FINIS!

I am very pleased to announce that I have finished all 23 things. I didn't skip or skimp; I gave time and effort to each of the 23. My favorite discoveries/ exercises include LibraryThing, RSS feeds, podcasts/vodcasts, wikis, and online productivity tools.
This program fit in perfectly with my lifelong learning philosophy: we learn by doing. I learned much that I will use again, and certainly much that I forgot immediately. (Did I learn it, then?) I learned enough to feel comfortable discussing things such as wikis and rss feeds and social networking with my colleagues. And not only can I discuss them; I can USE them! I also used blogger to create a vacation blog for our summer vacation. We took photos daily, and I blogged, with photos, each evening, so my family and a few friends could experience the trip with us. Would I have done this before MD 23 things? Not on your life! Now I'm getting ready to do LATI, and guess what? We have to create a blog! I'll be so prepared for that!
An unexpected and pleasant outcome was finding kindred spirits as I read blogs of colleagues and co-workers. Who would have thought so many librarians at one branch are backyard birdwatchers/bird feeders? Or squirrel lovers? Or that we read the same books for fun? Or that we harbor curmudgeonly feelings about certain subjects.
If another discovery program were offered in the future, I would probably choose to participate. I would hope that the description of how much time we would be commiting would be a bit more forthright, though. We went into 23 Things thinking that we could spend an hour a week, or an hour per thing number, but in fact, we spent much more time than that. For people who spend their lives doing technology-oriented things, of course they could finish more quickly than those of us who use what is necessary when it is necessary. I still don't think that would average out to an hour a week. Our branch was very good in seeing that everyone had the needed time to work at the branch, but many of us still ended up taking some exercises home.
In a few words: sometimes frustrating, often challenging, frequently rewarding. When in the room with someone who managed to complete an activity, sounds of YaY! and WooHoo! could be heard, and everyone in the room joined in celebrating with that person. Sharing this activity with the staff helped make this a fun program.
WooHoo!

#22: Audiobooks

It is quite an interesting world, this world of ebooks. I'm all for audiobooks; there's nothing decent on the radio anymore, and for long car rides, audiobooks are great. Hey - I "read" all the Harry Potter books in the car. (Jim Dale does the voices way better than I could in my imagination, anyway.) I haven't downloaded any, though; I borrow them from my public library.
However, books on my computer screen are another matter. I think it's fascinating that Project Gutenberg makes some really obscure literature available to anyone with a computer and internet. And I really like the idea that volunteers are doing the proofreading; in my next life, when I have extra time, I may even do some proofreading for them. I don't like the idea of reading a whole book online, though. In fact, whenever I have to read anything longer than a page, I print it out and read it from paper. I like the feel of the book in my hand; reading is, in part, a sensory experience for me.
The Overdrive and Netlibrary sites are easy to use; the netlibrary site could be used by little old men and women with next to no computer experience. I like that you can download music and videos as well on overdrive. I could see these sites being useful for someone who is housebound or incapacitated in some way. They will also be high on my recommended sites next summer when hundreds of middle-schoolers come into our small branch to borrow our few copies of the recommended readings for their summer reading lists. I know kids can do fine in front of a computer screen because they were practically born there.
I did not download any titles. The library computers will not allow us to download. I have a Mac at home, but Overdrive cannot be used on a Mac. The tutorials are clear enough that I feel I know what to do.
Again, although it's not for me, I can see many uses for downloadable audiobooks.

podcasts: Vegetarian Food for Thought

I viewed many podcast titles and listened to a few podcasts. Merlin even introduced us to a vodcast. I taught school for 30 years, and vodcasts and podcasts would have been very useful tools to have had in my teacher's toolbox. What great technology for new teachers! The examples of how podcasts are used in various libraries are inspirational; with very little effort, we, too, could have stories and poems and library news, and we could even invite our customers to give book reviews. What a cool readers' advisory tool! I do like the idea of podcasts.
The podcast I chose to put on my blog is Vegetarian Food for Thought. 'nuff said.

YouTube experience

What do I like or dislike about Youtube? I dislike that there is so much stuff out there! It scares me that people spend so much time posting and viewing this stuff. Personally, I only view a video when it has been recommended to me (shopping penguin), or when I have to find one for a particular work-related reason, such as this one. I don't like spending time looking and listening. I also don't like to watch a lot of television, or listen to the radio (except for baseball and news.) Maybe these things are related. I prefer to be up and about doing something "productive" or at least physical.
I chose the video of the crow because I find crows to be brilliant birds, and this is one further example of how they adapt to their surroundings.
How can Youtube be used on library websites is a mystery to me. Frankly, I would have to spend more time than I am able to give right now to explore the kinds of videos we might be able to use. Instructional videos, maybe. Are there reader's advisory videos? I'm at a bit of a loss here. When I see kids (usually teens) in the library looking at Youtube, I am alternately amused and repulsed at what they view. We had some kids watching very violent "beat down" videos, and this leads to another whole kettle of fish.

Bird That Uses Cars as a Nut Cracker

THIS JUST IN...the youtube video vanished from my blog after about a month. (I noticed on Sept. 26) I wonder if there's a time limit, or a copyright issue, or something! I'll search for and link to another video, but I'm disappointed that my bird using the cars to crack walnuts has disappeared.

#19: Web 2.0 awards

This was a fun exercise. I spent (and enjoyed spending) time looking at waaaaay too many sites , but in the end, I decided upon Listdump as a favorite and potentially useful site. Touted as "a list junkie's dream," visitors are encouraged to contribute to existing lists, vote on other users' lists, and add their own lists. I can envision creating a library users list in which users do readers' advisory: a simple little "Favorite books." Or one in which they form a branch "wish list." (But I'd want to find a way to keep the younger viewers away from the porn-type lists!)
Incidentally, in looking at some of these lists, I wonder if I am looking at someone's rollyo.
For example, one user has a Best Food Websites list. If I am actually learning anything here, I think I recognize such a list as a rollyo. Yes or no?

Week 8: googledoc. success

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=d2d5tc4_0gv8zc9&hl=en_US


I am very excited that this link worked! However, I noticed later that the reader has to be logged into google to view it. Since we all have to go through google to do this blog, I guess that is o.k. I don't want to be redundant, so I won't repeat what I said in the googledoc. However, I would like to add that I think this is one of the most useful exercises that we had to complete in this project. I will definitely use this again.

Playing in the sandbox

O.k.; I visited the sandbox, created yet another account, and added my blog to the favorites page to prove I was there. I read a number of people's favorite things and commented on one.
Not much more to say than that!

(I added a comment to My favorite authors: marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/My-Favorite-Authors.)

wiki thoughts

The idea of a wiki is very appealing to me. I find the interactivity to have great potential. I could see using the wiki in the library for reviews, cross references, success stories, and stories of frustration from customers. The Book Lovers wiki seems to be a lovely idea for a library, as does the gaming wiki for teens. The event wiki could be really useful at conference times.
Now for the questions: Who would be the wiki moderator? Would the wiki (or wikis) be branch based or centrally based? (or both?!) How often would the moderator check in on the wiki?

Away from the "icebergs"

All of the perspectives in the Web 2.0 OCLC Next Space Newsletter are interesting and exciting, but for us, not yet terribly realistic. In the "away from the icebergs" essay, the "just in case" paragraph caught my attention. One line reads, "As a Web 2.0 reality continues to emerge and develop, our patrons will expect access to everything - digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc." As I look at our customers at the computers, they are currently stymied by their inability to get onto Myspace or YouTube due to our bandwidth issues. The technology is moving too fast for us. By the time we are up and competitive, the technology will be changing yet again, and we may not be prepared. Does this mean we shouldn't try to offer the customer everything? No, but we need to take it one step at a time. The patrons who are truly using these new technologies have the means at home or at their jobs to do so; our users are usually those without computers at home, or those whose printers have run out of ink. They don't come in asking if they can listen to someone's latest podcast, or ask if we can help them set up blogs. They come in to check email, check myspace messages, play video games, or print driving directions. They're miles away from doing EVERYTHING at the computer. I think our books are safe for a while yet.

#14: Technorati terror

Technorati has shown me that there's a scary amount of information out there for people to read, digest, reply to, discard, lie about, go on and on about, etc. A FRIGHTENING amount. And what's even more amazing to me is that people do all these things, about anything and everything! Boing boing. Gizmodo. I feel like I'm in an alternate universe. Do I have to get through all this stuff just to get where I could have gotten with a smaller tool? I still need to be convinced about the usefulness of this one. I think we're really in geekworld now. (As if we weren't already there!)
I am not going to tag my posts with Technorati tags so they can join tag searches. It's a privacy thing...again. This post is already available to too many people.

delicious (I'm annoyed by the name and the periods)

I tried to view the tutorial four different times today, and each time, this is the message I received:
ERROR: www.library2.0.ottergroup.com is temporarily unavailable or does not exist. Please check the address and try again.
So I went on to look at some of the other things that were recommended. I did visit some bookmarks at PLCMCL2; interesting stuff, but WAY too much to take in at one sitting. Whoever said we could do these tasks in 30-60 minutes a week was dreaming!
The bookmarks in one place is a very useful idea. I have to think on where I might find this most useful in my job; readers' advisory comes to mind.

Addendum:
After spending some time with the library sites that have delicious bookmarks, I feel comfortable in saying that I understand the use of and importance of these bookmarks. I certainly learned how to recognize them, and I won't be left out in the cold when I visit sites with these bookmarks. Although there may never be an occasion in my life to create any of these bookmarks, since I really do value my privacy, I can see how I can benefit from knowing
what they are and how they work.

roll your own woes

I can't make this work. I created a list of cruelty-free personal care products sites, but I can't get it from the rollyo site to this blog. I'll revisit this later. I've spent enough time with it for now.

My current readings library

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/catbird1



This is a pretty cool way to keep track of recent readings. I don't anticipate putting my actual personal library in a list anywhere, but it's good for adding stuff as I read. I can see using this for a readers' advisory tool.

generating lemonade

Make your own at ProfilePitstop.com

MERLIN and other blogs/feeds

There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to explore all this stuff. I checked in with Merlin, signed on, and got yet another acct. to keep track of. Pressed some keys to go here and there. Moved on to other search tools. Technorati Blog Search is especially impressive. I looked at some Harry Potter feeds. However, I just don't envision spending much time using any of this stuff. Perhaps the future will show me otherwise. At least I'll be prepared.

me, animated

o.k; so maybe some of this is fun. Check out the widgets and my avatar. These were definitely fun.

Bloglines

This exercise took about an hour to complete. Finding and subscribing to the RSS feeds is easy; getting the information onto my blog via layout changes was not so easy. I tried to make a link in my layout that you could click and get right to the blog roll, but I just can't figure it out. Here is the link: http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=catbird
However, I can't figure out how to make it a hot link.
I like being able to put baseball scores and Pearls Before Swine daily cartoons within really easy reach. I can see putting a bunch of this stuff on My Yahoo, since I am a regular Yahoo user.
Libraries can take advantage of this technology by requiring librarians to subscribe to particular feeds for technology updates. We can also get updated bestseller lists, blogs from other library systems, or blogs from within our own community.
I don't like having a public account for my bloglines; putting personal info. out there for all to read seems to me to be an invitation to nutballs everywhere to respond. People follow links, and they can eventually get back to us. This makes me uncomfortable. I plan to take down this entire blog at the end of the project.

I've been tagged! EEK!

The Sports and Technology Fan tagged me. These are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged, and asking them to read your blog.
I can think of 8 facts/habits with no problem, but who wants to read about me?!
*1. I start every day by filling my bird feeders and cleaning and refilling my birdbaths. This takes about 30 minutes.
*2. I buy 125 pounds of bird seed every two weeks, a bit more in the winter. I also feed the squirrels. They eat about a pound of peanuts a day, and some of the sunflower seeds I put out for the birds.
*3. I am an O's fan through and through; I even had my tix to the '97 playoff games that never happened!
*4. I taught literature and writing to approximately 7500 urban youths.
*5. I am married to my high school sweetheart, and have been since 1974.
*6. Both of my sons are musicians, both interested in very different types of music; I love
listening to their music.
*7. My parents live downy ocean.
*8. My diet excludes anything that has (had) a face. We have a deal; I don't eat animals, and they don't eat me.

Now it's your turn: I tag 23 Things (Library Lady), Bibliotecaria, Psychobabe, Library LunaSea, Learning 23 Things Program, Cat's Meow, Diary of a Librarian, Cleaniac.

Technology

Well, I've reached the end of Photos and Images week. Flickr etc. were interesting sites, but I doubt that I'll have much occasion to go to the mashups or third party sites after these exercises.
The assignment is to create a blog post about anything technology related that interests me. I began to write that I don't have much to do with technology, but I guess that's a stupid thing to say. I find a cell phone useful sometimes, although I prefer my land line. I find Google very useful and interesting; it would be hard to do my job without it. The Mapquest technology is very useful. The technology that allows us to watch space shuttle missions is amazing. I guess that I appreciate the technology that has seeped (or charged) into my life, but I don't go out of my way to explore new technology. That's why MD 23 things is probably a good thing for me. At least I can learn more of what's out there.

Trading card

Today I decided to try the trading card.
It seems to have worked. I'm not terrible creative with cute sayings or quotes or such; I just give you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I had to do this at home rather than at work; there doesn't seem to be time to do this all at work. I'm also much more comfortable with my iMac than I am with any pc.

mdlearning2 part 2

This goes with the two SRC photos in the previous post. I couldn't figure out how to get the text on the post with the photos. I chose option 2, which is described as an easy challenge. Phooey! Taking the photos was easy; using the software on the library computers to download and label, etc. was not. I ended up taking the camera with photos home so I could use my I-photo program on my Mac computer to download and edit the photos, saved the photos to a memory stick, and brought the stick back to the lib. so I could continue with this "easy" challenge. Doesn't sound like much, but it took all my off-the-desk time on Wed., and Thursday morning I was finally able to get the photos on the blog. I can't figure out how to tag them, though. I tagged them when I tried to upload them from flickr, but the photos wouldn't show; only that red box with an X that shows an image is missing. I ended up using the blogger upload feature, but there was no way I could find to add the tag, so it's in my subject line.
I chose this challenge rather than the one that has us going through photos, just because it seemed more like something I would use in the future. I don't really enjoy going through hundreds of photos to find something cute or distinctive or funny. As I said in an earlier post, this is work for me, not play.
In the end, I certainly learned what I needed to do to complete the challenge. I feel good about that.

mdlearning2

7.5 habits

The easiest habit is to accept responsibility for my own learning. If not I, then who?
The hardest for me will be to play; it's still too much like work: reading stuff and
clicking all the hotlinks and reading that stuff and looking at dozens of blogs and
pictures. Where is the fun in that? For me, fun is in no way connected to a computer screen.

adding a picture...

shouldn't have been this hard, but it was definitely worth it.
I found and uploaded this beautiful catbird that's on my blog page.
So I've figured out another thing; two things in two days.
Bill Murray and I take baby steps.

blog the first

So far, so good.