Checking in

One of the bigger changes in my home routine since my non-finishing of the 23 Things is that I've started getting a lot of news online - it used to be maybe 5%, now more like 50%. This started with Thing 12 when I joined Reddit. Later I joined Newsvine. It seems a bit better than Reddit but both sites have a lot of contributors who appear to be more interested in attacking other viewpoints than creating a well-balanced and intelligent news source. One nice thing about these sites is that the links often lead me to other interesting news sources.

Other social media sites I've explored are Times People (from the New York Times), Care2, Hugg, and BuzzFlash. A good local social site is a citizen-run blog about events here in Northfield, Locally Grown. I find the commentary attached to each post much more intelligent than any of the national sites I've explored. So I'm still looking for a high quality social news site for national issues. Any suggestions?

On another note, my attempt to keep up professionally via RSS feeds has crashed and burned. I've been about as successful with it as I have been with email lists; actually less so.

no flash drive for me

So yeah, I missed the Sept. 15 deadline. I'm devastated that I won't be getting my prize as well as all the fame and glory due to all those who complete the 23 Things. However, I'm too close to stop now, so I plan to complete the program anyway. Yes, it will be hard, but reward or no reward I refuse disappoint my legions of fans! So stayed tuned, more is on the way...

Thing #18: YouTube and other online video

I've never spent much time on YouTube before now. My overriding impression of it was "scary" - to think that I could be walking down the street and have my pants fall down, and next thing you know it's the top-rated video on YouTube! (And of course it would be top-rated, were that to happen.)

As increasing numbers of YouTube videos are posted on other sites I've watched a few here and there. I'm sure YouTube will have - and has probably already had - a significant impact on this year's presidential election. I find it disturbing when sound bites ("video bites?") are posted in such a way as to be taken out of context. But,with recent developments in the campaigns, well, um, one of the campaigns, I can't help but kind of hope that online videos may help to expose the, er, limitations of certain candidates. But this is not a political blog...

Today I did spend some time watching videos, and it was fun. I see a lot of potential for educational applications. For example, this TV advertisement for Salem cigarettes from 1970 could serve as hard-hitting documentation on the smoking culture that existed before today's 18-22 yr. old college students were born. It would be hard to get the same impact from other formats.



I also enjoyed watching various library tour videos. There are a lot of them, many quite creative and funny. For example, this one from Harper College Library:



I would love to see a side-splittingly funny yet educational video created publicizing the St. Olaf Libraries to our students. Maybe as an introduction to the library scavenger hunt that the freshmen participate in during orientation. (Last year some students made a very funny video about the library as a project, but if it's on YouTube, I can't find it.) Library types tend to have good senses of humor, and that's certainly the case at ours. We should exploit that and show the students that we're fun people!

Thing #17: ELM productivity tools

I'm trying to step things up here with Sept. 15 coming up fast. Will I be the first dog to complete the 23 Things? Can I request a flavor for my 23 Things flash drive? Do you have liver flavor? Peanut butter?

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One of the perks of working at St. Olaf is that I have access to the databases included on ELM as well as many others at work and at home via a proxy server. But it's wonderful that anyone in Minnesota who can get online can also access these databases for free. I wonder what percentage of MN residents know about this terrific service.

Since I'm lucky enough to have direct access through St. Olaf (no login) I did most of this Thing by going through the College's electronic resources page rather than through ELM. St. Olaf's implementation of SFX also allows me to find a copy of an article from a citation using the "Find it" button.

For my search alert I created a feed from LISTA. I hadn't known I could create a feed to my reader that will automatically notify me of new results for my saved search. I don't know if this is something that students and/or faculty know about and make use of. I would think faculty would find it especially handy.

Also, I had no idea that one could get audio feeds in search results from InfoTrac. Very impressive! I'm realizing how far behind I am in using indexes and databases.

The EBSCO page composer is a bit of a mystery to me as I don't understand its intended use. (Perhaps I'm having a senior moment.) Also, I got terribly frustrated trying to use the composer. Among other things, when I added a link my text disappeared. And since, again, I don't understand the purpose of creating a web page in EBSCO, this gets a pretty low rating from me! Maybe it will all become clear at a later time.

Both the Proquest and NetLibrary assignments were learning experiences for me personally. Our reference librarians are very skilled at searching and making use of the features of all kinds of databases so I don't imagine there's much new here for them. But I can use all the help I can get so for the most part I enjoyed this Thing.

OK, this doesn't feel like my best post, but I'm very tired, so that's all for now!

Thing #16: student 2.0 tools

We have very well-developed course-integrated instruction at our library. Although my work supports the teaching I'm not directly involved with it. I won't even venture a guess as to whether or not these tools would be beneficial in addition to what the students are already supplied. The best I can do is to try to remember that they exist so that, should the appropriate time arise, I can mention them.

I don't see any use for these tools for projects that I work on either on my own or with other library staff. They seem to be specifically geared to students completing research papers and other assignments. I suppose the next time I need to prepare a presentation they could come in handy.

Thing #15: online games and libraries

When I saw the title of this Thing my first thought was "Online games? Surely this Thing is for not for academic libraries." But then I saw that ACRL is one of the sponsors for this year's ALA Techsource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium. So I took a closer look and saw that the program includes sessions on how to incorporate online gaming into information literacy programs, including at the college level. Perhaps MMORPGs could play a role in college library instruction after all. Maybe online games could be part of freshman orientation. Could St. Olaf have it's own virtual presence in Second Life, with reference and other services?

I find the social aspect of Second Life a bit baffling. If you're a social type, why not go out and be with real people? If you're less social, more of a private person, wouldn't socializing online be just as repellent as in the real world? I suppose for extroverts it might be a way to meet people with similar interests when it's hard to find them in real life. Maybe SL is a good way for people from different cultures and countries to educate each other. Maybe ... World Peace at last?!?

I admit to being intrigued by Second Life, however, now that I've looked at it. I'd like to "go there" at least once just to explore what it's all about. Information Island is something I would like to explore, at least to understand better what the reading referred to, for example the "theater that seats 50," college classes one can attend, virtual whiteboards, and virtual computers available at the virtual library. I'm having a hard time imagining what all that would be like.

So far my private nature is preventing me from signing up, though. Is there an invisibility option in Second Life? If so, and I don't have to talk to anyone, maybe I'll try it!

I found Puzzle Pirates about as unappealing as I found 2nd Life intriguing. I'm turned off by the pirate theme, the graphics, the terminology, and the apparent complexity. Sure, I like puzzles, but this seems too ... geeky. Not that I'm not geeky myself, but there's good geeky and bad geeky! So anyhow, although I took a look, I didn't get far, and I hope I'm never involved in creating some kind of library program using this particular MMOPRG (love that acronym, btw).

Thing # 14: Library Thing

Once again, here we have a site where regular people are cataloging in their own time, for fun, while at the same time cataloging as a profession continues to be viewed as tedious work!

I enjoyed looking at Library Thing but I don't see making personal use of the tool. I don't really get why people want to share their book collections with the world. And anyway, I like to borrow from the library so I don't own most of the books I read. It also makes me a bit uncomfortable to share my reading list so publicly.

I'm intrigued, though, by the possibilities of collaboration of libraries with Library Thing. The LT documentation has sprinklings of library friendly language, for example, the tour touts the use of "library-quality data" in the LT database. LC metadata is supported along with Amazon's. If you judge the web 2.0 world by looking at the LT site, libraries appear to still be very much in the information game!

I also like the fact that LT is non-commercial. I subscribed to the Thingology Blog and am intrigued by the recent release of book covers for use in OPACs as well as the Open Shelves Classification project. Not having read much about the latter, I haven't formed an opinion about it yet. But the book covers interest me because there's both no cost (unlike commerical services like Syndetic Solutions) and no requirement for a link back to the site (unlike Amazon). Our library has so far rejected the display of book covers because of these limitations.

The idea of using LT for new book lists is interesting. Our Systems Librarian generates new materials lists once/month, but along with books these include videos, sound recordings, and music scores. I haven't investigated LT enough to know if books typically added to academic libraries are commonly found there. I wonder if generating new book lists from LT might work better for public libraries than for academic.

I would love to be able to go into Library Thing and see, for each book, whether or not any of my local libraries hold a copy. Or at least a "search your local library for this title" button. What a great way that would be to promote the use of libraries!

As a cataloger I could say lots about the quality of the metadata, the search mechanism, and the search results. I don't think any of it is as marvelous as LT advertises and I don't get why they tout the interface as superior to the library OPAC. (Please don't misunderstand; I'm not a fan of the typical OPAC either!)

Although it feels a bit invasive, I've included a widget on my blog's sidebar showing what I'm currently reading. I had trouble getting the widget working the way I wanted and I'm not thrilled with the result. And - yikes - there's also a link to my LT page that lists some books I've read over the years.

Thing #13: online productivity tools

1) Customized home page. On that wacky day back in July one of the many things I discovered was iGoogle. I've used it ever since as my home page on my home computer. I like it, but I've since deleted a large number of my original gadgets. I use it mostly for my home email account, Google Reader, and weather. Today I added a gadget for Remember the Milk (see no. 3 below). I don't know if I'll implement iGoogle at work because the potential for distraction seems huge. (Note irony of this Thing's title: "online productivity tools.")

2) Online calendar. This is timely as our institution is currently migrating to Google Calendar. This is the 3rd online calendar we've used in three or four years! Our last calendar, Meeting Maker, was a source of frustration for some people. For those who schedule a lot of meetings it's a godsend to be able to view everyone's schedule at once, but I think some staff would prefer not to have to keep their schedule updated online. Others continued to struggle in learning to use it. In addition, unless one keeps both a print and online calendar - and many are doing that - it's difficult to schedule meetings from a meeting room (well, unless you have one of those palm pilot thingies or whatever they're called). When we started using Meeting Maker I decided I wasn't going to take the time to keep both a print and online calendar for work. For the most part I've gotten used to and have liked using an online calendar.

Once again, though, to have success with these web 2.0 tools in the workplace I think it's important to not only have training but to also have continuing support and some hand-holding for those who are not comfortable learning new technologies. It can be difficult for some to take on all these new tools while at the same time trying to keep up with their regular workflow.

BTW the implementation of Google Calendar at our college is actually part of a larger migration to GAE or "Google Apps for Education" which includes gmail, Google calendar and some other tools that I guess we'll be learning about later.

3) To do lists. I took a look at the list making tools and chose Remember the Milk because the site claims it works with Google Calendar. I put a few things on the list but it remains to be seen whether, like the rest of the 23 Things, this is just a fun new toy or something that I'll keep using. I do keep a lot of lists on paper at both work and home but I have varying success in using them. I think in part just the action of writing something down helps me remember to do it.

4) I took a look at Backpack but felt like further investigation threatened to overwhelm what I've already learned in this Thing! I think I'll stick to the Google tools for now.

Thing #12: do you Digg?

I don't know, I don't know ... I'm feeling overwhelmed by all the recent tools I've learned about in the 23 Things which, though each different, have overlapping functions. Oh, I can subscribe to blogs! Oh, de.li.c.i...o....us! Oh, Digg! For this Thing I didn't get too excited looking at Digg, Mixx, and Newsvine. Maybe it's possible with some or all of these sites, but I didn't notice any way that my ratings would influence the type of content that would be displayed to me. I've been using Netflix for a few years, and though it took some time and a lot of ratings, my account is now personalized enough that I am easily finding lots of good movies that I likely would never have watched otherwise. As much as I like the democratic nature of these social media sites, perusing what's rated as "popular" doesn't make me want to look at these sites any more than a regular news site. I'm not particularly interested in reading the "American Idol" of news stories! Maybe I just didn't explore the sites enough. But Reddit does claim to shape content around one's ratings - like Netflix - so out of curiosity I signed up for an account.

I'm wondering if keeping track of what's rated as popular on these sites could impact collection development, for public libraries at least. I'm not sure it should be at the top of the "to do" list though.

I read an article on slate.com about a new model of electric car and "shared" it on reddit. I was feeling timid about doing this so I was glad to see that someone else had already submitted the same article. I did give the article a "thumbs up" rating though!

Oh, one other thing I noticed both for this Thing and Thing 11 was the ability to keep track of what friends are bookmarking (del.icio.us et al.) or what news stories they're reading/recommending (Digg et al.) As we web 2.0 types are fond of saying: "omg!" Why in the world would anyone want to do that?

Thing #11: tagging and del.icio.us

This has been the most thought-provoking Thing so far. My first provoked thought: why is it written as "del.icio.us" everywhere I see it, while the site itself and url simply read "delicious"?

The tagging concept gets more and more interesting to me. Tagging as an alternative to folders ... the whole concept of "folders" has long been embedded in our lives in so many ways; to keep things organized one separates them into different categories. If you have lots of things, you can have sub-categories and sub-sub-categories. This applies to everything from a file cabinet to LCSH to the grocery store to my bedroom dresser. (Well, maybe not my dresser). Tagging takes conventional organizational approaches using categories and hierarchies and turns it on it's head. Obviously this approach can only be applied in the online world. (If only I could tag things physically maybe I could find all those missing socks!)

With tagging I also like the potential for faceted searching. Newer versions of online catalogs use LCSH and other record elements to accomplish this, but LCSH, with it's hierarchical structure, wasn't designed to be used this way.

The obvious downside to tagging is the lack of standards and controlled vocabulary leading to inconsistency in application. But the concept in itself doesn't seem to preclude standards. It's with social bookmarking that we add other layers to the tagging approach where the usefulness of informal folksonomies becomes apparent. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around all the other advantages and disadvantages. One additional advantage, as I read in one of the linked articles, is that tagging the same resource by many people can lead an information seeker in directions he or she may not have thought of.

I'm aware of the discussions going on about allowing patrons to tag records for titles in the library catalog. I don't know what the answer is, but I do think librarians should at least consider the idea. I personally would love to do some "professional tagging" (is that an oxymoron?) simply because LCSH makes me want to gag. At minimum, we should allow patrons to tag resources on their own library page - "my library" or whatever - to keep track of resources of interest to them.

I'm excited about using del.icio.us. I had heard of it but had no idea it offered so much. I also spent some time looking at citeulike for organizing online academic papers. It's seems relatively new and undeveloped but I see great potential and I plan to use it.

I have so much to say on this topic and could continue writing. But time is running out on the 23 Things, and I want my prize! So I will move on.

Thing #10: Wikis

Our library has a wiki for our staff documentation. It's creation is still in progress as staff members move documents from elsewhere onto the site. We catalogers are gradually moving our cataloging manual onto the wiki. This is a great improvement as our print version is in a sad state and well out of date. Our recent documents are on a shared drive but cumbersome to access. And if we put them on a typical web page the bulk of the work would be done by our web person. So the wiki has been a good thing.

I enjoyed looking at various other wikis for this exercise. I see great potential for the wiki world to enable knowledgeable folks whom we might not otherwise hear from to supply information in a centralized location. However, I wonder how to publicize subject-specific wikis when there's so much other information out there. Take the Minnewiki from MPR as an example: what great potential this site has to be one of top "places to go" for information on Minnesota music! But judging from my brief exploration, this site is limited in it's development so far. Musicians and other experts might take an interest in contributing if both a) they knew about it and b) they saw it as a hub where information-seekers would go. In turn, information-seekers might go there if both a) they knew about it and b) the site was comprehensive enough to make it worth their while. If my reasoning is right then we've got one of those circular things going on here. In the meantime a Google search is probably not going to take you to Minnewiki on the first results page because of the way Google's relevancy ranking works. (OK, I just checked on Google, and I was right, but like always I got a Wikipedia page near the top of the list. Which makes me wonder: maybe the Minnewiki folks should instead put their efforts into this page rather than creating a new wiki.)

I'm not sure what to do about this, but I assure you that when I rule the world I'll make it a top priority.

Back to libraries ... a wiki makes sense when the use of multiple creators/editors results in the best content. While I love some of the subject guide wikis I looked at, at our library we have individual liaison librarians who create course and subject guides and - I think - each upload them to our web site. I'm not sure how a wiki could improve on this. Perhaps creating a wiki page would be easier for someone new to creating online content? But as a tech services person I'm not much involved so I'll shut up about that before I get myself into trouble!

Finally, when introducing the concept of a wiki I think it's important to both explain the rationale and provide training. Library staff have a lot coming at them; this has the potential to seem like just another wacky new thing that they're told they should do without understanding why. Staff participation in the decision to create a wiki is in keeping with the democratic nature of the wiki concept.

Edit: I forgot to report that I did do step 3 and added to the 23 things wiki.

Thing #9: Online Collaboration Tools

I decided to start blogging while waiting for the sample document to load on Zoho. Maybe it's because I'm working from home, but I've found that the Zoho site loads too slowly to be practical. (I had tried it for one of the previous Things too.)

The Google editor was frustrating. I couldn't make multiple changes to a font before typing. For example, if I changed the size from 8 pt to 12pt, then changed to italics, the size reverted back to 8pt. I was able to make multiple changes to the font by typing first, then highlighting my text and editing with new font size, color, etc. But this didn't go very smoothly either.

A committee I served on awhile back used a web document tool for our minutes, but it never caught on after that. One problem is that as we try new methods to view, edit, and store documents, staff tend to fall behind on what it is we're using now. Just when people figure out how to access and use one, it seems we're on to something else.

OK, the Zoho document has finally loaded, after at least 5 minutes of waiting!

I'm back. I had to sign up for Zoho, and now I'm waiting for another page to load.

Um ... er ... ok, here's another thought. Google seems to be getting into everything these days. Will they soon be able to do my dishes, laundry, and other house chores?

I'm giving up on Zoho. I don't think the slowness is just an issue for today because I've tried getting into this site multiple times on at least 2 other days. So I'll publish this post, and if the document loads in Zoho and I'm able to do anything with it, I'll report back.

Thing #8 again

The biggest lesson for me from Thing 8 is that there is sooo much out there to facilitate creativity. But too much for me to absorb now. I'll be relying on the 23 Things page after I complete the program for the links to all these resources.

I love the "flicks" and I'm still going to create one when I get some good photos. For now, on to Thing 9!

Thing #8: share your creations

I haven't gotten past the 1st part of the Thing: slideshows. On the Slideshare site I watched a presentation called "Death by Powerpoint." What a great hook! That's the inspiration for the title of the presentation I created, below.

The content of my presentation was inspired by everything I'm not doing because I'm having such fun with my computer. Since all the Flickr madness of Things 4-6 I've started a Flickr account, scanned a bunch of photos, and now, yesterday, I bought a digital camera! So, dear 23 Things, not only did you give me a bulging butt during the Tetris episode of Thing 3 (which, btw, I'm over, thankfully), carpal tunnel hypochondria (Thing 5), but now you're trying to drive me into poverty as well!

To combat this, 23 Things on a Golden Retriever presents:

Death by Web 2.0: 10 life-essential things the online world does not supply

One major problem I see with the Slideshare version is the picture resolution is much, much worse than on the my original Powerpoint creation. This distresses me because I spent quite a long time with it. The photos really do look lovely on Powerpoint!

more Thing #7: online communication tools pts. 3 & 4

3) Text messaging. Interesting that one of the assignments is to practice texting, which assumes that all the participants have a cell phone. Yeah, I do have one, I admit. But texting seems too clunky to be really useful for many library services - or is it my phone that's clunky? On the other hand, I wonder if the newest smart phones (is that what they're called?) are too smart for texting. That is, if these phones can get email, why bother with text? Is instant messaging available on the new iPhone?

The video of the students sitting right in front of their computers and using a cell phone to text the librarian seemed nuts to me. And the assigned reading seemed oddly dated until I saw that the article is dated: 2005. But then again, maybe it's me that's dated!

4) Web conferencing. I think the reality of global climate change to some extent transcends the debate of other benefits vs. costs of online conferencing. We simply have to consider online meetings and conferences as one small element of the strategy to fight climate change. Perhaps the high cost of gas will force us to do this even if the ethical reason doesn't.

One of the listservs I follow had a recent discussion of the advantages/disadvantages of online conferences. The overriding disadvantage mentioned is the loss of spontaneous conversation and networking opportunities offered by in-person attendance. I agree this would be a serious limitation of web conferences (although secretly I see it as an advantage since I dislike the social/networking side of conferences).

As for the webinar assignment, I've "attended" webinars in the past. I didn't see anything of interest on the upcoming lists for Minitex and OPAL, but I promise to keep my eyes open. When I do sign up for one I plan to watch it with an evaluative eye.

Thing #7: online communication tools pts. 1 & 2

1. Ah, email, the ultimate love-hate relationship! So time-consuming, such fun! And how did we manage before when group communication was accomplished by routed memos and meetings? Email should be making our working lives easier, shouldn't it?

There was a link in one of the readings to a New York Times article by Katie Hafner about the fractured attention at work caused by today's technologies. It seems to me, as useful as the web 2.0 tools are, for some of us the temptations for distraction multiply the more we learn. The article alludes to what I refer to as a "zone," or, for me specifically, a "cataloging zone," a state of long-term concentration in which I'm able to be highly productive. It seems I rarely find my zone during the working day.

I agree that it makes sense to try to reach our patrons where they're comfortable communicating. In our library we have both email and IM reference service.

2. Instant messaging. Talk about potential for fractured attention! Being logged into IM at work sounds dangerous. I've played with Google Chat a bit with a friend, but it's fun more as a novelty than anything. I thought using Chat was IMing, but now I see there's also Google Talk. Chat? Talk? Huh? I guess one can do more on Google Talk than on Chat. Well, I downloaded Google Talk ; I'll try it and report back.

Our library has been using Meebo for reference for awhile. This seems to make a lot of sense, but for me, a cataloger, I'm not so sure. I can see limited uses for IM for conferencing with my fellow catalogers because I'm in a separate building from them. But at work I think I would want to have IM turned off most of the time.

Thing #7 sure is long! I'll complete the other steps another time.

Thing #6: Online Image Generators (and a bit more on Thing #5)

Those who know me will roll their eyes when they see that I've created a trading card of my dog. But to those people I say: How could I not? Really. Think about it.

Most of the tools I explored for things 5 and 6 didn't do much for me personally. But still it's been useful to explore and know that these things are out there. Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned was the concept of the mashup, which appears to have limitless potential.

I can imagine going back to some of the thing 5-6 sites when preparing presentations or contributing to web sites. I do think, however, that we should remember, and help our students remember, that a glitzy presentation doesn't compensate for lack of substance. I've attended plenty of presentations with flashy elements added that seemed to serve no purpose.

Still not sure how to add a caption to images added to my blog. I made this billboard image using ImageChef. The photo within the image is from the Dublin City Public Library collection on flickr and is not attributed. This photo was taken in their Music Library. I found it in the Creative Commons section of the flickr site but I'm still feeling muddled about correct attribution and appropriate linking.

It's clear to me that all of this would go much more smoothly for me if I had more than a handful of my own photos digitized. I've add that to my personal "to do" list!

Finishing up Thing #5

The 23 things are such fun that I'm having trouble keeping in mind their intended purpose. That is, I tend to judge on entertainment value for me rather than looking for uses in the library.

I used splashr to create a slide show of what is quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth, Arches National Park (see previous post for the show). Eventually I'll get some of my own photos onto flickr and might then replace the slide show with my own shots. I found the splashr tool limited when I wasn't searching in a pre-defined collection because I had to take whatever photos it gave me. It's probably intended to be used with one's own collection.

I originally attempted to create a slide show a bit more original than this one. I thought: libraries, and I'm a music librarian, so, photos of music instead of books, and lp covers are fun to look at... In attempting to create this I spent a good bit of time searching in flickr. I won't go into the alternations of amusement and frustration I felt at the way tags are applied! I probably could have created the slideshow I imagined, but I was uncomfortable with the idea of creating a collection of other people's flickr photos in my own account (if this is even possible). It felt weird and wrong.

Thing #5: more Flickr fun

I think I just gave myself carpal tunnel.

These are public photos from Flickr, not my own. More later... (If this doesn't work, you may need to download the Flash plug-in.)

Arches National Park slide show

Thing #4: Flickr

There must be a way to put a caption on this photo. But anyway, it's credited on Flickr to Northfield.org. When I read about Flickr, I was intrigued most by the maps feature. So I went to the Northfield map location. Some of the first pictures were of the hailstorm from a couple of years ago. So then I did a search on the terms "northfield" and "hail" and chose this photo. I was a little nervous about copyright and proper crediting; I hope I did everything I was supposed to.

Flickr was fun to explore. I love what St. John's/St. Ben's are doing, especially interesting to me since they're academic libraries.

It's funny to me that, while cataloging as a profession is stereotyped as dry, boring work, much of what people are doing for fun on Flickr is essentially cataloging! And I think tagging is such an interesting concept. I would like to see the natural language of tagging combined with the controlled vocabulary and cross-referencing of LC Subject Headings. On the Flickr site there are some interesting attempts to create semi-formal lists and standards for tag creation.

Dear 23 Things...

OK, so you were right. I like my RSS feeds. I have 7 library feeds going in addition to 2 fellow 23 thing people's blogs. And so now I'm using Google blogger and Google reader. Google used to be just Google, a really useful tool upon which to look up stuff. Before signing up for the blogger and the reader I had never noticed that Google has many other tools, such as iGoogle, which today lead me to "gadgets", which lead me to games, which lead me to "Tetris", which rendered me helpless - I simply could not stop playing that game!

23 Things, I'm no life-style purist, but I do like to spend some of my free time doing healthy things like riding my bike, playing with my dog, or reading a book - the musty, paper kind, thank you very much. I have often been heard to say that I spend my work life in front of a computer, why would I want to spend my free time there? And computer games, yuck!

This is all your fault, 23 Things. In the guise of helping me improve myself as a librarian, is this instead what you want for me? To sit on my butt with atrophied muscles, eating potato chips, with my dog looking at me with sad eyes, because I spend all my time playing Tetris? I've only completed 3 of the 23 things; what am I going to discover next?

Thing #3: RSS feeds

My initial reaction to this was: "Oh no, I have to read more than what I already get via email?" I'm on many professional email lists. Here's my not-very-effective method of monitoring these lists: Step 1) I have my account set up to sort them into folders to reduce the volume coming into my inbox. Step 2) When I receive a system message saying "you've exceeded your email quota" I go in and delete all the accumulated email in my list folders! Ta da! (Actually I do try to read the stuff, but things tend to get out of hand pretty quickly.)

But that's my cynical side. I'm doing my best to see the positive side of RSS feeds. It's true, I don't have any blogs or web pages that I regularly view, so this will be an addition to my regular online reading. However, the introductions to RSS feeds that I read/viewed made me realize that 2 of my favorite tools use the same concept as these feeds: podcast subscriptions from ITunes and DVDs from Netflix. I adore both of these services!

A potential advantage of feeds over email could be that most(?) of the feeds tend be be authored by one or few people; at least they aren't being added to by the sometimes thousands of people subscribed to a listserv. I imagine following the feeds to which I subscribe may end up being a better use of my time than wading through email.

There are blogs and other online content I've seen (usually linked from one of those darn emails!) that I would be interested in reading regularly. (Of course now I can't remember what they are...) Email has always been my way of keeping up with online content relevant to my job, because I didn't have to go out and look for it. Now the same will be true for other online content. So, if I can perhaps learn what I need and want to know for my job using the reader, maybe I can cut back on the email lists and save time in the long run.

On my Google reader I added links to 2 fellow "23 things" bloggers, as well as feeds to 2 other library-related blogs. I promise to add the 3rd, as required, when I find another one that interests me!

Now I just have to remember to open my reader, right? Hmmm....

Thing #2

This blogging business feels weird, because: a) is anyone going to read this, other than the "23 things" leaders? b) even if someone else reads it, why clog up the internet when I don't have anything original to say? I feel like by blogging, I'm saying "What I have to say is useful and important" when it's not.

Except that it's useful to me to understand the blogging process, and that's what the "23 things" are all about. So I understand and like the approach. Learning by doing has always been the way to go for me.

It will be useful to understand the tools with which most students are coming into college. As an academic librarian, at minimum, the more I know about how students are using online tools for both research and social networking, the more I can work with my colleagues to meet their needs. For their research, how can we best design access to relevant information? And knowledge of the trends in social networking may lead us to innovative methods to communicate with the students. And perhaps becoming proficient with some of these tools will lead us to find uses for them ourselves, either to communicate with students or even among colleagues.

We should also keep in mind the purpose of our libraries. While I can't speak for public librarians, my guess is that a public library focuses heavily on "what the patrons' want." While the academic library should certainly consider what the patrons want important, our primary mission is educational, to teach and otherwise support the college's curriculum. "What the patrons' want" will go a long way to make the library - as both a physical and online entity - a place students will use and return to. But many students would probably also like to have fewer assignments and more vacations; is that what ultimately leads to the best education? Academic librarians need to think in terms of "what the patron needs" as well as "what the patron wants." The tools of the so-called "library 2.0" may be useful for both.

Thing #1

Thing #1 did not bode well for me, a person who has never desired to either blog or create an avatar. Creating the blog went ok, but the avatar not so much. I was in the middle of creating my avatar - since the female avatars are all way too pretty I designed one with a red union suit and with the head entirely covered with a scuba mask and sunglasses. Yes, I did save it! Then on one of my clicks, an error message appeared saying the Yahoo avatar page was not available. I tried again, and again, went away, came back, went away, came back. Then I tried the ancient version of Internet Explorer on my computer (normally I use Firefox) and got in fine. But Explorer insisted that I had not yet created an avatar! Tried Firefox again - still the error message. Back to Explorer, created new avatar from scratch.

I suppose Yahoo thought my jump-suited scuba diver totally hideous, thus my problem.

People do this for fun?