Musings on 23 Things

THING #23

2007-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

My favorite exercises were the ones I could share with my daughter. She was excited that I knew about podcasting, YouTube, and image generators. Somehow I feel a little more "with it". I think this program has made me realize just how much I don't know about web 2.0 and technology.
As for improving the program, one suggestion would be to have someone on-site to help when we get stuck. I really liked being able to work at my desk, but I got stuck a few times where I needed someone to look at where I was and to give me tips on how to proceed. I mostly figured it out by trial and error but it was very time consuming. My second suggestion would be to scale back on the number of things covered and spend more time on each. I would just begin to understand one thing and would immediately be on to the next thing.
I would describe my overall experience as both enlightening and humbling. I felt excited to learn about all this new technology, but felt I was only scratching the surface.

THING #22

2007-09-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

I was least familiar with Project Gutenberg and what it offers, so I decided to take a look at that site. The site offered a good selection of classics, but I was expecting many more titles by Shakespeare and other authors used in literature classes. The selection of titles for Twain, Thackeray, Hardy, and Doyle were very good. I would enjoy listening to some of the Twain or Doyle titles which I read many years ago. This site would also be helpful for some of my daughters classes.

THING #21

2007-09-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

I started out the discovery project by looking at the directories for general information on video reviews. This was too general so I searched library video reviews. I only got two hits on Podcast.net one of which seemed relevant. On Podcastalley.com I got lots of hits but again only one seemed relevant (a different podcast than on Podcast.net). It seems fruitful to use more than one directory to search. I added the feed for Hennepin County Library Teenlinks (a podcast that reviews books and videos for teens) to my Bloglines account.

THING #20

2007-09-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

I spent some time on YouTube looking at the different categories and videos. I saw the suggestion of funny dogs and decided to look at funny cats. I spent a while laughing at all kinds of cat videos. I was amazed at how creative some of them were with music and editing (or non-editing). What surprised me a great deal was the number of comments for each video. The amount of visits to this site must be phenomenal! I think the idea of videos for patrons to watch is a good one. Perhaps library programs or special presentations could be made available. Also, the idea of allowing comments by users is a good one (though I guess someone would have to review the content).

THING #19

2007-08-31T09:14:00.000-07:00

I chose Medstory (beta) from the health category. I did a couple of searches on topics of personal interest. One search came back with only one category and seemed very straightforward without allowing for refining. The second search I did "cholesterol and diet" was much better. It allowed me to refine by 8 different categories including clinical studies, conditions and experts. It also allowed for further refining by trials, news, research articles and grants. This intelligent search engine makes searching for health and medical information on the web more refined and less cumbersome. It could be used in the library when information on the in-house databases is insufficient or sketchy.

THING #18

2007-08-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

I created an account at ZohoWriter. I explored the site and created a test document. The software was easy to use, very much like MS Office. It did include some tool bar buttons not on my in-house MS Word such as inserting emotions (smiley faces) and special characters. I also like the ability to insert images and do quick formatting (such as changing background colors) easily from the tool bar buttons. As to the advantages ZohoWriter, I liked the ability to have my document published and read as a web page. Also, I appreciated being able to save documents online and e-mail them as a word file or in other formats.

THING #17

2007-08-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

It was fun to read "favorites" lists done by other library staff on the Maryland Libraries sandbox. It could be useful way to exchange library related info or just use for fun (we can all use a good laugh).

THING #16

2007-08-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

I was amazed at the varied uses for wikis. My previous experience was only with Wikipedia which was interesting but limited. The uses just for libraries were numerous, ie. subject guides, community information and input, intranets, collaborative projects, conferences, etc. The use that I thought most interesting was the annotating of the catalog. I have long used Amazon.com to read what buyers thought about certain books and DVD's. What a great idea for libraries! Using library users as sources of synopses, reviews and experiences with library materials would open up a whole new world of interaction with our users.

THING #15

2007-08-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

The perspective that struck me as the most insightful was "Into a new world of librarianship". Key ideas such as the library is human and the five qualities of the librarian 2.0 are very important to the future of libraries and librarians. It made me think about how we plan and what we, as librarians, should be doing to effectively use the new 2.0 technology. Some of these qualities have always been seen as important to the profession. Implementing these in terms of 2.0 have a slightly different slant as to how we approach our relationship to the user. Definitely food for thought.

THING #14

2007-08-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

My searches for "learning 2.0" yielded different results. Searching the blog posts yielded 400 blog posts (it narrowed the results by authority and language). Searching the tags was the most broad search with 3,570 blog posts, 196 blogs and listings for videos and photos. The blog directory only searched blogs and yield the same results (196) as the tags search.
I was not particularly surprised at the lists of favorited blog, top searches or top blogs. Curiosities, money and technology reviews were the top three favorited blogs. The top blogs listed some of the same or similar as on the favorited blogs. The top searches - celebrities, Utube and new technology crop up regularly. All in all what I would expect.

THING #13

2007-08-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

My first thoughts about tagging and Del.icio.us was how useful it would be for seminars and lifelong learning courses. It allows all students to access relevant articles by tag and also permits the instructor or the student to comment on the articles. What a great idea! It would also allow one to keep up on a subject of personal interest and to comment to others about it.

THING #12

2007-08-14T05:51:00.000-07:00

Creating a search tool with Rollyo was easy. Great for creating search on subject or theme- based searches. Useful for both personal and work related subjects. Here is my link: http://www.rollyo.com/dr012/

THING #11

2007-08-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

This was fun! Just thinking about some of my favorite books felt good. The librarysuggester was really a great tool for next reads and thoughts by other readers.http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dr01

THING #10

2007-08-09T11:06:00.000-07:00

I was amazed at the variety of images. I had a bit of trouble getting the image button to work, but changing from Firefox to Explorer fixed the problem. This image continues the cute kitty theme.

THING #9

2007-08-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

The method of finding feeds that I found the easiest to use was Bloglines Search tool. Perhaps because I had used the Bloglines website previously that it seemed familiar somehow. When I searched libraries I got 7,590 feeds and looking through the first several pages, they seemed relevant and interesting. Feedster allowed me to search by category but seemed to bring up everything remotely concerned with libraries. Topix.net seemed best suited for news by geographical area. Syndic8.com was not easy to read and results were confusing. Too technical for the average user. Technorati gave overwhelming numbers of results but the videos and photos were interesting to peruse. It struck me that there are an enormous number of feeds on every subject imaginable!

THING #8

2007-08-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

I really like having up to the minute news, weather and library info available to me on my desktop. Some of the news I would either miss or would hear about at a much later date. Once I figured out how to add feeds it is very easy and convenient way to keep up in library land and the world in general. Once again technology finds a better way to communicate.

THING #7: TECHNOLOGY

2007-07-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed at the wonderful things we can do with technology. When visiting my brother about a month ago, he handed me a stack of cds which he had made for me. He had photoshopped and downloaded boxes and boxes of old family photographs. Some of the photos were very old and in poor condition. It was fabulous to see great, great grandparents and distant relatives brought back to life. We had a great time trying to identify some of the photographs. Unfortunately some will remain unindentified, but it was a great trip down memory lane.

THING #6 COLR PICKR

2007-07-25T10:57:00.001-07:00

Gazania (difference)
Originally uploaded by Dawn Endico

Loved this photo! The colors are amazing.

THING # 5:Kitty Heaven

2007-07-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

Chihiro
Originally uploaded by fofurasfelinas

I couldn't resist this photo. It looks a lot like my cat.

THING #3

2007-07-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

My blog is finally set up! Glad that's done. For me, the easiest habit on the list of 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners is viewing problems as challenges (otherwise I would be seriously depressed). The hardest would be to use technology to my advantage. There is so much technology out there that I do not use and only have a passing knowledge about.