THING 23! and final thoughts

I started this reluctantly, and slowly, but I learned a lot about things I had only heard of and some that were completly unknown to me. I feel like so late-20th century and hope to enter the 21st in the future.
The photo and image sites were some of my favorites. Those things are fun to play around with. The process of fumbling though some of these, delicious for example, has made me want to become more comfortable with the new technologies. One worries about being a little behind the times now, never catching up, and being totally left behind. If nothing else this will help me know what people are talking about.
It would be nice if all the links still worked for the 23 Things. I would also suggest fewer things--ten seems more managable. Pick the ten most up and coming and lay out the pathways through them. If we did ten, or even five, a year, we librarians would be more on top of things. I did appreciate the step-by-step guidance 23 Things provided. I would do it again.



http://www.merlincommunity.org/

Overdrive/ Gutenburg/ Thing #22

http://www.overdrive.com/dlr/tour/Topic_Welcome.html
I looked at the Overdrive site and watched their intro. Fairly user friendly.
I am already a user, and in awe, of Project Gutenberg which has 100,000 plus titles digitized. It has the actual pages and illustrations. I use it for story esearches every now and again. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
I created an account in Netlibrary, quite easy. I was a bit diapointed in the selection in our own catalog, I tried six, non-obscure, fairly new titles with no success. http://www.netlibrary.com/default.aspx

Podcasts and Thing #21

http://www.mevio.com/extshow/413190/syd-lieberman-s-storytelling-podcast

I found the above Syd Leiberman podcast through the Podcast agregator Mevio. http://www.mevio.com/
A wealth of stories out there. Syd has put his entire audio library up for anyone to listen to free. He is a treasure that anyone can do a little digging and find.

Web 2.0 and Thing #19

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/

This is Web 2.0 winner it's a site that plays, in real time, BBC radio. I feel like I'm there, traffic reports, weather, and music. Unfortunately, BBC TV is not available over here, at least through this site. There is also has a huge library of stored shows to explore another time.

Technology related Thing # 7: DVD vrs. web

In the fall I was on a friend's cable televisions show talking about storytelling and, ironically, the Summer Reading we are now not having. I eventually got a copy of the show in DVD from the director. (and they charged me $40 for it) Now my friend, Ellouise Schoettler, has learned how to post video content on her blog and has kindly put mine up.

Instead of trying to duplicate the DVD, I can send that exact blog address to friends, family, and practically everyone I know at the click of the mouse. Neat.

Mashups & Maps--Thing #6

Going back to try mashups again.
The Map Builder is insiting my street is in Hobart, NZ. Odd, as I actually have a friend in Hobart.
Tried again on my real house in Wayfarere http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/62516
While not easy to use, it is a bit more intuitive. Both of these sites probably have instructions somewhere--but well-hidden.

Google Docs/Online Productivity tools Thing # 18

Online Productivity Tools--Google Docs. Attemped to load a file , it finally worked http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AV5cr64zyd1hZGdzc3FkM2NfNGR3bXZkOWZm&hl=en
I can see this site being useful for going between computers. I often need something at work I have at home and now use a web based email as a conduit. This would be better.

Zoho does not seem to working well--kicks me out, but the intro makes it sound useful as well

Thing # 16 Wikis

I have a bit of experience with these, one of last summer's students created one for my storytelling class--while listening to me lecture. So I know how easy they are to make. It was used a bit by the class, she supplied most of the content. It would be an ideal place for students to post their class assigments once they had handed them in. But library use of Wikis is new to me. It was interesting to see how many various uses libraries around the country put these to.
however--many dead links--this is an area where Maryland 23 falls down occasionally. Makes me wonder if these have on-line bookclub possibilities.
"Wikis level the playing field even further, completely democratizing the process of designing a website. " This quote from Web Junction is a enticing statement. This article also told me what Wiki means--quick in Hawaiian.

Library 2.0--Thing #15

Library 2.0 Thing #15
The video The Machine is Us/ing Us" was downright inspiring. The learning, if one can call it that, going on each time a person interacts with the web. Though the re-thinking ethics, privacy, family ...was a bit disturbing as it does not seem many are taking the time to think let alone re-think. The educating patrons that rick Anderson mentions (Icebergs http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm)hits home now as we are thinking about having un-manned libraries for part of the time and under-manned for most. There are many people. adults and children, who have no idea how to search for information, titles, etc. They will simply swim or sink. These short essays also make we feel Montgomery County is far behind the times and not making a real effort to catch up. Our catalog is a barrier to users, a simple thing like a spell checker or an offer of close terms would make a real difference.

Technorati Thing #14

I signed up for this site and tried it out. My least favorite so far. The nusinance factor outweights the utility. Seems a good site to get lost on and not in a fun way. I looked up a few subjects--the hits were not interesting and way too personal. Travel to Ireland got a few good ones http://technorati.com/lifestyle/travel/article/belfast-northern-ireland-ready-for-travelers/
I don't think I have ever heard of anyone, other than those doing 23 things, using this site.

Storytelling websites Thing #13

On Delicious I've posted a couple of storytelling web sites. I have a huge collection of sites on at least three different computers and having one place to collect them all will be very efficient, though getting them all there will take some time.

http://delicious.com/dorfmanjane/storytelling

Thing # 20 You-Tube and Jackie Torrance's storytelling

You-Tube is a gold mine for tellers. Here is a link to the late Jackie Torrance, a master teller, telling the scary tale "The Golden Arm." It is wonderful people will still be able to hear and see Jackie, beginners and experienced tellers alike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjskD7U7uIc

Rollyo--Thing # 12

Admittedly a non-library topic, and certainly non-work related, but the aggreagated list of search sites does seem to work. However, it does feel like too much trouble to use frequently.
http://rollyo.com/search.html?q=clark+shoes&sid=web

Library Thing--Thing # 11

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/dorfmanjo

I only catalogged a couple but this is a site I'll explore further. I can see it being an interesting way to hear about new books and aid in Reader's Advisory.

Image generator moon--Thing # 10

Merlin--thing # 9

Not the ancient wizard but the Maryland Library's learning site. It looks useful but does not seem to have many users. The discussion board has a section on conferences which seems a good place to post handouts. I wish I known about it before I did the workshop for MLA, they could have printed them out for themselves with enough lead time.

here's the link http://www.merlincommunity.org/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=129&func=showcat&catid=30

High Tech for me --Thing # 8

I signed up for several RSS feeds. It may be a time-saver to look at one site instead the the several I usually read.
I'd like to find out how to add some of the interesting bits, like phases of the moon and a clock, to my blog that I see on other people's. Maybe next week...