Thing 16 Student Tools

These could come in very handy. One of my friends is in Nursing School, so I sent these to her to see what she thinks. Generally when we help students at the public library, they're more interested in the materials that they need to write their papers, rather than a time line or planning help, but I do like the explanations and further helps for each stage, and may use those. I could use them as handouts, or adapt them as handouts. I have a feeling college students may find these more useful.

Although I must say, most of the kids that come in need something, like, um, yesterday, so I don't think they would appreciate me mentioning an assignment calculator. Maybe I could stick a printout with the websites inside one of the books they get so they could keep it for future reference!

Thing 15 Gaming

Hmph. I read/looked at the Second Life and Pirates stuff, and one thing that struck me right away, is that to have the full experience of a "fake" life you have to pay "real" money. As one of my colleagues says, "you have to pay real money for fake stuff." I watched Visit to Info Island, and while it was probably fun to create, it did nothing for me. (And why do they always have to use such boring music? Have they ever heard of Modulation??) I see no reason that my library should have a presence, at quite a cost, on Second Life, when they can't seem to come up with enough to pay us a decent salary, or to support a decent collection. The Pirate Puzzle might be interesting, but I prefer puzzles just for their own sake. I can't see myself paying to advance beyond cabin mate, so probably wouldn't stick around there long. This topic kind of annoys me so I'll stop here.


We don't seem to have any demand for Second Life at my library - in fact, I've never even been asked about it. We do have a lot of kids playing Runescape, and lots of the games on Nick and Disney. While they may teach some hand eye co-ordination, the jury still is out on what benefit there really is. One can find all sorts of research to support either position. We have kids here all day playing Runescape, and our internet service really slows down when school is out. I have no problem with kids using the computers, but I do have a problem with the behavior that seems to accompany a lot of the online games. "yes, you do need to let someone else have a computer now" "No, you can't call me a B...." Who knows whether it's because of the game, or just the person?

Our library has had gaming afternoons, and those have been kind of fun. Kids I know have been impressed with how good I am at Guitar Hero - (after all, I'm a music major!) and DDR looks like it would be fun, too. I haven't seen that it brings in kids that don't already come, but that may not be the case everywhere.

I do enjoy online games such as Bookworm, TriPeaks, Bejeweled, and 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, although I'm stuck on the building that looks like an anchor. And I keep wanting to organize the little Egyptian guys into their own local. I think they work too hard. :-)

Thing 14 Things about Thing

I already have an account set up on LibraryThing, but I tend to use IRead on Facebook more, mainly because I use FB daily, and also because I like it. I also still like to jot down what I'd like to read in a notebook - I still like the feel of pen on paper. In fact, I just like pens and paper - I have more than I'll ever use.

I do find LT handy to use, but I'm going to have to upgrade to a paid membership soon if I keep this up. I like the tagging and headings functionality, and the ability to see reviews. I especially like the Librarians who LibraryThing messageboards - they're always fun to read.

LT would be a lot of fun to use for sharing booklists, displaying new books, and the like. Our customers here love the paper booklists I create, and it would be fun to have duplicates online as well. (It certainly would be easier to update them in a timely fashion!) I do some of the online booklists and blogs for my library and think it's a great way to highlight something I just read, or different categories within a genre. LT could be used this way as well. Then a smaller library might not have to cut a librarian position for coders. (That was something in the 2.0 readings that I thought was really silly. I mean REALLY silly. But, just wait until I post about Second Life...)

Thing 13 Productivity is me!

I set up my page in igoogle and yahoo. I didn't do anything with pageflakes since I wouldn't be likely to go back to it. With yahoo or google you can do more from the page, so it seems more useful to me. I preferred igoogle, and will probably use that more. I 'm having fun looking through the gadgets you can add, and have put a few in. Quite a few, actually....I found igoogle easier to use, and I liked the functionality of setting up the tabs. This is the one I'm most likely to use.

I looked quickly at Backpack and some of the other calendars in the article. Backpack had a lot of functionality that I probably wouldn't use - and, of course, a fee if one wanted the interesting stuff. :-) One of them looked like it was pay-only now. So, I looked at google and yahoo calendars. I use Outlook extensively at work - I'll put things I want to remember to do in, and it pops up to remind me. I also make lists of tasks to complete, etc. I probably won't use the online calendars much, since I mostly use that type of thing at work, and I can do it in Outlook. I also use the calendar in my cellphone to remind me of things - appointments, something I want to remember to do tomorrow, etc.

I looked at the Stickies, and since I can't download at work, didn't try them. I did run across another similar site, Diigo.com that looked interesting. I think one can do a lot of the same things in google notebook, so I may download that at home. It would be interesting to see how the stickies work on a webpage, especially since I tend to bookmark a lot of interesting things. I have been known to change the name in a bookmark to something more descriptive of what I want to do there....

Zamzar and PDF converter and nice to use - didn't try CutePDF since I can't download anything like that at work. We get a lot of people who need to open a document that isn't supported - WP, or different versions of Word, and Excel, mainly. Zamzar could really help with this.

I don't think I'd use most of these applications much - but they're handy to be aware of to recommend them to someone who asks. The list applications are nice in theory, but it's a lot quicker to stick a note in my pocket, or write it on my hand than to bother with going online.

Thing 12 I can Digg it

I've been reading on Digg and Reddit for quite awhile. I also like Fark just for the funny titles and interesting, offbeat things that turn up there. I looked at Mixx and might check that again, but I don't know that I'll use Newsvine much. I've never bothered to register for any of them, because I just like reading the submissions, but am not interested in voting up or down, etc. I've definitely read a lot of things that I might not have otherwise seen, which is both good and bad, I suppose. I tend to just copy and paste urls to send articles on via email, since most of the people I would send things to find this easier. I'd rather do that than sign up for yet another service to remember - especially since I can get what I want out of them without signing up.

It could be useful to save articles and/or websites for customers and students that are doing research - a library could set up one or more reference accounts, and students could then check the reference profile(s) to see what they've saved. Some of the services allow for blogging, and that would be useful as well.

Depending on the day, these services can be both productive and distracting. Some days there are many articles or postings I want to check out, some days none. They don't always have much to do with work, but since librarians are supposed to know what's going on, that's my excuse. :-) Let's call it cultural literacy, ok??

Thing 11 Tags!

I've been using del.icio.us for quite awhile - although it's taken me almost as long to type the address properly. De.lici.ous and various combinations don't work. It seems to me that my computer(s) should realize what I MEANT to type after all this time, instead of what I did type, but no such luck. This is why book marks are so great - if I can't type that one, just think what I'd do with something REALLY complicated! I'm not always at my own computer when I want to show someone something - so I appreciate being able to log into Del. etc. and get to my links.

I use de. to keep track of things that I'm interested in, or things I come across at work that I may want to look at at home. Librarians and teachers could use it for projects - for example, a teacher could use de., furl, etc to save links and research they want their students to see and/or use. Librarians could do this as well for subject and research guides. (pathfinders, anyone?) Some of the libraries we saw link by general topic, others by Dewey categories. Personally I prefer Dewey, but it works either way.

Thing 10 Wikis

I'm pretty familiar with Wikis - I'll occasionally use wikipedia as a starting point, and have seen quite a few wikis on a variety of topics - some better than others, of course. I did find some of the readings interesting, and enjoyed checking out some of the wikis mentioned. The idea of anyone being able to contribute is fun - everyone has their own expertise and it can be valuable to see more than one viewpoint about a topic. That being said, the age old question remains though - authority. This isn't such an issue for every wiki, but of course librarians are concerned about this, and rightly so. There is a lot of bad information out there, and I can understand a teacher's concern about using Wikipedia as a source. I use it as a starting point, but don't rely on its information without double checking.

It seems to me that a teacher has to be careful about limiting sources, but we are all well aware that information found out on the web sometimes must be taken with a grain of salt - if at all. That's where authority control can be important.

Wikis can be very useful for many different organizations - libraries, schools, families....One of my friends set up a wiki for family pictures, and we even taught her grandma to log in. A great way for her to be able to keep up with those grandkids! Those working on group projects might find a wiki very useful as well. Class assignments could even be done as a wiki since modifications are tracked. Each person/group could work on an aspect of a topic, and the information can be shared. The teacher could be the moderator, and update/correct as needed.

I just noodled around a little on the front page of the 23 Things wiki to see how it works. Didn't have much of interest to say! :-)

Thing 9 Sharing

I played around with the document in both Zoho and Google. It was easier to just "get right to work" on the google document, but to start editing it in Zoho I had to copy the url into the search window to bring up the document. I found them both easy to use - although I found I had to do a lot of scrolling with the zoho since the display was in such a big window.

I think for ease of use I would send customers to Google - especially those who aren't experienced using word. Perhaps Zoho is more "powerful" but the average user may not need that.

I think the Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves, but that's a whole other post!

While I'm waiting...

to get permission to play around in Google docs and Zoho - some advice, critiques, and assistance!

Thing 8 again

I played around with Lazy Base and Zoho. Zoho's database looked familiar to me, so it was fairly easy to use. When I was going to LazyBase, I thought to myself, "oh, no - not another login and password to remember!" I was very pleased to see that there wasn't one. That in itself makes it worth recommending. I found that one a little more cumbersome, but certainly easy enough.
For most of my recordkeeping, I find it just as easy to use Excel to keep track of things vs setting up a database and entering information there. I can just re-sort the spreadsheet to see what I want rather than having to query a DB. For example, I've done some of our CDs on a spreadsheet - mainly to have something to take along if I go to Cheapo's or somewhere like that. Having the spreadsheet (many pages, now) helps keep me from buying something I already have. When you have well over 2000 (at last count) CDs it's hard to remember what you have. Perhaps I should weed! Now - there's a novel idea. :-)
I certainly would use Zoho or lazybase for customers. I think since Zoho has more functionality, I would recommend that first, since there generally is more need for word processing, etc, than databases here.
I think Efolio could be very useful, especially for jobseekers or artists seeking work. It's easy to just refer someone to a website so they can see what you've posted for your portfolio, resume, etc. I think some of our customers might find it too challenging. but those with a little tech savvy will feel right at home. A library could even use it to show customers what they can do there.

Cats Picture Trail

Thing 8 Pic Trail

I used Picture Trail to create a "peel" and will post it above. It's too large to comfortably fit on the side of my blog - that might work better on one with only two columns. Again, I used the cats. I like the result, but getting it done was a pain in the neck. When you sign up, you have to go through at least three "Offers" (which of course is why this is free, but it's still annoying). I didn't find PT particularly user friendly at first - to look at or do something in the album you save, you would think to click on albums, but it's manage pictures. Little things like that. You make an album first, and it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to just move the album over to use for the effects. Once I saw it, though, it was pretty straightforward.

Thing 8 Girlz in the House

I did a quick slideshow using Zoho - of course, I used the cats. They don't need releases, for one thing! I found Zoho quite easy to use, especially for a quick presentation like this. I was able to figure out how to upload it fairly quickly, too, after I figured out that I couldn't seem to just plop it into the body of the post. I put it at the bottom, and made it a little smaller by changing the settings in the html. I was careful to keep them proportional so it wouldn't get skewed. Perhaps I'll use the same pictures and try them in Picture trail - I like the look of it on 23 Things, but am dreading the ads!

Toccata

Toccata June 1, 1989 - Feb. 10 2007

He made sure those rowdy little girls would be good cats before he left. He taught them the basics such as "Bedtime" and "Gotta go to work!" means "run downstairs as fast as you can." He also taught them that flopping over on your side meant you'd get rubbed with a foot. Fermata and Fantasia soon learned that sitting politely on a chair at the table was better than jumping ON the table. We used to say that he was so smart that if he got our PIN number, we'd be in trouble; but perhaps we should have let him handle our investments - we would probably have been able to retire by now. He carried on intelligent conversations with anyone who was here, and sang duets - with a name like Toccata, you know he had perfect pitch! We know he's sitting on Buddy Holly's lap teaching him the "right" way to do "That'll be the Day." Meeowww!

Fermata, Fantasia and Toccata

Thing 7 part 1

For this one, I didn't have to do much extra reading, since I've had email for over 10 years, and at present have - let's see - 4 various email accounts. I only use two for "everyday" and the Yahoo and Google basically came with the package of what else I'm doing with Yahoo and Google. I love email and use it all the time. We use it now to keep in touch with far-flung family and friends. I also use my work email to keep up on some of the listservs I belong to, and to communicate back and forth with colleagues both in my building and in other branches of my library system. My library uses email reference extensively and customers love it. We answer questions from all over the world. It saves customers time, but limits do need to be put on how many requests/questions etc can be submitted in a day.
I've been using IM for years too, and still use it almost daily. It's a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, again. We have the capability here at work, but sometimes it's easier to just shoot off an email, so I can remember what we were talking about - especially if it's planning something. Some of my library school classmates and I im regularly to keep up with each other (we also use facebook for that...) IM for reference is good for quick questions, but usually ends up being quite cumbersome for involved or lengthy questions. It also may depend on the customer's computer skills and capabilities. I haven't installed Meebo yet but probably will.
I use text messaging every day. In fact, I had to go with the 500 message option on my phone plan since I often ended up going over my initial "allotment." I use it for family and friends, but haven't used it for work.

Thing 6

Well - that's what I get for not reading ahead. I created a "trading card" in step 5. Oops.

I'm having fun fooling around with these - via Big Huge Labs, I made a magazine cover using my nephew, and discovered you have to use a fairly big picture or it won't work. I suppose the cats will want their own cover now, too - and my nieces, and....

I also made a bumper sticker - and it actually looks like it could be on my car, since that's the color of my car. (Can you guess what I drive?)

These generators could come in very handy for doing presentations, handouts and the like. I do a lot of various handouts for classes, tutorials, bookmarks, and various other printed materials, and I can see myself using some of these. I do a lot of powerpoint as well and might incorporate some of these in presentations. We could make some of the badges for volunteers just for fun. I really need to stop this and get on to the next thing!

5 More Flickr Fun

They weren't kidding when they said this could get addictive. Some of the mashups were fun, and I could see how they could be used in either the library or my personal life. Others were fun to play with, but I really couldn't see myself using them for much. I don't really think I'd use Clockr, and while Color Pickr was neat I don't see myself using it for much. However! I love some of the Big Huge Labs functions - I've made a few of the motivational signs and now I find myself looking for pictures I could make signs with. :-) I also made an "ID badge" and that was kind of fun. I like the Captioner from Shady Dentist too, but it looks like you need fairly large sized pictures (Or short captions) for it to work well. Plus, I couldn't figure out a good way to upload it here. Big Huge Labs captioner didn't work on my computer at all. I posted a motivational poster above.

The Motivational signs could be used to make humorous reminders about things like cell phone use, food in the library etc. They could also make funny posters for staff's enjoyment. Captioner could be used for training materials as well as for fun. Spell with Flickr would be useful for fun signage - teen or children's areas, for example. Most of the mashups could be used for something in the library! I also uploaded a trading card I made.

More on 4

In the previous posting, I used Picnik to crop the left side of the picure. For the picture of Dad and me in this posting, I lightened the contrast and exposure a little. I first used the general feature to lighten both contrast and exposure. I saved that - then used that version to try the advanced feature. I highlighted the picture to about 16, to make us a little more visible. Obviously there's only so much you can do, but both of us are a little brighter. And for those of you who know me, yes, Dad's hair was black. Couldn't really make that lighter! :-)