Thing 23 - My View

I can't believe I'm actually doing the last of 23 Things! I was very skeptical at first as to whether or not I would have the ability to learn all the new technology; however, when I'm confronted with a new challenge, I will work until I've completed all that was asked. One challenge for me was time as I only work 25 hours a week and it was necessary for me to do some of this at home.

Some of the 23 Things I found of be of great value to me and in my work at Hudson Library such as GoogleDocs, GoodReads and NetLibrary. However, several of the "things" such as RSS feeds, Digg, and Del.icio.us were a waste of time in my opinion. I don't use a computer as a social or entertainment tool so those sites are not ones that I will continue to use. However, I do feel that it was advantageous for me to explore them just to be familiar.

Looking back, 23 Things overall was an enjoyable experience. I always felt great satisfaction when I accomplished a task that had been giving me problems. I'm always up for a challenge so if we ever do this type of thing again, just sign me up!

Thing 22 - NetLibrary

I was all excited when I first started to review NetLibrary; I thought it would be the perfect "new" technology for me to use with the new MP3 player I'm earning. It is setup nicely, with lots of help screens and demos. I first tried searching in e-audiobooks; unless you are searching for an exact title, NetLibrary doesn't do a very good job. I put in childrens fantasy as a subject and got one hit. I put in Narnia as a key word and got nothing. I then tried Chronicles of Narnia as a title and got nothing. Author search works well but NetLibrary doesn't seem have a great many of the popular authors that our patrons ask for, such as James Patterson. Once I found something of interest, the downloading instructions were simple and easy to understand. Even though basic searching is not the best, I still think this will be a useful site for our library patrons and one that I will use often.

Thing 21 - Podcasts

I tried to search Yahoo Podcasts but could never get it to load. Podcastalley.com was easy to navigate and searching can be done by subject or general terms but it is very imprecise. I did a search on book reviews and really hit pay dirt. I had no idea there would so many podcasts to choose from, boy, where have I been! I think Behind the Book, http://www.gbgpodcast.libsyn.com/rss would be usefull in our library world. I'm an avid movie goer so I added the follow podcasts to my RSS reader account; I'm hoping that I'll have time to actually view them!

http://www.feedcraft.com/feed/podnlinda/The+Popcorn+Chronicles
http://www.boxoffice.com/podcast/podreview.xml
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThePopcornJournal

Thing 20 - YouTube

There are so many videos it was hard to choose one; the one I enjoyed was "the Super Librarian". I tried to upload it to my blog but it didn't work; guess I need more time to figure this out.

Success, kind of! I got "Super Librarian" uploaded but it looks like extra vidoes were uploaded as well. I tried to get rid of those added "treats", but I was not successful. I chose this video just because it was cute and funny and sometimes we are so busy at the end of the day, most of us probably feel like we're "Super Librarians"! I think YouTube would be a cute way to showcase our Summer Reading program or even the Reading Rover.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0

Wow, there is a lot of Web. 2.0 awards to choose from; I had a very hard time making up my mind which one to explore. I finally settled on Biblio.com which is a great site to find used old and rare books. This site is very user friendly; browsing can done by subject, title, genre or an advanced search can be done by title, country and can be further narrowed by the price you want to pay for a book. Book reviews and customer and staff suggestions are also included. I think Biblio would be a good site to add to our library favorites for when a patron comes in looking for some old and rare books.

Thing 18 - Google Docs

I created a daily meal diary using a spreadsheet in Google Docs to track what I eat every day. I am a Weight Watcher's member and tracking my daily food comsumption is very important. Being able to do it from any computer will allow me to record my meals promptly and keeping a food diary so much easier. I am also going to us Google Docs to help me in planning a future trip to Greece by keeping track of information I find online which will be a great help as I'll be able to access it from anywhere. I'm not sure how we could use this technology in our every day work as we don't normally work on the same projects so access to everyone isn't a necessity. I think perhaps some of the FRL committees might have use for this technology.

Thing 17 - Wiki Fun

Playing on the Fontana Learning Wiki was a blast and so easy. When I first read the instructions I thought I would lose my mind; I didn't even understand where to start. After looking around and working step by step, my first attemp to link my blog was a success. I added an entry to the Favorite Book page and Favorite Restaurant page; I had a lot of fun playing with fonts, sizes and color. Editing the pages was very easy to do. I can see Wikis as being a very useful tool in our library system.