Week 9 - Thing 23!!!!

Well, I actually did it! I completed all 23 things for this Learning program. It may have taken me a bit longer than most, but I did start when I was 8 months pregnant with baby #3. Now, our son is over 3 months old, but boy is his mom a techno-savvy librarian!!!!

I found this program to be a great tool for all of us public servants here at the library. Our customers are going to be more and more savvy about the resources that are available out there in cyberspace and we need to stay current.

My favorite exercises were the one where The Library Thing was introduced and also learning about bloglines. I love the idea of creating my own digital library and having the summaries of the blogs. Very cool!

I considered myself to be technically capable but came to realize through this program that I am falling way behind. This was a real wake up call for me and I hope to be able to continue to grow and learn in addition to keeping my library skills sharp. Currently, I work on a very part-time basis (due to 3 small children) but some day hope to return to more regular hours. I need to keep abreast of all the new technologies and resources available to best assist patrons. This program was a great start! If there are other opportunities, I will certainly participate!

23 Things...graduation day!!!! Yeah!!!!

Week 9 - Thing 22

I surfed over to Overdrive through BCPL's website and checked out what was available to download. My husband has always been interested in the free audiobooks since he can listen in his car and when he is traveling. I am a bit of a skeptic since I want to always have an actual book in hand when reading!

However, in the midst of my surfing, I did find a book that I want to read (and has actually been piled on my nightstand for a few weeks). So, I downloaded it to our iPod and will listen while I walk on the treadmill! Yeah! I may be a e-book convert! The Overdrive site is easy to use and I liked how the catalog displayed a description of the book.

Week 9 - Thing 21

I checked out the site Podcast.net for this exercise and found a cool podcast to add to my blog. It is called Book Voyages and seems pretty cool.

Here is the description: Book Voyages is a podcast about children's literature from the point of view of a school library/media specialist. It features reviews of books as well as inteviews with students and author.

Also, here is the link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BookVoyages

I did add it to my bloglines account so I will be able to check it out regularly!

I think podcasts are great and an excellent way to share information and have a great use as a learning tool. I really liked all the podcasts associated with the 23 things project. It seems to be an excellent tool and one that can easily be learned and accessed.

Week 9 - Thing 20

You Tube....it is awesome and silly all at the same time. Just ask my husband, you can spend hours surfing around finding weird and wacky videos.

I enjoyed spending some time sifting through the hundred of thousands of postings to find something I found interesting.

After checking out clips of cats talking and other fun postings, I decided to choose one that showed a random person's photos from a trip to Austria and Germany. We lived in Vienna for three years and it was neat to see many of the places that I used to see all the time. It was a nice video, set to music and lots of good photos but what really was the kicker was the owner took a shot of my favorite sign in all of the city. It is a picture of a stick person underneath a wind blown tree. The Viennese are totally fearful of the wind to the extent that they post signs to warn about it. Yet, it really is not that windy. Too funny!!

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4HgsLfv6Bg&feature=related

I can see that this might have some use for the library. It is an excellent source of photos and videos but it all has to be taken with some degree of scrutiny since it is open to the public. Still, a fun site!

Week 8 - Thing 19

Since I love to look through real estate ads, both online and in the newspaper. I decided to browse through the website, Zillow, which received the award for real estate. It was very easy to create a free account and pretty self-explanatory on how to navigate around the site. It seems pretty useful, if you are in the market to buy or sell a house by providing information on local real estate. I liked seeing the ariel maps of my street and knowing what was for sale in the area.

I don't really see the use for libraries but maybe to answer questions about local sales or house prices in an area.

A cool site!

Week 8 - Thing 18

I checked out Google Docs because I love all things Google! I would love to work there if only it was located here in Maryland!

I found it easy to use and another extremely beneficial tool. This training has really opened my eyes to the many new technologies that are available. I thought I was tech savvy but I am really behind the times! At least, I am ready and willing to learn new things. That is half the battle sometimes....

Anyway, back to Google Docs...

I tried it. I liked it... to quote the gabba gabba friends on Noggin. (Yes I have young children!)

I think I even managed to publish my document.

Yeah!

Matt's Reading List

Crashing Through – Robert Kurson (B MAY K) The Eight: A Novel – Katherine Neville (F NEV) The Entitled – Frank Deford (F DEF)

FDR – Jean Edward Smith (B ROOSEVELT S)

Game of Shadows – Mark Fainaru-Wada (362.29F) A Long Way Gone – Ishmael Beah (B BEAH)

The Navigator – Clive Cussler (F CUS)

The Prince of Darkness – Robert D. Novak (070.92N)

Stealing Lincoln’s Body – Thomas J. Craughwell (973.7092C)

Supreme Conflict – Jan Crawford Greenburg (347.7326G)

War of the Rats -- David L. Robbins

Vengeance – George Jonas (956.04J)

Charlie Wilson’s War – George Crile (958.1045C)

Week 7 - Thing 17

I managed to play in the sandbox and it was very easy once I got the hang of it. I added my blog to the list and even was daring enough to enter a posting about my favorite book. I am starting to enjoy and get the hang of this whole technology thing!

Week 7 - Thing 16

Wiki's are very useful and I enjoyed looking through the few samples. I have previously used wikipedia frequently both at home and at work. So, it was good to see other examples and checke out some pathfinders. I think there will be good use of wiki's for many aspects of library service. The ALA conference wiki was great and I also thought the book lovers one would work well for all public libraries.

Week 6 - Thing 15

I definitely think libraries need to keep going forward with all the technology changes and updates. We need staff that is technically savvy and able to work with customers remotely and in person. Libraries no longer need to be the holder and controller of print information and instead need to be sources of information gathering and assist patrons in best accessing all forms of information. I believe libraries will always need to be operating and open to all people. Patrons will always want books to read and we can provide that, however, I do agree that we do not need to collect based on the "just in case" practice.

The web articles were all very interesting and definitely made me contemplate my future role as a librarian and the overall role of libraries. I strongly agree with the article by Dr. Wendy Schultz about the library as community. This is what drew me into the field of library science and I know it is what will keep me trying to learn all these new technologies, tools and web sources so I can help patrons to the best of my ability.

So much to mull over...

It makes me want to grab a good cup of coffee, a brand new book and relax in my local library!

Week 6 - Thing 14

Technorati is a company which tracks fifty million blogs and has new and improved indexing. This site is a good way to get out there in the world of blogging and communicate with lots of other people. The top favorite blogs are Youtube, My Space, and Facebook.

Another cool site...so much to explore!

Week 6 - Thing 13

I created a del.icio.us account and have been making use of the bookmarking tool. I like it and really like the idea of accessing bookmarks from afar.

That is what is great about this program...I am always learning something new!

Week 5 - Thing 12

I like the Rollo site. It seems very user-friendly and a good way to combine many search engine results into one list. Once I created my account, I made a custom list related to cooking and had fun looking for a few new recipes. Very easy to use! Something that I will definitely come back to and put to work for me in the future.

Week 5 - Thing 11

This may be my favorite thing...just like the song from Sound of Music!

While I am not into cataloging per se, I love my books (and there are many...) to be organized and easy to access. The Library Thing site is incredible and I can't wait to spend more time there. Hopefully, in the future, I can get all my books entered and exploe the site more. If only there was more time, husband, kids, work and life in general are conspiring against me!!!

Very cool!!!

Week 5: Thing 10

I liked the Generator Blog best of all the online image generators that I checked out for this exercise. The create your own Harry Potter doll and the Borat Says sites made me laugh out loud which is always good! Lots more to explore...

I also created an avatar in my yahoo email account. That was fun as well and I like how it turned out. My husband got a kick out of seeing it (we share an email account) and said he always wanted to be a blue-eyed woman with short, messy, brown hair!!!

Here is my avatar:

Week 4 - Thing 9

I love the Merlin site and found the RSS feed! I am now receiving updates on my bloglines newsreader, so I will be very techno-savvy in a short time!!!

Feedster and Topix were my favored sites for searching for new feeds. They seemed the easiest to use and I really liked the simple design of the Feedster site. It reminded me of Google with the one line to enter search words.

It is fun to see what blogs and feeds come up when I choose random searches. I was looking for farms to go and pick my own apples and found all sorts of things from apple tart recipes to some woman's quest to be a better homemaker.

An enjoyable exercise and I definitely am interested in learning more about searching for feeds!

Week 4 - Thing 8

I am a big fan of RSS and the newsreader services. It seems like I am always short on time and this is a perfect way to get up-to-date information on all my favorite topics. Condensed, for quick and easy reading! I love it!!!

I will definintely be checking out more news feeds to add my list!

Week 3 - Thing 7

I love the ease of digital pictures, especially in connection with scrapbooking and blogging. I am inquisitive (some would say nosy!) and love to check out friends and family via their blogs. We lived overseas for three years and have friends far flung across the globe. With a few clicks on the internet, I can catch up on their lives and see photos of kids, travels and interests. However, I am still oldfashioned enough to love making scrapbooks using actual photos! My daughter enjoys flipping through her baby book and seeing the ancient pictures of baby Caitlin. She is almost four and so grown up!

The great advantage of sites like Flickr for me is the organization of the multitudes of digital pictures we take. It is very nice to easily find all the shots from our recent beach vacation in Fenwick Island. This makes scrapbooking so much easier, especially since I am never up-to-date on what I am scrapping!

Week 3 - Thing 6

I checked out the mashup site, Mappr and found it to be very cool and user friendly. A neat concept of organizing pictures based on location. I saw pictures of my childhood hometown, where we currently live and others. The tagging of the photos and organizing them appeals to my anal nature!

Melk, Austria - Library Interior

Interior of the Stiftsbibliothek (Abbey Library)
Originally uploaded by GoodbyeKitty

Here is a good shot that I found on Flickr! This is such an ornate and lovely library but still functional!

Week 3 - Thing 5

A very cool website and excellent way to share and organize digital photos! I showed it to my husband and he spent some time surfing around the site also. He said he loves it when I am nerdy!

I found a beautiful picture of the library in Melk, Austria on the flickr website. I hope to add one of our own shots of this amazing building. We lived in Vienna for three years and took all of our visitors to the nearby town of Melk to explore the Abbey along with its spectacular library. It is one of my favorite places in the world! Plus, there is an excellent ice cream shop in town.

Week 2 - Thing 3 & 4

Well, this is obviously completed but was so easy that I want to do more! It is fun to check out all the other Maryland 23 participant's blogs as well as post my thoughts and musings!

Week 1 - Thing 1 & 2

I enjoyed the lifelong learning podcast and am eager to begin this educational journey! The habit that comes easiest to me is the first one (begin with the end in mind.) I am organized and love to set a goal and follow it through to completion! Maybe a better word is anal, but I am sticking with organized. I find it hardest to be confident in my own abilities as a learner and to teach others. My father is a lifelong educator and I know that it takes a special person to teach and be effective.

First post!

I am new to blogging but am excited to be a part of this new and exciting method of communication! Especially since it is getting embarassing to have the only children under five without their own blog...ha ha!

Lucky for me, I get to participate in a training program through BCPL and will soon be an expert!

In the near future (hopefully), there will be more interesting and exciting posts here so please check back!