Friday, September 12, 2008

Thing 23

I had fun in this last minute marathon of 23thingsonastick. Thru this experience I found that I am already using many of these tools in my personal life. It has made me think more about how these can be used for work and opened my eyes to tools I didn't even know about or had the time to explore.

I was also surprised at how much time a person could spend exploring everything. I do want to go back and complete some of the extras I didn't have time to do.

If more is offered in the future I would certainly take a look at it.

Thing 22

I will spend 15 minutes a day blogging even if it is just for my friends or colleagues. Since I already use my Gmail account daily, I will explore the web2.0 stuff that is out there after checking e-mail. I will also more actively read my RSS feeds and podcasts.

I have found that many of these tools can be updated via a web enabled cell phone or even SMS. It seems like I always have extra time when I take a break to keep up with Web/Library 2.0.

Thing 21

I am a member of LinkedIn and find it useful in networking with other professionals. It is amazing the number of people you can ultimately end up being linked to. Thru my connections with other LinkedIn members my network is up to over 16,800 people.

I do like Shelfari and LinkedIn. With Shelfari it is interesting to see what is on other member's bookshelf and see what their opinions are.

I found last.fm interesting and will use it personally at home. You can tell it what groups interest you it will make recommendations and show you other listeners or groups you can join.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Thing 20

I used my existing Facebook account for this thing. I joined the "Caribau coffee is better than Starbucks" group because, well, it is. I have noticed more and more of my friends joining Facebook. It is a good way to keep up with what everyone else is doing.

In my own experience I agree Facebook continues to grow quickly. I'm always finding other people I know using the friend of a friend finder. Facebooks seems to have ways to add on to the existing Facebook program. For example, you can write an "application" to search your web catalog if you know how to put the right code together.

Thing 19

I listened to an election podcast on the MPR website. I have used iTunes to listen to other technology related podcasts and videocasts.

I liked Podcastalley.com the best. I was easy to browse and the web site wasn't too busy. I also tried yahoo which is good if you know what you are looking for.

I don't plan to do any podcasting myself but I will continue downloading and listening to podcasts like I have in the past. itunes really makes it easy to keep your iPod loaded with my favorite podcasts.

Thing 18

I'll post a link to a prank done in Austin MN. I chose this video because it was a harmless and funny prank. This same poster happens to have a prank done at our very own library (also posted below) .

In looking at videos on Youtube, there were some pranks I would consider mean in nature. I think this could give our kids ideas to try on their own. On the other hand, Youtube really people be creative.

I could see our library using Youtube to promote services our library offer or to instruct patrons on how to use some of our equipment.



Thing 17

I could see using the ELM tools to create searches for technology I want to keep up on. This would save me lots of time by bringing the search into my RSS reader.

The ability to create a web page with embedded articles or searching could be used to create a topic page to teach staff about a particular technology. This could have links to articles written in a journal or newspaper complete with images and my own text.

Netlibrary could be used if working on a project together with another colleague.
I think students would benefit the most when doing research projects or writing papers together.