Reflection

Wow, time has flown by. Can't believe we're done with 23 things. The tutorial was a lot of fun to participate in. I've learned about several technologies I didn't know know about before and got better acquainted with those I did.

Aside from Facebook (which I've already been using for a long time), I'm definitely glad to have discovered Flickr. Although it won't fully replace my Photobucket account, I'll definitely use Flickr quite a bit to share my pics. And I'm sure Google docs ap will one day come in handy. Also, I absolutely loved LibraryThing. It's a great way to keep track of the books I read.

As far as my least favorite thing of the 23, or at least, the thing I found to be least useful for libraries, that would be LibWorm. Although it was interesting to learn about, I found it just that. Interesting, but not particularly useful.

Developing your own 23 Things for your library

My home library currently uses several of the 23 things. Internally, the most heavily used tool is our library wiki. That's our way to share forms and documents with other staff memebers and run discussions. We are also using Flikr during this year's summer reading program to conduct a photography contest. Individual library employees also own Facebook accounts and blogs to keep in touch with our patrons and fellow librarians.

I can see Twitter being used more in the future to promote special programming and run announcements, especially that Twitter is accessible to all those patrons who get notifications through their mobile devices. As of yet, our library doesn't have an official Facebook account, but it's something that could be an excellent way to comunicate with local communities. Posting Utube links and podcasts on the library web page would also be a great idea.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to share audio files. They can come pretty handy for recording storytimes, author visits and book talks for those library patrons who use library's electronic resourses.

I sampled several library podcasts from the list given. And though most of them concerned local events not pertinant to my home library, the sound quality was excellent.

Youtube

I've been using and posting to Youtube for many years. It's a wonderful site for finding music videos and different oddities. As far as library-related videos are concerned, I really haven't come across any of great interest when I performed my search. A lot of them are humorous pieces involving library environment and news from local libraries.

I really don't see much promotional value for libraries on Youtube, as most of the site's content is geared toward lighter material, but it could be of use for creating online storytimes and sharing special performances.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a wonderful (and free!) way to create documents, without having to buy expensive software. Although formatting options are slightly more basic than those of MS Office, the sharing functions more than make up for it. No matter what one's geographic location or computer specifications are, groups of people can now collaborate and share their work online.

P.S. I was really excited about the possibility of being able to download my files in PDF format, but alas, the only thing that feature did was give me an error message (???).

Wikis

Wikis are a great way to share information. Wikipedia has been in my most often used bookmarks for a long while. I find its organization of material convenient, to the point and easy to use.

It was fun building my own wiki page on Wetpaint, but I found that particular site rather clumsy to use. Edit tool can be pretty inconvenient; some of the functions are limited (e.g. inability to rename pages) and completed pages often glitch. But overall, it was a good practice excercise.

LibWorm

A pretty cool library-related search engine, LibWorm eliminates the need to sift though unrelated websites and get straight to the point. A good tool to keep up to date with all that's happening in libraries world-wide.

Not digging that Digg...

Digg sounds like an excellent idea. A site, where people can rate and share news stories. Sounds exciting, right? But try logging into it and editing your profile! I am yet to accomplish that simple task, since every time I attempt it, Digg refuses to cooperate and freezes. Oh well, I'll try another day... They could be having some issues today. Sun spots, perhaps...

P.S. 07.11.09 Made another attempt to edit my profile; problem still appears to be not fixed.

Delicious

Delicious is a great tool for organizing one's bookmarks on the web. The beauty of it is that one is no longer bound to one particular terminal to be able to retrieve the list of one's favorite sites. Delicious is a breeze to set up, and importing one's existing bookmarks from the hard drive is just a matter of following easy steps.
Here's a link to my Delicious page --
http://delicious.com/bearchrltt

Tagging

Tagging is a complementary way to categorize content. Tagging might seem at first like rather an unorganized way of categorizing, since different users apply their own particular vocabulary to describe content, but as long as tagging remains secondary to subject headings, it can be a useful tool to supplement search performance in the library environment.

Twitter

Have you ever watched Conan's Twitter Tracker? Those skits pretty much sum up my general thoughts about Twitter.
That being said, Twitter can be a fairly useful promotional tool for special programming in libraries. It's great for issuing last-minute reminders. But, as far as individual internet users are concerned, Twitter's uses are way too narrow, and whaterver initial thrills it might offer get stale fast.

IM

I'm a long-time user of MSN messenger, and I prefer it to Yahoo and Myspace alternatives, as it doesn't freeze up or drain your bandwidth as much. IM'ing has always been a great alternative to email, as interaction there is instantaneous. Also, it's a wonderful substitute to face-to-face business meetings/discussion boards (IM-based book club, anyone?). It saves time and travel and provides a record of discussions, without having a designated person taking notes.

Really loving Meebo. It's a great tool for accesing your IM account, without the need to load the software for each of the major individual IM services.

LibraryThing widget

Been playing around with LbraryThing. I found it very useful for keeping track of the books I read. I tend to go through a lot of books, and afterwards, cannot remember titles or authors to save my life. LibraryThing is going to be my little memory helper. :)

My slideshow

Created with flickr slideshow.

Ning

Like with the case of Facebook, I've been a member of one of the sub-networks of Ning for a couple of years. You can find it at http://crimespace.ning.com/, and it's dedicated to all things crime fiction.
Page structure on Ning is basic. With enough effort, one could turn Ning into a fairly adequate advertising tool, but, honestly, it never really caught on with me. Although its simplicity and accessibility could be considered a plus, Ning neither has the number of users available through other more popular social networks, nor innovation.

Facebook

I've now had my Facebook page for quite a while. It's handy for keeping up with your friends, and it has plenty of fun aps to play with. Although Facebook page structure is not as flexible as with MySpace, it's not as graphics intensive and much faster to load (spoken by a person whose home is on dial-up).
Another convenience of Facebook is its tight privacy settings. No one can view a person's information without first being approved as a friend. Of course, MySpace has that capability also, but one has to actively change one's account settings to achieve that.
Accessiblity from mobile devices is another of Facebook's cool features, which makes things more convenient while promoting events and activities.

Google Reader (cont.) and RSS Reeds

Love that Browse for Stuff feature in my Google Reader. You don't even have to go out to other sites and look for options to subscribe; you can search it all right from your Reader page. Just click on the link on the left side of your screen and search away. Very handy!
Also, try the Trends button. It'll tell you all the stats on your Reader activity.

Google Reader

Setting up a Google Reader account was incredibly easy. All one has to do is sign in (using one's blog ID and password) from http://www.google.com/reader. All the subscriptions created in your Blogger automatically display in your blog reader page. You have an option to sort your subscriptions from there and create folders for easier access.
A very handy tool that saves you having to look at each of your friends' blogs one at a time.

She squeaks. She stalks. She poses.

Well, dear reader, yours truly has a new kitten. A library kitten, no less. Acquired from one of the patrons, who was unable to keep her.

Still working on a name for the baby. I'm sure she'll go through a few, until she finds one that is "her". So far, her "working title" is Rupee.

The baby wasn't too happy about sitting in a cardboard box while she was driven to her new home, but the journey was short, and my little Working Title was much thrilled to get re-acquainted with Kitten Chow and a litter box.

Other feline residents were slightly perturbed by the new arrival, although plenty curious about their future playmate. There's still much settling in to do, but the new baby is well on her way to becoming the new queen of the house.

For more pics, go here -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearchrltt

Captioner. Some fun image generators.

Here's another of my BigHugeLabs creations.

P.S. Try this site for some extra fun --
http://e-zombie.com/
It turns your regular, boring letters into... wait for it... dancing zombies! Pretty cool. Especially if you're easily entertained, like me. :)

Jigsaws

Just playing around with some aps on BigHugeLabs.com.

Garfield wannabe

How d'you like my new banner? Ain't he cute?!

Flickr, updated.

Added some pics of my "children" to my photostream.

Check 'em out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearchrltt/

Fun with Flickr

Already having a Yahoo account, setting up my Flickr page was only a matter of saying "I do". Check out my Flikr photostream here --

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38283332@N02/3543453844/

Spell with Flikr link on North Texas instructions page appears to be bad, but I got to play with other tools on BigHugeLabs. Will check out out some others once I get more free time.

Post # 2

Psyched about 23 Things!

P.S. Mr. O'Reilly (What Is Web 2.0) has a real knack for making simple things sound complicated. A piece of advice -- if you're just beginning to try and make sense of new applications, do not, and I repeat, DO NOT read his article! We put up with enough double-talk from our bankers and politicians. Nobody outside 3M headquarters needs to hear that kind of techno babble!!!

Post # 1

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.

In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Take it easy, dear reader. And for all of you, proud owners of margarita machines out there, drink responsibly!