Thing 23-- Wahoo!

I can honestly say that I enjoyed this discovery journey. There were, of course, some things I enjoyed doing more than others, and some things that I did not enjoy doing at all. But over all, I believe that it was an enjoyable experience.

When I started the different exercises, I began with every good and perfect intention of doing each step on time (which didn't happen) and learning from each one (which did). Later on through the experience, as the winter months progressed, even when I was getting squeezed with a variety of pressing engagements, I decided that, despite the fact that I thought the various steps were coming a little too quickly, I would press on, simply because I wanted the MP3 player at the end of it all.

I don't know how many of the things I learned I will keep up on later. Some I have continued to use on a regular basis, and some I have not. I think that will be the same for everyone, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience new technologies, regardless of how much I enjoyed them, or how much I plan on using them in the future. (At least now, I know what a lot of them are, and whether or not they're useful to me.)

There will never be an end to the acquisition of knowledge. We will all continue to learn new things and to pass on that knowledge to others (after all, isn't that part of what being a librarian is all about?). The day we cease to learn, we cease to live.

And so, in the immortal words of Winston Churchill, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. Let us press on, learning as much as we possibly can, and in doing so, live life to its possible fullest.

Thing 22

I've never been an overly huge fan of audiobooks. If you want to look at a particular passage more closely, you have to rewind or go back to the previous section, and it's much more cumbersome than simply making your eyes scan up a few lines. And no matter how good of a reader the narrator is, for me, the dialogue always sounds better in my own mind.

That aside, like podcasts, I can understand why many people think they are superneat. Maybe after I get my MP3 player, I'll end up listening to them more. I did come across several books on NetLibrary that I wouldn't mind reading at some point.

Thing 21

Podcasts. Unless I absolutely have to (like for these exercises), I try not to listen to them. I prefer to read instead, because then I can focus in on what interests me, rather than listening to someone/something else. It's kind of like reading a book as opposed to listening to one. I'm the type of person who likes to focus on the actual plot, which I can't do if I'm listening to one, because I tend to zone out from time to time.

That aside, I realize that there are people out there who think they are the coolest thing since sliced bread, so I'll just let you all continue in your opinions.

I think I've managed to add the RSS feed of PALINET to my blog. I'm on their listserve and never pay any attention to it. Maybe now, I'll be more on track of it all (Ha, ha, ha...)

Thing 20

Well, here is the URL for the little blurp I watched. It provided some levity for the day. I didn't know they even had rabbit jumping shows.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNPOdffkkLo

I'm not particularly fond of this tool. I watched a couple of little filmlets, and I don't really see the point. It's kind of like Funnies Home Videos. If I filmed myself or my family, why would I want to broadcast it on tv or post it on the Internet?

But the bunnies are pretty cute....

Thing 19

I think that this could be a very useful step. I just picked one, Propsmart, and found a lot of things that can be really useful, particularly within a library. Propsmart is for real estate, which I picked because I enjoy looking at open houses and going through house plans. The cool thing about this site is that you can search by zip code or name of town, and then look for houses for sale and apartments for rent, and it will even show you on the map where each property is located. This could be very useful for people who are looking to move, whether they're new to an area, or are moving to a specific area. The only downside was that I didn't prefer how their filters were set up (when I'm looking for a house, I want to look at properties up to a certain price, not necessarily at a specific number -- but that's just me, others could be different).

Again, a very useful procrastination tool. Here is the link if anyone wishes to play...
http://www.propsmart.com/

Thing 18

Ok, THIS is way super cool. I love to write, and I'm always having various plotlines and stories floating around in my imagination. How come nobody told me about any of this before?

I can definitely see this as a major procastination tool, in addition to being loads of fun...

Thing 17

Ok, I am totally and completely lost. Is a wiki the same as a login account? And I didn't particularly like the directions for adding my blog to the list of favorites. It took me a while to figure that out as well.

Thing 16

Ok, this was a useful exercise. Despite my reservations about using Wikipedia (simply for the fact that it is a wiki, and therefor can be edited by anyone), some of these wikis are really cool. Right after I graduated from library school, I volunteered at a school for autistic children that couldn't afford a paid librarian. They had a room and some books, and that was about it. I could have used some of these websites then, particularly the ones that provide cataloging info!

Thing 13

Ok, I might be back on track here; I've finally sat down to do Thing 13...

I don't think I like del.icio.us. I can see where it might be useful for doing research, but I don't know that I want other people to know what all I've tagged. If I want other people to know what I'm interested in, I'll tell them. I don't feel comfortable having the entire world seeing everything that I've tagged. I don't believe I'll be creating an account here.

Thing 15

A friend of mine from grad school recently sent me a goofy forward that shows a little video clip of a monk discovering the book for the first time. Apparently, he was used to reading from a scroll, and could not figure out how to read a book. This "fuss" about library 2.0 reminds me of that e-mail. Technology is always growing and changing. If we, as librarians, human beings, and members of society, wish to survive, we have to change with it. That change can be as simple as going from a scroll to a book, or it can be the more complex changes that we're seeing today. Either way, librarians have to change with the times and with the technologies, regardless of what those changes bring about. Library 2.0 is not a new. It's just a new way to describe an old idea.

Thing 14

Ok, I know I'm a little out of order here, but I haven't had much luck getting some time where I can do Thing 13, so I'm going to skip it for the time....

That aside, Thing 14. I don't see the point of this step. OF COURSE your results are going to be different if you search by different ways! If I rank ten of my copious books by author, the list is going to be completely different if I rank them by title, or if I rank them by how many times I've read them. So, it seems to me to be fairly obvious that if I look for a specific word in blog posts, the results are going to be different than if I look for that word in tags or blog directory.

And I'm getting pretty tired of reading about Anna Nicole Smith (she's making more waves now that she's dead than she ever did when she was alive) and Brittany Spears (can't we talk about Nationwide's Super Bowl commercials instead?).

Thing 12

This is interesting, and another definite procrastination tool. I had a lot of fun looking up links for my searchroll, and I could go at this for quite some time. I've included the link below. Knitting is a passion for me, so it only made sense to make a roll for patterns.

http://rollyo.com/alerra/purls_of_wisdom/

Thing 11

Ahh, Library Thing.... I actually discovered this amazing resource some time ago when another student in grad school got me hooked on it. It is an amazing procrastination tool, and I go back to it on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I have yet to post very many of my books on it, so here is the link to my library, and in my coming spare time ;-), I will get around to putting in more titles

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Alerra

My Feeds

Wahoo! It only took me half the day, but I have finally figured out how to get my Feeds listed the way I wanted!

Thing 10

I had a lot of fun playing around with this step. I particularly enjoyed looking through all the different generators and seeing what I can do with them. I must admit I have absolutely no idea if the recipe I have here makes anything at all, but people are welcome to try it if they wish :-). It probably makes something similar to a popover; I just had fun coming up with something to put on the sign.

Thing 9

Ok, now that I have moved my feeds, I must now say that I am totally and completely lost. How do I embed the feeds of other blogs? Every time I've tried to add the feed of someone's blog onto my page, it always comes up "invalid URL". I'm confused.

That aside, after doing part of Thing 9 during Thing 8, I think I liked using Blogline's feed directory the best. It was orderly, neat, and to the point; and I didn't have to go through numerous hoops and windows to find the right feeds. I originally liked Syndic8, but I couldn't really find very many feeds that interested me.

Is anyone else as befuffled as I am?

Thing 8

Ok, I'm a little behind here, but here is the URL for my bloglines account.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Raindrop

And I wasn't able to get all my feeds into my blog, but the ones that are there, check at the bottom of the page. They should be there.

I don't think I particularly enjoyed this step....

Thing 7

Ok, a post about technology, any technology. (Does that mean I can write about the wheel?)

Last spring, I was visiting my family over Easter, and my brother, who is a self-proclaimed computer nerd, said to me, "Librarians will always need computers, but computer people will not always need librarians."

I took this to mean that he was of the growing percentage of people who believe that everything is online nowadays, and if you can't find it there, then it really isn't worth finding. I refrained from getting into the inevitable debate that NOT EVERYTHING IS ON GOOGLE! (only about 10%, actually, according to a study done by OCLC). Instead, I patiently pointed out his error in a different manner: that a good librarian should be knowledgeable enough with his/her collections that he/she can still provide the best of service, even when there are no computers around. He was impressed, but I think he still believes that everything worth finding is online.

So, are we good librarians whose level of service is dependent on our knowledge of our collection rather than our computer-saavyness, or have we, like the rest of the developed world, become too dependent on technology?

Slow Down!

Could I just say that I think we're moving way too fast here? I like to think that, belonging to the generation that grew up with computers, I'm relatively up-to-speed with them; but I'm having trouble keeping up. And I know that if I'm having trouble, most of the people doing Learning 2.0 are as well. I think we need to have a better system regarding this, and we definitely need to slow down the postings.

Thing Six

I have played around with Flickr now for a couple of days, and I have come to the following conclusion: I don't see the point of it. Sure, there are a lot of pictures on this site, and it's great that people can share for free, but I have a digital camera. Why should I have to go through the hassle of registering and setting up a Flickr account when I can just upload my own photos from my own camera?

Ok, that aside, Thing 6: One of the tools I found interesting was TripperMap, or Flickr World Map (http://www.trippermap.com/) It allows you to put a Flash-based map on your website or blog, then goes through Flickr to find information on the photos you have taken so it can plot them on the map. Another tool I really liked was ColrPickr (http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/). I had a lot of fun browsing through the different colors and looking at the different pictures I found. *This is a marvelous procrastination tool, not to be taken lightly ;) *.