Monday, January 26, 2009

Thing 23

Nebraska Learns 2.0 has been a wonderful learning experince for me. I had heard about blogging, RSS, Flickr etc. but did not have the courage to go out and explore on my own. This format gave me the direction and security to learn at my own pace when it fit in my schedule. I enjoyed all the "things" and each made my brain stretch a little more to wrap itself around the concept. However, my favorite is Library Thing. I will continue to expand my usage of many of the tools I have learned here for professional and personal growth and as always the more I learn the less I know! Going forward I won't be as hesitant to explore new developments and when I read the ITART blog I'll always find something new to investigate. Thank you for providing this learning tool. I can only imagine the time and effort it took to put together and then to monitor our progress. I truly appreciate your efforts and if you plan to do a similar program I will participate (and not wait so long to get started)!

Thing 22

I spent some time browsing and listening at Podcast.com, YALSA and NPR. While all the sites had brodcasts of use to librarians and patrons, I choose to focus on NPR.
The site had a wide range of topics, was easy to navigate and download material. At the present time listening to podcasts does not appeal to me. Here is the podcast I selected:
Grammar Grater
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510272

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Thing 21

Visiting YouTube was quite and experience. I have received links via email, but had not set up an account. Nebraska Learns 2.0 has shown us the power of using YouTube to teach via the Common Craft Show. Now I'll just add a little nostalgia to my blog:

Thing 20

Now this "thing" was pure play. I tried to find areas that I know library patrons would use or use for reference. I was lost but, found my way with Google Maps. imcooked had very useful videos; but for entertainment take a look at the kids section! I was impressed by Revolution Health it was easy to use, and very appealing to the eye. I searched out several areas of interest and checked for their sources and partners and decided to booksmark the site. I booked on over to Biblio.com and fell in love w/their blog it's now on my rss feed list. My favorite is Pandora...it's playing right now. It's so much easier to do anything (read, dream, write or dust) when you're listening to music you love.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Thing 19 - Google Docs

Thing 19 - Google Docs


I took some time to explore Google Docs and Zoho Writer. I don't have a lot of experience using MS Office or any newer productivity software. But I experienced the frustration of not being able to view, send or receive information since I have Corel software at home and most everyone uses MS products. I found that Google Docs Templates were much more professional looking than those is Zoho and I found a greater selection of documents and choices. I would definitely use the templates. I really appreciate the auto save function! I have a project coming up at work that I think I will try to download into Google Docs. That way I can work on it at home and send it back (and forth) to my boss for editing, approval, etc. Thanks for showing me these two apps. Maybe I'll just uninstall Corel!! Thanks for the lesson. I can't seem to figure out how to put this into my blog, so I'll copy and paste or is the above correct?

Monday, January 19, 2009

Thing 18

I had fun learning to use PB Wiki. I added my blog to the list and added a few favorites. It was easy to edit, but I wasn't brave enough to add a new page!
I enjoyed reading through the lists and recognizing people I've met in other classes. The list of blogs I follow is getting longer....... In the future I will recommend and hopefully get to use more wiki's.

Thing 17

Wiki,Wiki, Wow! I enyoyed reading all of the reference materials and viewing the linked Wikis. From what I have read most of the "bugs" have been worked out and there is an established protocol to prevent abuse. I would definately try using a wiki to plan or brainstorm and consult a wiki for information as in the "Library Success" or ALA Conference Wiki. There are so many good applications for this tool.
Thanks for helping me learn!

Thing 13 update

Here's an interesting article how Twitter is used in the financial markets:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/InvestingIdeasDyn.aspx?cp-documentid=16831276&OCID=eml_msnnl_6009.13.5.43&REFCD=emmsnnl_6009.13.5.43

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Thing 15

Slideshare was new to me, but I had fun cruising the site. I did have some difficulties when my browser kept shutting down! The web must have been too busy w/the playoff game when I was wandering about. I did set up an account : http://www.slideshare.net/lllearners . I have not worked with or created a Powerpoint presentation, but I have seen quite a few. This is a tremendous resource for schools, libraries, and business. I plan to come back to slideshare often . Let's
Cats
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fun animals)
see if embedding works.

Thing 16

I spent a lot of time reading and thinking about the Library 2.0 Movement. I read the comments and posts of the participants and other professionals. Yes, there are "Iceburgs" as the profession passes "Into the New world of Librarianship 2.0" but I found the article by John Blyberg "11 reasons why Library 2.0 exists and matters" as the most down to earth, sensible view on this monumental shift in philosophy. Where will 2.0 go in 2009? Lots to think about and work toward.

Thing 14

I sampled many aspects of Delicious. This is a great research tool for students and professionals. It could very intensive to set up and keep up to date, but a time saver when you want the best of the best on a certain topic. I did not set up an account today, but will consider doing so in the near future. This was an interesting lesson w/ lots of posibilities.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Thing 13

Thing 13: I read the articles and watched the videos about Twitter. I opened an account and am following NLC and Michaels' site. By the way Michael, I really enjoyed the "Star Wars" entry. I did several searches but did not find any correct results, when I entered the name of my city, library or public school. I can see how people like to use it to keep in touch and for libraries it is a good way to stay in touch w/wired patrons. I also like the NLC Reference page. There were several questions I want to see the answers to. I plan to keep and eye on Twitter for several weeks and see if some of my email friends use Twitter . However, I'm not quite "twitterpated" yet.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Thing 12

I luv LibraryThing! I used the resources and toured the site. I intend to catalog all my books (something I've been meaning to do but haven't). This will make it so easy. I tried author/,,title search, but ISBN was much faster. For now I have six books listed here: http://www.librarything.com/home/geswew .This is a great resource for small libraries, reading groups and all of us bookworms.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Thing 11

It's so easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of new Things to do and learn and technology changes so quickly. I've made peace with the idea of "so many books, so little time" but technology seems so urgent. If you don't learn or keep up you'll be left behind! As I get older learning takes longer and so do the projects. Being a lifelong learner isn't always easy, but it keeps the brain limber. So I'll just keep at it one project at a time and by golly I'm going to enjoy making progress and learning new Things. Now if I could only be a better typist! I left comments on 2 other blogs.

Thing 10 revised


Here's the jigsaw of the girls at the beach.

Thing 10

Wow, so many ways to manipulate photos! I played around with most of the toys, but decided on the jigsaw puzzle at FD's Flickr Toys. The link is http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/jigsaw.php
Just a bunch of "girls" at the beach.

Thing 9

I did have a lot of fun trying out the different flicker tools. I was facinated to watch the pictures coming from around the world. The color tool would be great of designers and art students. I was not as inpressed by Montagr. Now Spelling with Flickr has lots of fun applications, maybe I'll impress my great nephews and neices with their names in Flickr. I investigated some of the 3rd party tools, but realized I could spend several days trying them out. Hmmm...better get back on task.

Thing 8

I spent quite a bit of time investigating Flickr. I did several tag searches and decided on a picture of a place I visied over 30 years ago. I would title this photo, "living on the edge".http://flickr.com/photos/jordi_munoz/2964877704/
I decided not to set up an account but I am considering it as a way to share family reunion photos. For a library this would be a great way to share w/patrons and market library activities.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Thing 7

Information Overload! I used Bloglines and Google search engines. There's way too much stuff out there. It would seriously cut into my book reading time! I choose to keep or add feeds from "trusted sources". I'm still lean towards MSN feeds since that is my homepage and I don't spend a lot of my free time networking on line.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Thing 6

Using Bloglines was fairly easy. I tried some of their suggestions for feeds along with 2.0 suggestions. It would be really easy to waste a lot of time playing w/this! I deleated some of the feeds. On a personal level I subscribe to Google alerts and several sites send me emails to keep me up to date. I want to check to see which is most time efficient, email alerts or RSS.

In a library setting it could help staff stay up to date on professional issues and provide an informal way to update or train new skills.

I did try Google reader and MSN Feeds (less time consuming to set up and use, but not as appealing to the eye or as much "fun" as Google or Bloglines).

Monday, January 5, 2009

Thing 5

I just finished my first IM. Learning these "Things" has been very interesting. I'm finding it takes a lot longer for me to get set up and get comfortable with each new tool than I think it should. As for IM in a library setting, it could be very helpful to the patron and could save time for both the patron and librarian. I could see where it could be distracting and even frustrating for a librarian with multiple responsibilities to add this to the "to do list".
From a personal point of view I would rather talk to someone rather than text or type ( ok, I'm over 50 and I learned to type, not keyboard). Besides I'm a terrible typist!
As a patron, I might use IM if I had a question I just couldn't figure out on my own.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Things 1-3

My learning contract is all filled out. My greatest obstacle will be completing all 23 Things by 1-31. I have most of the items I think will need in my toolbox and I have scheduled my path to the goal. I'm excited to get started today, better late than never!