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.