# 23 WOW!

This has been a very interesting journey. I said I couldn't do it, and at times I couldn't. At least not without the help of a more knowledgable, more computer savoy fellow worker. But I did get through all 22 other "things." Some items were much more difficult, and interesting than others. Some I just didn't really get the "hang of." The avitars were cute and fun to play with for a time, but I didn't see that they would really be of much value to me at HCPL. (Of course, the position I have held here, that of being behind the counter and not at the Information Desk, did not lend itself to helping anyone use the available resources. We were discouraged from using time to help anyone, and not do the job we were assigned to do.) However, it was good to know what is out there, and accessible for the patrons. Since I am one of the patrons, I now know what is available to me, as well. I did notice one thing that I would rather not have happened as a result of some of the exercises. My e-mail was overcrowded with "updates" that were totally unwanted. This would be a good thing, I guess, if I really wanted to subscribe to the topics/subjects as a patron and wanted the "latest" comment/blog from multiple people from around the globe. If I had the time, it would have been much more interesting to investigate each of these responses. But, time marched on, and I was squeezing this in, whenever I could grab a moment, often, on Tuesday nights, if we had a spare moment or two. I really need to use something multiple times in order to really thoroughly understand and feel comfortable using; you know: practice, practice, and more practice.

# 22 DOWNLOADABLE MEDIA

LIBRIVOX was easy to get to from our link. It showed latest news, new releases, links to catalog, & forums, how tos for listening & volunteering and much more. I thought the idea of being able to volunteer to read/record your voice reading chapters from books in public domain very interesting. There were also RSS feed links to community podcasts, book podcasts and news releases available. Something for everyone.

WOWIO was also easy to link to. I did however like the set up better in that right up front they showed catagories for selection, such as: title, author, ISBN, keyword ect. This appealled to me. They had additional features such as: featured publisher, featured book, book of the month, staff favorites, the top 10 books . All of this was visable from the first screen. It seemed to me that you had more of a selection on that one screen than in LIBRIVOX's opening screen. Since I am very careful as to which authors/publishers that I want to read/listen to, being able to access this information quickly, right up front was a great feature.

#21 PODCAST

I went to podcast.net. Items of interest fell under Religion & Philosophy ( christianity, faith, spirituality ect), and Arts( books, stories I media), and Learning & Instruction. This one was quite extensive, but I added it to my blogline, as a RSS feed through cut and paste. (With some help from a co-worker. I felt that the Learning & Instruction podcast would benefit the librarians the most, as many of the questions asked regularly would fit under this umbrella. It was very easy to get into podcast.net, whereas the other two choices given required more from the user. They were not upfront with the various catagories visable, like podcast was.

# 20 YOUTUBE

Since I am an avid baseball fan, I first went to Sports as a catagory. After searching through several pages of various sports that I had no interest in, I then searched for baseball. Here again, I went throught several pages of baseball from around the league, world and comedy of errors. Then, I finally found the one I would like to view. It was: Houston Astros Baseball Fan Video. The originator of the video put together a series of pictures/home video from various games he had attended in the past. I really enjoyed looking at the statues, close-ups of players, action shots, fans and their different shirts, and all the shots of the field from different perspectives. The originator said in his blurb before the video started, that he hoped that this video would interest other fans so that they in turn will make a video of their experiences at games and they could connect through this medium.

If I had been quicker on the draw, I would have typed in a more specific topic, one that was limited to the specific area of sports that I wanted. However, looking at the broad variety of videos in sports, was helpful for a librarian to know what is out there. They would be able to direct a patron to either a wide variety of (in this case sports) videos on their topic, or to the more limited choices of a specific sport/division of the sport videos.

# 19 parade

Just a quick comment: this was pointed out to be one of the possible things that is slowing the system down. Should I spend the time watching it or not? Good question!

# 18 Social Networking

Social networking has quite a variety of possibilities out there. I did see one at least, that I would personally object to. This was a site devoted to the Ocult. It was called "Pagan Space.Net". It was under the Ning heading. I'm sure if I did a more extensive search, there would be others that would be offensive to me, but that was one that I would steer clear of, for sure. I did not get into the "Right Health" site, but it looked like it would have some benefit to me. You can ask health questions, and chat with others about health topics of personal interest. Often getting someone's observations can be helpful, if they are experiencing the same problem or have the same health condition. Their doctor may be using some other medication or procedure that might be able to help you also. As with anything you read, even hard copy from a book, you need to use common sense and make sure it is medically sound. I was a little skeptical about giving out an e-mail address ( therefore personal information) for My Space. I have avoided putting anything on any of the "23 things" that could link back to me personally. I probably would enjoy reading the "Dogster" site, as I enjoy learning about other peoples' pets. However, again, I would hesitate to put information about my pet that could possible refer back to me or my family. I guard our privacy carefully.

# 17 TECHNOLOGY

Obviously most folks are much more comfortable with technology that I am. This entire exercise has pushed me to learn about some of the various aspects of blogging. In fact, whenever we were asked to start this program, I did not have the foggiest notion what a blog was. Sometimes, I still feel that I am in the dark, what with the multitude of terminology that we have been exposed to with each activity. It has been very difficult for me to keep them separated in my mind. (Actually, I haven't!) I've seen the benefit for some of the activities, especially in relation to my job, at the beginning. But, the fact, that circulation assts. are to stay behind the counter, and leave the questions to the Reference desk, has made it difficult for me to see the direct benefit. (I am not to answer those types of questions, so why am I spending my learning hours on this subject. That's the true question for me.) But, I'm here and that is not going to change, so I am trying to get as much out of this experience as I can with my limited knowledge. I have become more accustomed to using the computer to do the limited searches connected with my position behind the counter. This involves, looking up patrons' records, checking shelves against what the records indicate, looking up history for payment and fees incurred and other related items. I'm more comfortable printing out records for various activities, such as pull lists,ect. I've come a long way concidering where I started. And I guess some would say, I've a long way to go.

# 16 wikis - favorites

I went to the ihcpl wikis and added to two different favorites: the animals and music. Since my slant on music is totally different from quite alot of people, it gave me a chance to sound off on my favorite type. Should be interesting to see if it garners and response.

If this were used by library patrons, then they would have a chance to sound off about their favorite sites, and findings. We would have quite a wide variety of topics of interest from the general public.

# 14 learning 2.0

I began backwards, and used a specific topic for my search and then went in and looked up the Learning 2.0. The topic, of course, was way different, but the results were pretty much the same. Going from 1. Blog Post to 2. Tags to 3 The Blog Directory. The first two were very similar and more general, with the Directory being the most specific and informative. There were more entries in the Directory.

My more specific and" un Learning 2.0 " topic was on Graves Disease, and results were interesting to say the least, whenever I used a more general phrase. (Turned up graves/crypt and not the disease. So, by not following the directions given, and doing the second activity before the first, I still found the results to be pretty much the same.

# 15 LIBRARY 2.0

Some of the information that I read regarding Library 2.0 was complicated to be, because I am not a librarian. I do not "research" on a daily basis as the trained librarians do. However, I did see some tie-ins to earlier "things" of the 23 things. Regarding bibliographic trends today and in the future, one article mentioned the inevitable duplication of records that would confuse and waste the time of both our patrons and the reference librarians. The article went on to mention the use of RSS feeds, that would allow users to "customize, package, and subscribe" to the content they are most interested in, and send it to their "prefered working place. Not necessarily limited to an actual visit to the library. Getting data from multiple institutions without a metodata creation to govern the overlap, would be much less efficient.
Another article, and one more basic and easier for me to understand, mentioned the obvious fact that we are forced to rely on the user's education. Since we could not possibly teach research skills to everyone who comes into the library, or accesses the library's data base, having a service available that uses the input of not only the library employees, but allows the patrons to use open forums and ask questions, along with giving their input into the planning for future services. The can also, speak to the userablity of the current services.

# 13 TAGGING

Tagging proved to be both interesting and somewhat overwhelming. I went to various sites and found that people have "tags" for a very broad number of topics, some of interest to me, but most not. Examples of ones I looked at were: Precious Moments, religions of the world, avitars, and iHCPL a Learning Experience. Whenever, I looked further, I found them to be very complex and the language used quite foreign to me and my limited profeciency with computer ese. The explanations were most likely easy to understand for someone who uses computers and their search possibilities on a daily basis. (I'm not able to do this as I am in circulation and not the reference desk.) However, I think if I were to need to research a given topic, or someone came to the library to search, having the capability of using the time and effort of someone before me who gathered links (tags) to a particular subject would be a godsend. They potentially could have thought and discovered related areas, that I may not have imagined.

# 12 Library Elf

Whoops! Looks like I wasn't doing as good a job as I thought. It appears I linked twice.

iHCPL a Learning Experience: Week 5: #12 The "Library" Elf will remind you!

iHCPL a Learning Experience: Week 5: #12 The "Library" Elf will remind you!

It was easy to establish an account in Library Elf. It remains to be seen if it works well.

# 11 LIBRARYTHING

http://www.librarything.com/

After I went to LIBRARYTHING, and opened an account, I then added 6 books that I have enjoyed reading in the recent past and 1 book that I am currently reading. It was very easy to add the books individually, but I wanted to add multiple books from a given author at the same time. I did not see a way to do that. So I had to type the author's name for each of their books that I wanted to add individually. This took alot more time.

No.10

No. 9 FEEDS

Going to the feed choices that were listed was informative. Obviously, whenever you sign up for the ones listed, they are rather generic and all inclusive. An example would be: I have no interest in cats, but when signing up for the one feed "animal lover", they had cats and dogs articles checked. I would rather be able to limit the scope of my news feeds. Next I went to Feedster and just asked for Graves Disease, since a recent disagnosis makes this of interest. There were a few items of interest.

This exercise was interesting, but somewhat confusing. The various choices were not very hard to get into, but not all of them were as easy as others. I pretty much stayed with Feedster for
the time I spent there. But, I guess the various news feeds would be informative to patrons wanting the latest information regarding a variety of subjects.

# 8 RSS

I've subscribed to several news feeds, that appealed to me personally and professionally. Some of the catagories were very general and therefore will have much that will not necessarally be of interest to me. Example: Animal lover, suscribed me to sites of Dogs and Cats. However, I have no personal interest in cats, yet, will love to hear about any stories with dogs in them.

On that will be appropriate to me in my job, but not necessarily to me personally, was Book Lover. I read voraciously (spelling?), but in a limited type of literature. However, in the library, I handle all types of media. I am often asked questions regarding those that I personally would not read, yet professionally, must be objective and informative.

7 photo editing

Trip planner will come in handy whenever I plan my next vacation. There are many sites that I would like to visit, but haven't the time to drive around looking for the areas, or for reading up on the travel booklets available. Also, this would be a good site to direct patrons to, whenever they come in looking for the various travel books. They might need more information than can be found in the hard copies, or might need some country/location that we do not have readily available in hard copy.

internet safety

Because of all the scare-stories I've heard or read about, I have been very leery of entering into the ring of internet use. I have not used it to order anything, and probably won't in the future. I realize that there are many who would say that there are safe ways to use the service, but I will stick to using the internet for information only.

This is all new to me, so don't expect much. Guess I'll get the hang of it eventually.