More Things: Thing 27

Thing 27 is Twitter. I have heard a lot about Twitter for at least a year. We watched a YouTube video on it at home a few weeks ago, spoofing it and the "Fail Whale." I admit to being one of the ones who so far doesn't "get it." Who wants to know what I'm doing in odd minutes of the day? It sounds to me like a cross of Marshall McLuhan (everyone's famous, for 15 minutes) and Dickens/stream of consciousness narration (BTW, I really dislike novels written in the present tense. Seems to be a recent trend in literature, and it just rubs me the wrong way.)

So I got on to Twitter yesterday, and tried to find some people/personalities to follow. I searched for a friend that I know is on Twitter. I searched by her professional name. Searched her married name. Searched several combinations - no luck. I am not impressed with the searching on Twitter. Signed up to follow a writer I've heard of, a public radio reporter I've heard of, my library. Also Weird Al Yankovic and the More Things feed. This morning I found my friend (firstnamelastname all squished together), and am following her. Big whup. For the benefit of my one follower (so far), my Twitter username is mdhageman.

Our library just started using Twitter a few weeks ago, I believe (I happened to see this in some meeting minutes, I don't it was announced widely.) They're thinking of using it as a "here's what's going on" notification - "cookies in the library have arrived!" Since we sometimes have food left over after events, they could tweet about that - could have tweeted about activities during the recent Library Week. The trick is that I've read recently that college students are underwhelmed with Twitter - I'm not sure are students are there. We'll see.

I really don't think Twitter is my thing (until they improve the searching, at least.) I like the social networking features of Facebook (and similar sites) that make it easier to find people you know, or are interested in, and have more of a context (here are their photos, here are groups they've joined, etc.) And Facebook changed their status field to say "What are you doing?" - just like Twitter.

I have to admit this is difficult as I listen to more news about the swine flu; it sounds like the first case may have come to Minnesota. Stay healthy, follow common sense. And wash your hands.

More Things: Thing 26

Thing 26 is Ning, specifically the 23 Things on a Stick Ning. I joined it in the last go-round, and frankly, it just hasn't captured my fancy. Maybe I haven't made the effort to make friends there. Facebook has been more compelling to me, partly because I already know people I've connected to there. And of course that I'm now trying to do More Things on a different schedule from others doesn't help. But I did upload some photos, now that I have some thanks to my personal tech support. I wanted to upload one of my newest favorite toy, but since I don't own the rights to the image, I didn't really feel that I could. I looked back at my blog from last summer, and I had Ning on my list of "things I'm excited about," but for some reason I didn't keep with it.

I looked at some of the videos, and made some comments. There was a film of library dominoes (we did something similar a few weeks ago at my institution to kick off Library Week.) And one of my all-time favorite YouTubes, the Medieval Help Desk.

I could see getting involved in an interest group in Ning (my husband is active in some on Facebook.) I just haven't found/made time in my life for that, not in Ning or Facebook. I said last August that I have the problem of having TOO MANY interests - how to limit oneself by the time available?

More Things: Thing 25

So I've spent time trying to add some gadgets/widgets to my blog tonight. I tried a couple of clocks, but Blogger said the first one was broken, and the second one doesn't seem to appear (and Blogger is having some trouble tonight - I've gotten several error messages in the last few minutes.) I tried to add some "quote of the day" things - at least three that Blogger said were broken. The Cave Photo one was broken, too. One is working: the Britannica "library quote of the day" gadget (which I've had to relocate a couple of times.) I'd added the Follower thing earlier, and that's been working.

Err. The clock is on the bottom. Oh, well.

If I were doing this at home, I'd try to do more picture stuff. But I don't have my own digital camera, and our better photos are at home. I did manage to open up the comments on the blog the other week, encouraged by my Follower (Google Mail recognized him for one blog he was following, but not mine.) I was intrigued by the "trackbacks" idea, but Blogger searching isn't working right now. Maybe later.

More Things: Thing 24

I got an email late yesterday from the More Things on a Stick folks. I'd registered fairly soon after they started, and tweaked my blog a trifle, knowing that my library would be a pretty busy place at the beginning of term, but certainly I could get started on this in early March. I'd made a commitment.

And then Life happened, including a semi-impromptu spring break trip with some good things (got to see Wicked!) and not-so-good things (2+ days at airports, waiting for a flight home - the joys of flying standby.) Also a trip to the Computers in Libraries conference. So by the time I semi-started my expense report after the conference, I'd written off doing More Things. "There's only a month left," I mused. "No way I can do this." But the More Things email said, "If you complete at least 10 of the things and blog about them," I can get a bag. And they won't be doing a second round of More Things. So I'm going to try, and see what I can do.

As it turns out, I'd already done a chunk of Thing 24 and didn't realize it. I'd refreshed my blog, and due to some nudging from my Number One Fan (and Follower), I'd played with the gadgets. So I did some more refreshing, and now I'm blogging away again.

They ask, "How much have you blogged since you finished 23 Things on a Stick?" I finished in August, and according to Blogger, I had 13 posts for the rest of 2008, and 12 (and counting) for 2009. I haven't been commenting much on blogs, but I do have some blogs (and friends on LiveJournal) that I check on a regular basis. The library blog that I look at the most is Free Range Librarian, Karen Schneider's blog. She's quirky, and interesting.

They ask, "What do you like about blogging?" I like sharing odd bits and pieces of things, when I come across something of interest. I usually need something external to give me a "poke" (to use a Facebook term.) And I have to say again that Facebook has become quite the "killer application" in our household, since my husband discovered it in January, and more and more of our friends pop up on it. None of my friends from high school yet - maybe they're all on MySpace?

Government 2.0

National Public Radio ran a story tonight about Recovery.gov, the website that's tracking spending on the economic recovery. "It's an enormous task - publishing a real-time, reliable account of what the government is doing - and it wouldn't have been possible a decade ago. Call it Government 2.0."

High school students and library research experiences

Next week a colleague and I are doing a brief presentation for coworkers about what high school students do and don't learn about libraries and library research while in high school. She will discuss a University of Montana poster session at ALA last summer, and I will discuss a session by Kellian Clink at the Minnesota Library Association conference last fall. In both cases, college librarians surveyed and interviewed high school librarians at their institutions' "feeder schools," the high schools from which a number of their entering freshmen graduate. Many high school libraries and media centers have had their book budgets decreased or frozen for years, although state programs do provide access to online databases. And high school librarians report that students are creating more PowerPoints and iMovies than research papers. This has interesting implications for those of us doing college-level library instruction, about what concepts first-year students have experienced (library databases, online catalogs, citing sources, Dewey classification) and those they may not (evaluating sources, controlled vocabulary, synthesizing & analyzing information.) My colleague hopes to do a similar study of feeder schools of private colleges in Minnesota. The findings should be interesting.

Computers in Libraries 2009

Amongst my recent traveling adventures, I attended Computers in Libraries 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. Some highlights:

• Mobile is hot: there were sessions on mobile searching, applications for mobile devices, and mention of websites that will let you develop a mobile-friendly version of your own website.
• Twitter is still hot (at least in some circles.)
• What do you think is Facebook’s fastest-growing demographic, as of January? I’ll put the answer at the end of this message, so you can think about it.
• “Steal this code!” session: presentation on encouraging faculty to link to library content (in course management systems, etc.) by putting “cut and paste the code” info on your library website. They suggested “search the catalog” and “search databases” links. Here are some examples from Auraria and UM-Duluth.
• Frederick County Public Library talked about Mobile Reference using Samsung mobile computers networked to library printers.
• I went to a couple of presentations on getting/improving library content in course management systems, including customized portals and sending library content info to faculty that they can upload into their courses.
• I also saw a couple of sessions on training and e-learning, for teaching/training library staff and patrons. I also attended some interesting sessions on using Web 2.0 tools for library content (Flickr for library tutorials, “Meebo me” widgets, podcasts and screencasts on library guides, etc.)
• Townson University talked about their Sharepoint reference wiki (Powerpoint link.)
• So, what do you think Facebook’s fastest-growing demographic was in January 2009? Seniors! I knew that was coming as soon as my mother-in-law joined Facebook. ;^)