THING 23 -- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I am so glad I was able to participate in Maryland 23. This program gave me the opportunity to explore technologies I was aware of and heard about but never fully comprehended. While I am by no means a master of the 23, I do feel a sense of familiarity with these names and will definitely not be afraid to continue exploring.
I think the funnest exploration was the fun with widgets and You Tube. There is just too much time wasting potential contained on those sites. Of most practical value was Zoho Writer and the RSS feeds. Zoho Writer is a great document site and has multiple templates available for use. Learning about RSS feeds was really interesting. I'm not 100% sure that I like this method of searching, but I can see where it would be useful to monitor specific searches.
This program has contributed to my lifelong learning goals and has made me recognize the need to stay current especially in our profession. It wa a great way to learn but have fun also. I certainly never thought I'd have a blog to call my own.
I think the program was very well organized. I appreciated the updates and reminders and the drop in sessions at North Point. For those people who weren't able to make the sessions, it might have been good to have the tips which were available as handouts available online. I know there were tips on Ellen's blog, but perhaps each sheet could have been linked to the specific "Thing" and "Discovery Exercise." I know the time offered was plenty to successfully complete the program. I'm just one of those procrastinators who loves deadline extensions.
I would participate in a program such as Maryland 23. It gave me an organized and goal-oriented plan to peruse technologies which are the future of librarianship. It also allowed for interaction and discussion with colleagues regarding these developing trend. Thanks for all your hard work to make this such a success.

THING 22

I have minimal exposure with downloadable books and was interested to search these sites. I know some of the technologies haven't always been the easiest for customers to access, but it is an exciting new way for readers to be connected to books and librarians should be aware of these sites and any developing trends.
Project Gutenberg has always fascinated me. I think it is an amazing achievement that this organization has made available. I haven't visitied the site for a while and was pleased to see that there is now so much more for customers. Such links as the 100 most downloaded books and authors and best of cds and books are interesting readers' advisory tools. I was really interested to see the digitized sheet music option. This is a frequent request and can be really helpful to customers needing immediate music. This is an excellent site to bookmark and utilize for public librarians.

THING 21

Podcasts was an interesting challenge. After learning what they were all about from the tutorial, I first checked out http://www.podcast.net/. I had trouble finding anything of interest to me. I went into the local/regional genre and nothing really appealed to me. I checked out a couple of other genres, but it all looked very specific. This reminds me of the old cable access channels where any joker could get on with a show about anything. If you're not looking for anything specific it seems like a wasteland. I then tried http://www.podcastalley.com/ and that seemed better. One interesting feature they had was the "most viewed" and the "newest" podcasts. They also posted recommended podcasts. I found an interesting podcast called The Hollywood Saloon and was able to add it to my RSS feeds at Bloglines. I can see how libraries can make use of this technology, particularly when it comes to children's programming and reaching out to those who are unable to physically visit the building.

THING 20, part 2

Tried unsuccessfully again to post the video to the blog. However, I received the following message: "An error has occurred. Message: Your username or password is not recognized.Reason: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden." I think I was doing everything right, but will check with colleagues tomorrow. It's a shame because as I said in the earlier Thing 20 post, this video is a crowd pleaser.

THING 19

Web 2.0 awards offered a lot of great sites to look at. It's amazing all the things on the internet that are available free to use. No wonder the kids spend so much time with all this. You can really get carried away. I took a closer look at widgets on http://www.yourminis.com/ which was the winning widget site. I was able to add a game widget to my blog. I had some trouble doing this to blogger, but was able to copy the code and add it that way. I'm not sure why I wasn't able to log in to Blogger to do it, but the copying code was just as simple. I'm not sure if you can change any elements, such as size, to the widget. I can see these Web 2.0 sites being of great application to the library, as they are the best of the best and librarians should be able to direct customers easily to these sites. The directions seem quite clear and simple and customers should have no trouble following through with this on their own, but having a list of such great sites all in one place is a big help to librarians.

THING 18

I am familiar with Google docs and think it is a great tool. It's a wonderful way to share documents with groups whose members are not all in one location. Additionally, it's great for people who don't have the Microsoft Office system installed on a computer. I also played around with Zoho writer and found it to be great fun. I created a recipe template using a template in their library and can see how using this would be so easy for people to share receipes. This is just one small example, again I think it would be useful for groups or individuals who need to create simple documents but don't have access to Microsoft. These tools can be used in the public library setting to assist customers in creating documents, providing easy to follow templates and publish anything from booklets to resumes.

LINKS

I just noticed that the links posted on my blog aren't working. I'm not sure what happened because I think they did work when I initially had them up. I'll try to fool around and see if I can fix it, because those Colin Firth sites are great!

THING 17, PART 2

I was able to successfully post my blog to the list of favorite blogs at Maryland's sandbox by using simple instructions which a co-worker got at one of the drop-in sessions. It couldn't have been easier. I'm not sure if the directions online were difficult or I was just being dense, but these instructions were much simpler to follow.

THING 20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1seGlhCSGJs
You Tube is too much fun. I can really see how kids can spend hours on this site. There is just so much to see and look at. Of course, in keeping with a theme I looked for Colin Firth videos and was not disappointed. I am a little curious about the copyright issues raised by this site. For instance, this link connects to a slideshow of pictures. Have these photographers released permission for publication of these shots? It seems like a hazy and unpoliced arena.

THING 17

Frustration! Tried to add my blog to the favorites blog at the Maryland Sandbox, but for some reason I just couldn't get it. It was fun to look at the different blogs and wikis and I did peruse them and added my 2 cents on the favorite dogs wiki. Will seek help tomorrow to try to get my blog added correctly. I'm sure I'm missing something very basic.

THING 16

I have used wikipedia, always with the knowledge that the authorship can be unknown and unreliable. However, I think generally wikis are a great concept an allow for multiple users to comment and add information to topics. While the potential for vandalism and error is there, I noticed in my exploration that some wikis, like the Library Successes, A Best Practices Wiki now requies e-mail verification before permitting posting. I think wikis should definitely be utilized by a public library for a variety of purposes -- such as readers' advisory or book club support as used by the Princeton Public Library, or to promote a specific event like the ALA did for its 2006 conference. Perhaps we could use a wiki in some fashion to enhance the Summer Reading program.

THING 15

I was worried about this assignment, because I thought that some of the discussion would be talking about things which I didn't know about and didn't understand. That is why I found Rick Anderson's article about the icebergs in library 2.0 to be so interesting. Even though he is in an academic environment, his language and presentation was simple and down to earth. Further, the icebergs he cautioned about are things that I think we are facing currently in the public library environment. The "just in case collection" is something which is on the minds of some BCPL librarians as floating collections becomes a reality. This kind of mental change is difficult, but librarians need to embrace these new ideas in order to continue to be relevant. I enjoyed reading Dr. Wendy Schultz's vision of the future of libraries. I think her ideas are fun and important, but the idea of meditation and relaxation in a public library seems quite unlikely! To me Library 2.0 means embracing all ideas for the future of the library. Thinking about the library as a repository for print material is a stale way of describing the library and all ideas should be discussed and all technologies incorporated to better serve more demandig and aware customers.

THING 14

Explored technorati and found it interesting. The searches definitely changed depending on which search used -- blog posts, tags, or blog directory. It seemed that the blog posts was the least useful, but that was a very preliminary observation so I could be wrong about that. I was surprised to see what were some of the top favorited blogs, top searches and top blogs were. When I was looking at these it looked to be very technology heavy as far as the searches and favorted blogs. Did try a search for someone's blog using technorati, but was unsuccessful.

Found an interesting blog all about Colin Firth and was able to post the link on my blog!

THING 13

Explored Del.icio.us, watched the tutorial and checked out the PLCMCL2 account. It wasn't that thrilling, but I think mainly because the content bookmarked was not very interesting to me. So I decided to create an account for myself. It couldn't have been simpler (after finding a user name that wasn't already in use) and then I got to have some real fun. I think this is a good tool as a "bookmarking anywhere" option. My understanding is that I should be able to access my account at any pc, which is what separates this from traditional bookmarking. The second reason this is good is because you can spy on what other people are looking at and check these sites out. This kind of access can keep us current with information needed to perform our jobs better as it gives another opportunity to find out what "people are talking about."

LIBRARY THING

Was able to add the link to random books on my Library Thing bookshelf. I'm really enjoying checking all this stuff out and getting a sense of accomplishment when something actually works.

THING 12 -- the sequel

Ok, so it couldn't have been much easier to change the layout of the blog and move the Rolly searchroll to the bottom. Now I know!

THING 12

Finally, success with Rollyo!! I was finally able to add my searchroll to my blog. It took a while, but I perservered. Of course, in this case I made a for fun searchroll which wouldn't have too much use in the library, unless someone was researching celebrity gossip of course. But I can see where a personalized search engine could be quite useful professionally and personally. A reference librarian who comes across various useful sites could put them in a searchroll rather than the old fashioned bookmarking. Also many different searchrolls can be created covering a variety of topics which make up the librarian's frequently asked questions.

Now to trying to move the physical location of the searchroll in my blog . . .

THING 11

I actually had heard about Library Thing a few months ago. I think this is an awesome tool for librarians. One thing that has always been recommended to librarians who do readers advisory is that he/she keep a journal. I really tried to do that the old-fashioned way, but found it hard to maintain. I would utilize Library Thing as a readers' advisory tool as a quick way to find similar books or refresh my memory about a certain book, or even when a book's title and author has escaped my memory. I find the tag cloud and author cloud to be excellent resources for me in my personal reading, even though the tag cloud will probably be more useful when more titles are added to my library. I think this is such a great idea, I could even see upgrading and paying for the unlimited usage!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php

THING 10

So I had a lot of fun playing with the different generators. I started at The Generator Blog, which seemed like a very comprehensive site. I can really see use for generators in library programming with children and young adults. For example you could use the pirate name generator when hosting any pirate themed program. The librarian could generate names ahead of time or utilize the computer if available during the program. I think these generators are also great to direct young people to when they ask for some good places to go on the computer. I had to tear myself away, so I'm sure they could waste quite a bit of time playing with these fun tools.

As far as the avatar -- not so successful. I did create one at dookyweb.com, but couldn't figure out how to save/copy and transfer. I went to several other sites, but was put off by the need for registration.

THING 9

So I went to Merlin and tried the site, but it didn't seem very useful to me. Other than the frequently asked questions, it seemed to be a collection of blogs that those in the library field may find useful. I suppose having a nice list of these blogs is useful, in that it saves time in searching. Additionally, it's much more of a tech focus, and while I find it fun to explore the growing technologies available to us, some of the language and discussion was much more in-depth than my tech challenged brain can handle.

THING 8

I created an account at Bloglines and thought it would be a fun, useful tool. However, I'm not finding it that great. It seems like the sites offered are just as easily accessed individually and I like doing a little bit of searching and finding the unexpected. But I can see where these RSS feeds could be of great use in the library setting. An account could be set up for example for all librarians to check with some regularity utilizing The Shifted Librarian, NY Times Book Review, etc.

I couldn't figure out how to do the first option of creating a blogroll, but here is the link to my subscription. Hope it works!

http://www.bloglines.com/public/mroberts@bcpl.net

Still not sure why this doesn't work . . .

WEEK 3, THING 7 -- TECHNO STUFF

It's hard to keep up with all the technology. It seems like everything changes so quickly -- I just got HDTV! I have not been that excited about digital cameras, because it just seems that everyone just takes the photos, looks at them immediately and never actually prints them out. I guess I'm still old-fashioned, but I like the idea of photo albums and pictures in frames. But now that I've explored Flickr and the unending resources available with photos, I can really see the advantages of a digital camera. Just like with everything else, you just need to keep up with it.

WEEK 3, THING 6 -- FLICKR REVISITED

Success! I created a billboard and will try to upload it now. It seems after one hurdle is completed, another one is right around the corner, but it is fun trying these things out.

Ok, so I wasn't able to upload the image. This is the message I received:

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
When reporting this error to Blogger Support or on the Blogger Help Group, please:
Describe what you were doing when you got this error.
Provide the following error code and additional information.
bX-bpumck

WEEK 3, THING 6 -- EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN

Having not yet moved into the world of the digital camera, Flickr was a complete unknown to me. I tried to understand the language used in the description on Flickr and Wikipedia about mashups, etc., but have to admit it did not make to much sense to me. I tried to work with the Flickr fun stuff like billboards, trading cards, etc. at www.bighugelabs.com/flickr.com, but did not have much luck. Will have to go back and try again. When I went to the drop-in session a couple of weeks ago, I was able to create a magazine cover, but no such luck today!

WEEK 3, THING 4 -- BLOG REGISTERED!

Successfully registered blog. It's fun to see mine, along with other participants from BCPL. Some staff are incredibly skilled and creative at this. It should be a fun process to do myself and learn from others.

WEEK 1, THING 1 -- BLOG REVIEW

Learning about emerging technologies is a great idea for staff at all levels of the public library. I think this will help us offer better, updated customer service, both external and internal. I'm looking forward to exploring some of the things mentioned which I have heard about, but am not familiar with.

WEEK 1, THING 2 -- LIFELONG LEARNER

Lifelong learning is something which I embrace. I found this tutorial to be particularly interesting since I am relatively new to my position in the library. It seems that every day is full of new and challenging learning opportunities. I definitely agree with asking questions. The experience of those around you is a goldmine of learning!

WEEK 3, THING 5 -- PHOTO FUN

I enjoyed exploring Flickr and played with the mashups. I even created a magazine cover. I could see why this and other similar sites are so popular with the explosion of the digital camera. I don't have a digital camera . . . but will try to upload a picture to my blog.

WEEK 2, THING 3 -- FIRST TIME

I'm looking forward to being a blogger and getting more familiar with the format. It took long enough to come up with a name/address for my blog. Too much pressure to be creative invovled here. Hopefully, by the end of 23 Things, blogging will be a routine and I will have learned many other tools and tricks.