Thing #7

I really enjoyed the articles and discussions on the evolving world of communication.  I have watched and experienced the thrill of the early magical e-mail universe changing over to text messaging and IMing.  

I had an experience I want to share when I was subbing in a high school classroom recently.  In the waning minutes of a class period, we needed to find out the name of a YouTube video featuring some local kids;  our keyword searches were not successful.   Three or four of the students pulled out their cellphones and texted to friends around the school building for suggestions.  We got the name of the video in just a couple of minutes.  It was amazing and I'm sure totally against school rules.  One of the students even said, oh, he won't answer;  he's taking a test.  This goes on all the time!  And probably without teacher knowledge.

I also have reaped the benefits of video chatting lately.  Our first granddaughter was born in November and she lives three hours from us.  To keep in touch, we all get together on iChat on our Macs on Sunday evenings.  That is one program not mentioned in the 23 Things, but it should be.  It is included in the purchase of any new Mac, and runs intuitively and quickly.  The Mac OS is amazingly simple and reliable.  Libraries should think about purchasing Macs more than they do.  The software that comes with them fits in so well with Web 2.0 and Library 2.0!  I noticed in one of the latest postings of The Shifted Librarian, that she had visited the world's newest, coolest library ("library concept center") in Delft, Holland that the computers there were heavily Macs.  Here's the link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/sets/72157604142377648

I set up my account in Twitter, but haven't lined up my "friends" yet.  Since I don't spend just every minute of my working day at a desk in front of a computer anymore, it might not be as useful.  

My last word on Thing #7 is this:  Wow.  It's just so much fun to stand by and watch the world of communication evolve!  And my friends and acquaintances are all at such different stages of it and I get to do many, many different types of communicating.  I guess since I'm basically a "chatty" person, it suits me to have this smorgasbord of tools.

Thing #4--out of sequence

I left the 23 things for about a month, but had worked on Flickr in sequence, but I forgot to post about it!  So sorry about that, but my proselytizing for Flickr will be out of order in my postings.

I just want to say, "Wow" about Flickr.  I had not been to that site since it was an infant and has it ever grown into a productive adult!  I started using my dotMac account to post and share photos and just had not even looked at Flickr until 23 Things.  

I love doing keyword searches.  Even looking up things like "red" was fun.  I am continually amazed by the creativity displayed here.

I love the geotags, looking up places I have been fortunate to visit.  It's like an online memory treasure trove.  I wonder if we will look back on this as a crude beginning to the "universal mind" or something similar.

Flickr is definitely a website to be shared with friends and library users.

Thing #6

I had to overcome some of my perfectionistic traits to do some of this today.  

It all takes time, a precious and rare commodity these days for me and almost everyone else I know.  

I came up with a trading card by using BigHugeLabs;  it's cheesy, but used a photo I had taken myself and does express a thought I believe in.  All we have is today, so we had better use it wisely.  

And even though I feel like I'm frittering away my time working on this at the moment, I really can see how handy it would be to say to a student or library user, oh, yeah, you should try this website.....

Thing #5

The Flickr mash-ups were all so much fun, but so time-consuming.  I could see Seniors having the time to spend playing around there.  I think as the baby boomers head into retirement (it's happening), we will see more and more creativity from them.  I guess I'm just speculating that Web 2.0 will not only be the hang out for the younger set, but also for other age groups.  

Thing #3

I learned about RSS feeds quite a long time ago, but learned a lot more about them while working through Thing 3.  I had purchased NetNewsWire and had a lot of good subscriptions, but enjoyed being introduced to BlogLines and Google Reader.  I will use the two new "feed" tools to keep up on library, school library, and tech things that are not covered in my other RSS reader.

I also got my avatar up and running.  I had a Second Life avatar, but haven't been to my second life in so long that I couldn't remember my login!  Yikes!  Guess I will just stick to one life now.  It keeps me plenty busy anyway.

I still feel like I'm somewhat behind, but keep reminding myself that it's better to be thorough than to rush through......our library users know some of this stuff very thoroughly, so I want to be able to relate.

Thing#2

I was so impressed with the whole concept of moving to a more interactive, take-your-library-wherever-you-go kind of library.  I think the authors each had interesting perspectives and ideas on how our libraries will look in the not-too-distant future.

I also posted once already, but want to say again, how interesting I find it that so many of them use the term "user" instead of "patron".  I think it's indicative of how we are all trying to blend into the community and how we are trying to use less professional jargon to help that process.  It fits right in with the whole Library 2.0 concept, right?

I especially enjoyed the Michael Stephens article on the "new world of librarianship" at the OCLC site (http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm).  It's not only the library itself that will change dramatically;  we must keep step and be on the lookout for the best, most economical, most efficient solutions to solving information problems for our users.  I get a chill of excitement when I think about it and try to imagine how "my" libraries will evolve (or is that just a panic attack coming on?)

Well, guess I'll try to move on the Thing 3 today yet.  I feel like I'm a little bit behind in my journey to 23. 

New blog - what direction to take.....hmmmm.

This is my second blog, but have to admit I hardly remember the first 0ne.  I think the key is having something substantive to say and that is not happening today for me and my blog readers.  Tomorrow is a new day and perhaps it will be THE blog poster day for me.

The big thing is to learn and do and perhaps help some other people through my experience.  It's a librarian thing, for sure.