thing 22) staying current

while i feel that i'm pretty hip with the 2.0, i did learn a lot using NEFLIN's 23 things. i have always tried to stay current with these types of technologies.

one method i find that works is to always browse the technologies segment of ALA's newsletter. i always find an article or two that interest me and teach me about emerging trends.

my resolution is to continue to read that and make my notes here.

i will continue to take advantage of NEFLINS and webinars.

the most important thing i learned about web 2.0 is that to efficiently use these technologies, we must prepare and plan before implementation. i've been learning this lesson all around - what seems like a good idea should be weighed and analyzed before immediately using.

i'm too busy to go through many blogs, but i like the blah blah blog. i check on that from time to time. i feel overwhelmed by too many choices, so web 2.0 leaves me comotose. it's best for me to take one recommendation and become really involved in that, rather than shallowly use many resources.

thing 21) student assignment tools

How might the RPC and the Teacher Guide help you help students plan and manage research projects?

this is fantastic! i wish i had this when i was in school. this is a great resource. the tip sheets for teachers are great for helping students with their research papers. the RPC is wonderful for making a research paper managable in chunks. i will bookmark these sites for parents, high school students, homeschoolers, and college students.

Can you think of any uses for library projects—could you use it to help manage a timeline for a project of your own?

this would be great for proposal writing, publishing, or any project requiring extensive work. i'm pretty good at chunking and implementation, so i wouldn't sign up for this. but, i do think this is one of the more useful 23 things that we have used.

thing 20) books 2.0

What are you observing in your library about books and reading?

i haven't been a librarian long enough to know trends...i've worked reference for over a year now and haven't noticed an increase in fiction reading. but, fiction has always been big here. i definitely notice that more women read fiction than men, but i wouldn't say i've noticed more men reading fiction. i have seen more people of color reading fiction - but it may be that i am now more aware of urban writers. but, our library has certainly enhanced this collection.

Do you think these Book 2.0 tools hamper or enhance one's reading experience?

personally, these tools take too much work. they are too busy, involve too much reading to be worth my time. i prefer to wander book stacks and find books on the new book shelves or in the reshelving area. amazon is great for reader's advisory. it's simple, based on searching paths, and very easy to use. again, i don't have time to learn these tools that i will not use again.

Which of the sites/tools did you visit?

Twitterlit - i'd use this. i like that i only have to read one sentence. that's about all i can handle. i will sign up for this service and see how i like it. my enthusiasm for twitter dimmed quite a while ago. my account hasn't seen use in months. i'm actually considering deleting it.

BookLamp - there were hardly any books on this list?! what's the point?

Overbooked - this site is too busy and difficult to learn to use. it's after lunch and it makes me want to snooze...i will look at the book buzz next time i have to pick a book for my real life book club.

*Booksprouts - i'd use this if i didn't have a regular book club and had lots more time to kill.

Librivox - cool idea. but who wants to read most of these books? i'd like to volunteer though.

*BookBrowse - this looks cool. good for picking books for book club. wouldn't give me full access because i'm not a member. would use again.

book swap - i work in a library. i don't buy books.

***personally, i like amazon. there's reviews, recommendations, links, a look inside, etc. with a very easy to use interface.

****my husband had a very good point yesterday. we're so engrained in our computer lives these days. we spend hours discussing books with strangers, mystalking old classmates/lovers on facebook, and friending people across the country. why expend all of this energy when we don't even know what our partner is reading, what our neighbor's name is, or what our coworker's genre of preference is?

thing 19) other social networks

there are just too many out there! i do not have time to keep track of multiple social networking sites for each of my interests. that's why i like livejournal. it's my blog, my photoblog, my forum, my method of keeping in touch with friends, etc. i can join multiple communities that engage each of my interests and follow them all at once on my 'friends page'.

i'm not sure why this hasn't been mentioned yet. i love livejournal and all of the applications for it. it combines blogging with social networks and interaction among people with a shared interest.

i am interested in last.fm. it sounds interesting, but too much work. i want to type in a web address and just listen. i like pandora.com for streaming music for this reason. i think much of this social networking is for people with too much time on their hands. i just don't have time to play with these sites. and i really don't see how our library can use them.

i don't think i'll ever use these sites. but then again, i said i'd never use facebook...i'd like to join a professional networking site, but i don't have the time to figure out which one...i'd be using the time that i have to actually meet real people!

thing 18) facebook/myspace

i have accounts in both of these already. i used myspace frequently when it first appeared on the scene, but frankly, i'm sick of both of these. i hardly check my myspace page and find that the only friend requests i get come from spammers, stores, and bands. if i didn't have to plan my 10 year high school reunion, i would delete my account.

i like facebook, but find it incredibly annoying as well. i do not care that my mom is eating popcorn. i do not want you to throw a pillow at me. i do not want to accept a garden patch from you.

but, i do like getting invited to local networking events, being able to send simple evites, and look up friends and acquaintances from my past. i feel like the public is calming down on these sites and learning how to be more mature users of these applications. our users are there, so we need to be.

we need to remember to friend our patrons, not other libraries! we need to be available to answer reference questions via these programs and chat. we need to seemlessly promote our events from here to our web to print. luckily, facebook and myspace allow badges for websites, tweets can be sent to either, and blogs can be cross posted.

the technology is both useful and a waste of time for the user.

i'd rather stick to email for the time being, but can use either application for basic communication with those emails that i do not have.

thing 17) podcasts

1. Which podcast(s) did you listen to?

i used the yahoo search to find podcasts about or by david sedaris.

2. Which of the directories did you find easiest to use?

i like using itunes the best. i didn't really like any of these. i wonder what issues we now have with copyright and the ease of posting these audioclips. i can't imagine that david sedaris gave permission for all of these bloggers to play clips of his audiobook. yahoo now makes it even easier to infringe.

from a creative commons wiki:

"When creating your own podcast, it is important to make sure all necessary rights and permissions are secured for the material included in your podcasts. This is relatively easy if you create all of the material that is included in your podcast but can become progressively more complex the more you include material created by other people. If you do not obtain the necessary rights and permissions, you may get into legal trouble for incorporating third party material into your podcast and for also authorizing others to use that material as part of your podcast."

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide#Legal_Issues_In_Creating_Your_Own_Podcast.

3. Has this Thing inspired you to do any podcasting yourself or to subscribe to a podcast to listen to it regularly?

i have no desire to podcast. the last experience i had was last year in grad school, and it was an annoying nightmare. i do enjoy listening to radio programs and interviews. i find itunes easy to use and finding the free podcasts is a breeze. i'm not sure how careful itunes is with copyright, but i bet it beats yahoo's laxidasical search.

thing 16) youtube

i hope that worked. i often have trouble when it comes to things that are supposed to be easy with cutting and pasting HTML. i chose this video because it relates to libraries and i think it's hilarious. i have no idea what i would do in the situation these staff members are placed in.

we could use YouTube to share short videos of tours of our libraries, how to place an interlibrary loan, how to use databases, etc, etc.