Monday, March 30, 2009

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.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

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.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

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)