Some of the other participants in this North Texas 23 Things Round-up made the comment that this was like taking a graduate level course without the pressure of writing papers. I would wholeheartedly agree! I confess that I was even a participant largely due to the fact that I am a distance SLIS student at UNT and had to take the summer off, so, in a sense, this was my graduate level course this summer.
The things I enjoyed the most (and will continue to use) are Facebook, Googlereader, and Delicious. It is weird that, even though I had my Facebook account set up a year or two ago, it really took off this summer, reconnecting me with old friends. I got totally addicted to Farkle, along with my sister and her friends. I will have to study more on using Facebook to promote libraries and my author friends.
A pleasant by-product of learning all this new technology this summer is simply the empowerment one feels when conquering new territory. It has made me more confident in other areas of my life and more willing to take on challenges. Change does not always have to be scary. Change can be cool and fun!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Developing 23 Things for My Library
As a school librarian, I was the only one at my workplace that did the "23 Things" this summer. There are a couple of ways to go forward in my situation with the 23 Things.
First of all, there are the teachers at my school. I have already talked to some about specific "Things" that I know that they as individual teachers would like. I need to talk to our tech guy after the flurry of beginning of the school year stuff settles about a school-wide 23 Things for staff. Our school is only K-8, how many of our students could use instruction on these things in computer class?
I also belong to a Region VIII Library Co-op. We have meetings three times a year. Perhaps a class or workshop at our Library Academy?
First of all, there are the teachers at my school. I have already talked to some about specific "Things" that I know that they as individual teachers would like. I need to talk to our tech guy after the flurry of beginning of the school year stuff settles about a school-wide 23 Things for staff. Our school is only K-8, how many of our students could use instruction on these things in computer class?
I also belong to a Region VIII Library Co-op. We have meetings three times a year. Perhaps a class or workshop at our Library Academy?
Podcasting
I both loved and hated this "thing"! I got frustrated over the number of podcasts that required an RSS feed (what if I didn't want a subscription after listening?) or a download to your computer in order to listen, or worse yet, had a link on a webpage, but were no longer available to download or listen to. Very user unfriendly! Also, the more people involved in talking, the more problems with sound. Some conversations reminded me of my old undergrad days, where anyone could sign up for time on the college radio station and talk about anything, whether the topic was of interest to listeners or not.
On the other hand, kudos to those libraries out there that recorded and archived author visits, book reviews, and book talks with embedded players, that all you had to do was click on a link and listen. I was mesmerized by a program by Laurie Halse Anderson, and had to go back to my library and check out one of her books, even though the program was an hour long!
On the other hand, kudos to those libraries out there that recorded and archived author visits, book reviews, and book talks with embedded players, that all you had to do was click on a link and listen. I was mesmerized by a program by Laurie Halse Anderson, and had to go back to my library and check out one of her books, even though the program was an hour long!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
YouTube
After watching several videos, I have decided that there are three essential elements that make a video effective:
1) Short--even some of the 5 minute videos were too long! Perhaps this is because we are used to 30 second commercials on TV, but if you can't make a point and move on in a minute or less, you are toast!
2) Lively--The ones that held my interest had upbeat music and kept an energized pace.
3) Informative--The new Azle, TX Public Library may be poised for the 21st century, but other than lovely architecture and sweeping views from the balcony, I can't tell from the video how this library is different from other existing libraries. It would have been better served to explain new services---or better yet, show them in action, instead of repeating slides over and over.
1) Short--even some of the 5 minute videos were too long! Perhaps this is because we are used to 30 second commercials on TV, but if you can't make a point and move on in a minute or less, you are toast!
2) Lively--The ones that held my interest had upbeat music and kept an energized pace.
3) Informative--The new Azle, TX Public Library may be poised for the 21st century, but other than lovely architecture and sweeping views from the balcony, I can't tell from the video how this library is different from other existing libraries. It would have been better served to explain new services---or better yet, show them in action, instead of repeating slides over and over.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Google Docs
Pretty cool! I enjoyed playing around with the document and presentation function. I had trouble with the spreadsheet (none of the tools were working) and tried to set up a form, but without the spreadsheet working, I don't know how useful the form is. The video had me excited though, for setting up schedules and such using the form.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Wikis
I love Wikipedia for all sorts of quick answers. Like last summer, when my book club was reading Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey" and the characters kept going to "the pump-room". What exactly is a "pump-room"??? Wikipedia to the rescue, complete with pictures and everything!
Or when I had to prove to my husband that "Big Yellow Taxi" (...they paved paradise and put up a parking lot) was written by Joni Mitchell, not Maria Muldair....
Or now that the movie "Julie & Julia" is out and KERA is showing episodes of Julia Child's TV show and I want to know a little more about Julia Child. (She really led an interesting life....)
I had never bothered with the other tabs before this 23 Things assignment. It is good to know about the grading system, and the discussions on the articles.
The WetPaint account was pretty easy to use. I was curious about the templates, but decided against checking them out. It was taking a long time to load pages just being plain!
Or when I had to prove to my husband that "Big Yellow Taxi" (...they paved paradise and put up a parking lot) was written by Joni Mitchell, not Maria Muldair....
Or now that the movie "Julie & Julia" is out and KERA is showing episodes of Julia Child's TV show and I want to know a little more about Julia Child. (She really led an interesting life....)
I had never bothered with the other tabs before this 23 Things assignment. It is good to know about the grading system, and the discussions on the articles.
The WetPaint account was pretty easy to use. I was curious about the templates, but decided against checking them out. It was taking a long time to load pages just being plain!
Friday, August 7, 2009
LibWorm
Who knew that there were so many RSS feeds for librarians and library issues that someone would have to create a search engine just to sort through them all? My "ah ha!" moment for this one came when I started to research open-source software on Yahoo and one of the articles near the top of the pile was written in 2002! Sometimes information is changing so fast that one wants the latest. LibWorm is helpful in this regard.
Subject links and tagging also proved useful in LibWorm, although some of what was considered "humor" was downright macabre. "Wicked" humor??
Subject links and tagging also proved useful in LibWorm, although some of what was considered "humor" was downright macabre. "Wicked" humor??
Saturday, August 1, 2009
LibraryThing
I had a hard time getting through this Thing, mainly because I couldn't find the sections on ThingLang, MarcThing, and ISBN check. Once the links were posted on the North Texas comments (Thanks again, speedylibrarian!) I read the articles, but didn't gain much insight.
On ThingLang: perhaps it is useful if you have a lot of foreign language books (academic library perhaps?) but my limited experience as a German major in college and occasional cataloger of a Spanish book is that foreign language editions generally have a different ISBN just as a different edition would in English, so I didn't understand the need.
HTML and XML are more foreign to me than Marc, so I probably wouldn't use MarcThing either, but it is a good thing for those "outside" the library field, I guess. And I haven't done enough cataloging to run across needing to do an ISBN check (usually the mistake is mine if I can't find a record through ISBN).
However, that said, I loved the discussion threads on "Librarians Who LibraryThing" and being able to get recommended reads based on current books. I may even use the social aspect to discuss books later...
On ThingLang: perhaps it is useful if you have a lot of foreign language books (academic library perhaps?) but my limited experience as a German major in college and occasional cataloger of a Spanish book is that foreign language editions generally have a different ISBN just as a different edition would in English, so I didn't understand the need.
HTML and XML are more foreign to me than Marc, so I probably wouldn't use MarcThing either, but it is a good thing for those "outside" the library field, I guess. And I haven't done enough cataloging to run across needing to do an ISBN check (usually the mistake is mine if I can't find a record through ISBN).
However, that said, I loved the discussion threads on "Librarians Who LibraryThing" and being able to get recommended reads based on current books. I may even use the social aspect to discuss books later...
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