Thing 23 - The End

I really enjoyed participating in Thing 23; I learned a lot and it gave me an excuse to play around on the Internet. I would definitely participate in a program like this again - I thought I was pretty up to date on technology, but have learned that sadly, I'm really not. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to use everything that we've done at our library. Not just to aid us in helping patrons, but maybe showing patrons how to do some of these things for themselves. There is so much information out there - I'm excited to see what else I can learn.
The end.

Thing 22 - What Did I Learn Today?

Taking part in 23 Things has at times been frustrating, but overall has been a good experience. I've enjoyed seeing all the options that are out in the technology world, whether I think I'll use them or not. There are a few things that when I was first introduced to them I didn't think I would ever look at the site again. Of course, those are the ones that I've now become addicted to. My favorite Things were: Bloglines, LibraryThing, Facebook, discovering other social networks, and YouTube.

I'm not sure if I'll keep up with my blog. I don't have much going on in my life outside of work, so I think I would run out of stuff to talk about. Maybe I'll try it for a few weeks and see how it goes. I will be using many of the things I've learned, both at work and at home. I will also continue to play with the different technologies that I've started accounts with. There was so much information during 23 Things, that I don't think it had time to sink in. Now I can go back and actually take my time working through things.

Thing 21 - Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

I am a member of Flixter and of last. fm. I got involved in Flixter through my Facebook account, which had a movie application I added which created a Flixter account for me. I signed up for Last.fm in March and it has been awesome! At first it was a little creepy because of it's audioscrobber, but once I witnessed the amazingness that ensued I was converted. Last.fm automatically builds a profile for each user based on the music that is already on your computer and then can recommend other music or show you other users accounts that share your interest.

I'd be interested in using Gather and WebJunction in the future. I've tried WebJunction a few times and haven't been able to get it to work, but I haven't really been gung-ho about it. If I maybe applied myself I could probably get it to work. :)

Thing 20 - Libraries and Social Networks

I was already a member of Facebook before I got to this Thing. I admit, I was very anti-Facebook for awhile, but now I can't even remember why. It's been great for me. Since I moved away from my college town, it's kept me in the loop. I know when other people are coming back to visit, when there's going to be get-togethers, etc. The reason I like Facebook more than Myspace is simply privacy. There're sooo many more people on MySpace that it's scary. Facebook (in my opinion) has better privacy filters. With Myspace, it's either all or nothing whereas Facebook gives you options.

I do like the idea of using these Social Networks to get the library into a public place. I really like Hennepin County's MySpace page. I'd like our library to have one, but we would need to solve some filter problems before it would actually work.

Thing 19 - Podcasts

I'm a bit apprehensive about podcasts, I've said this before I think. This Thing changed my mind a little bit. I listened to a few from MPR - they're related to music and language. The one about music is really good. They had an entire episode all about The Clash!

I haven't done anything with iTunes U, but one of my friends plans on spending his summer at the lake using his iPod to study for the bar exam. The directories listed on this Thing were really helpful, as I had no experience in podcasts at all. I had some problems with podcast.net, but I'm not sure if it was the site or my computer. It kept timing out. I also wasn't a huge fan of the Educational Podcast Directory. It just seemed like it was too specific, but if you were in a situation where you were studying and needed that kind of information, it would be a valuable resource.

I have never done any podcasting myself and can pretty much guarantee that I never will. I did however subscribe to 3 different podcasts that I'll keep for a while and see how I like 'em.

Thing 17 - ELM Productivity Tools

I think all the ELM sites are incredibly useful. I wish our library had Proquest, but now I see that I can go in through http://elm4you.org and access it that way.

I tried to make a web page through EBSCO, but it seemed way to advanced for me. I was confused through the whole process, it didn't turn out and even if it did, I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to do with it. It wasn't on the internet, so was it a webpage? Much bewilderment. Setting up an account seemed like a good idea. It would be especially advantageous for using at home for saving articles and searches. It would make research really easy. It wouldn't work quite the same way at the library. We do such random searches for patrons that we almost never need to go back to the same search a second time. Maybe if we get interrupted or something.

I set up a search alert just to try it out. I checked my Bloglines account this morning and had over a hundred links. That's a lot. And most of them were from Australia and kind of repetitive. I wonder if there's a way to limit your search to just certain places? I'll have to do some more experimenting.

Thing 18 - YouTube

I don't have TV in my apartment, so I spend an awful amount of time on YouTube. There is so much stuff that is wonderfully time-wasting. YouTube is currently filtered on the computers at our library, I'm not sure if it's because of the content or more because of the bandwidth. There are some racy videos on YouTube, but it's way more conservative than what some people manage to find - even with the filters. One of my favorite things to search for on YouTube is movie trailers. It has made me really excited for this summer! The Incredible Hulk, Ironman, Dark Knight, X-Files, etc. The clip that I chose to embed in my blog is from Comic Relief in Britain. It is a sketch of David Tennant of Doctor Who fame and Catherine Tate, who coincidentally will be the Doctor's companion in the upcoming series.

Thing 16 - Student 2.0 Tools

I wish I would have known about these while I was still in school. (If they existed) I am a master procrastinator known to watch an entire season of a TV show to avoid getting my work done. These tools don't allow you to "forget" that you're supposed to be working on a project. I would definitely recommend this to students using the library, especially high school students. I think it could also be useful for the staff of the library. We could use it to keep on top of projects or events without becoming overwhelmed.