Thing 21 Other Social networds

I found some interesting groups that pertain to my hobbies of knitting and quilting. I haven't joined yet but I think I may follow up on these groups as a way of broadening my outlook. One can always benefit from another's experience and skill.
I actually joined a group of 1 on the ning site and added my opinion on being outside one's comfort zone. What a giggle.
Using social networks in the library seems like it could be workable but it would take work. The web junction article was very optimistic that educating library staff and using their initiative would pull the various aspects of social networking together into a cohesive unit. Nice if you can get it.

Thing 20 Libraries and Social Networks

I spent quite a bit of time with the tutorials about facebook, and I guess that is the way for me to learn. They are quite detailed which is what I need as I am not electronically intuitive.

After filling out a little of the facebook profile and posting to my one friend, I joined the 2.0 Library group. It seems a little sophisticated for me but I may grow into it. The reason facebook is growing so fast probably is that it is so appealing to teens. It has some guidelines that make you feel safe, but is loose enough that kids can connect to a lot of other kids. I will have to discuss with my 'friend', who is my 16 yr old library aide, what point there is in 'poking' or 'gifting' friends. (I recently watched for the first time "Lonesome Dove" and the meaning of poking was somewhat different...) Whether or not the reputation is deserved depends on the numbers. It is interesting that there are websites to encourage business people to make specialized use of facebook.

Myspace as used by the linked libraries seemed to be an interesting way to appeal to teens. I didn't notice how frequently it was updated, and that would seem to be key. No one wants to be reading old news. As for using myspace at my library, the challenge would be making it exciting and current.

Thing 19 Podcasts

Podcasts are interesting--up close and personal, but no picture. Funny to sit at a screen and listen without looking. (I play card games while I listen--something like quilting while I listen to audio books.) I listened to our own Wanda from Upsala talk about being both school and public librarian. The audio quality on this and other podcasts is iffy, with one or other speaker being too loud or too soft.

I find the directories to be confusing. None seem clear on how to search for a topic, but maybe they all need you to subscribe/sign in etc. Yahoo displayed a search screen, which left me out in the cold.

I don't have any desire to podcast but I would like to listen to MPR podcasts regularly. Of course, since they are professionally produced, they are better scripted, have more acceptable audio and are more enjoyable in not more informative.

Thing 17 You Tube

Thing 16 assignment calculator

This is out of sequence. I know I wrote a post on it, but failed to get it attached. Tsk!

The university assignment calculator looked lovely as a generic tool to get organized. The research project calculator broke down the steps and gave some good questions to help with writing. I think some of the most worthwhile point that few kids seem aware of is the amount of investigation needed to select a good research topic.

I've been tutoring a 7th grader with spelling and a couple writing assignments. His assignment outlines have had really good points for composition. I was very impressed. Of course, when a child has trouble reading and spelling, even good instructions can seem impossible to follow.

Thing17 ELM

The ELM data bases are part of the GRRL system available to the public. I've been trying to find a way to get along with ELM for a number of years with very discouraging results. I feel personally jinxed with these data bases. In my attempts to work through this thing, I find the jinx continues. And I don't want to take the time to find out just where I am going wrong, (I don't dare think it could be that ELM is hard to work with)

There are many resources and tons of information available through ELM and it would be wonderful if more people would make use of it. When I've been able to refer someone needing professional periodical information, they have been so pleased to find it this way. Or even amateur information i.e. consumer information. I can see that having one's personal file to fill with collected information and keeping it on a flash drive would be very handy, and anyone doing research for school or personal use (researching collectibles etc) would find it very helpful.

Thing 15 Online Games

While I'm not much of a game player, I can see more sense and satisfaction in playing a game that has an outcome like winning or losing. I didn't play Pirates but it looked like some of the online games I have played (using the excuse that dragging and dropping or mouse control were important skills to develop). I don't see the point of Second Life--I wanted to tell the teens in the YALSA podcast to 'get a life'. I'm sure the skills needed to make the avatars/cities/etc are transferable and that's where their value lies.
I don't see that any of these activities are very important in my public library setting.

Thing 14 Library Thing

Once again it doesn't quite work.
I toured Library Thing and added my 5 books. Nice to see the covers. Tried adding it to my blog, but am missing some important connection. Oh well, I get E for effort.

This is a cute trick for folks who love making lists, tracking their reading records and ranking. It is also fine to connect to other readers. I would recommend my patrons to give it a try.

GRRL, my library, prints bookmarks with book lists organized by genre, author, topic, or any other way that seems to be helpful for a reader. They seem to be appreciated. They are a
hard copy that can be referred to when one is away from one's electronic connection. (It happens some times...)

Good Reads might be a good place for people to practice making book reports/reviews.

Thing 13 Online productivity tools

These tools are good for folks who love lists and feel they have the time to refer to them. When I started work a thousand years ago, I loved making a list of the tasks I had and crossing them off. What a feeling of accomplishment. Then I realized I spent a great portion of time making the list and got the tasks done just as efficiently without the list. Sheesh!

I looked at igoogle and Yahoo page starts because I have email accounts with both Google and Yahoo. I have no preference, they both are cute, and I will probably play with both.
There are so many tools, calendars widgets etc that are similar. It is too hard to judge which might be useful in a quick scan. Those which charge a fee are definitely less likely to be tried by me. I looked at the Famundo calendar and its demo was pretty impressive. Good application for a family or group.
I signed on to Stikkit, they had a demo of sending meeting reminders/agenda/etc which were appealing. I missed the detail about how to get my info onto the stickies. Go back and start again. Tsk!

Again, using calendars or productivity tools requires taking time to get familiar with the tool and making a point of using it. Not easily come by.

Thing 12

There are simply too many of the same things. When I viewed the 4 examples of social media sites, I thought that while they look different, some being easier to navigate, some more colorful, they are much the same. The same stories are featured and voted on as being favored.

Regarding library application, these may be popular, but are they the most accurate, an important standard from a reference point of view. The sources of the information aren't always clear.
If you are quite selective about the topics you want to view, you could possibly be more productive, but I think you would get so inundated with information, you would be at a loss for time to put it to use.
Yes, I read a couple stories that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

I don't think I understand why people seem to want to have input on information, ranking it in popularity. Is it that the world is so impersonal that a vote for a news article on a social web site makes the voter feel like they have some effect on outcomes?

Thing 11 Del.icio.us

This tool seems to be a fine web based organizational tool. I've wished for a way to access my bookmarks away from my home computer, and here it is!

I discussed with a library patron who is familiar with these programs, and we agreed that the concept of the online work processing, photo program and del.icio.us is good, but we shared the concern that private information is available to public view. Yes, they say you can make your submissions private, but we are also told that anything can be hacked.

This type of program seems to fit more with academic libraries, where the opportunity to instruct the user is ready made. In a public library setting, patrons either know what they are doing, or are at a much simpler level of computer use i.e. how to use the mouse, keyboard, etc.

Thing 10 Wikis

Wikis are absolutely full of long winded(worded) folks who have too much to say. It's wonderful to be able to share what you know, but it's important to respect the limits of the reader's capacity to absorb.
I was interested in the book reviews on the Princeton wiki site and got some good suggestions. The Albany staff page seemed to be a one time posting, and didn't seem to take advantage of the interactive aspects of a wiki. And I was interested in the Durham Library using the wiki as a site to discuss their library strategies. These seem to be useful library applications, but again they need faithful attention to stay current.
Regarding using Wikipedia as a research source for students: The point of research assignments is less the data obtained than teaching the methods of searching and judging the validity of the sources. The objection to Wikipedia is that the sources may not be valid. I think it should be allowed as one source of information, but that other sources would have to validate the facts.

Regarding editing a wiki: I added a line on the 23 Things pbwiki.

I am thinking that using a wiki as a family information exchange could be do-able. My family is somewhat spread out, and email has been a great way to send the same messages to everyone, but a wiki could do that as well as become an exchange of memories to save, etc. Just an idea....

Thing 9

I was interested in thing 9--an online word processing program. This would be helpful to folks who don't have such a program on their own pc. I had a wireless user trying to install a Word program in their laptop, and would have been happy to inform them of either Googledoc or Zoho Writer if I'd know of them.
I was not impressed with the editing task, could barely read the old documents and could quite figure out the editing technique. It was much more useful to me to create my own document which I successfully emailed to several accounts, however, not necessarily my blog. I think our forefathers would have been amazed at the processes we have, but appalled by the duplication of efforts and waste of time trying to get these things to work. (That may be my own take on electronic wizardry.)

Thing 8

True to form, the various suggested electronic connections don't quite connect for me. At this point, I feel that exploring them and becoming aware that such things exist is about all I will gain from this exercise. Also, its value in my library setting seems quite limited, as I hardly have time to do the routine checkin/checkout work during this busy time of the year.

I logged onto Lazybase, a supposed easy way to establish your own data base and share it with friends. And I tried uploading photos of a quilt project onto Slide Show, but it refered me to MY Space which is basically ok, except neither site showed my 'slides'. Once again, I don't know what I did wrong, and don't have time or interest to pursue it.

The conclusion I keep coming to is that all these tools are terrific in their own little realm, but where is the TIME to master them, and look at everyone else's creations?

Time to return to routine

I have been neglecting the 23 things for several weeks as real life has intervened. I hate it when that happens. Visiting my parents, taking vacations, and worst of all work all take time away from this electronic/artificial reality.
I have to go back to the 23 things list to remind myself of what I'm supposed to have learned and accomplished. Here goes....