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.

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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.