Week 9, Thing 23 - CONCLUSION

This was a great experience, even though it was somewhat frustrating at times. There are things that I will continue to use, particularly the wiki for ILL info. As soon as I finish the 23 Things, I can get back to work on that. I also thought the web word processing applications were interesting and very handy for working on things in a couple of different places. Most of the "Things" presented were new to me and made me tax my brain to figure out how they worked. I guess that's the point of the whole exercise. I had particular trouble trying to redo the Librarything widget on my blog. It was there and then poof - it wasn't. I didn't realize it was gone until checking each blog in preparation to finish the exercise. Then when I tried to recreate it, I couldn't. So there's only the url address there.
The timing could have been better - summer is pretty hectic around here. I think with people taking time off and then being somewhat short-staffed when others take off, we're a little stretched for time.
Because I have the dinosaur dial-up at home, I can't see that much of what I learned will benefit me there, but at least I've had a little introduction to what's available and I really appreciate that. Hopefully at some future date, I may spring for high-speed internet at home.
Thanks for a really fun (although sometimes exasperating) learning experience. I think I'd do it again.

Week 9, Thing 22

I explored Overdrive and now I know what to ask my kids for this year at Christmas! I NEED an MP3 Player so I can download lots of "reading" material. The instructions to Overdrive are very detailed so I think even I can figure it out, once I get either high-speed internet at home or an MP3 Player. Unfortunately, I'm still in the dark ages at home and only have dial-up. I am going to take the time to re-read my phone manual because it's supposed to be an MP3 player and I've never felt the need to figure that part of it out. It sure makes better sense to carry around a small object, rather than trying to lug my cd player into every room of the house when I'm trying to clean.

Week 9, Thing 21

Podcasts. I had a little difficulty here. The only one I could actually hear on my computer without downloading something extra was Yahoo podcasts. I located an interesting one called NPR story of the day, which I tried to add to my RSS feed, but I had some trouble doing that also. I actually subscribed to it first in my Yahoo account, but finally remembered to click that little icon and successfully added it to my bloglines account. Thanks for the tutorial and for making me think my way through these things!

Week 9, Thing 20

I tried Youtube and Yahoo video first in the afternoon about 4:00 and I had a little trouble with the flow of the videos. I tried again in the morning, about 9:00 and everything flowed very smoothly - no hangups at all. I didn't care much for Yahoo video because I had to actually download the video instead of just point and click, like on Youtube. (Maybe I was too computer illiterate to figure out how it really worked). I think videos on our website introducing patrons to different areas of the library would be a good idea, as long as they would flow smoothly. If we chose a branch or a section of the library to highlight and changed it periodically, it might spark some interest among our patrons, or even make our facilities inviting to patrons who usually only visit us virtually!
Anyway, being a dedicated recycler, myself, I found a very interesting series of library videos about recycling old computers. I think this is a great idea! Try it for yourself and see what you think. There are actually about 8 chapters to this, but here's chapter 1:

Week 8, Thing 19

Any site from the Web 2.0 Awards list? There are so many to choose from. I like Biblio for library use because you may be able to locate out of print books for patrons or just verify a title exists if you can't find it somewhere else; or for personal use to add to your collection for not much money! My daughter fancies herself as an author and has been working on a novel for about six months now. I'm going to recommend Lulu to her. And I think I prefer Bloglines to Technorati, just because it looks more familiar now. After exploring these social networking websites, I can see how some people spend their entire lives in a dark hole somewhere on the computer. I prefer face-to-face encounters, myself.

Week 8, Think 18

Web apps are great! I think if more people knew about this, the casual user at home could save themselves a lot of money on wordprocessing and spreadsheet programs. I created an account with Google Docs just to play around. I agree that another good thing is that you can access your work wherever you are if you don't have a laptop or carry around a flashdrive.

Week 7, Thing 17 - Sandbox Wiki

Okay, that was fun, and gave me some good examples of wikis at work. I think I will try to create a wiki for collaboration among my peers here for ILL use. As soon as I get enough courage, I'll invite you in to have a look and share some comments and tips!
Okay. It's later again --- I created a wiki for in-house use and it's just barely begun, but I welcome your comments. Visit it at www.illquickref.pbwiki.com. It's private, so if you want to add comments, which I hope you will, just email me and I'll give you the password. I don't want the whole world to see it, since there are only two little bits of info so far. I do want it to be a collaborative effort, though, and grow, so please let me share the password with you.

Week 7, Thing 16 - wikis

Wikis seem to be a sort of "global conversation." It's a good way to pool knowledge or opinions, but because of that fact, it may not be a really reliable source of information. Learning about wikis did spark some questions in my mind. Who would have the final say or "authority" over the content of the wiki - the originator? I think the wikis created to help new attendees to the ALA conferences were a great tool, and the one for web 2.0 in 15 minutes a day. But I think he's dreaming - it's impossible in 15 minutes a day!
Thinking from the ILL perspective - this would be a great forum for a collaborative effort among reference staff, ILL gurus, and genealogy experts to gather info for hard-to-find items, websites for libraries that provide these things, and their preferred method of requesting their holdings.

Week 6, Thing 15, Web 2.0, Library 2.0

Okay. this really impressed me. I love the "feel" of the library and I'm not sure I welcome so much change! I know we have to move ahead with changing technology, but I hope we don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater!" In my advancing years I can appreciate the fact that many people my age and beyond also love the feel of the library and I hope we maintain the comfortable atmosphere as the library morphs into Wendy Schultz" vision - "what would Library 4.0 be like? It will completely connect the digital and the sensual, moving from virtual reality (VR) to augmented reality (AR): all the services of Library 3D projected over our immediate surroundings."
On the other hand, I like what Chip Nilges said concerning "More Powerful Ways to Cooperate" when citing the project Open Worldcat. This has made a huge difference in being able to provide what our patrons are asking for, and even enables them to find obscure items so they come in to us already knowing exactly what they want and where to locate it.
In some ways our job gets easier because our patrons are more informed; but harder, because they are so informed, we have to keep up with them!

Week 6, Thing 14, Technorati

I can't believe how many blogs you can access at one time here, and the list keeps growing. I don't think I want to "claim" my blog, because I put pictures of my grandkids on there. Do I want the whole world to see them? Technorati is almost TMI - too much information. It's hard to decide where you want to go because there's so much to choose from.

Week 6, Thing 13 - Del.icio.us

I didn't get to see the 12 minute tutorial, but I did explore the PLCMCL.2 account. I wasn't impressed until I went into a blog post I saw on Technorati and actually explored someone else's Del.icio.us site. Now, I think I will try to create an account. I thought at first that most of the things I presently have bookmarked require a password, and there would be no point in combining everything into one place; but when I saw how easy it is to "just click" into each website, I think I see its value. I can definitely see how valuable this would be for someone who doesn't work consistently at one computer and needs to access their info from different areas. It would be a great tool for our subs, who roam from branch to branch!

Week 5, Rollyo

Well, I investigated Rollyo, tried a few searches, and created my own search roll, using Worldcat, LOC, Amazon, and added Google for good measure, but I can't figure out how to save my searches. Here's the URL: http://rollyo.com/illbookbuyer/
I tried to focus on books and periodicals, since the Union List of Periodicals is no longer going to be maintained by Pratt. I got frustrated trying to save my searches, but -- after the fabulous Google training this morning by Trina and Kari, I don't see the need for anything but Google, really. I never knew you could Google so much!

Week 5, LibraryThing

Here's the url to my LibraryThing list.
>http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jspear
So far I only have four favorites in there. My summer reading favorite is Mary Alice Monroe's Swimming Lessons, although I've read all of hers. My personal spiritual favorite recently is Left to Tell, which taught me a lot about forgiveness. The best book I read last year was water for Elephants. I have a hard time remembering titles and authors. I have certain authors I love to read, but then can't remember the titles. So I have to go home and see what else is currently on my waiting-to-read list. I'll add others later. Okay, it's later. Now I'm "reading" Sunday Wife in the car on my way to and from work, on my cd player. When I added it to my LibraryThing list, the cover popped up on my blog - so cool!! I really wanted to keep adding books to my list as I read them, but I'm not sure I want all you guys to know what I'm reading all the time! I read a lot of women's fiction.

Week 5, Here's my generated picture!

I lost the image once. I hope it stays this time.
This was fun! I've loved this picture of my grandkids taken last summer at the Smithsburg Public Library. See - you never really know what's going on at the library!
You could be petting snakes or playing on the web.

Week 4 RSS and Newsreaders

Okay, this one was hard for me. I don't even watch the news on TV, so I had a VERY hard time trying to figure out what to choose for my blogline account. I ended up with a couple of local newspapers, and Flickr, which I have come to love. Thanks for the intro! Then, in just browsing around and trying to find something library-related, I found this very funny library video and more on youtube. Here's the url:http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=library+videos&search= . I hope you can get into it and have some fun seeing the creativity of other library staffers.

Week 3, Things 6 and 7

First of all, I have to say I feel like Dr. Seuss with Thing 1 and Thing 2.
Now that that's off my chest - I had a lot of fun investigating the mashups. My kids just got me a digital camera for Christmas and this person who has never had any luck taking pictures has suddenly become a real camera nut because I can delete all the bad pics and only print the good ones. But I had great fun with Flickr and actually created a magazine cover that I emailed to my daughter who just moved to San Antonio with this picture she sent me.

Week 3 Thing 5

Sunday in the Park
Originally uploaded by Lost Bob

Here's a great picture that dredges up great memories from my kids' growing up years. We spent many Sunday evenings sitting right here, with the "old folks" listening to the great Hagerstown Band and the "young folks" playing in the park.
Picture courtesy of "lostBob" and Flickr. Technology tips courtesy of 23 Things!
Thanks.

Lifelong Learners

Okay, so I forgot to say what was the biggest obstacle for me in "Learning 23 Things." It has to be that I'm afraid to ask questions. So I really do appreciate all the positive feedback and support of my coworkers. We are really fortunate to work in an institution that encourages lifelong learning!

Getting to Know you

Greetings, Library Community. I hope my co-workers at FCPL can figure out who I am from my Blog title. ILLBookbuyer. That pretty accurately describes what I do here, at least the major part of what I do. Like most of you, I wear about 15 hats! If you have any questions to ask me, you better email me, call me, or come to my desk because once I push the button to "post" this thing, I may never be able to figure it out again!