Thing #23 Drum roll, please ...

I'm at the finish!  

Although I am a slow starter, once I got going, 23 things really pulled me along.  I like the way it is set up.  Had I gone through it with the group last summer, the experience might have been enhanced, but I rather liked doing it on my own.  I did periodically check out other completed blogs to see what other people had thought about various "things."  Interesting how differently each person reacts, with opinions ranging from "love it" to "hate it" to "yawn."  

I would definitely participate in a similar program, although I might wish for one that was a little shorter: a dozen things?  Yes, I know that there is that 43 things list ...

As with everything, there were the good, the bad and the ugly.  Let's focus on the good, shall we?

Flickr is ok, Librarything is ok (I can see that it's fabulous for hard core bibliophiles).  I really liked Rollyo and Del.icio.us.  I will use them and promote their use.

I enjoyed the learning, and particularly learning that my belief that my ability to learn was still intact, was not unwarranted.  (How's that for a murky sentence?)  A little creaky, a little flaky at the edges, but intact.

Thanks for the run; could we do just a 5K next time?  ;-)

Thing #22 Audiobooks

Since our library has Overdrive, I looked at that first.  In watching the tutorial, I became alarmed that it might not be available for Mac users, but in going to Maryland's Digital eLibrary Consortium, I was pleased to see "Announcing OverDrive Media Console for Mac!"  Apparently the tutorial was created a while back and the Mac development is quite recent.

I also discovered that there are now titles, both audio and video, that are always available!

No limit on the number of copies.  How cool is that.  I guess they may be ones in the public domain?

I checked out Project Gutenberg and thought the computer generated audiobooks quite odd.  That technology is miraculous for those who cannot speak but not appealing to one who loves words, written and spoken aloud.

What really drew me in, or perhaps sent me off, were the links  to LiteralSystems.org and Librivox.org.  They're looking for volunteers to proofread and also to read/record, and of course, donations to keep going in the quest to make everything in the public domain available to everyone.

As someone who loves to be read aloud to, (I used to show up in my sons' third grade classrooms when Mr. Jeff came to read), I love audiobooks.

Thing #21 Podcasts

Ask a Ninja was less than helpful, with his whales and apple pies.  Wow.

Of the directories, only the Podcastalley.com one worked.  (Server not found, yada, yada)  I don't think it's because I'm at home on my Mac and using Safari.  In poking around in the alley, I didn't find any that grabbed me enough to listen to it and I did not want to sign up anyway.  

Through Merlin I checked out how libraries are using it and then tried to subscribe to the Denver Public Library's Stories for Kids RSS feed.  (Which, by the way, seems to be the natural evolution from the dial-a-story services of some years back.  Oh OK, you're not that young that you can't remember those ... are you?)

Not only could Bloglines not find that, but then, when I decided to try again to subscribe to the Merlin RSS feed, it couldn't find that one either.  And no, I don't want to install the "easy subscribe button"!

Gr-rumph.

Thing #20 Do you tube too?

I could definitely waste a lot of time on YouTube.  I decided to look for video clips of Borzois in action and found "about" 667.  And watched all of them.   Not.  I settled on the one from Animal Planet, Breed All About It - Borzois.  I'm going to try to embed it but may have to settle for a link.

Borzois  

Of course, as I look again at the YouTube page for my chosen video, I see that embedding has been disabled by request.  Alas, you'll have to click the link.

Spaces between sentences

Today I learned that I am archaic, an anachronism, a dinosaur, a throw back (and redundant too).

Apparently, my use of two spaces between sentences is now wrong, wrong, wrong.  And bad mommy, I've taught my children to do the same.

A site that explains this quite clearly and firmly is Typography for Lawyers:  www.typographyforlawyers.com/?p=12

I, however, remain defiant and will continue to use two spaces until the spaces police come for me.  Buh wa ha ha!

Thing #19 the Web 2.0 Award goes tooo ....

nobody.  Well, maybe somebody.

I checked out most of the first place winners for 2008 from the short list.  I find it noteworthy that Del.icio.us won in two categories, since it was one of the of the "things" that I liked the most so far in this 23 things trek.  I looked at Craigslist first since I'd heard so much about it for so long now, but if you're not in a major market (which Hagerstown is not) then it isn't terribly useful.  Unless you want to buy something and are willing to go fetch or ship.  I suppose if you are wanting to relocate it would be good for finding an apartment and maybe even a job.

The music one, Last (www.last.fm/) was pretty cool; I could see using it to find music to give as gifts, like a reader's advisory for music.

Backpack would be very useful for those who do not have helpful computer dudes or dudettes to build intranets for them.

Color me blue: ColorBlender never did load.  Zimdesk is unavailable because they're building V.2; why V.1 is down in the meantime?  The rationale is a cosmic mystery.

Mostly, I yawned.  My attention strayed.  I didn't care.  Perhaps if I had a specific task I needed one of these tools for ... but then I didn't find the fun stuff much fun either.

Sorry.

The Sandbox, revisited.

I decided to give the "add a page" thing another try - and it worked! I have to give some credit to Liz, who, btw, dislikes PBwiki.

My page is titled Favorite Way to Re-center; here's the link:

Thing #18 Online productivity tools

But there's no equivalent to Publisher (or for Mac Appleworks users, Drawing) !!  Which I use alot! Because I like to!  Because I'm visual!

!!

So, okay, I did type a sentence in Google.docs and it were goot.  Easy to use because of its familiarity, but lacking soo many features.  I can only hope for Microsoft's Office suite to become an open source (is that the correct term?) online productivity tool.  And that's only because that's what the majority of people use.  I would love to be able to work on my documents from library to home and visa versa.  Without installing Office on my Mac.  Which we own and have on the boys' computers but haven't on ours because ... because...

Thing #17 The Sandbox

I figured out how to add my blog's URL and poked around a bit, trying to find other pages in the wiki - favorite books, favorite way to escape, anything at all.  I found a couple, but it was a chore.  I never did find out how to create a page to write, "whutevvvr!" on ...

Playing in the sand has made me hot and sticky and covered in grit.  (figuratively? virtually?)

Thing #16 Wikis

I do like what St. Joseph County Public Library is doing with their wiki.  They have information that is contained in our MD Share, often asked facts, and reader's advisory.  I could see where the user friendly design is more appealing than the standard library website; including a wiki modeled on St. Joseph's would be great.  But let's not be throwing the baby out.

The reader reviews on WorldCat, as with Amazon, are helpful.  Kindergarten lesson: sharing is good.  However, having a wiki that the public can contribute to means that libraries would have to have a staff person, or persons monitoring the content constantly and consistently, even using filters, to guard against inappropriate language, diatribes and spam.  Once set up, the time requirement might be small enough to be a daily task rather than a huge portion of the day.

I like wikis, I like them not, I like wikis, I like them not...

Used my recipe rollyo today!

It was too, too fun.  A patron came in to find a recipe for Black Walnut Cake, and I jumped on the opportunity to take my "I need a recipe for" rollyo out for a spin.  I sent him off with a recipe for a Black Walnut Pound Cake from allrecipes.com.  Hoo-wee!

Thing #15 Web 2.0, Library 2.0

It's a brave new world.  

I am both, challenged and invigorated by, and wary of, the library of the future.  The ever developing tools of web 2.0 allow for the expansion of the library far beyond the physical boundaries of the building.  Patrons can access materials and information from anywhere, needing only their magic wand of a library card ...

but what about the patron who cannot use the web, either because of financial inability or because of an inability to learn how to use the technology?  One librarian wrote of not becoming so enamored of technology that we lose the ability to pick and choose what actually works for us in meeting the needs of the patrons.  Another challenged us to walk away from the idea of building comprehensive "in case" collections.

I do not think of our physical collection as "in case."  The collection is there to service not only those with no access to computers and the internet, but those who still prefer the experience of holding a book and reading from the page, or watching a video on something other than a computer monitor.  (Although, as a side note, one son's new screen is probably bigger than that of the first TV we bought as newly minted adults.)  

I believe the need for a physical collection in a public library will exist beyond the five or ten years predicted for libraries to become something "substantially different."  I hope we never forget the one end of the spectrum in pursuit of the other. 

Thing #14 Technorati and the Bloposphere

That incredibly loud sucking sound is being made by the giant black hole of the blogosphere, which is growing larger with every keystroke I make.  I feel my karmic debt deepening.

Puleeze.  Once again, I'm opting for First Life.  I watched the "new and improved Technorati" video, and yes, it's all very nifty.  The woman narrating was obviously delighted with her toy, but when she said she checked one tag "like seven times a day," my head exploded.

I cannot imagine the enormity of wasted time spent reading blogs, checking out the latest on the RSS feeds, and watching videos of mantis shrimp or whatever is most popular at any particular nano-second in time.

I can imagine loss of productivity at work and at home.  And I can imagine plummeting patron satisfaction while reference librarians try to keep one eye on catching up with their favorite feeds, blogs and videos, while helping the patrons ... providing the librarians notice them to begin with.

Current status: Happy Del.icio.us me is back to being cranky old lady me.

Thing #13 Yummy, that's del.icio.us!

Yes, I'll have some more of that.  Here is a tool that I can imagine real world applications for and benefits from.  Personally, I am going to recommend its usage to my sons, because of its tremendous research enhancement potential.  

For use in libraries - what a great way to link readers of similar tastes, perhaps with LibraryThing.  Akin to Author Read Alikes, but better, to my thinking.  Of course, research assistance, including seasonally appropriate - holidays, taxes.  (That wasn't even a sentence.  Oh well.)

Oooo - look quickly; I'm currently not a grumpy Luddite.

Thing #10 Revisited

Well, I played with several, many, of the generators I found through generatorblog.blogspot.com mostly, though I did check out the others, especially the avatar generators.  My reaction?  

She ran screaming into the night, pursued by a never-ending horde of time-sucks waiting to happen.

A little cranky, are we?  The other problem I have is that I don't want to create any more accounts with login names and passwords that I won't remember because I didn't want the account to begin with!

Okaaay, I finally used the Library 2.0 Idea generator that I found in a post on generatorblog.  Here is the link:  http://www.daveyp.com/cgi-bin/12/ideas.pl

And here's the "idea", randomly generated, that I settled on: "discombobulate your flexible learning spaces with comfy chairs and coffee."

I added it to the whiteboard here:  http://www.daveyp.com/blog/stuff/whiteboard.php 

Thing #12 Rollyo, rollyo,rollyo, keep them dogies rollyo-in...

I actually enjoyed this one. And think it would be useful! for myself and for use in the library!
OMG!!!

Seriously, I think it would be a great time saver for frequently asked about subjects at the reference desk. For the patrons, the library could put a few well-chosen rollyos for subjects like job searching on the homepage.

Mine, however, is totally about food. Of course. http://rollyo.com/search.html?q=grilled+shrimp&sid=480923

Thing #11 -LibraryThing

Okay, that went smoothly. Technically, I only entered three books, but I'm telling myself that it's o.k. because one of them is a boxed quintet by Madeleine L'Engle. Here's the link: http://www.librarything.com/profile/theymademedoit

I found it reminiscent of facebook, with the automatic linking/networking and the chatting/blogging. All in all, not bad.

Thing #10 is not happening at this time...

Harry, Maria and I are trying this from the WMRL computer lab and all the sites we've tried require plugins. Since we don't have admin privileges, we'll have to try this from another location, another time.

Thing #9 revisited

I did subcribe to the Merlin RSS feed (it's at the very bottom of the homepage; thanks for the hint), but it is not showing up in my Bloglines account. I've refreshed a few times, but Bloglines still shows only 10 feeds.

???

Thing #9 Library RSS feeds

Reaction #1 - I don't have enough time for my first life, let alone a Second Life.
Reaction #2 - Feedster is not working, Topix is too blog heavy (just the facts, ma'am), and Syndic8 is like Wikipedia - reliable and yet ... not.

Time to move on.

Thing #8 RSS

So, yeah, I really want more information ... just kidding.

I wouldn't mind having my favorite favs coming in automatically, which would save me untold seconds of time wasted clicking on my favorite links. If I think in terms of breaking news of the monumental variety, then yes, I would like to know as it happens. The rest? Pffft.

Took some time to figure out how to add feeds, both suggested on the bloglines site and ones I had to search for. Once I did, it went pretty fast. Here's the share:

Share

Thing #7 - technology

Bah humbug. Oh, okay - I do enjoy many things that computers and the internet have to offer, digital cameras and cell phones and all the rest. However, some days it is all toooo much information (this from a librarian!) and I just "vant to be left alone."

Thing #6 Fickr fun, gosh darn it!

So I got really excited by the 3rd party app: Retrievr, where you can sketch a rough image and then photos that generally match your sketch appear to the right. Sketch tool works pretty well, giving you choice of line width and myriads of colors. The matchups were, however, not quite up to what I expected. In fact, most I could not figure out what elements were supposed to relate to what I had drawn. Fun but not satisfying.

Thing #5 Explore Flickr

I'm baaaack!

This is the Sallyport in the center of the main building (Lovett) on the quad of Rice University in Houston, Tx. Students at Rice "walk the sallyport" twice, once on the way into the quad as entering students, and again, going out, as graduates. It's a lovely tradition, one I hope to witness twice: first when the youngest receives his BA and then two years later when he receives his BArch. I will cry both times.

About Flickr: very neat; being a visual person, I could spend hours looking at photos. And then be irritated about the loss of time. Like facebook, I can see the benefits of the networking and sharing. We had problems with trying to use an image from Flickr - perhaps privacy settings, to protect copyright? Other photos might have worked. I ended up using a GoogleImage search and attaching it.

Thing#4 - Register your blog.

Since I am doing this 23 Things journey into learning about a year after it was first offered, I'm sort of out here on my own, quietly annoying Jennifer by popping up sporadically, with long stretches of silence between.  And long run on sentences when I do show up.

I've e-mailed the URL for my blog to Jennifer and tried to register my blog myself, as I figure she may be just a leetle busy with other things.  Hopefully, I haven't totally messed things up.

So, now I'm on to #5, Flickr.  When? Who knows?

Thing#3 - Set up your own blog

Well, since I'm posting to my blog...

Thing#2 - 7 1/2 habits

OK, here are the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners:

1.  Begin with end in mind.

2.  Accept responsibility for your own learning.

3.  View problems as challenges.

4.  Have confidence in yourself as a learner.

5.  Create your learning toolbox

6.  Use technology to your advantage.

7.  Teach and mentor others.

7.5  Play!

Easiest?  I'd have to say that #3 is the easiest for me, as I am a puzzle solver to the core.  The hardest part of #3 is that I have to want (be interested in) to solve whatever the challenge is.

The hardest is probably #6.  While I think technology is very cool (even though computers did force me to finally learn how to type... oops! keyboard), I find the issue is the time, or lack thereof, to learn how to use it all.  I find myself resenting the "theft" of my time by having to read absurdly thick manuals containing obscure instructions for myriad features that I don't want.  The operation of a lot of devices seems anything but straightforward, and sometimes I just want to get on with my life.  Sometimes, I don't want more and more choices!

Wow, did I just vent, or what?

Thing#1

Well, that was easy...

So, I'm blogging as a learning experience for work, for 1. the knowledge and 2. the CEUs.  I'm writing my very first blog from home because I can't seem to find time at work.  This is not a good time to ask for off-desk hours since we are now short staffed since two wonderful people have moved to new positions.  Hooray for them!  They will be fabulous, but sad for me as I will not be seeing/working with them so often.  

The reason for the name "reluctant blogger" is because I've always tried to keep a low profile, and things like blogging and social networking on the internet just seem so out there.

Okay, homework done - can I go out and play now?