I'm Done with all 23!!

Here goes the last one! I've really enjoyed doing the 23 things, and now I'll have to find some other sites to keep me learning about these things. My favorite finds from this process have been the podcasts, webinars, and photo things. I will be using the bighugelabs and flickr site for sure, I'm a huge photo person and I was really excited about these. I would definitely participate in another 23 things if there is one.

Keeping up with 2.0 - 22

Now that I'm almost done with the 23 things it is kind of bittersweet. I love to learn new things available online. I'm the one at work who gets really excited about a cool new site and ends up peer pressuring others (in a nice way) to try it out. I like to show others how to use different tools and new things, and I like to learn with other people (thus the peer pressure). I don't feel like I need a "resolution" to stay on top of 2.0 things, but I will make more of a conscious effort to learn new things rather than waiting for new things to come to me. I think one per week, rather than the suggested 15 minutes per day, works best for me. That way I'll spend my extra time during that week learning everything I can about the new tool or site, and trying out everything I can think of with it.

More Social things 21

• Are you a member of any online communities? Other than being on facebook and myspace, I'm not a member of any communities online. At least, none like I was finding on ning.
  
• Are any of these social networks appealing to you? I found ning really interesting. I could see creating a group with classmates or work cohorts or other groups that either are working together or just like to hang out. For example, on Sunday mornings my husband and I have a group we meet at a Starbucks (kind of our "Sunday school" but very informal). Currently we send mass emails to each other to let people know about other things going on, but having a ning site would make this so much more convenient.
  
• What did you find that was interesting and that you might use later? A few networks on Ning looked interesting, though I haven't joined any yet. One was Library Youth and Teen Services 2.0.

Social Networking 20

I've been on facebook for several years now. I was an undergrad when the site began as a college based social site, and signed up then. While I'm on both facebook and myspace, I rarely use myspace anymore. It was the site that my friends who had not gone to college were on, and that was my primary reason for having a page on there. Now, everyone is able to have a facebook page and thus, I don't need to go to myspace :)

My reasons for liking facebook over myspace:

• I can access it from the library. (myspace was blocked by our library system)
• Less spam.
• Less virus threat.
• Don't have to worry about making my page "look cool"
• I don't have to worry about what random images or adds that are posted to my comments/wall
• The list pretty much ends there...

The library and Social Networking:
The library I work for currently has one page that users can be fans of. I believe they are about to pilot a branch level page in which the staff at one of the branches gets to post their own events and pictures to their own page. If this turns out well, I may be doing this at my branch.

Podcast 19

I listened to a podcast about Julia Child and one with Meg Cabot. I've never looked for podcasts before and didn't know what I was missing. Finding authors on here is great! I found that publishers often have podcasts with their authors on their web sites. I found that using google and searching what I was looking for with the word podcast worked better than using the podcast directories. I haven't subscribed to any podcasts yet but I did find a few that looked good!

YouTube number 18

I chose this video because I've done Peep Joust tournaments at the library before and the Tweenaged kids really loved it. I've also found videos on this site that help give me ideas for t-shirt making programs. There are a lot of great ideas out there just waiting to be found on one of these sites. I'm always open to having someone email me what they've found.

Personalized Databases - 17

• How can these tools be applied to your everyday work? I didn't know that these tools were on the sites that I regularly use, like EBSCO. I don't know that I'll ever use the web page maker, but it was fun to play with. I like the note taking that is available on the netlibrary site. I normally don't like reading on screen, but searching the text is SO easy.
  
• How can these tools facilitate collaboration with your colleagues? I could see dividing up materials in netlibrary regarding a project and sending each other our notes on what we read.
  
• How can these tools benefit your patrons/students? It offers a way to save information without printing! They can access the information they found in an organized way.
  

Planning Ahead...thing 16

This seems like a useful resource for someone having trouble figuring out how to begin on a big project. I tend to make my own time-line for getting things done, a plus of doing this on my own is that I can take into account how much time I have now versus later and what other big things I am, or will be, working on. What I liked most about this site was the resource page. Particularly the ones related to Google and Boolean. I don't know that someone who is a novice would understand these printouts, but they would help me walk library users through learning to do searches.

ARRRG...15

I played the Pirate game! This has to be the most fun thing yet :). I was a bit disappointed that I have my very conservative computer that isn't up to doing 2nd life, I'll have to try that one later. Games like these seem so important to my job. I work with teens at the library and part of that is letting teens feel comfortable by doing fun things like playing video or computer games. Also, I can't remember how many times I've been asked to come to the computer area and help a kid find a "cool game site." The ones that seem popular are addictinggames.com and poptropica.com.

Library Thing 14

• How can you use LibraryThing for your library? I can use it mostly for reader's advisory and through keeping track of things that I have read and would like to read.
  
• How else do you share booklists, etc. with library patrons? Would LibraryThing offer an alternative? In working with teens, I've shared booklists through both the teen section of our website and the "What Do I Read Next?" lists as well as through bookmarks of lists related to certain genres. I could use LibraryThing to find similar books, or author read a-likes.
  

Thing 13

• Which start page did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page? I've made a Google and Yahoo start page before, but have not made either one my homepage. I liked Yahoo the most, because I was able to make it look the coolest, but that was a while ago and the tools might have changed. I don't use sites like this too much because, I like my homepage to be a quick loading site without much too it.
  
• Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at the library or at home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others? An online calendar would be great for keeping track of schedules and events, both for me and my husband and at work. Having this visible from anywhere rather than on 3 different calendars would be better than I keep it now.
• What about the to-do lists—helpful, too much work…? I don't keep to-do lists normally, but this site was fun.
  
• Did you try out Backpack? What did you think? I viewed the tour for backpack, but didn't try it. This would be nice, but I don't see using a for $ tool any time soon.
  
• Did you try any of the other tools in the list? Any good ones we should all try? I don't have a tool to recommend but, I have bookmarked the top 10 and top 25 lists to go back to later when I have more time to get organized :)
  

in the Mixx - thing 12

The article I submitted to share to Mixx was already submitted, but it jumped to it and I was able to see all of the comments that had already been made about it.

• How do you think you can use these tools in your library or at home? I've never used one of these sites before, but they would be great for staying on top of information. This seems like a great site to go to for gossipy entertainment news, one of my guilty pleasures.
  
• Do these tools seem to be a productivity enhancer or a productivity detractor? The comment sections on news sites tend to be a detractor for me. I find myself getting mad or frustrated with some of the things people post rather than just reading the story for myself.
  
• Have you ever read a story/item as a result of seeing it on one of these sites? I've never used one of these sites before, but people are able to post similarly on facebook. I don't normally go to the articles people post on there, but I have before.
  

Delicious number 11

I started using Delicious a few things ago after I took a webinar over it. It has been fun learning about it, it has been really handy for keeping track of sites that I use for school and work.

• Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? I can see this being helpful with research. I've bookmarked the sites that I use for getting articles for school. But, it is an easy way to bookmark!
  
• How can your library or media center take advantage of tagging and del.icio.us? If you were to look at the "bookmark" tab on internet explorer on any of the staff computers at my library you would see a mile long list of links and folders. Using a site like del.icio.us would greatly help in organizing all of these sites that we use from day to day. That's just the most obvious use I can think of today.
  

Wiki 10

I've attempted to create a wiki, but wasn't feeling to creative today.

• What did you find interesting about the wiki concept? That multiple people can contribute and read the content of the page. This would be great for collaborative projects.
  
• What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki? I've seen a few wiki's used for planning and brainstorming in committees. The use for book reviews is interesting as well.
  
• Many teachers/faculty "ban" Wikipedia as a source for student research. What do you think of the practice of limiting information by format? I understood this for a few reasons, there was a time that the entry for the high school I attended was obviously created by a member of the rival school. There are items that are placed on this site that are not factual, however it can be a great starting point for research. This is often on of the first sites brought up by google, and thus one of the first sites I look at if I'm just searching for a simple answer.
  

Thing 9

• Which of these tools is easier for you to use? I've used Google Docs before, but Zoho seems easier to me.
  
• How do the features of each compare? Does one have features that would make you choose it over the other? I like the ruler at the top as a frame of reference, as in Zoho. Not having collaborated with anyone on it before, I wouldn't say that it is better than Google though. A group I've worked with before used Google Docs for creating a project. I remember having to wrestle with the formatting, it was great for getting text together but not as nice as Word for setting up the format.
• What would the Founding Fathers think? Spell check! and no mark-outs! No one has to know that I can't spell. And, they don't have to look at my penmanship. Copies are so much easier to distribute! No more handwriting multiples. I went to see one of the copies of the Declaration of Independence when it was in Tulsa. My friend and I were so surprised to see that this "official" and "historical" document was written on a slope, much like the envelopes I try to address by hand.