Having More Fun with the Sticky Things

Now that I'm done with the More Things on a Stick program, I am going back through and adding links on my link lists from the many Things I wished to explore more. I'm hoping for another round of Things in the future. I'll be practising till then.

This Bart Simpson Blackboard Generator is from the "1000 Online Generators" link in my Blog and 2.0-ish Tips category.

Things and Beyond

Thinginess

Here is my first post "post-23 Things". I am still pleased I finished this time, and ahead of time. I wanted to not only be a "finisher" but I wanted to take control of my blog for my own diabolical purposes and guilt free write about other Things.

My resolution to keep using the Things tools will of course cause me to write more of Things 23-ish. For instance, I am so glad I followed my boss's example this time around and created a 23 Things notebook with my notes and usernames and passwords. There are far more than 23 accounts to be created and anyone could become confused, especially D.O.A. types who are daydreaming most hours of the day, even when we appear focused.

I had a couple of comments and friends requests on both Gather and Ning, so I wanted to go in and respond to those. Thanks heavens for my little notebook. I had trouble on Ning actually finding the 23 Things page. Logging in at the main Ning screen I found I had no social networks, alas, though I signed up on the 23 Things page. I searched for 23 Things in the search box and got no useful results (maybe it was buried 10 pages in...). So, back to the now beloved 23 Things site to use the link there. Bookmarked the 23 Things Ning Thing, now I'm good.

On Gather, I accepted both personal invitations to be buds, what the heck. (Note! I asked for notice of when one of the people commented or wrote an article and Holy Spamula! 305!!!! comments from this person, yikes yikes in a mere half a day. Nobody has that much to say!)

I also received invitations to two groups. I did fill in some information here regarding my interests but the two invites were nothing to do with anything I would really be interested in. This makes me wonder if people running these groups sometimes just invite anyone new to swell their numbers of apparent members. For future reference, although I believe firmly in both Tolerance and Justice, I think one on one in the real world is the best way to live out those ideals. And, I am not interested in taking over the world, I also do not need invites to groups such as "Leading from the inside out".

I did leap to join a featured new group for video game enthusiasts. Though it is apparently just me and the guy who created the group, this is something I am really interested in, and since my son is off at college I don't have anyone to jabber with this about :( My husband listens politely, but it is just the same for me when he talks sports or math...you can see the mind slipping away and the ears closing their flaps pretty quickly.

D.O.A. out...

THING 23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was not a "finisher" first round. We will ignore just how bad that sounds and glory in the fact that the kind 23 Things people gave myself and other non-finishers the opportunity to work through the remaining things ( I got stuck at about thing 12 first time around) this summer. Call me Ms Complete-O.

Here are my answers to the questions posed for Thing 23:

Go back to your thoughts/ideas about Library 2.0. Has anything changed as a result of this experience? After working through so many variations of social network sites and online tools I can see that we should all go ahead and be more interactive and share what we know and what we think. It is actually alot of fun.


What were your favorite Things and discoveries? Library Thing is my favorite. I've been meaning to catalog my books for years and it is nice to see them out there. I have alot more gardening books than I thought! I think I might enjoy Second Life too, once I log back in and get my boxy little friend to the Island.

How did you connect with others doing the 23 Things On a Stick? I think that Gather and Second Life and who knows maybe even Facebook might be good starting places for great conversations.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? Everything I learned has been interesting, even if a few seemed to duplicate each other, or not be practical in a library setting, or there were a few boring ones...

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or content? I think that many people were having trouble with step 1, create the blog and add the avatar. Many stopped cold right there. So, I would recommend you write something up for the next go-round that step by step holds their hand.

If we offered a 23 More Things On a Stick program like this in the future would you participate? Yes, indeed.

How would you describe your learning experience in one word or in one sentence, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things On a Stick learning activities to others? If a D.O.A. Librarian can do 23 Things, so can you...


There we go! The blog will continue, talking libraries, books and tech stuff. I am definitely going to use many of the Things I've learned as we continue. This blog has been great fun. Onward!

The 22nd Thing: What I Learned Today

For this thing, I am to make a resolution to maintain my blog, and to ask myself every day what I learned today. Hmmmm.

I clearly have designed the blog and the Librarian D.O.A. persona to have staying power beyond the initial 23 things purpose.

I named the blog Librarian D.O.A. because I'm a brat and I have grown tired of everyone saying libraries are dead, and nobody uses them and we must reinvent ourselves to be something useful and blah blah blah.

We have so many visitors of all ages in our library everyday. We were closed for three months for remodeling recently and I think we were all surprised by how much our customers loved us (yes we're talking L-O-V-E), and how much we actually adore 98% of them right back (bad, bad two percenters!).

There aren't many places like libraries left. The fact that we do all of the traditional services plus offer help with all the wild new technologies and formats and make people comfortable with those new things everyday in addition to teaching classes and you name it...we are too cool! Libraries are without a doubt the best bargain for your money anytime, anyplace. Libraries aren't dying out, folks, we are just getting started. Who knows where we can go?

What I learned today:

How to use our digital camera and post videos to my blog. This is the start of something beautiful.

People love skeletons. The new avatar I found is a hit on Minnesota Readers (Gather) and I have folk wanting to befriend little Ms D.O.A.

My husband will be a great cameraman for D.O.A. Productions going forward.

The dog is a natural.

The little rubber skeleton we had sitting around the house fits into some doll clothes I also had on hand.

Thing 23 and I'm outta here!

D.O.A. Almost Live

In an attempt to create and post my own video snippet, Mr. D.O.A. and the darling Doggie D.O.A. used our digital camera to film an ultra short slice of D.O.A. life. If this loads successfully, we have D.O.A. herself in one of my more tame garden beds watching the bears who eternally play checkers.

Suddenly, Doggie D.O.A. is lured into the frames by his beloved stuffed squirrel. He was beyond astonished to see his pal outside and eagerly rushed into view. No stuffed squirrels were harmed during the filming of the video. Fingers crossed!

Would you believe...Thing 21 of 23?

The social networks in this Thing are a bit more focused and specialized.

Gather is aiming to be a sort of gathering place for "ideas type people", perhaps. I joined the Minnesota Reader's group and if I can get myself back in a reading mode (summer has me floating outside quite a bit), it would be nice to chat about books there. I saw film reviews on the main pages and I'd like to try my hand at those as well.

Webjunction This one focuses on library topics. It offers forum discussions, resources for varying interest groups, and online courses. I enjoyed the discussion "Boomer's and up: what exactly *is* older" in the Library Services to Older Adults Community forums. The discussion revealed how ever changing "old" really is. RSS feeds are available in the Resources section.

Ning invites you to create your own social network. I did not sign up for this one but it looks like they give you the tools to create a basic website. Also, there must be many tools available for creating interactivity, possibly just the sort of thing known as "widgets" elsewhere. Ratski, I see I have to go in and create an account on Ning, for this Thing. Back soon...

Ok, I commented on Kalla's page, put my brand new Librarian D.O.A. picture up, and with horrible difficulty I managed to get a cute little Ning widget, that proclaims me a member of the 23 Things on a Stick club.

So I am Ning-ed and complete on number 21. Two to go! Yes!

Thing 20: Faceless on Facebook

Boy oh boy it took me alot of tries to create a Facebook account without strictly using my own name. As if I want tons of fans clamoring for my autograph, or my dogs, once I get him on YouTube.

I don't have a picture at hand to post there but I did write on the Wall, and join the Library 2.0 group. I also filled in a ton of information in my profile, much more than I would normally toss out there. I'm assuming nobody but the Library 2.0 group and the 23 Thingers (whom I wrote to to be befriended) will look at it so...ta da.

I'll have to spend more time with it and should I become enamored I'll report back.

Thing 19: Attack of the Podcast People

I've listened to podcasts and admire the fact that our library has done a few, notably for the readings from our April Poetry contests. Although I am not generally a fan of reading poetry, I do really like to hear poets read their own poems.

I think shorter podcasts are generally better, anything that goes over an hour causes me to lose interest and my mind wanders off, no matter how fascinating the topic.

I think libraries could use podcasting to do "commercials" for upcoming events.
They could have little mini-shows highlighting services or answering frequently asked questions.

They could do book reviews.

I'll try the Gcast from the privacy of my own home. Stay tuned.

More on Thing 18 You-tubiness

I managed to insert a video clip of William Kent Krueger being interviewed in my last post. I didn't want to mess anything up since it worked, so here are further Tube ruminations:

I did a search for libraries and found lots of fun Second Life videos. I really liked the one where the old bag librarian and her friend turn into a koala bear and a cat. I say old bag because they had a little scrolling bit of text showing the librarian with her prim hairdo and suit before she turned into Hello Kitty. I have a way with words, what can I say?

If libraries can find inexpensive ways to do short promotional bits and put them on YouTube, that would be great. The interviews the Phoenix area bookstore owner did with mystery authors show what can be done, it looks simple in any case.

It would be fun if librarians did short interviews with each other or visiting performers and had them on YouTube then linked them on their web pages.

Short book recommendations with some flair would be fun.

Lastly on this, I'll try to capture D.O.A. Dog on camera and load it to YouTube so he can be justifiably famous.

Thing 18: You-Tubing for fun and profit

Here we have that wonderful Minnesota author, William Kent Krueger in a YouTube interview:

Thing 17 ELM Productivity, perhaps

This has to be the most confusing Thing yet.

EBSCO Alerts

I *think* I am now signed up for EBSCO alerts on Lilacs, should articles appear. I wanted to have Minnesota authors, but the vagaries of how subjects are assigned within EBSCO made that not so doable.

I read the 23 Things instructions on signing up for these feeds. I created my EBSCO account. I did not see anything relating to proxy servers in the feed link that I created within EBSCO, but when I tried to add a subscription with Google Reader, I got errors.

Always a fiend for a workaround solution, I went back to EBSCO and asked for e-mail alerts rather than the RSS alert. We shall see.

I think this would be great if you were doing ongoing research and wanted to know if new information was available on your topic. The whole RSS/EBSCO compatibility thingie needs simplifying/tweaking, however.

Page Composer

While the Page Composer tools are easy enough to use, I cannot see what the particular use would be for this tool. Also, I used the tool to add a link, a title and a background, and the link did not appear at all on the page.

Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools

Both the U of M Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator are surprisingly useful for procrastinator/Last Minute Louie types like myself. Anything that is a few months away might as well be a decade away in my dreamy little skull.

The U of M Calculator is probably most useful for college students, and specifically U of M students because each step directs you to their own resources and libraries quite a bit. It is certainly possible to extrapolate your own local resources from the type of things they list, but, better yet, use the Research Project Calculator which is listed as being geared to secondary school students. In truth I think it would be useful for any level of student or parent/child combination to help keep on track, for any type of project. There are fewer steps to the process but they are all practical and nice for the chaotic types amongst us.

One Life Might Be Plenty: Thing 15, Second Life

I've been looking forward to trying Second Life ever since I read an article in some journal last winter (sorry can't recall which) about the INFO Island Library. Finally here I am, at Thing 15 and I'm IN!

I was able to choose anything at all as my first name but for some reason I had to choose a last name from a dropdown menu. That is how I came to be known as "LibrarianDOA Hellershanks".

The initial screen for Second Life shows a bunch of twenty-something? people lounging around looking ready to engage in something un-librarian-like, to say the least. So as not to be mistaken for one of these rough and ready types, I cleverly chose an avatar that looks like it is made of a set of cardboard boxes. With little antennae. Nonetheless a shirtless young man was soon attempting to make conversation with my boxiness. I think the Torch sticking out of my back appealed to him in some way.

There are a set of tasks in the tutorial area that included taking a Torch from my inventory. I did so, so I thought. And placed it in my right hand. But as you can see in the accompanying photo of our intrepid little Librarian-in-a-Box, it is sticking embarrassingly out of my back. Note also that although I purchased three chain mail shirts while fumbling with the local shirt seller and I equipped one, I am not seeing any chain mail shirt adorning my character. Another box-headed individual near this vendor had a chainmail shirt and nifty black pants on so we know the Box People can indeed wear clothing.

My initial impressions are:

The world looks less pixilated than pictures I've seen.

Interface is pretty confusing but I'll keep working with it.

Movement is awkward.

I need the tutorial badly so I'll continue through, though I'd love to just head to INFO Island, that librarian mecca. Since I goofed on the Map part of the tutorial, I may never it make though! Here's hoping!

See you on the other side,

LibrarianDOA Hellershanks

Thing 14 Redux: added a Library Thing widget

So...I added my random list of Library Thing books as a widget on my sidebar. I hoped the list would refresh and show different ones periodically, but so far no. I added more books from my gardening books collection last night and may be up to a stunning 25 books! I could do it more quickly if I didn't fuss over the proper edition and the tags. But how could I end up with the glorious display of my beloved books if I do that?

Happy Reading!

Delightful Thing 14: Library Thing

Creating an account was easy. Deciding what part of my book collections to begin entering was a toughie. I have always meant to catalog my collection of books and Library Thing makes it easy. Once I have typed in the title, it searches Amazon or LC for me and finds my book and the pertinent bibliographic information and zips it into my library list.

I tagged my books with categories that made sense to me. The small but easily silenced! voice of my former cataloger self protested I should use viable headings but I have just gotten so contrary in my old age that I gleefully squashed the cataloger voice and had fun making up my tags. Of course, I will now obsess if I don't use my own headings consistently, so tangled web city.

I started my project with my gardening books which were next to my computer. There was something so satisfying and relaxing about the whole process I knew I would switch up to lifetime member once I reach the magic 200 number.

I was surprised how much I liked seeing how many people own my books. I found I had to make sure I marked the correct edition of the book, even if my edition did not have a nice cover for display. This bothered me quite a bit. Those black plain covers that display when they don't have your image--icky, shroudlike. Could they arrange for you to scan in your own cover? Or make a set of mock up covers that look like old covers with colorful bindings. Something other than the plain one?

Good Reads and Shelfari

These might be useful for quick reader's advisory. Scanning the popular titles when your mind tragically goes blank and a bestseller title goes missing could help. Or, a person could compartmentalize, and put their gardening books on Library Thing, Their Mysteries on Good Reads and their Science Fiction/Fantasy on Shelfari. Nah...

My in progress Library Thing page: http://www.librarything.com/home/librariandoa

Thing 14 complete (except for the adding of tomes to Library Thing).

Thing 13 of 23 Online Productivity Tools and the Timewasters Who Use Them (joking)

igoogle, Pageflake and My Yahoo

I appreciated that both iGoogle and My Yahoo let me log in with my Yahoo email information. Creating the many accounts for these explorations is daunting, even with a dedicated notebook.

iGoogle was my favorite. It offered the same simplicity of page design that is the earmark of Google itself. Everyone is provided with YouTube videos, Weather for your area (you give them your zip at the start), date and time, CNN headlines, How to of the day (a curiosity) and Top stories.

You can add tabs for other interests. I chose Technology, Entertainment and Games. There were top stories from well known sites in the Technology and Entertainment categories. The Games page had the NYT Crossword, Hangman!, Flood It, Frogger, Pacman, Color Junction and Sudoku (get thee behind me, mathematical thing!) I was of course drawn immediately to Hangman. I had no idea I loved it so much, but I began swinging the little guy with my wild guesses almost immediately.

PageFlake knew my location without any information being provided by me, and put up the weather and time and date. I think because the site already knew soooo much I wasn't interested in signing up and personalizing. Also, the big boxy squares of information are unappealing and too much at once.

MyYahoo, when customized, looks very much like the usual Yahoo page with added date, time, weather, and what seemed to me to be limited categories of interest to choose from: Shopping, Fashion, Photography, Arts, Shoes and accessories, Home and garden.

Calendars

MSN has a calendar within your Hotmail or MSN mail that is a simple version of regular Outlook. If you are comfortable with Outlook and just want a handy calendar, this might be for you.

Kiko I could not get Kiko's site to load. I don't know if it was just down or gone altogether or what.

Backpack This is a group calendar that might be nice for a group/subcommitee or club to use to dynamically share their progress on a project.

Spongecell promotes itself as an event marketing tool. The calendar itself hasn't much detail but when you click on an item on the calendar a nice box pops up with color and event information. Might be nice for storytimes or other programs so that you could include pictures of the performer?

Ta-Da Lists and Remember the Milk

The Ta-da list was a simple and easy to use interface. Simple to add, check off or edit items. There is the option to email a copy to yourself and also to Share so perhaps you might actually get your spouse to add things to the grocery list if it came right up in his email or on his Blackberry.

Remember the Milk has a sweet cow picture but it was not easy to use and I could not get it to add items to a list it just paused and paused and paused. So Ta-Da wins the day.

I did look at the additional calendars and sticky note organizers but they did not offer anything more than I had seen. The file conversion tools are something to keep in mind.

Thing 13 complete, ta da!.