Thing 23 - Final Thoughts

If there was another program, like 23 Things, I would participate. I found that it helped me understand the new technology that is changing everyday.

My learning experience can be described as amazing and fun.

Thing 22 - What did I learn?

I will keep up with the new tools that I learned. I will take about 15 minutes of time everyday to go through my RSS feeds, and even to see if anything of the new tools I have learned has been updated.

What did I learn today?
I discovered new Library Web 2.0 Blogs. While checking out lifehacker.com I discovered a neat website called Its Our Tree, you have the ability to map your own Family Tree for free. It is a great idea and I know that I will use it.

Thing 21 - Social Networks

View my page on 23 Things on a Stick


I joined the Open Source Food network. From what I was able to look through, it looks like it has a great array of different recipes that members have submitted. It also gives you the opportunity to comment on each of the recipes and submitting your own recipes. I know that I will be searching through this more throughly to find more recipes to use for myself.

Thing 20 - Myspace and Facebook

I have a Facebook account and I am obsessed with it. I use it as a way to communicate with my friends who I haven't seen in a long time. I enjoy it too. I do not have a myspace page. I am not the biggest fan of myspace. My younger siblings are all obsessed with it. I did at one time try it, and was weirded out by the amount of strangers that were trying to befriend me.

I think that Facebook is the fasting growing social network because of the control that you have over others seeing your profile. I also think it maybe to the extent that, in my opinion, it is not quite as scary as Myspace. I also think that myspace is also for the teens and Facebook is used more by 20s and older. I might be wrong in these assumptions, but it's from my experience in what I have come across. I do think that the reputation is deserved. Yes, there are somethings about Facebook I do not like. Mainly the new applications and how you are required by some to invite people to them. (Which is really annoying.) Other than that, Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with people that you don't get to see very often. I know that I have a friend that is now going to Med school and is really bad at replying to emails. Now with Facebook, I can see what she is up to. That is why I believe that Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networks.

Thing 19 - Podcasts

I chose to listen to the LOST Official Podcast. I've tried to listen to it in the past, but I honestly do not see the appeal to podcasts. I was an avid listener of a Veronica Mars Podcast, Neptune Pirate Radio. However, now that Veronica is over, I no longer listen to it. Other than listening to the Neptune Pirate Radio Podcast, I do not listen to it much. I've tried to listen different ones, but I cannot get into them. I found podcast.com an easy way to find different podcasts. I have also used iTunes in the past as a way to find different ones. I do not see myself starting a podcast in the future. Maybe if some of my friends con me into doing it, but other than that, I don't see myself doing them.

Thing 18 - YouTube goodness

YouTube is a great time waster. I tend to go on it, if I haven't seen a certain apperance of my favorite actor/singer. I also use it as a way to catch British shows. I adore Doctor Who. This is a skit that David Tennant did for Children in Need.

Thing 17 - ELM productivity tools

ELM is a great idea. It gives every MN resident the access to databases. As a Library Assistant, I really do not use any of these databases to aid the patrons. I pass the torch onto Library Associates when it's needed. Otherwise, I do use WorldCat when I am looking something up for myself, but other than that, I do not use it much at work.

Thing 16 - Student 2.0 Tools

The Research Project Calculator and the Teacher Guide could be used in a variety of situations for the students. It can be used to help guide the student in understanding how much time they have to do their project. When I was a student in high school, I know that this would have been extremely helpful. It breaks down each step of the research project. It lets the students know that they have so long to finish each of the steps.

The teacher guides is a great resource for teachers. There are a lot of resources there that a teacher could use to help plan their assignments as well as help the students in understanding what they expect in the assignment.

Thing 15 - Online Games and Libraries

I did the Puzzle Pirates. It was interesting interacting with the other pirates. I am not one for the chat rooms. So I wasn't that talkative to the other pirates. I did enjoy playing the puzzles.

Thing 14 - LibraryThing

My LibraryThing catalog

I've had a LibraryThing account for sometime now. One of my co-workers had mentioned she say a small blurb about it in Real Simple magazine. I then proceeded to set it up. I haven't done much with it for a while now. I would say that the last time I entered any books would have been in December.

I did find that some of my books were pretty popular, especially my Harry Potter books. My other books aren't quite as popular as the Harry Potter.

I was unable to really find any discussion about the books I have in my collection. Most of the conversations that I found were about other books that were similar to the one that I clicked on. I did find another series by Tanya Huff that I did not know she had written.

Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools

I chose iGoogle as my start page. The reason I chose this it, is because I have a gmail account and find that it is easier for me if I keep everything related to Google.

I did find that stikkit will be useful in the near future. I will however, probably use it for a good week to two weeks, before I decide that it is too much of a hassle to keep inputing stuff online. The Zamzar would be a great productivity tool for at home and even in the library. It could be used in the library when someone has an document that would like to work on at the library, but we do not have the right program to open it. We could then direct them to the Zamzar website and have them convert it in to a document that would work on our computers. I could also use it for myself in the same way.

I did take a look at Backpack. I think that it is a great idea. It would be something that I would want to use if I had my own private business. At our library, we already have an intranet that is set up.

Thing 12 - Do you Digg?

It's hard to say how the library would use these items. It would be a great reference point for our patrons. The patrons could be referred to these websites if they wanted to be able to read all sorts of different types of news. I would use it in my personal life as a way to get different types of news. That I may not see on just a regular news site. I would definitely use it for the Entertainment news that I always seem to miss.

It does seem as a productivity detractor. Mainly because of the fact that I would become distracted and start to read all sorts of different kinds of articles. I know that I would not be able to look at any of these websites while I'm at work. Just because of the fact that I would be come extremely distracted from what I had planned on doing. Other people may find it a productivity enhancer. They could say that because of the fact that you have different types of articles all in one spot. There would be no reason to go from one news site to the next.

I do have to say that doing this thing was the first time that I was introduced to these different sites. I find that if I had known about them, I would have used them sooner. I like that the users have the ability to share the different news articles they find on the web.

Thing 11 - Taggin and Del.icio.us

I have used the Del.icio.us and have decided that I think it is a neat idea. Mainly because then one has the ability to access their bookmarks at any computer. This is a tool that I could have used while I was still in school. It would have been helpful while doing online research. I would use it more now as just a bookmark site. If I needed to find a site and was not at my personal computer, this gives me the access to that site without having to wrack my brain thinking what the dang site address is. I do see the potential for research tool. You have the ability to look at other people's comments on a certain site. There is also the ability to look at the different tags and find different sites/articles.

Thing 10 - Wikis

I like the idea of wikis. It seems like a neat idea to allow everyone the opportunity to give their insight on what is needed or what they believe should be the fact that is on the site.

Wikipedia is a source that many Professors do not like. It is generally one that I avoided during my time in school. (Which is not that long ago) What I would do with Wikipedia is I would use it as a springboard. I would look something up in it, and then I would use that information to go in a different direction than I maybe had originally planned. Of course, this would never go down in my Works Cited/Reference page. This is because I had a couple of Professors who told us that they would mark off points if they saw it on the Works Cited/Reference page. My thought on the banning of Wikipedia is that you really shouldn't ban students from the ability to use what Wikipedia has to offer in expanding their research.

I ended up editing the 23 Things on a Stick Wiki.

Thing 9 - Online Collaboration Tools

I only used the Googledocs. Mainly because of the fact that I have used it in the past and find that it is easier for me to stick with things that I know. I enjoy the fact that anyone that you want to be able to read and edit can with Googledocs. I know that I have used it as a way to be able to edit some of my information from another computer with out having to email to myself or use my jump drive. This was my first time in editing a document. I feel that this is a great idea for if you were going to use it as way to share a group paper with who you are working with. This really cuts down on the time that is spent downloading and uploading attachments.

What would the founding fathers think? I think they are probably turning over in their graves. They probably never thought that in this day and age that people would be slaughtering their documents into something that is laughable.

Thing 8 - Sharing of the Creations

Books I want to read

I created a database of all of the books that I currently am itching to read. It is a work in progress. I have a spreadsheet that I started at home of all the books I want to read. I have to say that I am likely to use this tool. I find it a great way to list the books that I would like to read and maybe even start one for the books that I have read.

After a few tries, I was able to understand the database. I had difficulty at first understanding how to input my entries. But after a while it came relatively easy for me to input my data.

The database could be used in a library. One could use it as a database for the magazines that the library subscribes to, and it could also be used for making a list of the new books/movies that the library has added to their collection.

Thing 7 - Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Email is a great tool. We use it in our library as a communication tool between our different branches as well as with our patrons. It's a great tool for communication with the patrons, especially when you try to call them and their phone has been disconnected. Patron will also use it as a source to communicate on renewing their overdue items. The last thing we use it for is communicating with our different branches on if a book is missing from our collection and we cannot fill their patrons hold.

I am an active user of text messaging. I tend to only text my friends quick messages that would be a rather short phone call. I have never thought of it being used in the aspect of texting a librarian. I was at one time also an active user of IM too. As I got older, I stopped using it so much. I just didn't see the point in talking to the people I just talked to like an hour ago online again. It might just be me, but I don't see the point in the IMing of friends. It is a great idea in the aspect of having Librarians available through IM. I also use Facebook a lot. I like the way that it can keep me in touch with my friends that have moved away. I tend to use Facebook instead of sending an actual email. I will use the messaging that is available or post on someone's wall.

Thing 6 - Online Image Generators

1. Three Wee Kittens, 2. Kitten attack, 3. "Free Kittens", 4. Little kitten continued

How can one use Online Image Generators in their library or media center. That is a good question. Like the latest explanation for this Thing it was mentioned that Media Specialists could use the Trading Cards to help the Media Specialist and the children to get to know each other. It could also help co-workers get to know each other. Especially for new people. I know coming into a new job just recently. It took me a while to get to know some of my co-workers. It is probably do more to the fact that I am a shy person, than not having something like a trading card to get to know them. If I was going to actually use a trading card to exchange with my coworkers, I would use a different picture. This picture makes me look like I am some sort of a lush. It was the only picture that I had a available of myself. I used the Mosaic to show how someone could use it to aid them in a display. It could help a bring a little something extra to a display that is laking something. When we do our magazine displays during the Thanksgiving holiday/Christmas season. Using a mosaic would have been a neat idea.

Thing 5 - Flickr Fun

Sharing photos online is a great thing. It makes taking your photos and uploading them more fun. I know that I enjoy uploading my photos to my facebook account in order for my friends to see them. I know that if I ever did something like Flickr, I would probably not be so public with all of my pictures. I would upload my France photos and show those off to everyone, where as a night out with my friends, I would not make those public. That is a personal decision. Just because I find it creepy when people I have no idea who they are start to comment on my personal photos. Where as the scenery photos that I took while I was in France is a different thing. If someone wants to comment on my ability of taking these photos, I'm all up for it. :o) It would be fun to see our library start a Flickr account to share photos of events and other happenings that are going on in our library. I would find it interesting to see the different photos from the events. Especially the meet the Storybook character photos. The kids meeting their favorite characters would be very fun to see.

Thing 4 - Exploring Flickr

I chose the first option when it came to the flickr account. I chose not to set up a flickr account due to the fact that I use my facebook account to backup and share my photos.

I was intrigued that the Library of Congress has a flickr account. I searched through their account and ended up looking through the photos that they have of children. I love children and tend to go towards anything that has to do with them.


Flickr

Thing 3 - RSS

I have heard the term RSS several times, and have never fully understood what they were about until now. I feel a little smarter now that I now what this is exactly. An RSS makes sense. It allows you to go to one pages and read all of the updates of the different blogs, news sites and other things that you read.

I will start to use it more frequently in my private life. I have a couple of blogs that I go to that are related to my favorite tv shows. I also have a couple of blogs that my friends do. I feel that using my RSS would aid me by cutting down the time it takes to have to go from website to website. Especially when there hasn't been any updates since the last time you have visited it.

I tried the Google Blog Search to come up with some blog to add to my RSS. I had a difficult time with it. I would put in things to add and it would come up with blog enteries that may have just mentioned the word once. I did, however, go to cnn.com and used their RSS links to subscribe to some of the areas that I tend to read that most on their website.

Thing 2 - Web 2.0

In the video Stephen Abram suggests finding 10 to 15 minutes of time to do your 23 Things. I know that it should be possible for me to do this. When the library is quiet, I know that I can pull up the 23 Things website and get a look at what the next thing is.

I am personally participating in 23 Things, because I would like to understand more of some of the technology that has come around. I hope that 23 Things will help me understand some of the things that I come across in my daily life. As well as when a patron asks me a question pertaining to some of the new technology that is available.

I am not a big internet surfer. I will go online to check email, facebook, cnn.com, a few blogs that I read, and my bank account. I don't do much more than that on the internet in my personal time. As an Library Assistant the extent of my internet use is looking up an author/title on Amazon, using NovelList and checking my work email. That is all I do when it comes to using the internet at work.

I am looking forward to understanding more about what exactly some of the new web technology are. I am also looking forward to becoming more confident in my use of the new technologies that are coming my way.

Thing 1 - Setting up the blog

This is the blog I made for 23 Things on a stick. It didn't take me that long to make it. I enjoyed trying out the different colors and stuff for it. I had a difficult time coming up with a name for it. I finally decided to just use a nickname and add 23 Things. Not very original, but it worked for me.

My avatar, in my opinion, looks nothing like me. I have shown it to my co-workers, and they all said that it looks kind of like me. The only thing was that I don't have bangs, but the Yahoo Avatar doesn't have any bobs for the hairstyle. When I showed it to my co-workers, we all had a discussion on whether everyone had put themselves in the library stacks. As far as we knew, everyone did execpt for one person. Her arguement was that she is already at a library for 40 hours a week, why would she want her avatar to be there constantly?