Week 8: #18 Social Networking

Whew! That was quite amazing! I am overwhelmed, but glad for the experience. I found my nieces and nephew on MySpace and learned more about them in those few minutes than I've known since they were small. I was very pleased with their music choices...I liked them, too! And all their pictures were fun to see.

I went through all the other social networking sites listed, and especially got a kick out of dogster. Ning is something I want to go back to.

I didn't realize before how 'alive' the social networking sites are. I feel like I've been selling the whole thing short without taking the time to look for myself what they are like. So...thanks 23 Things, for another enlightenment.

Week 7: #17 Blog About Technology

I miss the days before cell phones. Though they are useful in so many ways (e.g., a person is at a grocery store and has a question about what he/she was sent for), they are isolating in other ways (e.g., a person is at a grocery store, but this time he/she is just not sure about whether to get Brand A or Brand B; in the former days, the person would have asked someone standing there, and a conversation might have developed between these two 'strangers'; now so often a phone call is made to a third party and the opportunity to interact with a new person is lost).

Sometimes it feels like people are so absorbed in their phone conversations as they walk along that they are not even registering in their minds the fact that a person is walking on the same sidewalk, say, and that they are about to walk right into that person. In the days before cell phones, two people passing each other on the sidewalk would nod or smile or say 'hello, nice day', and it would be a nice little bit of civility in the day. Now if one party is talking on the cell phone the other person is trying to avoid a collision and this is NOT a bit of civility in the day.

I do have a cell phone and enjoy using it, but I think we are losing some connections with people outside our inner circle by the proliferation of cell phone usage. I also wonder about the loss of solitude which is as important to our development as socialization.

Week 7: #16 Wiki

When we had the very first training about 23 Things in September, the most memorable thing I learned was what made a 'Wiki' a Wiki. I think it's a very useful tool for the Internet. Also in that same training, I was made aware of the use by libraries of Wikis for documents like policies.

For this exercise, I added a favorite vacation spot and restaurant to the iHCPL wiki. It was easy to do and I enjoyed looking at the posts of other staff members. I also looked at the other wikis that were linked to the exercise page. I like the 'shared knowledge' aspect of Wikis! The collective brain is powerful.

Week 6: #15 Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read all the perspectives and I'll say a few words about the one by Michael Stephens 'The New World of Librarianship'. I see Library 2.0 as an evolution of the same theory that has always been the best part of public librarianship: that of giving people what they want and need at any given point in time. The difference lies in what is needed/wanted now and the means of providing it.

I think the importance of Library 2.0 is to give direction to libraries as we incorporate the latest in technology and also adapt to the changes in society. I do think it's very important for librarians to be open to using the tools of Web 2.0 and I think it's equally important to avoid the 'technolust' he talks about (i.e., acquiring technology for technology's sake).

It's also important, as he says, to listen to both the users of libraries and the staff that work face-to-face with them every day. Both will give a perspective on what is practical and what is needed.

Week 6: #14 Technorati

I looked at Technorati and did the comparison of the search on the phrase "Learning 2.0" in Blog Posts, Tags, and Blog Directory. The blog posts and tags brought up some hits that were alike. There were more blog posts than tags, which is understandable. The Blog Directory search on "Learning 2.0" not surprisingly brought up lots of library blogs.

A search on the Popular Blogs brought up techie blogs at the top of the list. A couple of the ones in the top ten surprised me.

The top searches included "Learning 2.0" as next to last before myspace so I could see our searching at HCPL for this exercise had an effect. Some of the popular videos sounded interesting.

I also did a search on a subject of personal interest and I can see it would be a good way to find some new blogs on a topic.

Technorati is very good to know about. I decided not to claim my blog, but I am glad to know how to enable Technorati to include a blog in searches.

Week 6: #13 Tagging

I looked at Del.icio.us and thought it looked interesting. I liked the different ways the list of tags can be displayed. I didn't see a lot of comments associated with the tags but maybe I just picked the wrong ones to click on. The tutorial video made it clear how people can use it in their research. I will probably set up an account with some topics I'm interested in just to see what kind of new things I can find.

Week 5: #12 Library Elf

I looked at Library Elf, but I decided not to sign up. I get email reminders from HCPL and that works well for me. I'm glad to know about this for the patrons, though.

Week 5: #11 A Thing About Library Thing

I found Library Thing easy and fun to use. I had heard about it and wanted to try it, but never took the time. I put in titles I enjoy that have to do with spirituality, creativity or poetry and was delighted to see so many others out there who have put the same books in their libraries. I am having trouble getting the link of my library into my blog, however. I will give it one more try, and then go in search of assistance....

Week 5: #10 Playing Around with Image Generators

This is me as an Avatar in my twenties, on a hike.
This was made in Meez: http://www.meez.com/home.dm

I had to fumble with this one. I could make my Avatar fine, but getting it to my blog took awhile, and I had to ask for help. The computer kept giving me an error message which, it turned out, wasn't anything I was doing wrong but something with our setup here. After hitting the button over and over, it finally went through. Yea!

Week 4: #8, Part II

In reading another iHCPL blog, I realized I had missed part of the exercise in #8 of week 4: adding the feed of a few participants' blogs from iHCPL. I just added three, through Bloglines.

Week 4: #9 Finding Feeds

With intensive research, I determined that Technorati wins hands-down over the other 3 finding tools. The intensive research involved searching for the word 'kayak' on the 4 finding feeds tools. Technorati produced the most entertaining posts, so it is therefore the best tool. I also did a search in Bloglines on 'kayak' and it produced the second most useful results. Syndic8 was next. Feedster brought up so much as to be a little silly and Topix wasn't really pertinent for what I was looking for (blogs by kayakers). But all of them were easy to use and I'm glad to know about them.


As a side note totally unrelated to this exercise: it takes me about 5 tries to get the font to change to Arial from Times when I try to post a blog. The only way I can get it to switch is to click on the Times font, then switch it to Arial quickly while the computer is distracted.

Not a big annoyance, just strange....

Week 4: # 8 RSS

I signed up with Bloglines with no problem. I picked 10 feeds from the commonly picked list of feeds. From the Yahoo news feed I learned about two cases that the Supreme Court refused to hear; one of the cases involved a public library. A useful tool to help keep up with the news as well as fun stuff. This seems too easy to deserve bling, but maybe next week will be doubly-difficult, so I'll just be thankful.