Thing 23: Final Thoughts on 23 Things on a Stick

I went to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday, so now I feel truly ready to complete "23 Things on a Stick" in the proper spirit. ;^)

What did I find most useful, and most likely to continue using?

• Bloglines: I had a Bloglines account before, but it needed some tweaking for me to use it effectively. I adjusted what feeds I'm getting, and I'm more committed to using it on a regular basis.
• Social networks: I'm excited about LinkedIn, Facebook, and Ning. They look like exciting ways to keep connected. I need to investigate ways to contact faculty through LinkedIn. I don't think I mentioned in this blog about reconnecting this summer with a friend from 20 years ago (we ran into each other, and she recognized me.) I suspect that with all of the new ways for people to keep in touch with each other, it will be less likely that people totally lose track of their friends. It will be interesting to see ten and twenty years from now if/how technology proves me right, or wrong, or "well,...."
• LibraryThing and YouTube: So far, little practical connection to work (although there are possibilities); they're just fun.

I did a little connecting with others during this time, but I would have liked more. It would be nice to do this with a group of colleagues (at my place of work or in the greater community), but that didn't work out this time. I will continue to talk about this at work, and see if I can stir some interest and support if there's a next-time-go-round.

If there were a follow-up to 23 Things, I would definitely be interested in participating. I didn't participate in the first go-round as it coincided too much with the busy times of my academic year, but I'm a little more flexible in summer. I would like a reason to work on a collaborative wiki and/or map site (a la what people are developing for convention visitors, or vacationers), but I suppose if I found time to volunteer to work on a conference, I'd get that kind of experience! It might be nice to get a nudge to try Twitter.

One word or one sentence about the experience: Get the nudge you need to learn about Library 2.0!

Thank you very much to the opportunity.

Thing 22: Staying Current

Ah, this is a tricky one: resolving to keep up this blog, to keep learning new 2.0 things, to make a commitment to keep up and use the new tools. (I should have known this would be in the fine print somewhere.) I suppose that one doesn't remember what one doesn't use. Years ago in my academic library, we had to know how to Shepardize (tracking legal citations) and how to use printed citation indexes 9oh, they were a pain in print.) You'd get questions at certain times of the year, and then it was the crash course (or, if you weren't ahead of things, an on-the-spot crash course.) Keeping your hand in with these tools was a service to patrons, but darned hard to keep up. Since this is a benefit to me, as well as my patrons, this SHOULD be a priority.

I'll try this, for now: since classes are starting next week (and bringing with them the busy season), I'll start small: I'll try to blog once a week, until the term settles down. I will try to keep track of new things I've learned, as well as "old" things I've relearned (I just reinstalled the "Save to Delicious" link that I lost when I got my new computer a few weeks ago.) I think my RSS feeds are at a manageable size, so I won't add any right now. I will get back into Facebook soon and flesh out my profile, respond to the responses I've gotten, etc. (I found several of them in the email spam filter this morning, so I'm not as negligent as it might seem.) I'll even think about setting up a schedule for checking Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning, Bloglines, etc. (I think I'm the sort of person that works best on a schedule, at least for something like this. I guess that's my way to plan on keeping up.)

I plan to be back later in the week, to finish up. Right now, I need to do some collection development.

Thing 21: Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

This Thing covers other social networks such as Gather, WebJunction, and Ning. I was sure I'd been in Ning before, but it didn't recognize me. And once I got in, when I moved to another section, it didn't seem to recognize me. I've signed in three times so far (maybe it's just having a bad day.) Let's see if I can capture the code....


View my page on 23 Things on a Stick

I looked briefly at some of the other social sites, and again, if I had more time, it might be interesting to explore more. My problem is that I have TOO MANY interests (books, gardening, film, etc.) How to choose?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I joined LinkedIn the other week. It seems to be a good social networking site for professionals, and has some "cred" at my institution. One of my coworkers teased me yesterday about not responding to him yet in Facebook. I'll get to it soon. I like the fact that you can put in information about what you like (favorite books, films, quotes, etc.), but part of me is still dubious about this. How much do I want the greater universe to know about me? How much personal information do I really want floating out there?

Well, I've spent an hour on this today, and I'd better get back to updating my web guides. I'd like them to be finished when fall classes start in less than two weeks, and I've still got a stack to work on.

Be seeing you!

Thing 20: Libraries and Social Networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.)

I'm up to social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn (not mentioned in this Thing, but it may be coming.) I've heard about the first two for years now, but being a busy professional and parent of a not-yet-teen, I haven't ventured there. Just before I went on vacation, one of my coworkers sent me an invitation to join LinkedIn, so I did. (Then I "friended" several of my coworkers and promptly went on vacation - I still need to go back and respond to their responses.) So now I've joined Facebook, found some of my coworkers and sent them notes, started browsing through the list of people who graduated from the same high school (I stopped at 100, because I need to get this Thing finished. And I'll have to work on my profile more, too.) I was confused about "write on at least one wall," but I watched one of the video tutorials and figured that out (I suspect that the woman doing the Expert Village is Canadian - based on her pronunication of the word "about.")

For now, I just joined the 23 Things on a Stick Group, but I have in my notes that several of my "social networks" (listservs, business/academic librarians, fan groups) have groups in Facebook, so I'll have to add some down the line.

One of my colleagues has set up a Facebook page for our libraries, which he uses in new student orientation. Now that I'm in Facebook, I'll have to check it out and see if he's been updating it, added a link to the catalog and our Ask a Librarian service, etc.

Why do I think Facebook is growing rapidly? Well, I glanced briefly at MySpace, and it looked busy and glitzy to me. However, last year I read an essay by Dana Boyd called "Viewing American Class Divisions through Facebook and MySpace" that makes me think that this question is not as simple as it sounds.

That's all for now - almost time to go home for the day.

Thing 19: Podcasts

From the 23 Things on a Stick website - a nice definition of podcast:

"The word podcast is used to refer to a non-musical audio or video broadcast that is distributed over the Internet....A podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS."

I've listened to things online (particularly radio program snippets: National Public Radio, Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know.) The Satellite Sisters used to be on the radio and are doing podcasting now.

I haven't subscribed to any podcasts until now, but since I've been nudged, I'll try Minnesota Public Radio's weather podcast, Jet Streaming. I heard an interview on climate change with Dr. James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. I have to pass on the "create your own podcast" option for now, since I'd like a little time to work up a script, and practice. But I'll keep it in mind.

P.S. Since I've been gone from blogging for a few weeks, I forgot about tagging. I have to go back and do some "remedial."

Just one more YouTube!

OK, I'm being geeky here, but I just can't resist one more (from another of my interests), the 1938 match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral:

Back again with Thing 18: YouTube/Online Video

I've been gone for awhile (mostly vacation in Denver, Colorado), but it's time to move on to Thing 18. YouTube and I are old friends. I've watched bits of old television shows (Monty Python, Star Trek, Mathnet), commercials, library-related videos, and more. I've seen on various websites, LiveJournal, and blogs that you can embed a video, so now I get to try it (woo-hoo!)

And it's not going to be just ANY video. As a Doctor Who fan (SciFi Channel site, BBC site), I can't resist linking to a Doctor Who video. In 2007, David Tennant and Peter Davison (the current Doctor and a former Doctor) teamed up to produce "Time Crash," a special for Children in Need:




WELL, how cool is that!

I wish I had the technology to make my own videos, but I don't. I think it would be good for our library to produce one (and maybe we have, and I'm just not aware of it.) Some academic libraries are developing these for student orientation, or a "produce your own library video" contests for students to enter. Fun stuff.

I think to get a good library promotional video, you need some level of production values - a decent script, people that can act or perform reasonably, music as well. You need to be something of an artist to produce this, which I'm not (sigh.) I also prefer videos with a decent picture and sound (not always easy for those copy-of-a-copy for old TV things. Sometimes, you take what you can get.) Every now and then that old Copyright Fairy whispers in my ear, "You know, those film companies (TV companies, etc.) don't like this idea" - but I think some of them are learning to roll with the punches.

I almost lost this post once, so I'm going to publish it now. Then, on to the next Thing!