Thing 23-Thoughts and future

As I finished the last of the exercises today, I was most impressed with the spirit of cooperation that the 23 Things project engendered in everyone at Kent Island working on these blogs. My coworkers pulled me through just as I said in an earlier post...they didn't let me get discouraged when I forgot passwords or just how certain sites required a log-in. If I couldn't do an upload, someone helped me with the steps again. Sometimes I felt as if every "Thing" was the first "Thing" ...and I would always make the same mistakes over and over.

My favorite discoveries: Pandora is tops! I love having my music my way when I am making dinner or reading email at home. Not possible for work.

Other sites that I will use now include Del.icio.us and the feeds on my bloglines account...now I have a daily Dilbert!

I would definitely attempt another learning experience like 23 things...I looked at 43 things and discovered that we've all done more than we realized...much more than just 23! I will also go back and work with Flickr and other picture sites since they gave me the most grief in the exercises.

Thing 22-Downloadable audiobooks

Our library provides NetLibrary audiobooks and I have had a subscription since the service started. The most difficult thing about the downloadables has been coordinating compatibility with windows media and mp3 players. It is also hard to make patrons understand why NetLibrary doesn't work with iPod.

I went through the overview of the Overdrive. Quite a nice product and looks relatively user friendly. But the limits for library circulations seem a little arbitrary since we are not talking about possession of a physical book.

We have used and recommended Project Gutenburg for years. I download books and read on my laptop computer. Just recently I read Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson from the Gutenburg website. We always suggest going to Gutenburg when the holds list on the High School summer reading classics gets too long! I would like to own an e-book reader, but so far my computer works well...

Also fun: Google books...I have found some really wonderful old genealogy and local history books full text on their site. You can get an account and search on full text for all manner of books.

Thing 21-podcasts

I looked at the podcast search tools. The explanations and faqs page on the Yahoo! podcast site was very helpful. The search was also easy to use. Podcast.net gave me my best Teddy Bear hit (and a commercial for Vermont Teddy Bears)...I also found SchleppCast on podcast alley. I used the podcast alley category searches for podcasts on knitting, sewing and genealogy. This site listed some very nice instructional podcasts. On the Merlin page, I found the SirsiDynix institute extremely informative. (They also had many other free items of interest.)

Ice fishing Sebago Lake Maine

When I was a little girl many years ago, I went ice fishing here with my father, my brother Charlie, my grandfather, Uncle Bill, and cousins Steve and Bill. My brother Roy was just a baby so he stayed in the camp with the ladies. I was glad not to be a lady then. I really liked the iceboats, but only the older BOYS used them at that time. I had to be content with white ice skates. The only fish I caught was pike.

Thing 20-video sharing

YouTube can really absorb hours in a flash. I spent quite a long time last night exploring Library and Librarians on the site...an eye-opening experience...from Conan the Librarian to serious profiles of professionals to the sexy librarians. I even found singing Library Cats who wail about returning library books.

Quality is really quite mixed. But overall the sites are fun. When I used the Google video search, I was surprised at how many of the hits were on YouTube performances. So far I haven't found anything I like well enough to upload to my blog. I intend to keep playing until I find something suitable.

Thing 19 Web 2.0 awards Pandora

I was intrigued by Pandora (classical allusion, right?) so I signed up and created some radio stations that were a little folky. There is also social networking on this site....666 other people also created Judy Collins Radio...fun and friendly.

Thing 18 productivity

Both Google Docs and Zoho Writer will be very helpful to the library patrons. Our Internet computers do not have word processing or spread sheets installed so people who need to use a combination of net and wp features have problems. It is especially troublesome for folks who need to write resumes and attach job applications to email. These 2 tools will help me provide more effective library service...good stuff all around!

Experimenting with Google docs

I am experimenting with Google Docs & Spreadsheets for my 23 things assignment. My goal is to post this short document to my blog.

Thing 17 Maggie in the sandbox

Thanks to the awesome staff at Kent Island, I am now playing in the sandbox.....my blog is listed under Queen Annes County....Kristin, Terri, Julie and Debbie....without you, I'd just be googling!

Thing 16-Wikis

Really good collection of Wikis in this exercise. I started playing with Prince William County public library's site and discovered a great explanation for Del.icio.us and social bookmarking at Common craft:
http://www.commoncraft.com/show

They also have a video on Wikis.

My very favorite one so far is Princeton Library's book lovers Wiki....I was lost in reviews for most of my lunch hour. I would like the staff at our library to be able to post new books, favorites, reviews and recommendations to something we create for our patrons.

Web 2.0

As I read the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 articles from OCLC nextspace, I was struck by Rick Anderson's statement in Away from the "Icebergs" that "No profession can survive if it throws its core principles and values overboard in response to every shift in the zeitgeist. However it can be equally disastrous when a profession fails...to....adapt to ....change in the marketplace it serves." Sorry for chopping his thoughts like that, but I wanted to include both ideas. A core value for public libraries is public service to the community, and it is no contradiction for the public library to provide what its customers want and pay for with their taxes. Entertainment movies, Internet access, bestsellers and children's storytime are extremely important to our customers. Our local schools require print sources for reports and projects so neglecting our book collection in favor of the electronic is really not an option. But I honestly do not see a contradiction between a traditional library mission and the concepts behind Library 2.0. All of the social networking and information sharing tools that are possible have wonderful potential for our customers. We just cannot neglect segments of our "marketplace" for the bells and whistles and buzzwords.

Technorati thing 14

Most of the exercises we've done for 23 things have been fun and interesting, but I don't really like using Technorati. Both Ask.com and Google blog searches seem more user friendly and gave me better results than Technorati. Another feature in Technorati that annoyed me was the use of the word "authority" ....just linking with something doesn't give real authority.

Thing 13 Del.icio.us

My 13th thing is probably going to be very lucky. I have set up a Del.icio.us account, installed the buttons and will start saving favorites. I am most enthusiastic about being able to access my saved sites from any computer I use. It also looks promising for genealogy research. The podcast about Del.icio.us was very helpful and informative.

Free genealogy search roll Thing 12

Today I began working with Rollyo. My first search roll is for Free Genealogy sites. With a little help from my friends at Kent Island Branch library, I added the search box to my blog under all the other information on the side. Yippee!!!

LibraryThing or the excitement of Thing 11

My librarything account is now active and I have started my catalog with Jasper Fforde books that I own. Just a few weeks ago Kristin Bombard and I went to Politics and Prose to hear Jasper Fforde speak. I took pictures that Kristin was able to upload to her Blue Castle blog. There is a link to Kristin's blog on this page.

My favorite section of LibraryThing (so far) is the unsuggestion....I've never seen so many books that I will never ever want to read!

Avatars and kittens-Thing 10 and back to 7

At last I have my Avatar "close" to my dream image...some family members think she should be size 12, but, hey, this is not necessarily reality so I can certainly slim down a little in cyberspace if I want. Snow in the background makes more sense to my co-workers than my original viking ship with snowballs.

I loved the kitten generator so I added the link to my blog. Does anyone know if there is a Teddy Bear generator? I just recently made my first Ebay purchase--an early 80's sewing pattern for Paddington bear. Years ago I made the bears for my sons...now I am working on one for my grandson from the same pattern I used for his dad and uncles.

Using Ebay technology was much easier than I anticipated. People are very helpful when one spends money!

The World Famous Random Kitten Generator

The World Famous Random Kitten Generator

Bloglines--Week 4, Thing 8 and Thing 9

I have subscribed to Bloglines and set up RSS feeds for book reviews, words and cartoons. Contemporary lit is really neat, but Washington Post stuff is so old that it's not worth bothering to read. MERLIN has some interesting library information. Actually all these Things...from 1 to 8...have made me feel Seussical.