My Evaluation

I feel like this is an episode of Scrubs: My Evaluation.

I'm 23 Things wiser than I was at the beginning. Now, to be honest, some of these will never venture into the branch. At least not invited by me. But in my mind, I don't think this makes them "bad things". They just weren't in my area of interest (The Economy) or talent area (Flickr).

To each his own.

Part of what I have found to be so amazing about this experience is that everyone takes their own spin on the things and runs with it. This is good. And where is wasn't expanding on a strength or knowledge base of mine, the different things were at the very least exposing me to new ideas. This, too, is good.

I like learning. I'd do it again. In my own way, I will be doing it again. Online classes, digital reference training...the possibilities are out there, if I'm willing to look and take on the challenges.

I think I'm willing.

T46:WebJunction

That's right folks, I said Thing 46. According to my math, 23 + 23 = 46.

46 things on a stick. Who brought the marshmallows?

Of course, I have to actually blog about WebJunction Minnesota (which is fabulous, btw, and I never say fabulous). And there is the little matter of an evaluation which makes it technically 47 things. Not that I'm complaining.

WebJunction. Who knew? I never realized that was an entire online community for all of us Minnesota Library type people outside of the Things. My favorite part was scrolling through the catalog of courses. I'm a bit of a nerd that way. I've already found a couple that I'd like to take, but I'm going to take a little time to celebrate the finishing of this bloggy experience before I delve into another online education adventure.

I looked at the job bank, because who doesn't like to shop around. I found my branch listed in the directory. And then I puttered around, looking at some other stuff.

To top it off, I sent the link to my branch manager, who hasn't had time to start the 3 things, but who I think will really appreciate the services provided.

I plan to spend a lot more time looking around WebJunction Minnesota and getting familiar with the services. I think in terms of networking and training, this could be the best resource I've found throughout this multiple thing experience.

Coming soon to a blog near you: My Evaluation.

T45: Cloud Gazing

I work from home for my second job. I create documents, manage accounts and do my things mostly on the cloud. Without GoogleDocs, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't still be employed. I love the flexibility. Some of my coworkers think it is odd to get documents shared with them at 2 am or whenever else I manage to send them.

What I love about the cloud and what I try to express with patrons is that it makes it possible to access your information from anywhere with a live Internet connection. No worrying about compatibility with a browser or lost jump drives. Everything is right there.

My main cloud activities are GoogleDocs and hotmail, if hotmail is considered a part of it. I keep poking around, looking for more ideas and trying to find more ways to increase my productivity, but for now, these two are my stars.

T44: Economy, blah blah blah

I shouldn't be surprised that a thing about the Economy snuck into this round of 23 Things. The economy is a common topic of conversation, both in the branch and outside of the branch. and really, isn't a library a great place to go to help stretch the budget? Books, dvds, internet...all kinds of "luxuries"can be found for the taking.

I'm an economizer. I have been for years. Prior to working at the library, I was a full time stay at home mom and the only way to survive was to cut corners and costs. I know about managing accounts online, finding deals on Craig's List or Freecycle and downloading coupons. I've looked at GasBuddy for the cheapest gas, I've investigated the gardening sites and subscribed to a variety of thrifty blogs.

This is one Thing I think I have covered.

T43: Doing the Hulu

I'm not a big television watcher. I don't have cable. Up until this year, my husband would dutifully dig out the rabbit ears at the end of February so I could watch the Oscars. Other than that, there's not any Must-See-TV in our lives. When we want a fix of something, we check out a series from the library. Just like most of the books I read are things I find in the book drop, my movie/television watching is the same way: I check something in or out and add myself to the queue.

I have used Hulu before, to view a clip a friend sent me or to look up info for a devotion I'm working on. I use it like I use youtube: sporadically. I don't think it will change my television viewing habits, mostly because I'm not big on sitting in front of my computer and watching something. The convenience factor IS nice, knowing that wherever I am with a live Internet connection I have access.

I also don't think this will have a huge impact on television watching as a whole. With the onset of on demand movies, the ability to pause live tv through the miracle of TIVO and TIVO-type services, people are finding more ways to completely immerse themselves in their television at their own convenience. I remember how excited my mom was the first day she came home from work and was able to watch Days of Our Lives because the VCR had recorded it. Now the digital recording companion does it for her.

Rather, I view Hula and Hula type services as another option in finding the media you are looking for. Plus, I can watch movie trailers there. Woot.

PS-I now have my very own iPod shuffle. :)

T42: Music

I love my husband's iPod. In an effort to maintain the complete disclosure that I've been striving for, it is important to note that I was anti-iPod at the beginning. Didn't understand it, didn't want one, didn't see what all the hoopla was.

Two weeks ago, when he point blank asked me what the kids should get me for Mother's Day, I suggested my very own nano.

Times change. *shrug*

Music format has changed. I remember getting my very first record album. (Conway Twitty, thank you very much.) I remember what a big leap it was for me to stop buying cassettes and to start buying cds. Then I could go onto iTunes and only buy the songs I wanted. Whoa.

Now, I go to Pandora and say "Michael Buble" and *POOF* a whole station of Michael Buble-esque music exists for me. It's almost like being in love.

Will internet radio replace broadcast? Hard to say...so many stations now give you the option of listening to their broadcast online at work that people can hang out with their favorite DJs. For those of us who like commercial free, and go to other sources to get the weather and the traffic, this may be the next great thing.

T41: Mashup My Life

I joined FriendFeed. This proved to not be a very useful tool for me because none of my friends were there to feed me. I joined Meebo, which I thought would be great and really, it probably will be if I ever become the social media rockstar I so long to be. But since I have one person I chat with on google talk and all of my other chat associations are through Facebook, it's just easier for me to log into Facebook and do my thing there.

Hypothetically speaking, I like the idea of these services. If I am able to expand branch's use of social media, or if I would start to hardcore use social media for my other job, I think that Meebo or FriendFeed will become very important to me, making it easier to link myself up with a variety of people through a variety of services.

Short of that, I have nothing else to say about Thing 41.

For Fun

Sometimes, I feel like this:

T40: Another reason to love Google.

Let Me Google That For You may possibly be my most favorite website ever. I always thought that Google might have a sarcastic edge and this just confirms it. All the more reason to love my boyfriend.

My mother is going to be getting lots of urls from there.

I also Warhol-ed my friend's baby, which is exactly what I told her in the email when I sent the jpg file to her this morning. Her response: "Um, thanks?"



Here's what I'm finding out about mashups: If you can imagine a web tool, it has probably been created. I found out that my community is very walkable. I spun the wheel to find out where I should have lunch if I was in my hometown today. Mostly I played with the different mashups, just to see what was available. They are easy to use, once you find the thing you want.

I'm 40 Things into the challenge and here's the one thing I would like to make patrons understand: the tools are out there, you just have to not be afraid to tinker.

T39: Again with the Flickr thing

My camera is broken. It has been broken for 3 weeks and other than one time, when my daughter blew out her birthday candles, I can honestly say it hasn't been a big deal. I am not a picture person.

Here's a goodie from last fall:




I get how to use these. I understand how to use them, how to upload, how to download, how to embed. If I were ever to become a scrapbooker, which isn't going to happen, it would be with these digital tools.

I had a lot of trouble with Smilebox, which I found distressing. I wanted it to work. It looked user friendly. The site was darling to play around with. The photos took forever to load and then i had difficulty manipulating them.

Surely, operator error, but I got annoyed and went here and threw my son in a pine cone frame.

The farther into my job I get and the more digital our response to everything becomes, the more I can appreciate the simplicity and handiness of these online tools. What a great way to capture memories of fund raisers or events. I get it, I do.

T38: Screencasting

Bloggy World, I have a confession to make: I am a Mac user.

I am surprised that this is the first time that this has come up during my misadventures through 23 Things and More Things. Maybe I've mentioned it before, maybe not. At any rate, all of my blog posts and the research/homework leading up to them take place via my mac. I'm most likely sitting on the glider with my feet propped up, laptop on my lap, coffee on the window ledge.

More of a visual than you needed?

So. To get back to the point, I already have the ever easy to use Grab It feature installed, no download necessary. My Mac-fluent spouse gave me a little tutorial on it last night, which was very helpful. I captured some images and loaded them into document and really just tinkered. What this couldn't do for me was provide video captures.

To that end, I started an account at ScreenToaster.

Easy to use. Endless possibilities. Think about this: Our system has subscriptions to all types of databases. Many of these great resources are under-used by the public in part because they don't know how to use them and we as a staff do not have the time to do the same tutorial over and over. A screen cast of basic instructions on the library blog would be incredibly helpful.

And, as always, my homework:

Free online screen recorder

T37b: After closer reading...

...I decided that I was reading too much into the directions and that my slide show was, in fact, a story. It is a delightful little story about 2 cute kids in a wedding and how they were bribed with dilly bars to behave. My lovely daughter had this to say of the wedding experience: The only fun part about a wedding is the part you are in.

Flickr. Grr. I struggled with Flickr the first time around, as noted here, here and here.

I contend that these services are user friendly. One True Media practically held my hand, showed me where to click and what to do. The hardest part for me was making the decisions as to which special effect and which song to use.

Much like Blogger, these are designed to be easy.

I'm starting to see more practical uses as our branch hovers at the beginning of a potential building project. Photo montages do tell a story in an interactive why that is more entertaining than staring at poster board and getting high on rubber cement. Not that I've done this...much.

I'm trying. I want to incorporate these applications and skills to bring our communication to the now. And with each Thing, I get a bit closer.

T37a: A slideshow

I focused all of my energy for this thing on creating a slide show over at One True Media. Only to realize that I was supposed to create a story. Well it is 2 for 1 day here at Things to Shake a Stick At.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I'll be back with a story later.

T36: Generators

My vampire name is Empress of Persia. (I wish it would have had a "Cullen" in it. *sigh*)

This was fun: My Dewey Decimal Number

Headfone's Dewey Decimal Section:

885 Classical Greek speeches



Class:
800 Literature


Contains:
Literature, criticism, analysis of classic writing and mythology.



What it says about you:
You're a global, worldly person who wants to make a big impact with your actions. You have a lot to tell people and you're good at making unique observations about everyday experiences. You can notice and remember details that other people think aren't important.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

I always figured I'd be in the weird, roadside attraction section.

Here's my favorite generator: Wordle

Some of these are time wasters in the truest sense: no point, fun and a little addicting. I think others have some merit and useful functions. I already have plans to use Wordle to design a t-shirt for my other job.

I think the comics could be lots of fun. Humor is always relevant. Unfortunately, I'm lame and was unable to come up with any sort of captions for the pictures.

Here's some good news:

Learning as I go.

This is a test of the delayed posting feature.

T35: Books, books and books

Here's a novel concept, every pun intended: a look at books in library 2.0.

In my small town branch, I'd say we've seen an increase in all aspects of circulation. Books, audio, cd, dvd...the list goes on. I know there are studies about the effects of a struggling economy on library usage and i can see a correlation. But the conversations with the patrons are even more telling. The general consensus with the people I talk to is that there is just something about the feel of an actual book that the convenience of a kindle can't replace.

People like books.

I think the thing about Book 2.0 is that you can get out of it what you want.There's a tool for whatever you need, whether it is a suggestion of a new title or a way to organize your library or access to free books. The tools are there, if you are willing to dig around and figure out what you need.

I do not own many books. This reduction in my personal library was a part of my simplification and clutter reducing plan. Because of this, I don't feel the need to organize my library online. I also have no need for books on my phone. I have a basic, pay as you go cell phone that I only recently learned how to text from.

I did enjoy looking at the reader's advisory sites. As a librarian, I frequently get asked the question, "what should I read next?" I'm always on the lookout for another way to help people find the answer.

Bookcrossing is and interesting concept. I once register a dollar bill in the Where's George? to see where it ended up. I never heard back about it.

As with everything else, these Book 2.0 things are interesting and quirky and in the hands of the right person, could be very useful. Sometimes, though, you just want to read a book for the sake of entertainment.

T34: Answers

It never occurred to me that there was an issue with online answer sites. I mean really: Can't we all just get along?

I'm an Internet searcher. I use online answer sites. It is part or using all my available resources. Even as a library employee, I recognize that sometime the Internet has more timely and more available information.

I have no issue with this.

I think part of my responsibility as a public servant is to help the public learn how to access good information from a variety of sources. Sometimes this will be from these online answer sites.

The answer site I visited had mostly opinion based question/answers. This presents a new set of concerns. I try very hard to not express my opinion when giving out information. My answers need to be factual. If I do express and opinion, I make it very clear that it is simply my opinion.

Online, people can express their opinions without having to worry that the next day the person will come back into the library and say that the mayo-based hair rinse was a complete failure and now her hair is ruined.

Or whatever.

In a small town library, it is necessary to be a little more discerning with what opinions you offer.

I'm curious about the slam board thing. I'm going to delve deeper into that and then have a separate post about my misadventure in providing answers. Assuming I actually provide any.

T33: Travel

This Thing was easy in part because I already knew about quite a few of the suggested sites. I'm a closet traveler. I hope to do a lot more traveling in the near future.

I like travel blogs, especially ones that are tailored to particular interests or audiences. It's helpful to know that there are real people writing the information and sharing the ins and outs of everything. And really, there are blogs for everyone these days.

Our last vacation was at a hotel I picked specifically because of the online reviews on a travel site. They were candid accounts of actual people. And it was also helpful that the people all wrote their own thoughts out, rather than filling out a form.

Green Routes was a new site to me. I enjoyed playing around with it and I book marked it for future reference.

I enjoyed my little adventure into Travel 2.0. I'll hopefully have the opportunity to delve deeper in the near future.

T32: Maps and Stuff

The map was fun to make. I liked adding the commentary. (Shocking, I know) In reading the blog prompts for this, I have to say I don't see a lot of library uses for the map mashups. I do see patron uses.

This is where I run into trouble.

Just last week I had a patron ask me for help in printing out a map for a bridal shower. This google mash up thing would have been perfect, had I know about it. And she and I could have had a great time marking landmarks, getting the icons in place and drawing in a route.

Unfortunately it would have been at the expense of the rest of my patron service.

Don't say it: I know it isn't my job to create these mash ups for patrons but rather to help them find the tools they need so they can create documents or whatever.

Right. The same way i should just be able to say hotmail.com and then they should be able to create their own email account.

There are some people who I can just give the information to and it is all good. Then there are the others. Maybe I'll just direct them to this tutorial.

Google Map of my Past

For your viewing pleasure:

Burlington, WI. My home for 3 years.

I'll be back to blog on this later.

T31: Twittering

Let's just get this out of the way: I deleted my twitter account.

Whew! I feel better getting that off my chest.

Do I update my Facebook status? Yes. Daily. But it gets updated because I'm doing other things on Facebook. I seldom, if ever, log in to specifically change my status. It is incidental to the rest of the things I use Facebook for.

I was following a few people, but they were people whose blogs I read and I found that I didn't need a blow by blow account of their day. I tried following Southwest Airlines, just to keep up with the deals, but that wasn't really working for me either.

Most of my status updates were essentially asking the question: Am I interesting enough to do this?

A few people were following me. A couple of friends from high school, a couple of bloggers from 23 Things and some random stranger. That creeped me out a bit, I'll admit it.

What stage am I at in my twittering? Novice, skeptic, non-user. At least for me, on a personal level.

Ironically, this is one of the tools I would most like to devise a plan for and implement into our branch. With the quick comings and goings of books and events, Twitter would be a great tool to spread the word.

What is Twitter? Twitter just is. At this point, that's all I can say.

T30B: Yummy, revisited

Apparently, I loved delicious the first time around. Interesting. I went back and read my post from the original 23 things and wondered at my naive excitement. I've said this before in most aspects of my life: it isn't getting the new system in place that's the problem; it is the maintaining.

Delicious has been neatly stuffed into the bowl on the counter with the magazine clippings.

I find this unfortunate, because I truly see the merit in the social bookmarking idea. It just isn't a habit of mine. Or a job requirement. If I had to do it, then I would keep up with it. Right now, any of the Things that I keep up with are because I want to and let's be real: in the busyness of everyday life, the first things to get cut are the things I'm doing for me.

I've reactivated my account. I'm working on a plan. I want to learn about these things and apply them to my library life.

It'll come.

Break

I took a bloggy break. Real life got in the way of my virtual reality. But...tick tock, the countdown has begun so I'm back in full bloggy force to finish the new 23 Things by the mid-May deadline.

I'll be posting soon.

T30A: Spreed and filters

I'll admit this: I went into the first half of Thing 30 half heartedly. The way I have my Google Reader set up and my Google Alerts designed, I don't need to filter my RSS feeds. I don't need RSS updates of weather, or mailings or twitterings. I live in an itty bitty town where traffic is only a problem if you are on the wrong side of the tracks when the big train comes through.

But, as part of the deal, I tried out some things. I was very "eh" about the whole process.

Then I found Spreed. Oh. My. And I thought some of the photo Things from the first 23 were ridiculous. How can this video of words possibly increase productivity? I found it annoying.

In trying to be a good sport, I set up an account. I tinkered with word speed, I played with subscriptions.

Nope. Just annoyed. I'm hoping T30B: A revisit to delicious redeems T30. To be continued...

T29: Google Tools

I spent wwaaayyyyy too long on this one, although part of that was because I really really felt the need to make Google calendar part of my every day after my husband and I inadvertently triple booked ourselves: a concert, a ski lock-in and a rendevous with my inlaws.

But let's back up.

I gave Google alerts a shot and I do enjoy my daily updates for my search terms. I tried the "as it happens" approach to alerts and was immediately overwhelmed, so I cut back to once a day. That works. My update comes to me in the middle of the night and is patiently waiting for me in the morning. I pour a cup of coffee and filter through the new blog posts on my chosen topics.

This is saving me hours of research time, which frees space in my life for Egg Breaker, my current Facebook obsession.

I have suggested this tool to a few of our internet savvy patrons. I'm also using it to help out with the adult book club. Sort of that, while I find it to be a great tool personally, I'm still looking for its greater good uses at my branch.

Now. Google Calendar. There's a tool. My husband and I now have a shared calendar that serves as our family's center of information. We can both add and delete, which means we are both up to date on the current happenings in this house. With the hectic schedule we lead, it is proving to be helpful. The trick is keeping it updated, but I'm getting there. At least we shouldn't have a ski lock-in and a concert event the same day again.

Google calendar would be a great tool to promote library events, schedule changes and new releases too. Patrons could be invited to view a calendar, with the staff keeping it updated.

I'm finding this all very interesting, so far. I have some ideas that I may add to my anual review for goals, and some of these technologies could really go far.

T28: Customized Home Pages

I'm a Google person. I use "google" as a verb as in "Hold on and I'll google that and see what we come up with". I have maybe even referred to Google as my boyfriend. "Let's check and see what my boyfriend Google has to say about that". Most likely, I am one of those librarians who over uses Google and, in the process, misses out on some great tools that are available. But, since I'm not a real librarian, people look the other way. I'm learning.

Google google google. It's even fun to say.

It would seem, then, that iGoogle would be the logical progression of my relationship with Google. All those lovely gadgets on one lovely home page. I went there with high hopes, and I wasn't really disapointed. With one click, I am able to see my local weather, the status of my gmail account, what's free on iTunes, a snapshot of my Facebook account and a host of other things intended to make my internet browsing a one stop shop.

It was easy to set up. It was easy to search for applications, easy to add them and easy to rearrange them. I have no complaints about the process.

Really, I'm rather ambivalent about the whole deal. When my internet browser opens, it goes directly to Hotmail since odds are pretty good I'm going to check my email. The pages I regularly use are quick linked in my tool bar. I like the idea of a customized home page, but for the way I use the internet, it just isn't necessary.

That said, if you are an iPod user, I do recommend the gadget that posts all the weekly free downloads. Kind of fun, and who doesn't like a freebie?

T27: Tweet tweet

I'm struggling with Twitter on a personal level. It seems so narcissistic. And really, I'm barely entertaining enough to maintain a blog. I can't imagine anyone wants to hear what I'm doing all day, play by play.

HOWEVER...

On a professional level, I think Twitter has some amazing possibilities. I would love to be able to send patrons to the minute updates on the collection, events, displays and meetings. In an age of instant knowledge and gratification, this could be a tremendous gift to the people we serve.

Assuming, of course, that I am capable of maintaining these systems and getting the word out that the branch is twittering. Really, I think that is the real challenge: Making the public aware. Once everyone is in the know, the updates wouldn't be difficult. As with most things in life, it is the getting started.

Oh, and ps-I'm tweeting. You can find me under headfones.

T26: Ninging

I had joined Ning during round 1 of 23 Things. The first time around, I just joined and had a very basic profile. Ning came after Facebook that time and since I was (and still am) a Facebook-aholic, I just didn't get that into it.

Today, I joined the group for my library system, left a comment for a friend, updated my profile info and added the Ning badge to my blog and Facebook.

I don't find Ning to be as useful or interesting as other social networking sites I've tried. This could be my Facebook bias, but I really don't see myself keeping up with Ning, other than through this experience. I would like to think that I could make Ning useful to my branch, but I struggle to see how.

I also find it interesting that while working on this thing, 3 different people asked me what I was doing and none of them had even heard of Ning.

Hmm.

T25: Adding to my blog

I made it very clear in the previous round of 23 things bloggy-ness that I am not a picture taker. Photography seems to be a great, new hobby for so many and I would love to say that I express myself via picture taking.

*sigh* I don't. I don't like to take pictures, I don't like to be in pictures, I don't scrapbook and I generally barely manage to get my pictures into frames.

Obviously, I chose to not do any of the photography related blog add-ons.

I like some of the random fact/useless trivia gadgets. I added the useless trivia box. Considering this is a library related blog, I added a book a day box. These made sense to me and seemed appropriate.

Creating the email address and being able to email posts was interesting although I'm fuzzy as to the benefit of that. If I can access my email, I should be able to access my blog. Still looking into that one.

And then, I made it easy for people to subscribe to this stick-shaking madness by adding the subscription button. I'm intrigued by buttons in general. I've read several blogs with buttons for various prayer requests or links. I'd like to play around with that some more.

All told, I've tinkered with Thing 25 for a couple hours. There's a lot to it and I am certain I could easily spend several more hours playing with all the features. If I were designing a blog for a specific purpose, rather than a practice blog for education, I might be better about trying everything and figuring it all out.

So. Onward.

Testing...

This is a test.

I am testing my ability to post via email.  This is only a test.  Had this been an actual blog post, it would have contained opinions, comments and information in regards to Thing 25.  Instead, it is an attempt to email a post.

This is only a test.

---

Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. Check it out.

T24: A New Bloggy Look

And so here I am again, thinking about technology and how it can help better the service I provide to my local library patrons. I've freshened the look, updated some of my info, added a few page elements and I'm back in business.

The one thing I didn't do is update my Avatar. I didn't like her. I'd rather not bring her back.

So, I'm off to register and then I'll see what I can learn.