Thing 23--My Last Post

This has been an interesting process. I'm glad I did it, as I think it's good that I be aware of the fact that some of the sites and tools that we explored exist. Will I go back and use them again? A few of them yes, I liked LibraryThing, and I was already a YouTube user. Many of the sites seemed to be very specialized, Rollyo, for example, would be useful to someone doing a lot of research on a very specific topic, but I doubt I'll go back to it. Del.icio.us had some possibilities, as do podcasts, and I do check my Bloglines account once or twice a week. I've even forwarded a couple of news articles to people. However, the problem that I see with all of this is that there is just to much of it! How can we possibly keep up with all of it and still do our jobs, have relationships, or do anything but sit in front of a computer? Of course we can't, and I doubt most people would even consider it. What's out there is potentially overwhelming, we all need to pick and choose what is useful to us and what is not, and try to keep our lives in balance while we do it.

Signing off....Michele

Thing 22--Overdrive downloadable audiobooks

Well, this was just way to hard!! Without the help of my very patient and computer savvy husband, I would have given up altogether. As it was it took us about 2 hours to do. FYI-my husband is a NASA physicist, yes he really is a rocket scientist, and it took one to figure Overdrive out! We had to download Overdrive's Media Console and update Windows Media Player, and we still got an error message "the parameter is incorrect". A google search of that error message got us some fairly quick results...apparently this is a common problem. We did finally get the book downloaded and onto the mp3 player. Now that we have all the software and updates downloaded, it's possible my husband will use this again, but maybe not. There are enough books on CD in the Library to keep him happy, I bring them home to him, and I'm not sure it's worth the time it takes. I think downloading these books is too difficult for the average consumer, it needs to be made a lot easier.

Thing 21--Podcasts

Thing 21--Podcasts....These should be labeled dangerous and addictive! I used podcast.net and quickly found a music weblog called "In the Hands" that listed many wonderful classical music performances. The first one I listened to was Schuberts Impromptu D899.4. I added the rss feed to my bloglines account...this is one I'll probably go back to often....I've just barely scratched the surface....

http://www.podcast.net/show/473

This link should take you to the "In the Hands" page.....

Thing 15--Library 2.0

After reading the articles I have to say I related most to the articles by Michael Stevens "Into a new world of librarianship" and Dr. Wendy Schulz "To a temporary place in time..." I particularly agree with Dr. Schulz ideas about libraries as communities. I also looked at the article by George Bishop "A Ripple Effect", and much of what he had to say sounded very familiar. We have already implemented many of the ideas Mr. Bishop advocated, particularly those relating to customer service and the need for "quality customer service" as a "key to success." We're well down the road of Library 2.0 with free WiFi, 24 hour access to databases and the many other services we offer. It will be interesting to see where the road takes us

Thing 18--Online productivity tools

I've already used Google Docs a little for a Library project I helped with last summer, so I have a little familiarity here...I found Google docs fairly straightforward, at least for that project. I gave ZOHO writer a look, created an account and played around with it a little. It did take me a little while to figure out how to create a new document. The interface seemed a little visually busy to me. I did find the templates and liked that. Lots of different types of forms, including resumes and cover letters, and things like speech outlines, test formats, etc. Good to know about.

Thing 17--SI sandbox

Well, I added my thoughts to the HCL sandbox wiki...It was interesting to be able ot see what others opinions were about wikis and their uses. Many of use seem to agree that they are useful, but to be used with some caution...

Thing 16--Wikis

Wikis are certainly interesting....Wikipedia, for instance, has a lot of information and can be a great intro to a subject. Some caution is in order, but clearly there is a lot more oversight on Wikipedia than there was initially. I really liked the way St. Joseph's County Public Library is using wikis to create their "subject guide." It seems to be very customer friendly and easily updated in order to keep up with the constanly evolving web....

Thing 6--Mashup, etc.

Well, "mashups" mystify me somewhat, I'm just on quite sure what that is about....I was able to create a Librarian Trading Card

Thing 14-Technorati

I'm not sure I get this....certainly it could be a way to find out what people think about a wide variety of things, but some of what is there doesn't seem terribly vital...the recent earthquake in California was an important event, but did I really need to know that someone was worried about whether or not their aquarium broke?? I'm sure there are meatier blogs out there, but I'm not initially very impressed.

Thing 7--Technology

What interests me that's technology related? I'm not sure how to answer that, except that I'm often amazed when I think back to how we as Librarians did our jobs when I was fresh out of school compared to how we do it now. So much has changed so quickly! My husband got his first home computer in 1985--the year our son Daniel was born. He tried to show me how to use it--what a disaster, I swore I'd never go near the thing. Now I use a computer everyday for so many things, both at home and at work. I was telling a co-worker recently how we used to do shelf checks. Codes were written at the bottom of the catalog cards (yes, actual paper cards) indicating which branches owned an item...we started at the top, calling them all, until we found the book on the shelf somewhere. No way to tell in advance who had it in and who didn't ..... my co worker couldn't believe it.

Thing 13-Del.icio.us

This seemed a little confusing at first....I took a look at John Jewitt's blog and found his explanation/description of Delicious really helpful. I do like this--being able to access bookmarks from any computer is great for those who might be using multiple workstations for some reason.

Thing 8--Bloglines

I've had my Bloglines account a couple of days now....I like Wired and Urban Legends the best...

Thing 5--Flickr, again

This is the photo I found on Flickr and tried to include in the previous post...Still not sure why it didn't work. This time I downloaded the picture from Flickr to my desktop, then uploaded into my blog. This is NOT me, I wish I looked this good!

Thing 5--Flickr

Fun to explore. I found some great pictures of dancers and pointe shoes.

MERLIN--Thing 9

Wonderful resource...the Learning Links are really useful...the "Basics of Computers Tutorial" and several of the other tutorials on the internet, etc.,would be helpful in training new staff.
The tutorials also can help fill in some of the the "gaps" in knowledge that many people have....the definitions of terms included in several of the tutorials are useful...One I'll remember.

MEEZ--Thing 10

Kinda fun....wish I looked this good! Reminds me of my summer vacation.

RollyO

This looks pretty interesting....another one my husband may like to know about. We both do lots of specialized searching, and have sites we like to go back to. Still working on learning to use this,
but it has distinct possibilities.

Web 2.0 Awards list --Thing 19

Cocktail Builder sounded fun...I'm not sure I think it deserved an award, it got 1st place under "Fun Stuff." It WAS fun, but how could it not include a recipe for a Mimosa????

LibraryThing

This is a real winner...finally, an easy way for my husband and I to catalog our books. We've had that on the "to do" list for years. We may have to upgrade to lifetime membership.

Lifelong learners

I certainly am one, and I also live with one (my husband). Most of the habits come pretty easily to us both, but finding time to teach/mentor is hard. I wish we both had more time for that, and for all the interests we'd both like to explore!

Pas de deux 2-3A, ADC June 2007 performance

How I spent my summer vacation....

First Post

Getting started!