Thing 23 TheEnd!

Wow, I'm on thing 23!! I'd been doing a lot of the exercises but not posting. I finally sat down today and posted about the things I've looked at in the last couple of weeks. Now to finish it off!

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I think my favorite discovery was the Bloglines. I'm a news junkie and it now takes a lot less time to get my 'fix' than it used to.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It has definitely helped. I finished this and plan to look for other self paced online learning opportunities. I really liked the 7.5 habits of life long learners. I feel I used all 7.5 of those, especially the last one, I played a lot.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I don't think surprised me is the right word. There were unexpected outcomes that I will definitely be using/returning to in the future.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?And last but not least…
I think it was great how it was set up. My biggest disappointment was trying to sign up for Merlin and never succeeding. I don't know if they were overwhelmed from number of us doing the 23 things. Maybe work with them in the future so we can actually sign up and use them.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Absolutely! I'd love to do this again.

How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
I never realized how much was out there. It takes time to look and learn but will save time in the future.

Thing 22 Audiobooks

This was the easiest for me because I'm already an audiobookaholic. I have used both Overdrive and Net Library. Net Library is nice in that there are unlimited copies of the books available. The draw back is having to register at the library ahead of time and needing to remember a login. The other drawback of net library is that to be able to listen to the audiobook on an MP3 player you have to download the higher quality larger file. Then when you download them to your MP3 player it downloads as one file. If you lose your place you have to start at the beginning or may have to fast forward through hours of book. I prefer the Overdrive system. You just use your library card number to check out a book. Overdrive books download in ~1 hour segments, less repeat if you lose your place. The draw back is that there are a limited number of copies available to check out. Since the check out period is always 3 weeks (can't return it early) if you get put on a waiting list, everyone ahead of you gets a 3 week turn so the wait for books can be months. PGCMLS dealt with this by forming it's own overdrive selection of books. Trouble there is they're not getting many of the new books that come out. I did a quick look at 6 books that have come out since June 1. PG County's overdrive had 1 of the books and Maryland Consortium had 5 of the 6. Trade off, fewer books but sooner access. I'll keep my card with another county so I have access to both!

Thing 21 Podcasts

Now this was overwhelming! There are so many podcasts out there you could spend hours looking for one. I did like the search on Podcast.net when you use the letter instead of typing in a search term. For instance, I searched knitting podcasts. When I searched under the term 'knit', I only got 4 podcasts. Two of those were about 'close knit groups', nothing to do with knitting. When I clicked in the 'k' and went down the list to knit, there were 12 for knit; one each for kniting(sic), knitter, and knitters; and 19 for knitting. The one I chose to add to my Bloglines was "Cast On" a humorous monologue and music and was under the 'knitting' category.

Thing 20 YouTube

There is no end to what you can watch on You Tube. More than you ever wanted to see ;-). Being a dog owner, I searched the pet pages. My favorite video was about feeding 100 dogs at once. Hope you enjoy the clip.

Thing 19 Award winners

I have already investigated or used many of the award winners on the Web 2.0 shortlist. Many of them already investigated while working on my 23 things. The one I chose is the PeerTrainer. This was under the category of health. It's a web site to provide peer support for dieting and exercise. Something we probably all need. Being a bit of an extrovert, having peer support can really help keep me on track to reach a goal. Sort of like comparing with my library friends the work and things we've learned on 23 things. Back to PeerTrainer, you can choose to belong to a group, which is limited to 4 members; or a team with unlimited membership. I chose to join a vegetarian group. Seeing as I've just joined it today, it's hard to say whether it will work for me but I have high hopes. As to how it affects library work, if I find it works I could suggest it to someone looking for group support for weight or exercise. This really is more for me though.

Thing 18 continued

I posted the previous blog directly from Zoho Writer. I thought it would stop where I could add to it but it went straight to a blog. It was very easy to use. I'm going to have to play around with it some more. As I said in Zoho Writer, I'd like to see a online database that could be used. I already use Google Calendars. Thats nice because we have one for each member of the family and superimpose all into one calendar, that way we can keep track of each other and what's coming up.

Thing 18

This is my practice document in Zoho Writer. The word processing is easy to use with symbols similar to Microsoft Write or Word Perfect. You can select different texts, fonts, formating styles. All in all, it seems like it would be very helpful/useful and a heck of a lot cheaper than Microsoft office or Word perfect. Now, I'd like to see an online database!

Thing 17 Wiki sandbox

I had a lot of fun with this one. I first added a couple of authors to one of the librarian's wikipage. Then I added my favorite spot to the favorite vacation page. It was very easy to use. I also found a hidden page, one that wasn't linked to the home page and linked it. It was about one of my favorite things, knitting. Thinking of knitting and vacations, one of my favorite times is sitting by water (lake, river, ocean, pool, you name it) listening to a recorded book and knitting. Just my idea of heaven!

Thing #16 wikis

I really enjoyed learning about wikis. I've thought of all sorts of uses for them. I especially liked the "Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day" and plan to do that one when I'm done with 23 Things. Can't learn too much, can we?

I thought the St. Joseph County wiki was very easy to use and very comprehensive. I did notice that they only allow librarians to edit. This makes sense for some of the sections, like new books at the library. I thought it would be helpful to them if their patrons could edit such things as what to do and see in the area, etc. Things not directly related to the library. I don't know if you can make only certain sections of pages available to be edited as most of the pages have books listed on the topics.

I thought Princeton's Book Lover page was great. It looks like anyone can sign up for that. It's nice to see what people are saying about the books and seeing the list of 5 star books.

All the ALA ones looked interesting. I even found the one for DC! They really had a lot of good information for out of town guests. If I ever go to one of those conferences (hint, hint....) I'd make sure to hunt up the wiki to plan before I go.

I noticed the Bull Run wiki mentions Marylands 23 things and also mentions Merlin. I'm still a little miffed at Merlin, I signed up for it June 18th as part of this and still haven't received the password to use it. Grumble, Grumble. I did like Bull Run's wiki. They have a lot of interesting links. It looks like you can sign in to edit, but I couldn't find where to set up an account so I think that's how they limit who can edit. I figure you have to work for or go to the library to created an account.

I think by far the most helpful thing in learning about wikis was listening to and following the slides of a talk given by Meredith Farkas. I found the link on her "Wikis: A beginner's look", at the bottom on the page there are links to part 1&2 of the podcast with the slides.

Now to go play in the sandbox as the next thing is called.

Thing 15 Library2.0

I read all the perspectives and have decided to write about "Away from Icebergs". The thing that caught my attention about this was his view that we should get rid of our "just in case" collection. I agree/disagree on this. There is a lot more current reliable information on the web that can be accessed, but schools haven't caught on yet. We get so many kids in that need "books" on certain subjects. They aren't supposed to get the information from the net. I think we need to educate teachers about reliable sources on the net. You can get information on so many more people on Biography Resources than we can hope to carry in the library. But the kids still need a book on that person. Information on geopolitical and other rapidly changing topics is much more up to date on the web than is possible in books.

Rick Anderson's next topic was having interfaces that were easy enough to use that we didn't have to teach patrons how to use them. This would be nice, but I don't think it will happen. There are always people out there that are so intimidated by technology and fear of blowing up the computer that they will need help with anything new. There are also people in a hurry that don't want to take the time to figure out new programs, just show them so they can get their information. For the people that like to figure things out for themselves and like to play around, easier computer interfaces would be a gift. Kind of like these 23 things, it would be nice to have someone sit down and show me how to use them, but most of my coworkers are learning it along with me.

As for his final topic, us bringing more services to our patrons, I think we're making progress. There are so many magazines, newspapers, databases, you name it out there. Many of these have a fee to use them. When your library subscribes to them in a way that you can access them from home then, I think, we're addressing that need.

In conclusion I think we're doing a pretty good job balancing the old and new. We have our books, newspapers, magazines, and we offer access to them and more online.

#14 Technorati

I'm not sure if anyone else ran into this problem, but the technorati on the web looked different from the Technorati in the video snipit. The main problem with this was in #2 for this assignment that the search wouldn't let you decide where to search. In the video it showed the search field divided in half, first half for your term and second half to choose between Blog posts, tags and Blog Directory. There was just one open search field so there was no way to compare between the different searches. I thought this might be a problem because I wasn't a member so I joined and still couldn't fine the search like the one in the video. Anybody else run into this? Anybody figure out how to get to the search where you could choose? Let me know.

As with all the other sites we've checked into for Learning 2.0, this one will take many hours (I've already spent 2 today) playing with the features to figure out how to best use it and to become comfortable with it. As with the others, it seems like this will be very helpful. It does get to be a little overwhelming, all these sites that will ultimately save you time, take a lot of time to learn.

Now to things I should be doing on the Fourth of July. Going down to Solomons Island to listen to the music and watch the fireworks!

Thing 13 Del.icio.us

Okay, created a del.icio.us account. I was tagging knitting websites just for practice. It's really easy to tag the websites, once you add the tag icon in the browser toolbar. It's also very easy to search, though I am having trouble with one thing. When I do a search on a tag I have, it only shows my sites with that tag. If I do a search on a tag I don't have it will bring up pages of sites. Then when I again do the search on a tag I have, it will bring mine up first then other peoples sites with the same tag. Like all the things I've tried for this training, I think del.icio.us will be very useful. It's just going to take some practice to set it up in a way I'll find useful. If you'd like to see my page, it's at http://del.icio.us/Libraryworkabn (can't use"-" in your name).

Adding pictures

I had fun when I was looking through Flickr. I found a golden retriever picture to post for that thing. Now I figured I'd share a picture of my dogs, all three goldens. The female (smallest in the front) we've had since she was a puppy. The two boys were rescue dogs from GRREAT (golden retriever rescue..). We fostered six dogs. We kept the first and last and found other homes for four.

Thing 12 Rollyo

This was interesting. It won't replace Google, but I can see it's use in reducing the number of hits you have to go through to get your information. You can also limit who you get information from. I created two searches. One, being the book lover I am, was for Reader's Advisory. I was very disappointed with this one. I listed my favorite readers advisory sites and looked some more up in Google. Instead of readers advisory when I entered an authors I got whether or not the book was in at some libraries and a few other things like that. I think having a list of links would work better for RA. The other search roll I created was for yarn. I put in my favorite yarn sites and found a few more on Google. When I searched for a particular type of yarn, I wasn't overwhelmed with many hits, just from the ones on my list. Here are the two links:
http://rollyo.com/librarywork-abn/yarn/
http://rollyo.com/librarywork-abn/reader_advisory/
I'm already plotting and planning what other kind of search rolls I can create.

Thing 11 LibraryThing

I actually looked at this back in March. I didn't do much with it then, but plan to do more with it now. It did take a lot of work to add the widget. I wasn't sure which "new Page Element" to use to add the widget. I tried several, and finally had success with "HTML/Java Script". Makes sense when you read this post. What threw me is there wasn't a space that asked for the URL. What you need to do is paste the URL where it asks for "content". Success!! Now I'll quick have to add some classics to my list so no one gets the idea that romance is all I read! ;-). I think I'll start with current books I'm reading and work back. I can't imagine how big the list would be if I added everything I've read!

Thing 10 my avatar

This was a lot of fun. I finally settled on an Avatar from Yahoo. So many of the generators wanted your name or other identifying information so I just skipped those. I already had a Yahoo account so it just seemed the most sensible to use. It was very easy to use, just plug in what you wanted. Those of you who know me should get a kick out of ski clothes on the beach. Maybe I'd stay warm like that??? I'll keep playing with these, as the exercise said " we want you to have even more fun than you're already having!" and I will.

Thing 9 Merlin and Library Blogs

This is a great resource. It's been awhile since I last posted on this blog because I've been so busy investigating/playing with Merlin, Feedster, and Technorati. I've spent hours with them and feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what you can do with them. I used Feedster, Technorati, and Bloglines own search to find things to add to my blogline feed. I found the Bloglines own search the easiest to use. The others weren't difficult but you still have to go through the copy and paste of URLs.

Thing 8 RSS Feeds

Wow, this is great. I don't know why I hadn't heard of these before. I know, I was too busy going to many, many websites to learn about RSS. Now I should have lots of time and still keep up my favorite news sources. Bloglines was very easy to set up. They asked for interests and subscribed you to several sources. It's easy to delete the sources you're not interested in and easy to add feeds from sources you want. I, of course, added my all time favorite CNN's US news. I also added several news sources from places I used to live. The blog update feeds were also easy to add. The thing I had the most trouble was trying to figure out how to share my blogline list. You have to sign up for their blog, then you have to mark that as public. My site is at http://www.bloglines.com/public/librarywork-abn . I'm looking forward to figuring out how much time this saves me and if I still feel as well informed as I do now.

Thing 7 Technology 2

I've been thinking about this since I posted the previous answer. I started thinking in terms of a device rather than a use. I think one of the most useful devices is the flash drive. These are especially useful in a work setting because you can take whatever you're working on anywhere. Even if you sub at another branch, you can have your 'work' with you. At your own branch you won't be limited to one computer, you can use any at your branch. They're more portable than a disk, mine is attached to my branch keychain (which is on a wrist stretchy elastic thing). They hold much more material than a disk. Another useful device is a handheld computer. You can work on these anywhere, you're not tied to a computer. Then you have a backup when you sync with your base computer. If you want to transfer a file to another computer, you can either download it to your flash drive or email it as an attachment. Yes, I'll admit to it, I'm a gadget nerd!

Thing 7 Technology

I had trouble at first thinking about what kind of technology interested me. Then it was pointed out that I'm an absolute news junkie. I love using the internet to read the news. Have to hit CNN first then read news from some of the places I've lived. I prefer my news online because I can choose whether to read or watch something. Almost any news you read lists local and national news. If I miss something on one site, chances are I'll pick it up on another site. Also, it's there when I want to look at it. I don't have to be in front of the TV at a certain time or for a certain amount of time. I can always squeeze in reading a news article online between whatever else I'm doing.

Thing 6 Flickr

Of the various 3rd party and mashups I looked at, I definately like the Yahoo Trip Planner best. Being able to post pictures with the map locations is a really neat idea. Having other's trips/pictures available to look at could help you to plan trips. It's also just fun to look at pictures of places you want to go to or places you've been.

Flickr2

Okay, I looked through Flickr a little more and found how to see what groups are available. Many, on any subject. And if you don't find one you like, you can start your own. I found an interesting one about knitting - my favorite hobby after reading. The Flickr group had a link to a Blogspot which linked to a Yahoo Group. Interesting how all these things can lead to each other. I may have to join Flickr, looks like there are lots of fun groups to join.

Flickr

Flickr is a photosharing web site with more pictures than you would ever know what to do with! You can find pictures by using tags - words that apply to pictures you're looking for. Tags can be general, for instance I searched for Golden Retrievers and got 39,165 photos for that tag. Tags can also be used to narrow a search. I added "funny" to my Golden Retriever search and it cut the number of photos down to 369.
Groups are formed around a subject. I'm not a member of Flickr, so I couldn't peruse the groups. I did notice you can be a member of many groups but can only (as a free member) upload a picture to 10 groups.
My favorite use of Flickr would be to look at photos of friends and family and maybe places I want to travel to without having to down load the pictures from email.

I haven't opened a Flickr account so I'm going with option a.
I chose an image of two golden retrievers, one laying on the other's head because it reminded me of the way my goldens play. I tried to load it several times but it wouldn't. I found another I liked and had no trouble uploading it.

7 1/2 Habits

I enjoyed this program of life long learning. It was nice to hear that the variety of things I do are all considered "Life Long Learning". I plan to have my teenagers watch it! I'm not sure about the contract. It does help to put plans down in writing, it's really nice to be able to check them off as done. I may use the contract or adjust it so it more fits my style.

First posting - step 3

My first blog, oh my! Me with the most persistent writers block in the world. Now to move on to step 4!