#23 All Done!

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

It's kind of sad that this is ending for me. . . I looked forward to trying new things with this program! I think the most unexpected outcome is I really was motivated to learn about technology! As I said in one of my early blog entries, I don't really like technology. Now I can say that I welcome learning about technology that can be useful in my personal time and at work.

The things that I have been using the most are:

Ta Da List- to tracks all my lists of stuff to do. It is so satisfying to click a check mark for the items that I have completed- there is a sense of accomplishment.

Library Thing- I have added more books.

Blogger- I have started a blog that will share all my sewing and creative projects- I added craft books that I tagged on Library Thing to my blog!

And of course- slide.com, imagechef.com, bighugelabs.com, to make fun pictures at work and at home!

#22 What Did I Learn Today?

bloggy blog, I am going to miss working on you! I will keep adding to the blog when I have found useful ways to incorporate 23 Things in my work at the library. My supervisor has tasked me with a project for the summer: Figuring out how to use 23 things for work related projects! Perfect! Now I can continue my knowledge of Web 2.0 tools.

#21 Those Other Social Networking sites. . .

Social Networking is an amazing thing. I hunted around on WebJunction and was pleased to find this resource. I found an article on how some libraries have dealt with difficult patrons and ways to document the activities. I think the article will be very useful at the library I work at. It's great to have a place to share and have dialogue about issues with other libraries - Instead of what I have done in the past: Searching for articles and documentation via the web. Unfortunately, most libraries keep their documentation private, when it would be really helpful to share! One example is I have been working on creating a handbook for training student workers. I can find very little on the web,but at least in webjunction if I can't find information, I could ask for input.

I joined the 23 Things On a Stick Ning,but I have not fully set up my account yet.

As far as Social Networking for FUN. . . I joined www.craftster.org, which a networking site that individuals can post pictures of completed craft projects and communicate with other members. I also joined www.filmcrave.com because well. . .I'm a Movie Monster (and by the way, that's my member name on the site).

just because

#20 MySpace and Facebook

Ohh Facebook. You are what college students love. You are what the student workers at our Circulation Desk spend hours staring at with their faces brightly shining.

The appeal is there and it is a very useful social networking site. Due to nagging from my college age sister, I created a facebook account. Setting it up was fun - editing my profile and adding things I liked. I was able to locate high school classmates, which was great because I haven't had contact with many of those people. However, I do use a different name so it is not easy to find me, to protect my identity. I don't check it very often now, but I know a lot of college age students who spend several hours checking facebook, looking at pictures, etc.

Last summer, after observing our student workers, I looked into using facebook to create an account about the Circulation Desk and training, updates, etc. It is still something I will continue to investigate for work purposes.

#19 Podcasts

Yeah for Podcasts! Podcasts are something that I discovered this past summer and have really enjoyed a diverse selection of topics. I use iTunes because I have an account that I use with my iPod. Go to iTunes store, and click on Podcasts.

I have been attempting to learn Spanish, so I downloaded Coffee Break Spanish- for FREE!! Each session is about 15 minutes and teaches you a few phrases as you progress. The most fun is that the teachers featured in the Podcast are Scottish. It's interesting to hear their accents while teaching you a Spanish accent.

I have dabbled in the self-help section, yoga, book author interviews, and my personal favorite The Onion.

Mostly I download NPR Podcasts- they are so many, This American Life, All Things Considered, All Songs Considered, etc. It's nice to be able to access these programs even though my radio does not. I love to do some sewing and listen to NPR.

The great thing about iTunes Podcasts is you can subscribe to a certain Podcast like This American Life, and each time a new podcast is uploaded it will show up in your music library, you just have to click Get and you have it. I then download Podcasts to my iPod and take them everywhere I go!

#18 YOU TUBE Cookie Monster & Count Dracula

I choose this clip because I love Sesame Street and I love cookies. Personally, I would be eating the cookies instead of counting them like Count Dracula.

The drawbacks of YouTube= You never know when inappropriate things are going to pop-up. When I first searched Count Dracula I got a bunch of videos with profanity in them, and voice overs. You just have to be careful, especially if you are looking for a video clip to use in your job.

If you want to have some fun, search Library Enforcer. There is a clip with a fake scenario of a person enforcing food policy in a library. It's called "No Food Allowed."

More about Second Life

I figured out how to fly!!! Here's some help for those thinking that Second Life is to daunting to try:

You will begin on tutorial island. They teach you to chat, gesture, etc. You can alter your appearance by going to file or edit, and then Appearance. You can actually make your avatar look like you!

You have to complete 4 tasks on the tutorial island to get the key to go to help island where you can get free things like clothes, vehicles, houses, etc. Then find the green beam that shoots into the sky. This is where you "teleport" to another island. When you get there do file, search, for "Info Island." That will teleport you straight there!

On Info Island I began in a garden devoted to Religious Resources, where I read about Buddhism. I also went inside an Islamic temple. There are also other libraries where you can do research and an area called Reference where there is a librarian on duty. You can ask the librarian questions and they will help you.

I found an area for Reading Groups. This was really cool. There was a circle of places to sit and a sign for the book that the group was reading and the next time they would meet there. No book clubs in your area- this is where you can interact! There was also an area with a bunch of magazines to download and areas just to sit on comfy pillows, pick out a book, and read!

Overall, I found my experience in Second Life to be eye opening. It's not just a video game, there are links to real websites, etc. And the most fun is talking to people. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a lot of them around when I was on Info Island.

I flew to a beach area where there were tutorials about surfing and I walked on the floor of the ocean just because I could. Then, the sun began to set so I logged off.

#17 ELM Productivity Tools

I didn't know anything about this thing. Our library has access to EBSCO, etc. I just assumed access was for academic use, so its great to hear that everyone can use these tools.

I have used the databases when I was going to college and finding the full text resources was what I was after. Lately, I have used Ebsco, etc. to research topics about Electronic Reserves and for ideas concerning training student workers in libraries. It is a very helpful resource to have handy.

I was excited about NetLibrary. Our library has access to this, but I have never personally used the service, just helped patrons access it. So, I created an account and added a few books to my favorites. This is nice when you are researching a narrow topic and just want to take a look at a chapter or so without having to buy or checkout the entire book. The only negative thing is reading it on a computer, but I suppose I could snuggle up in my computer chair at home and give it a shot!

# 16 Assignment Calculator

When I first heard about the Assignment Calculator a few years ago I was really interested in the program and wished that I would have been able to use it while I was going to college. It is a great program even for students who are mostly organized because it really pin points the details of the project you are working on and does the work for you as far as setting up deadlines.

#15 Online Games in Libraries

First, I tried Puzzle Pirates. I guess I became bored right away and decided not to pursue reading through everything to figure out how the game worked. I have never really been into video games, except when I had a nintendo in 5th grade. That didn't last long as I soon became frustrated that I couldn't get past certain levels in Mario Brothers and it was only fun to shoot the ducks on the second game that came with the unit a few times.

Anyway, I tried Second Life. At first, I'm like, "Why?" So I read a few articles related to online learning and specifically articles related to libraries and teen Second Life. I was surprised to learn that you can purchase things, talk to people with similar interests, attend concerts, go to libraries to research. Then, I thought, "This is cool!" So. . I created my avatar- if anyone sees me- I am Hotcakes Hamm. I figured out how to alter my appearance and then navigate around info island. When I was driving a segway someone named Leonard Finch jumped on my segway for awhile but didn't chat with me, finally he went away. My favorite thing that I learned was how to fly!!!

I have not made it to Info Island yet, but that is where I am headed!!

#14 Library Thing

Library Thing or as I customized it "meganthing," has been the most exciting thing that I have done so far. (Maybe I have said that before with another thing, but this one is it!!!!) Currently, I have a notebook that I keep track of my recreational reading in (when I remembered to do it) The criteria:

Books I have completely read
Not including books I have read for any high school or college courses

Now I have somewhere to keep track of them! I often discuss books with people and am asked for some of my recommendations and I draw a blank. My head holds very little information for small amounts of time apparently when lists of anything are involved. Anyway, what a fabulous resource! The only bummer is you can add up to 200 books, then they ask for a paying membership, so I had to delete some and only keep books I highly recommended. My list went back to when I was about 15, so some I did leave off the list for embarrasment purposes but will list some here for humor:

Love Story (awful book)
X-Files fiction (great show, but extra stories not in episodes?)
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (I often claim not to have read any of his books but this was an early mistake)

I utilized my recent learning of tagging for Library Thing and included the following categories:

JFK (assassination research)
Food (great cookbooks)
Fiction
Classics
Health (Mental, Physical, and good for the mind)
Non-Fiction
Knit
Crochet
Sew (sewing lots of stuffs)

I included a random selection of my books on the left side of my blog a little further down.

Does anyone know if something like this exists for tracking or listing movies you have watched?

#13 Online Productivity TOOLS

Here are the productivity tools that I tried:

My Yahoo: I have had a customized homepage on my personal computer for some time. It is nice to have that pop up and I can see the latest news headlines, weather, and check my email.

Countdown widget: I had one loaded on my blog, but it wouldn't start counting down, so I removed it. Too bad, because i was going to count down until my birthday this summer!

Ta-da List: My favorite. Okay, I am an organized person and I love lists. So much that I have small lists all over my house with dozens of topics, like: Things to Do for Spring, The Dog, The Cats, Sewing projects, Quilting projects. Ta-da is incredible for me!!! Yeah! I made a bunch of lists on the site and now I can have all my lists together in one place. This is a helpful tool for work to, for projects that have many steps and take a extended amount of time to complete.

Backpack: This looked really cool, except the free version does not include all the features. Oh well . . .

just bloggin. . .

please click on the picture to fully appreciate the work that I put into this (smile)!

#12 Do You Digg?

Actually no, I don't digg. But, I do like Mixx. The format is easier to sift through to find what I want to read about. (Entertainment news anyone?) I like the popular pictures at the top of the page, and most important=I like the logo of what I imagine is a cup of coffee being mixed. As one of my student workers quotes , "Yum Yum in the Tum Tum." If any of you folks have seen Night at the Museum you'll get the reference. If you haven't seen that film its definitely worth checkin out.

While I was Mixxing, guess what I found? A link for a mash-up/photo effect site: http://jpgfun.com/


As far as being useful relating to my position. . .Nothing comes to mind right now, these sites I would use just to check in with the news for my own personal benefit. I don't think it would be worth it for me to join just to rate newsworthy items to read.

just bloggin. . . about more generators

Hello

I just used http://www.slide.com/ to create this sweet slide show:

http://www.slide.com/r/Pqj155AH7D_q7HYA8FhNAhRQSwkzfM3m?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original

Our Circulation area participated in a decorating contest this fall to show our school spirit. The homecoming theme was "Escape to Paradise." We volunteered to decorate our work area with this theme, and we fully participated. Namely, myself when I fell head over heels crazy person into helping the supervisors and student workers decorate. You will see lots of husky dogs- which is the school mascot.

And guess what. . . We Won!

Slide.com is cool- I especially like the prism and movie reel slide shows. They are a great way to show case your accomplishments!