Thing #47: Evaluation

Once again, it's been great! I'm glad you extended the deadline, because for some reason, this seemed to take me longer than the 23 Things did. Don't know if it was my busy schedule or if there was more packed into the "More" Things.

As I said in my evaluation, I'm definitely making use of what I've learned in both my personal and work lives. We have so many online students at our college -- meaning fewer students actually coming into the library -- that we're looking for ways to reach them and teach them via their computers. The Things give us a lot to work with.

One thing I really like about the Things program is the community aspect of it. So I hope you'll come up with further learning opportunities for us. Oh, and I enjoyed how this had "fun" stuff as well as work. The music, video and travel "things" were great to learn about.

Thanks for a terrific program!

Thing #46: WebJunction Minnesota

How could this have escaped me? I know I'd heard the name WebJunction, but I guess I never knew what it was!

I found the calendar feature useful and also the list of courses, which are apparently available to us for free (up to two at a time.) Nice resource.

Let's see... what sort of Minnesota resources would I like to see? Maybe some sort of a comprehensive directory of libraries in Minnesota? More discussion threads would be nice, too.

Nice finding out about WebJunction!

Thing #45: Cloud Computing

I've been using a My Yahoo page for a few years now, so I guess that would count as a Web OS. I started using that when our family retired our AOL account. It took me a short while to get used to, but I find I love having my information portable now. Disadvantages? I suppose someone could potentially get into my personal information -- for example, if I forgot to sign off at a public computer.

I don't do GoogleDocs or Zoho. I guess my computing in the cloud is, so far, rather limited. I am planning to try out a Wiki for putting together subject resources for classes, so I guess that would be using the cloud. Seems that will allow much more flexibility than what we've been doing, plus allow for input by others. Also -- I'm not sure whether this counts as "the cloud" or not, but I use TurboTax for my taxes, and that information is available from any computer I sign into. So, even though this is a paid service, perhaps it counts as "the cloud"?

Thing #44: The Economy

I clicked on most of the links provided, so I did look at least briefly at most of these sites. I'd say my favorite is Craigslist. In fact, it's thanks to Craigslist that I have the apartment I'm living in! Seems Craigslist has gone from being a little-known, "alternative" classifieds site to the mainstream. In the Jobs section, I even spotted an opening from Minnesota Public Radio. I also know people who have sold furniture via Craigslist.

I thought Mint.com looked really useful, though I didn't go so far as to register. I'm sure there are safeguards built in or else you wouldn't have had a link to the site and it wouldn't have won awards from PC Magazine and Money Magazine, but I do feel a bit nervous at the idea of inputting my accounts into the "cloud." Also, my finances are pretty simple, so I don't need too much help managing my budget.

The garage sale sites were fascinating. I myself don't shop at garage sales because I already have too much stuff :), but if I did, I would find those mash-ups like Weekend Treasures very useful, for sure!

My own tips for economizing?... Get books from the library rather than buying them. If I am tempted to buy a book, I put it on my Amazon wish list and hold it there for a while rather than do an impulse purchase. On the 1st of each month, I allow myself a $25 purchase (which qualifies for free shipping) from my wish list. In the realm of eating, I try to use what's in my cupboards and fridge before buying more food. And when I eat out, if it's a big portion (which is usually the case in restaurants) I try not to pig out and instead ask for a container and bring half home for the next day's lunch. (But OK, OK, sometimes I do pig out :) )

Thing #43: Online TV & Video

I took this opportunity to sign up for Hulu, which I've been hearing about from a coworker and from friends. It sounded too good to be true, and you know... it sort of *is* -- all these things for free! Amazing.

I watched the beginning of the show that was highlighted, and that was Conan O'Brien's first night as host of the Tonight Show. That was fun, as I'd missed it on broadcast TV. Then I put some featured, popular shows in my queue: a couple of highlights of Conan's previous shows -- and then I did some searching and found some old favorites, like the original Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore shows. Wonderful! So a few of those went in the queue, as well.

I explored the Time-Based Search, which was very cool. You can search a time period and find the shows that were on then.

It's good to know this is there, but I don't know that it will change my viewing habits too much. For one thing, I try not to watch too much TV, period. And when I do watch movies or TV shows in series, I tend to get them in DVD format. I don't have a way to connect my computer to my TV at this point, so I wouldn't be able to watch the Hulu shows on the big screen.

It is interesting to speculate on what this might mean for traditional broadcast and cable TV. I don't feel I know the ins and outs of it enough to comment, but it will certainly keep the dominant formats from being the monopoly in the future.

Thing #42: Music 2.0

Voila! There is my Last.fm widget over in the left column, down beneath my Shelfari bookshelf.

I'm a music lover, so this may be my favorite Thing so far. Don't know that we'd use it in the Library, but I sure had fun with it.

I already had a Last.fm account. Once again, I have to credit my children for this. My daughter had me sign up a couple of years ago, but I really haven't used it. She just wanted to see what I was listening to! Doing this Thing got me to explore it a bit further. I loved seeing how, whatever plays from my iTunes, you get a photo of the artist, biographical info about them, reviews, and everything. Very cool indeed. (I also checked out what my daughter is listening to these days. :)

I explored the Radio section of my iTunes. I hadn't done much with this before. Didn't really know what it was. What a goldmine! I didn't know where to start... or stop! I clicked on the International classification and was listening to Radio Alsace, then Persian radio, Italy, and more. Then I checked other categories and listened to an '80s station.

I can't say whether Internet radio will take over or not, since I don't know the ins and outs of everything. But it sure looks good. It's free, it opens up a world of music and news you couldn't access, otherwise. What's not to like? Oh, and since the Morning Show was mentioned in the Thing post... I do occasionally listen to Dale Connelly on Radio Heartland via the Internet. It is awfully nice. Maybe this will indeed become the way to listen to radio.

Thing #41: Mashup Your Life

I signed up for a Lifestream.fm account and added some of my services: Facebook, Twitter, last.fm and delicious. It was cool but also kind of spooky to see a whole stream of everything I've posted in all these different places suddenly appear in my Lifestream feed.

I could see possibly using this for institutional purposes once we get more Web 2.0 stuff up and running and really used in the Library. Not sure about that yet. As for personal use, I don't think I'll use it. I've got things set up the way I like with my personal 2.0 accounts, so I don't feel I need to rock the boat by changing how I get my news. Also, it feels like overload to me. I don't need to know what all my friends have bookmarked, etc. in a continual stream. Still, these are powerful tools, and it's fun to try them out and know they exist.

Thing #40: Mashup the Web

I had fun exploring this. I looked at a few mash-ups in all the categories. I enjoyed looking with BookTour, Lunchbox, CrimeReports, and Walkable, in particular. I already knew the restaurants listed on Lunchbox, but it was fun to see them on a map. And I found out that my neighborhood is indeed as walkable as I already knew it was. :)

I could imagine using the Lunchbox mash-up to find good eats in an unfamiliar place.

Here I tried BubblR to put a caption with a photo. I was attracted to this kitty, who looks just like my long-haired guy at home! This was easy and fun.

Thing #39: Digital Storytelling

I used VoiceThread for yet another version of my DCTC Library virtual tour. I found VoiceThread really easy to use. I could see polishing this up, adding voice (which I didn't this time as I'm at a public desk with no microphone) and more links. It also meshed really well with my Flickr account.

Thing #38: Screencasting

For this Thing, I used Jing. I was eager to try this Thing, because we do want to produce some screencasts for our Web page and for our distance learners. I'd heard Jing was really easy and worked well, so that's the one I chose.

I found it a little tricky, but that may just be me and my clunky tech skills. For example, it took me a while to figure out how to use the arrow, because I was trying to "drag" it. I never did figure out how to get the Text feature to work. I'm sure it's something simple that I'm neglecting to do.

It looks like you can't edit screens once you save them, which is unfortunate, but oh, well.

I produced this two-screen image capture demonstrating 1) the way to find the DCTC Library page from the main DCTC page, and 2) where to find the useful links (MnPALS catalog, Ebsco for articles, chat screen.)

It's a start! I wanted to start off simply, with images. But in the future I'm going to try a video.

P.S. Uh-oh -- in viewing my published post, I see the screens are too big. I'm sure there's a way to resize them, and at some point, I'll figure out how to do that. But I've spent a long time on this Thing and must move along.

Thing #37: Photo Tales

DCTC Library Tour, using Flckr, Picnik and FlickrSLiDR:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

In Flickr and Picnik, I wrote captions for these photos that would function as the verbal accompaniment to this "tour." But they didn't show up on the FlckrSldr slideshow. Not sure if there's a way to make that happen. Picnik was fun and worked smoothly with Flickr. I'll have to investigate it further.

I can definitely see uses for this on our Library page, and it would be fun for home use, as well.

Thing #36: Comic Relief

As a college librarian, this one really speaks to me!


From Stripgenerator, by mupfather

And on the loneliness of reference desks, now that everyone is Googling instead:


From Stripgenerator, by mupfather

And now my very first comic strip...


Not hilarious, but who knew I could be a comic strip author?? What a feeling of empowerment! This has possibilities.

For this Thing, I also explored ToonDo and Comeeko. ToonDo looks really nice, and I liked the colors, which I don't think Stripgenerator has. But the day I actually set out to do this Thing, the site kept hanging up, so I went to Stripgenerator instead. (Today I see ToonDo is working.) Comeeko would be fun in that it works with your photos. So you could create comics with photos of actual library staff saying things. Ah, the creative possibilities.

I got a kick out of the Obamaconme and Warholizing sites. I've seen these in people's profiles but never knew how they did it.

Yes, I could imagine a use for a library comic strip. As with the other tools we've learned, it's one more thing to throw in the toolbox and good to know it's there.

Thing #35: Books 2.0

I'm observing that students seem to go to the Internet first for research -- usually to Google, unless they've had a library orientation. But when they want books, it's hard-copy books they're looking for. We have a collection of e-books through NetLibrary, and we tout them as being great for 24/7 access from home. But students are usually reluctant to use them.

I think the Books 2.0 tools generally enhance the reading experience. In fact, the new version of our catalog, MnPals Plus, is a 2.0 product, allowing for reviews and comments. I think they allow for a social experience and also allow people to find other suggested reading they probably wouldn't have run across otherwise.

I looked at most of the links that were posted with this Thing. In our library, we use LibraryThing to highlight certain subject areas that we feature on our home page. It makes a nice attractive rotating display. We've also just put up a Facebook page. There are a lot of good Books applications for Facebook, as listed in this Thing. It took us a while to locate a good Books application that would work with a Page rather than a personal profile. By asking another library, I located one called Bookshare. Hoping to generate some visits to the library and some discussion with it!

Thing #34: Online Answer Sites

I can totally see why these online answer sites are appealing. People can get quick answers in an unintimidating way, without having to leave home. Also, lots of people use forums and various types of social networking. These sites have a similar feel, so they'd be comfortable for people.

The questions I saw ran the gamut: Some were academic, like "I need to know about WWI and WWII for a history assignment." Many were from people seeking answers for practical questions regarding needs in their lives: "How do I refinish a table?" And then some were opinion questions from people looking to start -- or provoke -- a conversation: "Is anyone else tired of hearing about Barack Obama?" and "Am I considered a racist if I don't like Barack Obama?"

The academic questions -- like the first one mentioned -- especially broad, open-ended questions like that one -- would best be asked by asking a librarian for help. The practical sort of questions, like the one re: wood finishing, would also be a good library question but could also be answered by other folks who have knowledge of the field. So that one could go either way, the caveat being that if you ask the question of the general public, you can either get excellent or very poor answers. As for the final question, those people are just looking for a chat group!

Some of these folks on the answer sites may be aware of the library but may be thinking of it primarily as a place to pick up books, CDs and DVDs. Sadly, I'm not sure how many people know what a reference librarian is these days or would think to ask one. They also probably don't know that you can reach your librarian via email or chat. So they go with what they know and what's easiest.

The Slam the Boards events sound like a good idea for getting the word out about librarians. I checked out their wiki, but I don't think I would participate, mainly for lack of time. For the same reason, I didn't answer any questions -- mainly because it would have involved signing in and, I presume, creating a profile, etc. Maybe someday!

Thing #33: Travel 2.0

As I'm a fan of travel, these were fun to look at. In fact, I clicked on every one of the links, if only to give it a quick look. And I added "My Kugehopf" to my personal Delicious list because it is... well, delicious :)

These are really useful sites, though in my case, probably more for personal use than professional. I could see where these would be terrific resources in public libraries, where you get questions from people who are planning trips. We get the occasional question from someone planning a trip or doing an expository paper on a country. And since many of our travel books are dated (that not being a big area of collection for us), these sites are good to know about.

I enjoyed some of the travel "journals," like the aforementioned "My Kugelhopf" and also "The Lost Girls." Also poked around Tripadvisor and enjoyed that.

Thing #32: Google Maps & Mash-Ups

I created a Google map/mash-up of one of my favorite areas: Lake Calhoun. I put markers at a couple of spots: the Tin Fish, the lakeside seafood restaurant that's open seasonally, and the Bakken Museum.

I didn't find it as easy to use as the tutorial promised, but then this is all new to me. If I had time, I'd really enjoy trying out the different mash-ups that are available. I'm not sure I see a use for this in our library right now, but maybe I'll come up with something at some point. As with so many of these things, it's good to know they're there and to have them in the "toolbox," so to speak. This is a fun one.

Now, let's see if I can embed the site:


View Lake Calhoun area in a larger map

Hmm, I tried to zoom it in better, but it defaulted to this more far-away few. I'll post for now, but it's something to tinker with later...

Thing #31: More Twitter

We're really just getting off the ground with Twitter. I'm following several different news sources (some of which surprisingly found and friended us out of the blue (like the Minnesota Daily -- wonder how they found us? It's a nice little boost!)

At first I had the profile under my own name with my photo. But as my colleague and I talked about it more and how we could both post Tweets, it seemed we should change that. So I took my name off it and posted a photo of the Library. We're talking about getting updates to our Library blog posted automatically to our Twitter feed. Under this Thing, it looks like TwitterFeed might be the way to do that. The instructions look pretty easy.

I might also start a personal Twitter account just for fun and my own personal use. I have to say, I was skeptical at first, but I'm enjoying looking at the news updates. I like the brevity of the messages with the option to click on the link for the whole story.

I'd say I'm at the Twitter stage of trying it out and considering how we might use it beyond just reading other people's feeds.

Thing #30: More Ways to Use RSS & Delicious

I understand the principle of RSS and how very useful it might be for some people, but I haven't incorporated it into my own life. (Come to think of it, maybe I subconsciously am by using My Yahoo as my personal home page. I continually get updates from various news sources by means of the widgets I've chosen. Not sure if that counts as RSS, but it does follow the same principle.)

Here have been my stumbling blocks: I subscribed to several feeds via Bloglines, but the number of posts got overwhelming. Plus, it meant remembering to go to Bloglines to check them. As it is, I have an established rhythm of checking a few sources regularly, and adding the Bloglines routine felt overwhelming: too much info.

That said, I could subscribe to or just read selected feeds. But I ran into an email problem. My feeds were automatically going to my email inbox at work, and it was way too much of a good thing. My inbox was getting bombarded and filling to capacity. Finally, I turned off that function. Now I can't figure out how to turn it back on in Outlook, though I've followed the directions. (SIGH) Oh well, getting off topic...

I am using my blog's home page, though, to check on updates of a few of my favorite blogs by means of the blogroll. I like how it puts the most recently updated blog at the top and lets you know when it was updated.

Now, delicious I've been using and loving for more than a year. We have a Library account to which we add useful bookmarks that we and our users will find valuable. I also have a personal delicious account. I love being able to find my bookmarks on any computer, and I love how easy it is to add sites by means of the toolbar. I also like how you're able to find the most popular sites for particular tags.

Right now on our Library home page we have a link to our delicious account, where viewers can peruse our sites with most recently added at the top. But what I'd like to do is take advantage of the tagging to use them for subject guides.

Oh -- and I added the Library's delicious links to my blog, with the tag cloud displayed. Pretty cool to see!

Thing #29: Google Tools

Great tools here, for sure! They're fun and powerful.

The first one I tried was Google News. I hadn't realized you could get headlines and stories aggregated in Google from so many places. I tried the archives search and was really impressed. Hadn't realized all this stuff was available outside of paid databases. I recently read All Quiet on the Western Front for a class I'm taking in WWI literature. So I typed "Erich Maria Remarque" in the News Archives search box. I got some really interesting results back to the time the book was published. Also an old New York Times article from when Remarque and Paulette Goddard were married.

Then I tried GMail. Or maybe I should say I retried GMail. At the urging of my son, I opened an account back in 2005 when it was brand new and only a select number of "invitations" were given out to join, and my son got me invited. But I didn't really use it -- not because I disliked it but because I was used to my Yahoo account and satisfied enough that I didn't see the need to change.

It was fun to sign back on and see that my old account was still there. I was impressed by GMail's spam-blocking power and also impressed by the various features that can be added.

I went back to the iGoogle page I created recently and had fun with that. I chose "Theme for a Day," which means each day you get a random new theme and had a pretty pattern by designer Anna Sui. In fact, Google has lots of designer themes. With the attractiveness and the useful options and the way all the features work together, I could see switching to iGoogle as my personal home page.

Thing #28: Customized Home Pages

I've been using Yahoo as my personal home page for years, because Yahoo is my primary personal e-mail provider, so it seemed easiest. I didn't realize the world of options out there till doing this Thing.

After reading the linked articles comparing the various home page providers, I tried Netvibes, since it seemed to get the most accolades. It is attractive and has lots of handy and fun widgets. I eliminated the default widgets that didn't interest me much, but that left me with a lot of blank column space. All my faves seemed to be over in the left column. I'm sure there's a way to rearrange that, but I wasn't finding it and didn't have the time to go into it too deeply.

Then I tried iGoogle. I already have a Google account, and its features are familiar to me, so I thought I'd compare. That page I was able to set up easily and quickly. I like the various theme choices -- fun, fun. (There's a really beautiful Japanese cherry blossom one that I may use in April. For now I'm on the default spring green hopping frogs theme. Thinking hopefully for Minnesota...) On iGoogle I was able to set up some good widgets easily -- ToDo List, maps, etc. Not sure if there's a Yahoo mail widget available, as that may be a competitor, but it would sure be handy for me.

Not sure that I'll use this for work use in the immediate future, as we already have a good library home page. But I'll tuck it away in my mind for future ideas or for my personal page.

Thing #27: Twitter

I signed us up with the username DCTCLibrary, added a profile pic and am now "following" mnmorethings. It was satisfying to get that all set up. I'm intrigued, although I'm not yet completely a-twitter about Twitter for our purposes... yet. Need to think more about possible uses.

I looked at the public library Twitter links that were posted, like the Hibbing PL. That looked really good. But our library doesn't have events or frequent changes of hours, so I'm not sure it would be effective for us at this time. We've recently added a blog to our library home page, and that's where we post New Books, highlighted Web sites, etc.

Really, I'm of two minds about Twitter. I can really see the fun and usefulness of it. On the other hand, it feels like there's so much information coming in to us via blogs, RSS, IMs, etc. that I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm finding that the trick is to be very selective in what I subscribe to, so that it's information I really want and not just "static."

I'd be open to trying Twitter in the near future to publish short updates about new books, etc. Seems like a good way to get info out in an even quicker and more informal manner than blogging.

Twitter Badge

Thing #26: Join the 23 Things Ning

I joined the 23 Things Ning during Round 1 last spring. To be honest, I haven't really used it... yet. I like knowing it's there, I like seeing all the friendly faces from the Minnesota library world, all of us learning the same new things. For now, I'm trying out all of these tools and figure, as time goes on, that I'll learn which ones are most useful and effective for me.

I just saw a new group for MnSCU libraries and joined that. I could see using the Ning to trade ideas and to share videos, etc., thereby avoiding reinventing the wheel, and also to look at photos of other people's libraries and events, for ideas and just for fun.

The two new things I did with Ning: I added the large Ning badge to my blog and added a comment to the Ning group blog.

Thing #25: Bloggers' Toolkit

These are the gadgets/widgets that I added: Snow Effect (just for wintry fun), a blogroll, a link list and a video bar. (I have some additional widgets that I added in previous go-round, on 23 Things.)

Widgets I rejected for the time being -- but may add later -- are the poll (because I don't feel I have enough traffic yet and am not sure what I'd poll people on) and the slideshow (this is a good one, but I don't have enough photos yet of the library.)

Not sure how much time I spent on this, as I did it in little bits while at the reference desk. I spent a fair amount of time reading about the blog tools and watching the tutorials, but it didn't take long at all to set up my widgets. Mainly, I used the ones that come with Blogger, and that made it really quick and easy.

Thing #24: Refresh Your Blog

It's good to be back! In answer to the blog prompts... As you can see, I haven't blogged on this particular site since we left off with Thing 23. However, I have blogged elsewhere. I belong to a writing group, and we organized a group blog recently, where we take turns posting essays -- little "slice-of-life" pieces. Also, at our college, we were each given individual blog accounts via WordPress at the beginning of the academic year. My librarian colleague and I are posting together with a Library blog. We're using it to post New Books, research tips, recommended Web sites, and announcements. There's a widget for the blog on our Library home page.

I enjoy the ease of blogging; I like that it's a way to get your words out to the public in an attractive format, yet it's informal enough that you don't feel constrained by having to write perfectly (plus, you can always edit.) It's so much nicer to get library news and tidbits out via a blog than to bombard everyone's email boxes with a general mailing or use up resources by publishing paper newsletters.

I have been reading lots of blogs over the past year: news blogs, like Huffington Post during the election season, blogs put up by friends who are writers, and also some of the popular library blogs, which I've added to my blog-roll, like Information Wants to Be Free.

I occasionally comment on others' blogs, as time permits.