Thing 23 -- The End

I have tried to complete "The 23 Things" in a very short amount of time here at home. I have a slight case of information overload, but hey -- it's all good! I know we didn't explore everything out there, but I'm glad for the exposure to what we did look at. I got a new computer here at home. The Google docs saved me from adding yet one more expense to this whole home techno bundle. I won't be purchasing a word processing, spreadsheet, etc. package. Thank you! I do, however, feel that the one hour a week time allowance was not enough. I needed time to work through confusions. I needed more focus than is possible at work to do this. In fact I was so frustrated that when I stopped working on "The 23 Things" for a while, I was ready to delete the blog and forget about it. If I had a home life, children here, whatever, I still probably wouldn't have been able to accomplish it. There's a lot to learn, and it was just what I needed! I intend to continue learning more techno stuff and hopefully, I can get back into some of the various accounts from this class before they disapear and check out some of the things I learned a little more thoroughly. The MP3 player will be a new gadget for me to download, listen and learn. Thank you for the opportunity to take this class. (Even if I am too late for the MP3 player.)

Thing 11 -- Library Thing

This is very impowering. I even included our self-published book, "Patches and Poetry". Cool! Huh? Once again, I certain there is a lot more in the website than I had time to look at. I like to see what other people are reading. There's a 50 Book Challenge book group. Information searchable by authors, genres, titles, subjects. Everything in bookdom! It pulled my titles from Amazon, and I had to use the Library of Congress to get "Patches and Poetry". Once again, So many books -- so little time!

PS This website wasn't available when I tried to do the exercise earlier. So this is out of numerical order.

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

LibraryThing Catalog your books online

Thing 22 -- My DV Library

Omaha Public Library is moving toward the future with lots of confidence. I managed to download "Jack and the Beanstalk", one of those silly old Abbott and Costello movies. I was a little confused about the process of adding permissions and so on before I could download the movie. I think an overview instruction would be helpful. But I got it to work. There's a lot of movies I didn't even try to get to.

I went through one of the TumbleBooks free trial setups. Right now I can't remember the third item. I looked at all of them. Once again I am amazed at the amount of Freebies offerred!

I would be interested to know how much patron use is going on with the downloadable materials. I constantly tell them to get on the website and poke around the databases and all the other offerrings. They usually sort of smile and walk away. I don't know if they are even aware!

Thing 21 -- Podcasts

This is so neat! The programs are available to listen anytime anywhere. Can record and retrieve using the PC or other nifty techno devices. I didn't want to get into the music, iTunes, so I stayed with book discussions and reviews. I managed to set up the RSS feed to my Bloglines. (I guess I have been learning something.)

I do like audio materials for the sake of listening while I knit or crochet. I sometimes make mistakes if I am constantly looking up at a video screen. Audio materials are like having someone read to me or like listening to the radio.

The podcasts would be very convenient to the more techno savy patrons. Especially the wide range of subjects out there. Literally, something for everyone -- when you want it. There is much offerred free of charge.

Thing 20 YouTube

I had to do some fumbling around to accomplish the corgi puppy posting to my blog. The reason I chose this particular video is because the puppy is so cute. This video doesn't have a bunch of bla, bla, bla. . . There's just the background noise that the puppy kind of reacts to, in between dozing it smiles and huffs around. Shows all the qualities of the breed that make them so endearing.

I like to spend time on Youtube, but I sometimes feel like it's a huge wasteland. I have to limit my time there. I do see it as a good way to demonstrate or provide instruction. There is audio as well as video. I was pleased to find a video showing how easy it is to create iron on designs for tee-shirts using a particular HP printer product. The demo was done by two little Brownie scouts. (So easy, a child can do it!) There are many applications for instructing how tos of library land. It would be way helpful to have the video instructions for patrons using library machines. Adding money to their accounts for printing purposes. You can post instructions, most people don't even try to figure it out. (It's just simpler and faster to ask staff for help.) They might watch the video and give it a try.

YouTube - ウェルシュ・コーギー Welsh Corgi

YouTube - ウェルシュ・コーギー　Welsh Corgi

Thing 19 -- Lulu.com

I liked the Recipe for Success listings better than the Web 2.0 lists. (Of course Recipe for Success is targeting library services.) I waded into Lulu.com. It's a self publishing dream. I don't know what the prices are like for the finished product, but oh my! We could have used that one when we self published "Patches and Poetry".

As far as applicability to library services, the kid publishing service would be an awesome provider for allowing our young guests the pleasure of seeing their own work in print -- complete with illustrations! I love it and so would proud parents, teachers and the authors themselves. I didn't know there was such a thing.

zoho writer document

 

Thing 18

 

This is very interesting, but I seem to be losing things before I get them accomplished!  I wanted a light turquoise background with a beautiful picture of Bora Bora.  I ended up with a water lily picture and now I've managed to lose it as well as the selected background color!

 

I was going to type intelligent, if somewhat dreamy things about the most picturesque island in the world.  But hey!  I did something wrong and now there's just this plain white background and my pathetic blabber.

 

Thing 16 -- Wiki World

Wikis apparently are good for information sharing and collaborative efforts. Wikipedia makes me nervous. Some people consider it a good source of information. NOT! People need to understand just because something is on the screen does not mean it is true, or even correct. If information is shared, updated or revised, that's fine for some uses, but not all. An amusing statement in one of the articles pointed out that the advantages of Wikis are also their disadvantages. Some of the library Wikis were very well set up and inter connected with other sites providing unlimited and easy access to information -- not only from the library, but from local community, and the webworld at large. The term "online community" seems to be exactly right. New people or travellers are often at a disadvantage. The possibilities are endless for providing all sorts of information for all sorts of needs. Just be careful!

Library 2.0 -- Thing 15

this subject has been introduced in several other classes and seminars. Nontheless, There is a definite trend going on here. Beyond the brick and mortar structures, libraries reach out to all things eveywhere. Amazing! When I give a child their new library card, I often remind them that it's not just a library card, it's the key to the universe. It truly is! However, I don't see the majority of our library patrons using the databases; they do social networking and e-mailing and things of a lighter nature. I would imagine that the information wealth is examined more thoroughly in academic and other special libraries. The articles linked on the OCLC site remind us time and again that we need to anticipate and provide patrons access to information in a proactive way. Rather than be behind, we need to be moving forward. When the patrons ask for a particular tech server we can say, "Yes! It's all included!" The other aspect of all this shifting and sliding is the proper planning and budgeting for library collections. I can see a shift from actual books to digital and web based materials such as databases, downloadables and many things of that sort. The interactions between web aspects are getting so smooth and user friendly. Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday and all is well.

Technorati -- Thing 14

Well, I did it again! I got to wandering around out there. Technorati is easy to use. The "popular"and "top 100 blogs" (which always points to "Boing Boing") provides plenty of tags to follow around. Then there are links to websites and other people's comments to scroll around in. There is a lot going on and the goal of making Technorati user friendly has been achieved. I had no trouble at all navigating through it. I have no desire to tag this blog, however. (It lacks intelleigence. Du-uh!)

Thing 13 -- Delicious

Very interesting, and easy to use. There (is/are?) lots of helpful stuff out there. I used the tag "Productivity" and found some entriging articles about lack of focus and the resulting loss of productivity brought on by information overload, distractions and so called "multi-tasking". (Very good information, but since it comes from a blog, it is just some dude's opinion.)

I played a little bit with the tag "Tracking" and low and behold, there is actual products out there for the purpose of keeping track of how much of our time is spent doing what. These nifty little gadgets can even track goals and expectations! Time management at it's finest -- Christmas past, present and future.

I did notice that some of the less popular "tagged" items would be eliminated to keep the whole thing working smoothly and those items would not be re-ordered at "Wally World". The key to wise inventory control!

Thing 12 Rollyo

My very own search engine! Wowwee! I am liking this. It is especially helpful that the Rollyo website automatically helps out with links to websites by subject. (I played with Reference.) I played with a "Science" subject too. I put the Field Museum in Chicago on. Other possibilities would be the Smithsonian, any of the other natural history museums, planetariums, etc. This is very helpful to focus and customize information. It's helpful to people like me with a high level of distractability and limited time to wander around lost in internet land. Yes!!

Thing 10 -- Playing with image generator #2

Motivation!

Thing 10 -- Playing with image generator #1

RSS Feeds etc Things 8 & 9

Oh No! Not another Internet wilderness to get lost in! I set up the Bloglines account and started wandering. I am not sure why the Bloglines screen has a light blue column which blocks the view of another screen that would possibly be of more use, but I don't know because I can't see what is back there. I even managed to fumble around and subscribe to the weather forecasts in Elkhorn WI and foreplay on an unwanted porno site. Oh well! I am learning after all. The "word play" feed should be interesting on a personal level. I did set those 'word a day' and 'biography a day' and "daily om" up myself, but the librarian feeds were offered as a group and I admit it took one click to subscribe. Navigating the Bloglines setup offered a quick tour. But when I set up the account, it didn't give any further instructions. The tutorial left me hanging, no "next" button . . . nada. Oh well! I am learning. Until next time.