Week Nine - Thing #23

Yea! This has been so much fun - as fun as Dr. Lesene's classes reading all those books which gave me a legitimate excuse to do what I love: "Honest, honey, this really is part of my assignment." It is also fun to be part of this and read that SLJ is also offering a 23 Things, and realize we have been offered something very current and relevant to our jobs. We have been part of the thread in Creative Commons as this course continues to spread. Unlike the original program, we did not sign a learning contract. I am certain that 23 Things will continue to evolve - or perhaps there will be a sequel.


Favorite Exercise - It's hard to pick a favorite from all the activities because I enjoyed them all. If I have to pick, I will pick having a blog. I am going to maintain my blog but I will adapt it.

Unexpected Outcome - wikis are useful. Wikipedia had been my only impression of a wiki and even my opinion of Wikipedia has changed.

If you offered another discovery program like this would I participate? - Yes

One Word description - AWESOME!

Week Nine - Thing #22

Tonight I explored ebooks and Audio ebooks. I downloaded a reading of Elizabeth Barret Browning's 23 Sonnet from the Gutenburg project. It was read by a volunteer who did a good but not professional job of reading. The obvious uses of these free ebooks are mentioned in the notes: ESL and Special Education students would benefit from using these books.
I noticed that users are cautioned to check copyright status before downloading. Because this sonnet was listed as being read in English, I assume other works might be in other languages. Category and release dates are also noted.
This is a subject I will tuck away and explore later.

Week Nine - Thing #21

As a user of iTunes I already enjoy podcasts to which I subscribe; however, I never realized how many podcast directories were available. There are library-related podcasts and book review podcasts. All I need is time to explore.

I searched Podcastalley.com and looked at book reviews and library podcasts. There were so many ideas for the library. Our school already plans to have a podcast this year with school announcements. Book review podcasts would be a great project for our book club. It would also be interesting to make books being read aloud available on a podcast. This definitely has potential for use in a school setting.

Week Nine - Thing #20

Add YouTube to the list of sites that I have heard of but never tried until it was part of the assignment. The TV commercials were hilarious. Just a brief time exploring explains the concern that many parents and schools have about access to the site. Having said that, there is a lot of good with the bad. This is a proceed with caution site. Clicking on the "Education" tab, for example, took me to choices that would not be appropriate for school.

For my video, I selected a Sesame Street video entitled "No Cookies in the Library." This would be a good hook for a library lesson.

Week Eight - Thing #19

The next assignment was to explore LibraryThing, create an account and add 5 books to my library. I have to admit I have looked at this site before and wondered why anyone would want to use it. That is because I only glanced at it in passing. To be obedient :) and complete my assignment, I created an account. I am a cookbook collector with over 200 cookbooks so I decided that I would add these books to my virtual library. It was so easy - I wish adding books to our collection at school was this easy. I just typed in the ISBN number and all the cataloging information popped up on the screen. One click and the book is listed in my library. I discovered a cookbook collector group to watch, and I now receive suggestions for more cookbooks to collect - this could be dangerous. I have already had to build one cabinet to store all my cookbooks. As I have time I plan to enter all my cookbooks in my library.
Hopefully the link below will take you to my catalog. I had more trouble linking the site to my blog than I did cataloging the books. Perhaps this librarian needs 24 Things.

Week Eight - Thing # 18

This week is like playing hopscotch and landing on both feet. Finally we are studying something I am familiar with. I use Google documents all the time. When I was secretary of a committee I wrote my minutes in Google documents and e-mailed them to the chairman so that he could add changes. This application also works well with students. The documents are accessible on any computer. They are collaborative or can be set for viewing only. All that is needed is a Google account. From looking at Zoho I think they work the same way.

Last summer I lost everything saved on my computer at school. Now I save all my documents in Google documents and there are no more worries about losing valuable time reconstructing library documents. The documents are similar to Word and Excel. If you know how to use one you can use the other.

Week Seven - Thing # 17

Tonight I played in Region One's Sandbox. One of the things I have enjoyed about participating in 23 Things is how it is set up to make the activities painless. I want to set up a wiki this year for my book club and I want to show the possibilities to teachers. Since I have never used a wiki before, it was easier to post in the Sandbox. Step by step I have learned so much that I can use this year.

Week Seven - Thing # 16

Wikipedia was my first experience with wikis and I have to admit that I did not consider them a reliable library resource because of their capability to be edited by anyone. Next Shonda Brisco wrote about her experience in using one with her students. I didn't really understand the usefulness of what she was doing. Tonight this lesson "turned on the light bulb" on the value of wikis. This is a tool I will suggest for the history teachers because many of their projects lend themselves to a wiki format. Language Art teachers will also benefit from using wikis. Password protecting the site will prevent some of the problems wikis have with vandalism and will hold students accountable. It will also be useful with my bookclub. This year I plan to meet on a monthly basis but the wiki will keep us in touch as we read. We can share comments on books but it will also be a site for announcements. It should be an interesting year. Library 2.0, here I come!

Week Six - Thing # 15

Tonight I read about Library 2.0. This is basically a name for the library's emerging roll in web 2.0. In Away from the Icebergs Rick Anderson makes the point that libraries must move away from maintaining the "just in case" collection. I would argue that decreasing budgets made that a necessity before the web did. Reference material, which is now available online, makes more sense because it is cheaper, kept current more easily, and accessible by library patrons at their nearest computer (as long as they have the appropriate password.) Mr. Anderson also discusses that libraries have changed from a "come to us" monopolistic approach.
I also read Michael Stephens article Into a new World of Librarianship. In in he discusses the need for libraries to keep up with technology without pursuing technology for technology's sake. Librarians now need to build weblogs and wikis if they want to stay networked and current with the needs of today's patrons. John Reimer and Chip Nilges mention the need to add tagging to library collections.
I don't disagree with any of these gentlemen. Most of the librarians I know are trying to keep up with the technology and trying to take advantage of the web opportunities that are out there. But at the same time public schools, and probably private ones, battle with their districts over blocked sites. YouTube and blogs are great but not when you can't access them.This is challenging and exciting time to be a librarian. The way I see it, libraries have the best of both worlds - books AND technology.

Week Six - Thing # 14

As part of this week's discovery, I went to Technorati. I had a difficult time doing a key word search in Blog posts, in tags, and in the Blog directory. I could only find the Blog directory and a general search box at the top of the page. I watched the tutorial but it was small and the speaker went very quickly over the information without showing the entire page that she was talking about. The tutorial did not even match the home page I was looking at. In short, I was underwhelmed by Technorati. It would not be a tool that I would use. I set up an account thinking that would take me to a more user-friendly page, but that wasn't the case. I couldn't even find where to end my membership. I would not use this in the library.
As far as tagging, it is useful for finding items that have the tags you are looking for, but if a blog hasn't been tagged it won't be easy to find with a tag search. Tags are general tools to help with searches but the librarian in me says the casualness of the structure of the tagging is going to become a problem at some time in the near future.

Week Six - Thing # 13

I spent the afternoon exploring Del.icio.us. The tutorial by the Santa Cruz Public Library helped get me started. As a side note, as I have worked on the 23 Things I have noticed how often YouTube is used for video tutorials. This site is blocked in my district. I understand why it is blocked but I wish there was a solution to using the best of YouTube and blocking the worst of it.
Del.icio.us has great potential as a tool for research in the library, and perhaps students would use it because it is associated with the web and not the library. We have great material already available on our library website but most students prefer to use Google and Yahoo. Using Del.icio.us would make it easier to link news articles with student assignments. It also could be used for specific classes and assignments. Having a Del.iou.us account for the library would be a way to teach students new ways to find better material for their papers rather than settling for what Google and Yahoo throws out in gigantic and not necessarily accurate numbers. This would also give students and teachers the opportunity to interact with the material by posting to the account. I plan to try this in some format with my bookclub this year. Rather than meet every week, one of the weeks will be online.

Week Five - Thing #12

Today I explored Rollyo. I created an account and a search roll for digital scrapbooking sites at http://rollyo.com/fvaughan/scrapbooking_sites/ .
A teacher would find this tool useful for sending students to preselected sites for specific assignments. In the library it would be helpful for those sites needed quickly; for example, books in a series. For my personal use, however, I am content to use Google bookmarks. I have access to them wherever I log on to my e-mail.

Week Five - Thing # 11

Tonight I explored Web 2.0 award-winning applications and Ning. I chose to explore eSnips, one of the award-winning site for digital storage and access. eSnips allows its members to store, share, and exchange music playlists, artwork, jokes, poetry, spiritual ideas, photography, videos, as well as other tags or categories. There is a forum for posts. Playlists and widgets can be used in user's blogs. Students and teachers would find this a useful tool for storing items that they want to add to other projects.
Next I explored Ning. I checked out Library 2.0, but decided not to join at this time. I am barely keeping up with reading everything on my Bloglines account. Library 2.0 or something like it will be my next step as I shift into web 2.0 as part of my online life.
I played Travel IQ and I definitely need to brush up on my geography.

Playing "Go Fish" at the Beach

My creation
Originally uploaded by librarylady2008

Although I am learning 23 Things for school use, using the applications with my family is also fun.

Week Five - Thing #10

Yesterday I was discouraged because I had a difficult time with the assignment. Today I received a comment on my blog from Cathy Nelson. I had shared a link to her blog and she wrote to thank me. She suggested that I search the "blogrolls" on the blogs that I like to find more blogs to follow. This is good advice because it is a timesaver. Blogs you like are going to link to more blogs you like. Thanks, Cathy.

Tonight I played around with image generators. Here is the link to my image: http://www.imagechef.com/ This would be fun for students to use as suggested in the Curriculum Connections section; however, my security software was warning me about the Comic Strip Generator site and, if I ventured too far into Image Chef, I was warned also. FD Toys seemed to be okay. This leads me to believe most of these tools will probably be blocked at school. A teacher could probably use this but would have to prepare in advance with technology specifically what site would be used.

Week Four - Thing #9

Overwhelmed would accurately describe how I feel after using the search tools to find feeds. I truly had no idea there were so many blogs out on the www. I enjoyed searching the "edublog" award-winning blogs and school library blogs. There were several I added to my Bloglines account so I can follow them. One I enjoyed was "Cathy Nelson's Professional Thoughts" http://technotuesday.edublogs.org/. She blogged about a neat application using a webcam.
Leon Hale, columnist for the Houston Chronicle has a blog: http://blogs.chron.com/leonhale/ which contains interesting technology information.
Jessamyn West's blog http://www.librarian.net/stax/2330/accessibility-of-google-books/ has an interesting blog about google books for special ed students.

I tried to use Blog Pulse but I was unsuccessful. The other search tools were nice but Bloglines does a good job of searching as well. Perhaps Hurricane Dolly's visit to my house pealing back part of my roof and causing the ceiling in my dining room to collapse has more to do with my feeling overwhelmed than this assignment. I will come back to this assignment later and use the search tools when I am not feeling so pressured. It's good to have these listed in the assignment for future use. I hope the site stays up for a while after the course is completed.
(We are okay. All the furniture was moved before the collapse and we now have a temporary roof in place until we can get the roof repaired. There are people whose homes flooded and people who still don't have electricity. My problems are small compared to theirs.)

Week Four - Thing #8

Although I haven't posted in a while, I have been discovering RSS feed readers and learning about the difference between Bloglines and Google Reader. I am now connected through Blogline to an online resource for keeping up with what is going on with the world without having to go to each individual source. The time devoured by moving from blog to blog was the main reason that I quit reading blogs after library school. I kept them in "Favorites" but I seldom visited the sites. Now I can scan through the new posts and read what I find interesting all in one place. I will share this valuable tool with teachers when school starts in the fall. Even the administrators could use this time saver.

As part of my learning process, I set up accounts in both Google Reader and Bloglines. For the first time in my experience, something was better than Google. I preferred Bloglines over Google Reader. Bloglines was more user-friendly in my opinion. This was a surprise to me because I use Google documents and Google calendar as well as Gmail. Bloglines was easier to set up with my personal preferences. It was visually easier for me to follow when I was setting my page up; however, in all fairness, Google Reader has the convenience of not having to login if I am already checking my e-mail. I will eventually have to decide which I want to keep because I don't need two. Since I am in the process of deciding between the two and learning about this new-to-me tool, I am opting not to share the URL of either site

Week Three - Thing # 7

It is no secret in my family that I like to play video games. Zelda and Mario games are two of my favorites. Both require solving problems and mysteries. Since mysteries are my favorite genre I see a connection between the two. The game units have evolved along with the games themselves so that now I can play online with my grandchildren with my Wii. I can also check the news and the weather.
While working on my assignment for this week, I explored Infodoodads and discovered a site called Scratch where you can make your own video games. I played a game called "Super Mario Galaxy Four." Here is the link: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Dolfus555/162167 if you want to play. Scratch could be used in classroom and I plan to share it with teachers but I also plan to share it with my grandchildren. 23 Things has been a sharing experience with my family all along. My oldest granddaughter started her own blog after I started mine for this class. We have shared our experiences as we have learned.
Ironically, many of the sites we are studying for this class are blocked at my school. I cannot access any of the blogs we are working on much less YouTube. There has to be a balance between protecting students and giving them access to the positive part of the WWW.

Week Three - Thing #6

Flickr mashups were new to me. Color Pickr was a "Wow" experience, and I played around longer than I should have just looking at the different photos and color selections. If the rest of the 23 things are like this I am going to need a thesaurus to come up with different superlatives. "Wow" will get old fast. Montagr was also a fun experience. The trading cards, however, have the most potential for classroom use in my opinion. Even high school students would have fun with these.

I have to admit that the articles in Wikipedia did give great explanations about mashups, but since I try to steer students away from Wikipedia to more reliable sources, it is ironic that it is being used to instruct librarians. Is Wikipedia changing? Where does it fit as a tool for students?

Week Three - Thing #6

My creation
Originally uploaded by librarylady2008

I created a library trading card using Trading Card Maker.

Lattes anyone?

Lattes anyone?
Originally uploaded by librarylady2008

Post using Flickr

Post using Flickr for Week 3, Thing #5

We are not your typical library
Originally uploaded by librarylady2008

This is a photo of our library using Flickr.

Week 3, Thing #5

This week I explored Flickr. I learned about tags and how to add them to my photos so that the photos could be categorized. Tags are great places to get ideas for special photos because very talented people post their photos on Flickr. If you are going to the beach, for example, check out the "Beach" tag. There are some great ideas. I looked at several groups, such as Helsinki's Metal balls. Some groups have to be joined, such as this one, before you are allowed to post photos.

I opened my own account on Flickr and tagged two photos "esc1library" and marked them public. I posted my photos using Flickr's blogging tool. I learned to just click around and what I needed was somewhere. The main lesson I have learned is "don't be afraid to search the site. Flickr and Google work to make themselves user-friendly. If you seek, you will find

Week Two - Thing #4

I registered my blog with Region 1. It all feels official now. And...I am back on track with the 23 Things schedule.

Week Two - Thing #3

Setting up the blog was fun. Finding a title that wasn't already being used was not that easy. I felt very uncreative until I decided to combine my love of coffee with a library theme - not really a stretch since my library sells lattes as a fund raiser. And there's that whole Barnes & Noble thing with Starbucks.
My family got involved in selecting my avatar. I had no idea that they considered me a blonde. Yahoo doesn't really have a color to match my hair or a person who reflects my age. I guess I will have to settle for young and perky. Would that count as using technology to my advantage or viewing a problem as a challenge?

Week One - Thing #2

The 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners are practical, inspiring, and challenging. I am a life long learner by nature so I found myself agreeing with what I read. The easiest habit for me to accomplish is habit 2: accepting responsibility for my own learning. I always have. I love taking classes and studying. The most difficult habit would be a tie between habit 3: viewing problems as challenges and habit 7 1/2: play. I tend to worry about all I need to do and not take time to play. Viewing problems as challenges would be a step in the direction of being less serious and taking time to play.
I downloaded the learning contract to work on these two "problem" habits.

Week One - Thing #1

I read the Region 1 blog in preparation for this adventure. I determine not to fall behind in the assignments; however, it's week two and I am just completing week one so I will have to be more disciplined. These are topics that I have wanted to study so motivation should come easy once I get started.