Thing 23: Is it the end or the beginning????

I can't believe summer is coming to a close and that all of these Things have been learned! :)

My favorite Thing was probably the Readers or RSS feeds. That is something that I use daily now and I never knew what they were before. I also really loved learning through those Creative Content videos. My least favorite thing was probably Twitter! That is surprising because I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE facebook and Twitter is just another form of social networking but it just seems boring to me. I will probably never log onto it again. I thought LibWorm was disappointing too.

Google Docs was definitely something that I will use again. I thought that I knew what it was but really had no idea. I also learned how to actually use Wikis which is nice to understand.

I will be very interested to see what I can access in my school system because so many things are blocked. I hope that I can continue to use my Reader and would like to show my students about mash ups but I know Flickr is blocked. At least I will know what people are talking about as they throw around the jargon of the new technology.

All good Things must come to an end!! :)

Thing 22

It is hard for me to think in terms of how this would help fellow librarians. I am just a library student and my first real library position will not begin for several more weeks. My background is teaching and I think it would be extremely helpful for teachers to participate in a 23 Things. I was asked during my interview to describe a potential staff development training that I could give to my fellow staff members. This would have been perfect to have mentioned!

Schools are limited in terms of access to multiple computers at one time for staff training. However, the projection system is used frequently during staff trainings. One thing could easily be included during each staff meeting (except those things that are blocked by the school internet system). Exposing the staff to the Thing would be the first step. Then emails with links and info similar to each blog could be sent to give teachers an opportunity to explore at their own leisure. Just to spice it up, I would also include a drawing for those that participated all the way through and blogged about it. I think that I would include some of the Creative Content videos for sure but I would also include information from reputable education web sites. For example, on the Podcast Thing I would send out a link to podcasts on the Library of Congress web site. Or, I would include a United Streaming Thing to accompany the You Tube (in addition to Teacher Tube).

Part of the benefit of the Thing experience is to keep up with what are students are doing. We have to know what they use to connect with them. Thing training would be a great step in the right direction!

Thing 21 Podcast

I get internet service through tethering my computer to my mobile phone. That said, connections are always a little more tedious for me than if I had faster internet service. I went to the Library Success Wiki and then clicked on nancykeene.com. I was less than impressed with her podcasts. You could hear her breathing in the microphone and her voice was too flat to hold my interest. Her podcasts were more of book talks.

I went to the Washington State Libraries link which gave me podcasts on how to improve my tech skills. I chosed how to improve searches with AND. The female voice was a little lower than I would like. I still like the Creative Content videos as a more useful tool in improving my skills!

Honestly, I didn't think it was all that interesting. I would not subscribe to them. I did learn that Podcast was audio. I thought that they were audio and video. Podcasts could be useful for library users that learn via audio. Iphone users would also benefit greatly from Podcast capabilities. I just wouldn't choose them myself! I like audio books but only if they are told by exciting authors like Jim Dale (Harry Potter) so maybe it is the voice that prevents me from enjoying these.

Thing 20 YouTube

Everyone under age 80 has heard of YouTube. It is such a sensation! Clips of Susan Boyle singing on Britian's Got Talent stormed the media recently. Even this morning, on the Today Show, I saw a YouTube segment on a wedding where the wedding party--including the bride--danced their way into the chapel. Part of my concern with YouTube is the copyright issue. Howard Stern is a favorite media person of mine. He often complains about the clips from his previous television show on YouTube. He refuses to even allow clips from YouTube on his airwaves because of his personal feelings towards to the copyright infrigement that occurs.

However, I followed through and typed in Texas Library. I got the Library Book Cart Drill Team clip. Funny! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh27C1dkNgg You really need to take a look at the "Bibliofiles" performance.

I also typed in story time. I got a lot of stuff from youths that was inappropriate to say the least. I added the term library and got mainly commercials for story times.

YouTube is here to stay. I wish I had more time to play around on it but I usually only watch when a clip is featured on mainstream television programs.

Thing 19

Wooohooo! All the way up to Thing 19! I look forward to finishing this up soon...

I am a user of Google Docs. I went on the site and found some of the documents that I already have on there. Google is a great tool. It stinks that the district blocks out so much of it. I wonder if Google Docs is blocked out too.

But, I have to admit that I only used Google Docs to open documents emailed to me. I had no idea you could make presentations and create other new documents. Do you think Microsoft is worried that they will be replaced? I know that we depend too heavily on Windows to have Google instead. It would be nice to have all of that for free though.

I can see me using this except I don't really need to. I understand Office and have it on my computer. I guess that I could have used it for one of group projects in a class that I am taking. It says you can keep track of who made changes. That would have been nice for us to all have access to one document instead of us having to copy and paste changes later. Maybe I will try this sometime after all!

Thing 18

Wiki is something that I have always wanted to know more about. It just so happens that I got my first invite to join my new job's Wiki group today! Coincidence? I think not!

I am very aware of Wikipedia and yes--I know Alice--it is not a reliable source of information! However, it is often the very place I go to find information on a variety of topics. I did not know about the history or comments part. I typed in Sonya Sotomayer just because that is a hot topic in the news this week. Let's just say the discussion section was lengthy! I was surprised that the discussion was relatively professional (not like a typical comments section of most web sites!). The history was interesting as there had been changes about every 3 minutes for the past 24 hours! Hot topic indeed!

Not really sure about the Wiki Wetpaint page. I hope that I become more familiar with it as I starting working with the other librarians in my district!

Thing 15 Digg

I was quite unsure about this Digg business when the first story I saw was about Vanessa Hudgens from High School Musical appearing naked in some movie. Seriously? Do I care? I do have to give credit that there were absolutely NO Michael Jackson stories on the first page in Entertainment.

I like the fact that there is a link to Facebook (as I am ALL about Facebook)! There are all the RSS feeds in the top right corner in the event I want to add it to my Reader. But, I really don't have time to Digg this up ever. Maybe I just caught it on a slow day. There just wasn't anything that interested me in the most popular stories of the last 24 hours. Although: the link to "If a guys says GO MAKE ME A SANDWICH what's a good comeback?" has potential.

Digging is done.

Thing 14 Delicious

YUMMY! (sorry I could not resist)

Ok--so I wasn't even going to do much with this Delicious site but after watching the video I changed my mind! I really like the idea of accessing my bookmarks on other computers. This is a problem that I have had before. I have been at home thinking about an awesome web site I found at school but have to wait until I go back to school to find it.

One thing that I am unsure of is if I add the button Delicious then when I add bookmarks to it will they also show up on my Firefox bookmarks? Someone please advise!!!

I did keep my links private. Sharing my bookmarks isn't something that I am ready for! My username is Courtneyis though.

By the way, those Common Craft videos have taught me so much! It makes me realize how I learn the best. The mixture of audio, pictures, and text are so beneficial to me. Plus, it is fast paced. I think I learn so much more since they include text within the video. Awesome resource to have!

Thing 13 Tagging

Like a sign out of hell the first words in my tab (after I clicked on the Wikipedia Tag page) said Metadata. It is like my professor was slapping across my face and telling me to get to work on Draft 2. Did it work? No. I would like to procrastinate a few more minutes!

I like the idea of tagging. I wish there had been one of those cool videos that we have seen on the other Things available. And, I am wondering if the labels that I add at the bottom of each post is the same thing as tagging. Feel free to respond and let me know! Tagging is another form of classification which is certainly affecting those of us in the library field. However, the fact that natural language is used could be a problem. Tagging to entice unknowing visitors could take place as well. For example, tagging a site "White House" and then it is really a porn site. That is a way that the lesser of our society can get people onto their sites.

Speaking of evil, better get back to work on Draft 2.

Thing 17

So I cannot follow directions and am now in the process of working backwards to get caught up. Libworm is actually pretty cool (especially for me since I am so into the whole Google Reader / RSS Things now!).

I searched for read aloud since my buddy and I are both becoming school librarians next year and cannot find any great resources for our story time plans. I came upon this really cool story about kids that are too shy to read aloud. A library in New Mexico has dogs brought in that the children can read to without fear of being laughed at. Pretty neat idea!

I searched story time and got 2,672 PAGES of results. I skimmed page one and saw that it was just a bunch of scheduled events although I did see one really cool story about a library having story time on a web cast for parents that cannot get out.

Interesting Thing!

Thing 16

I know that I am jumping ahead but I could not control myself! :) LibraryThing caught my attention (on my Google Reader no less!) and I had to go there.

Seriously! Why would anyone want to catalog their home library? It would take such an enormous amount of time for what purpose? Maybe I am bitter about the class that I am taking (sorry Enoch!) but I wonder if this is for the super organized/do not have any life type of person. Am I wrong? Is there some benefit that I just don't get? I signed up and gave them my email address. I got a response email in about 10 seconds of signing up. Will I ever get on it again? Maybe / maybe not but you should check out for yourself: www.librarything.com and Rick--I am really directing that to you.

I do like the idea of hearing about books from other readers but hey--I have facebook for that! :O

I am broken!

So, I broke down and finally did it. I am totally embarrassed by it but I now have a Twitter account. My user name is courtneybis in the event you want to follow me. I have already blocked a few people that tried following me. Of course, on the news this morning was a big story about the Twitter accounts of several celebrities being hacked into. Seriously! Is it an omen?

One thing that I absolutely have to share is my absolute favorite "Thing" of the "Things" I have completed thus far. I am LOVING Google Reader. I love getting blog updates, gossip, and news all in one spot. It is my favorite of all the "Things" we have learned about!

Thing 12 Twitter

AHHHHHHHH! It is taking over. I hear about Twitter, tweets, and tweeting everywhere. It has been something that I have avoided participating in (see Facebook Thing 8 and 9) but have always wondered about.

People that know me would be shocked to know what a huge Howard Stern fan that I am. He has been talking about Twitter a lot lately (like everyone else in the world). I know that he is having his staff tweet during the show to provide details to non-subscribers about what is happening during the show.

Although I am intrigued by the whole idea of it--I am going to impose limits on myself. There is only so much networking and updating I can do while keeping my sanity. I already blame facebook for making me have to have my eyes touched up (LASIK). I don't think they can handle additional computer time. :)

Thing 11 IM

I am not a huge fan of the whole IM thing. Honestly, I don't like people knowing when I am online because I feel bad for ignoring their IM requests. It is easy to ingore phone calls but there is something rude about ignoring an IM. They KNOW that you are there!

I loved the webopedia site. I always have questions about what the heck people are texting, emailing, and IMing.

I will likely remove this download as soon as North Texas 23 is over and am not posting my Username because of privacy issues. My true email has both first/last names so my Talk account has the same.

Ning Thing 10

I did not set up a Ning account due to the controversy associated with it. Plus, I am a loyal Facebook person (see Thing 8 and 9). How many social networking sites can one person keep up with? I know that it is good to have options but I don't want to have to work that hard to keep up with everyone! It is too much to seek some people here and others there. It is like looking people up in a phonebook (remember when you used to use the paper ones?). We have two different versions at my house. One, the companies obviously paid to have their numbers entered, so you could only find particular businesses in there. The other is a collection of all the local businesses. Guess which one I want to use!!

Bottom line: Ning is not for me. Not because of the problems. Call me a loyalist.

Facebook Continued Thing 9

I have 60+ friends on facebook. It is quite sad how much value I put into collecting more friends! :)

I am a member of the ALA group, the UNT SLIS student group, You Can't Scare Me...I am a Mom to Twins group, and various groups that represent my hometown high school.

Facebook is so much fun. I have just figured out how to exclude "friends" from my updates. I have a hard time not becoming friends with someone that requests it but I don't want EVERYONE knowing EVERYTHING that I post about. I especially excluded people that I don't receive updates on. Maybe they had already excluded me? Or, they just don't update? I don't really know or care to ask because they are not real friends. They are just in my collection bag of facebook friends!

Facebook Thing 8

This is one tutorial I do NOT need! I am a facebook fanatic and try converting everyone that is still without facebook friends. I think it is a wonderful social networking opportunity. It is interesting how many people from my past (that I really never thought I would interact with again) I speak to on a regular basis. It is all facebook! It would almost be awkward to see some of these people in the store because we are facebook friends not real face to face friends!

RSS Feeds Things 7

OMG! I have always wondered what those little RSS orange icons are. It is still a little confusing as to how it all works but like the blog says--you don't need to know the technical ins and outs. It is just important to understand how you can use them to save time on the internet. BTW: I love those little Common Craft videos!

Google Reader

How cool is this? I loved it because I forget to regularly check out the blogs that I want to follow. The only thing that kind of bothered me was that I was already subscribed to all of those same blogs through Google Reader! How? I am guessing it is because I have email through Gmail. I guess that there is some connection between the blogs that I had subscribed to on blogger and Gmail. I don't know exactly. But, I had 28 unread items when I logged on. I have seen the Reader link when I am on my email but never clicked it. I think that I will check it regularly now that I know what it is for! :)

A Mashup!

Here is my mashup of photos for Thing 4. I did 5 first because it took so long for my photos to upload! Maybe if I had a faster service it would work more like I would want it to.

Flickr...continued

Ok--maybe it is worth the wait! How much fun is creating all of these cool posters and "mashups"? I love it! I wish I could play on it all day.

Part of Thing 3

So, I kind of got excited about creating a Flickr account. I don't think it is something I will ever use again. It is cool for finding other people's photos but it took a REALLY long time to upload from my computer. I don't get it! I am all about sending people my kids' photos so I wish this had worked for me.

Flickr Here I Come!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mozzercork/108635140/

Most people don't know that Ireland has mountains!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnumlady/2443000305/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23157748@N07/3031253788/
This is one of my favorite spots that we visited in Ireland. It is the Tobernault Holy Well and is very close to the town Sligo (County Sligo). People come to pray for sick relatives and friends there. They tie pieces of cloth from the sick person's clothes to trees. The trees are covered with bits of worn cloth as this has been going on for a very long time (possibly thousands of years!). It was a secret place for Mass during penal times. There is a well that supposedly has curative powers. There are little cups that you can scoop the water with to drink.

After visiting, we went to my cousin's house in Sligo. We told him about our visit there and he asked if we drank the water. He laughed and said people urinate in it because they know that tourists come and drink from it! Not a nice thought considering it is such a beautiful place that should be treasured.

I know!!! Web 2.0

I know, I know--I got behind and now I have some serious catching up to do. Becoming a good librarian is important to me and I feel like this is part of the process!

Web 2.0 / Library 2.0 is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Watching the last video, in particular, gave me more questions than answers! http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2007/02/07/think_library_20_as_you_watch_this.html
Anyone that hasn't seen it should really take the time to watch it closely. As I finished watching it, I realized that it is 2 years old. Imagine all that could be added to it by now (since technology changes constantly). Another thought that I had is that if it really is up to us to organize this information then we definitely have job security! There aren't enough people on the planet to organize or catalouge the data on the internet.

The first video did spark my interest. Mr. Abram was certainly a good person to have filmed the spot with. He made me feel like we were having a conversation but I don't know how much I really learned.

The O'ReillyNet.com site wore my eyes out! In fact, it was actually the reason I procrastinated posting my blog. I got sick of reading it after one page. It was too much jargon and I consider myself semi-computer literate. The one thing that I was really interested in was the page on RSS feeds. I see the link for RSS everywhere. When I click on it, I don't really know what is happening so I always back up before I do something terrrible to my computer/phone. I need to learn more about that.

One down....

I completed my first semester at UNT's SLIS program. This past week was a perfect week for the swine flu vacation because I was able to finish my last paper, prepare a resume, and finish my cover letter. There are four openings as of this week and I am so hopeful that I can get into a library next school year. I feel very strongly that is where I need to be!

1st Post of 23 Things

I am supposed to create a blog for the first of my 23 Things. Here it is......