Thing 23

As a technologically challenged person, 23 Things has been an adventure in learning for me. I learned the basics of using websites I had never even heard of. My favorites were Flickr, RSS feeds and much to my surprise, YouTube. The exercises I did not find especially useful were Technorati, Del.icio.us and podcasts. It's great that we were all given the opportunity and encouragement to participate. I liked the self-paced format a lot. Hooray! I'm finished!

Thing 22

I saw Project Gutenberg keeping classics alive,
Then downloaded two books from Overdrive.
I tried to copy Wayne Dyer to a CD,
But Windows Media Player would not agree,
So later, to copy a CD I will strive.

Thing 21

My little podcast has gone away,
And will not return another day.
I've tried to revive it about one times seven,
But, alas, it now resides in podcast heaven.

Thing 20

This is a little long, but Denver Public Library is promoting its Summer of Reading.

Thing 19

My pick from the Web 2.0 awards list is Zillow, which is a guide to residential real estate. Homes can be searched by address, street,neighborhood, zip code, or city and state. For the first time homebuyer there is information on affordability, financing, and the home buying process. Zillow says that they do the leg work by gathering publicly available data and using their proprietary formula to create a Zestimate of the market value of homes. There are currently about 51 million homes in their database. It looks fairly easy to list a home for sale on Zillow. After reading the discussions and blog, I think Zillow is marketing themselves to real estate professionals, but I would still recommend the site to library customers as a good resource to use in the process of buying or selling a home.

Thing 18

Google Docs is a tool that I will very likely be recommending to customers who use the public computers to create and edit documents such as school assignments and resumes. They can set up an account with Google and save their work online instead of to a floppy disc or thumb drive. Google Docs appears to have all the standard word processing features, but also allows documents to be published as web pages or posted to a blog. By using the sharing feature, documents can be edited by multiple users. I shared this with my Yahoo account and found it there ready to be edited. I'm also posting this to my blog. The spreadsheet feature looks good, although I didn't try it. I read that Google Presentations will be coming out soon.

Thing 17

Sandbox
Originally uploaded by moimart

The Maryland Sandbox wiki was fun,

Of blogs there was almost a ton,

So I added mine,

Which seemed to go fine,

And to "my favorite things" I added one.

Thing 16

I visited the SJCPL Subject Guides, in which I created an account and found that it has a public blog (monitored) and a Gameblog for posting about video game tournaments held at the library this summer. The Flickr photo mashups bring the tournaments to life. The RSS feeds didn't work. (Maybe it was me.) The Bull Run Library wiki, maintained by a patron, linked to the Arlington Public Library 2.0 program in wiki format called Camp Tech. It seems to me that wikis are an interesting format for libraries, giving staff and customers an opportunity for collaboration; but the public wikis would most likely need to require registration and be monitored. Single event wikis like the ALA 2006 New Orleans wiki seem like they have great possibilities.

Thing 15

Laptops
Originally uploaded by crashmaster007

To me, Library 2.0 is the concept of a library as a location and a way of doing things that allows library users to feel welcomed and encouraged to participate. The 2.0 library will rely ,to a great extent, on the WorldLiveWeb, ( or as Michael Stephens said in his article, "the Read/Write Web") to do this. After reading some of the articles, I think I fall into the group that believes public libraries like BCPL have always been responsive to the needs of our customers. Databases accessible from any computer, Aquabrowser, AskUsNow, e-mail reference questons, self check-out, and the virtual book club are some of the ways BCPL is responding to customer needs by using technology. In the future, I can see BCPL possibly using a public blog, Open WorldCat, local history wikis, and even a catalog wiki. Michael Stephens' suggestion of a "Google map mashup" of each branch is interesting. Speaking of the future, I especially like Dr. Wendy Schultz's idea of Library 4.0 as a "knowledge spa."

Thing 14

I searched blogs in Technorati,
For "Learning 2.0,"
Then claimed my blog,
And created a Watchlist for catching blogs while on the go.

Thing 13

I set up a del.icio.us account and bookmarked a few sites for a trip coming up soon. After a little difficulty getting the del.icio.us button onto my toolbar, things went very smoothly and I was able to add some tags.

Thing 11

Thanks to Erin I was able to post some Good Reads using Library Thing.

Thing 10

Dinner's ready!

Thing 9

I visited MERLIN, set up an account and looked at a few library related blogs/news readers including PLA Blog, Library Bytes and Library Journal News. By far, the most interesting to me was LJ News because it was visually pleasant to use and included some descriptions of new books being released in the near future.

Thing 8

I set up my bloglines account, you see,
Sixteen feeds and blogs are coming to me,
Such as CNN, NY Times Book Review,
Scrappin Erin and PLA Blog, to name a few,
Even Dilbert to add just a bit of levity.

Thing 7

Flickr is my pick for a technology tool,

Because posting pictures is so cool.

Thing 6

Thing 6
Originally uploaded by cleaniac

This picture of the backyard,

Was made into a trading card.

Thing 5

A pretty picture from Flickr.

Squirrel

The little squirrel is having lunch,

Or better yet, maybe brunch,

The birds seem willing to share the food,

Because squirrel is only a little rude,

And anyway he works so hard,

To get a tasty snack from our backyard.

Poem

Here is Thing 3 in my blog,
Though I'm in a bit of a fog,
It seems like some fun,
So when I am done,
Some new skills I hope to log.

Learner - Thing 2

As a learner I like setting goals and trying to reach them. In this type of learning, my greatest challenge will be feeling comfortable with the technology.