#23 Overview

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I enjoyed investigating all of the exercises. I think it would be more useful if you had a computer at home to use some of them on, but I can understand why some people are on the internet using many of these things until the wee hours of the morning!
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It was good to experience new things, and some that I might not have known about without the 23 things.
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised at how easy some of these things were to do, and intrigued by many of the activities ... enough to hook my home computer up to the internet???? I'm not sure yet - but I may be closer to it than previously!
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
It would be nice to have "coaches" at the branches who could "legally" spend time showing some of the neophites how to do things
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again choose to participate?
Most likely! But smaller snip-its might be nice!

#22 Podcasts

Did you find anything useful here?
Having attended conferences it seems that this would be a great way to share information with a large number of people at no travel expense for any of them. I was able to hear some library news that actually applied to libraries!!! Seems like there are a great number of podcasts out there. I was intrigued that some of them openly labeled themselves as "adult only" sites (I looked at links for kids and families and one said "unacceptable for children" in the description)

#21 You Tube

What did you like or dislike about the site and why did you choose the video that you did?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqINI2dAdVU
Susan E had sent me a link to March of the Librarians after March of the Penguins came out. I discovered there was another video made at another conference and it actually shows Bill Davis in it! Great fun! Lots of intriguing videos and much fun could be had by spending time with this.
Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?
Someone asked for tutorials on using our website, and if we could do some linking to a YouTube video it would be one way to do tutorials without intensive staff time. Frequently people learn something better when they can see it visually rather than hearing someone talk about it!

#20 special treat

What was your initial reaction to this video? Why?
It was an entertaining presentation of the reality of what computers are doing to information and communication. Things change even as we write, and coordinating how materials link together becomes more and more critical for locating information!
Do you feel this video was intended for general audiences?
I'm not sure a general audience over age 50 would get this one! But knowing students today I think they would get it! Way back when ... people used to talk about how important to computers was the organizing of things, and that librarians would be needed to keep computers useable by the general public - and this shows - saying links and labels are very important for computers!

#19 Digital Music

Did you face any particular challenges?
It is fun to listen to music while working on the computer, although it can be distracting - and being a person who likes quiet I didn't find it to be something that I would do frequently.
Have you ever tried downloading music from an online store?
I have not, although I know many people who do and think it's the most wonderful way to collect music. I'm more inclined to purchase CDs to listen to what the artist feels is a collection!
Have you ever tried using a file sharing site?
No.
Would you consider using a file sharing site? Why or why not? I guess my inclination is that there are numerous copyright issues, and that unless it's something I've created it is safer to plan to just use music that I'm legally entitled to (I own the CDs)

#18 Social Networking

Impact of social networking on distribution of information ... I believe Social networking ultimately makes information more easily accessible, and can make continuing education and sharing of ideas more convenient and less expensive. I read through someone's posting about the cost of participating in ALA midwinter and the fact that without library support she would not be able to participate - and I can see that being able to participate electronically would be better for larger participation.

The positive and negative aspects are:
Positive: More people are able to participate. You hear from a greater variety of people about what you're seeking input on.
Negative: You eliminate participation from some of the longer employed people because they may not be comfortable or eager to participate via computer.

As I view the teens at our library I can say that this is definitely the wave of the future and that if we don't participate this way we might just as well consider that we'll never connect to the younger library users!

#17 Wikis

I have located information on Wikis about authors and experiences interacting with them, liked the subject guide that Wetpaint refered us to. It was nice to be able to go directly to the books based on the topical selection. I was interested to see that one of the Wikis required you to register to "use" the Wiki ... I think this would be a little more secure way of keeping a Wiki accurate, and I do think it's a good idea if you have a Wiki to be able to do that! Many kids figure that anything on the Internet is accurate (sort of like their parents thinking that anything in print is factual), so although I do appreciate people being able to update information - it definitely is worth warning kids that what they find on a Wiki is someone's opinion - not always fact!

#16 Technorati

I can see how the tags make it easier for locating things on Blogs. I can also appreciate that having the most popular Blogs listed helps those Blogs with their standings. It is convenient to be able to link from one to another through Techorati, and there does seem to be some logical discussion of what is happening currently that will affect the Blog world (I can envision a world with bizarre creatures running around!) Since thus far I haven't been able to locate time to go back and revisit some of the other "skills" we've gone through, I'm not going to go through the process of doing yet another sign up for the practice ... I may go back and do it at a later date.

#15 Del.icio.us

When we lost the capability of having branch bookmarks on our internet search page we lost giving one another a "head's up" about what might be useful for a current assignment. This service makes the "branch bookmarks" somewhat obsolete if a person is prepared and goes through the steps to "index" some of the helpful websites. Didn't spend as much time on this as I perhaps will over the next period of time, but it seems like this could really be helpful for quickly locating sites you use frequently.

#14 web 2.0

Seems like this features more of the preselecting of websites as Rollyo does but with a fancier presentation. Looked under Philanthropy and followed some of the links.

#13 web based word processing

How fun to discover a web-site that has such cool emoticons and also the ability to insert pictures and tables. I was particularly interested in the fact that you can "cross through" words ... have wondered how Shirley does that on her emails.

rollyo

It seems fairly easy to create a topical search on Rollyo. Would be great to use to create some homework help sites for kids.

Rollyo

http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=christmas&sid=325574

my library thing link

#11 Library Thing

What an amazing source! Could spend several days looking at the recommended similar works to some of my favorite titles! Now I just have to figure out how to put my library onto my blog ... maybe I'll contact one of our local wizz-es to help me!

#10 Library 2.0

I agree that library use is changing and that we need to adapt. I think KDL is doing the adaptation fairly well because we certainly have not seen a 55% decrease in circulation! I think as people become busier with work the library does need to figure out what they need and make themselves a vital part of the people's life.

To a certain extent I think we really need to be "out there" contacting groups, and talking about what the library can do for them. I think the more we contain ourselves to our buildings the more we lessen the "need" for the library by the public. It seems to me community outreach becomes a much larger portion of our job as we try to determine what direction the library should go in.

frustrations #9

I know technology has it's moments, but it's frustrating when you finally have the time to work on your 23 things and links don't work! It can make things take so much longer to do! Guess that's part of the learning experience, but it can make some of us who weren't born with a keyboard at our fingertips a little frustrated!

Feedster has given me a "this page not accessible" note several times now. Makes me wonder if having multiple windows of internet open at a time affects your access????

Bloglines #8

Gadzooks! I can understand how "all consuming" this RSS feed could become! I'm not sure how people have any time left to do anything when they're busy checking up on all their feeds! Admittedly this may bring them all to one spot, but it could take days to keep up with them depending on the feed!

motivational posters

There could be great potential for what you could motivate people to do when you combine the motivation website with a good puppet or two!

librarian swapping cards

Viewing some of these makes me wonder whether we have lives or not! Definitely some creative people out there and it seems like there are some fairly inventive cards.

Mouse count snake

Day 1

I begin this process today. We'll see how successful I can be at it, should be a pleasurable experience.