Thing 23 of 23 Things!!!

Applause...
I want to thank the producers of 23 Things On a Stick. I was hesitant if I could handle this scope of project, but with the help and encouragement of my agent, Sue Hilgert (aka Head Librarian)I stuck with it to the end and I even had learned some things that made me change my viewpoint. The writers did a marvelous job on this project and their efforts will live on and reach more people as time passes. The special effects crew was great and easy to work with. They made my job a joy, for the most part. I want to be sure to thank my wonderful husband, who for some miraculous reason, had the patience of a saint when I couldn't be torn away from this project if there was a fire or flood- almost. The food vendor (also my husband) was a life saver for without him I couldn't have kept up the strength to endure this to the end. My son willingly made the sacrifice to go without his Xbox Live cable hooked up so that my link to salvation was uninterrupted. I can't forget the costume department. They made my job comfortable all those late nights working in pajamas and a robe. I want to thank the rest of the cast that were often way ahead of me on the assignment and kept me motivated. I sought out their helpful advice each step of the way. I didn't know if I'd ever see the end at times and now I feel I'd do it all again after taking a hiatus. I'm going to cry. Could someone get me a tissue? I didn't plan on breaking down like this. And lastly, I want to thank my fans, I mean patrons, who without them none of us would have a reason to do this project. My patrons stuck with me even though they didn't know the meaning of 23 Things on a Stick, but now they will find out all the wonders of this project, along with the many new patrons the fruits of this project will attract. They may not remember the name- 23 things on a Stick, but they will be grateful for what this project will enable them to experience.....
BE-E-E-E-EP!! What's this? Oh, I must have been dreaming. Rats! I didn't win an Oscar.

If I were to participate in an online learning project like this again and I would, I would like some time to prepare for it. I would greatly appreciate knowing what I might need to purchase or have on hand. For instance, a jump drive, several photos of myself and other photos on a computer file. Forewarning which things need downloads would be nice to know. I hesitate to question the order of the things, because I am sure that was thought out thoroughly, but it seemed at times that it would have been good to know some things earlier, like the tagging.

Thanks again. Hope you don't mind my Oscar speech.

Thing 22 of 23 Things

I do resolve to keep up my blog, use the tools I learned and keep up to date with new tools. I will also give my input on how to use these things to the library's and the patrons' advantage. I will take 15 minutes each work day to fulfil these resolutions. Asking myself what I learned each day and blogging about it is a good idea that I intend to do also.

The tools I'll use that I learned about from this experience are del.icio.us, Google Reader, Sticky Notes, wikis, Remember the Milk, Digg, Google Calendar, Flickr, BigHugeLabs, ELM productivity tools and assignment calculators, to name a few. Discovering the reasons to include Facebook when the library reaches out to young people was an eyeopener and made me want to support the effort. Sites like Lifehacker, LibraryBytes, WebJunction, and the 23 things on a stick Ning page will help me keep up so that I don't feel alone and not know where to go to get information. All of the knowlege I gained about podcasts, gaming, and YouTube is valuable to me as well. It's great, as in in this case, that when you learn something that is of a ever-changing nature that the tools you learned about make it easier to keep on learning!

Thing 21 of 23 Things

I'm so happy that I've gotten this far! I had no idea that all these other social networks existed. I'd heard of Web Junction, but Gather and Ning and all of the rest are news to me. I added the Web Junction Webinars feed to my Google Reader. This must be an off time because I there isn't anything available now, but now I don't have to worry about missing them. The Web Junction article was filled with ideas on how to go about libraries to get into the social network and the hurdles along the way. The 23 things Ning is great. How fun. I get a whole other page for myself to customize. My computer kept freezing up as I tried to do this so I will have to add features later. It's always a good idea to connect with others that are concerned about the same things. I joined our Pioneerland group that my head librarian started. There are not many members, which it not encouraging. I was hoping that there would be a lot of support for implementing some presence on Facebook and/or MySpace, not to mention the more member the more the merrier. I wasn't really thrilled with Gather, but I'm glad I know it's out there. You won't see ads for Poise pads on MySpace or Facebook! The Minnesota Readers and the Minnesota Life are impressive and I know I will have reason to visit these sites again. I joined Shelfari and add some of my books to it to see what it looks like. It's so cool that you instantly see what other people think of the books on your shelf. I sent an invitation to a Book Club member and she signed up immediately. I will definitely use this for book club and it's perfect for library blogs.

Thing 20 of 23 Things

I got way more satisfaction reading about MySpace and Facebook than I got being a registered user of them, granted that I'm a very new user. On the surface it didn't seem that I connected with more than two people, I did join a 23 things on a stick group on Facebook with a select group of 18 others. It will be interesting if that group continues to correspond. I wrote on "the wall" with my group. It feels odd to write "my" group. I'd like to have more time figuring out what all these sites have to offer, but I do see that they are meant to be one stop shopping for all your needs and not just socializing. The book section in MySpace was very complete. I see that there are "100% Free James Patterson layouts" available to download. This gets me thinking that if the big name authors are creating a presence in these sites with all of the marketing expertise available to them, than it must be a worthwhile platform.

If the teens and twenty somethings are using FaceBook and MySpace to create content that is at least adhering to the policies of these sites, than it is a positive way to spend some of your time. If all the user is doing is clicking and scrolling for hours on end, I find it a great waste. The library can make a difference by adding content that gives them a voice in their local library. They can offer suggestions of books and movies and as I read about, even be told when they are ordered and available. The Facebook and Myspace user may also be asked if they would want any classes for web surfing, for instance, or anything like that. The Information Wants to be Free blog by Meredith Farkas had great ideas and great reasons to do them. She advised libraries to not set up an account on Facebook that wasn't interactive. She told of one library that had a search box right on their page so the user did not even need to go to the library's website. That is s-o-o-o cool.

In the 7 things you should know about Facebook article the author referred to the term "information literacy". (I've read this term before in researching during this learning process.) This article defined it as: "The ability to negotiate opportunities and risks of the the internet age." I was virtually "information illiterate" before learning the Things. As a librarian, I'm particularly proud to say I'm no longer information illiterate and I plan on trying to keep up with the internet age.

Thing 18 of 23 Things

I am not going to be addicted to YouTube. I had never gone on it before and I would not go on it again for anything, but library purposes. You can imagine how I felt that the angry computer man was fitting to choose for my video clip. I'm glad I know about the workings of YouTube and I saw a few other video sites also. In fact, the Thing 18 example of an appropriate library video was emailed to me right about the time I started 23 Things and I was waiting to get to a thing where I needed to put it on my blog. Needless to say, I was frustrated that it was used on the mother blog. I'm still going to use it at near the bottom of my blog because I looked at videos for a long time that I found inappropriate for my blog. I had wanted to find something clever, but time does not permit it.

I saw videos that were excellently done to tour libraries and show movies that the library had available, which even had a few short audio clips of the movies with music filling out the rest of the video. There are even some great how-to videos that will be helpful for me if I forget some 2.0 skills that I learned. Our library doesn't own a video camera, but I can see that this would be a good use for one.

Thing 19 of 23 Things

http://www.epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=1362&openpod=2#anchor2

My things and posts have gotten out of order now. I've had difficulties with playing podcasts and videos and downloading on my home computer. I'm one of those people who don't give up easily, which sometimes can be a fault and definitely takes more time.

I did't find any of the .com podcast directories easy to navigate all, but if my tastes were different I may have been able to find something right away. Yahoo was about the same thing. I listened to a podcast on the Educational Podcast Directory called Google Tips that was very helpful. The site is at the top of this blog. When I learn how to link it within my blog with just an underlined word, like I've seen other 23 things participants do, I will do that. I'm very frustrated that I don't know how to do this.


I spent hours looking for another podcast that would interest me and ended up back at OPAL, which I found out about in a previous thing. I had listened to a author interview podcast then and wondered what more I could find. I ended up listening to a book discussion with several participants on a book by Alexander McCall Smith. I enjoyed this very much since the book club I lead has discussed this book also. I ran across several instances where I wasn't able to get the feeds for the podcasts in my searches. I don't know why that happens.

I would consider hosting a podcast for a book discussion, but I would not want to do one on my own. Maybe that's what I'll do when I retire? Anyone who ever had the urge to be on live radio is probably chomping at the bit to do a podcast, if they haven't already done one. I read a bit about creating your own podcast and the 5 skills that I needed to learn scared me off at this time.

Thing 17 of 23 things

I am posting this with the intent to edit it as soon as I experience what happens when I attempt to send ELM database info. to my new RSS account that was suggested to be a good one to try. RSSowls.org may just do what I'm told it will do, but navigating on their site is pure misery. It doesn't look anything like Bloglines or Google Reader. I am going to download the rss aggregater from RSSowls. org to my desktop at home and hopefully the page that pops up will make my task easy and successful. This did not work for me. I couldn't get it to download as far as I know. The site was user un-friendly in my opinion.

I completed the other 3 parts of this thing first since I had read the comments on all the hassles of getting ELM on the rss feeds. The EBSCO web page was surprising to see the customization available to spruce up your information. I haven't had a need to use this fancy of a page, but the ability to easily email the information to patrons or project collaborators is a plus for all. As the library assimilates and utilizes Web 2.0, sending materials to patrons via the Internet is going to be more common place.

ProQuest Newstand Complete is very straightforward and no-nonsense. I've done this search only once or twice before with someone guiding me. It wasn't for a patron that time, but I have had one patron ask if we had access to the Washington Post for a photo she wanted to see. I regret that I didn't have any answers for her. I actually am still not 100% sure. It didn't appear to me that anything, but text is available. I'm happy to become more familiar with it, but I need more experience.

I was totally unfamiliar with Net Library, but I was proud to accomplish this part of the thing in very little time, thanks to the set up of the page and the directions. The "add note" and the abilty to put info. in favorites is great.

This experience has convinced me of the value of signing up for a Minitex webinar and for our library to consider offering specialized classes on using these ELM tools.

Thing 16 of 23 Things

These calculators are terrific for the motivated student that is aware of where to find them or is made aware somehow. It was mentioned on the mother blog that a link to the RPC could be made on a teen or student page. That certainly would be the easy part. In a very small, community with a very small library, such as the one I work in, I can ascertain a couple of major stumbling blocks on the path to utilize these well thought out resources. 1) Lack of library staffing-one person in the library 90% of the time. 2)The teacher (whom I probably know) might not be on-board to use some aspects, at least, of these resources because a) they are unaware of them b) their own concept of the ideal finished project may differ from the suggested model. Having said that, I still feel that I've been given one more piece of "equipment" to help out students, if they should ask. Hand-outs printed off these sites would be well worth a try. I thought the ELM database tutorials were very comprehensive in scope. I know I will be referring students to them in the future. I think the RPC could have a little tamer version for younger students or less involved projects. After all, it's best to teach them good habits early. I do feel like the library has a responsibility to promote all the online resources along with the traditional resources to make teachers, students, and parents aware of what a visit to the library or the library's webpage can offer to give the student the opportunity to be more successful. This "thing" has opened my eyes to what's out there to help students.

Thing 15 of 23 things

Even though I had didn't actually get onto Puzzle Pirates and I didn't try Second Live because of the slow speed of my computer, I feel that this thing educated me a great deal about the concept of gaming in libraries. First, I must explain that I tried many times to launch a game with Puzzle Pirates and got stuck at "Resolving Downloads" many times. As I am writing this, I see it got further to downloading data, but seems to be stuck at 23%. I read some other blogs about the 23 things experience with both Puzzle Pirates and Second Life and many of the resources supplied. I am glad I read the 8 Myths about Video Games, since I had believed many of the myths to be true, though I also believe statistics can often be slanted whatever way the author wants them to be. Still, I did learn new information. One myth was that video gamers are nearly all boys. That myth must be prevalent because I was shocked earlier in my research for this thing that a resource referred to the boys playing the games. I can't remember where I read it, unfortunately. I have had many boys play Runescape at the library, especially when they are bored in the summer. Now I have a bunch of young girls coming in with their Webkinz. I have learned more about Webkinz than Runescape, since the girls seem to be more open to the idea that if they don't understand something they ask for help. Now who is stereotyping? Sorry guys.

I viewed the Second Life Info. Island blog and I must say I thought it would be more visually exciting. My blog is more exciting. It provided a great deal of information mostly by the old fashioned way - reading it.

I checked out the Charlotte & Mecklenburg County Public Library Teen Second Life program. I think the teens are the only ones with any business creating a second life, but that's just my opinion, which I realize isn't important here. I have enough to do in my first life. Maybe if you were an adult in rehab or prison it would be an interesting way to spend your time. I digress. I read the actual teen comments in this section. The teens are impressed with Info. Island, calling it "an amazing platform". One teen says, "I think librarians now are outdated. Second life provides an entirely different method of making one." Outdated! All I have to say to this teen is 23 Things on a Stick provides an entirely different method of making one also. And we, librarians, aren't virtual.

Thing 14 of 23 Things

I am thrilled to learn about this LibraryThing. How cool? I think this could be a more useable tool to provide booklists for specific genres. For example it wouldn't be hard to create about 3-4 "libraries" of typical books my patrons are reading. I could use these libraries for LibraryThings to come up with some more suggested reading. I only put 5 books in my library and 2 new authors were suggested. I think the book covers on a Library blog look very professional and draw people in. I wasn't able to load the Zeitgeist page at home in a reasonable amount of time, so I will have to see what that's about. Currently, we use the bestseller lists from the BookSense website. I think patrons would appreciate something more taylored to suit their interests. This could also be a way to inform our patrons of the recently arrived titles. What I can't print out will have to be viewed on the computer and I'm still pondering ways to bring library users to the screen to view all of these fantastic tools.

Since, I am in charge of our local book club, I can make use of LibraryThing as soon as I get the 48 titles from our book list typed in. (LibraryThing makes this process foolproof.) I can't wait to share this with our members.

thing 13 of 23 Things

I have had a google homepage for a few weeks now and it's the cat's meow. I still am getting used to taking full advantage of it, but I am appreciating it and customizing it more all the time. The more I can squeeze on the my homepage that I would need to look up elsewhere the better. I have Bloglines and Google Reader, though I really should simplify and transfer all the Bloglines feeds to Google Reader. I guess I should put that on my Remember the Milk list, which is also compatable with Google. I looked at all of the tool sites, but most of them were over the top for my situation. Backpack is a great tool for a very involved person, but not necessary for me. I either feel like I'm not that important to have so many things to keep track of without these tools or I feel if I use these tools I will feel like I have many things to keep track of so I must be important. I think I'd rather feel unimportant and not so busy. I did like the idea of the Sticky Notes that I can place anywhere on the web. It does make sense to remind yourself why you've tagged or bookmarked a page. I know I'd forget sooner or later. I have been viewing the Google Calendar with my head librarian's and other staff schedules on it, but I haven't created my own as of yet. The library's hours are my hours so it hasn't been necessary. I plan on using Remember the Milk for birthdays and other lists. I am a recovering list maniac, so I am careful now not to write too many different lists, but I might fall off the wagon with this innovation. All my lists on the computer - this is too good to be true. Seriously, this would come in very handy at the library for all those little tidbits that the patrons bring me that I keep on the backs of recyled computer printouts or on 50 little stickies restuck on a pile waiting to be either taken care of or transcribed to something I can file away. I just need to categorize the lists and they will be ready to fill in on the fly. Some things like order requests I put directly into a Google document to share with the head librarian. Remember the Milk just may make the recycled paper and Post-It notes last a lot longer. I subscribed to Lifehacker. Ooh, I hate that name, but I do desire to stay up to date on Web 2.0 one thing at a time from now on. 23 things at once feels like 10 more things to go (lets face it - it's more like 30 or 40 more things) and I will be ready to write my graduate thesis.

Thing 12 of 23 Things

I signed up for Digg. There was no contest which of the social media sites I would select. Mixx and Reddit are completely weird. Newsvine is not my style either, but I can see why it would appeal to some people. Mixx and Reddit are time wasters. I don't need this many sites to check to find frivolous information. I can live without Digg also, but I liked how I can customize my page and it was appealing to see a photo of the creator of Digg and find out a little bit about him. It made the site seem more personal to me.

I researched the whole time I allotted to complete this thing and couldn't find a story that I wanted to submit to Digg. I found one article searching the "most read book", but only to learn it was a Digg article in the first place. I am very intimidated by these sites. I don't think I would ever be interested in submitting an article or even find one worthy of submitting. I do understand that I probably have patrons who get their information from these sites (It hasn't been indicated to me, as yet.) and I should be up to date with what my patrons are reading on these social media sites. It is my opinion, however, that any "valuable" information is probably going to be found on some other sites that I recently became aware of because of 23 things on a stick. I already subscribe to some New York Times articles and the BBC News.

This concept seems to generally promote sensationalism. There certainly are non-sensational articles, photos, and videos, but my first impression is that it isn't the purpose of the primary users. I really hope that the regular users of these social media sites have a life and a job that is a lot more productive and involves some physical activity. I think I've put on a few pounds sitting at my computer during nearly all of my free time.

Thing 11 of 23 things

This was another mind blowing exercise that I will surely make use of. I got so carried away by some of the del.icio.us sites that I could make use of right now I was writing notes left and right. Speaking of note taking, I had no idea that there are web applications designed for taking notes, online calculators, applications specifically for keeping track of research, doing bibliographies and on and on. Finding out that these tools exist makes me very happy someone came up with tagging and del.icio.us for me to find all of these new things again now that I have tagged them.

It's very interesting to me to see the scope of what the 5 libraries had for their del.icio.us tags. Only one of the five sites let me go back to the library homepage from the link 23 things gave us and discover just how the user would access the del.icio.us tags, particularly if they had never heard of them before. The Manasha Library had the tagged sites under the main category "Online Research" and under that as "Recommended Websites". It is my wish that our library system would add this to their web page. It would open the eyes of countless library users to what's available on the web. Having your interests bookmarked on any computer you use is a phenomenal innovation. Students, trip planners, hobbiests; the list is endless for who would be able to take advantage of tagging.

Now for the social part of the bookmarking. The ability to look at who is interested in what you are interested in is amazing. The 8 minute tutorial video explained well how wonderful this tool can be to connect you to other people and their insights. Talk about one thing leading to another. Next there will be counselors specializing in web addiction. Maybe there already are.

Thing 10 of 23 things

The concept of wikis seems like a natural progression to the concepts I have learned about in the first 9 things. Before I knew what a wiki was, (which was about an hour ago) I was already thinking that all this is great, but how can my target audience add to this other than just making comments that are not that attention grabbing. And then I learn about the wiki.

I saw that the on wiki (forgot which one, and no time to check back) had to got to email confirmation to protect against "vandalism" that they evidently had a prior problem with. I can't help but wonder if the damage was intentional or just people not knowing what they were doing - like me sometimes. This brings me to a related question. Is there a problem with foul language or inappropriate photos? I didn't know that some teacher have banned using Wikipedia for a reference. I now understand why they might make that decision since I learned how Wikipedia gets its information. Duh.

This is the perfect format for finding out what our library patrons want. If the wiki is set up properly, it would be very easy for patrons to add to and adit the wiki. Things 11-23 had better cover how to get the patron to the wiki.

I edited the 23 things wiki. It was very straight forward, which was so refreshing and self-esteem building. I couldn't resist viewing the sandbox, but I didn't catch on right away, so luckily I'd already finished editing the other choice.

thing 9 of 23 things

I just finished working with both Zoho writer and Google documents editing on the D. of I. Once I figured out that I needed an invitation to edit on both it came quite easily. Before that is another story. I have been collaborating on Google Docs for a couple of weeks so that format was familiar, but it seemed totally different to try to do something on a page with all that editing of other participants on it. I was confused by the highlighted items and never really got to place my entry where I wanted because of something highlighted right before the spot I wanted. Too hard to explain. I thought that trying Zoho Writer would be very hard to do, but I had a much clearer document and I had no troubles at all. Google docs is only more convenient because I have a Google Homepage and Gmail. I think for a fairly short document that you need to collaborate on with a person or a small number of people at a different location, both of these tools would work very well.

I think our founding fathers would all have heart attacks to even see words going down on the screen by touching letters on little buttons, (would they be able to read such neat lettering?)but since traveling was difficult and the couriers could be killed or whatever, the more foresighted of the bunch may find the "invention" quite handy if they could learn how to use it and decide on a final draft before they died.

Thing 8 of 23 things

I'm sorry, but I've got to tell you I have s-l-o-w internet. I got very frustrated waiting for pages to reload doing my slideshow that appears at the bottom of my blog. I wanted it large and I couldn't fit it at the top. I love the end result except for a slide that appears twice. I will try to fix that later. I also made a photo album on Picture Trail. It would be so much fun to take photos of the kids during the Summer Reading Program, make a slideshow from them, and post it on our library blog. At this moment, I am thinking of many more personal uses than library uses because I hate to admit I am one of those people who got a digital camera and then didn't "get around" to making most the pictures I'd taken. Obviously, this is my first venture into using these types of tools. In the past I got intimidated by all the traditional scrapbooking being done, but now I can scrapbook via the web - much cooler, less messy, and cheaper. I had no idea there are so many sites that work with photos. I learned in another thing that it is an easy way to back up your photos and now I have learned many more ways to enhance the photo viewing experience.

Picture Trail was easy to set up an account on, but editing photos seemed very tedious. For example, I decided not to include any vertical photos since it slowed the process down too much. Even with these drawbacks I would still recommend Picture Trail because of the multitude of designs to pick from.