Done!
I did this solo. I had hoped that a colleague would participate but colleague got bogged down and frustrated.
Some things should be broken down into separate things or smaller. There are too many possibilities, e.g. Thing 13.
As I wrote in the survey, I am now running 3 blogs, and a wiki. I am thinking of suggesting some of these tools for the fire librarians group I belong to.
I am still thinking about what else could be used for the library. I do think that giving our library patrons a place to talk back and ask for us to try to acquire things will be a starting place!
In one sentence or less: While 23 Things on A Stick is a great learning tool, and better than sliced bread, it takes longer to accomplish than baking!
Yes, I would participate in learning more things...just give more time to complete. Deadline, however is good.
Thanks for all your hard work in putting this together.
I am going to repurpose the blog so it can be for the library itself and not a record of my own work.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
thing 22 keeping current
I am going to look some more at the suggestions you give on this page
I am maintaining 3 blogs as a result of this project and have set up one wiki and taught 5 other people (4 in their 50s, and one in their late 20s) how to use the wiki.
Yes, there is more that I can be doing...but it's not all that shabby!
It's just hard to remember to keep looking at different things like RSS feeds, etc. etc.
I think that I need more understanding of RSS feeds and need to revisit that.
I am maintaining 3 blogs as a result of this project and have set up one wiki and taught 5 other people (4 in their 50s, and one in their late 20s) how to use the wiki.
Yes, there is more that I can be doing...but it's not all that shabby!
It's just hard to remember to keep looking at different things like RSS feeds, etc. etc.
I think that I need more understanding of RSS feeds and need to revisit that.
thing 20
I did made a Facebook page for the library. For those of you who are Facebook members, you can see it at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saint-Paul-MN/FireEMSSafety-Center-Library/30506985135
right now it is bare bones.
I joined the Libraries Using Facebook Pages group.
I posted to my own wall.
I watched 5 videos on different parts of facebook but was stil confused about setting up the page for the library. It is different to set up a page than join as a person.
I didn't want to put my real name in as you still have to join up with an actual name...so I finally got to one that Facebook would accept. I am not sure that the profile is edited correctly.
The library spaces on MySpace were for public library teens. Lots of advertisements, which I don't like - distracting.
The reason I made a library page in Facebook is to make our library more visible as we are hard to find.
right now it is bare bones.
I joined the Libraries Using Facebook Pages group.
I posted to my own wall.
I watched 5 videos on different parts of facebook but was stil confused about setting up the page for the library. It is different to set up a page than join as a person.
I didn't want to put my real name in as you still have to join up with an actual name...so I finally got to one that Facebook would accept. I am not sure that the profile is edited correctly.
The library spaces on MySpace were for public library teens. Lots of advertisements, which I don't like - distracting.
The reason I made a library page in Facebook is to make our library more visible as we are hard to find.
Thing 21 Other Social Networks
Yelp, reviews looks interesting. It might be worth joining just because so many people have trouble finding us or knowing about us.
I joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning and added a comment to the discussion When/Where are you finding time to work on the 23 things.
I've also added the small 23 Things Ning badge to the sidebar of the blog. I will have to remember that the widgets for the slideshow, music player, and video player are on the same page as the badges.
Steve Campion's Aug 30, 2007 article in WebJunction (I am a member of Web Junction and even think I know where my password is!) makes the most relevant point I've read about social networking:
"Learning about social networking through a site that interests a specific individual helps him/her understand why millions of people ...invest time in the social web."
This is only too true.
I am a member of a social networking site based on a hobby/arts interest. It was one I had to get on a waiting list to join and then receive an admission from the site administrators. It is a great place for learning and finding out about new things going on in this area of interest. It is totally engrossing. It's well designed and doesn't have flashing flashy intrusive advertisements. As a matter of fact, someone recently posted a discussion thread there about why the site is better than MySpace. Many responses were from people who fit right into the target MySpace demographic and they said things like they liked the lack of offensive advertising and lack of drunken photo/content and that the people there were all there for the same reason, a shared interest.
The Houghton Mifflin Peterson Guide information mentioned in the Can Gather.com Get Book Lovers Online article (thanks Nan Hoekstra for posting the link to the article in the comments to this thing) had to be searched for. It appears that exceprts from these nature guides may have stopped in December...too bad. Gather.com seemed a bit hard to find content/navigate, but then perhaps this is just idiosyncratic of all social networking sites that are unexplored.
I am thinking that the Ning, Wiki and/or blog might be useful to set up for a Fire Librarian's group I belong to!
I joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning and added a comment to the discussion When/Where are you finding time to work on the 23 things.
I've also added the small 23 Things Ning badge to the sidebar of the blog. I will have to remember that the widgets for the slideshow, music player, and video player are on the same page as the badges.
Steve Campion's Aug 30, 2007 article in WebJunction (I am a member of Web Junction and even think I know where my password is!) makes the most relevant point I've read about social networking:
"Learning about social networking through a site that interests a specific individual helps him/her understand why millions of people ...invest time in the social web."
This is only too true.
I am a member of a social networking site based on a hobby/arts interest. It was one I had to get on a waiting list to join and then receive an admission from the site administrators. It is a great place for learning and finding out about new things going on in this area of interest. It is totally engrossing. It's well designed and doesn't have flashing flashy intrusive advertisements. As a matter of fact, someone recently posted a discussion thread there about why the site is better than MySpace. Many responses were from people who fit right into the target MySpace demographic and they said things like they liked the lack of offensive advertising and lack of drunken photo/content and that the people there were all there for the same reason, a shared interest.
The Houghton Mifflin Peterson Guide information mentioned in the Can Gather.com Get Book Lovers Online article (thanks Nan Hoekstra for posting the link to the article in the comments to this thing) had to be searched for. It appears that exceprts from these nature guides may have stopped in December...too bad. Gather.com seemed a bit hard to find content/navigate, but then perhaps this is just idiosyncratic of all social networking sites that are unexplored.
I am thinking that the Ning, Wiki and/or blog might be useful to set up for a Fire Librarian's group I belong to!
Monday, April 7, 2008
almost to thing 23 and some comments
I only have 3 more things until Thing 23 ..... I am motivated to finish this!!!
It is very useful but very time consuming!!!!
It is very useful but very time consuming!!!!
thing 19 podcasts
Here is a link to a page of podcasts (Book Lust with Nancy Pearl) from Podcast.com
Here is a link to Cast-on website where you can download the podcasts. I have listened to this (downloaded by a friend) while traveling. Found through Podcastalley.com
Podcast.net wasn't working when I tried it.
The Gcast website for creating your own podcasts by calling them into a phone looks really intriguing. When I have time, I hope to try it. I will return to this thing and look at more of the podcasting links when I have TIME!!!
Here is a link to Cast-on website where you can download the podcasts. I have listened to this (downloaded by a friend) while traveling. Found through Podcastalley.com
Podcast.net wasn't working when I tried it.
The Gcast website for creating your own podcasts by calling them into a phone looks really intriguing. When I have time, I hope to try it. I will return to this thing and look at more of the podcasting links when I have TIME!!!
thing 18 redux
See my post on January 28, in which I posted two Youtube videos; I didn't realize then (because I hadn't looked at all of Thing 18) that one of the ones I posted was in thing 18 - the medieval book. I had never seen the Conan the Librarian video, what a hoot, nor the Library musical, nor the takeoff on the mac/pc librarian/IT - very good!!!!
I thought that the video of the tour of Winona State Library was very good but wondered about whether it was OK to use someone else's music???
I saw someone in the March of the Librarians who looked like Leona Carlson waving to the camera. I don't know if it was really her or not?
I thought that the video of the tour of Winona State Library was very good but wondered about whether it was OK to use someone else's music???
I saw someone in the March of the Librarians who looked like Leona Carlson waving to the camera. I don't know if it was really her or not?
Thing 17
Elm Productivity
Here is a page I made in EBSCOhost. The background of the page isn't showing but the searches and search result are. I saved the page to my hard drive and then looked at the source html and copied it into this post. I had to make most of the text bigger so that it would show up in the post on the blog and I couldn't see it in the preview mode (even when text made larger to "normal" size) on the blog but could see it in the compose mode.
Edited: the link to the search doesn't work right. It searches fire not fire fighters!!! And there are tons of results. The fire fighter search with the limits I put on it had 52 results!
Also, the link to the help for RSS feeds doesn't show any text.
Here is a page I made in EBSCOhost. The background of the page isn't showing but the searches and search result are. I saved the page to my hard drive and then looked at the source html and copied it into this post. I had to make most of the text bigger so that it would show up in the post on the blog and I couldn't see it in the preview mode (even when text made larger to "normal" size) on the blog but could see it in the compose mode.
Edited: the link to the search doesn't work right. It searches fire not fire fighters!!! And there are tons of results. The fire fighter search with the limits I put on it had 52 results!
Also, the link to the help for RSS feeds doesn't show any text.
| |||||||||||||||
I use the ELM databases a lot. I could spend more time refamiliarizing myself with all the productivity tools in ProQuest and others. I teach people how to use Elm Databases on our library website, and how to use our NetLibrary collection on a regular basis, including making notes and setting up an account. Our NetLibrary collection is cataloged and into our online catalog. We have a search option for excluding Netlibrary (all EXCEPT ebooks) and I also teach users how to search only ebooks (keyword + the word netlibrary). I hope to eventually make some tutorials specifically for our users using Captivate, which we just got. We are now also telling folks that you can go to http://www.elm4you.org/ and if they are coming in from a computer with a Minnesota IP, they can get into the databases without a library card or password. This is very useful for some!!! We have participated in many Minitex webinars and workshops and they all have been very useful. Yay Minitex!!!! | |||||||||||||||
Thing 15 Online Games and Libraries
It was hard for me to believe that I should be playing a game at work and that it was work. I created a pirate and bilged and carpented in Puzzle Pirates. I wasn't sure what I was doing intially in bilging but the people on the ship I ended up on were nice to me. I got to neophyte status on both tasks (carpentering was more intutive for me) and earned some pieces of eight, that I had no idea what to do with. The games would end and the captain(?) would tell me to go offshore to an island. Someone asked me to be their hearty and I agreed but I guess I would have to hearty them back to see them on my list of people???
The value of this for me was realizing that learning about it was experiential - NOT by reading about how to play the games (which I did some of but didn't really understand until I actually started to do them). Also, whenever someone wrote something nice to me, it was pleasant, as was any positive feedback from the games themselves.
I wonder where the game is on my computer; it took a long time to download it and we have a fast connection here at work.
I looked at the Second Life video. It didn't have much narration, and therefore was just primarily visual and not informative enough for me. The Ohio University video was better, but being a promotion, not meaty enough, again so much more visual than informational. The link to the explanation about Alliance Library System's Info Island was the most informative.
I, however, am truly puzzled about the virtual world of Second Life. I would like to check out Info Island, but don't have enough time to invest in joining Second Life to see it. The fact that the Allliance Library worked with database vendors to have instances of the databases within the virtual world sounds intriguing.
I am not sure, though, other than in a public library, how this helps. Certain teens assuredly spend a lot of time in virtual universes. I'm reluctant to do so myself as I already feel married to the computer! It seems like it would be addicting and I'm already addicted enough to the screen.
Experience tells me though, that to really understand, I would need to experience.
But, shouldn't we also be reinforcing things like face to face interactions and getting up off ones behinds and moving in the real world so that we don't have present and future generations becoming big hunks of lard?
The value of this for me was realizing that learning about it was experiential - NOT by reading about how to play the games (which I did some of but didn't really understand until I actually started to do them). Also, whenever someone wrote something nice to me, it was pleasant, as was any positive feedback from the games themselves.
I wonder where the game is on my computer; it took a long time to download it and we have a fast connection here at work.
I looked at the Second Life video. It didn't have much narration, and therefore was just primarily visual and not informative enough for me. The Ohio University video was better, but being a promotion, not meaty enough, again so much more visual than informational. The link to the explanation about Alliance Library System's Info Island was the most informative.
I, however, am truly puzzled about the virtual world of Second Life. I would like to check out Info Island, but don't have enough time to invest in joining Second Life to see it. The fact that the Allliance Library worked with database vendors to have instances of the databases within the virtual world sounds intriguing.
I am not sure, though, other than in a public library, how this helps. Certain teens assuredly spend a lot of time in virtual universes. I'm reluctant to do so myself as I already feel married to the computer! It seems like it would be addicting and I'm already addicted enough to the screen.
Experience tells me though, that to really understand, I would need to experience.
But, shouldn't we also be reinforcing things like face to face interactions and getting up off ones behinds and moving in the real world so that we don't have present and future generations becoming big hunks of lard?
More on Thing 13
Calendars:
There is a link to the Web's Best Calendars in Wired magazine (2/20/07). The link to Kiko doesn't work. It appears that Kiko was bought by TuCows (based on further searching), perhaps for that company's internal use?
Scrybe looks quite interesting with its calendar drag and drop features and types of integration and context and multiple time zone tracking and use as a personal organizer. However, it is no longer accepting beta users.
Backpack looks interesting too, though in a way it seems to be a personal type of wiki to me.
The PDF converter looks very cool.
The file type converter from Zamzar also looks useful, but it only has 128 bit SSL (secure converstion) with the non-free account options. Something to keep in mind in a pinch, however! Don't like all the ads on Zamzar though.
Regarding personal pages. Yes, I think I do want to have one...PageFlakes looks especially interesting since it doesn't have the amount of ads of Yahoo and I don't think that Yahoo keeps your info all that secure??? Will look at them some more before deciding!
BTW: the countdown widget on the 23 Things blog is not visible to me either.
Other apps: Mozy back up is something I am going to look into.
The 2007 guide to free software and webapps is also something to keep in mind.
There is a link to the Web's Best Calendars in Wired magazine (2/20/07). The link to Kiko doesn't work. It appears that Kiko was bought by TuCows (based on further searching), perhaps for that company's internal use?
Scrybe looks quite interesting with its calendar drag and drop features and types of integration and context and multiple time zone tracking and use as a personal organizer. However, it is no longer accepting beta users.
Backpack looks interesting too, though in a way it seems to be a personal type of wiki to me.
The PDF converter looks very cool.
The file type converter from Zamzar also looks useful, but it only has 128 bit SSL (secure converstion) with the non-free account options. Something to keep in mind in a pinch, however! Don't like all the ads on Zamzar though.
Regarding personal pages. Yes, I think I do want to have one...PageFlakes looks especially interesting since it doesn't have the amount of ads of Yahoo and I don't think that Yahoo keeps your info all that secure??? Will look at them some more before deciding!
BTW: the countdown widget on the 23 Things blog is not visible to me either.
Other apps: Mozy back up is something I am going to look into.
The 2007 guide to free software and webapps is also something to keep in mind.
Friday, April 4, 2008
overload! overload! thing 13
My brain is on overload! I am looking at all these tools in thing 13; online productivity tools and feel that I will never be productive if I get involved in figuring out the value or not of these tools!!!
So far, what I have found useful is the Top Ten Sites to Boost Your Online Productivity article, which had a link to the tiny url maker, which I just used to make the link. I always wondered how to do that!
And I bookmarked some sites using Deli (I can't get the dots right in the spelling consistently either) which is a first and I can see its use.
I can also see that having one page to go to all these places would be very very useful. It is too overloading right now to figure out which one and their advantages.
I admit, I haven't looked at all the tools in this thing yet. This thing is too big!!!
So far, what I have found useful is the Top Ten Sites to Boost Your Online Productivity article, which had a link to the tiny url maker, which I just used to make the link. I always wondered how to do that!
And I bookmarked some sites using Deli (I can't get the dots right in the spelling consistently either) which is a first and I can see its use.
I can also see that having one page to go to all these places would be very very useful. It is too overloading right now to figure out which one and their advantages.
I admit, I haven't looked at all the tools in this thing yet. This thing is too big!!!
thing 12; digg, mixx, etc.
I looked at this book review in the NYT and found I could "share" it as a permalink by embedding it into the blog. The NYT says that access to the article will be ensured, even after it becomes part of the NYT archive.
I looked at Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, Mixx, StumbleUpon and my eyes began to glaze over. Some of them (I forget which at the moment) have advertising...not what I want to connect to from a work site and one of them even said something about receiving ad revenue back if you write something in a column in your account, which is not ethical in a public entity like our library.
Each new thing (and iteration of the details of the thing) requires learning some other site or utility's organization. It is too much.
In reality, I am seeing these kinds of newsfeeds and popularization/prioritization every time I log in and out of a personal Yahoo email account. This is good enough for me.
The ability to add a permalink into a website or blog, as the NYT offered is more useful and more productive than getting yet another account.
I looked at Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, Mixx, StumbleUpon and my eyes began to glaze over. Some of them (I forget which at the moment) have advertising...not what I want to connect to from a work site and one of them even said something about receiving ad revenue back if you write something in a column in your account, which is not ethical in a public entity like our library.
Each new thing (and iteration of the details of the thing) requires learning some other site or utility's organization. It is too much.
In reality, I am seeing these kinds of newsfeeds and popularization/prioritization every time I log in and out of a personal Yahoo email account. This is good enough for me.
The ability to add a permalink into a website or blog, as the NYT offered is more useful and more productive than getting yet another account.
Thing 11: tagging and del.icio.us
Tags work a little differently in different environments (see what I wrote about LibraryThing)!
I have looked at the del.icio.us material and set up the widget and tag function on my IE browser and started the import of one of my browser "favorites" folders. I am still waiting for the import to finish as I am writing this.
The idea of being able to get to my bookmarks from whereever is a great one. Anything that helps organize bookmarks will be great. Mine need a greater degree of organization. I don't know if del.icio.us will help enough or not until I can see how the imported ones appear and what else I should do with them.
I think it is also something that could be useful for some of our library users.
I also looked at Furl and Pagekeeper, which appear to have a better visual interface.
I have looked at the del.icio.us material and set up the widget and tag function on my IE browser and started the import of one of my browser "favorites" folders. I am still waiting for the import to finish as I am writing this.
The idea of being able to get to my bookmarks from whereever is a great one. Anything that helps organize bookmarks will be great. Mine need a greater degree of organization. I don't know if del.icio.us will help enough or not until I can see how the imported ones appear and what else I should do with them.
I think it is also something that could be useful for some of our library users.
I also looked at Furl and Pagekeeper, which appear to have a better visual interface.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Thing 16, Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculator
I am familiar with the Assignment Calculator and have code to add it to areas that I control, though I haven't yet.
The research project calculator is interesting. I find in it so far a lot of content similar to what I used myself in a long one shot (four hour) course I taught on repeated occasions at another college on information literacy and basic research skills, how to organize research, steps in research, etc., evaluating sources.
The research project calculator is interesting. I find in it so far a lot of content similar to what I used myself in a long one shot (four hour) course I taught on repeated occasions at another college on information literacy and basic research skills, how to organize research, steps in research, etc., evaluating sources.
Thing 9, Online Collaboration Tools, OR: the case of the refreshing screen
I requested permission to edit the Declaration in Google Documents. The request must have triggered some message to the 23 Things people or account, because I also received in my gmail account, a link to the Zoho version...which I don't recall requesting!!!
I totally agree with the comments in the 23 Things blog,
which I read before starting this thing
a. the Google documents editor drove me nuts! The screen refreshes so quickly that you can't make your edit and save it in a timely way. It appears that the screen is on its own timer for refreshing and it is not keyed to whether you are keying something in or not. Finally, I just rushed in and clicked on something and managed to get the word truth in the first line edited and saved into a larger size.
I could not edit the copy of the Zoho document that was sent to me. After reading the Books Rock! comment on the 23 Things blog, I decided that it wasn't worth it to set up an account...Books Rock! said that the document goes away after login and she/he could not find, retrieve or upload the practice document.
Given the quirks of these document editors, though they are a good idea, they appear REALLY flawed and why would we want to share document editing this way? There must be better tools....or am I missing something here?
What would the founding fathers think?
I imagine that the concept of collaborative editing would appeal to them very much, though perhaps only Franklin and Jefferson would become beguiled by our 20th/21st c. technology!
I totally agree with the comments in the 23 Things blog,
which I read before starting this thing
a. the Google documents editor drove me nuts! The screen refreshes so quickly that you can't make your edit and save it in a timely way. It appears that the screen is on its own timer for refreshing and it is not keyed to whether you are keying something in or not. Finally, I just rushed in and clicked on something and managed to get the word truth in the first line edited and saved into a larger size.
I could not edit the copy of the Zoho document that was sent to me. After reading the Books Rock! comment on the 23 Things blog, I decided that it wasn't worth it to set up an account...Books Rock! said that the document goes away after login and she/he could not find, retrieve or upload the practice document.
Given the quirks of these document editors, though they are a good idea, they appear REALLY flawed and why would we want to share document editing this way? There must be better tools....or am I missing something here?
What would the founding fathers think?
I imagine that the concept of collaborative editing would appeal to them very much, though perhaps only Franklin and Jefferson would become beguiled by our 20th/21st c. technology!
Thing 10, Wikis
Below is the entry that I added to the 23 Things wiki
"The idea of setting up a wiki so that our library users could list items that they would like us to get (not that we have the funds for acquisition...another story) is something we are going to give some thought to. No idea that this was so straightforward. I can see other uses for wikis outside of the library too, in other collaborative areas of life!!!
(4/3/08, Fire/EMS/Safety Library)"
The You Tube video from Common Craft on wikis was excellent!
The other links were a bit superfluous, other than the one, Wikis, A Beginners Look slide show. In general so many links in a thing are so time consuming and I feel that I just get in deeper and deeper. Each thing takes quite a long time and I end up with many windows open on the computer. Today, probably because earlier work at the library involved downloading some large documents, the computer froze and I had to empty the download cache to continue working on 23 things!!!
I created a private wiki for a group with whom I am collaborating, using PB wiki. I am learning as I go along. I am a bit confused about the notification or not. Will the people I have invited get a notification via email every time the wiki is edited (unless I turn the notification off)?? The idea was to avoid lots of email among the group.
Prior to viewing the Common Craft video, I knew that wikis existed but didn't have a good idea why they would be useful.
I can see how this is a cool collaborative tool!
On Wikipedia: hmmm....I know it is useful for some really obscure information. As an academic librarian, however, I do feel that researchers and students should verify information found there in other sources, including print-based (e.g. reference and article databases) ones.
If I were making an assignment, I would instruct students that Wikipedia could be a last resort, not a first one.
There are many instructors who do limit their students to information by format. This is increasingly interesting to cope with in the library since many journals are no longer held in print format and the student cannot get the most relevant information in print.
However, I do think that it is important for every student to have the experience, at least once, of finding an article (from a citation) in an actual print journal so that they know about this process as a tool.
"The idea of setting up a wiki so that our library users could list items that they would like us to get (not that we have the funds for acquisition...another story) is something we are going to give some thought to. No idea that this was so straightforward. I can see other uses for wikis outside of the library too, in other collaborative areas of life!!!
(4/3/08, Fire/EMS/Safety Library)"
The You Tube video from Common Craft on wikis was excellent!
The other links were a bit superfluous, other than the one, Wikis, A Beginners Look slide show. In general so many links in a thing are so time consuming and I feel that I just get in deeper and deeper. Each thing takes quite a long time and I end up with many windows open on the computer. Today, probably because earlier work at the library involved downloading some large documents, the computer froze and I had to empty the download cache to continue working on 23 things!!!
I created a private wiki for a group with whom I am collaborating, using PB wiki. I am learning as I go along. I am a bit confused about the notification or not. Will the people I have invited get a notification via email every time the wiki is edited (unless I turn the notification off)?? The idea was to avoid lots of email among the group.
Prior to viewing the Common Craft video, I knew that wikis existed but didn't have a good idea why they would be useful.
I can see how this is a cool collaborative tool!
On Wikipedia: hmmm....I know it is useful for some really obscure information. As an academic librarian, however, I do feel that researchers and students should verify information found there in other sources, including print-based (e.g. reference and article databases) ones.
If I were making an assignment, I would instruct students that Wikipedia could be a last resort, not a first one.
There are many instructors who do limit their students to information by format. This is increasingly interesting to cope with in the library since many journals are no longer held in print format and the student cannot get the most relevant information in print.
However, I do think that it is important for every student to have the experience, at least once, of finding an article (from a citation) in an actual print journal so that they know about this process as a tool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
