Thing 47 Evaluation

For a while, I didn't think I would get back to this. I started and then February and March were very busy, but when I got back, I stuck to it. It was worth it. There were many fun things and many informative things. I didn't like Twitter, and I still don't see the point, except as a link to other places. Maybe that is the point. I learned new things, at my own pace, which is my learning style. I would do this again, if there is the opportunity.

Thing 46 WebJunction Minnesota

I am familiar with WebJunction (Minnesota). I've been to a couple of workshops and have browsed it quite a bit. I am getting ready to inventory the library computers in Tech Atlas. It really offers a lot of information in the library business. I hope to keep up with it often.

Thing 45 Cloud Computing

I didn't know that it had a "name", but I've been participating in cloud computing for awhile, anyway. It's a handy thing to have, for instance photos, parked somewhere else for use anywhere. When I was doing the Halloween scrapbook of my grandchildren, I accessed my daughter's photos on Snapfish. I read a few of the articles and found them informative. It's really nice to learn more about what's inside the web.

Thing 44 The Economy

This was interesting. There are so many options for maintaining your budget and saving your money. I really liked the coupon sites and the "deals". I'm going to go against the tide of people putting out gardens this year. I decided to just go to a Farmer's Market instead.

Thing 43 Online TV & Video

I had heard of Hulu, but not Joost. I really don't want to watch tv on my computer. I don't watch tv much in any case, but it is a place to find an episode of something you really want to see, or you may have missed. I have heard people say they watch many episodes of shows every week, so it does have a place these days.

Thing 42 Music 2.0

I've really enjoyed learning about these. I often listed to MPR online, but I haven't gone beyond that. This really expands the options. I did set up a radio station, which is fun, and I will try out other genres of music. I have Googled music lyrics for patrons in the past, but I bookmarked a couple of the sites for lyrics.

Thing 42 Music 2.0

Thing 41 Mashup Your Life

I signed up for FriendFeed, invited a friend and added a few of the Web 2.0 sites to it. I will check it out for awhile.

Thing 40 Mashup the Web

How To Use Polyvore by mjohland on Polyvore.com

Thing 40 Mashup the Web

This mashup links Twitter and Google: I Googled Hubble and the results were side by side--kind of neat.
http://linkstore.ru/got/

This was fun: You put in your Twitter name and it brings in photos based on what you've searched lately in Twitter: (I got this at mashupawards.com)
http://portwiture.com/

The picture from the BigHugelabs turned out to be very small, but it does link to a bigger one on their site.

Thing 39 Digital Storytelling

This would be great fun to do. The scrapbook pages I made didn't quite fit with the pictures. But the idea is there.

Thing 39 Digital Storytelling

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thing 38

Registration Form

Thing 38 Screencasting

This was a challenge. And I would like to try it again. I think it could be a helpful tool in a number of ways. I just had a hard time understanding it at first, and then trying to get the video into the blog wasn't easy. I didn't have a mic, or I would have added audio. I tried to embed the video into the blog, but it didn't work, so I put in a link to the video. Maybe I'll be able to try again to get it. I watched all of the tutorials and tried a couple of different ways to do this, but finally just had to finish.

Thing 37 Photo Tales

I thought that SlideRocket was very nice looking. That would make a nice presentation. I spent too much time writing captions for our Art Show montage on One True Media, because they wouldn't upload the captions without paying for them! WASTE OF TIME. I've worked in Flickr quite a bit, so I wanted to try out another photo site. I did the mosaic and Picnik--they were fun.

Thing 37 Photo Tales

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

Today will be a better day, I'm sure. I was able to upload the cartoon!

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

I made my own cartoon, honest I did, but so far I can't get it to come up. I'll try again. It was a fun little project and I did quite a few of the things on this. I think there were a few things that could be useful, besides being just fun.

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

Your fairy is called Columbine Goblinfilter

She is a bringer of riches and wealth.

She lives in mushroom fields and quiet meadows.

She is only seen on midsummer's eve.

She wears lilac and purple like columbine flowers. She has gentle green wings like a butterfly.

Get your free fairy name here!

Thing 35 Books 2.0

Most of all I think this Thing proves that people love books and are going to read, no matter what format. I don't know if the paper book will ever go away, or if it matters, as long as people want to read. I can see in our library that books are bigger than ever. The more I buy, the more they read. It's fantastic!

I followed most of the links in the Learn section. I bookmarked many of them. I set up some apps in Facebook, and I'll check them out further.

I think the future of libraries is an interesting one. Our community is using the library in many more ways that when I moved here thirty-something years ago. There have been comments about how many people just come here to sit and read. Maybe there's a need for a "get-away" place in our busy lives.

But back to books--I'm very hopeful that all of the online sites are encouraging books and readers, so it does come back in a circle--what fun it will be to see what happens next in the book/library world.

Thing 34 Is it Competition? Online Answer Sites

This is a very interesting topic for librarians. The articles had good things to say about libraries and how to change with the times. Reference work has changed a great deal. The internet is enormous and has a lot of information of varying quality. The key is knowing what information is true and what is not. Kids especially seem to believe anything that is online. I don't really know what will happen to the reference desk. I think it is a part of libraries, but these days, libraries are so much more. The answer sites were kind of fun. There seemed to be quite a bit of advertising on the ones I looked at, but there certainly seems to be a need for people to find answers to their questions. I hadn't heard of Slam the Boards, but that's in the "if you can't beat'em, join'em" arena.

Thing 33 Travel 2.0

This was great! I went to most of the liked sites and found fun and interesting information. Patrons often ask about travel information, so it's great to have some sites to tell them about. The travel/social networking thing seems inevitable. The review sites were pretty good. I can understand wanting to keep track of your travels with the journaling site. I think my favorite is Trip Touch, but I am now following a couple of the sites on Twitter--Crankyflier is fun.

Thing 32 Google Maps & Mashups Part 2

I enjoyed this Thing more than the Twittering. I have done quite a few maps for our patrons, so it wasn't a new thing. I did a mashup, but it didn't want to allow me to put it into the blog, so I just went with the map. I also followed many of the links about the Google maps and other online map searches.

Thing 32 Google Maps & Mashups

View Larger Map

Thing 31 More: Twitter

Too much Twittering. I'm not on board with this. But I'm reading and trying things out. I couldn't find anything I'd want to add myself to in the Tweeter Directory, so I didn't. I guess I can't say that I'm in the Denial stage of Twittering, because I do have an account, so I guess my stage is Presence. I do look at it and follow a few, but it just doesn't feel like my kind of thing right now. I'm not sure I can say what I think Twitter is, from that list of descriptive words. I think it's boring and not worth all of the time I've put into it. I can't even get my daughter to sign in to Twitter, and she's into most things technological. I'm looking forward to moving on to Thing 32.

Thing 30 More Ways to Use RSS & Delicious

The computer I used during the first 23 Things crashed, so I've started over with most things, including Bloglines and Delicious. I feel bad that I can't keep up with alot of these things, and I would like to have spent more time browsing these and setting up bookmarks, but the time element is so not there right now. I'm just trying to keep up with the Things. When I had Bloglines set up the first time I did check it daily and kept up reading the feeds. I think it would save time, because now I've been checking the websites that I used to have feeds to. Filtering is good and I also found a few pages on Delicious to bookmark again.

Thing 29 Google Tools

I've used the Search Tools in the past. I don't particularly like the Google news, but I did try customizing it. I have a GMail account, but I set it up recently, and didn't know about all of the extras. I went into the Lab and tried a few of the options there. Some of them worked, and some didn't, but it was interesting to try them. I'll keep them in mind and try a few more out in the future. The Google 411 was funny, and could work. Maybe I'll try it. I've downloaded the Google Desktop. I'll see what I like with that.

Thing 28 Customized Home Pages

I've had an iGoogle page for a long time. It's a fun thing to do and really can jazz up the start. I tried the others and really liked Netvibe the best. They are are easy to set up and can be changed easily also. I have a lot of news sites, weather, calendar, Google map, a clock, moon phases. I change it around occasionally. I'd like to make my own widget sometime, so I'm going to keep that page bookmarked.

Thing 27 Twitter

This involved alot of reading, trying things out, trial and error. I just don't do alot of this online socializing. It is interesting in it's own way. I have a couple that I'm following (the More things, for one) I think it may be used as a resource for people who are on Twitter, and can get quick updates and links. I had trouble with the badge. I'll try again another time. I was surprised to see that I'm following people that I've never heard of. In reality, I'm only following two right now.

Thing 26 Join the 23 Things On a Stick Ning

I had joined the orginial version of this, but updated my profile and added a photo. I joined a discussion about Bill Holm, invited a friend to join and asked to join the SMILE group. I hadn't participated after the first 23 things, but may try to keep in touch now.

Visit 23 Things on a Stick

Thing 25

I had a bunch of trouble trying to get to this point. I updated my "old" blog, but not the template, so I couldn't find the layout. It took alot of help screens to figure out that I also had to update the template. I seem to have to do things the long way around. But I did enjoy setting up the Animoto gadget--I'll use that in the library blog. I linked this blog to the Winthrop Library blog, set up Clustrmaps, and for the 4th thing to do on this Thing, I found the photo resizer site. This was great! I have a patron who has been trying to figure out how she can do this, and now I'll be able to help her with this. So even though I was going to just give up on this year of Things, I'm glad I tried again. (I also had trouble trying to separate this blog from the library blog--it took many tries and help screens with that, and then when I signed up for the Things, something happened that I didn't get signed up--and I thought this year would be easier !??)

Tea

Thing 24 Part 2

I changed my blog again. There wasn't anywhere for comments on the other blog template (not that I'm expecting many comments.)

Thing 24

I have tried a few blog templates, some worked, some didn't. I'm not a real fan of this one, but I just can't spend any more time on it (fun as it is). After the 23 things were completed, I set up another blog just for the library. I've kept it up to date, and it does have a link from our city web page. I advertise it, but I don't think it has much business. I don't look at many other blogs, nor do I comment on them. I'll try to get to that, too.

More Things

I've finally arrived at the time and place to continue the Things. I did a lot better getting started last year. I have added a new template, and I hope to get further next time.