Thing TwentyTwo -- Tying the String Around the Finger [out of order -- #23 is below]

I am very fortunate in that (1) I am surrounded by younger librarians for whom Web 2.0 is already a daily part of their lives. I have let many of them know I was doing 23Things, and they have been generous in sharing their insights and experiences with 2.0 tools; and (2) many of the 2.0 tools are already in place here at my institution. The U Libraries is the host for the University blogs (UThink) and many of my colleagues already use blogs as a way to communicate with their users. My one regret is that we had a webmaster who use to delight in popping up now and then to show off a new web 2.0 tool that he had just discovered -- he was so good at what he does, that he has since been co-opted into the Libraries IT department and I only see him occasionally.

I do try to keep up with "things" and I was surprised at how many of the tools that were showcased in 23Things I had already known about, if not actively using them. My resolution is to go back over all of the "things" and work on how to incorporate them, if we are not already doing so, into web-pages or other areas that will connect us closer to our users. Some of the RSS feeds that I set up during 23Things covers Web/Library 2.0 topics and I may add more (but not too many -- don't want to get overwhelmed).

Thing TwentyThree -- Done!! (Pant, pant)

I did it! I finally finished.


It was the most fantastical journey(my quote). I started late, so was unable to spend the time I would have liked getting to know all of the different "things" as thoroughly as I would have liked. I think there was a great mix of Things to explore, the blog posts describing the Thing, Thing resources, examples and suggestions for use was very well thought out and I greatly appreciated the blog prompts.

I don't know how much of the Things I will end up continuing to use or explore -- not everything appeals to everyone, but there was plenty of variety to go around. I did receive lots of food for thought and have already initiated conversations with other staff members about incorporating some aspects of the Things that we are not already doing. I have even set up Web 2.0 Things for my spouse, as we had been talking about ways to expand his reach into cyberspace.

I plan to back-track my way through the Things, picking out those Things that especially appealed to me, or I just wasn't able to spend the time exploring as I would have liked. I did get frustrated at times at all the different accounts that had to be set up (afterwards web master told me that, yes, someone has designed another tool to gather up all those diverse accounts -- but I can't remember the name of it now). Time was a frustration as well, since I was playing catch-up, trying to do at least two Things per week, often on the weekends, both at work and at home.

Final word? I would do it all over again gladly. This was one of those learning experiences where I will not forget it a month after its completion. It was extremely valuable in the concepts that were introduced, the style of learning -- that was almost the best part (!), as having to write up about the experiences forced one to actually do and think about the modules, rather than give them only a token try and moving on to the next Thing. The newsletters helped with motivation, the comments to the major blog helped clear up minor difficulties.

Thanks to all who set this up -- you all are an exceptional group of people.

I am not currently a member of any social networking group -- except for now Facebook and the 23 Things On A Stick Ning. It will be interesting to see how much I will find myself participating in any of these or other online communities -- the groups I visited that are listed on the blog didn't call to me, and it just could be that I just haven't seen the online community that is a good fit for me.

If I had to guess at what type of online community might appeal, I can see one that reviews movies (I may have to go back to those listed in the blog) as I do read movie goer reviews (as posted on such sites as Internet Movie Database).

In the work arena, it might be an interesting idea to create an online community of our science librarians -- we meet quarterly for lunch, and exchange emails, but an actual online community where we could post online forums, upload video tutorials for constructive criticism and the like, might be very useful.

Thing Twenty -- Hello World

I asked around the office and found that most of my colleagues who have a presence in the social networking world use Facebook. I looked at both Facebook and MySpace and I do like the looks of Facebook much better and it seems to have a cleaner look and organization about it.

I can see where it would be useful as a way to connect with either colleagues who are scattered around the globe, with a set of students/faculty with a need to interact over a project or just as a way to network. I joined the Medical Library Association group and can see it has a very active Wall posting.

I will have to see what I can do with this.

Thing Nineteen -- Just Listen

I have listened to the occasional podcast, but had never subscribed to a feed. Like everything else, I hadn't done so because of time restraints and the fact that my work environment is not conducive to listening to audio (shhhh, I work in a library, you know). Looking around on Podcastalley.com, I did find a really interesting podcast called The Naked Scientist Naked Science Radio Show -- a tongue-in-cheek broadcast of real science with a bit of humor thrown in. For my blog, I added the podcast feed from my favorite radio station, which does lots of music artists interviews (Cities97 and Studio C).

Finding a podcast in the directory was a bit frustrating at first, as I couldn't tell until I looked at the entries whether or not it was active or not (found many that looked interesting, but had ceased adding new content). I also tried adding a vodcast -- a Nova series, only to find that my browser lacked the most current plug-in to play the video.

At my library, we have done something similar to podcasts -- we have been recording workshops using Breeze (Macromedia/Adobe) and posting them to our web. Breeze is closer to vodcasting, in that it is a recording of live presentations with powerpoint. The limitations of this, of course, is that it is not part of a feed, so whenever we add new content, no one gets notified (however, the web page does have a furl/del.icio.us tag capabilities).

This is something that our instruction department should revisit in the very near future and see where we can increase our presence in the podcast/vodcast world.