library events, policies, phone numbers, computer helps and frequently used websites. We love that any staff person can make changes or updates to the info on the Wiki. Editing things is so easy. I could see how teachers might like a wiki for use in class projects, giving password assess to anyone who might need or denying access to others. Yes, many teachers/faculty "ban" Wikipedia as a source for student research, just like they "bannned" us of encyclopedias as your primary source when I was in high school. I think that Wikipedia can and should be used. If nothing else the access it gives to users of related links and information is very handy. Any good school teacher or librarian should be teaching their students how to find accurate and reliable sources of information on the internet. Like the information in book, the information is only as perfect as the person who compiled/wrote it.

I did create a 23 things wiki account and added a few words with my name(Lynette the Library Lady) at the end. Like I said at the beginning. Our library has a wiki and I have made changes to that, so this "thing" wasn't hard at all.

Thing 9

I really found not much difference between the two. I think that using this way of document editing, for muliple users who are using a variety of operating systems and word processing software, would be a very good choice. Especially in committee work where members are in different parts of a city, state or even country. For my purposes, here at our library, I don't see much need. We all have access to MS Word and saving documents in a shared folder is quite easy. In fact it makes it quite easy when I am in the graphics room, struggling with the color printer and I can resend a print job from any of my co-workers computers without having to login as myself and going back downstairs.

As far as the Founding Fathers are concerned, I think that they would be very surprised at how much work we put into typing, re-typing, editing, printing and re-printing something. They would have loved to be able to quickly make many copies of an important document. However they most likely would not like the waste of money and paper that occurs when people print and send junk mail, catalogs or other paper documents that people do not want or have any desire to read/use. They would also miss the process of writing by hand. Getting an email or e*card is not like getting that personal note sent by loved ones and friends.

Thing 8

I spent a great deal of time this morning, playing around with and creating a XTIMELINE. I found the link to this site from the 50 Web 2.0 Way to Tell a Story Link. Here is the link to the timeline page; http://xtimeline.com/timeline/Lynette-the-Library-Lady

It looked like it would be pretty easy at first. I thought that I could include links of relevant website to the timeline events. I guess they should have been video feeds instead. I did manage to add a photo of the college I attended. I did include a photo of myself when I created the page, but the photo that shows up on the timeline is not that photo. I would have to spend a lot more time on this to get it looking like I would want before putting it on any webpage that I would share with.

Thing 7

Web communications is everywhere. Before I started this job 9 years ago, I didn't even have an email address. Now there isn't a day when I'm not reading, sending or using email. My husband and I use the Mac product 30 Boxes to share our calendar of meetings, appointments, family plans and work schedules. It does interact/sink with my Novell email at work, but at least I can look at our calendar and see if we have any plans for such-n-such a date.

Our library does have a 24/7 IM reference service. I don't know much about how the reference staff coordinates that. I should have a look at that some day. I will periodicly get a question forwarded to me about YA library programs.

As for text and IMing for work or personal use, I haven't really found a need. My nieces and nephews are addicted. Hundreds of minutes are used to text their girl and boyfriends. The slang that is used is hard to keep up with. I even heard of this woman in Japan, who writes books/short stories on her cell phone and text messages everything to her home/work email and then forwards it to a publisher. The interview showed her texting in traffic and while shopping at the mall. Talk about a mobile job.

Webinars are one of the greatest things. I love being able to attend a seminar or class without having to drive all the way to the Twin Cities or other metro area to attend something. I am going to be "attending" a webinar this week about young adult programing through the U of M Extension programs. I did have the option of heading over to the United Way offices to sit with others and watch the session, but I think I will stay right here at my desk and login. Minitex has a long list of courses to take, but they seemed to be very cataloging topic heavy.

Thing 6

These are my photo fun creations.

I just created a trading card that I think a teen would put on their Myspace or Facebook account.

Wouldn't it be great if we could actually make personalized mailing stamps. That would be lots of fun. Stamp collectors could go wild.

Creating these types of things to include on a library teen page would be very interesting for teens. ALA has a program that allows you to make your own personalized READ poster.

Thing 5

It was fun to go around a play with some of the photo editing options from Flickr and other sites. Here is a photo of a cupcake that has been morphed with a beading effect.

Its amazing what computers can do if you know how to use them and have the time to figure out how to do it.

Thing 4

This is my geotagging find of the south Pacific island of Bora Bora. My husband and I honeymooned at the hotel where this photo was taken. It was the most amazing trip of our lives. Unfortunately photos can not project the amazing smells that surround you while visiting the island. Between the flowers, plants and ocean breezes. Bora Bora has an intoxicating smell that I will remember for ever. If you ever get there. Be sure to bring home some monoi oil. Whenever I want to relax and remember this magnificant place I put a little on and enjoy. We hope to go back there again some day.

I already have an account on Flickr. We post most of our photos there. We also have grouped many of the family members photos as well for easy viewing. We haven't been very good at creating functional tags for the photos. Most of the photos are of our son, Charlie.

Things 3

RSS - There is so much out there, it's quite mind boggling. RSS is definitely a great way to save time surfing and finding news and updates on the things you are interested in. I created my account on bloglines.com and just looking through their list of 1000 available blogs, makes things a lot easier.

Thing 2

Library 2.0 - The wave of the future. Technology and communications with patrons on the internet, phone's and less in person interaction. It's a techno savy, introvert librarians dream. I am all for broadening our communication and service tool horizons. But what wave do you follow. So many things change so quickly. One day it's MySpace, the next thing its FaceBook. How do you know what things to invest your staff time and money in. If IMing teens is a great way to communicate with teen patrons, should the library be providing cell phones for the YA librarian? I know that many of our patrons love that they get their email notices about overdues, reserves and library events. They like that they can reserve things in the middle of the night via the internet and pick them up the next day. However the learning curve for many older patrons makes for a challenge for staff. That said. I am all for it. I am ready to ride the Library 2.0 wave.

Thing 1

Creating the blog was very easy. Creating the Avatar was fun, but the pages kept locking up everytime I changed something about my person. My coworker said it has something to do with our internet traffic. Now I just need to get this registered and I am set.

Welcome from the Library Lady

Welcome to my blog. I hope this will be the first of many postings.