Playing with Snapshot (from Thing 25

Well, this Thing is cool! I learned how to make previews show up when one mouses over the web address embedded in a site. See what happens when you mouse over the American Library Associations web address below:

http://www.ala.org/

Cool, huh?

Thing 31 - (And you've GOT to be kidding) - More Twitter

I learned about Twitter in the first 23 Things. I know that many people are on Twitter, and that they enjoy it. I understand that some people use it as a marketing tool, others use it as a way to keep in touch with friends, and still others use it as a platform to announce and promote their views. Just from watching television anyone would realize that since we first looked at Twitter, it has become an even bigger player in the social networking sphere.

I, however, do not like it. It is just one more electronic means of communication. And I am barely keeping up with emails and facebook. Promote it all you want with its mashups, youtubes, voice postings, whatever. It's still just another form of electronic communication.

Google Tools - Thing 29

Before starting this thing, I had already used Book search, Google Earth, Scholar, Toolbar, Calendar, Labs, Translate, & iGoogle. I use regularly Google Images, Maps, News, Blogger, Docs, Gmail, Reader, YouTube. So, for purposes of this exercise, I investigated Goog411, Knol, & Sketchup.

I heard about Goog411 from a coworker who uses it all the time. Beyond reading about it, though, I'd like to try it from my cell phone some day when I'm out and about and have need of a phone number. It looks simple and quite useful.

Knol looks like a poor man's Wikipedia. It wasn't too interesting and could be dangerous if someone relied on it for accurate information. I looked at a section about military veterans' disability benefits. When I checked out the author, his single biographical note said that he is a veteran. The note I read as I began my investigation of Knol said that the author controls the level of collaboration he or she wants with the larger community. So, whether or not they are an expert in the field, if they believe themselves to be expert and don't want others adding to their Knol, the potential for misinformation here is enormous.

I read about Google Sketchup in a do-it-yourself magazine. The magazine recommended it. And in looking at it I can see why. It looks simple to use (I watched a couple of the instructional videos) and when I have a computer I can download it onto, I'm going to give it more of a try.

I think librarians, especially, need to check in on Google labs regularly. They are constantly developing new and interesting things. Some are duds; but some fill a definite need. As part of our computer classes we suggest to students that they check Google labs every now and then to see what's new.

Thing 26 - More Ning

I joined Ning in the first round of the 23 Things. At that time I joined, or tried to join, a couple of groups. One group never got off the ground; and I lost interest in Ning after the 23 Things were finished, so I never checked in on any conversations with other groups.

For this round, I added the Ning logo to my blog. I tried updating my profile, but not that many changes have taken place that my profile really needed updating. I commented on someone else's comment about the 23 Things. But not much of interest.

Ning could prove to be useful when distant people need to communicate about an issue. But truthfully, I find telephone and face to face conferences save time.

Ning might be useful to discuss philosophical questions.

Thing 27 - MORE Twitter (OMG!)

I do not like Twitter. Several staff members tried it out several years ago before we got IM and found it not to be useful. It doesn't look like it's changed all that much - a few added tools but essentially the same thing. Twitter seems to be for people who want to connect with others and don't mind the added fees on their cell phone bills. I think that since I am unwilling to pay the extra fees, I am not seeing the many possibilities of Twitter.

While I (once again!) signed up for a Twitter account, I have no intention of checking it although should anyone be curious, my account is lmcderm2000@yahoo.com.

I'm not sure that microblogging is a good thing. It's happening, sure. But people's attention spans are too short already and they don't need additional encouragement to shorten them further.

The plus side of Twitter for the library would be having an additional web presence. Another use could be sending out a Tweet to announce a program starting within an hour, for example, a kind of online billboard.

Thing 24

I changed the colors of my blog. I looked at the widgets. Actually, if I want to add any elements to my blog I have to use a widget. I added to/subtracted from my blog profile. I like my avatar, and although I looked through some of the recommended avatar sites, did not want to change her.

I do not enjoy blogging so I don't post except for the 23 Things. I also don't like to read other people's blogs and I therefore don't comment on them.

Thing 23 - Conclusion

I finally finished the first 23 Things years after I first began. The roadblocks have been sometimes too high to hurdle. Flash Players that aren't updated, and locked down computers are the major hurdles. Time is always short.

When I attend conferences with academic librarians and hear about how open their computers are and how open their institutions are to experimentation, I become quite frustrated.

By this time, too, at least 50% of the 23 Things are no longer novel to me. I've heard of and been using them in my day-to-day job for quite awhile. I've tried out and discarded some before beginning official work on the 23 Things.

By now, at least 2-3 years after I first heard of and began trying out the 23 Things, quite a few of them are no longer cutting edge. The library needs to be more open to experimentation if it truly wants its librarians to remain on top of technology.

I am also disappointed at times in Melsa. A library organization that recommends using unreliable websites (wikipedia) is of questionable value. I've looked at some of the next 23 Things and question the value there, too. Melsa is recommending that we use websites for learning opportunities that we are continually pointing our patrons away from. If the point is to be familiar with what our patrons are using, I think we already know that. Our jobs as librarians is to try to steer our patrons to reliable sources.

Thing 22 - Keeping Current

Keeping current just takes time. I had been subscribing, by rss feed, to Shifted Librarian but found I didn't like it. I now subscribe via rss feed to Ars Technica which I find much more educational. I also read PC Today magazine, which is less useful, but still informative. I also read the technology related pages of Library Journal.

There is always going to be some hot new thing to try. Print, online, classes, conferences, and seminars, and colleagues are all valid ways of keeping current.

Thing 17 - Elm Databases

My thought here is:

My God! If I'm not familiar with and using our online databases, especially Ebsco & Proquest, how in the world am I helping patrons!? And not only that, what in the world am I doing in the library profession if I'm not familiar with the equivalent of the Reader's Guide!? This Thing is just one of several pieces of what I consider very basic library service.

Fooled around with creating a web page on Ebsco. Fun - might be useful if I ever look at it again - but pretty much a waste of time.

Other Social Networks - Thing 21

I have investigated a lot of this Thing over the course of several years just as part of my job. I joined Ning a looong time ago, contributed to one or two posts, and quit because it is just not something that appeals to me.

I joined Webjunction back in the day and, again, rarely use it.

Today, I looked at Gather. Now I know it's there but it's not something that I will ever look at again.

However, I did find a gardening social networking site, myfolia.com, which I joined and to which I have linked from my blog (see the list of links to the right). Since gardening is one of my interests we'll see if, over the coming year, I continue to use this site.

Of all of these sites, thus far Facebook still has the most appeal, mostly because it truly is a way of keeping up with friends and family. It offers a wide variety of other entertainments, as well.

I'm beginning to think that, because of limited time, I'll have to quit my job to keep up with all the social networking.

Thing 8 - Share your photos

You can see my slideshow below.

Quite a lot of dead links with this Thing.

Probably most notable: in order to do a slideshow on one of the remaining sites, SlideShare, I had to first put the pictures on Powerpoint. Since I don't like and don't use and, therefore, don't know Powerpoint, this was an added dimension to this Thing.

Overall, posting slides was interesting and could be useful for the right circumstance. And SlideShare made adding the slides to my blog very easy.

23 Things

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

23 Things

View more presentations from lmcderm2000.

More Flickr Fun - Thing 5

This Thing was not as easy as it probably would have been had I not been behind in completing my Things. Some of the websites listed as information sources have moved or disappeared (Webmonkey). Even so, I finally completed this Thing and it was somewhat fun. Wish I was more into crafts since I could make my own scrapbooking supplies with the Spell with Flickr letters. You can see my "Hi There" below.

I am a little concerned when a library organization that should know better refers me to Wikipedia to learn about mashups, especially when Wikipedia itself says that the information contained in this particular article may not meet standards and contains insufficient inline citations. There was no other reliable online source for information about mashups?

Thing 16 from the Original 23

I read through this Thing; but as a public librarian I don't think I'll ever use it. It's much more valuable for academic librarians and media specialists.

Thing 16 - Gaming in Libraries

I've been aware of gaming in libraries since attending a seminar several years ago. As gaming has become more popular I find myself explaining to adults that it is beneficial to children to play games on the internet even though the adult may want to do "serious" research.

I did not play Puzzle Pirates but in the past, I have logged into Second Life and looked at it. I also play video games myself. I've played a simple car chase kind of game, which was fun; and I have played a game, which I don't remember the name of, where I was an amusement park owner and trying to make a going concern of my amusement park. I was never successful and never made it past level 1. I've played Wii and Nintendo DS Brain Age, both of which are useful for engaging older adults.

My personal opinion is that RCL should have more gaming opportunities available for all ages. Since my interest is quite often with older adults, I think we should make both Wii and Nintendo DS with Brain Age and Brain Age II, at the very least, available.

Thing 13 - Online Productivity

Again, turns out I've been using aspects of this Thing all along. I use iGoogle and Yahoo! mail all the time. Yahoo! mail includes a calendar and a note making portion. I use the calendar daily both for work and for my personal life. All appointments, meetings, birthdays, anniversaries are on my Yahoo! calendar and Yahoo! reminds me as often as I choose of my obligations.

I have used iGoogle for 6 or more months and find it useful only for news. Even at that, I prefer my rss feed for news. I don't like most aspects of Google's calendar but it does have a nice feature where you can add widgets for things you're interested in (I tried out notifications for movies).

I looked at other online productivity tools - tinyurl, backpack, Google docs & spreadsheets - but none appeal. I really dislike trying to recreate a search from tinyurl. Recreated searches is sometimes necessary. Others must find it difficult too, because I've noticed fewer and fewer websites that have been "tinied." Backpack looked really nice but it's too expensive. I've tried using Google docs & spreadsheets. Give me Microsoft Office products any day! Google spreadsheets is horrible! And Google docs didn't do what I needed it to do (see Thing 9).

Thing 6 - Online Image Generator

Tried it out (see me as a trading card - below). Can't think how I might use it.

Collaboration - Thing 9

Turns out, I'd already done this Thing but hadn't yet compared Zoho with Google. I don't really like either of these collaboration tools, although Zoho is slightly better than Google. About 6 months or more ago I tried using Google docs as a way around saving my documents on the library's server. I tried this at a time when we were having server problems and I was trying to get some work done. I found using Google docs so frustrating that I gave up and waited for the library's server to be repaired. With a very few exceptions, emailing attachments HAS to be preferrable to this!

Del.icio.us - Thing 11

I started out totally enthused about Del.icio.us. It sounded like a neat way not only to keep track of topics that interest me but also to find others who share those interests. I tagged a few website about community gardening then went looking for others who had also tagged those sites. This was a totally useless endeavor. Some people had over 4,000 tagged sites! Others tagged one gardening site and the rest of their tagged sites were totally off the topic of gardening! The only value I could possibly see in Del.icio.us was as a way to transfer bookmarks from home to work and vice versa. And I don't use bookmarks as a general rule, preferring instead to do a quick Google search to find sites I've already visited and need again.

Thing 27 - Twitter

Over a year ago a colleague, Donna, and I tried Twitter as a possible communication tool for the RCL reference staff. We ended up being among the group who dislikes Twitter. We found the 140 character limit annoying (no long reference question discussions). We found other aspects of it annoying or at least not valuable for reference staff. It looks like Twitter may have added some new things but the overall format remains the same.

After looking at some more articles on, especially, mashups Twitter seems like even more of an electronic time waster.

Next 23 Things - Thing 28

Turns out I've been using Thing 28 for quite some time. I've had an iGoogle account for about a year, although I rarely use it. For me, it's easier to check the parts of the web I use all the time by using either my rss feed (for news and blogs) or by simply typing in the address of the web site I wish to visit. It's too easy to waste time with iGoogle. Actually, it's easy enough to waste time with an rss feed.