Last Thing

Thanks to all for this fun experiment. I so enjoyed the many posts, and the help from others.
It will be a real adventure over time to see what new and enhanced tools are created.

Thing 22, Staying Current

I plan to keep my ear to the ground. Usually the younger patrons know whats happening on the net. Often I pick up items of interest from the young adults who frequent our branch. I will also keep looking to Neflin for help in finding the best and easiest tools of the trade.
I hope to have the time to more fully explore some of the sites.. Librarything is great. I am not the best at the image generators, so I am hoping a co-worker will help me out. They look fun, but some of the mechanics are beyond me.
Thank you all for putting this together. Maybe some updates could be sent out over time?
It will be a lot of fun to see what unfolds in the library as technology opens up more and more options and opportunties.

Thing 21 , Student 2.0

WOW these tools are so cool and will really help many students! I cannot wait to get home and send these links to my 2 kids in college. I think I will post them to my facebook so lots of the college kids I know can see them.
I can see lots of applications to this, especially for the chronicly disorganized. I will offer this to patrons who ask for help often.

Thing 20, books 2.0

People are always going to want to hold a paper page. Maybe not every book, but from time to time.
I am fascinated by the Kindle, and keep trying to justify buying one. Right now I just cannot. But if ever you could buy a kindle but get the books for free or much cheaper from your library I would and could justify the purchase.
I think this is going the be something libraries will offer in the future. I think that someone will design a device that will allow downloading of ebooks or however the technology will evolve.
Right now we are at a technological crossroad. So much more information is available to everyone.
Now when you get sick, you google it, webmd it or whatever and you can know as much as your Dr when you go in for treatment.
Educating your child is the same.. there is no more mystery. The parents can know what to expect and when. Being prepared is so easy.
So, I do see a some changes, but more than ever people are reading. And spelling is more important than ever when doing a search! And for once, handwriting does not count!
I see great things for the Libraries of the future. We must be nimble and quick to provide what is needed. And really resourceful to do it in a very tough economic climate.
For helping Patrons now I love whatsnext and what do I read next. I love the patron who comes in asking for the red book with the flower that someone or other talked about on some talk show. It can be fun to figure it out. ( if there is time!)
Nuturing young readers and making a Library a social safe place is just the beginning for making the Library the heart of any community. At my Branch there are Gamer days that bring a lot of kids and families into the branch. Someday the money will be there to follow our dreams and build all the necessary sites and spaces online to stay connected to our new Patrons.

Thing 19 Other social networks

It was interesting to see all the other networks out there. I really do not have time to belong to any new ones. I am still trying to finish librarything!
I am glad there are so many, and I can now guide others looking for a site. But for now, I have all the sites I can handle.

Thing 18, Facebook and Myspace

I have both and facebook and a myspace and I have had them for years. I have children that I keep in touch with via those sites, as well as other family.
I gravitate more to facebook right now, although with the recent changes, I may find another place to hang my cyberself. It really depends on the groups I keep in touch with.
Something that I would find fun, would be to take the Library mascot, ( A girl gorilla) and make a page for her. She could talk about story times and other programming. She could also talk about how to behave in the library . She has been a part of our branch for many years and it would be a hoot to share this with the kids and see what happens.

Thing 17 , podcasts

I read this, and I have had an account with youtube for quite some time. I doubt I will ever post there, but I love to lurk and watch the many popular videos that are out there.
I do listen to some of the radio podcasts, and enjoy the portability.
I can see some uses for these in attracting and educating Library users. However, there is so much content out there, that might be more fun. I see it as a hard sell.
Unless we made one, and got the local teachers to make it an extra credit grade to hit on the site and watch our video.
It would be a challenge to make a video that was funny and fun. Wish we had the time to play with it.

THing 15, Rollyo

I can see where others could set up searches for me to use. I am having a devil of a time getting this thing to work. I added the gadget and we will see if my rollyo shows up.
I did it on West Point and added all the sites I use to find info when I need it. I have noticed a lot of copies of Absolutely American ( Lipsky, David) going out recently, so I am guessing some young folks are considering a career in the Army and education at USMA>
On this one I think I am hopeless ... any hints or tips would be welcome.

Thing 14, Productivity Tools

I choose Google Reader as my start page, and I love it! All the information I need is on one page. If I get behind in reading it, I can mark it all read and move on.
I also have a Yahoo home page that has many other items I did't add to Google Reader.
I can see how the project tools would help. I do see that you need to use the same tools as those you collaborate with.
I live by my old paper calendar, and would love to try to set myself up with an online one.
I really love Google Docs and it made me feel really cool to turn my son onto it. He has to do a lot of group work at his school and they were not using it yet. His groups are using it now.
I think a lot of patrons might use this if they were aware of it.
I am hoping somewhere in these 23 things I will learn to use all the options on my cell phone.
I see where a lot of these tools will interface with phones.
My other comment on this Thing is how creative the folks are that name this stuff. The names fit, and are so cute!

Thing 13, Library Thing

I love this. It will take forever to add all the books I have read. I added quite a few. I did this a few weeks ago, to give it time to percolate some suggestions for me. Many of the suggestions are books I have read, but have not added yet.
This could be addicting, and time is a factor. It is fun though. I will go back, as I have time and use this more.
I can see where it would be a huge help to a younger reader, to find more of a genre. I would like to see it introduced to all the TAB kids and see what they think of it. ( TAB = Teen Advisory Board)

Thing 12, Wikis

Hello. I am not really comfortable making any change to a Wiki... I do not think I am expert enough to do that. I did play in the sand box to see how its done.
I am more of a jack of all trades, master of none type.
I really like the Library Success wiki and plan to read all of it over time. It will grow , but I see it as a possible resource.
As to wiki's being banned. I can understand that. For work at a certain level, we need to make sure the content was not just changed for this project or that project. And I bet some college student would do it as a joke! :)
It will take me some time to get used to these.

Thing 11

OK. I can now see myself never moving from my computer. So much information, all available for free and it just keeps scrolling across my page.
I can see our patrons using these. Once they are common knowledge, it will change the face of information.
I signed up for Mixx , just to see what I will find over a few weeks trial.
I am following the little girl missing in Palatka ( satsuma) and so I recomended one of these articles. I so hope she can be found safe. I doubt it will be so, but I really hope for it.
Maybe passing the article around will help someone spot her.

Thing 10

DE.LI.CIOUS is great! I cannot tell you how many times I have been out of town and needed my bookmarks! And could not remember the web site and was very upset!
This is a great idea and will make it much easier for travelers!
I can see how the Library could make a site for the public that allowed them to use it to find sites to gather information.
I can also see how people collaborating on projects could use this site.
This is a good item to have,
Donna

THING 9

Thing 9 is in ALL caps for a reason. MY little head is spinng from all these photo sharing and manipulating tools. I have accounts for zoho and slide share( and flickr) and am playing around with those. I do not have TIME to see them all.
I can see how someone with TIME could make all sorts of cool visuals for the Library website, blog or other tool.
But all these are TIME burners and with the current economic situation we are lucky to just get the materials reshelved.. and without volunteers that could not happen!
I love these ideas and opportunties , but alas , until the economy picks up, I see little chance of actually being about to use these tools.
Thank you for hearing my little whine

Thing 8

IM's, text messaging and all the rest are already a big part of my life. I have young adult children and w/o these options we would miss many opportunties to exchange information.
I facebook with a lot of folks .

http://www.facebook.com/home.php This link should take you to my facebook. I mostly use it to stay in touch with family and friends that are out of town.

It would be very cool to create a Library Facebook that patrons could use to see events, ask questions and such. For our branch, Pricilla Gorilla would be a cute "face".She has been the mascot for most of the 25 ish years we have had a library in these parts.
Also, I have used IM reference and love it.
There are so many possibilites for us to connect with patrons and draw in more patrons that are just not aware of the bounty available at the local library.

This could be a huge new look for Bookmobile, as they do not have a "location", but they do have patrons that would love a way to feel connected. And with the wireless web, it is possible.

Thing 7

Hi. I made a trading card, but cannot post it. I used all my Flickr space for this month already, playing around for this. Look for my card at a later time.
I tried a lot of other image generators. Some were very fun and cool . I can see how we could use them to make our pages more interesting. Also, ways to communicate online with patrons.

Thing 5 , thing 6

Hello! Flickr is fun. I set up my account and loaded some pic's from my computer. I tired taking pic's from the net. There are so many possibilities. More than I really have the time to explore. So many ways we could enchance our services and punch up our web sites. Making pictures of library events available on flickr, making a flickr show of all the services we offer, so the public is aware of how Libraries are evolving!

I set up my RSS feeds and now I only have to find the time to read all the items that interest me! I feel as though I am at a feast and my eyes are bigger than tummy is!

Then I go to twitter and find out I have an account, but no one to really twitter with! So, I sent some invites to co-workers. So some of you join me, so we can twitter together~

Thing 3,Thing 4

Well, Thing 3 was easy.. I set up google reader on day 1. Its harder for me to find items of interest, so I am using some of the suggested bundles until I can get my head wrapped around how to find things. I love "news of the wierd" and the comics being right on my page for me. I do not like all the repetition on the news, and am wondering if I am missing some way of losing some of that.
I will keep playing with it until I figure it out.
RSS feeds are more of a mystery. I find google reader slows my computer down, I am usually working from 6 or 8 tabs at a time. This seems to use a lot of memory.
Anyone out there with more hints or tricks, I would love some here!

Thing 2.0 ( lol)

Library 2.0 looks like a natural progresson to me. The only constant is our world is change. Being prepared to evolve is a part of survial.

I really think that Libraries are a part of our culture in a way that will never allow them to go away. It is almost a religion for many of us to meet at the Library and socialize. To share ideas, books, and to look for new and interesting concepts.

Library 2.0 is going to drag some of us into the internet mix, one way or the other. Finding the time is tricky, but I agree that we always find the time for important and fun activities.

Step1/ Web 2.0

OK, here it is. I have looked all around and read a lot about web 2.0. I have added gadgets to my blogpage, gotten a gmail account and set up my igoogle page. Oh what fun!
What I gather about 2.0 is its really just all the applications out there in cyberspace that we can make use of. Which boggles my mind. All this "stuff" out there.. and the ways of accessing just what is needed at any given time!
Its way cool, and slightly beyond my comprehension. So, excuse me, while I go forth and expand my mind a bit more.

Step 1/ Braschone

Here we go with step one. I am in, I have my blog. Now I can move forward with the project. For now, this is for work. It is not my first blog.
Wishing you all well.
Gosh I hope I got my web address for this thing correct when I registered!
Till I see you in the stacks
Donna