Thing FIVE

What fun this stuff is! I could play around with this for hours (not that I haven't already!) We've already thought about using some of these tools to make a magazine-type flyer for people in our area. Trading cards may be in the cards for the up-coming summer reading program. I think the kids will have a blast getting trading cards featuring themselves. The mash-ups are fun to play around with, but I haven't exactly figured out how we may use them in the library. Perhaps just as an addition to our magazine.

I still don't feel completely comfortable having all of my pictures online for any Joe Blow off the street to peruse. But, I'm getting used to the idea.

Thing THREE

Good grief, Charlie Brown. Here I was putting other NCLC blogs on my RSS account, scanning what was being said, and wondering how I put one of those icons on my blog so that people can just click it to add me to their RSS accounts. Thank you 23byBeth for sharing the fact that the Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) at the bottom of my blog is what you would click to add me to your RSS account, or what I would click to add you to my RSS account.

I get what RSS is, and I think it will save me some time. I won't have to check out a bunch of un-updated blogs to find out what progress others are making on their 23 things. There are about a million blogs I could get sucked into RSSing. Mostly I'm attracted to the ones that make me laugh: The Laughing Librarian and Unshelved. I also added Paper Cuts - Books - New York Times blog and Reader's Club: Book Reviews. I did add the weather, but I can't imagine checking to see if it's been updated, I imagine I'll get rid of that one before too long. I've got that page already saved in my bookmarks--much easier to just go directly to their website. The same with other news pages, so I haven't put anything beyond blogs and weather in my RSS. I suppose time will tell how much I will use Google Reader to check up on these things I've subscribed to, but for the moment I don't know that it'll be much. I'm not sure how I did it, but I've got a couple of 23things blogs on my tool bar. Wish I could remember how I did that. That is SUPER HANDY, I don't have to go anywhere in order to find out if my fellow bloggers have added anything.


I've heard of classes that have set up blogs--much like 23things--and the teachers that can easily access their students progress. That would be a pretty nifty application for this tool. How we would use this in our library is beyond me at this point. We're too small, and too poorly funded to do most of the interesting/exciting things that bigger/better funded libraries can do. But, I'm keeping an open mind--who knows what the future may hold.

Thing TWO

My goodness, so much is out there that I wasn't aware of. I spent a good part of the day reading about Library 2.0, and although much of it goes right over my head, I hope it won't be over my head for long. The more I learn the more I find out I've got lots to learn. I had never even heard of most of the web tools mentioned by Stephen Abram. Sure, I've heard of MySpace, Facebook and IMing, but I've never really delved into them. Weebo, Skype, and all the other sites mentioned in the video are new to me. Where to find the time to find out more about these things? I suppose I'll have to play a little less Text Twist and Word Racer for the next couple weeks (ha).

Why am I participating in 23 Things On a Stick? You might think that working at a library in a community of less than 700 would mean that these things aren't relevant to me. The two YA's that were in the library yesterday while my director and I were discussing our involvement with the 23 things said they didn't know what blogs are. Hey, let's learn about something before our patrons do! If we know about it first, then when they come with us with questions about these tools, we'll have some personal experience with them and will be better equipped to answer their questions.

And the question, "How has the Internet and the vast resource it can be affected your use of time at work and/or at home?" has me a bit stumped. I no longer have to run to the card catalog when I want to know if we have a book in our collection (small library, we only got rid of it about 5 1/2 years ago.) I regularly use MyFamily to keep up with family and friends. I don't need to phone around to find things out, I use the internet. Hard to believe that for me computers entered my life in 2nd grade (remember programming the turtle to move around the screen?) Any questions you may have, you can find an answer to online (although they may not all be good answers.) How has all this affected my use of time? Good question. Do I have more time than I would if the internet were not such an intrinsic part of my daily life? Perhaps not. I wouldn't have as many choices or as much information available to me as I do now though.

Lots more to learn. What will this mean for our small town library? I don't really know yet. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with some ideas to help our community think of the library as the first line when they have questions, instead of the last line. Hopefully we can spark some dialogue with our patrons and find ways of enticing non-library-users into our fold.

Thing ONE

Okay, so we're supposed to add on our avatar. I did but was disappointed that the background of it isn't part of the picture. I'm not sure what part of the directions I missed (if any,) guess I 'll just have to keep playing around with it.

Now to try and figure out some of this other stuff. I think there's a way to add a counter to a blog, but I'm haven't figured it out yet. A little nervous to try new stuff in case I end up in
cyber-la-la land. I think I can, I think I can. . .

Thing ONE

I've never blogged before. This is a new and somewhat daunting adventure. I've read blogs; in fact I have a couple of friends who have blogs, but I can't say that I've done anything beyond reading theirs. This should be interesting.

So far it's kind of fun.