Thing 8 IM

First of all, I just want to thank whoever for the "catch-up week". As BM said, we needed it! Could you feel the frustrations and anxieties of learning something new?
OK, so here I am catching up...
Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?
Our email at work allows us to keep informed with what is happening. I just learned today from our wonderful Information Systems staff that we have IM. I also learned that it has cause some problems in the past. For the work that I am involved with, I really do not see the need for IM. My email gives me the info I need to keep me up to speed and ask the questions when confusion hits. (However things have been known to change.

Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools?
I never thought I would be a text messager...it took me a while to stop saying to my kids "Did you get my email?" meaning my texting. I love text messaging now that I understand it as a way to keep the family informed with out the hassle of interrupting with a phone call. As I said earlier, we have microsoft outlook with windows messanger at work. New technology...a wonderful thing...sometimes...incredible when it makes life less complicated.

Thing 7 - fun times

Finally, something fun and not so intimidating. It was love at first sight- Big Huge Lab - was fun. Using photos I didn't mind sharing, I made some trading cards. Will need more time to really come up with something special. If I had more time, I would definitely explore the endless possibilities Big Huge Lab has to offer, but for now...enjoy. However, the question was to consider how you can use these tools in your library or media center. I have heard that teachers would use trading cards for incentives, so perhaps the library could produce some "Quick tips" trading cards. Not sure what is involved as far as the processing goes...but it might be fun and a great way to get kids to read.

Thing 6...one more time

You know when you think you're doing the right thing, but you're too stubborn to ask for help, and then finally you just gotta know because the results are just not working...well, while I've done this more than three times my way I finally hadto have BM point out the obvious.




I'm giving my age away when I thought electric typewriters were cool. Give me some time for all these changes. Glad to know there are people around us that can explain this stuff, other wise, 'catch up week' will have to be change to 'catch up month'.

Thing 6

Thing 6...still exploring

How can you use any of these tools in your library or media center?

Not sure. I visited Clockr, Flickr Color Pickr, and Spell with Flickr. These were interesting. Big Huge Labs blocked me with access restricted. As I'm typing this, Thing 8 has just been posted and the only source of encouragement came from Defang Scary Technology from 2.0 hints. I attempted to Spell with Flickr, but need more time to process. Also, it being Groundhog Day has revealed more chilly days ahead. Brrrr!

What do you think of sharing photos online? I enjoy looking at photos, and sharing photos is a touchy subject these days. Just this past weekend we had a patron wanting to copy a picture of a building from the Flickr website for a school project. I had to go to copy from Google image to get the photo, so Flickr is great for browsing...it was great to 'participate in the Groundhog Day celebration', but I'm not sure I'm ready for the world to meet me.
Still working on Thing 6 and I'm out of time...

Thing 5-Flickr-ing thought ...or not

How might I use Flickr in the library or media center?

Well, promoting programs that are coming up, community involvement or creating a past events album might be great. Just not sure if this is allowed. I like how the Clemns and Alcuin libraries displayed their edible bookfest. Doing the best I can in the timeframe. But, this is time consuming for me as a newcomer. The Lee Lefever video "Online Photosharing in Plain English" was once again superb. However, it's 'the more I do it, the better I'll be." Thanks to AAF for taking a better shot of the bee that kept buzzing, not to mention after pulling my hair, sighing, trying to do some flickring...the hero prevails, with his mighty knowledge of 'how to'.

Do I use Flickr or another photo hosting service?

I have an account with YaHoo, but I guess I don't need to use it. Since this is pertaining to work, I'm not sure if this is a violation of our computer contract. I'm trying to do my job...what are the guidelines?

How do I feel about having my photos public...well I'm not sure yet. We had some photos of an event that I thought would be great on the blog, but after checking with one of our staff members...it would have been a mistake on many levels...so there's concern regarding what can be public.

Thing 4 part 2...oh bother...

There's no end to this madness and I'm really feeling like 'duh' since a worker pointed out that "Google Reader" is on the dashboard. Well, I got to spend some quality time with my husband setting up the Yahoo space. (I owe Olivia a sincere apology for calling her Oliver-my bad-but thanks for the help.) Besides, part of learning is doing.
After doing some scrolling on my dashboard... I located it after the reading list, under other stuff in the box of Tools and Resources. Ta-da! Google Reader. Below Thing 4's assignment is a list of resources: click on Feed Me: A Gentle Introduction into Internet Feeds for an awesome demonstration. Using Blogline Tutorial with steps is a sure thing if you need those step by step.
I've been playing with the buttons adjusting my site. Things are looking better, but that's just me. (I wondered why some pages looked so professional.)
I thought it was great that all the feeds came to you-yes, saving time IS good, but honestly I got caught in the web of technology and missed out on the warm weather today. Guess I'm gonna need a timer. (Good thing I'm doing this at home...decisions, decisions, decisions.)
Using the RSS would be a great aid to helping patrons find/identify what they want to investigate. The usage on library computers is generally limited to 30 minutes. This will be great for kids who have homework assignments/questions as long as it's a legitimate site and if I understood it correctly, it's a wonderful tool for teachers to experiment using Flickr and other photo uploading websites to share their lessons.
This is all new to me, but I'm sticking with it. I just need to walk away.

Thing 4

Wow-what an experience. Loved Lee LeFever's video...it was awesome. Then came the work of actually setting up an aggregator account. I tried the Comcast, my assistant connection, and they were not ready yet, so I am using the Yahoo account. This took some explaining. Thank goodness for patient people like my husband and Oliver. Oliver showed me what she could do, but my husband guided me through the steps after we watched Mr. LeFever's video.
Find a RSS link you are interested in. Right click on the icon, then choose copy. Open your My Yahoo account, then click on the add content, click on RSS feed, paste the RSS link in. Then it appears on your Yahoo page. :)Good luck. (Enjoying Feedzilla-a little too much)

Thing 3

It's a BIG world out there and learning about search engines and directories just extended this point. I did not like Technorati because for this first timer it was intimidating. I began on the day of the inauguration of our 44th president. Everybody is a writer. I wanted to learn more of what a Search Engine means, and came to http://websearch.about.com which broke it down in terms of a technology's standpoint. About.com Internet for Beginners (http://netforbeginners.about.com ) provided What Are The Good Search Engines?, since this is very important for employees of the libraries to be informed. They listed five major "search engines" for their massive catalogs of information. (Sorry Technorati was not there, yet.) Yahoo's Directory, DMOZ.org and About.com are three major "search directories that stood our for their voluminouse catalogs". The above information was founded 1/20-21/09.
It's all a matter of comfort and this is outside my comfort zone. I agree with the question of "which search tool is the best?" should be "which search tool do you prefer to use?"
I like the ones with the least advertisements, and of course, I need to adapt to changes.
I'm finding this time consuming, but perhaps it will become second-nature.

thing 2

This is a lot of information to take in at once. I felt obligated to learn 23 things as part of my job, but it was all a foreign concept. (Children is grade school would have a better idea of what's going on these days.) However, this is the 21st century and technology is forever improving to extravagant possibilities.
In reading John Blyberg's 11 Reasons why L2 exists and matters presents the challenges librarians could expect from patrons. I was stumped with the'blog' until my husband explained it simply as a soapbox online. This is quite a learning experience.
Looking up online via wikipedia to get some sort of definition of the tools we will be learning has also been overwhelming. I didnot realize that Blogs have been around since 1992 and that there were different types which confirms what my husband was trying to explain to me. Personal, Corporate, Questions, By Media Type, By Device and By Genre. There was also a definition for the Community and Cataloging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Types
Well, curiosity got the better of me, so I looked up Flickr-that's been around since 2004 and is known as one of the earliest Web 2.0 for web services suite & online community with image and video hosting website.
YouTube was created in February of 2005 by three former PayPal employees. YouTube is videosharing website where useers can upload, view and share videoclips. I've always heard bad things about YouTube and have never bother to visit the site.
PBWiki or PeanutButter Wiki operates on a freemium basis and this will be another site that I will need to learn more about. http://blog.pbwiki.com
As for now, I'm hoping that this is not as scary or intimidating as when I started. There is so much technology out in the world, it doesn't surprise me when someone has a neat techno toy. I never imagined being able to take pictures with my phone, let alone go outside and use a phone in the car. I guess this is what the 21st century is all about...changes.

Ugh....changes....

Hi there,
This is pretty intense for someone from the old school. The step by step is ... great, but I think I may have created two accounts...whoops that's what happens when you jump2it. I think I'm on step 2 of 23things. Can someone set me straight? Thanks