THING 23. FINAL THOUGHTS

I started my blog on Feb. 21, 2008. I missed the deadlines for both rounds 1 and 2. It's now Nov. 21. I thought this day would never come. I have such a feeling of accomplishment!

I had trouble with many of the Things. I found them frustrating, tedious and timeconsuming. People actually sit in front of a computer for hours doing this stuff? I needed help, lots of help. I talked to coworkers (and commiserated with them) about the 23 Things. It was useful to read others' blogs. Somewhere along the line, I became more comfortable trying the Things. I kept telling myself this was a golden opportunity to learn Web 2.0 tools on the job.

I am glad I stuck with it. I feel bolder about trying web tools I wouldn't have tried before or wouldn't even have known about. I edited the code on one of my Ning badges. I didn't know the code was there or you could edit it until one of my coworkers showed me. Now that I am done, I am more willing to try new web tools. I'll get that chance in January 2009 when More Things on a Stick debuts.

What would I change? I know I'm in the minority here, but there was too much Flickr. Thing #7 with email and instant messaging could have been earlier. They were easy to write about, and more people have experience with them. Facebook and Ning could have come sooner.

What are my favorite Things? I like YouTube. I was excited when I got it to post to my blog on the first try. I also like Delicious, Google Reader, and podcasts. Facebook is a regular part of my day now.

Thank you to the creators of the 23 Things on a Stick website. I appreciate all the time and effort that went into it. I am ready for More Things!

THING 22. WHAT DID I LEARN TODAY?

Here's something I learned recently. A friend of mine is using Skype to make free computer-to-computer calls to her sister in Australia and her dad in California. I had read about Skype before (through the 23 Things), but somehow the value of it didn't sink in until she explained how her family is using it. She bought a webcam for $30 to use on her computer with Skype.

I now have 9 friends on Facebook. This is in contrast to the 3,129,606 (as of this writing) supporters Obama has on his Facebook page.

I will continue talking to coworkers and friends about web 2.0 tools. I will probably attend webinars in the future.

I looked through the list of possible websites to add to my aggregator. So far I have added LibraryBytes and Library Stuff to my Google Reader.

How many accounts do I have as a result of the 23 Things? I made a list on Ta Da of all the accounts I have opened. The total is 16, but I think there are more. I am going back through my notes to see if there are others.

Ann Walker Smalley gave a presentation at our Inservice Day on Nov. 11 that included a preview of More Things on a Stick. That's coming in January of 2009. There will be new tools as well as more on some of the original 23. I can keep up with web 2.0 tools by working through More Things. Uh oh, more accounts...

THING 21. NING

I joined 23 Things on a Stick on Ning. I am member #405. I've left comments for other members. I read the Webjunction and Gather articles. On the Gather website I read posts in their Money, Health, and Food sections. What I found really interesting is that Gather has Gather Points. You somehow accumulate Gather Points and are rewarded with a gift card from Amazon.com, Starbucks, Target and others, or you can get cash. Gather also has Stefanie Plum. Not Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, but a real person who is on the Gather Partner Team and has her group Gather Giveaways.

I have looked at several other social networking sites, but haven't signed up. Facebook and Ning are enough for me right now.







Visit 23 Things on a Stick

THING 20. FACEBOOK

I can't believe I now have a Facebook account. I value my privacy. I don't want people finding me on the Internet. But it's there. I started with 2 friends. Now I have 8. I write on friends' walls and they write on mine. Facebook has altered my routine. After checking email, I check Facebook. I have to admit it's fun looking at my friends' Facebook pages. But I can see how frequently updating my site and checking others' can eat up the time.

This is the first Thing I've signed up for that has ads on my page. You can choose your friends but not the ads.

THING 19. PODCASTING

Before doing this Thing, I think I had listened to maybe 1 or 2 podcasts in my entire life. For this Thing, I started with local podcasts. I heard two from On the Road with MINITEX: one with Sue Colton from Hennepin County and one with Beth Kelly, former director of the Duluth Public Library. I also listened to some of MPR's podcasts.

I explored the podcast directories. I liked Podcast.com and the Educational Podcast Directory. Both had jillions of selections. On Podcast.com I heard a Bloomberg news segment from 10/13 with the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. From the Educational Podcast Directory I listened to a feature about eating an ounce of nuts a day. The link under Podcast.net is no longer active. Yahoo Podcasts offered few selections. I wasn't interested in any of them. You have to search to find anything beyond those.

I posted Policast with Mike Mulcahy from MPR to my Google Reader account. Then I found websites about how to post podcasts to Blogger. After a few tries, I was able to post Policast to my blog. Click on the Thing 19 title to listen.

THING 18. YOUTUBE

I first started looking at YouTube several months ago. I am amazed by the variety: political candidates, pitbulls on skateboards, lipstick on pitbulls, t'ai chi demos, ear candling demos, the Grand march of the librarians, the Betty Glover library workout tape, Nancy Pearl action figure videos, videos on how to embed a YouTube video in your blog. Now Tina Fey is on YouTube impersonating Sarah Palin.

The YouTube video I embedded is some lute music I have enjoyed hearing several times on MPR. A few weeks ago I was in a snit over something (the wasp nest? the water leaking from the laundry room ceiling? the plumbing bill for the leak under the kitchen sink that equaled the GNP of some third world countries? ) I left the house with my stress level approaching meltdown mode. When I got in the car to leave and turned the radio on, the Kapsberger playing. Immediately all the other stuff fell away. I later found the music on MRP's playlist, but couldn't get it to play. The CD is not on Barnes and Nobles' or Borders' websites. It's out of print. It wasn't on MNLink. Then I tried YouTube and found several videos.

THING 17. ELM TOOLS

First of all, I could not get any of the videos to play.

Create a Search Alert. I did a search in Ebsco Masterfile Premier, but when I tried to cut and paste to Google Reader, it didn't work. I didn't see anything that looked liked the code. At one point I got the ever popular "This page cannot be displayed" message. I tried again several times, with no luck. When I exited, I stumbled onto the Ebsco Q & A page. One of questions was how to create an Alert. I followed the steps. When I tried to cut and paste, I got the message "Oops an error has occured, try again in a few minutes." After trying countless times and wondering if there was something wrong with what I had done, I was finally able to post to Google Reader. I can see the search alert as a useful tool for anyone who wants to collect the most recent articles on a certain subject. It helps to have a lot of patience.

Ebsco page composer. I created an account in Academic Search Premier. I used "globalization" for a search term. I limited the search to full text articles from 2007-2008 and added the first 20 to the folder. For the background I chose the gray worlds that look embossed.

ProQuest web page. I created a web page on ProQuest with the research summary and then emailed it to myself. The whole process didn't take much time and worked easily.

NetLibrary. I did the search on "web site". This bring up 1,695 results. Am I supposed to scroll through all those? The book you are supposed to look for is in the catalog but not as an ebook. I used a different ebook, "Make your web site work for you" by Jeff Cannon. I created brief notes for two of the pages. This was simple to do.

I have used the ELM databases many times over the years and have shown patrons how to use them. I didn't know about the ELM productivity tools. Now thanks to the 23 Things, I can help patrons with the tools when the need arises.

THING 16. STUDENT 2.0 TOOLS

Where were these when I was in high school and college? On second thought, there is an overwhelming amount of information here. I'm impressed with how comprehensive the U of M Assignment Calculator is. Afer plugging in start and end dates, the Calculator displays 12 steps with dates for completing each stage of the process. I used the dates 9-23-2008--12-15-2008 and tried different subjects. Many, many links came up, including the U of M catalog, WorldCat and links to databases for the chosen subject area. There are links to creating your own database of citations with another link to generate citations in different styles. Strunk's Elements of Style is here and even a link to a discussion on procrastination. Step 12, the end date, is for putting the paper in final form. For the end date, I would choose a date a day or two before the paper is due.

I wonder how many students use the assignment calculator and how many just wing it.

Could I use this to help manage a project of my own? Maybe the rest of the 23 Things? I have 7 more to go. I'd have to tweak the dates. I don't know which Things will take more time. The assignment calculator is geared toward writing research papers. I think it might be less useful with other types of projects.

I looked through the teacher support materials for the Research Project Calculator. The tipsheet on improving a Google search could be helpful for others besides students.

I can see having both the U of M Assignment Calculator and the RPC as links on our online resources page.

THING 15. ONLINE GAMES

Aargh mateys! Today is September 19, Talk like a Pirate Day! For this Thing I played Puzzle Pirates. It took me four tries to get a name for my pirate that no one else had used. Who would have guessed there was already a pirate named Shirlee? I tried bilging and made 72 pieces of eight. Later when I posted a notice for a Pirate Party, I got a message saying I didn't have enough pieces of eight to throw a party. It didn't say how many you needed. I did pretty well with Learn to Carpent.

I see patrons playing games on the public internet terminals, but it is not something I would spend my free time on.

THING 14. LIBRARYTHING

More than halfway done! I signed up for LibraryThing and created an online catalog. My library now has a whopping 7 books. It was easy to add the books. I like the book cover icons. I chose a mix of books I've read and some I've requested.

I might use LibraryThing for request books. I don't see using it to catalog my personal collection of books. After 26 years of cataloging, I want to do something else with my free time.

THING 13. ONLINE PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS

I set up accounts with Ta-da and Remember the milk. I am a big list maker, and I wanted to see how useful it is to make lists online. I like Ta-da better because it's easier to use. Remember the milk is too complicated. It's more than I want to get into. I will probably keep making handwritten lists as well as using online ones.

I had fun playing with iGoogle and PageFlakes. I didn't make either my start page, but I might come back to this later.

I used Google Calendar to make a September sign-up sheet for cleaning the kitchen at SV. My group has two months out of the year. Google Calendar is a lot easier to use than Calendar Wizard. I've been using that for years, and it's a pain. As for the the other calendars, 30 boxes is misnamed. Their calendar only shows 4 weeks-- that's 28 days. You have to scroll down to see the rest of the month. Scrybe looks cool. I watched the YouTube video showing how it works. I didn't sign up for it, because I don't think I need anything that detailed right now.

THING 12. SOCIAL MEDIA SITES

Social media sites are tailor-made for news junkies who have a lot of time on their hands. For me, it's a time waster I don't need. Admittedly, there's an awful lot of interesting news out there. Some of it I wouldn't have seen if it weren't for the 23 things. I looked at Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and Mixx. I liked Newsvine the best. But the bottom line is I don't have the time or enthusiasm to check social media sites regularly. Do libraries use these? RCL doesn't.

THING 11. TAGGING AND DEL.ICIO.US

I like del.icio.us. I set it up while trying to figure out how to do Thing 8. Del.icio.us was easy to set up and useful. I use 3 computers at work (the one at my desk and two at reference), so I can see the advantage of being able to go to my del.icio.us account on any of them.

I looked at the del.icio.us sites for the libraries listed. The one at San Mateo Public Library was interesting because there's an index by general Dewey numbers. My library isn't using del.icio.us. We do have a section on our website called Online Resources. These are selected websites grouped by subject.

THING 10. WIKIS

I watched the Commoncraft wiki video twice and didn't get much out of it. There was no sound. I turned the volume knobs on the speakers (on B's PC) this way and that. Does the video have sound? After reading the glowing comments about how wonderful the video was, I realized it must have sound. Several days later I discovered I can get sound on my PC through headphones. I wonder how long it would have taken me to discover that if it hadn't been for the 23 Things. The video is much more helpful with the sound.

I liked the video on Blogs vs. wikis that popped up after the Commoncraft wiki video. Blogs vs. wikis had old clips of the Kennedy-Nixon debates with someone doing voice impersonations. Kennedy supports wikis and Nixon supports blogs.

I looked at some of the wikis listed. The one from the Albany County Public Library staff wiki was especially interesting. What caught my eye was their list of tasks for TS volunteers. Besides processing, they also clean and dust the server area in the boiler room and make collages for walls.

I use Wikipedia frequently, but sometimes I wonder how authoritative it is. And how do people have time to contribute?

RCL has a reference wiki. It includes many types of info: notes on meetings, a list of fall computer classes for the public, a link to RCL Reader's advisory blog, podcasts to download, a list of SRP programs and more. The main benefit I see is that it collects this in one place instead of having to keep track of it in email.

I looked at the comments in the 23 Things On a Stick wiki but didn't add or edit an entry.

THING 9. ONLINE COLLABORATION TOOLS

How appropriate. I started reading about this thing last week, just before July 4th. I looked at the Declaration of Independence in Google Docs and Zoho. The edits are hysterical. I decided to skip asking for permission to edit after reading the comments from others who had trouble getting in. Right now I don't have much need for a collaborative editing tool. Maybe the next time we update the TS manual...?

THING 8

These pictures are from the Arboretum and the Como Park Conservatory. I don't have a digital camera. I used a disposable camera and had a disc made. I chose 10 shots, but the "Floating pictures" use only 6. I had to save the pictures one by one. There must be a way to save several pictures at a time before uploading.

THING 7. INSTANT MESSAGING AND EMAIL

The blog is back. After a two month break because of a backlog in our department, I am blogging again. I would have started up again sooner, but I couldn't remember my logins.

I have used email since the library has had it. It is very useful for contacting a few or many people with the same message. They don't all have to be in the same building. The downside is all the spam we get now. Our email used to be spam-free.

I have been using Instant Messaging for about a year. I use it most often to phone another branch to pull a book. We don't have IM reference for patrons (yet).

I have watched/heard many Minitex webinars. On the plus side, it is convenient to have at my work site. You don't have to travel anywhere. The effectiveness depends on the relevance of the material to my needs, how cold the training room is ( sometimes a problem), and how easily the speaker can be heard (often a problem). I miss the face-to-face interaction with a presenter and other participants in the same room.

THING 6. ONLINE IMAGE GENERATORS

I made a trading card on Big Huge Labs using a picture from Flikr. That wasn't too hard. But when I tried to upload the trading card to my blog, it landed in B's Flikr account. How did that happen? Carol F. figured out how to get it on my blog.

THING 5. SPELL WITH FLIKR

I used Spell with Flikr to spell out "Spring has sprung". I can't get the letters to line up so that one word is on a line. The gs wraparound to the next line. Not only that but the phrase has sprung itself down so that it is below Thing #1. How did that happen? With Carol F's help it is now down the side and below Thing 6.

THING 4

©Jurmerga

I found a picture in Flickr to add to my blog. Flickr put me to sleep. After searching through screens and screens of pictures, I was glassy-eyed. I wanted to post several photos, but it is time-consuming to look through the pictures. So I settled for one. I was not able to download one of the pictures I wanted, probably because the owner doesn't allow downloads.

Editing the blog with Flickr is very frustrating as well as time-consuming. I can't get the text to go where I want it. Why isn't the the text in the same place on the preview screen as it is on the editing screen?

THING 3. RSS

I set up an RSS account with Google reader. I added news feeds and some blogs. This was fairly easy to do. What surprised me is that the feeds don't look like the websites. When I first set up the account last week, I didn't see any graphics. That was disappointing. Today when I looked at the feeds again, there are graphics. I haven't been looking at the feeds everyday.

THING 2. WEB 2.0 AND LIBRARY 2.0

I watched the video of Stephen Abram and read Blyberg's blog. So now I know the background of L2. I looked at Hennepin County's BookSpace. This morning I have time to work on the 23 things because Horizon is down. I am actually writing this on March 5. There must not be a way to change the date unless I delete this post and create a new post for Thing 2.

THING 1. CREATE A BLOG

OK, so I finally have a blog. It took longer than I expected because I didn't know the difference between a display name and a blog title. Tomorrow I'll look at the avatars.