And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make: Week 9, Thing 23

Yea! I have reached the end of my 23 Things. It’s very exciting to have the end in sight. Now for a summary about my learning. When thinking of my favorite discoveries or exercises, I find it hard to pick one. I really enjoyed doing the avatar. Flickr was fun to work with and to find out about the different things you can use it for. I also really enjoyed YouTube and learning about podcasts. I have learned a lot about different technologies that are out there. This program has definitely opened my eyes to how the Internet has dramatically expanded since I was in college and graduate and that wasn’t all that long ago, only about 2 to 3 years. Scary to think about it really. It makes me realize how much I really need to keep up with what is going on out there and what people are using on the World Wide Web.

One unexpected outcome of 23 Things was giving me the idea of how to organize my list of reference websites as part of a project I was working on. While using Rollyo I thought it would be a great way to organize and access my list of reference websites and for staff and customers to use them. Well I had more than 25 websites on my list, but it did give me the idea to use Google’s similar service I had learned about at ALA. Now we have a great very own search engine with over 300+ websites and growing. Another great take-away was learning how to use a wiki and how to create one. I used this knowledge to set up a wiki for the Teen Team to use as a place to post book reviews on to help us discuss books that we could possibly use for our Teen Summer Book Discussions. I also even learned to be enthusiastic about podcasts. :)

I found the format for this program was very helpful. It was organized very well and if one truly explored the site for Thing 1, then one would know where all the information can be found about each activity to be explored. Any snags would be more from the implementation within each library system as far as getting things completed for this program. I enjoyed completing this program. If another was offered again, I would choose to participate. I use the Internet a lot and so do a lot of our customers. Whether we like it or not, the Internet is here to stay and is evolving at an ever increasing pace. We as librarians need to keep up with such technology. Even if we don’t personally use it on a regular basis, we need to be aware of what is out there and what our customers are using or could possibly use to help them access the information that they need and want.

How would I describe my learning experience? Fascinating at times, slow at times, dragging my feet at times, but overall it has opened my eyes to what is out there. Even as a 20-something adult who grew up using a computer and the Internet, there were still many things that I learned and I am glad I did. What doesn’t kill us, only makes us stronger. :)

The Gutenburg Press to a New Level: Week 9, Thing 22

I can see the end in sight. I found this thing to be a fairly easy one because I have used Overdrive, NetLibrary, and Project Gutenburg at one time or another. I found all products fairly easy to use. Downloading a book off of Overdrive is so easy. I have downloaded books or more than one occasion and have had to opportunity to show our customers how easy it is to download books on to their computer. Searching could be a little bit easier, but I did find some interesting books just by browsing through the collection. NetLibrary, from what I remember, is very similar to Overdrive when it comes to searching, browsing, and downloading items. Setting up an account for both of these services is extremely easy. Project Gutenburg is nice if you are looking for books that are in the public domain and are no longer copyrighted. It has many books digitized and a handful of audiobooks. The one complaint about Project Gutenburg is the readability of the books. Sometimes it can be a bit difficult with the way they have the books set up. Other than that, any one of these services would be useful for our customers, plus I would use myself.

Radio Shows for the 21st Century:Week 9, Thing 21

Ah podcasts. This is one of the things I was most nervous about and was not looking forward to surprisingly enough. I listen to audiobooks all the time, but this "thing" I was nervous about and a little gun-shy to learn about. So I've had the chance to look around a couple of the websites of podcasts and I found a few podcasts that I found interesting and funny. I really enjoyed listening to some of them. I looked at www.podcast.net and www.podcastalley.net and found out that they were really easy to use and the podcasts seemed very well produced. I have found a couple podcasts that I will try and keep listening to. I added one of them to my Bloglines rss feed (Vegan Cooking School). It was a good thing that I was in the workroom on my own, because I keep laughing at the one podcast I'm listening to (Vegan Freak Radio). The whole process was pretty easy. I hope to try and add some of the podcasts to my mp3 player when I am on my own computer and can download. The one thing that really came to mind was the old radio shows from before the TV was around. This "thing" reminds me very much of this. I don't know why, but it just does, maybe because there are many topics that you wouldn't necessarily find on regular mainstream radio, at least of the topics I was looking up. So I'm sold on this "thing". :)

Video killed the radio star: Week 9, Thing 20

YouTube was fun to play with and I found lots of interesting videos. So I had a fun time looking through belly dance videos, Shakira videos, and Dead Can Dance videos. One could get lost for hours playing with this. So I chose to add this one video that I found of my belly dance idol, Melina of the Daughters of Rhea. I've taken workshops with her and she's is just great. I chose the video of her sword and dagger routine. While this video is a bit dark, seeing it in person was phenomenal. All one can say is wow and try and get one's chin off the floor. Hopefully this works.

Find a friend: Week 8, Thing 19

I looked through the Web 2.0 awards list and decided to take a look at Facebook and MySpace. I chose this one because many of the other "things" are covered by the list, plus I know a lot of customers use sites like MySpace and Facebook. I also had accounts on both sites, but never really used them all that much. This gave me a chance to investigate. I liked Facebook better between the two, although I know MySpace seemed to have morestuff and people that I knew on it versus Facebook, but I liked the layout and ease of use on Facebook. I found Facebook much easier to use and not as cluttered at MySpace. I did take a look through some of the other websites on the awards list. There were some interesting ones I hadn't heard of before. I think this list could be very useful for recommending different types of sites to people.

The writing on the wall: Week 8, Thing 18

So where was this online productivity stuff when I was in graduate school? I wish I had known about Zoho and/or Google docs a couple years ago. It would have helped tremendously when I was working on my group projects and papers while in graduate school. I think that this product would help a lot for students who are working on projects in the library and don't have a way to save them, i.e. floppy disk, flash drive, etc. I think it would work well with group projects because people would be able to add or change information without having to worry about program compatibility between different programs. I could see where this would also be useful for the many people who use our computers for doing their work or projects. I would have to be one of those people who would save it both using the program and on some other storage device. I would be too nervous about losing my work. It was very easy to export the document though into MS Word.

Here wiki, wiki, wiki continued: Week 7, Thing 17

So the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki was very easy to use. I had no problem adding my blog to the Favorite Blogs area. I could see why wikis are very attractive tools for groups to put information in one place.

Here wiki, wiki, wiki...Week 7, Thing 16

It was fun looking through the different wikis on this thing's discovery activity. It gave me a better idea of the different ways that wikis could be used by a library. As far as ideas of how to use wikis at our library, I know the Teen Team talked of setting one up to use as a way to review different young adult books that we are going to read in order to help us when it comes time to select the books for the summer book discussions. I liked the Book Lover Wiki from Princeton Library. I think it would be a great idea for the community to review books as well as a place for people to look at the reviews and to help select books to read.

End of the library world as we know it: Week 6, Thing 15

I think the one opinion about Thing 15 that really had an impact on me was the youtube video showing the evolution of text and the Internet. When it comes to Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, this is what is about, evolution of our environment and of the way we access, view, and create information. It also really hits home about how much we as librarians really need to keep up with our technology skills. Even as a Generation Xer going up with a computer in my household, accessing the Internet in the mid-1990's, I have realized how much I have still learned about what is available and being used out on the Web. While there are many of these websites that I may not use after completing my 23 Things, just knowing about them gives me a better understanding of how the Internet is evolving. We as librarians and libraries need to evolve with it and I believe in many instances we have as a profession, at least in my experiences. I am sure that there are still some out there who keep steadfast to the printed on paper word, but as one of the articles pointed out, we are not able to do this anymore.

Tag, you're it: Week 6, Thing 14

Technorati was interesting to look around. I looked around at the top popular favorite blogs, popular searches, and popular blogs and only found one blog that was kind of interesting called treehugger. It seemed like everything else was just blogs about blogs. I didn't find it all that exciting. I think if I had the time to really go online and read some of the stuff, I could eventually find some blogs I would like to read.

Yum, yum, del.icio.us: Week 6, Thing 13

I had to chance to work with Del.icio.us and found it a bit interesting. I could see where it would be useful if you switched from computer to computer. It was very easy to set up and import my current bookmarks that I had on my computer. Will I use it much? Mmmm, maybe or maybe not. Not quite sure yet.

Rollyo-yo-yo: Week 5, Thing 12

Don't have too much to say about Rollyo. Not real impressed really. I like the idea but I don't like the fact that it limits you to only having a max of 25 websites for your search engine. At first it looked like it would be great for what I wanted to use it for, but after taking a look at it, Rollyo just won't work. I like Google's version of it better I think.

Books I've read: Week 5, Thing 11

I had used LibraryThing before doing this activity but it had been a little while since I had used it. I cataloged all of the books that I had read in the past two years when I started working as a librarian. Let's just say 106 books I was a little impressed. I even got the opportunity to add a couple books that weren't cataloged by anyone else before. That was really easy.

Making my image: Week 5, Thing 10

So the online avatar creating thing, fun and cool. I had a blast with this one. I used both Yahoo and Meez, creating an avatar in each one.

Here is the one from Meez. While it was pretty easy to use, at times I found this one a bit annoying and I didn't like the clothes options as much as I liked Yahoo (above). Sooo, the inspiration for this particular one you say? Well I love Abby from NCIS and was a bit of a goth in high school and still am at heart sometimes. :)

Looking for news: Week 4, Thing 9

Well I added MERLIN's rss feed to my bloglines account. After that I tried looking at the different websites that help you find rss feeds. I did not find them all that helpful really. Feedster just seemed to repeat the same feeds when it had many different results for a searh topic. I think I would much rathr just see if my favorite websites have rss feeds to add rather than use one of these sites.

Keeping up with current events: Week 4, Thing 8

So when I first started looking at RSS feeds I wasn't quite sure that I liked them. While the concept is great; I felt that I would not really get much use from them, although I know people who would. Well after playing around, and reading many different feeds, I was proven wrong. I found a lot of different information and some great feeds that will prove at being useful I feel in the future. One of the things that I miss from graduate school is an easy way to keep up with what is going on in the library world. This seems like a good way to do it. I found some great articles. Using Blogline seemed a little daunting at first, especially when it came to adding different feeds, but it actually turned out to be very easy in the end. I had many feeds saved within a short time frame. :)

Great place for penpals: Week 3, Thing 7

As many of my co-workers know, I have recently started becoming penpals with some people around the world and in the USA. I recently started to learn Spanish and was looking for a practical way to practice and use my new acquired language skills. Well the website www.interpals.net was the way I did that. It is a website that is easy to use and is a free website. You can look at people's profiles, send emails to potential people without revealing your email address, send private messages through the site, post public comments, etc. It is a good way to meet penpals and people from around the world and to communicate with them.

Wow a trading card: Week 3, Thing 6

I took a look at some of the mashups and other assorted sites. The one that I really liked was making a trading card, so I created a librarian trading card and placed it on my Flickr page. It was really easy and fun to play around with. I wish you could change to font sizes at least to fit more information on there. Oh well, it was fun anyway. Take a look at my creation.

Strike a pose: Week 3, Thing 5

I took the Flickr tour this morning and then created an account. I had a previous Yahoo ID so I just used that to create my account. I did both options for this thing, both finding a picture that I liked and also posting some pictures, one of them being tagged "mdlearning2". I have posted both of those pictures here. Flickr was really easy to use and to upload pictures.

Oh my goodness, I'm blogging: Week 2, Thing 3

This "thing" was to set up a blog and to put up a couple test posts. Well I got the chance to set up my blog and to do my two test posts dealing with the previous weeks' activities. Setting up the blog was extremely easy and took no time at all. It was actually kind of fun. Blogging is one of those activities I never really thought about doing, mostly because I don't know what I would say. This activity might actually change my mind on blogging. We shall see anyway when this project is done. :)

For the love of lifelong learnin': Week 1, Thing 2

Well I took the time to watch the 7 and 1/2 life long learning habits presentation. I spent some time looking over them and trying to figure out which was the hardest and which was the easiest one for me. I would have to say that the hardest habit would be number 3, viewing problems as challenges. While I love a challenge and work well with them, sometimes I do have trouble keeping in mind when problems come up that it is not the end of the world and that they are just hurdles to overcome. The easiest habit would be having the confidence in myself as a competent, effective learner. I love to learn new things. I would be a professional student if it was a paid job. :) I am constantly learning about different hobbies, languages, new websites and fun things on the Internet.

So the journey begins: Week 1, Thing 1

I have taken the opportunity over the past couple weeks to look through the Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 blog as well as the 23 Things blog. I have also looked through the blogs of other participants. They have given me some great ideas for doing a blog. So here it goes with the 23 Things program. Happy learning!!!