Thing 46 - WebJunction Minnesota

I've taken some courses with WebJunction but see lots of additional courses I'd like to take in the future; readers advisory, web design and customer service to name just a few. I like the idea that their courses are self-paced since time is always limited. It was interesting to read the article about Carol Alberts a fellow Great River Regional Library employee.

Thing 45 - Cloud Computing

What do you see as the advantages of joining “the cloud” by using a Web OS?
It's easy to see the advantages of Web OS:
Access to information anywhere at anytime, whether your working at home or on vacation your information is at your fingertips.

Disadvantages?
You have limited gigabytes unless your willing to pay extra each month.
What if the company goes defunct what happens to your data?

Do you currently do any computing in “the cloud” (i.e. GoogleDocs, Zoho, etc)? What do you think? Has it helped your productivity?
We've experimented with GoogleDocs to register kids for the summer reading program because we have access to the spreadsheet from several circulation terminals at the same time. It has helped productivity but we have been limited to how many people on staff have access at one time.

What other cloud applications are you using or planning to investigate?
I'm experimenting more with 'SOS Online Backup' recommended in the article by PC Magazine. I'll see if there are advantages to using this at work.

Thing 44 - The Economy

I found a couple I really liked:

Craigslist - I've been thinking about buying a piano and found several possibilities in my area. Now I just need to do a little more research on brands.

MyRatePlan.com - I wish I'd known about this site when we were buying our cell phones! I like being able to narrow down my choices and get the best plan and phone for the money.


What are your favorite money management/money saving/shopping tips? Gas Buddy is something I'd use on a regular basis. Who doesn't want to get the cheapest price on gas?

Thing 43- Online TV and Video

I watched a documentary on the Coral Reef and couple segments of 'Two and Half Men'. But I'd still rather watch a movie on DVD. The picture quality was less than desired and the selection of movies wasn't very good.

I can't see that this will have much of an impact of broadcast television unless the movie selection improves. I can, however, see using this when your traveling and have a long layover.

Thing 42 - Music 2.0

I did find a short wave radio widget at the beginning of the 'More 23 Things on a Stick' program that I liked, but for this project I chose 365Live. I like the idea of being able to choose what type of music and have continuous play of that genre. I can see it challenging broadcast radio but don't think it will ever replace it.

Thing 41 - Mashup Your Life

This would definitely streamline productivity, it's hard to keep up with all the different sites. By the time you log in, add your update and read information on the site you've taken up a lot of time. Much easier to log in and have all the information in one place and as it happens. I tried FriendFeed but didn't find very many people using the service, I'll have to work on that. So far I'm keeping up to date with Barack Obama! I'll try it for awhile and see how it goes. I like that you can seperate the messages by personal or professional so you can diferentiate who you want to send messages to.

Thing 40 - Mashup The Web

I explored all the mashups but decided to design a card for National Library Week, you can access it by clicking the title of this post. I designed it using Phreetings which was easy to use although you were limited to what you could do with the design.

Book Tour would be useful if you wanted to schedule an author appearance. You can usually get a better rate if they have two engagments in the same area.

Wheel of Food was fun - my son and I use to play a game called 'Where Don't you Want to Eat' when we couldn't decide where to go for supper. We'd take turns calling out places we weren't interested in until we narrowed down our choices. This would have helped us with our decision!

I like MusicMesh: It lets you visually browse through bands starting with a single artist and easily watch videos of the artist that are posted on YouTube. A fun way to discover new music or just watch videos of your favorite band.

http://mashups.web2learning.net/ I found this interesting article on Library Mashups give it a try.

Thing 39 - Digital Storytelling

I didn't have pictures available from library programs but did have several pictures of my first grandchild (go figure) I decided to make a 'Mothers Day' card for my daughter. I used Scrapblog and found it very easy to use. I've been trying to find a way to download our family photos for viewing and this is a definite possibility.

This would be a great project for the summer reading program 'Be Creative @ Your Library'. Give each child in the workshop a digital camera to use, a variety of scrap booking materials and then have them create a day in the life of scrapbook page for display.

Thing 38 - Screencasting

How to Register for a Library Program

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I'm not actually sure I did this right, I was expecting more glitz. I decided to use Jing since I had problems getting Skitch to open correctly. (Guess it won by default)I didn't think it was real easy to use. I had problems finding the help screens and once I did I found the voice on the video annoying. I'm not sure I'd use it for work unless I could get it to work smoother.

Thing 37 - Photo Tales

I used 'One True Media' to create a montage of pictures from our vacation. The site was really easy to use but I'm not impressed with the photo quality, you'd probably have to buy the upgrade to see an improvement. I can see using this at the library to advertise programming and at home to share special events.

Thing 36 - Comic Relief: Generate Some Fun

I'd recommend the following sites to students and plan to add them to our del.cio.us account at work:
Image Converters
Son of Citation Machine
EasyBib

We'll soon be getting our own website at work and some of these would be great to add interest. The Comic Strip Generators will be great for the summer reading program 'Get Creative @ Your Library'. It would be fun to have some kind of competition for the kids to enter.

As you can see I had fun with several of he generators!

Shelf Check 330

Margaret's Dewey Decimal Section:

086 Collections in Spanish & Portuguese

Margaret = 31871850 = 318+718+50 = 1086


Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works


Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.



What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

My Name In Chinese :

Thing 35 - Books 2.0

What are you observing in your library about books and reading?

People love to talk about good books and exchange titles, the tools listed in this lesson are designed to do just that enhance a persons reading and give them an opportunity to share what they've read.

• Our print circulation numbers continue to grow


• Our community wide book discussion we hold each year continues to see increased attendance.


• More and more children are coming to storytime because as it says in the NEA report:
  "The simplest argument for why children should read in their leisure time is that it makes them better readers. According to federal statistics, students who say they read for fun once a day score significantly higher on reading tests than those who say they never do."


• Graphic Novels and the 'Twilight Series' have done a lot to increase reading among teens Young adults show the most rapid increases in literary reading. Since 2002, 18-24 year olds have seen the biggest increase (nine percent) in literary reading, and the most rapid rate of increase (21 percent). This jump reversed a 20 percent rate of decline in the 2002 survey, the steepest rate of decline since the NEA survey began.

Do you think these Book 2.0 tools hamper or enhance one's reading experience?

Some of my favorite sites helped me find new titles, see what other people are reading and find discussion questions for book clubs. They enhanced my reading!

Which of the sites/tools did you visit? What are they appealing features? Any features seem unnecessary or just there "because"?

I love my LibraryThing account

These sites will be a great help with our 'Friends of the Library' book discussion group
BookBrowse
ReadingGroupGuides
Reading Group Choices
LitLovers

Other thoughts?
I agree with Andrea on her choice of sites
http://www.multcolib.org/books/

Thing 34 - Is It Competition? Online Answer Sites

Reference Librarians will be around for a long time to come, they offer that human connection needed to navigate through the sea of information available. As a public librarian I see it everyday; Where would I find information on birds? How do I find this site of the Internet? Could you help me find information about Canada? We need to be there to advise them on information options?

The biggest problem with using these sites is what to use when and how reliable is the information!
I did a search on: What Chinese Emperor was buried with Terra Cotta Soldiers?

ChaCha: Emperor Qin was buried with an army of more than eight thousand soldiers made of terra cotta. Thanks for using ChaCha!

AllExperts: Gemma writes on 2007-10-20 07:49:39
The Terracotta Army was buried with the first Emperor in 210-209 BC. Their purpose was to help rule another empire with him in the afterlife. they are also sometimes referred to as "Qin's Armies". After a great deal of advert sing.

WikiAnwers: Needed more information

Yahoo Answers: Several websites to investigate.

So you can see there is a wide range of answers to one question and finding the right site is tricky. The article 'Lose Your Wikipedia Crutch: 100 Places to Go for Good Answers Online' and 'Who's Asking? A Roundup of Q&A Sites' had several good suggestions on where to go for what. And for the public speed is usually an important factor.

Thing 33 - Travel 2.0

We're always getting requests for travel information at work and I love the idea that several of the sources are put together by people who have experienced the places they're rating.

I like the way that tripadvisor.com gives you categories to choose from.

Recommended Vacations: Adventure | Beach vacations | Casinos | Family vacations | Golf vacations | History & Culture vacations | Romantic Getaways | Shopping vacations | Skiing | Spa | Cancun | London | NYC

Trip to Europe:
Austria | Belgium | France | Germany | Greece | Ireland | Italy | Portugal | Spain | Switzerland | The Netherlands | United Kingdom

I really like homeandabroad.com mentioned in the 'Next Wave of Travel Sites' article. It gives you several options to choose from and has planned itineraries or lets you plan your own.

Thing 32 - Google Maps and Mashups

My Trip to Scotland
If you Zoom out on the map you can view pictures and video of all the spots I visited.


View Larger Map

I enjoyed looking at:
Perfect Escapes - A travel search engine that features a click-through Google Map
MapsZipcode - Zip codes nationwide would be helpful for work.
Area Code Maps - Good for work
Map Clock - Helpful when trying to figure the right time to call my kids
How Norwegians View the Rest of the World - Great
Earth Knowledge - Good for Students
Map of Executions - Eye Opening

Thing 31 - More Twitter

I'm only in stage 2 of twittering - Presence - 'I don't really get why people love it, but I guess I should at least create an account.' With that in mind I have customized my Twitter page with a Flickr photo, listed my blog's url, posted a profile picture, added my name to the Tweeter Directory and found a few people I know and will follow.

I would use Twitter as a way to connect with people who have common interests. I discovered new kniting patterns/techniques and have beeen kept updated on good books to read. I don't do a lot of twitting just because of the time factor.

I Am A Comma'

I am open minded and extremely optimistic.
I enjoy almost all facets of life. You can find the good in almost anything.

I keep myself busy with tons of friends, activities, and interests.
I find it hard to turn down an opportunity, even if you are pressed for time.

My friends find yme fascinating, charming, and easy to talk to.
(But with so many competing interests, my friends do feel like you hardly have time for them.)

I excel in: Inspiring people

I get along best with: The Question Mark

What Punctuation Mark Are You? - http://tinyurl.com/33hlbw

Thing 30 - More Ways to Use RSS and Delicious

I don't usually read RSS feeds on a regular basis but think that 'FeedSifter' will help eliminate some of the volume. I do like the idea of organizing my feeds so I can choose what I want to review.

Delicious, is one of my favorite "things" from 23 Things. The feature of Delicious that I use most frequently is tagging; I love how I can easily organize my growing list of bookmarks using tags.

We use Delicious at work to organize the sites we use on a regular basis. Since we have four circulation stations it's easy to make sure everyone has acess to the same list of sites. I took a long look at 'Insuggest' and found a lot of sites to add to my 'Delicious' account. Once I finish 'More 23 Things of a Stick' I plan on going back and exploring more of their features.

Thing 29 - Goggle Tools

Search Tools - SearchWiki
I did a search for 'Best Sellers Books' and got several results which I was able to manipulate. I was then able to list in the note field, books I'd like to read so I have a list for future reference. I can see where this would be helpful because as they said in the article in the New York Times "40 percent of the searces people make on the Internet are duplicate queries they have made at least once before" but I don't like the idea that once you've manipulated the list you can't go back to a search where google ranks the sites.

I'd probably use this for queries I make on a regular basis but I'm not sure I'd use it all the time.

Productivity Tools - Sites
Since I already have a gmail account and use the google calendar I tried creating a site for the Friends of the Elk River Library to post information about their organization and collect readers advisory information. I'll need a little more instruction on layout etc but could see this as a useful tool for the Friends. You can do a lot more with this than a PBwiki.

http://sites.google.com/site/elkriverfriends

Thing 28 - Customized Home Pages

1. Which of the services did you use? Why did you choose that one?
I chose igoogle, I like the clean look and how easy it is to change. Since I have a google calendar and gmail it makes it the best choice.

2. What was your experience in setting it up? Easy? Or not?
Very easy to set up but I can see where looking through all the exciting widgets could be time consuming.

3. Which gadgets/widgets/flakes did you add?
I noticed that some of the widgets I had on before no longer work so I deleted some of the things from my first set upm changed the picture, and added my google calendar, twitter, and some fun knitting gadgets.

4. Do you have any recommendations for gadgets/widgets/flakes you find fun or useful?
I love the radio I added to my blog. I can pick a station and listen while I'm working.

Just to test out another site I signed up for Netvibes. I found widgets on gmail that I couldn't find on Netvibes and didn't like that they didn't show you much about the different widgets just a short description.

Thing 27 - Twitter

After finishing all the 'To Do' projects I had a 'Twitter' account with great sites to follow. Everything from knitting, decorating, books, libraries and friends. I'm not sure it's something I'd use a lot but it does have interesting possibilities.

I was impressed with alltop.com mentioned in the video 'How to View Twitter and Use It Effectively'.

I'm not sure I'd use it for the library but I'm following the Hibbing library site and Casa Grande, AZ library site to find out what uses they come up with. I agree with the article 'Twtter Explained for Lirarians and 10 Ways to Us Twitter'; It's important to keep up-to-date with emerging tools - flickr started out as a silly web photography game, not the amazing social tool it's turned into.

That said I can see it being used for web conferencing, brainstorming with colleagues and sending messages to library patrons on 'Twitter'.

Thing 26 - Join the Ning

I joined the Ning in Round 1 of '23 Things On A Stick' I've used it make comments on another members page and upload photos. I joined the Great River Regional Library group and can see using it to keep each other updated on our progress.

For this lesson I've:
Left a comment on another members page
Upladed photos
Watched Zomo's video - which was great!
Joined the Great River Regional Library's group

I recently had a hard time coming up with a title for our community wide book discussion; I can see using this to get suggestions from other members and sharing photo and video suggestions for display and programs.

Thing 25 - Bloggers Toolkit

I decided to add the following:
1. Odiigo - Which I found easiest to use and had the most realistic sounding voice.
I had problems with 'Vozme' opening multiple sites and 'Talkr' didn't want to open

2. Click Comments - This is so easy to install and use!

3. Clustrmap - I think it will be interesting to see where people are viewing my blog from.

4. Widgetbox - I searched widgetbox which was mentioned in the 'five part video series on widgets'. This is amazing! I love the piano, clock and radio I added.

My new 'Surprised' Favlcon reminds me of you surprised I am everytime I figure something on 'More 23 Things On A Stick'!

As you can see I spent a lot of time on this lesson but it was so easy to get carried away with all the options out there.

Thing 24 - Refresh Your Blog

I haven't updated my blog since I finished the first session of '23 Things On A Stick' so a refresher course was definitely in order! Most of my time has been spent looking at the blogs of my kids; one who's about to have a baby and another who's in South Korea on a 'Fulbright Scholarship. It's been a good way for us to keep up to date on what's going on and share photos. Thanks to '23 Things On a Stick' I knew what they were talking about when they mentioned their blogs!

I found the information under http://blogger-templates-directory.blogspot.com/ and http://www.templatesforblogger.com/2007/08/18/how-to-install-your-blogger-template/ helpful when looking for possible updates for my blog.

I had a hard time downloading blog templates from the websites listed under 'For The Curious'. Not many were in Html format. I did however learn the importance of backing up your template!!!