Thing 14: LibraryThing

OH, I LIKE this thing! I have been wanting to try out LibraryThing for a long time, since I first heard about it a year or so ago. Of course, right now, being in the midst of a move very soon, most of my books are packed away, so as I get started, I just entered a few titles that occurred to me off the top of my head. My husband and I actually have a nice library of things we both like to read, both fiction and non-fiction. Funny that most of his books are non-fiction and mine are fiction (a lot is juvenile fiction because that's what I aspire to write myself).

Anyway, here is the chiclet that leads to my catalog. Perhaps in a few months, when we settle into a new house and restock our bookshelves from all of our packing tubs, I can enhance this a lot!



Although I think the library I currently work at is too large to use LibraryThing in a practical manner, what I'd like to see them do is put our professional collection here. Then it would be easy just to browse that specific collection and maybe more of our staff (and other library staff) would make more effective use of the collection. I'll have to see how a suggestion like that would go over--but the data entry time required might make it a no-go (I have no idea how many titles we have in this "special" collection of ours).

Thing 13: On-line Productivity Tools

OMG...I love igoogle! I already have several tabs full of widgets. Okay, they are not all productivity oriented, I admit it. But it's just so much fun!

I have to try that countdown widget here too. I do have a personal reason for using that. But the code wouldn't work right on my personal LiveJournal account. It displayed okay but wasn't doing the countdown. I'm not sure if that's an LJ thing or not. so here goes.

Created by OnePlusYou

Okay, folks. The code generated by the widget inserts 2007 as the date in TWO places. You have to change that to make the countdown work. You get to edit code! How's that for fun? Oh wait, I guess if you just change the date to 2009, it must work, or so I've been told in other areas. Of course, that was after I edited the code for the countdown widget, but that's cool.

Been playing with google calendar and might just use that for personal stuff so I can share appointments with my husband while we're separated. He's forever forgetting what hours I work! Now he'll be able to check them for himself if he likes! And this might help us coordinate plans for the move. Less than a month to go for all practical purposes.

For library use, this would be a great thing for our library vacation calendar. We have a low-tech solution with a big calendar posted in our main workroom, but I always forget to check it after I've asked for a day off and hardly ever check it to see who's going to be gone today or this week. If it's not someone in my immediate department I don't always know schedules. This would be an interesting way to let people check any time of the day or night. I suppose work schedules could be posted this way too, in case someone forgets to check the posted paper copies for each week, at least in for our reference folks.

Also been playing with to-do lists. I actually kind of like ta-da. Remember the Milk was doing weird things. I was apparently hitting shortcut keys and the first item I typed in for one list almost immediately disappeared. Took me a while to figure out how to delete items there as I kept thinking that little checkbox was supposed to mean I'd finished the task. I like that you can have separate tasks for work and home and other thing and can move things from one list to another really easily. I have to investigate the sharing aspects of this one yet. I love lists, so hey, these are kind of fun to use. I have an online Franklin Planner that I use but that's just for home and for a while now I've been looking for something that lets me keep a work to-do list. So I'll play with both of these and I have a couple I was using on igoogle too, just to try them out.

Thing 12: Social Media Sites

Wow! I could get addicted to a couple of these sites pretty quickly. I've been going back to Mixx for a few days now before I even looked at the others. I didn't much care for Newsvine's layout. I thought the others were more straightforward. I guess I just liked the text links better than the images and little boxes all over Newsvine.

For keeping up with news, these could be interesting possibilities. And it covers so much more than just politics and such. I could see them as being big time-sinks, too.

It would be cool if a library could do this kind of site for their patrons and others who might wander into the mix, but to make it more of a local/community kind of thing. I think the teen crowd would use it a lot, but maybe they would just prefer the wider focus of the bigger sites. There are so many more people there to vote on the popular links. I guess I'm not really feeling the love in our library aside from maybe providing links to the most popular social media sites on our Internet Resources page and seeing how many people that attracts. For personal use, I guess I would have to experiment more with the other three I liked and then choose one. Going to more than one gives more exposure to things, but I just don't have the time!

Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

The good news is that we are doing another session of 23 Things on a Stick. I didn't mind not finishing the first time around, but now I can begin again with a bit of a head start. I always wanted to finish all 23 Things anyway. And besides, I like actually spending the time trying these services out more. Still, 23 Things is about introducing us to them, and so it has served and will continue to serve its purpose well.

Del.icio.us is something I had heard about but never used. I guess I didn't see where it would be especially useful to me, but the ability to find links easily by a keyword is really quite nice. I have not done much with it yet, but searched on some recipe links, put a couple of icons on my toolbar, and added a link. When I got around to checking if the link was actually on other people's list, I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was! I was also able to find one other person's comments about the site I added. So that was kind of cool! I added comments about another link I added, and found out that, although others had that link listed, no one else had commented, so that felt kind of good too!

I would very much like to add my other bookmarks to my del,icio.us account, but didn't have a lot of time to work with it as of this posting. Hopefully over time I can do this. I have experienced the loss of a bookmark list in my browser perhaps 2 or 3 times in my life and found it extremely upsetting until I could recreate the bookmarks. But it was time consuming to find sites again and I am sure, even to this day, I have never recovered all the sites I had listed at one time or another. Having this kind of backup is a great idea, plus it can put you in touch with similar links that others already use and you haven't discovered yet. I think it could be an interesting way to search out links of interest.

I also think this could be somewhat useful for research, but one does have to be careful about the authenticity of the information used for such pursuits. And where some schools outlaw using Wikipedia for class research, I can see where one has to really be on one's guard using links shared here as well. Still, it might make it easier to find items on a topic you want to research in this manner. It could save a lot of searching and you can read a link and then decide if it fits your needs before adding it to your own link collection. I like the overall idea behind it and may even use it as part of my reference work at the library! In fact, one of my co-workers asked me the other day if I had sites for beginners learning to make web pages, and I had one to give him that I use, but it was more geared to learn to use html and not for using a web design program that keeps the code in the background for non-techies. In this kind of case, if I had already been using del.icio.us, I should have taken him to that web site and used it to research good sites that others have found before us!

I do think this will be very helpful for some of my personal searches for information as well, so I look forward to learning more about it and really getting into using it. I'm sure I will find more value and ideas about HOW to use it as I go forward.

Thing 10: Wikis

While I love Wikipedia for quick information, I can see why some schools ban the use of it for research. I have seen organizations that posted pages, edited their colleagues' posts and information, and got downright misleading to the point where they were banned from posting on Wikipedia at all! Not all the information is scholarly in nature there, and while it's a good start, especially for an introduction to a topic, what I really like is when sources are listed at the end of an article that can lead you to more scholarly research on your own.

In terms of getting people to participate in the sharing of information and knowledge, I think the wiki concept is a great one. But even people that I know have been in technology for a long time and use wikis (myself included) have often never edited anything on one. My experience just adding a quick comment to the 23 Things on a Stick wiki was just such an event for me. However, considering it wasn't unlike editing a blog post and saving or changing a Word document and saving the changes, I think this exercise was a great introduction.

I would love to see a wiki just to post policies and procedures for our library staff. We are undergoing so many changes, and have been doing so for the last year (and more coming into summer and early fall), that it might be an interesting way to keep everyone informed and updated (and involved, too)! And that involvement is what all the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 hubbub is all about!

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

The online collaboration tools are really quite interesting. I have known about Google Docs for a while now, but have never used it. I am very impressed by the list of tools in Zoho, and plan to try some of them out more thoroughly in the future. The non-profit organization that I do work for does a fair amount of document generation for which there are copious editing passes by up to 4 individuals and this might be something we could use. Right now, we rely on the Tracking Changes feature in Word to keep our various edits separated.

I love that there's a planner component to Zoho as well. I can see uses for that.

In our particular library, I have done some editing on some brochures we use that might have seen benefits from a shared editing environment like this, but for the most part with the work I have done in the last year, I am not getting a lot of ideas on how it might be used in our setting.

The first time around 23 Things, I was not able to edit the Google Docs item, even though I have a gmail account and was logged into it at the time. This time I requested access and did make some changes to the document. It was pretty neat to be able to see all the edits. It was quite entertaining reading the commentary added to the Declaration of Independence and even more fun to try a comment or two myself. Such serious librarians with such delicious senses of humor!
:-)

Obviously, for 23 Things, we are doing non-serious editing here, but one of the things I like about Word's "track changes" feature is that I can look at the document with all of the changes incorporated so I can read it without all the markup. Believe me, when the changes to a real document get that busy, it's can be handy to be able to edit it like it was a clean document to begin with. So, this might be a good way to do some editing, but I can see cases where I'd still rather do it the way I've done it in the past. Maybe that is just my lack of experience talking. I also have some questions I'd need to research when it comes to confidential documents and how secure they are when on a public site like Zoho or Google Docs.

Thing 8: Share your creations

I really like the Flicks at PictureTrail.com. Here's the Kaleidoscope Flick with my Flickr pictures of the Red Wing Public Library that I've used in previous posts.

I can see these getting really creative. My husband recently did a slideshow presentation and I think he will really enjoy using some of these resources to post it on the web. I have a niece who is big into scrapbooking who would love the Bling options here. I'm not crazy about flashing things on a web site, so I will spare us all an example.

I would love to see an attractively planned slideshow on our library web site to show what the inside of the library looks like (a sort of virtual tour), or perhaps to feature new books just released on our shelves--whether that be new books that can be requested or our Best-Sellers display that has first-come-first-served (non-requestable) choices.

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication Tools

I've been working with computers since college, so I've seen a lot of changes over the years. Even email has evolved a LOT and has become a mission-critical service in most businesses and organizations. And as prevalent as it is, I still work with patrons on a regular basis who are using a web site to register for something or contact someone and it needs an email address and they don't have a clue what to do. My favorite free email site has been gmail.com for a long time, but I have email addys on hotmail and yahoo, plus one for my job and several for a non-profit organization I'm part of. Most of the time, I check all my addresses at least once a day, but my gmail address, which is my primary personal one, I may have up and running in the background most of the time while I'm at home.

I've also used IM and chat clients for a lot of years too. I've used them in professional settings, to answer questions about as instantly as possible to just personal chats with friends and family. My current favorite there, too, is gmail, because while I have my email on in the background at home, I can show my status as available to any correspondent and we can chat at will.

We are not using IM at our library as yet, but we will be VERY soon! We are working on a new web page design that incorporates a Meebo chat window. To start, I believe only our director will be answering chat requests, so it's not going to be available even full time during our open hours. One of our concerns was answering chats and giving continuous and consistent response times to inquiries while manning the reference desk and dealing with phone calls and in-person requests. We are going to have to test this out and see how it works. One of my concerns, as listed in some of our reading for this Thing, include having someone who can type quickly and understands the abbreviations used. I know some of them, but not nearly enough to chat coherently with an experienced teen who is used to text messaging.

Speaking of text messaging, it's not something I use a lot, though I do have a personal cell phone. We've always watched the extraneous charges, like texting, because sometimes those costs can eat you alive if you don't have the right plan to cover them.

I took the MORE training as a webinar from MINITEX back in December 2007. It would have been nice to have had the audio along with the web connection, instead of by phone. I would use the speakerphone as much as possible in order to have my hands free for the keyboard, but in many cases, when the instructor asked for feedback from those of us attending, you couldn't really hear everyone unless you were using the phone's handset. Other than that, it was a great way to do the training, though I could see that preparing for the instructor job is probably pretty intense. As much computer background as I have, I'd want some time to really get up to speed with all the technological parts--the polls, changing from "slides" to showing a live web page, and so on. But it was a great way for a lot of people from very different sites to meet and greet and learn together. I highly recommend it!

Although I won't be at a MN library for too much longer, I am hoping the OPAL offerings aren't just for library staff! There were some great topics there and I hope they are repeated frequently, because there were a few I'd got to right away except the times or days are bad for my schedule.

Thing 6: Online Image Generators

Oh, I really like some of the online image generators I've been introduced to in this Thing. They are very creative and, yes, fun to play with.

This might have been a good place for my Simsonized photos (see an earlier blog post for the link), but I decided to do some trading cards with our family. For the people, I used our simpsonized versions (I never simsonized our cat photos). Anyway, after playing with the trading cards, I thought it would be easier to post a mosaic here, so I tracked that down on Big Huge Labs site (http://bighugelabs.com) and combined all the pictures into one convenient one. Here it is!

Also decided to do a license plate, so here's that from Image Chef (http://www.imagechef.com/):



Oh, but I'll be moving to a new state soon...

Thing 5: Mashups/More fun with Flickr

Story Well Puzzle
Originally uploaded by luminesce3

Mashups are kind of fun. But I suppose the real trick to understanding them is creating your own mashup. I know that's not the intent here, but just to play with existing ones, but I have a programming background and I have to admit it intrigues me...


This was created with fd's Flickr Toys.






And here is the Spell with Flickr:

Thing 4: Flickr

Best-seller Display
Originally uploaded by luminesce3

Wow! I've known about Flickr for a long time, but never tried it out. I plan to use it for some personal photos now, but really had fun taking a few shots of our library scenery and uploading them.

This picture shows one of the most popular of the changes our library has seen since our new director joined us in September 2007--our Best Seller's Display. It's very visible when you enter the library and extremely popular. You can see we have a lot of books on there now, but the first few weeks, when we only had a few copies of a few titles, we could hardly keep anything on the shelves!

I am hoping to share the photos I've uploaded with my colleagues in our library and see if they'd like any other shots. We have more changes coming in our library in the next few months, but the down side for me is that I will probably not see any of them! I'm moving out of state at the beginning of June to be with my husband at his new job location. I'm going to miss this place, but really hope I can find a job at another library at my new locale. At the very least, I will be looking into doing some volunteer work!

Thing 3 (RSS)

Wow! For as long as I've worked with computers and knew about RSS, I have NEVER tried it before. It's probably a good thing, though, because I can see where it could easily become addictive. After experiencing getting all my news and interests fed with bloglines, I think I might finally have to start routing all of the various email accounts I check on a daily basis to just one account. I'm going to get really spoiled having everything electronic in one place! I love it!

I still don't understand all of it, like adding blogs like this or from friends on LJ, but I'll keep on working on that aspect. Meanwhile, for news and science updates and some really cool library information, I can spend a good deal of time browsing in one spot. I might have to set time limits for myself! *laugh*

I am way behind on my 23 things, but even if I don't finish them all by the deadline, this is a wonderful program and way to get introduced to these technological wonders. Well done!

Thing 2 - Library 2.0

Wow! It's been a long time since my last post! Things have been busy, and I've been trying to do reading on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 topics beyond the "assignment" for Thing 2. I still have a lot to do, but thought it time to finally get working on this post and moving on to other venues.

I just finished reading a short snippet on a small midwestern school district that was ahead of it's time back in 1992. The last line of the article really struck me as embodying the library of the future.

Empowering the patrons will empower your library.

In an of itself, it's not a concept that's foreign to most librarians, at least I imagine it's not foreign. The question is how do you do it to keep current with patron expectations and technology? And isn't that what 23 Things on a Stick is all about? Teaching us more about what people are using and asking for and expecting us to provide? Sure, a lot of it is new, and it's up to us to be innovative and creative. But I guess I have never really seen the librarians I've known to be uncreative. And probably the most positive aspect I've noticed is helpfulness and a real desire to be of service. So if we can embrace learning about the technologies that are out there and continue to be developed, and if we can reinvest ourselves to making the library an active and participatory part of our patrons lives, I think we have a bright future! And I find the process of learning these new things very exciting!

Thing 1

Every time I say to myself the name of this course "23 Things on a Stick" it makes me think of Thing on the old Addams Family tv show. I get this wildly amusing visual of a disembodied hand scurrying across the floor.

At any rate, I have finished with Thing 1 of 23. Here it is, my blog, Lumi's Lantern. Sorry the name doesn't have the 23 Things on a Stick incorporated, but it just didn't work, between the light symbology and my chuckling to myself over the hand scurrying over the floor, the fingernails clicking on the linoleum floor. :-)

My Avatar depicts one of my favorite time periods, and doesn't look much like me (yet), except for the hair, and mine is not quite that red, just auburn.

This was really fun to do. I have used a blog before (LiveJournal), but I keep that pretty tightly confined to just a few friends. This is my first attempt at a public blog. I did enjoy looking at the templates, and decided to change mine after the initial creation. The "harbor" choice with the lighthouse type of light seemed appropriate and I really like the colors. A few font changes here and there, and some playing with where things appear on the page, and this is pretty much it. I am really impressed with how easy it is to change things, even if a bit time consuming (I have to preview frequently to see how I like it). I didn't play with the formatting much on LiveJournal, though now I want to go back and do more.

For me, creating the Avatar was really a lot of fun. I will probably even use my Avatar as a user icon on LJ as well. I may make more to express the variety of feelings the facial expressions can do, and of course, to represent some of my other favorite time periods and places (like Stonehenge and the Pyramids). I see I may have to create my own Egyptian "costume" though, for one of them to wear. I didn't see anything like that on the Yahoo site. One would want the appropriate headgear as well--a nemyss, perhaps, and the royal crowns of a pharaoh and his queen. Overall, it was just an entertaining experience.

I almost used the Simpsonized character I created a while ago as my Avatar. Now that's a fun site. Try it out for yourself, but beware, it takes a while so make sure you have a fast connection! Try to make it as close to what you look like as you can. It's a hoot, especially when you do it for friends and relatives and people see them and know instantly who they are!

http://www.simpsonizeme.com/

Here's mine!

Welcome to Lumi's Lantern!

Lumi is short for my favorite nickname, Luminesce. I created this blog for the Minnesota 23 Things On A Stick project. It's a library project to help people like me learn even more about Web 2.0 technology. I'll be sharing what I learn here. I hope it helps you, too!

The one, the only, accept-no-substitutes Luminesce (a.k.a. Mary)