Thing 23: Reflection-"Parting is such sweet sorrow!"

I cannot believe this “class” is coming to an end!! I feel that I went from a “rookie” technologically disadvantaged librarian to a somewhat “seasoned” technologically “in-the-know” librarian!!

Some of my favorite things I learned on my technological journey of discovery were: Flickr; Flickr Mashups; Image Generators; Twitter; Delicious (my fave); Digg (second fave); Google Docs. Some of my least favorite things were: Ning (didn’t like at all); Tagging; Blog Readers; RSS Feeds; Wikis.

The most challenging thing for me to do was Thing 18: Wikis. I had the hardest time trying to finish this exercise. I think it had something to do with my computer not being compatible with the site, but had a heck of a time trying to type in text and post the 2 pages.

I actually learned a great deal from the 23 Things program. I knew that I had fallen behind in terms of technology, but I had no idea that I had fallen that far back!! I now feel that I have a better idea of what technology is out there and I feel more confident in the use of this technology!

I think I will try a little bit of all the technologies that I learned in my library to see what works for my particular library. Every library is different, so what works in one library doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in another library setting. I’m anxious to find out what will work!! Thank you for allowing me to take this course-I had a blast!!

Thing 22: Developing your own 23 Things for your library

I do believe that the 23 Things Web 2.0 technology program is something that ALL library staff should be required to complete. There were so many things that I had no clue about, much less even knew existed, and this program has caught my technologically un-savvy skills up to speed!! This program could be tailored by a library staff member (someone with better technological skills than I have!) to teach his/her library staff the finer points of this program. Another thought is that we should share this information with our library patrons. We can’t expect our library patrons to follow our library’s Twitter, RSS feeds, or podcasts if they have no clue about this technology. So not only do we as library professionals need to educate our staff, but we also need educate our library patrons.

Thing 21: Podcasts in libraries

How was the audio quality?
Most of the libraries podcasts had good audio quality….however, there were a few that sounded like they were in a tunnel!

Were they interesting enough to make you want to subscribe to them?
Personally, I’m more of a visual person so I lean more towards a library’s YouTube video than a library’s podcast. However, I’m sure that many people will subscribe to them-especially those people that have I-pods and MP3 players.

What sorts of topics did they cover?
There were a variety of topics covered by the podcasts like storytimes, general information, events, etc.

Do you think that podcasts be useful to your patrons?
Yes, they will be useful to patrons that love listening to audio formats.

If so, what types of podcasts do you think would interest them?
A variety of podcasts would interest library patrons (book talks, storytimes, information about the library, etc.)

Thing 20: YouTube and Libraries

I was curious if there were any public library storytimes posted on YouTube and I found quite few. I watched a “storytime” YouTube video produced by the Rapid City Public Library http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdTeQs9T_q8 I know that librarians need to be careful about copyright laws and I’m wondering if Rapid City Public Library attained permission from the author before taping a reading of the book and posting it on YouTube. I can see how posting your library’s storytime on YouTube would be advantageous to your library (i.e. parents that cannot bring their kiddos to storytime due to work, conflicts, etc.), but as professional librarians we need take certain steps before posting a storytime on YouTube.

I also watched an awesome YouTube video by the New York Public Library (NYPL) title “Shout it Out for Your Library!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc3wMrnQCZU&feature=pyv&ad=3444367915&kw=library This YouTube video had various New York City celebrity residents talking about how important the NYPL is to them and to their community. I thought the video was very well done and definitely got the message to the viewer that the NYPL system is needed, loved, and should stay open.

Thing 19: Google Docs

I've known about Google Docs for sometime and I have played around with them quite a few times, especially when using a computer that doesn't have a program that I need (word processing for example) and I've used the Google Docs to help me. Of course the main thing I like about Google Docs is that they are free, which (in my humble opinion) is always a good thing (especially on a public librarian's salary!!)!

Thing 18: Wikis

I found thing 18 to be somewhat of a challenge due to the fact that the Wiki didn't want to work with my computer. I tried many times to add pages and this feature would not work. I also had some major problems trying to type text into the "easy edit" boxes which was very frustrating. That said, I can see how people would enjoy using this application to categorize various posts.

Thing 17: LibWorm

I had heard of LibWorm from a co-worker (Melissa) during one of our web team meetings, but I had not, until today, ever visited the site! I used the search term "graphic novels" when conducting my various searches. The first search using "any words" brought up 187 pages! The second search using "all words" brought up 24 pages and the third search using "exact phrase" brought up 22 pages. It appears that there are only 2 sorting options available after bringing up search results: by date or relevance. One of the RSS feeds was quite amusing: http://lisnews.org/texas_tech_librarian_proves_existence_spider_man (gotta watch out for those Red Raider librarians!! :o) JK!) One function of LibWorm that I do like is the ability to search tags by an alphabetical list and that subject feeds are also alphabetical. From a librarian standpoint, I can see benefits of using LibWorm to sort through library-related RSS feeds-this weeds out a lot of riff-raff RSS feeds!