The 23rd Thing -- Summary

I've reached the end -- in the nick of time. I went back to re-read my blog to help me recall what were my favorite discoveries or excercises. I was impressed that I could do a blog, amateurish and uninspired as it may be. Flickr was impressive. How amazing it is that there are all these beautiful photographs by people around the world right there at my fingertips! I won't go looking for RSS feeds, but I am pleased that I now have New York Times Movie Reviews also at my fingertips. The generating of images and my avatar was fun, although I needed help with the avatar. I was pleased to learn about Del.icio.us and to have 23 Things so easily accessible from there and to later tag a blog and a website that I would use again thanks to Technorati. Wikis are well worth exploring more so that I can put them to use or at least participate in using them. The Web 2.0 Awards list provides a wealth of information that I can use again, and I enjoyed my exploration on yelp.com. I liked the podcasts too.
The program assists me in lifelong learning goals by making me more knowledgeable about what resources are out there. It also gives me a little more confidence that I will be aware of Web 2.0 resources when they are mentioned by others. I hope I will be able to utilize them to help people in the library.
A take-away that surprised me is that so many people spend so much time engaged in Web 2.0 activities. I don't understand how people have so much time for it, but I suppose some make it a priority in their lives.
I would definitely participate in another discovery program like this one. I think it would be improved by being realistic about the amount of time it takes. I spent an average of two hours on each lesson, more on some. If I hadn't taken three months off right in the middle because of other things going on in my life I would have spent much more time on each lesson. However, if I hadn't had some help from a co-worker, I would have been hopelessly stymied at some points. That was what took the most time, trying to find my way when I didn't know what I was doing. I know that the leaders of the program at HCPL would have helped me too, but since I was under the gun, there was no way to call on them.

Thank you for introducing me to many fascinating Web 2.0 resources. I know I've barely scratched the surface.

Audiobooks

Since HCPL has Overdrive downloadable books, I focused on them. I established an account on our website. I looked at the titles we have available. I saw that there are quite a few reading list titles available in the Classics section. I also looked through the biography/autobiography titles. I am amazed at how many there are. We also have a large number of Mystery/Suspense titles. I was impressed by the large number of Laura Lippman titles we have, but disappointed that there were only three by Robert B. Parker. I like the way we have highlighted new titles and those recently returned on the "front page" of the service. I took the Overdrive Digital Media Guided Tour. It was very easy to understand and very thorough. Once I have an MP3 player, I will look forward to downloading something. One title I was interested in - Bad Business by Parker - has 5 holds on it, and we only own 1 copy, so that's disappointing.

I went to Project Gutenberg and was amazed by the quantity of titles that are available. Many are quite academic in nature. It's helpful to be aware of this resource.

Podcasts

I watched the podcast on podcasting and went to the Yahoo site to read the answers to questions about podcasting. I was all set to use Yahoo to explore podcasting, but at the top of the page Yahoo says that it is closing down the podcasting page at the end of the month. ("Yahoo apologizes deeply, but we will be closing down the Podcasts site on October 31, 2007.") So why start with Yahoo? I then decided to go to Podcast.net. The Learning 2.0 says that the three listed don't require a software download, but Podcast.net does require a software download. I am trying to download Juice, but I don't know if that's wise on the library PC, and I don't know if it's feasible as the minutes pass and the downloading continues.

Well I went back to Podcast.net and saw that you don't have to download the software, but they think it helps. I tried listening & watching podcasts without the software, and they were fine. I went under Learning and Instruction and then put in Spanish. I listened to a podcast called Doors to a World of Adventures from ISA (Iowa State University). It was interesting and gave a lot of information, including several professors talking about the value of taking Spanish or other languages, but ultimately it turned out to be a promo for ISA's foreign language programs. I tried another podcast. This one was a videocast lesson -- Spanish Arriba -- on adjectives. The teacher used cards and pictures to demonstrate as she talked about various vehicles. It was a good beginning lesson. Another podcast on Spanish was the first of a series of audio podcasts on verbs using a combination of Spanish & English. It was good also. I tried to add the RSS feed for Spanish Arriba to my Bloglines account. I didn't succeed in doing that, but I was able to add it to my Favorites. (Meanwhile when I went back to Bloglines I was reminded that I had a feed for New York Times Movie Reviews and read the review of The Jane Austen Book Club and was sent to a video preview of the movie as well. What fun!)
I also used library and libraries for keyword searches for podcasts. I did get a group from the Sunnyvale Public Library, but they were so low in volume that I had to turn it way up just to hear. I'm not sure the public would get a lot out of the ones I attempted to listen to. Another one I tried called Rock & Roll Librarian turned out to be aimed at the grandparents of the little girl babbling as her father talks about the book she is experiencing "Touch & Feel Puppy." It's funny, especially for the baby's family. The Rock & Roll Librarian has other podcasts too. One is an interview with Dave Roman from Nickelodeon Magazine, where he edits comics. The Rock & Roll Librarian himself is a young adult librarian. There is potential for libraries and librarians to produce some valuable work using podcasts.

I heard and saw Nini Beegan's podcast and vodcast on Merlin and think she did a good job of making it seem like a very accessible process. That was the feeling I came away with from the podcast lesson. Podcasts are accessible, and you can learn a lot from them or just enjoy them.

YouTube

I managed to see one video on YouTube, Rock 'n' Roll Library, a project done by some University of Pittsburgh Library School students. It was pretty cute, about a nerd who becomes a cool guitarist thanks to books he reads at the library. I tried to post it to my blog. I signed myself up to be able to do that, but then I couldn't get any videos to come up at all. They just kept loading. It's a peak time right now, after school time, so maybe I can have better luck later. I tried to view a lot of different videos with library themes. Some sounded cute, but I couldn't see any of them. I'll try again later. (I have seen quite a few YouTube videos broadcast on the Today Show. They seem to put them on the air when they are big hits around the world.)

I should have more to add later, but I want to keep moving for now.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=library&search=Search

Now it's the next day, October 3, and I still can't see any YouTube videos. They just won't come up. Also I tried the search for Library again, and it said: "Searching for videos is temporarily unavailable."

Web 2.0 Awards & yelp.com

I went to seomoz.org and read all about the web2.0 awards and about what web 2.0 is. It is a very interesting site with a lot to offer. There are so many categories for awards. I decided to take the selfish, non-professional route and go to the winner under City Guides & Reviews, www.yelp.com. The first thing that happened was that as soon as I went there, the site knew I was interested in Baltimore. How does it know that? Anyway, it asked if that's where I wanted to go, and I said yes. There are many categories of interest in the site, but I chose to look at restaurants. Under restaurants, there are again many categories. I chose seafood and read about the fantastic crabcakes to be had at Faidley Seafood and G & M Restaurant. They sound good to me. I also wanted to see how Charleston was rated, since I thought it was a wonderful restaurant for a special occasion. There were only two reviews, and they weren't very good. One was by a real sourpuss, Natasha R, so I discounted what she had to say, especially when I later saw her being just as negative in reviewing two other restaurants, Petit Louis Bistro (which I also like) and G & M. Obviously that is one aspect of Web 2.0 to be aware of, people can be extremely subjective and can say just about anything they want to, because there is little editorial control. (I think there may be some, because where people used curse words, either they bleeped them themselves or someone else did. Things are abbreviated or a letter is changed. You know what the person is saying, but it isn't spelled out.)
Could this site be useful in the library? Absolutely. If someone asks about places to go, it has recommendations and a map with the place marked on the map. You can zero in or out, just like on Mapquest. I checked on Pizza, and sure enough Matthews was at the top of the list. I've seen it on "Best Pizza" lists before. It's a place I've got to try as well as the crabcake places. Natasha R didn't review this place, so the reviews were all good.
I went on to desserts & bakeries. Everything sounds so good. I want to try them all.
Is the site totally comprehensive? No. I looked in some other areas by keyword -- rug cleaners (they listed three), ceramic tiles (listed several, but not the really great one I've been to recently in Parkville). They do list places they have no reviews for, such as the rug cleaners. And they do ask for you to contribute if they are missing something. To offer a more comprehensive review of the site, I wanted to move away from the Restaurants and Food categories, but then I saw that those really are the emphasis. They're the areas with the most reviews by far. So now I don't feel so guilty.

Zoho Writer - Online Productivity Tools

I signed up on Zoho Writer and wrote a little article about my mother's cat. I think I published it, and I think I posted it on my blog, but I'm not sure. Anyway Zoho Writer was easy to use, especially if you're already familiar with word processing. I didn't do anything wildly experimental, because the deadline to finish 23 Things is fast approaching. Well when I published this I see the article on Mr. Kitty did publish to my blog. How cool!

Mr. Kitty

In Memory of Mr. Kitty

 

I just want to say a few words about Mr. Kitty.  He was a stray gray tabby cat with a lot of white trim.  My mother started feeding him in her yard in Lexington, South Carolina, several years ago.  When my mother had surgeries and had to be in rehab for months, a friend (and I, when I was there) continued to feed him.  When my mother had to come to Maryland to live in an assisted living, I brought Mr. Kitty too.  I had taken him to the vet in South Carolina and learned that he was FELV positive.  So he had to stay indoors, but he couldn't mix with my indoor cats.  He stayed with my mother in her room at Catered Living of Bel Air.  He grew fat, but he was happy.  He stayed by my mother and purred loudly when I or staff came to visit and petted him.  I had been afraid that he would long to be outdoors again, having started life that way, but he became quite a bed potato.  When my mother had a fall and had to be hospitalized, Mr. Kitty continued to stay in her $3000 plus room for two months, and I would go visit him every day.  But my mother had to move to another assisted living, one which wouldn't let her have a pet, so I took Mr. Kitty to live with me in my guest room.  I went in to sit with him in the morning when I had my breakfast and in the evening after I got home.  He would get very close to me and purr and purr.  (He couldn't go out in the rest of my condo because I had three other cats of my own.)  He remained there with me since February, but just last week, he suddenly seemed to go downhill.  When he wouldn't come out on Friday and had stopped eating, I knew it was bad.  The vet said that the feline leukemia had taken its toll and that he would have to be euthanized.  I know she was right, because when we were in the examination room waiting for her, I petted him and petted him and he didn't purr and he no longer gazed into my eyes with adoration, but just looked straight ahead.  It's hard to lose such a sweet pet, and I miss him in the morning and in the evening when I would normally go visit with him.

Wiki Play

I went on the PB Wiki tour (short and sweet and seemingly easy). Then I accessed marylandlibrariessandbox. I added my blog name to HCPL's list after a few mis-steps. I created a new wiki page called Favorite Cats and added it to the list of links. I was able to get back to the paragraph by clicking on it. Hooray.

Wikis

I read and printed many, many pages about wikis. I am pleasantly surprised by how much I like the concept and the results. I haven't seen enough yet to see one that has gone terribly wrong, but I'm sure it can happen.
I loved the St. Joseph County Public Library Subject Guides. I had already checked it out earlier in the session before I saw that it was an "assignment." I happened to go to Pets, then to Cat Fanciers, and in no time I was reading about and looking at pictures of two breeds that interest me -- Somalis & Turkish Angoras. It was impressive to me that all that information was right there, so easily found. The wiki aspect is less obvious, but I see where a librarian has recommended a new book with an annotation. There are also links to local pet activities and to the pet magazines owned by the library with the holdings. It is all very user friendly. I also looked at the library blog entries on gaming, which should appeal to teens. There were photos of their own teens who had participated in gaming tournaments.
Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers Wiki was neat. It was done specifically for a summer reading event for adults in 2006. Maybe we could do something similar for the Adult Winter Reading Program? People wrote reviews of books they read.
Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day (hah!) seemed like a good way to present the material. It's not at all cumbersome.
I understand now why people have been talking about starting wikis here at HCPL, such as for updating the branch managers' handbooks or having one for our branch. As always, time is the main concern.
I've printed out a lot of the articles on wikis, and I will read them tonight.

Addendum on 10/1/07. I read the 30 or so pages I printed on wikis. Now it's time to try something.

Web 2.0 Perspectives

First of all, the YouTube video The Machine Is Us/ing Us by Professor Michael Wesch is fantastic. I found it to be very creative and also informative.

I read all the articles in the list. Some were too technical for me, especially the one by the OCLC Vice President. My favorite was "Web 2.0: Where will it take libraries?" (probably because Michael Stephens is a librarian). I liked his description of "user-centered libraries." They allow the users to help determine services, materials, and technologies. The librarian doesn't create policies and procedures that impede users' access to the library. Users are involved in decisions and have input. The librarian communicates with users online and connects with them. The library doesn't buy new technologies for their own sake. Technology has to meet the needs of users in a new and improved way. The Librarian 2.0 makes good, but fast decisions. (Then there was more technical info that I didn't understand in the section on the librarian being a trendspotter.) "The Librarian 2.0 understands that the future of libraries will be guided by how users access, consume and create content." And he closes with this: "Librarian 2.0 also listens to staff and users when planning, tells the stories of successes and failures, learns from both, celebrates those successes, allows staff time to play and learn, and never stops dreaming about the best library services." I have quoted and paraphrased liberally, but that was the best way for me to convey the content. I think HCPL does a lot of what he suggests already, but we can always continue to grow and change. Giving users and staff input is always a good thing.

Technorati

I've been to Technorati's home page and looked at some of the entries. New ones pop up every few seconds on their list. It reminds me of what I wanted to name my blog, but I didn't because it's the name of a book we own at the library. The title is It's All Too Much. I feel that way about all of this. Technorati is obviously a useful tool to zero in on subjects among other things. I read the long explanation of how they have worked to improve their service in many ways. I am trying to watch their video, but I don't seem to have enough memory or something. I heard a few words and then nothing, yet it seems to continue playing. Volume isn't the problem, because I do have it set high enough. I did a few searches in the meantime on Technorati, but the attempt to watch the Technorati video on itself has resulted in it never opening. And I can't close it. I'll have to shut down and start over.

My search of "Learning 2.0" led me to the most recent posting by Helen Bowers herself on her blog. http://www.librarybytes.com/2007/09/license-to-play.html She thinks there have been about 200 versions of Learning 2.0 launched. Her blog also includes Learning 2.1, which I looked through. It looks like fun. I tagged her blog to put on my del.icio.us favorites. I feel clever, oh so clever!

Many of the other entries on the list seem to be blog entries by other librarians participating in Learning 2.0. I won't be looking at those, and I refuse to claim my blog to have it officially listed on Technorati. No need to further clutter up the web any more than necessary. It's already "all too much."

I checked out the Popular heading on Technorati and went to the most "favorited" site, www.boingboing.net. It is very interesting. There was mention of books entitled "Uglies" & "Pretties," among others. When I clicked on that it sent me to Amazon.com and reviews of this series of teen books, the Uglies Trilogy by Scott Westerfield. Our system owns them, and I'm going to check out Joppa's copy of the talking book. By the way, when I went to BoingBoing, the filter stopped me due to nudity, but I imagine it's strictly of an artistic nature. So ultimately, I'm impressed by Technorati and consider it a useful site. I also tagged BoingBoing to look at again.

Del.icio.us

I went to Del.icio.us. I registered and added the two buttons. I tagged two things, including the list of 23 things, which has been tagged by quite a few others. Tagging in this way is easy. I think I'll use this new toy. I couldn't watch the video, because it was disabled on 7/24. I guess that's my punishment for being so late getting to this. I read two of the other "articles" highlighted, or at least most of them. They tend to go on and on and on.

When I went to look at my two tags on Del.icio.us I found that the 20 Top Magazine Covers was actually listed as four separate tags, so I bundled them under "magazinecovers."

Rollyo

I went to Rollyo. I created two searchrolls -- one on shopping (I ordered some tea from Harney and Sons while I was at it) and one on reference sources. I created the Rollyo link and put it on my blog. But when I went to Rollyo using that link, it said that user hadn't created any searchrolls. However the two of them are listed on my "dashboard." Confusing. Rollyo is not something I plan to use again, or at least I don't think so at the moment.

Library Thing

I explored Library Thing. I took the tour. I created an account. I added 6 books with tags to my library. And I've just wasted about an hour of time trying to create a link between Library Thing and my blog. Karen Dull helped me (by doing it). I was trying to find a way to put the link in this post, but she showed me that it goes on the side of my blog and not in the post. She was also able to put my avatar there. Yeah!!

Generating Images - Not Easy - Not Impossible

As you can see by my previous posts, I am attempting to generate images and am having sporadic success. Try as I might, I could not import my avatar. I will try again tomorrow with help from Karen Dull.

I went to The Generator Blog and explored a few of the tons of sites. I created my blues name - "Steel Eye" Nelly Nicholas. I went to Easystreet - Make Your Own Street Sign and made one, which I successfully downloaded to my blog. While I was at it, I downloaded a picture of my adorable great nephew Danny. But I wasn't able to put it all together with text and in a great format. I'll seek help tomorrow for that. For now, I have No Time to Generate and must move on.

First I went to Kitten Images but I ended up with a link to the page rather than an image of a kitten. Maybe I'll try that again.

I did try it again -- unsuccessfully. I also successfully, I thought, downloaded my avatar. It shows up fine in preview, but when I try to publish, it won't publish. Maybe that problem can be solved next time.

Top Rated Kitten Pictures

Top Rated Kitten Pictures

Online Image Generator

#9 Addendum

Today I went used some other search tools to access library-related blogs. I read some posts from Stephen's Lighthouse by Stephen Abram, Sirsi/Dynix's Vice President of Innovation and then went to lunch and did a few other things. By the time I came back, the mentions of his posts in the list using the Bloglines.com search tool were already back to page 6 on the list. Now there were many new postings. One that caught my eye was "Is There a Future for Libraries," which lead to this blog full of insight about libraries. The name seems to be Mentat and the writer is Lori Bowen Ayre. http://www.galecia.com/weblog/mt/archives/000271.php
It would take hours just to look at just these two blogs and forever to look at everything by everyone. Who has the time? Is this information/opinion overload? For me, it is, no matter how worthwhile much of it is.

Merlin, Second Life, & an Avatar

I went to MERLIN, read a bit about PLA (still in the early stages at this point), looked at the calendar of training around the state. I watched the Intro to Second Life and a few other short YouTube vidoes on Second Life, including How to Live a Second Life. I got caught up in trying to create an Avatar, which I did on Yahoo, but then I found I could only use it on Yahoo, which was disappointing, since I wanted to put it on my blog. I went to Feedster and learned that John Travolta has two dances of the top 100, including his dance with Princess Diana at the White House as number 1. Feedster didn't really give much in the way of library news or library blogs. It's too easy to spend much time on other things like Second Life and Avatars. Now I still have to find library-related blogs (tomorrow).

RSS Feeds

Today I watched two videos and learned about RSS feeds. I also signed up on Bloglines and subscribed to three different "Feeds." One was About Cats. Another was NYT Arts, and the third was NYT Movie Reviews. I looked through the articles from the first two feeds and read one from each. I wasn't interested in keeping those, and I deleted those feeds. The New York Times Movie Reviews was more to my liking. I read an article on the new movie Sean Penn wrote and directed, Into the Wild, and I read a review of the movie when I went back to Bloglines to re-check the feed for articles from further back.
As someone not really into surfing the web and reading blogs, etc., I have no interest in delving into RSS feeds beyond this at this time. If I can occasionally check for movie reviews in the New York Times, that will be enough use for me.

How Angie's List Helped with My Renovations

I think this is a good, although frustrating, learning experience for me, because I am being introduced to many new forms of communicating. My computer use has been much more limited. Obviously I use it at work a lot, but my personal use has been more limited to purchasing items from websites, often Amazon.com, but some others as well. It has been great for buying wedding presents from registries and for buying tea leaves that I can't get around here. Most recently, I signed up for and used Angie's List. For any who may not know, Angie's List is a resource to help members locate home improvement professionals in many different fields. They can be limited to your locale. The entries are made by other members. I found an excellent plumber (Cobra Plumbing in Abingdon) recommended there, and I had granite countertops installed by a local dealer, JPS Marble & Tile, that I never would have found otherwise, even though it's right in Forest Hill. Other people I ended up going with were recommended through word of mouth. The painter I'm using now was recommended by the plumber, for example. And the flooring person I chose was used by a neighbor. Oh well, I'm off the subject and back onto the topic of renovations, which has thoroughly occupied me for the past three months.
As a reality programming junkie, I have also occasionally dabbled in on-line discussion groups when I was especially interested in who I thought should win. It's fun to read what others have to say about the people on the shows, although I never contributed myself. I was lurking on the sidelines.
Ultimately though, it is amazing to see how much time people must devote to life on the web. To see what people have done in Flickr mashups alone is astounding. Maybe some of these people don't need much sleep?

Fisherkid & sunset ("Turkey scenery" from Flickr Postcards)

Flickr Fun

I'm back after a long break of renovating my condo, which is still underway, but the deadline for Library 2.0 is fast approaching.

I returned to Flickr and started investigating Third Party Apps. I tried Flicker Postcard Browser & found it amazing! I just entered search tag of Greece, and photographs came up in a grid. Once I saw that many of them were photographs of tourists that didn't interest me, I added to my tag the word "scenery." I chose to do "Turkey scenery" and was rewarded with photos of gorgeous sites in Turkey. I recommend Flickr Postcard Browser.

The first two Third Party Apps I tried didn't work. One was no longer there, and another just came up with a colored screen. Another implied it would crash my system. FlickRandom seemed to be just random photos, nothing special.

I spent at least an hour trying to download a picture from Flickr, with help from three staff members who have done it. It's been two or three months since they did it, and we couldn't get it to work.

Mashups are next.

Flickr Exploration

I explored Flickr some more. I took the Flickr tour. I've learned about tagging, and I've looked at groups. I focused on the Libraries and Librarians group. They had discussions about various things, including the legality of posting pictures of people attending library events on Flickr. That led to an article in USA Today on the topic. Someone also asked which Flickr librarians had MySpace accounts, and I looked at one of those. One thing constantly leads to another as you explore. I looked at several pages of the world map and brought up some pictures from places I've been to see what the pictures would be. (There was a great close-up photograph of a puffin in Iceland.) I think the world map is not the most time-effective way to do a search though. Previously when I searched Grand Tetons, that brought up lots of gorgeous pictures. Obviously having pictures tagged appropriately is very important for one to have an effective search. I will continue exploring Flickr to complete the assignment later. Ciao.

Reviewing the 7 1/2 Habits of Learning

I went back to review the 7 1/2 habits of learning. My biggest challenge will be in adopting Habit 4, to have confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner (specifically in the area of technology). I approach other challenges, such as learning a foreign language, with confidence, because I am sure of my abilities. When it comes to technology however I am more apt to engage in negative thinking and doubt that I will succeed. This is the attitude that I will work to overcome.

Hello, World!

Well this is my first attempt at blogging, and it's not going well so far. I don't like anything I've selected (my template, my blog name, etc.), and I wasn't able to download the picture I chose of the Grand Tetons on Flickr. I'm counting on fellow staff members to help me improve my very limited skills. Meanwhile, I don't suggest anyone look here for pearls of wisdom or exciting commentary.

The newest thing in my life is that I'm taking Spanish at Essex Community College. I just went to my third class last night. I'm really enjoying it so far and am looking forward to being able to communicate with our Spanish speaking residents in the future.

Hasta luego.