"23 Things" is Spreading

Well I've been playing with some of the different things that we had to do over the past couple of months and it just seems to keep getting better. My husband is now taking part on our 23 things (he loves to explore the recommended award winning sites on Library 2.0) and he keeps showing me what he's discovered. I think it's amazing how much this has benefited so many people who don't even work for the library. I've shared these sites with my family members (extended) and friends who have computers and, actually, some of my cousins who are in college are planning to use these sites (making up their own wiki's, the podcasts, audio books, Zoho etc.)

Maybe we should have a library program that goes over some of these sites with our patrons. Imagine how much they would be able to use some of these things.

My Final Thoughts on "MY 23 THINGS"

I've really enjoyed going to all the different sites. I'm sure if it wasn't for this exercise I wouldn't have explored the vast amount of web sites that I did over the past 2 months. While I may not use some of them I have discovered that a few will definitely be in my "Favorites" folder for easy access. I'm also excited about the Wiki sites since my kids are not familiar with these and I think I have a handle on it now (one upmanship is big in my family where computer technology and internet technology is concerned). Flikr, Photobucket, Google Docs. and a few others are things that I will share with my extended family members (I think everyone will be getting a flicker calendar for christmas this year...haha). I had a lot of fun and I've learned a lot (but then I love different technology anyway...just not something that makes me put things in my ears). My next project is to learn how to download my MP3 files into my MP3 player. I have a ton of them on my computer that I need to get off to make space. I think I'll ask for a different set of ear thingies so I can listen to it (maybe for Christmas...hope I don't get a flicker calendar from anyone!!!).

Audio Books

Not a real fan of audio books that are downloadable. I guess I haven't had a need for them so far...I don't have a CD player in my car (20 years old) and I really hate using earphones (phobic about my ears and putting things in them ever since I jammed an eraser in my ear at 7 years old). I know I could just download them on my computer and listen over the speakers but you really need to hear the noise level in my house to understand why that won't work well (3 TV's usually playing along with music on the other computer, phones ringing, etc.). Yes, it's quite noisy. The Project Gutenburg site was interesting and had quite a few titles (especially the Dickens titles) that were downloadable but I didn't understand the difference in the sizes and why there were such vast differences. I guess I'm just tech challenged when it comes to this type of thing.

Podcasting - Exploring the "New World"

This site was quite interesting. I've become familiar with podcasting because I listen to news programs on Sunday morning and alot of the time their shows are on the web. It's a help when you miss a program and you're up till one in the morning anyway with nothing to do (long story).

Anyway, I didn't know about the Merlin sites and how wonderful they were. I particularly liked the Denver Public Library - Stories for Kids site (even though it didn't have as much as I had hoped it would, it was easy to navigate and the podcast were smooth and clear). I also liked the Westerville Public Library site. The Westerville site was cool because it offered regular books with the reading level attached in the preview sections and it also offered audio books. The Language Learning link was of particular interest since so much has been in the news about multi-cultural language breakdown and the scarce amount of books in libraries for the different ethnic populations of our country. Definitely a recommended site in my opinion.

The Sandbox - Uncovering Hidden Treasures

Well I added my favorite all time comic strips to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox and I also linked my blog to the page of "Favorite Blogs" page. It was kind of neat but I had some trouble with it. I do like PBWiki as it seems simple to use. I would like to start one for receipes and have people add to it. I love to try new dishes and would be interested in getting ideas from all over. When I have time I'm going to try to do this.

There are so many uses the library could implement with this type of technology. I can envision a story time idea page with themes, finger plays, rhymes and booklists. I can also envision monthly book club discussions and maybe even library tech tips that work in the stacks. Possibilities are endless.

YouTube - "MyTube, Anybody's Tube..."

I'm wondering if this is what they mean by everyone will have 15 minutes of fame? Some interesting things on this site. Not too sure if I'm sold on it or not. The 70's commercials were funny and neat and of course my husband did like the 60's music videos. We've bookmarked that one for him. He's actually coming into the 21st century (I have hope for him yet).

Web 2.0 awards - Nifty Site

So many neat things on this site. I actually love, (and I mean LOVE) the ARCAPLAY site. I'm into games on the web when I have nothing better to do (which I haven't had time for anything for the past 3 months (long story). But the ARCAPLAY site with so many games was definitely a fun site and a stress reducer. I've bookmarked it on my home computer and I've recommended it to my friends (one is Meg's friend who is housebound because of lukemia...he gets bored and there's not much to do after 6 months of sitting at home). Of course I also love my Flickr account and my Meebo account is always being used (it seems I can get in touch with Meg much easier during the day when I'm on Meebo).

My husband was looking at this site (wondering what it is) and saw the "music" section. Well we tried both "Pandora" and also "Last.fm". Way cool sites. You just type in the genre of music you like (or a group that you like) and it creates a radio station with "your type of music". God is this neat. I've bookmarked both sites and my husband is definitely going to keep me (he's discovered after 31 years of marriage that I'm "way cool" too.) This Awards site is such a wonderful site to find different things on. I've bookmarked this site to come back to when I have even more time to explore.

Google Docs. - Neat Idea

I actually had a need to use the Google Docs website the other day. It was really awesome. Worked just as well as my Microsoft Office Word program and was just as easy to use (if not easier). I'm kind of sold on this now and I'm glad to know it's accessible (and available) for when my computer get's crazy again.

Wikis: A Necessary Tool for the Future

I can see where Wikis could become super important in the future. Just the fact that different members of all types of organizaitons: college professors, group-project members, businesses, government leaders and even the medical community could easily set up pages to share information, edit info already there and access other peoples information on their wiki sites spaning a wide variety of subjects, will make life much easier.

Classroom projects, business information, medical and science news would be readily accessible and accurate due to the pooling of knowledge from so many different sources. The possiblities would be endless (especially if the information on the pages can be restricted to only those trustworthy to edit the information so no false info would be added). I'm anxious to see where this goes over the next couple of years.

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

Web 2.0 has been here for quite a while. My children have been using Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, MP3's, Ipods, etc. for well over 4 years. I'm so far behind on what I know, technologically speaking, that I usually go to them for their "expertise". I really think it's amazing, interesting and convenient (because you can do so much right out of your house), but I also think that we're losing the "human" side of conversation and information sharing, socialization in person to person form, and just the ability to hold things in our hands and look at them, feel them, smell them, etc. I understand that MP3's, digital cameras, PDA's and everything else make life much easier, but at the same time some of my best memories are wiping off old 45's and hearing the tiny little scratches and remembering what caused them(usually because they were played over and over). I love the old pictures (especially the B/W ones that weren't so perfect where someone's "head" was cut off, or it was off center. You couldn't just delete the "bad" pic from your camera) I also have my mom's and grandmother's old receipe cards and telephone directories and their handwriting brings so much back to me now that they've passed away. My friend discovered over 500 love letters that her mother and father sent to each other when he was in WWII and overseas. They were bundled with ribbon in the attic of her parent's home and they've become precious heirlooms to her children and grandchildren. Printed e-mail pages just aren't going to have the same "reaction" years from now. Library books are the same way. I have some very old library books from my childhood and my mother's childhood that I ocassionally take out and page through. Of course their yellowed, and they smell a little musty, but to touch them and know that so many other people have handled them with love and care is just mind boggling. Is the information accurate...probably not but it's a part of an era and because it's in print it can't just be "edited" like it can on the web. I also love to see the expressions on the librarians faces when they talk to a child about a book that they've recommended (the animation on the librarian's face can make the difference whether the child will read the book with excitement and anticipation.) Somehow I just don't "get the expressions" on the librarians faces when they recommend a website for a book, and if the sites down you've lost your "few moments" and possibly even created frustration for the child. I understand that collections can be overwhelming and a lot of work and that there are websites that have all the information available on them but to me there is nothing like discovering a "different" book that you wouldn't normally find out there. To me that's amazing. So library 2.0 may be for some people but I like my little library building and the stacks and the human side of information discovery.

Creating Links in Blogging

Here is a link to the HCPL home page to help people get to that http://www.harf.lib.md.us/

Del.ici.ous

Explored this site and found it pretty interesting. I've set up an account and put my "23 things" bookmarks in it to start. I will probably be adding more but I want to explore it so I can see what I can do with it. Something to look forward to.

Learning to TAG

Well this is somewhat confusing since I don't really understand Html. But since Blogger has a place where you can add a tag (I think this is the "Labels for this post:" box, then life becomes more simple. In anycase I will tag this post just for the heck of it to see what happens

Library Thing

This was a pretty cool site. Not sure what I'm really wanting to do with it but I guess it would be helpful if I wanted to know what books I've already read and also to read about what other people think about a book that was just released. I've also explored Rollyo but I'm not sure it would help me. Maybe if I was in college or did a lot of research but I'm not usually on for that type of thing. I will introduce this to my daughter and son so they can use it (they are both in college) and can possibly set up an account.

Week #5 - My Avatar

I made an Avatar in Yahoo which was pretty cool. I think this is what I would have liked to look like but unfortuantely age has made me much plumper and the hair is two tone at this point (gray at the roots and dyed brown). I'm in the process of growing it out so it's kind of funky right now. Anyway, this site was pretty cool but it's not something I would normally use.

MERLIN- Interesting site

I went to the Merlin site and it seemed pretty intersting. I can see where it may be a great area to converse and learn from other libraries around the country. I'm not sure I would use it too much since I'm only an Administrative Asst. at the BA children's dept. but for anyone working towards their LATI or Masters in Library Science it would be useful.

Week #4 - Bloglines and my adventure

I successfully subscribed to Bloglines. It took me awhile to figure out but lo and behold my subscription was set up and I actually added a few RSS feeds. I'll be curious to see how this works in real life. I've already set up RSS feeds through my yahoo account (I get local news and MS windows news updates) but Bloglines is a new tool and I'm anxious to see how it works. The only problem I ran into was when I went to their Quick Pick Subscriptions and tried to add them it gave me a message that it was not available and to try back later. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

In the meantime I'm so excited because Lizanne left a comment on my blog. How sweet and really cool.

Now about my technology "interests" (by the way this should be a week #3 post but what can I say, I'm always running late...quite late on this one though) and what I find interesting. My daughter Meg introduced me to a site that she helped me download that's called Ifran (http://www.ifran.com/). This is a free photo software site that you download which allows you to resize your pics (either in cm, pixels or inches) without messing them up. It also erases red-eye, allows you to do sepia tone, black and white and all in all just a lot of effects. See if you like it and let me know. Well it is now 11:06 pm and I'm heading to bed. Next on the list is MERLIN. We shall see tomorrow.

What fun this was!!!

I explored Fd's Flickr Toys site and saw what it could do. WOW is all I have to say. I imported a picture off of my home computer of my cousin's painting that he gave my husband and I for our 30th anniversary and made a calendar page out of it. It turned out awesome. I am going to do this for my home using pictures of my kids and family for each month. It just was so cool. And the calendar feature was just one of many. You could make trading cards, badges, stamps etc. Is this neat or what. Check it out yourself at the following link http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ and let me know what you think of it. I'm going to try to post my calendar that I made but I'm not sure it will let me. We'll see.

Adios

Week #3 - Exploring Flickr

Well this was interesting. When I went to make my flickr account it said they had merged with Yahoo and if I had an existing yahoo account I could sign in using that. Saved a whole lot of hassle and was pretty easy to use. I haven't loaded any pics yet because I'm still exploring how this works. It sounds pretty simple but I already have many pics in my yahoo account that I share with people. I'll be interested to see what this one allows you to do with your photos (crop, red eye, etc.)

More later...

Week #2- I've Always Been A Life Long Learner...

I've always been a lifelong learner but then I was raised by a family of life long learners. Both of my parents did not graduate from high school (let alone college) but my mother was a book keeper/payroll accountant and my dad did many jobs, from working making belt buckles during the 40's to repairing cars and selling automobile parts. My dad taught me to love reading the news in print (whether through the daily paper or magazines) and my mom loved to read books of any kind, fiction or non-fiction. They both took classes on various topics and would sit around and discuss everything from medicine to politics to religion to science news to entertainment. I was raised to be an active participant, have my own opinon and voice my thoughts freely (which is my nature anyway). Oddly enough I think I've raised 3 children to be the same way. We LOVE NEW THINGS. We also love to learn everything we can get our hands on. My daughter, Amanda, was designing her web page and learning html at the age of 11 (on a computer her grandmother bought and hooked up to the internet). My other daughter Meg was learning how to sign for the deaf at the age of 10. My son Tim is a movie buff and can tell you just about any line in any movie and what character said it, who played the character, if the movie was created from a book, etc. He really should become a movie critic.

Sooo, when I watched the 7 1/2 habits of life long learners I instantly recognized myself. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am a "list" maker. I love lists of any kind and they keep me on track. They also show me how much progress I'm making. Most of my lists have to do with "daily goals" but I've also kept a journal over the years with a list of the things that I want to do in my lifetime. So far I've completed about 1/2 of those and the other half can be done during my next 50 or so years. I'm am so totally goal/list oriented that it becomes an annoyance to my family members. Think ahead! Plan, plan, plan! DO IT! GET IT DONE!

I don't think I have any problems with any of the 7 1/2 things but I do know I'm really bad with contracts that I make with myself. I'm a trustworthy person who likes to keep her word, and I do that with everyone else (say what you mean, mean what you say and if you tell someone you'll do something then DO IT!) Unfortunately that doesn't apply to myself when I promise I'll do something just for me. I'm always breaking my word to "myself" because there is always something that needs to be done for someone else or something that comes up and gets in the way of what I've promised to do for myself. However, 6 years ago I told myself that I needed to get back into the workforce in a profession that I could achieve and learn things in. That is the one contract that I kept and it has benefited me in so many wonderful ways. I've been fortunate to work at the library where I can read the many books we have there, and where I work with people who constantly challenge me and allow me to explore and be creative in the job that I do. I'm now about to attempt #5 and I'm kind of excited. I want to do a mashup (even my kids don't know what that is so I'm really going to rub it in when I'm successful..HAAAAA). Adios for tonight though.

Registered and on my way

Well, my first post did take and I also registered with Library 2.0. I've e-mailed Maurice with my blog address and I'm waiting to see my link on HCPL's Library 2.0 blog site. Today I also learned how to post a picture to a blog but I won't be going overboard with it. I know it's crazy but those types of things can get out of hand because they are so neat to do. It's now 10 PM and as strange as it sounds this is an amusement for me considering my personal life right now.

Week #1-Are we there yet

Well I just made my blog and I'm trying to post to it. Hopefully this is going to go right and I won't feel completely lost. Oh well, we'll see what happens. With everything that's been going on for the last month I wouldn't put it past me to totally mess everyone elses blogs up.