Thing 22/Flickr 3rd party sites

I enjoyed Flickr Color Pickr and am recommending it to others already as a way to find quick moments of wonder and delight. I went on to read more about www.krazydad.com and the creator of all this fun, Jim Bumgardner. I wasn't able to install Sparkletts on a staff computer but hope to try again

Thing 21/Tags&Flickr

I read all of the resources in this section and enjoyed all but "Visualozing the Flickr social network" which had such boring graphics, much to my surprise.

Most photo-sharing sites create pages of photos and invite others to look at them. Flickr allows one person's photos to mingle with thousands of other persons' photos which eventuall creates a community of people interested in specific topics.

Tagging connects images to others and allows users to find others with like interests. Tagging allows people to participate in others lives almost instantly. I read about this use when there is a birth or when someone is traveling. Friends and family can enjoy the moments as the photographer does.

Thing 20/Flickr photo/Option 1

Here is the picture. I absolutely loved exploring Flickr! While reading one of the articles, I clicked on "clouds" which took me to some lovely photsos, but then I noticed the tag "beach" on one and went off in that direction. then I discovered an amazing Brazilian photographer named Neloqua. She not only takes amazing photos with the most brilliant colors, she adds poetry to go with many of them. I love looking at her work and over an hour had passed before I realized it. What a relaxing break!

Thing 19/Awards List

I loved this exercise! So many interesting sites! I have looked at most of them, although some were blocked.I have already used some of them when helping people at the desk. especially the three winners in the Books section.

I especially enjoyed the following categories: Fun Stuff (esp. One Sentence); Health; Lists and Polls; Retail; Social Tagging; Travel; Visual Arts (all 3 were amazing to play with).

i am very happy to have learned about this list.

Thing 18/technorati

I am soooo ready to move on! I understand the job Technorati is doing in organizing the blogs and making it possible to search by subject. I explored and most of what I read was very boring. I really have more interesting things in my life than reading a bunch of strangers' opinions and foul-language about whatever. I am glad people have an outlet like this if they need it, but there is so more to a quality day than this!Yes, I got different results searching in the Advanced sections by posts, tags, and directory. More and more specific. I explored popular stuff and wished I hadn't when I innocently clicked on the popular listed "massage". I am so ready to move on to Thing 19!

Thing 17/social bookmarking

I opened my own Delicious account several months ago and love being able to access my saved URLs from any computer. This has been so useful when I am helping a customer and trying to remember a site. I do wish I could put them into folders. I am not too confident with my tags as being useful as I add more sites.
I did look at the vbpl site and felt comfortable since it is a format I have been using.

Thing 16/Myspace/Option #1

I watched the YouTube video on how to set up an account on MySpace; it certainly was basic! The only thing new I learned was "Don't delete Tom!" The slide show on Myspace was a better use of my time than the video. I did not like the My-space Help website. It wasn't nearly as easy as the other 3. I loved Grownupgeek and great fun looking at the options. I will go back and play with the glitter thing and automate it over and over. I can see the appeal of designing a page on Myspace with glitter, music, photos; however, I am not looking for computer friends at this time in my life. I don't have enough time to spend with current friends.

I forgot to mention in my Thing 15 post that I had never really 'thought about the danger of what one writes on theri pages. the Cornell University article about a well-educated college guy not having a chance at a certain good job because of something he had written on the Internet was illuminating! and scary. I wonder if the teens realize or care that what they say now may haunt them later.

Thing 15 Social Networking

I have spent enough time reading about social networking and have learned quite a bit. I like the way Hennepin County and Denver Public libraries are usong them to connect with teens in an unobstrusive way. The music and YouTubes were fun. I do feel VBPL can use this method and market to teens. We have great resources for them and we can meet their expectations this way. Having so many young staff members who enjoy blogging with them is good for the system.

Thing 15/vbpl wiki

It was easy to add a post to the vbpl readers advisory page. After Cindy's message with examples of tags, it was easy to go back in and add the tags....assuming I did it correctly.
I can see how useful wikis can be to libray groups. Editing meeting agendas and conference planning wold save so much time usualy used by sitting in a meeting. I like the idea of having a place for people outside the library to add comments about subject guides and book lists; I certainly use the customer comments on Amazon. I also would like to see a community wiki on the library website where topics of interest can be looked at from many perspectives and the library's input with the many resources we have on each topic.

Thing 13

After listening to Cindy's podcast, looking at the "Discovery Resources", and doing the "Discovery Exercise, I feel much more comfortable using wikis and much more open to being part of them. The wikis I liked best were the ones that stuck to the format used by Wikipedia. I did not like the "Book Lovers Wiki" created by the Princeton Public Library as much. There was so much information on the "Library Success" wiki that I signed out in panic! Too much information! I found about the Radical Reference movement on the ALA- New Orleans wiki. I loved "The Bull Runn Library wiki, especially the "Seen on the Web" feature. The definition of a librarian on the link to "uncyclopedia.org" was hilarious! Now on to Thing 14.

Thing 12/Im and VBPL

I talked to Matthew and Marti who are very ppositive about VBPL's offering IM to the public. They especially feel that our present and future teens are much more comfortable and willing to communicate with us using IM versus face to face. I also looked through the IM notebook in Telephone Reference and read sample qustions, saw statistics etc.

I went to the VBPL sebsite at 3:10 to ask my own question using IM but it was not on. I called the party who was suppossed to be on to remind them to start. They did; I asked a question but had to wait 6 minutes to get a reply that they did not have the answer to my question about a program but they could find out. I replied but had to sign off before they replied back. So I was not overly impressed due to the slowness of the process. It would have been much easier and faster to pick up the phone and dial.

I do think IM and the library is a good mix for some situations - teens; short, factual questions about hours, programs, account status etc. I would expect some customers not to wait around for an answer if the library staff took to long to respond.

Thing 11/IMing

I looked at all the articles and feel that VBPL is on track with the use of IM as a reference service. We want to appeal to the young customer, as well as the 20 - 40 year olds who use so many of the mobile devices in their normal day. The fact that IM differs from email in leaving no paper trail is an advantage, some workers feel; supervisors may disagree. I found it intereting that the PEW study found that teens use email for adults and IM for buddies.

Thing 10/Search Engines for RSS feeds and more

I found Technorati the easiest to use. I explored the Site Map and FAQs which were helpful. I like that it searches all blogs, not just the ones with RSS feeds.
I liked Syndic8 also. The format was appealing. The "5 Most Popular and Most Viewed Feeds" was fun too.
Topix.net was too busy, too much information or maybe I was getting tired of looking at so much. I was not able to get Feedster - Page could not be displayed.
I will now be on the look-out for the RSS icons as I look at a site.

Thing 9/Discovery Exercise Option 2

I am delighted to find out how easy subscribing to RSS feeds can be. I subscribed to 11 feeds as of now and will continue to add more. I like the time-saving feature of having all the news feeds in one place rather than having to visit each site. It is a great way to stay current, something we need to do in the library field. I can see us using it to market our new resources and programs and to attract new users.

Thing 5

I talked with 2 colleagues about their experiences with their children and blogging and IMing. I had reservations about how interesting it would be to me to sit home and be on a computer to chat with people I don't know about whatever. I prefer to go outside and talk to my friends who I rarely have enough time to see and find out how they feel about issues.

One colleague's teenage daughter stays online constantly chatting with several freinds at once while also talking to someone else on her telephone. Of course, I can see the attraction of that for a teenager! For me, I would not enjoy this method for very long at the time. Wait! I would enjoy taling to my family in their various homes all at once... I would love it. Here I am seeing my thoughts and attitudes changing already.

The second colleague's slightly older children had blogged a lot at first then grew tired of it and went outside and got some exercise and interaction with people.

I have found myself much more entertained than expected at the various videos we have been asked to watch on UTube. I hope I don't get hooked on this kind of entertainment.

I like the ideas of enjoying the "fun and excitement of positive change" and being "willing to modify based on user feedback" - these quotes are from some of the videos watched. As a library person, I do not like the idea of the "open catalog" with users modifying too much there.

Thing 4

My thoughts on Library 2.0 are constantly trying to stay focused! So many choices! So many diversions! I try to read an article and get diverted to more links, topics etc. I know that this is the way life is now but it certainly makes it hard to get to the goal, the finish line, the end of a task.

I do love the things Web 2.0 has made possible - ebay, craigslist, delicious, wikipedia etc.

Thing 2/7 1/2 habits

The easiest habit for me is being a confident learner. I enjoy learning new things and am willing to work hard to do so.

The hardest habit for me is putting together a toolbox. I usually try to accomplish tasks without asking for help; however, with Learning 2.0 I am learning to ask c0-workers for help. I have told several people that they are part of my toolbox...Marti, Matthew, and Diane W. Thank you all!

ATTITUDE is the key to being successful at most challenges.