Sunday, August 16, 2009

Thank You

Thank you for offering this course for all of us to learn about the new and ever changing technology that is a part of Web 2.0. I have learned a lot and some of it I will continue to use and some I won't, but I have now been exposed to all 23 Things.

Thing 19 - Google Docs

Google Docs are great for sharing with others or to have them be updated by others such as for a monthly report. The Google.docsblogspot has great and creative ideas for using the various aspects for the Google.docs site. The woman who was a Philly Eagles fan could chart how many days till the next Philly game, of course, that wouldn't fly in North Texas.

I found that the programs are very similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. The spreadsheet format had a button that said something to the effect of "something new" or "what's new" or something similar that the regular Microsoft products don't have.

This will be a fun application to continue playing with in the future.

Thing 23 - Reflection

What was your favorite or least favorite Thing?

I have really enjoyed learning about Blogs, Image Generators, Tagging Delicious, Dig, Library Thing, LibWorm and those things will be useful to me either technology wise or professionally. Some of the information can be shared with others.

What was challenging for you?

Most of the course was challenging and took me out of my comfort zone.

What did you learn?

Some of the things in this course I had heard of, some I had used, some were foreign to me. I learned about many different things and have a better understanding of what some of these "words" now mean. I also know how to use them now.

What new technologies will you use in your library?

Blogs, Flickr, Image Generators, Delicious. My school district has a Wiki and they use Google Docs. You Tube has some clever things on it, some of which is appropriate for students and some absolutely isn't. Some of the things on You Tube are wonderful time wasters.


Write a paragraph or more, reflecting upon your experiences.

I have enjoyed learning about the different aspects of Web 2.0 and what each thing can do. Some of this stuff like Instant Messaging and Twitter, I can see taking up an enormous amount of someone's time and personally it seems like a waste of my time. That is probably because of my age and maybe if I was 30 years younger I'm sure I would have a different opinion of some of this stuff. Ning was so detailed that I did not find it worth the trouble to go back and continue to explore it again. Digg was fun as you can find various news stories and stories that don't necessarily appear on msnbc.new or cnn.com or any other major news story. You Tube is a fun way to kill a lot of time. Tagging is simply a method of organizing your "sites" or "book marked" items by "subjects". Facebook I'm leary of and did not choose to do that portion of the course.

I learned a lot, but I also discovered some things that I would not have otherwise. Some things I'll use and some I won't. I'm glad to have had this experience and if a course like this is offered again in the future I probably would "enroll" in it again. Part of my problem is I have just finished my MLS and I was tired of studying - anything.

Thing 22 - Developing your own 23 Things

I have been exposed to some things I had heard of and some things I have never heard of. Some of these "Things" I could teach or show my faculty how to use. I have enjoyed the Blog as it is an easy way to post comments or messages to people. This course will allow me to work more closely with my technology coordinator to push for more implementation of some of these Things.

Thing 18 - Wikis

I added a page to the Wiki page. I tried to add sub-pages and I didn't succeed. I added one sub page (maybe) that is listed under my name and shows up on the list. I can't delete it, so it is probably wrong. Others have done this and their pages don't show up on the list of new pages added. I'm don't know what I did wrong.

Thing 17 - Library Worm

Library Worm is a great site for librarians to use and to refer to for information about various topics. I tried searching by Categories and chose School Librarians. The Subjects category I chose Children as School Librarians didn't exist. Tags produces a hodge podge of words and it looked like a collage of words some were big, bold, small, regular type, etc. It was more of a piece of artwork than anything else. I looked at Childrens Book Awards and clicked on William Allen White, which is the Kansas equivalent of the Texas Bluebonnet Award and it produced a list of approximately 30 titles with colored covers but no explanation of what the William Allen White Award was. I will go back and explore this site more in the future.

Thing 16 - Library Thing

This is an interesting site. If you had a large home/personal library you could catalog your own library easily without consulting SEARS or LC Subject Headings. I have know an individual, now a retired librarian, who cataloged all the books in her personal library.

I found this site to be difficult to find information on. It was also very difficult to find where to search for a topic or word that you wanted to find. It is a great site but it does have some hitches in it.

Thing 15 - Digg

This was a fun site with interesting stories that might not appear on something like msnbc.com or cnn.com. I read the story about the elephant with the artificial leg that replaced the leg that was blown off in a land mind. It was different and interesting to see what science can do in today's world.

I did not set up an account, but may go back later and set it up. I did discover that if you are not logged in as a member that you can't "digg" or vote for the stories that you like best which prevents non members from voting for their favorite stories. It is a different site and enjoyable to explore.

Thing 14 Delicious

Delicious is a fun website to mark your favorites with. I can pull this site up anywhere and find my "favorites", instead of saying that is bookmarked at home or at school A or at school B or the part time job. This makes it very convenient to find my bookmarks any where that I am at. The thing I don't like is the entire string of bookmarks on my tool bar within Foxfire. I can't figure out how to get rid of that.

The URL for my Delicious social bookmarking is http://delicious.com/CowtownLibrarian

This "Thing" was fun and will be very beneficial and I can't say that about all of these "Things", some I'm having a hard time justifying my time to use them. That is just me.

Thing 13 - Tagging

Does tagging belong in the library? Does it replace or complement subject headings? Should we encourage or discourage the practice?

Library are all about classification but in must be uniformed throughout libraries so that the patron and the staff can go from Library A to Library B to Library C, etc. and know how to find the correct subject headings or classification to find the information that they need. We as professional librarians need to have a standard set of subject headings or we will be creating a giant mess in the world of cataloging.

If an individual wants to use tagging for their personal use on Flicker, Delicious, Library Thing etc. that will be for their personal use and will not effect the world of subject headings for library. I might put tags in that say genealogy, Texas genealogy, United States genealogy which is fine for my personal use. The library however, will put Genealogy - Texas - Denton County - History.

Leave Library Subject Heading aka tags to the professionals, but individuals can use tags for their own use as they make sense to them and it doesn't disrupt the world of libraries.

Thing 12 - Twitter

I set up a Twitter account and included two sites to follow - Arlington Public Library which has a brand new twitter site and the Newbery Library in Chicago. It is kind of interesting to see the little tweets or blurbs that people will post on a Twitter site.

I made the mistake of including the 20 or so sample Twitter sites that came up as I registered and I went back and deleted those sites because I'm not interested in Vegas stuff or the person who Tweeted me to see their R rated pictures. I started having "hits" immediately on the Twitter site. The Twitter account could have a million unwanted "hits" a day and it would be very difficult to keep up with all of those.

Twitter is everywhere and everyone seems to have them. The last Twitter site I looked at was yesterday on the Arlington Public Library site since it was brand new.

Thing 11 - Instant Messaging

Choose at least one IM client to download or use in your web browser. Post your user name and choice of service on your blog so other 23 Things participants can log in and message you. When you send add requests to other NT23 members, be sure to mention that you're part of the 23 Things group.

The IM service I picked was http://messenger.yahoo.com. The IM aggregator aggregator that I used was http://www.meebo.com. The service (?) is Yahoo and the user name is texaslibrarylady. If the service (?) is meebo the user name is cowtownlibrarian.

I went into Meebo and added the group NT23 and there was no place to say that I was a part of the 23 Things Group. I have no clue if this is done right or not - knowing my luck it probably isn't.

Thing 21 - Podcasts

For Thing 21, listen to a few library podcasts, and write about them in your blog. How was the audio quality? Were they interesting enough to make you want to subscribe to them? What sorts of topics did they cover


I did a podcast for a course at UNT about the new teen center called "The Studio" at the Arlington Public Library. It was a fun way to promote this new area of the library.

Podcasts if done well can be a great way to give mini lessons to the students or faculty about a certain topic or area of interest. Some of the podcasts I listened to appeared to be for a class assignment and the audio was amaturish (if there is such a word) - scratchy, the sound wasn't of equal quality, etc. However, the students were learning to do Podcasting. Brain Wave and RPN the Radio Public Network were well done professional productions and were a pleasure to listen to.

The topics varied from podcast to podcast, however it could be used for a student assignment, promoting a topic or cause such as an area of the library, and book talks were also done on some of the podcasts. Podcasts could be used in a variety of ways both informational, educational, and for pleasure. Some of the sites such as RPN or Brain Waive would be excellent source to subscribe to or at lease listen to regularly.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Thing 20 - You Tube

There is a You Tube video called "Introducing a Book" that is done in Polish but has English subtitles. This video is trying to show that you will not loose the "words" if you close the book or turn the page. Two "monks" are trying to figure out how to effectively "save" the print and not loose the text. After closing the book, one of the monks has a terrible time trying to figure out how to open the book from the spine side. The URL is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR6hzZek This is a fantastic learning experience about a "book" and that you do not have to save the "words" to prevent them from being lost forever.

This is a hysterical look at an old fashion print book versus technology today. If you have not seen this video please watch it but please be seated as you watch it to prevent falling on the floor laughing.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Thing 7 RSS Feeds

I added Unshelved (Library Humor) to my Google Reader. Google Reader is an easy 2.0 tool to use.

Thing 10 - Ning

I went in and set up an account and looked around. I searched Ning's for Library/Libraries and found thousands of Ning's that some how tied into the word Library. It was a massive list and no way to narrow it down. It was overwhelming, however, I did play around with it some.

Thing 9 - More Facebook

Reading information in Thing 9 says I can see only my friends profiles that make me feel a little more comfortable with this Facebook stuff.

Thing 8 - Facebook

Facebook is an extremely popular way to keep in touch with friends and the world. It personally bothers me that if Friend A gets onto my Facebook that all 5 million of thier friends could also access my Facebook and then multiply this problem by all of my "friends" and all of their friends. Someone posted on the North 23 site that they were not comfortable with establishing a Facebook account and I am one of those people. So, I have chosen not to create a Facebook account.

Monday, June 29, 2009

More Flickr - Thing 4

I used Spell with Flickr to create this artistic Italy.

letter i letter T A letter L Y

This did not save properly to my computer, so I just copied and pasted it to this post. This is a creative way to put writing into a blog, but something is missing that it wouldn't upload from my computer.

More Flickr - Thing 4


This is a photograph from Flickr that I retrieved using the Photograph icon on the tool bar.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Flickr - Thing 3

After exploring Flickr for Texas Bluebonnets, this picture is simple but expressive and could be used to promote Texas Bluebonnet Award Books.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dustdevildiver/2391409428/

Image Generators - Thing 5

This was fun to create a picture using Image Chef. It was also easy to post the picture after I figured out how to do it.

ImageChef.com Flower Text

Thing 6 Blog Readers

I've just done the Blog Reader Thing 6 and I'm missing the point. My blog site doesn't connect because the subscription won't allow http:// because you can't put ://. The blog reader is not easy to use and is really very frustrating and I'm finding it to be a waste of time.

I'm lost in blog reader land.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Learning 2.0

Libraries must keep up with the technology of today if we are to stay relevant to society today. Our youth twitter, Flickr, YouTube, My Space and anything else they can do online. The Internet age with all of its ramifications and endless possibilities of uses on and with the Internet are limitless. Those of us including myself that are over 35 must get on board and learn these new uses for technology and as librarians we must stay abreast in the field of technology. Our libraries must offer the opportunities for our patrons to use this technology for their social networking, gaming or heavens forbid doing research online.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Library Land

Hello to librarians everywhere.