Thing 23: Final Survey

Survey completed...mission accomplished!

Scary Pipl!

Okay, I’ve already learned a new thing from Lifehacker.  Pipl.  Have you seen this?  It’s really pretty scary.  Try searching for yourself or someone you know on this site that does what it calls a “deep search” of the web.  It’s just a little too creepy for me.

Thing 22: Staying Current

I just went back and reviewed old blog posts to remember what I’ve learned during the course of this project.  While I thought some things were pretty useless, there were plenty more that I thought were great.  Some of them I’ll even use again.  I love Google Reader and Facebook!  Both are things that I use daily now and will continue to do so.  I also think I’ll use some of the photo sharing tools again.  I would like to use Library Thing more, but I just can’t find the time.  Maybe when I’m retired I can.

Keeping up...RSS feeds and Google Reader will certainly help with the ability to keep up.  I also liked Lifehacker, and I’ll make an effort to take a look at it every now and then to see what’s new.  I read library literature on a regular basis, so that will help keep up with new trends relating specifically to libraries.  It’s hard to find the time, but I’ll make an effort.  And I’ll continue to post to my blog when I learn new and interesting things.

Thanks to NEFLIN for the experience.  I certainly know more now than when I started, and that’s a good thing.  And now that I’m starting to sound like Martha Stewart, I’ll take this opportunity to end!

Thing 21: Student 2.0 Tools

These tools could be really helpful to students if students are willing to use them.  I don’t know if I would have used a tool like this when I was a student.  I, like I think many students do, often enjoyed the “fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” approach to class assignments, and the longer I was in school, the more I found myself working feverishly to complete an assignment on the night before it was due. 

I really liked the features on the Assignment Calculator that suggested reliable, subject specific resources.  I created a timeline for an imaginary entomology project, and found a couple of really nice websites that I bookmarked for future use.  So even if students used this for nothing more than to help them locate good, reliable sources, it would certainly be a valuable tool.

The Research Project Calculator was more geared to younger students and seemed like it provided more in-depth information on the process.  I looked at the Teacher Guide to the Research Project Calculator, and found several handouts that could be used in the Library (Boolean Basics, Improve Your Google Search Tip Sheet, 10 Questions for Evaluating Web Sites). 

All in all, I think these are good sites to suggest to students, but whether or not they will take advantage of them is up to the individual.  You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

Thing 20: Books 2.0

Okay, briefly, here’s what I checked out:

I looked at DailyLit and signed up for a little bit of daily poetry. I liked that you can ask for more right now if you can’t stand to wait until tomorrow. So far, so good.

I looked at Book Stumpers. While it was interesting, I found the site difficult to navigate. I had a hard time knowing what I should click on to get to where I wanted to go.

I looked at Target’s Bookmarked site, and I liked the Club Picks section, but you couldn’t see the book club features without creating an account. One more account is one more thing I don’t need.

I looked at BookVidoes.tv and Reading Group Guides. I’m in a book club, so I tried looking for some of the titles we’ve read. I found lots on Reading Group Guides, but none on BookVideos.tv. I like the idea of BookVidoes.tv, though, so I’ll probably keep checking to see if my book club ever hits on anything that they have video for.

Librivox was pretty neat. It’s definitely something you could suggest to desperate students when they come in to find that all of the copies of tomorrow’s assigned reading have been checked out. I might even use this myself.

I looked at Book Browse, but I’ve already forgotten what that one did. I think it only alterted you to “worthy” literature, which is all well and good as long as your idea of what’s “worthy” lines up with that of the selectors.

BookSwim was a great idea, and I would definitely recommend it to students as an alternative to purchasing expensive textbooks.

The Books application on Facebook is similar in concept to Library Thing, but I actually like it much better than the Library Thing application on Facebook. I entered a few of my favorite titles along with what I’m currently reading. Now I just have to get my friends to use it, too, to make it even more interesting.

Thing 19: Other Social Networks

I am not a member of any online communities that have not been featured in 23 Things.  I have looked at WebJunction and Shelfari before, and there are some Flickster applications on Facebook that allow you to take some sort of quiz and compare your movie taste with your friends.  For this thing, I also tried looking at a genealogy social networking site called Geni.com, but I didn’t really like it.  I’m not convinced that I want to share all of my genealogical information with the world.  Perhaps if I was a more impassioned hobbyist, I would find a social networking site that appealed to me, but I’m really more of a dabbler when it comes to my personal interests...a Jill-of-all-trades (and master of none).  For that reason, the more general social networking site Facebook appeals to me as a one-stop shopping site where I can dabble in multiple applications.

Thing 18: Facebook and MySpace

I joined Facebook a couple of months ago because I have a class reunion coming up, and the organizers were trying to get people on Facebook so that they could easily get information out to everyone.  In an effort to be agreeable, I joined somewhat reluctantly.  Not only am I a convert, I also talked my husband and my sister into joining. 

I have friends (more than 3, less than 300), I’ve joined a group (You may be from Lake Placid if...), I’ve written on someone’s wall, I’ve sent Flair, I’ve received 80s Memory Gifts, I’ve posted photos and commented on others’ photos.  Most of all, though, I’ve enjoyed reconnecting with a few friends who I now interact with every week instead of once a year or once every few years.  I’ve enjoyed seeing what the people I went to high school with are up to and seeing at pictures of them and their families.  I can interact with relatives that I don’t get to see often, and some in-laws that I’ve never managed to meet, even after 12 years of marriage.  I can even play Scrabble with my sister and my other friends (my husband won’t play Scrabble with me except once in a great while and under extreme duress).

We’ve also created a Facebook profile for the Library.  I see it as a marketing tool.  Once we build up a group of friends (over 100, now, and growing), it will be an easy way to get word out to a large group of people about Library programs and events.

As far as Facebook being the fastest growing social network, I can’t really say.  There are certainly a lot of people that I’ve come across who have joined very recently.  When you listen to the news, though, it seems like Twitter is the new thing.  Maybe Facebook is out, and Twitter is in...I don’t know, I’m not tweeting yet.

Thing 17 : Podcasts

I’ve watched and listened to video podcasts with my kids before.  On iTunes, you can find some free video podcasts of Dora the Explorer (the old Dora, not the new controversial Dora); Go, Diego, Go; Blue’s Clues; Sesame Street; National Geographic wildlife podcasts; and plenty more.  I’ve found that having those available on the iPod (or iBird as we call it at my house) when waiting at the doctor’s office can be really helpful, but I really don’t use them much at any other time. 

For this Thing, I listened to and subscribed to a podcast by author Diana Gabaldon.  In the particular episode I listened to, she described her personal encounters with ghosts and the inclusion of supernatural elements in her Outlander novels.  I found it interesting (although, she didn’t sound at all like I thought she would), and I can see myself downloading them to listen to when going on a trip or something.  I can’t really see myself taking the time to sit down and listen to them during the course of my usual week.

I looked at podcastalley.com, podcast.com, and Yahoo podcasts and found them all equally easy to use, but I did get some different results on my searches.  Based on those different results, I would probably use either podcastalley.com or podcast.com in the future.

Thing 16: YouTube

So I haven't been a big YouTube user, but I have used it a bit. I'm amazed at how much free time people seem to have on their hands. All I can say is, they must not have small children. It's unfathomable to me how much stuff there is on You Tube about any topic you might be interested in. For example, I searched for Designing Women, my favorite television show of all time, and I found a video in which someone had produced an opening scene for the Magic School Bus using the Designing Women opening credits and music. Who knew...who cared?

What I am posting here is a video from SidsCardShop of my very favorite performer, Alison Krauss, singing my very favorite Dolly Parton song, Jolene. I wanted something that was of interest to me, something that I thought was worth sharing, and something that was relatively brief. This is all of those things, plus you get a glimpse of Dolly in the audience watching as well. What could be better? It's also timely as Alexis Grace was voted off of American Idol last night after singing Jolene during country week, but don't get me started about that!



Okay, obviously this didn't work properly since I can't see any actual video, just a YouTube frame with nothing in it. I will have to work on it more later and see if I can figure it out.

Well, I see it works from this computer. It was apparently just the computer that I was working on earlier that didn't actually show the video, just the frame. So, Thing 16...accomplished!

Thing 15: Rollyo

I had never before heard of Rollyo, so this Thing was completely new to me.  I like the concept, and I can see it having uses both personally (for some people, although, not so much for me) and in libraries.  In libraries, I think this might be especially useful for local and regional information, for things like science fair and history fair projects, and for other specific projects that apply to a group of people.

I tried the Rollyo search on public domain e-books and searched for some poetry by A.E. Housman, particularly To an Athlete Dying Young and With Rue My Heart Is Laden.  I was able to find these and other Housman poetry easily with just one quick search.  Of course, I Googled both of these poems and the first hit on both was the same bartleby.com hit that I got using Rollyo, but I suppose there’s less extraneous information using Rollyo if you’re simply looking for the text and not things like commentary or criticism.

Next I registered and created my own search for all things Dolly Parton.  There are several websites out there devoted to Dolly, her music and her business ventures.  I included in my search, the “official” website of Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton On-Line, Dolly’s fan club website, Dollymania (“the online Dolly Parton Newsmagazine”), the Dollywood theme park website, and the website for Dolly’s Imagination Library program.  So, if you’ve been wondering when 9 to 5: The Musical opens on Broadway, and the answer has been eluding you, try my search and see if it helps.  

Thing 14: Online Productivity Tools

I went with iGoogle because I could log in to my already existing account and access it, Blogger and Google Reader (which I still love!).  I prettied it up a little bit by choosing a theme (Truly Toile), I added gadgets, I removed gadgets, and I left some gadgets as they were.  After all that, I’m still not that thrilled about iGoogle.  I don’t find that it is particularly useful to me, but it is, at least, lovely to look at thanks to Truly Toile.

Next, I set up Google Calendar and added it to iGoogle, but again, I’m just not lovin’ it.  I’m old-school enough that I still prefer to whip out my quill, dip it into the old ink pot, and write my appointments and events down on my parchment calendar.  Then I can carry it with me and have access to it anytime.  I guess if I would let my husband talk me into that iPhone that he’s been going on about, then I could carry it around with me and use it to access my Google Calendar anytime, but then I would have to pay some outrageous monthly fee for the privilege.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve already got as many outrageous monthly fees as I would care to have, and I’m not really interested in adding another.

Next I made a list on Ta Da List, but again, I’m not impressed.  I could have made the same list in half the time on a piece of paper without having to open yet another account.  I also looked at Backpack, but I didn’t see anything there that I was particularly interested in either.

I tried using the Countdown widget that was in the Thing 14 post, but I only succeeded in adding a mustard yellow blank box to my blog.  I don’t know what I did wrong, but after a couple of attempts with the same result I gave up.

So, in summary, my iGoogle is pretty to look at, but not anything I can’t live without.  My old pen and ink planner is preferrable to Google Calendar (unless I get that iPhone and the accompanying monthly fee), and I’ll keep on making my lists on my Curious George shopping list paper instead of doing it online with Ta Da List.  I do think that the file converters could definitely be useful in a library setting, and it’s good to know that they’re out there.  Otherwise, I don’t feel like this Thing was my Thing.

Thing 13: Library Thing

I had heard of Library Thing and thought it sounded cool, but I never imagined exactly how cool it really is!  I created an account and added some books from my personal library.  Now (with quite a bit more work ahead of me) I have the capability to create a searchable catalog of my private library...for FREE!  What I really love, though, is how Library Thing links you to others with similar reading interests.

Over the weekend, I showed Library Thing to a friend of mine who works part-time for a small special library with virtually no budget.  My friend looked at it and went away thinking that Library Thing was something they could use to catalog their collection (for no cost) and make it more accessible to their patrons.  What a great Thing!

I can also see how libraries could use Library Thing and their widgets to feature books from the library collection on their web page.  That’s another really nice use. 

I added a widget/gadget (look to your left) to my blog that will link you to my Library Thing catalog.  I hope to find the time at home to add more of my personal books to my catalog, but I don’t know how realistic that is.  My limited free time is spent actually reading books rather than cataloging them, napping, watching American Idol, and playing Facebook Scrabble.  Yes, I know, it’s a full and rich life.  Just thinking about it makes me want to go take a nap!

Thing 12: Wikis

I like the concept of the wiki, and I use Wikipedia fairly often to answer my own personal questions that are of a trivial nature.  I can understand why some teachers would issue a “ban” on student use of Wikipedia for assignments, though.  There are some people out there who just have too much time on their hands, and they apparently take great pleasure in things like “vandalizing” the Pop Tarts entry and many others in Wikipedia.  So while I appreciate the concept of the wiki, I wouldn’t make life-impacting decisions based on information I found in a wiki.  Here’s a link to an interesting article by Nicholson Baker in The New York Review of Books.

I’m a rule follower by nature, and one of my personal pet peeves is people who don’t do what they’re supposed to do.  Those are the people who damage the integrity of the wiki.  I have a little mantra that I find myself repeating often, “If people would just do what they’re supposed to do, the world would be a better place.”  (Yes, I realize that this is a broad generalization, and there are plenty of times when the rules are stupid and people need to break them.) The same can be said for wikis:  If people would just do what they’re supposed to do, wikis would be a more reliable information source.

Some of our staff is working on a circulation manual, and I really liked the Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki.  I thought it was a great idea for documenting those sometimes elusive procedures and practices that everyone assumes everyone else knows about but that aren’t written down.  I plan to forward that link to my co-workers that are currently working on the circulation manual.

I edited the NEFLIN 23 Things Wiki on the “Edit Me Wiki Test Page.”  It was fairly straightforward and painless.  Lucky for you I’m not a dangerous Pop Tart vandal!

Thing 11: Social Media

After looking at all four of the sites listed, Digg, Mixx, Reddit and Newsvine, I can’t say that I’m a fan.  They seemed to be much more of a productivity detractor than an enhancer.  Of the four, I liked Newsvine best.  It seemed to be more “newsy” and had an attractive feature that allowed you to view regional stories...in my case, Jacksonville.  Digg and Mixx I felt were pretty similar.  They seemed to be a mix of some newsy-type stories and many more that were just “interesting” things that people had happened across.  There were lots of things there that I would never have found on my own, but their usefulness was marginal at best.  Reddit seemed like it was virtually no news and almost completely random stuff, and the comments that people made on this site seemed much less relevant and pertinent than on other sites and more like the comments of people just trying hard to be funny (an in my humble opinion, usually not succeeding).

I had not, until today, ever even visited any of these sites.  I did read a couple of stories that I saw featured, my favorite being a link to opencongress.org that described a bill introduced in the House in January and co-sponsored by 44 Representatives that advocates doing away with federal income tax in favor of a national sales tax.  Of course, I’ve heard a lot of talk of this, but I hadn’t read or seen anywhere that there had been an actual bill introduced, so I thought it was interesting. 

There’s so much information out there, we can’t possibly keep up with everything, but I don’t think these social media sites are the answer.  They’re something I might spend a few idle minutes perusing on a Saturday afternoon just to see what’s out there, but overall I prefer the RSS feeds.

I also shared this link on Digg.

Thing 10: Tagging and Delicious

Tagging

I’ve been tagging (or labeling) my blog posts since the beginning, and as a cataloger I can definitely see the usefulness of tagging.  I do like the idea of using natural language tags rather than a controlled vocabulary system like Library of Congress Subject Headings.  You avoid the problem of having to use the term “Cookery” when all your patrons are searching for “Cookbooks.”  However, I am a cataloger who likes things to be very orderly and consistent.  I am also a human who realizes that even though I like things to be orderly and consistent, I, myself, am not always consistent and other humans are not always consistent with themselves, let alone with each other.  Thus the problem of using natural language tags arises:  some people will tag a book of recipes as “cookbooks,” some as “cookbook,” some as “cook books,” some as “cook book,” some as “recipe book,” some as “recipes,” and the list goes on, potentially forever.  Then, instead of bringing like things together, we’re creating lots of different groups of like things, and then you need to group the groups.  Of course, if I’m being honest, this happens even with cataloger using a controlled vocabulary, because we are, after all, only human.  I admit, though, to “a foolish insistence on consistency” being a “hobgoblin” of my “little mind.”

Delicious

I admit I wasn’t that excited about Delicious.  I watched the Common Craft Show on social bookmarking, I looked at NEFLIN’s Delicious account, I looked at tags, and I read notes that others had written about certain sites, and I still wasn’t that excited about Delicious.  Then I created my own Delicious account, and suddenly, it was very cool! 

First I tried importing my bookmarks from my browser, which I was able to do with no problem.  Then I realized that I not only imported my bookmarks, but also tons of bookmarks that were not really mine, but instead were just defaults that came with the browser.  Then I had to try to delete the ones that I didn’t want, but there were too many to go through.  So I thought I would just delete them all and add my bookmarks one at a time since there weren’t really that many.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to do that, and I ended up deleting them in batches of 10 at a time which was still time consuming but not as time consuming as deleting them one at a time.

Finally, I was able to start fresh.  I added bookmarks to my Delicious account and tagged them all (hopefully consistently...I tried).  I also added a Delicious network badge to my blog.  I had a little bit of trouble with that.  I couldn’t get the html code to copy and paste, so I ended up typing it in myself, which was no big deal since it was pretty short.  I’m a little bit sad that I don’t have any “fans” yet, but maybe I’ll get some soon.

I think Delicious can certainly be a useful tool, both for me personally and for my library.  Like many things, though, all it takes is time which is in short supply.  I think it can be useful even without having your own account, though, so maybe that’s the solution for the time being.  We can use it in the library to help locate sites on specific topics that others who have more time than we do have already bookmarked and tagged for us.  Thanks!

Thing 9: Sharing, part 2

I used Zoho Show to create a very quick slide show.  I had no idea that such a thing existed, and I can imagine that it's a lifesaver for lots of folks out there who don't have access to Power Point or other presentation software.  I appreciated that I was able to log in via my Google account without having to create yet another account.  There are certainly a lot of potential library uses for such an application, particularly in small libraries that may not be able to afford presentation software.  It also makes your presentations quite portable...all you need is internet access, and your presentation is right there at your fingertips.  My only issue was that I had entered (extraordinarily clever) text in the callout on the last frame, and it is not appearing when I imbed the slide show in my blog (see below).  Now you’ll just have to wonder what that little ladybug was thinking...

Thing 9: Sharing photos

I loved using Mosaic Maker.  I thought it was really cool and easy to use.  Also, an account is not required.  I was able to make the mosaic above by pasting URLs from my Flickr account into the appropriate blanks on the Mosaic Maker website.  Then I created the mosaic without establishing an account with Mosaic Maker, and I was able to save the resulting image.  I liked this one so much that I used it with some of my favorite pictures of my kids, mainly just close-ups of their beautiful little faces, and I made a mosaic for each kid.  Then I printed them out and made Valentine’s Day cards for all the grandmas and surrogate grandmas.  They’ll eat it up!  I can foresee using this little application quite a bit in my personal life, and I can also see how it could be useful in a library setting to jazz up your webpage with event photos, to create posters for publicity, or to make a scrapbook of your events.

I also made a Flickr badge, which you can see in the column on the left.  That was super-simple to do using my existing Flickr account and the photos already there.

I haven’t had time yet to try the slideshows or the databases, but I intend to take a look at both, so you’ll probably see another Thing 9 post later.  So far, Mosaic Maker has been my absolute favorite new thing in this endeavor (followed by Google Reader and ToonDoo).

Thing 8: Communication, Web 2.0 style

Instant Messaging

I have used IM for customer service and technical support in my personal life, and in that context, I’ve liked it pretty well.  I don’t love to talk on the telephone.  (Okay, let me rephrase that because my husband, who calls me Chatty Cathy, would certainly beg to differ with that statement.  I don’t love to talk on the telephone with people who are not my family or friends.)  When I have questions about something, I would prefer to put it in writing...then you don’t wind up having to repeat it 37 times when you are transferred from person to person on the telephone.  You can explain everything in great detail, and it doesn’t go away the minute the words are out of your mouth.  E-mail makes that possible, and IM goes one step further by providing you with an “instant” response...a hybrid combining the best features of both telephone and e-mail.

Of late, I’ve been sucked into the Facebook craze, and I’ve used the IM function there to chat with online friends.  In terms of staying in touch, that’s really a pretty neat trick, too.  I would IM an online friend on Facebook and chat with them for a few minutes, when in most cases, I would not just pick up the phone and call them to talk.  You’re both there already, and it seems to me like it takes less time, effort, and planning than a “keep in touch” phone call.  I’ve had the opportunity to chat and catch up with old friends that I haven’t seen or talked to in years, and that’s been fun.

I did also use IM to chat with a fellow 23 Things participant, a colleague at another library.  We practiced our skills for a few minutes one evening, and I think that while we probably won’t win any IM contests, we can probably hold our own against the IM skills of the general public.

There are some downsides to IM, too, though.  As a perfectionist, I find it difficult to throw capitalization, punctuation, and typos to the wind and just type for content and speed, but the more I use IM, the better I get at these things.  I don’t know the language of IM (lol, ttyl, ttfn are about the extent of my knowledge, and that last one may, in fact, be Tigger language, not IM), but I know that will come with more use.  And if you have a whole lot to say, sometimes it is just easier to pick up the phone.

Regardless of the challenges, I can see how it would be particularly useful when doing reference to be able to go back and review what the person said a moment ago, an option that’s only as good as your memory (and mine’s getting worse everyday) when doing an in-person or telephone reference interview.

Text Messaging

I’m definitely not part of the text messaging “revolution.”  I’ve never sent a text message, and what’s more, I have no desire to ever do so, although I suppose that could change in time.  I find it really annoying when I get junk texts on my cell phone.  I’m one of those people who doesn’t even turn her cell phone on unless she’s talking on it.  I just don’t think I want to be that “available” all the time.  That said, I can see how sending library users text notices to their cell phones could be a useful tool, because I realize that I’m probably in the minority when it comes to my feelings on text messaging.

 

Web Conferencing

I’ll have to cover Web Conferencing in another post.  The next OPAL program on the master schedule is on February 6 at 2 pm, and I won’t be able to do that one.  I’ll have to come back and finish Thing 8 after I have a chance to use OPAL.  Although, I am supposed to do an online meeting via some sort of web conferencing software on Friday, so maybe that will count?

I attended a meeting via web conferencing the other day, and that had its good points and its bad points.  The primary good thing about it was that I didn’t have to leave my city and travel to the meeting location, so attending via web conferencing saved me anywhere from 6-7 hours of my time plus the expense of the travel.  That’s huge!  The worst thing was that because there were multiple people speaking at the meeting, the sound wasn’t always good.  Sometimes it was fine, and sometimes it was impossible to hear because it wasn’t feasible to move the microphone around every time someone different spoke.  With an program like OPAL where they are broadcasting more programs than meetings, I expect that the sound would be just fine.  In this particular meeting, I did have video and access to documents that were discussed, and I did have the ability to chat with other meeting attendees, so the struggle with the sound was definitely worth the trade-off for me.

Thing 7: Image Generators, part 3

Okay, indulge me in my little dream, here.  This one was super-easy. I used Image Chef and was able to post it to my blog straight from the Image Chef website. It also provided you with html code so you could do it that way if you preferred.

Thing 7: Image Generators, part 2

Okay, so here's my second try at using image generators.  I used Toon Doo to create this little gem. It was really easy and fun, too. This is a joke that I "made up." (Yes, I realize that others have probably "made up" this same little joke, but please don't try to steal my joy.) I am amused by it, and I often tell it to my husband when the subject of cantaloupes comes up. He is less amused, but tolerant and long-suffering.

I can see uses for this in public libraries. I think you could use it in doing a program on cartooning for YAs. You could also use it for marketing and PR purposes when you make posters and things like that.

All in all, I give Toon Doo a big thumbs up!

Thing 7: Image Generators

tinytags picture,
originally uploaded by Librarian1.5.

Okay, here's my first try at using an image generator. It seems like it will be lots of fun, and I'm planning to play around with it a lot more this weekend at home. Stay tuned...

Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

Thing 6, Flickr Mashups, was a fun thing, and I’m looking forward to Thing 7, too.  I tried out some of the different options, and I admit that I didn’t much use for some of them (like the Flickr Color Pickr, for example) in my life.  I can see where it might be of value to artists, but I can’t see myself ever needing it for anything.  It was pretty neat, though. 

I used Splashr, and at the bottom of the blog, you will see my results.  I removed my slideshow of photographs from the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, and I added those same photos in a Splashr product at the bottom of the blog.  Scroll down and click on the small, white button in the center of the photos.  Click on the small letter “i” in a circle at the bottom right to make the photo labels not display, and then click on a photo to see a larger view.  If you click on the button between the two arrows at the bottom right, the photos will act like a slideshow, automatically moving from one photo to the next. 

I also enjoyed Spell with Flickr, and underneath the Broadmoor photos you can see my results.  I thought Spell with Flickr was really fun, and I can see myself using that sometime for crafty-type things.

As for using these things in my library, I could see using them for posters and other marketing tools, and some of the tools might be nice ways to display photographs from library events if we had a library blog. 

I have mixed feelings about online photo sharing.  The convenience of being able to post photos online and give a URL to everyone you want to see them is nice, and for many things is fine.   I do, however, feel like you should have someone’s consent before posting a photograph of them on any public site, and I’m sure some people do that, but I’m also sure that not everyone does. It's a lot of work to get consent from everyone at an event, and I really doubt that most people do that, but maybe I'm wrong.

Thing 5: Flickr, part 2

I have finally figured out how to add a slideshow of every photo in my Flickr account.  (Fortunately there aren’t many.)  To get this far, I read Blogger helps, I read Flickr helps, and I consulted with my co-worker who, after much trial and error, had managed to get her Photobucket slideshow in her blog sidebar using the slideshow gadget.  Unfortunately, the same process that worked for Photobucket did not work for Flickr.  I then resorted to “Googling” my issue.  I found that there are others like me out there who are having or have had the same problem, and I found a solution that enabled me to post the slideshow of every one of my Flickr images: 

Look at the last portion of your Flickr URL.  What you see there is your Username.  If you select the User button in the slideshow gadget instead of the Keyword button and then enter this Username that appears at the end of your Flickr URL, you too can post a slideshow that consists of every photo in your Flickr account.  If you only want your slideshow to consist of a certain set of photos, you’re on your own because I haven’t been able to figure out how to do that yet.

But wait...I had one more idea of something to try, and it worked!!!  If you select one of your sets in Flickr, copy the portion of the URL starting with your username and going to the end of the URL.  Paste this into the Username box on the slideshow gadget, and you will see, much to your delight, a slideshow consisting of only the photos in that set.  I can finally let this rest now that I’ve figured it out.  The slideshow gadget has not defeated me!

Much thanks to this blog post which got me going on the right track.

Thing 5: Flickr

West Branch,
originally uploaded by Librarian1.5.

Hopefully you will see a photo that I took of the West Branch Library. If you don't, I have failed Thing 5 and will have to try again later. If you do, Yippee!

Part 2:  Yippee!  The picture is there, so I'm not a complete failure, although I was not able to figure out how to add a slideshow from Flickr using Blogger's slideshow gadget.  I could figure out how to add it by using HTML code from Flickr, but that made the slideshow much larger than I wanted it to be.  I have a co-worker who was able to add a slideshow from Photobucket, so maybe she will be able to shed some light on this process for me.

I thought this Thing was kind of hard.  That may be at least partially due to my tendency to jump in and try to do things and then go back and read the directions only if I can't figure it out on my own.  I did create a Flickr account, upload some photos, tag them, and sort them into sets without too much trouble.  The confusion came when it was time to link my blog to my Flickr account so that I could add a picture to the blog.  After going back and reading the instructions, help screens, and FAQs, I was able to figure out everything except the slideshow thing, but I'm not giving up on that yet.  Keep watching, I'll figure it out eventually.

Thing 4: RSS & Newsreaders

Okay, I love the whole RSS feed and newsreader thing!  It solves my problems about how to keep up with my co-workers’ blogs without having to go to each and every one to see if it’s been updated.  That’s been one of my big questions about the whole “blogosphere” thing:  How does one follow blogs that one is interested in without spending huge quantities of time checking to see if there’s anything new there?  Now I know.  If only I had asked sooner...

I also love getting a list of the news headlines from my local newspaper and from national news sources all in one location.  I’m really going to have to get my husband to set up a newsreader for himself.  He likes to read online newspapers from lots of different places, and he spends a lot of time going from site to site doing just that.  I think this could make his hobby more enjoyable for him and less time consuming, and then he’ll be able to spend all that time he’s saving doing chores around the house (not!).

Here’s what I don’t like:  I haven’t been able to figure out how to make things go away or how to adjust the amount of time that they stay on the list.  I’m the kind of person who makes a list and includes things I’ve already done just so I can cross them off.  It disturbs me a great deal not to be able to get rid of the stuff that I’ve already seen.  I’m using Google Reader, so if anyone out there in the vast blogosphere knows how to accomplish this, please add a comment telling me how and I’ll be eternally grateful.

Thing 3: Blog Search Tools

Well, I definitely learned some things from Thing 3.  I had never heard of Technorati or Ice Rocket (Rocket Dogs, yes...Ice Rocket, no), and I honestly had no idea that there were ways to specifically search just blogs.  I guess it's one of those things that I haven’t needed to do, so I never really thought about it before. 

In an effort to compare blog search tools, I decided to search for a blog that I read about over the weekend in People.  I could remember the generalities about the blog (a man was raising his child alone after his wife died from a blood clot just hours after the birth of their daughter) but none of the specifics (his name, her name, the baby’s name, the blog name).  I started with Technorati and searched using different search terms until I found the blog.  It required four Technorati searches before I located the blog.  (Searches for “single father” and “People magazine” seemed to get me nothing but blog entries about Ricky Martin, Kevin Federline and The Bachelor.)  I made notes about each of the four searches I did, and then I moved on to Google Blog Search.  I repeated each of the four searches, and I was able to find the blog with every one of them.  In three of them, the blog was on the first screen of hits, and in the other it was on the second screen of hits.  I also tried the searches on Ice Rocket and was able to locate the blog I was looking for with two of the four searches.  I looked at Sphere, too, but I couldn’t even immediately figure out how to do a search on Sphere.

Based on my searching experiment, I will probably use Google Blog Search in the future even though some of the other options have cooler names.  Technorati did have some features that I liked, like its Top 100 Blogs list and its listing of popular blogs.  From Technorati I learned that, although I didn’t realize it, I do follow a blog almost daily.  CNN’s Political Ticker is apparently a blog, although I never really thought of it in that way.  Apparently TMZ is a blog also...at least it’s listed in Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs.  I don’t read TMZ, but I’ve certainly heard of it without knowing that it is considered a blog.  (As you might have noticed, today I also learned how to make a word or phrase a link in my blog post.)

So, all in all, Thing 3 has been a productive learning experience that’s made me feel good about myself for learning something new, but not as good about myself as I felt last night when, after watching me do my   (semi-)daily Wii Fit, my six-year-old son told me, “You rock, Girl!” 

Thing 2: Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

Initially, I had little interest in participating in the 23 Things project.  The terms Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 have never really held any allure for me.  I know, though, that it’s important for me both professionally and personally to keep up with emerging technology.  Things (not one of the 23, just things, in general) change so quickly that if you don’t make a conscious effort, you can easily find yourself still standing in the station long after your train has left. 

After hearing and reading more about the project, I began to nurture a spark of enthusiasm.  I know myself well enough to realize that I’m probably not going to sit down on my own and learn about each of these (23) things, but I’m very goal-oriented, so the idea of having 23 specific assignments is very satisfying to that part of me...and the “extra-credit” challenges that are available as options also speak to the little overachiever that lives in me.

I’m excited about some things (RSS feeds, flickr, image generators) and not so much about others (YouTube, tagging, podcasts, blogging), but hopefully, working in the parameters of this project will give me the motivation that I need to tackle even the most dreaded technologies.  ttfn.  

Thing 1: Blogs

Okay, here's my first blog post to begin the 23 Things journey.  Setting up the blog was relatively painless, and I can see that there are lots of possibilities (really almost more than I can handle) for making changes in settings and layout.  I started to make changes to some of the coloring, but decided that for now, I should probably leave it alone.  The default colors on the template will probably look better than something my less-than-artistic eye can imagine.