Friday, August 24, 2007

Thing 4

registered blog, not yet listed in participants (later appeared)

doing tracking of 23 Things in 23 Things Tracking Log in MS word

Friday, August 17, 2007

Thing 9

Here are a few library related blogs and feeds I visited:
LibraryThing
LibVibe: the library news podcast
merlin - Maryland's Essential Resource for Library Information N
NYT Arts
PLA Blog - Harry Potter Madness everywhere
Unshelved funny - familiar with, funny
LJ News Pick of the Week book feature could be useful
It's All Good (OCLC blog) read about iPhone phones enable ebook excerpt-browsing - could prove interesting
read Emily Clasper’s post yesterday about overachievers, underachievers and motivation on & some reactions/posts from Information Wants to be Free
subscribe PLCMC's(rss feed) to Readers Club mysteries - nothing so far of interest, but it's only been a bit

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Thing 23

1. favorite discoveries
favorite playing around: learning about Library Thing and taking the time to learn more about YouTube and podcasts
favorite discoveries: what del.icio.us was (I'd come across it before, but hadn't pursued it)learning more about rss feeds and wikis. Not much taken with rollyo.

2. My learning goal was to become familiar with the web 2.0 technologies terms and have some idea about what they were and how they'd work. 23 things accomplished this and I think this is the most valuable part of participating in 23things. A second goal was for me to look deeper into some of the things that I knew about, but only in a general, vague (rss feeds, wikis). I gained a little more knowledge about what they were.

3. A take-away was that I got to explore lots of knitting sites. The Brother Cadfael Drinking Game was worth an unexpected chuckle.

4. It would have been a good idea for departments that deal with the all consuming end of Fiscal Year to start the program in Sept. The challenges of catching up once June ended could be a bit daunting. The danger when you're playing catch-up is to have things (pun intended) run together where if you wisely do one a week, it tends to stick a bit more.

The program could be improved by having 2 options: 23 Things Lite and 23 Things Intense. Different levels of CEUs could be given. In 23 Things Lite, the Lite participant could get a brief intro and then do 1 or 2 activities for example, read about rss feeds and then create one; while the Intense 23 Thinger could do the variety of activities we did. By offering a 23 Things Lite, I think he program would attract more participants and also, more finishers. If someone felt bogged down in the Intense option, they could switched the Lite version instead of not finishing at all. Also, if you were really interested in some things , nothing would prevent you as a Lite participant from pursuing those few things in the Intense mode. I know there was an option for just 3 things, but this meets a different need.

5. It would depend solely on the program, although I do feel professionally that I should be aware of the latest technologies. Some things were fun, others just worth knowing about.

6. 23 Things offers a good opportunity to become familiar with Web 2.0 technologies If you can find the time to play around, you'll become more familiar with Web 2.0 technologies instead of just having a general idea about what they are, or do.

Completing all the activities proved time consuming. Not having some of the technologies appear right away (like waiting quite a bit before my YouTube trailer did actually appear or my online word processing sample posted) sometimes made it a little difficult to remember how I did what I did... but I did it once so I'd do it again. It just would've been a bit more gratifying...but life/technology's not perfect (nor am I).


Viewing other blogs:

in CCPL
looked at http://susanfairtrieshard.blogspot.com/; saw the much mentioned Emily and enjoyed seeing Susan's Library Things selections since I enjoy seeing what others are reading; nice layout

in BCPL
looked at http://amie1974.blogspot.com/ not what I expected - kermit the frog graphics & Muppets podcast - I was expecting environmental twist. The graphics here were fun! Tip for how to get trading card posted. "It's on the site and not with the text, but at least I got it there. I learned that I have to go to template and then to page element to add a graphic to the blog." could've proved useful.

HCPL
looked at http://knittingchic.blogspot.com/ I do enjoy specific talk show features like NPR'S literary 5 minute spot in the AM commute so I don't miss the visuals on a podcast like than the knitting.chic might; however, I agree for knitting, you almost have to see it. Tecnorati & YouTube both yielded some good knitting videos.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Thing 1

listened to podcast recognized some of the technologies mentioned (rss feeds and YouTube)
read over FAQs
not yet listed in participants (appeared later/OK)