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!

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).