Thing 20

I really enjoyed the episode of the Common Craft Show on social networks. They lay it out so nice and simple! The tutorials available in the Thing 20 list were very helpful. I got my Facebook page all set up, and now am searching for friends. I found a friend from High School I haven't talked to since then...sent a message!! I now have four friends on facebook. Two of them are brother-in-laws...one said "it's amazing who is in facebook, and he'll have to get an alias!! I put some pictures on my page...love the pictures-both theirs and mine!! Tried Myspace...like Facebook better.

Thing 19

I love Gcast...especially the idea of putting a child's voice on as they grow from infant through the different stages. What a wonderful keepsake that would be. How about a podcast of an adult reading a children's book.
I listened to the podcast of Wanda Erickson being interviewed. She is the Librarian in Upsala, MN, and she is also the school librarian in that town. Needless to say, she is a very busy librarian. She uses yahoo calendar, and sends herself email reminders to help her be in the right place at the right time! It sounded as though she really enjoys her job, especially serving across several generations of patrons. I listened to(on the road to minitex)Sue Colten's podcast. She was newly retired from Hennepin County Library after 42 years of service as the children's librarian. On Podcast.com I listened to President Barak Obama weekly state of the union...that one was a video podcast...so what's the difference between a video podcast and a youtube video..just that you can subscribe to the podcast? I liked Podcast.com...I think it was the easiest to use.
I had trouble with some of the directory sites: podcast.net wouldn't open at all, and some of the others required software to be downloaded, so had to steer clear of those.
I appreciated the EPN site...it gave me a little more information on podcasting. I really enjoyed the MPR site, and if I were going to subscribe to any podcasts that would be the site it would come from.

http://podcast.com/episode/35240174/55150/

My link is to an episode of "This Week in Photography" titled "070: Flickr, Narcissism and Self Portraiture."

Thing 18

I chose this video because I have always wanted to learn to tat. This is one of the wonderful uses of youtube (and the other video sites), instruction. I've always meant to go to a nursing home to find someone to show me how to tat, but now I can just watch a video on youtube.
Youtube video of children's programming could be put on the library website...to encourage others to participate in the future. We watched library tour type videos that would definitely be good on the website, but I think instruction would be wonderful. In our particular library, we could do a video on how to make a reservation on the public use computers, and how to print something from the same public use computers.

Thing 18

I was familiar with youtube before doing 23 things. The first time I used youtube was to learn how to tie a windsor knot. My husband needed to wear a tie to a funeral. Google Video and youtube are pretty much the same thing...just different homepages...on both homepages there are both google videos and youtube videos. I watched the 70s toy commercials, and really enjoyed them. I had a "Little Kiddle" myself...Lily of the Valley! The link for music videos took me to "Extreme Catapillar Breakdance" -I'm not sure that was what I was suppose to see. I went to some great 50's music clips, and a music video of the Everly Brothers doing "All I Have to Do Is Dream." I watched the library dominos video, but don't think I'll be setting any books up for another go. The library tour was really neat...great for big libraries!! I hope the library ad doesn't encourage patrons to try that in our library!! The joke was very cute...but blonde women might take offense. "Conan the Librarian" was a little more aggressive than we normally are! The web 2.0 video really makes you think...at the end when it lists the things we will have to rethink! I watched "The March of the Librarians" I liked the original movie better. I hope singing in the library doesn't catch on! The IT vs Librarian had a good message!I really enjoyed the video on discovering the book...it was easy to think of the first time on the computer while they were going through that!!

Thing 17

I really wondered what I got myself in for when reading Thing 17. Obviously, there were some problems with this one. I'm assuming they got the bugs worked out, because I had no trouble setting up my ebsco alert..unless I'm out in left field. I went into my email and it says "Ebscohost alert notification." I clicked on the RSS feed link, and the list of items on my topic came up.

Thing 16

I know this is going to sound pretty bad, but my first thoughts on looking at the U of M Assignment Calculator was-can't they think for themselves. It tells them to search the library catalog...keep careful notes with source clearly indicated, and they get email reminders so they know when to be doing this stuff. How did we ever manage to get our degrees?!
First of all, students tend to come into the public library as a last resort, (I don't know why that is, but in my experience it is) so they have no time left. They want materials now, no putting things on hold...no ILL, it has to be available in our building. So I don't see the Assignment Calculator or the Research Project Calculator as useful for us. I can see where they would be in the schools. The Teacher Resources in the Research Project Calculator are very good..lots of good ideas!! I think some of the handouts would actually work for us in the public library...and especially if we could get the students in sooner.
I can see the Assignment Calculator working for a library staff group project. It would organize when things should be getting done to stay on track for a deadline. I don't think I would use it for a project...I think it just adds one more step to the project...and would add guilt if I didn't get a step done on time! I have enough guilt!!

Thing 15

I played "puzzle pirates," and now I can bilge with the best of them. I liked the puzzles too much...I'm going to be fighting the temptation to visit my pirate life often! In response to the blog prompt, the others onboard are listed for you. If you go to a duty station that already has a fellow pirate at it, a message comes up asking if you want to challenge the other for the job. I found that if you want to play a game that is already being played you can go to the next level in the ship and the game is offered down there. The pirates are always in a clump on board until you start to walk to a duty station then they disperse. You are told when one of the pirates leaves the ship or comes aboard. While you're playing the games, a duty roster comes up often (it's actually annoying it's so often) and it rates your job...like doing fine or is learning. When sailing, which is a slow game, the duty roster comes up so often that you barely get to play the game. I'm hoping that once you get good at the games things speed up and the duty roster doesn't show up as often! I found the items to purchase in the village very expensive. I had to go back to play more games to earn more money. There was a spot on the bottom of the page (while playing a game) to type in messages...I'm assuming to converse with other pirates. I had the option of making a rat a pet...do they make good pets?

Thing 14

This Thing is awesome. Wouldn't a staff list on our website be great!! I like the idea of highlighting new books with it on our website too! I had no trouble getting it on my blog either! These were just a few of my recent reads, but the best part...I couldn't remember the correct titles, but LibraryThing found them for me. Obviously, memory is a problem...now I can look in LibraryThing to see what I have already read! ...And find others that have read the same book! It automatically updates my blog when I add another title!

We post the New York Times Bestsellers lists for our patrons. One advantage of Library Thing is the book covers...people may forget correct titles, but they usually remember the look of the cover. The disadvantage of course is internet accessibility...you can't just glance at it like you can a print out of the New York Times bestsellers list.
I would love to know what Tim Spalding has in mind for LibraryThing and Millennium!

Thing 13

I came into this Thing with some experience. I had my homepage set up with igoogle, made some computer changes, and got a new homepage. Revisited igoogle, set it up and added some gadgets. I got a little carried away, and now I have two homepages...they come up together and you just click on the tab for the one you want. I like the looks of the igoogle one. Unfortunately, they allow you to put games on your homepage...this is terrible news for me. I have a hard time getting past them without playing them...major time wasters!! I know I should go back and take them off my homepage!! I would definitely recommend igoogle to others.
I'm a notorious list maker, and they lay all over the place. (My husband hates lists...a point of contention?!!) I made a list on "Remember the milk," which I thought was at least tidier than my method. I think the point of making lists for me is that they are right in my face...on the kitchen table, on the counter, taped to the front door (so I don't leave without something.) When I make a list for my husband I want him to see it...he would never go online to find one!! ...So I guess this wouldn't work for me at home. I'm thinking it would be more useful at work, I could make a list of things that have to be accomplish during a given week. The google calendar would be even more useful at work (personal events could be included). This way you could make sure you don't schedule a class at work on a day you will be on vacation!!
I really liked "Backpack." This would be ideal for any outing...not just major trips.
I like the idea of "MyStickies"...I had a woman in yesterday that had written down an address for a site. When she typed it in, the address didn't work, and the lady wasn't sure how she had gotten to that particular site. (She wanted me to help her with the problem.) If I'm understanding correctly, she could have put a sticky on that site instead of writing down that big long site address. With a sticky on it, she could have (once in her mystickies account) gotten back in.
I didn't know about Zamzar either...I'm learning so much!! I had a guy in...his computer didn't support ppt. His teacher/professor had the information in ppt. The guy came in to use a public computer to get the information out of ppt. save it on a disc in something his computer would handle. He struggled (twice he logged completely out and I had to put in passwords)but eventually was able to do it. (He didn't tell me what he did.) It would have been fun to try Zamzar!
Some of the tools listed were already visited in 23 Things. I use gmail and would recommend that.

Thing 12

Anyone with hobbies (especially if you're still learning aspects of the hobby) will love these (maybe not newsvine so much). I found a great video on knitting (it showed different aspects of the craft). These tools seem to me to be a productivity detractor. A lot of time could be spent on these, and just because a lot of people voted for a story doesn't mean it's worth reading. I would never have enough time to do these on a regular basis! I had no idea these existed until doing 23 Things!

Thing 11

The beauty of del.icio.us is that it has two levels of use. The first level is for accessing your bookmarks on-line...great for people that regularly use public use computers!! And it also allows them to share their favorite cites with others. Then there is the more academic side to del.icio.us. People doing research can sift through websites for reliable sources. Del.icio.us can also help find more websites on a topic by directing one to others similarily tagged sites.

Libraries can use del.icio.us for staff continuing education. Library favorites could be accessed by staff for further reading. Whether it contains what other libraries are doing for programming or professional sites like ALA.

Thing 10

In response to the blog prompts...it sure seems like it would work better than multiple parties trying to email each other. What is the difference between Google Docs and Wikis? I edited the 23 Things Wiki...what a mess that wiki is!! I think a readers advisory wiki would be fun to have. Patrons could recommend books or steer other patrons from wasting their time. I have to agree with teachers/faculty banning information from Wikipedia for research. It's just like doing genealogy...it's all about citing a reliable source, and since the information in a Wiki comes from anyone...who knows if it's reliable!

Thing 9

I personally thing Google Docs is easier to use...Zoho Writer seems overwhelming. Other than that I'm very impressed by both of them. I saw in Google Docs that you can do footnotes...being a history major made that very impressive. Google Docs also has multiple languages (40).

I got a big kick out of the edits to the Declaration of Independence. It was impossible not to notice all the edits done by the original author(s)... I think they would be happy to see this new way of editing.

I received the email with the sample doc in it(Google docs). Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything with it at work because our browser didn't support web word-processing. Will try at home. I received the invitation for editing in Zoho Writer. I opened up the Declaration of Independence in Zoho Writer just fine, but am still trying to figure out how to edit it.

Thing 8

Making the badge was fun...aren't they just the cutest little sales people you have ever seen!! If you click on the badge it enlarges so you can see better! This tool would be fun to use in children's programming at the library. Kids love stickers, and these are head and shoulders above just regular stickers because they are personalized!
Lazybase is a wonderful tool. We get a lot of library patrons asking us to look in their account for the books they have already read. They don't realize that once the book is checked back in it is completely gone from their record. If they had a "My Reading List" on lazybase they could keep track of the books they have already read. And for those senior moments we all have, they could jump on a public use computer right in the library to double check before they check it out again!
EFolio is very interesting...with a lot of educational uses. Unfortunately, Thumbstacks site wouldn't open, but will check back later.
I thought the tools in Thing 8 were easy to navigate and understand, and I would definitely recommend them to others. I have used Shutterfly, and would recommend that one, but that's about it.

Thing 8

1. 1974 Funtime Sindy, 2. CB029590, 3. 1974 Funtime Sindy, 4. Before the Meat (Meet), 5. Old Dolls ~, 6. Old Dolls, 7. Blue Fae II, 8. Blue Fae I, 9. The Voice I, 10. The Voice II, 11. P1060180, 12. P1060177, 13. P106017914. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

The photo montage or mosiac could be used in libraries for highlighting a certain genre of books...like a mystery month. All the photos would be of recommended mystery books for that month. You could use it for a game...have pics of authors and see who could name all the featured authors.

Thing 8

I have had way too much fun with this! I had to try out several layouts...decisions, decisions...

The portrait in the group doesn't work very well...because it's not set-up in landscape. The whole photo does show up when you click on it or it is that pictures turn to be full screen.