Thing #24: Refresh Your Blog

Well, I've given my blog a makeover. I went from washed-out and sedate to tutti-frutti. I needed to cheer up after a long dreary winter. I tried to give my avatar a makeover too, but decided after much trying on of different clothes and accessories that I liked me just the way I was. I did add a list of books I'm reading right now for school. I like to test-drive books for my library.

I confess I haven't done any blogging since the last 23 Things on a Stick. I'd rather write my thoughts down in my journal than put my thoughts out there for the whole world to see. I'm not that good about writing in my journal either, truth be told.

As for blogging, it has its uses. One of the coolest blogs I've seen lately was a friend of a friend's blog live from the Inauguration. He was blogging from his iPhone as events happened. Pretty cool, huh?

Here We Go Again

Well, here we go again. I'm going to try the next 23 Things on a Stick.

I know I've been bad -- not using the blog I set up this time last year. But it always seems like there's too little time and too much to do. Besides, I'm reluctant to open my mouth. I'm afraid I will say too much and get myself in trouble in one way or another. It's not that I don't have opinions, it's just that if you don't voice them, the people in charge can't use them against you.

So here we go again. I will try to keep up while testing, packing, cleaning and fixing.

Thing #23 - Final Thoughts

*cue inspirational music from 'Rocky' and start victory dance*

I completed the 23 Things on a Stick! I have to say my favorite things all had to do with photos and graphics. Which makes sense since I love taking photos...I'm just not so keen with posting them online. My least favorite things all had to do with social networking, but since I'm not incredibly social, I'm not real surprised at this either.

Thank you for letting me be part of this experience. Bring on the next 23 Things!!!

Thing #22 - What Did I Learn Today?

Almost there! There were times when I got so caught up in all the other things that life throws your way that I didn't even think about 23 Things for days at a time. Then, I looked at my calendar with April 16th circled on it and thought, "Oh no! I have to finish my 23 Things!"

Except you're never really finished. If I learned anything while I worked out in the big, bad world of technology, it's that the shiny new computer with its fantastic new programs sitting on your slightly cluttered desk is already obsolete. It was obsolete before it came out of the box, because everything is constantly changing and evolving. As much as I hate change, I know I need to change and evolve as well or I'll get left behind. Our patrons look to us as gurus, whether it's what book they'd love to read next or how do I get my paper from this computer here to my computer at home without using a flash drive or CD.

So, that said, I resolve to keep learning. From photo storage and manipulation, to blogs and social networks. And I resolve to not feel guilty about taking that time to learn. Even if sometimes it does look like it's really play =)

Thing #20 - Facebook and MySpace

OK, I'm still not convinced that having your personal information out there for the world to find is such a good idea. However, after finally being able to take a look at Hennepin County Library's MySpace page, I can see some good applications for a library. In this day and age, it's almost impossible to get everybody together for book club. You could certainly do this online -- no face to face commitments and no constraints on a specific physical place at a certain time. Also, the walls would make a good place to write down quick book reviews, suggestions for next reads, etc. The library could use these places to post new collection items, items for sale and gather suggestions for titles to acquire. I can certainly see the positives along with the negatives. If you strictly policed the walls and posts, you could have a great communication tool.

Thing #21 - Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Thing #21 is coming before Thing #20 due to the fact that I have to due the MySpace and Facebook assignment at home -- both are blocked at work and with very good reasons.

I'm not a big fan of social networking...too much information that can come back to bite one later and it takes so much time. Not being a social butterfly by nature, I can't see the point of putting in a huge amount of effort to be the most popular person on Facebook. Call me a pessimist, but having my life out there for the whole world to see (or hack) doesn't make me sleep well at night. I really don't want to discover my whole life's been hijacked by some nefarious soul who found me out in cyberspace. Or worse, my new 'friend' in the social network turns out to be a serial killer. Yikes! Yep, I read too many murder mysteries.

I tried out Ning just to see what it's like. It's OK, but I don't think I'll spend my life on it.



View my page on 23 Things on a Stick

Thing #19 - Podcasts

Okay, I admit I've been a slacker for the last two weeks, but it's down to the wire so I need to get these last 5 things done.

I like the idea of "radio shows" for the iTunes age. As I blog, I have the Musicheads podcast from MPR's The Current playing in the background. I'm always cruising for new music and most radio stations just don't stray off the beaten path anymore. This is definitely a podcast that I will be listening to regularly.

After trying out the suggested podcast directories, right now I don't have a favorite. However, Podcast Alley bothered me with the items in their 5 Featured Products list. I also didn't like that Yahoo! defaulted to music tracks. I think that the Educational Podcast Directory would be a good starting spot for students and staff wanting to explore podcasts as possible classroom and research tools.

While commiserating with others about our boring meeting later today, I had a brilliant thought for a podcast. Now to see if I actually carry through with it!

Thing #18 - YouTube & Other Online Video

As usual, I'm blocked by the firewall at school. You know how much inappropriate content is out there. Besides, can't you see the kids all surfing YouTube instead of working on their assignments? At home, I don't have enough bandwidth to make it easy to view videos. However, I'm at my sibling's house this weekend - and they have DSL! Speed and access...yippee!!!

Unfortunately, I am still unable to link anything to my blog...hmmmmm....oh well, at least I gave it the ol' college try. And got to watch some of my favorite commercials at the same time.

Thing #17 - ELM Productivity Tools

It's frustrating when you're trying to follow the directions and half of the things you're supposed to be doing for the first time don't work as advertised. I never could get the RSS feed link to appear in Cengage Learning. From reading the comments in the 23 Things blog, it looks like I'm not the only one. However, it did work for some people, so I can't say for sure which bugs me more. It makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong that it doesn't work...

The EBSCO Page Composer went pretty well, but why do I need to do it? I guess I didn't get the drift of this one. ProQuest is cool...I've used this one a few times already. The e-mail feature is cool -- you can e-mail your sources to a colleague or patron and save trees.

I couldn't find the correct book "101 Ways to Promote Your Website" in NetLibrary. So I chose another one of the titles that the search returned. The Notes feature is kinda cool. Again, you have the "stuff" you did in a previous search or dig at your fingertips.

These tools could be very helpful for a research librarian, especially if people ask the same questions over and over again.

Thing #16 - Student 2.0 Tools

Never do today what you can do tomorrow...wait, I'm supposed to not be procrastinating anymore. At least, that's what I told myself at New Years. I like the idea of having the assignment calculator spell out exactly what you need to do and when you need to have it done by. This tool could be invaluable for research papers and thesis paper writing. I do wish it was a little more customizable though. Maybe I'll have to dust off my rusty programming skills (they were never trusty though, trust me) and make my own. Maybe tomorrow...

Thing #15 - Online Games and Libraries

As usual, I'm blocked by the firewall at school and don't have enough bandwidth to do this at home. Online gaming is okay I guess, but I can definitely live quite well without it. I went to college with a guy that actually flunked out because he spent all his time online in a MMORPG (back in the day it was called 'mudding'). And as open-minded as I consider myself, I would definitely have a large problem with someone sitting for hours in my library sucking up valuable resources playing games.

Thing #14 - LibraryThing

LibraryThing is really easy to use! The only thing that bothers me is having my reading preferences out there for the whole world to see. Do you see a pattern of not liking to expose myself to the whole world? I can see this being useful for new book lists, lists of books being discarded and recommended reading lists. It also looks like a quick way to see what other people that have the same book are reading. I'm always looking for a new book to read =)

Thing #13 - Online Productivity Tools

Here's a scary thought...the deadline for 23 Things on a Stick put in black and white.

If I had to choose a new home page, I think I'd go with PageFlakes. I like the layout. As for the calendars, I can see applications if you're away from home. Also if you're working on a project with other people in different locations. Personally, I prefer to have my calendar in easy-to-grab planner form that slips in my bag. Same goes for the to-do lists. I don't want to write it down on paper and then have to transfer it to computer. Guess one could say that I'm not dependent on technology to survive. Pen and paper are still well-used friends of mine.

The Zamzar file converter looks like a nice tool. I'll experiment with it to see if it works as advertised.

Thing #12 - Do You Digg?

I am definitely not digging Digg...or at least sharing something in it. They seem to want your whole life's history (or at least your vital statistics) to register and then you can't "Digg it" because you're not logged in. And reddit has a fit if it thinks you're clicking or typing too fast...here's the error message I got: "...too fast. Try again in 9 minutes." Like I'm going to wait nine minutes to share it again. I'm moving on to the next thing.

I think right now these tools are more of a productivity detractor. I know I spent more time clicking on stuff, especially in reddit to figure out what it really pertained to than actually reading the articles. And of course, like everything else, it's a popularity contest for these services. If your article is getting read by lots of people, it moves up the list and is easier to find. If not, then it moves down the list, making it more difficult for people to find.

Thing #11 - Tagging and del.icio.us

I can definitely see some good uses for del.icio.us. If your home computer crashes you still have your bookmarks stored somewhere that's accessible no matter where you are. I can also see this being a valuable tool for research. Type in the specific tag, ex. Missabe, and see what other people have bookmarked. And if a website works for multiple subjects, you can tag it that way and get back to work. And you could make lists of bookmarks for student research sites, book lists, what have you and they'd be available to others with a minimum of fuss.

Thing #10 - Wikis

Well, this was much easier than Thing #9. I took a chance and left my mark on the 23 Things on a Stick wiki with some words of wisdom. I think some of the reasons that teachers ban Wikipedia as a source for student research is 1) the fact that wikis are so incredibly easy to edit/add onto that without proper supervision the wiki can get completely out of control, 2) the wiki entries can have contradictory information in them (I've seen this one first hand) and 3) Wikipedia can get incredibly long-winded at times. With proper supervision, like the SYSOPS of old, wikis can be an incredibly useful tool.

Thing #9 - Online Collaboration Tools

Another lesson in futility. I must be stupid or something because I can't edit the sample document with either program. I think three tries is enough of a stab to figure out what this tool is supposed to do, even though it doesn't do anything. AARGH!

Thing #8 - Share Your Creations

After finding a lot of the tools in this section of the 23 Things blocked by the firewall, I wimped out and went back to play with Big Huge Labs again. I have to say that I am really impressed with how easy their tools are to use. The Energizer Bunny really has nothing to do with the rest of the pictures in the mosaic, other than it was taken last summer, too.

Thing #7 - Web 2. 0 Communication Tools

I've been using IM since the early days of ICQ. It was a lot cheaper for a poor college student to chat online with their college friends during breaks than it was to call long distance. We still talk once in a while using AIM.

There are so many good things that you can do with IM. I like the idea of a virtual reference desk. Or how about live chat troubleshooting for your computer (if you still have another computer to get to the Internet)? You don't have to juggle the phone and the keyboard. You can chat up a person sitting in a lab four buildings away from their desk and pick their brains for answers to your questions or problems.

There are also bad things you can do with IM. The fact that it isn't secure against hacking and viruses irritates me. Also, I worked for a boss a few years back that used the IM program as a spy tool. If you weren't logged on to it, that boss assumed you were not at work. It also takes a degree of anonymity on the Internet.

As for webinars, if they are well done, they are an excellent tool for information distribution. With $4 a gallon gasoline, who wants to run to the Twin Cities for a two-hour training session that's all done in Powerpoint anyway? I did not attend one of the Minitex or OPAL webinars today, but I've done other webinars in the past so I'm familiar with how they work.

Thing #6 - Online Image Generators

I'm on a roll now. I continue to be amazed by how easy Big Huge Labs is to use. My students would really like the projects they could create with just a few clicks of the mouse and a picture or two.

The trading card would be really cool for students new to the building to collect. They'd get to know all the teachers and staff within the first few days of school. You could also do trading cards for Maud Hart Lovelace books or most wanted books! These tools make it so easy to generate the graphics that it's no longer a tedious chore using Photoshop or one of its cousins.

As for copyright and licensing issues...the Energizer Bunny you see in all these is a perfect example. I took the pictures of the balloon, so technically I can use the picture for whatever I want, right? Except if I want to make money off them, do I now have to get permission from the copyright owner of the bunny? Do I need to get a license? If I find this on the Internet, from whom do I get permission from to use it? Do I get permission at all? Intellectual property rights are a real source of contention and debate, especially in the computer age when it's so easy to copy and paste.