Regarding Thing 23

Ta Da! The last Thing!

It will be interesting to see when the things I learned during this process surface as I work at the information desk. I know they will pop into my head. I think it will be surprising, and therefore difficult to predict. By far, what I've enjoyed the most is keeping the learning blog. And I know that I still have much to explore about blogging.

I would definitely do another training in this format. It's flexibility is ideal as we face so many unknowns about our future.

Regarding Thing 22

This Thing should be replaced with a topic that really is new to us. Our customers are regularly asking about this resource. I can't say I offer much technical expertise, but we regularly introduce them to this source for listening. They are savvy and need very little assistance.

Personally, I haven't taken to any recorded books. Quite simply they make me sleepy.

Regarding Thing 21

Podcasts are old news at this point, aren't they? I've used them to listen to archived programs on BBC Radio 4. I can't say they're a big part of my life. And my interest in creating a podcast is somewhere in the negative column. They are useful. I'm glad they exist. I'd rather read a book.

Regarding Thing 20

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Regarding Thing 19

I glommed on to the travel sites, as I have the itch due to the recent claustrophobia inducing snow. Using these, one can consolidate fare searches using a number of services at once. Annnnd.....I learned from fiddling with these that there are many more booking sites than I could have imagined. Even so, I can't afford to go anywhere that I want to go. But this lets me feel confident that I've turned over almost every stone.

And it's great the Etsy, one of my favorite shopping sites, is a winner here!

Regarding Thing 18

I had the same reaction to the vast choice of online productivity tools that I do when I go to Container Store or Strosniders Hardware or Bruce Variety. Somewhere here is the solution to all of life's administrative and organizational problems, things to get you over the humps that make it hard to get started on anything. But it's an illusion. The sites that help with spreadsheets and word processing, yes. But most of them require the very self direction and discipline the lack of which is driving you to use them in the first place. Sorry.

Regarding Thing 17

(Update below)

Another participant wrote for this Thing "abandon hope all ye who enter here." After an excessive amount of time I am doing just that. And that includes trying to find "43 Things" to select an alternative to do. I found something called "43 Things", but it included activities such as "swim with sharks," which I don't find appealing. Nevertheless this was an enlightening adventure in frustration and the imperfections inherent in just about everything. So not a total waste of time....I guess.

Update: Things are Looking Up! I found the site "43 Things I might want to do this year" and it offers great alternative "Things," should one of the 23 be out of order. Actually I think some of the 43 are a bit more interesting. I took a look at Click University and Google Labs.

Regarding Thing 16

I liked the Princeton Library's Book Lover's Wiki where users post book reviews. The library has also linked it up with local businesses to offer raffle prizes for contributors. They use the Wiki as a tie-in and enhancement of their summer reading program. Another way, among many on the www, to establish connections and what I've come to think of as "ether based community."

Regarding Thing 15

I groaned inwardly at the thought of this particular Thing. I'm just not drawn to the social interactive aspects of the web. My impression is that it's the home of all that's insipid and inane. But anyway, and seriously, I did find reading about the subject to be tolerable, if not a bit interesting. At Library 2.0 there's lots of discussion among librarians who are just getting their toes wet with Twitter, and what's interesting is that you can tell this is the very beginning, the early teething stages of exploring how to use it. I couldn't really tell how they actually are using it, and that's because, in many cases, neither could the librarians yet. It's also interesting to read about settings where the librarians, in small special or township public libraries, have some autonomy in decision making. They can come to work one day and think "Let's try Twitter today" and just jump in with negligible bureaucrataic fol-de-rol to navigate first.

Regarding Thing 14

Umm. Well. Technorati. Let's see. I don't think this is where I'll learn anything about tags, since clicking on the link "tabs" gets me nowhere. I'll try to come back to this, but as it is, I don't immediately see it's use to me at the information desk. I'm not saying there isn't a use, just that I couldn't determine it in the brief time I had to explore. Also, I found Technorati to be visually unappealing, if not downright abrasive to the eyes.

Regarding Thing 13

The holidays, the snowmygod weekend, and JavaNow training have come and gone; time to get back on track. I have looked at Deli.icio.us. I looked for a bookmark for links to info about snow blowers, and it took me to a Consumer Reports article. Nice, but there are other routes. I looked at MCPL's bookmarks. Hmmm. Useful, but nothing new since '07. I did like it for browsing blogs. If I'd used it for Thing 9 I would have come across www.librariansonedge.blogspot.com and included it in my post. I'll keep exploring.

Regarding Thing 12

I had trouble getting this to work for me. I tried to set up a search tool for travel to South Africa. It never actually functioned, and after several tries I thought to myself that in this time I could have done a traditional Google or Ask or AltaVista search with satisfactory results. Perhaps the appalling sluggishness of the pcs here has something to do with my poor result. I get the idea, though.

Regarding Thing 11

Library Thing has real potential to help with my increasingly unreliable middle-aged memory for titles. I thought so a couple of years ago when we learned about it at an RA training. I set up a Thing then, as a post-assignment, but it has disappeared because of my neglect of it. So, clearly there's a question: can I establish a routine of listing the titles I've read and want to remember? Rather than standing in the stacks scratching my head in frustration, I can turn to my Library Thing. The tags are a quick and dirty kind of "read alike" subject assistance.

This has been a rather plodding and uninspired post. Distracted by the first snowfall??

Regarding Thing 10

Before now I knew zilch about image generators. Seriously. And here's one for which I've got to find a mouse picture:
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/graphics/READ_Mini_Posters.cfm

Regarding Thing 9

• For a sense of camaraderie and "it could always be worse," there's http://feelgoodlibrarian.typepad.com/
• It's nice to check in on LC, too. It's a different world: http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/page/2/
• And I like the New This Week rss from Librarian's Internet Index: http://www.lii.org/pub/news/211
• And now for something completely different (as in Irreverant, Rude and Crude), but serves a need):http://community.livejournal.com/library_mofo
• And here's one I just happened upon while scanning today's Salon.com. Of particular interest and use to YA fans :http://gwendabond.typepad.com/bondgirl/

Regarding Thing 8

I've heard that Bloglines is easy. I'm not finding it to be so. I'm not certain that it is a match for my style of information gathering. I'm coming up with too many glitches. I'll come back to it, but for now I've gone well past the 45 minutes.

Regarding Thing 7

My iPod Touch is the technology that interests me just now. I use it alot (and haven't put any music on it yet, and I've had it since August!), in fact I use it so much for games and internet that I'm developing a repetitive motion problem in my thumbs and index fingers. Seriously. It would appear that like so much else in life, there are side effects and pitfalls that will demand that we summon forth good old self restraint. Over the next eon of human evolution (if we still have a planet) will our hands morph into something more iPod accommodating? I'd better stop now....my fingers are starting to tingle again. Seriously!!

Regarding Week 3; Things 5 & 6

45 minutes per Thing is not enough. I was mesmerized by the terror alert map linked from the Wikipedia article on mashups. But I get it: mashups are a technical cut and paste. I think the farthest I'll get with it myself is to come back and make a mosaic on Flickr. I hadn't thought of Flickr as having a use for us, but it has possibilities. What we need is TIME!!

Regarding Week 2; Things 3 and 4.

Hmmm. The slideshow has some very pedestrian aspects. I am totally on board with the concept that we are learning when we aren't even aware of it. The "learning contract ," to my mind, contradicts this very idea. The tracking log is contract enough for me.

Regarding Week 1; Things 1 & 2

Not really much to comment upon; looks to have possibilities.