MorethingsinWinthrop

Thing 47 Evaluation

2009-05-28T11:19:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-26T10:38:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-21T17:25:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-21T16:16:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-21T16:04:00.002-05:00

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.

2009-05-16T16:36:00.001-05:00

Thing 42 Music 2.0

2009-05-13T10:42:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-13T10:37:00.000-05:00

Thing 41 Mashup Your Life

2009-05-12T15:14:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-12T13:50:00.002-05:00

How To Use Polyvore by mjohland on Polyvore.com

Thing 40 Mashup the Web

2009-05-11T14:48:00.007-05:00

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

2009-05-10T17:35:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-10T17:32:00.002-05:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Thing 38

2009-05-10T16:50:00.002-05:00

Registration Form

Thing 38 Screencasting

2009-05-09T10:50:00.006-05:00

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

2009-05-07T10:45:00.007-05:00

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

2009-05-07T09:48:00.001-05:00

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

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

2009-05-07T09:30:00.000-05:00

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

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

2009-05-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

2009-05-05T15:21:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-05T14:30:00.001-05:00

2009-05-05T13:38:00.000-05:00

Thing 36 Comic Relief--Generate Some Fun

2009-05-05T13:29:00.003-05:00

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

2009-05-02T16:23:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-02T13:41:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-30T11:51:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-30T11:05:00.002-05:00

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

2009-04-30T11:03:00.002-05:00

View Larger Map

Thing 31 More: Twitter

2009-04-28T11:21:00.004-05:00

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

2009-04-26T13:20:00.004-05:00

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

2009-04-24T19:28:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-23T19:09:00.003-05:00

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

2009-04-21T17:52:00.008-05:00

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

2009-04-20T09:40:00.001-05:00

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.

2009-04-20T09:38:00.002-05:00

Visit 23 Things on a Stick

Thing 25

2009-04-20T08:29:00.002-05:00

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 !??)

2009-04-19T17:36:00.001-05:00

Tea

2009-04-19T17:07:00.001-05:00

Thing 24 Part 2

2009-03-17T16:27:00.001-05:00

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

2009-03-10T10:28:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-09T15:06:00.004-05:00

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.

2008 Tea

2008-03-31T18:30:00.002-05:00

Thing #23--I'm sorry we're at the end.

2008-03-30T12:58:00.002-05:00

I have learned so many new things, and had fun while I was at it. I wasn't sure I would be able to fit in the time to do this, and there were some times I didn't. I didn't often have time to write very much on the blog--that was the hardest part. But what I gained doing the things was the point anyway. Learning to set up the blog itself was great, and how to add slide shows and videos will add greatly to the Library blog I plan to set up. While doing the Things, I added library elements that I can transfer very easily. I would definitely participate in another online course. As I said in another posting, the newsletters really added to the lessons, and it would be great to have a newsletter every once in awhile with new Things to do. My words of wisdom would be "Just try it!"
Mary Jane

Thing #22 Staying Current

2008-03-30T12:45:00.003-05:00

I do hope to have a Library blog that will link to our "always outdated" web site. It is so much easier to keep up the blog, I'm finding out. At least I hope when I am working on other projects, that it will still be easy for me to do it. It would also be good to have links, such as the 23 Things blog has, to give our patrons an opportunity to try out new things. What Did I Learn Today? is my motto.

Thing #21 Other Social Network Sites

2008-03-30T12:35:00.003-05:00

I guess there is some Thing for everyone. I could relate more to these--they were more "my age". I still don't have the need for everyone to know every thing about me--what music I like to listen to, what books I like to read. And I'm not all that interested in others interests, either. I do think that when I retire, I may like to join some of the library-related social network sources and keep up on what is going on in the ever-new library world. I liked Gather and Minnesota Readers and Minnesota Life. If I had time to, these are the ones I think I would join. I have and continue to use WebJunction. It isn't always updated as well as I would like. I was looking for some beginning computer users handouts, and the ones on WebJunction were pretty old. I set up a Ning account. I didn't have any trouble posting the badge or the widget, but it was nice to have the heads up, just in case.

Thing #20 Libraries & Social Networks/Newsletter 8

2008-03-30T11:33:00.005-05:00

I'm so happy to be able to blog again. I've been forced to do too many everyday library tasks to continue the Things. I have been reading the Facebook articles off and on however and thinking about them. This is really a teen thing, for sure. Newsletter 8 came also during my hiatus (I love the newsletters, can you keep sending them, so I can keep trying out the new things?) . The newsletter brought me back again to YouTube, where I watched some of the Award winning videos. And I went to makeuseof.com--that's a keeper. Some of the library MySpace pages seems too pathetically trying to be hip. But I found a useful presence for some. I know the idea is to just to have kids be aware of libraries at a minimum. The Pew Internet study reinforced some of my own observations about the social networking sites. For instance that they are used for sharing artistic creations; girls blog more than boys; boys used the sites more for viewing videos and posting their own videos. In our library, I can see that when boys are communicating on these sites, it's usually with a girl, other wise they are playing games, or watching the videos. I also think that for the more technologically aware, e-mail is the new snail mail. I just hope that kids will wise up at some point and realize that what they post on the Internet IS world wide and possibly can be seen by many and may be used against them.

Thing #19 Podcasts

2008-03-14T18:52:00.003-05:00

I added a couple of the RSS feeds of Podcasts on the list to my blog reader account. I'm not interested in doing podcasts, but for those who are, this is another of the many ways of expressing oneself.

Thing #18 YouTube

2008-03-14T18:37:00.002-05:00

I didn't really want to spend the time looking for a video. But I did want to set it up and post to my blog, so I picked a video already posted on Thing 18. I am so glad for the instructions on how to create and add so many features to the blogs. I do plan to have a library blog when this is done. It is so much easier to maintain than a website. I'd rather just have a web page and a link to the blog. The learning experience on the 23 Things is just great!

Conan the Librarian

2008-03-14T18:36:00.001-05:00

Things #16 and #17 Report Calculator and ELM

2008-03-12T11:08:00.002-05:00

I appreciate both of these Things. I would use the Research Project calculator and I would recommend it to students. I didn't spend too much time on the ELM productivity tools, because I use them regularly and have participated in holding a workshop on using some of them. They are wonderful tools. There is access to so many areas through them. Another good tool for librarians is the Minitex reference librarians. They are very helpful when we seem to be stuck on a question.

Thing #15 Libraries and Games

2008-03-12T11:01:00.002-05:00

This is not my Thing, for sure. I have enough trouble keeping track of my real life, much less a virtual life or two. On the other hand, maybe I could be on a virtual beach right now, reading a virtual book. Say, maybe I'd better think more about this. However, I know it is a popular thing to do, and I did do the Pirate game for awhile. I guess libraries can put in a presence here, also, as some are doing. I had a preconcieved idea of this before I read the Thing topics, so I'm not as judgemental as I was.

Newsletter #5

2008-03-08T15:27:00.003-06:00

The newsletters are very informative and fun to read. They really reinforce the Things. I went back a few Things and created a trading card, but it didn't fit in my blog very well, so I went back and created a puzzle from the picture I had selected. I read again about the collaborative sites and though I still haven't added to the Wiki, I may do that yet.

Thing 14 Library Thing

2008-03-07T18:46:00.002-06:00

I seem to like anything with Library in the title, and this was fun to read about and try out. I just can't imagine who thinks up these things. It could very well be the next step in library cataloging.

Thing 13 Productivity

2008-03-07T18:06:00.000-06:00

I haven't been very productive while I've been trying out all of the gadets and widgets and productivity tools. But I have a really spiffy Google page and with the calendar, I should be able to keep track of everything. I looked at Backpack and some of the other online tools, but I wasn't interested enough to download them now. Dreaminder is offline at the moment, but I may take a look at that one when it's back. I downloaded CutePDF, which may be helpful. There were quite a few interesting ideas on this Thing.

Thing 12

2008-03-04T17:59:00.000-06:00

This Thing took a lot of time to read through all of the social media sites. I wasn't too impressed by them, except that if you really want people to know your opinion about everything, these would be right up there on your list. Newsvine was interesting to me, because I do read a lot of news. I'm not that interested in knowing how many people are reading the same things I am, though. I'm not sure how useful they would be in a library setting. Someone else will have to tell me how that would be beneficial. I think they would most lead people to read fluffy stuff--"news of the weird" type of stuff. I'm not inclined to take my time to read that.

News #4 Slide Show

2008-03-04T15:27:00.001-06:00

Keeping Up Issue 4

2008-03-01T09:54:00.000-06:00

I have tried the Meeting Wizard, which is really great. I'll probably try the other versions of this also. The other potential meeting participants, also library directors, thought it was cool, too. Unfortunately, we still can't come up with a day for a meeting to which everyone of us can attend. I wish there was a wizard for that

2008 Art Show

2008-03-01T09:53:00.001-06:00

Thing 11

2008-02-28T11:34:00.000-06:00

After seeing the tutorials, I set up a del.icio.us account and tagged a few pages. Right now it's just another way to bookmark a page. Perhaps when I am doing research it will be beneficial to see other tags that go along with what I'm trying to find.

Thing 10

2008-02-26T10:33:00.000-06:00

I added a comment on the 23 Things on a Stick wiki. I learned about the process of adding and editing information on a wiki. It could be useful to organizations working on a project, or just adding information when you have knowledge of a subject. It does kind of reinforce my overall impression of the Internet (which I use daily and am grateful for in the larger sense) as a narcissistic tool for people who are very impressed with their own knowledge.

Thing 9

2008-02-21T13:55:00.000-06:00

I opened an account in Zoho and edited a document in Google Docs. It's pretty straightforward stuff that has its use. I think it could be helpful to have an online file that would be accessible to a group that is working on a project. It could also be chaotic.

Thing 8

2008-02-21T10:24:00.001-06:00

Here's something fun. And it would be nice to be able to add pictures or a slide show so easily to a library blog.

Thing 7

2008-02-18T14:57:00.000-06:00

These things were easier for me, because I already have an IM account and have allowed it on our patron computers for many years. I could see the benefit of having an IM address for patrons to access the librarian. That's the way kids communicate these days--when they're not texting or talking on cell phones. I would consider adding that to our services. We have had e-mail service for many years, and patrons are comfortable sending e-mails with requests, or asking for information. I have participated in webinars and teleconferences. I hadn't heard of Meebo, but it seems like it would be the next logical step. I signed up for Twitter, but so far haven't found anyone to talk to.

Things 4-6

2008-02-17T14:20:00.000-06:00

I thought this should be easier, and maybe it is. It takes time, for sure. I'd like to try the mash-ups, too. I'll see if I can do it next time. I did use Flickr and Picasa. The automated world is just expanding before my eyes. I'm finding all of the links to library sites and information very interesting. I hope to use some of that also in the future.

Thing 3

2008-02-16T15:39:00.000-06:00

I had observed the RSS feed symbol on many websites, but hadn't gotten around to looking into the particulars. Since I am a "news freak" I added them as RSS feeds, along with my daughter's blog and a few library related sites. I think this is very interesting. I didn't think any of this was difficult to set up, but the Palinet clip was very easy to understand. I would recommend that one for beginners. There are many ways to get information, and here is another one.

Thing 2

2008-02-13T11:12:00.001-06:00

It's true, as Stephen Abram said, that I can find the time to do whatever it is I really want to do. But there are so many things that I want and need to get done that it is really a moot point. I'm doing the 23 Things because I do care about the future of libraries and I know that we are in the front of the line, especially in a small community, of new ways of doing things. That would come as a surprise to many, I think, who were of the opinion that when the internet came, libraries would be extinct. I'm almost at retirement age, and I'm happy to see that the future librarians are looking at libraries in a new way, and are excited about melding libraries and technology to give our communities a new way of learning and connecting with books. I've always enjoyed learning the new wave of information, so I couldn't resist the 23 Things. I like the Wikipedia entry about Library 2.0: Beta is forever. That's what it seems to be--life right now is always in the Beta test and the end changes before we get there, so we don't really know how this will all come out, but we're having fun trying all of the new stuff.

Blogging

2008-02-10T16:40:00.000-06:00

Thing 1:

After setting up the blog a couple of weeks ago I finally was able to get back to it
I watched the very good tutorial about setting up a blog and I wish I would have watched it first
I hope to get better at paying attention to the details