Thing #23: Final Thoughts

Well! I have a great feeling of accomplishment from having completed the 23 Things on a Stick! It was very well paced, entertaining, useful and non-intimidating.

I want to thank you for having brought the 23 Things to Minnesota specifically. I had read about the 23 Things program before, and it was one of those things I kept meaning to do but never got around to. Having the "On a Stick" program was just the impetus I needed to get going. It was good having the camaraderie of others in the region and fun seeing what others are doing in other types of libraries. Usually we get caught up in our own little niche of the library world.

I was particularly excited to see all the free applications out there that also happen to be of high quality. I had always assumed you had to purchase tools at high prices, and our budget is small.

This dovetails with a project we're working on now to get more resources up for distance learners at our college. It's good to know there are so many tools available with which to be useful and creative. Now I just need to sit down and figure out which tools will be the best for the job to be done.

You know how once you have your mind on something, suddenly you see it everywhere around you? This happened to me yesterday. I was doing research on online tutorials that other colleges had done, and I found reference to (and high praise for) Googledocs and Zoho, as well as openoffice.org. It felt good to know what these were! I also learned about a free slidecasting program, which I think is called slidecast.net.

Thanks again, folks! I plan and hope to keep blogging, although if I repurpose this as our library blog for the college and our students to see, I think I'd wish to rename it. Not sure if we can do that, or whether I need to start a whole new blog...

Now that I think of it, I've long had this idea to do a monthly or quarterly library newsletter but wasn't sure I should use a bunch of paper for yet another flyer in people's mailboxes. A blog would very nicely fit that niche. I could use it to highlight great new books, useful reference sources, databases, random fun stuff, etc.

Looking forward to more Things in the future! ... Barbara