Thing 47. Evaluation

I just completed the second round of 23 things. I have to say my favorite Things were probably the maps (I would still like to go back and map out the different bookmobile routes, eventually...), as well as the screen casting, and even the scrapbooking Thing (who knew!). I still don't understand why Twitter is so popular, and I dont think I ever will. People saying email and chatting are becoming DEAD tools, which really sucks because I love emailing people! Its how I keep in contact with people, I dont even have a landline phone, just a cell phone. I figured there was no sense in paying $25 a month for something I dont use. If you know me at all, you know how adverse I am to using phones anyway...

All in all this was another fun round of the Things, and I hope you all have time to finish it!

Thing 46. WebJunction Minnesota

I think all of the classes that are offered are probably the best thing on WJMN for me. I going back to school for my MLIS, but it might be nice to take a course in "dealing with angry patrons" or "keeping your library looking good", as there are a lot of practical solutions here that look interesting.

When I looked at the section about regional library systems, it had upcoming events from December 2008, which was 3 months ago. It would be nice to have a section that upcoming events from every library system that was updated regularly. But, perhaps the regional libraries have to contact WJMN with that information, and they have not done so and that is why there is no current information.

Thing 45. Cloud Computing

The WebOS tools sound interesting, it would be nice to have access to a virtual ghost of your computer wherever there is Internet access. One drawback would obviously be that your files and information could be accessed by someone else if they wanted to hack into the hosts file system, but that is true of any file uploading/sharing service. So it is not unique to this WebOS as a whole anyway. I like to carry around a USB drive whenever I know I will need to have one to back up files Im working on. This is really handy when you are in school, I usually do a lot of homework on my breaks at work, so I save my work to USB drives and put it back on my computer when I get home.

I use GoogleDocs all the time with school, it is especially helpful when your professor wants you to work in a group in order to write a paper, or do some other work. All of my school is done online so it is impossible for all of us in the group to meet in person. We use GoogleDocs, go into the chat area for our class, and start to work on the paper or project. It is updated in real time, so you can see other people working on the paper, and see what changes they are making.

Other apps that I use include Paypal and my schools file sharing system. Paypal is great if you buy and sell stuff online, but beware they do charge fees, and if you give them your checking account number they will have it FOREVER, they will not get rid of that information even if you close your account. That is my Paypal rant, do with it what you will. As far as the file sharing system I use with my school, I like to put information on that when I forget my USB drive, and I can just get to it again whenever I want to as long as there is an Internet connection. They also let you store up to 250 MB of data, which is a lot really, when you consider that most of the things I do involve Word documents, that are only usually 100 K at the most.

Thing 44. The Economy

This Thing has ALOT of good stuff in it. I have used about half a dozen of these sites before, and they are all very helpful. The Retailmenot site has different coupons/codes for websites, and before you purchase anything online you should look thru them to see if there are any savings. For a lot of the sites you can get 5% off or free shipping or something, it might not be much, but it could be $5 to $10 or something everytime you buy something online. Other favorites include Craigslist and Freecycle. Both are free online trading/bartering/selling sites, whatever you want to call it. I really don't like how Freecycle is set up. Most of the time you get emails from people ASKING for free stuff. Like a couch, or a car, or money. Im not making this up, most of the people dont understand this is to give some you dont want anymore a good new home, so it can be used again. It is not a site to beg for free things. Lastly, I like the Gasbuddy site, and other similiar ones. Its nice to shop around ONLINE for the cheapest prices, rather than just driving around looking for it! After all you are trying to save money and gas, why not take the advice from others as to where the cheapest fuel is for that day?

Thing 43. Online TV and Video

I guess being able to watch shows whenever I want to is probably the best thing with full episodes. I can't afford cable (and would only really want to see a half dozen networks anyway, not over 200), so I just have the standard stations you can get over the air. Now with DTV, it is even worse, not better. I don't get ABC or CBS, but do get FOX, PBS, and NBC. ABC and CBS claim they will be back on in June sometime, I will have to wait and see. So having the networks broadcast episodes of shows is actually very nice of them. I think they had to do it tho, lots of episodes were being shown on YouTube and the like, so the networks probably figured that it would be better if the viewer was to watch them on their own sites, that way the network could show advertising at the same time. Not sure what the impact will be on cable tv companies, I suppose they will have to raise their rates, but they had better be careful with that during this rough economy, otherwise they will lose people and they may never get them back.

I think I like Hulu the most, every thing there seems very well organized. This is a funny clip from the tv show The Office. Michael Scott sets up a role playing session between Dwight Schrute and Jim Halpert to help them with their customer service skills. Take a look.

Thing 42. Music 2.0

I use the Internet radio for NPR/MPR pretty often, probably a few times a week. I like to have it on in the background when I'm surfing the web or doing homework. My favorite show on NPR is either Car Talk or The Story. Never say never when it comes to the Internet. A few years ago most people would have thought you were crazy if you told them that newspapers would cease to exist, and would be entirely online. However, this is true for some newspapers now. They found it wasn't feasable to keep operating both a print and online version of their paper. So, someday radio may be entirely online, but I don't see it happening real soon at any rate. I can't really recommend any radio stations, but I can recommend iTunes. It is really one of Apple's better products. Not only can you listen to download and listen to music, podcasts, as well as TV shows and movies, you can also listen to streaming radio. They have several hundred stations listed in iTunes, and there are some good ones on there. Check it out when you have time. Although, with many online tools, streaming radio is best listened to with high speed Internet, unless you like being frustrated by a dial up connection, don't say I didn't warn you.

Thing 41. Mashup Your Life

Do these services make life easier? For me, NO! Unless you are really into the social networking aspect of the web, which I'm not, these devices and websites ultimately make life harder, as I would still have to check the one site I wanted to use in order to control all of my other social websites I use. I tried signing up for one, and the problem is, is that I forgot a lot of my user names I used last year for the first 23 Things on a Stick program! At least this year I was smart enough to use the SAME user name for every site or thing, if possible. But, I at least see the point of them. We get a lot of people in the library using Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. It might be a good idea to direct them towards these resources and see if they might be able to help those interesting in maintaining all of the social sites from one place.

Thing 40. Mashup the Web

I tried out this TimeTube site, and it is really neat. It is like a timeline of a bunch of videos, in order by when they were put on Youtube, or another site. In honor of the ALS bookmobile returning to service next week after being down for almost 2 months, I present this video.

YouTube: Bookmobiles on Dipity.

I also wanted to make a picture of the bookmobile. I used another picture of it, similar to the one I posted on my blog last year.

The Wheel of Food is a neat idea too, but it was not imbedable (is that a word?), so you can just explore it yourself if you want to. You put in your zipcode and a query (lunch, dinner, etc) and it spins a wheel with all of the places in your area. That way they wheel can decide for you.

Thing 39. Digital Storytelling

I picked the Scrapblog to start with. It was very easy, just pick a template, and add your photos. I picked a tree background to showcase some pictures I took when my family stayed at a cabin on Lake Superior in May of 2007. I had no problems at all.

I think it might be nice to try and hold a class for this, and see if we can get some of the people who do physical scrap booking to give this a try and see how they like it. I hear a lot of people in Gilbert talking about scrap booking, so this might be a good way to try and draw a crowd in and show them that the Internet has some creative uses available for them to try.

Thing 38. Screencasting

I used the Screen-o-matic software. As an aside, I also like the Windows Movie Maker that comes standard with Windows (they finally got something right). You can drop in movies you made, and add text, sound, and other actions to create really good looking, and professional movies. While its not the same as this, check it out sometime if you feel like you want to post something on Youtube.

Anyway, this video took forever to make, as I wasn't really sure what to do. I finally decided to make a movie about how to suggest a book for us to buy at the Gilbert Public Library. I didn't use any sound, so hopefully my actions are clear enough.

The Screen-o-matic seemed to work the best out of all of them. All of the rest of them to have too many hoops to jump thru.

Thing 37. Photo Tales

I decided to try a slide show as I don't think I have done one of those yet, but I'm not sure who really wants to look at any photos I took. These are of a tree that feel down at my last crap hole (I mean apartment). Luckily I wasn't there when it happened or my car would have been crushed. I happened to decide to go visit my parents at the last minute, so luckily it worked out. No symphony from my landlord either, he could have cared less, and to my knowledge the tree is still there 1.5 YEARS later. Anyway, I used the Rockyou creator, and it was very easy. I uploaded all 10 pics in about a minute, and you could select how they were displayed, I picked "revolver". I also picked the slowest speed, as I always have trouble looking at the pictures in other slide shows because they go too fast. I guess I see a use for this for me at home, not so much at the library. Although I think the kids would be really interested in this.

Thing 36. Comic Relief: Generate Some Fun

I like the free PDF makers, as well as the READ posters, even though I couldn't get that link to work.  I even searched ALA's site, and I couldn't find it so maybe they have taken it down.  I know I used it last year at one of our teen events in Gilbert, so maybe they are updating it or something.  The dewey decimal generator with your name and birthday was okay, mine came up as two different choices: 517 (unassigned) or 704 (special topics in fine & decorative arts).  I went to Stripgenerator and found these comics.

This reminds me of every library job I have had so far, this was created by infomaven.

This one was made by orgmonkey.

I really think that the kids would enjoy this more, and we could do it during a teen tech week event, or during a teen reads week event.

Thing 35. Books 2.0

Alot of patrons these days seems to enjoy the DVDs we rent out at the library, and the books almost seem like technology of the past to them.  Perhaps if we can introduce them to the Books 2.0 idea, they might enjoy that because of the technology associated with it, and it might make them want to try reading paper books again.  The What's Next link, is really a great idea.  Often times I try and look up a series of books, and this would be a very quick link for that.  The BookMooch and PaperBack Swap links seem to be interesting.  Since I take college classes, I might try and see if I can swap books for the summer session that starts in a few months.  The printable postage on the PaperBack Swap is a good idea, similar to that you can do if you are a seller on eBay.  I have a lot of paperback books Im looking for, for one of my collections, so I might be able to find them here, rather than paying ALOT of money for them.

Thing 34. Is this Our Competition? Online Answer Sites

I think the appeal is that you can get an informal answer to an informal question.  If Im looking to find out who one the World Series in 1994 (this is a trick question btw), I would just google it, and find out who it was right away, rather than trying to go to a library to find out.  Its just a quick reference to a quick question.  The answer is of course, nobody, because they had a lock out that year.  But, lets say I wanted to write a paper about that lockout and about the MLBPA salaries that year, then I would try and find some books, or even articles about it at the library.  So I guess the appeal of these sites is that they are informal, quick, and you don't have to jump thru hoops to find the answer.  I have seen questions about how to change spark plug wires, questions about Windows XP/Vista, questions about Barack Obama.  Just about anything you can think of will probably show up on these sites.  Yes, these questions should be directed towards a library if the person asking the question wants a solid, concrete, 100% correct answer.  Remember that Wikipedia is editable by ANYONE and EVERYONE who wants to do so.  There are many wrong answers on Wikipedia, but there are those who try and police the site and make sure that the references provided are accurate, but this task is probably like trying to find a needled in a haystack the size of Minnesota.  I think sometimes they probably do use these sites because they don't know what the library has to offer.  On the other hand if you have a question about how to beat a video game at 2 am in the morning, are you going to wait until the library opens up the next morning at 10 am to try and look at a tips and tricks book, or are you going to try and find the answer online at a video game cheat site?  To me thats a no brainer.  I did not answer any of the questions, but I have for other ones, like for the question I posed about about the 1994 MLB season.

Thing 33. Travel 2.0

I really liked the Hotspotr link.  I didn't see any in the Quad Cities area, but since I have my own Internet access, I don't need to find other places to use it.  I know the Virginia PL has it, and there are a few other places in the area too.  The Gilbert PL currently does not have WiFi, and we get a huge number of people asking for it in the summer, so using this we could point them to other places in the area, but this only works if anyone and everyone who knows where there is free WiFi in the area adds it to the map.  I have added some, if you know of any others, please share yours too.  I really liked the Green Routes link, it had some interesting places to go in Minneapolis.

Sesame Street

How sad it is.  I will always remember what my cousin would call Sesame Street before she learned to speak in full sentences, just plain old "street", we all knew what she meant by it!

These are dark days indeed...

Sesame Street's word of the day is layoffs

Thing 32. Google Maps and Mashups

First of all, this is so cool!  I decided to make a map of one of our bookmobile routes, I only do 4 of them on a regular basis, as I have more time I will add more of them.  This would be a good thing to have for our patrons to look at on our website to see where we go to each day, and each route.  But, do yourself a favor, only use this when you have access to high speed Internet, otherwise it is a lesson in frustration 101.

View Larger Map

Thing 31. More Twitter

I like the Power Twitter add on for Firefox.  Of course I like just about any add on for Firefox, but it works with Youtube, Google Maps, and many other websites that I like.  Im still not totally sure about Twitter, it might grow on me in time. I thought this was an interesting Internet quiz, What Punctuation Mark Are You?. I was a dash -.  Whatever that means.  Hmm, no specific category for Librarians, but there is a sub category under Education.  But I added my name to it, so we will see where it goes from there.  I put down where I worked, so we will see how many people from NCLC notice me on there.  Im definitely in the denial stage of Twitter, I see its purpose, but Im not quite there yet.  I think Twitter is a beginning, a new way to look at the web and social interaction.  Here is a neat Twitter badge/icon I found.

Anyway, you guys can tell when it is spring break for me, can't you?  I have done more on this blog in the past day, then I have since I started it back up again in January!  Pretty sad really, but school and work have to come first...

Thing 30. More Ways to Use RSS and Delicious

I don't use my RSS feeder regularly, I do however look at my RSS feeds on my blog pretty often, but like everyone else its sometimes hard to find time to do these "virtual" things online, especially when school and work get in the way.  I really like the ones with information about libraries, and related topics.  I have the del.icio.us/minn23 that I follow the most.  I had some sports ones on a for a while but they made my site too cluttered.  I guess the feature I use the most for the del.icio.us thing, is that of the tagging.  It somehow seems very important to tag the stuff, and group things of similar nature together.  Im not really sure why tho, maybe because it reminds me of DDC or LOC call number systems, who knows!  The biggest suggestion I have for RSS feeds, is to start small.  Then once you see if you are using it regularly or not, you can add more, or take some away, depending on how often you use it. 

Thing 29. Google Tools

I picked the Alerts.com > alerts page.  I had them send updates to my email address about the cheapest gas prices, and top local news, one time a week.  I had them sent updates for both gas and diesel prices, just so I know what is happening for both types of fuel.  There were many other types of alerts you could get, but I decided to try these out for a while and maybe add others later on.  The movie/dvd alert would probably be one I will try next, especially to know when dvds come out, this would be very useful.  The second option I picked was the Google calendar, I would not want to share this with anyone, but it would be useful for me to add entries to it since I work two jobs, so this would be a good way to see where I need to be each day.  I think the week option would be nice for school, I usually just make an excel spreadsheet each semester, but this would save some time, since the dates were already there, I would just need to update the days with whatever assignment was due.

Thing 28. Customized Home Pages

I picked iGoogle, mainly because I feel that their services are better than the others.  I hadn't even heard of Netvibes or Pageflakes, so I figured iGoogle would be the best choice.  It was very easy to set up, much easier than Twitter, it only took a few seconds.  Google had a bunch of choices to start your webpage from, so it was very simple to start out with.  I added a bunch of RSS feeds for my gadgets, some for videos, comics, joke of the day, and one for Sports Illustrated.  I really liked the GoComics feed from iGoogle, the only problem with it is that you couldn't get Unshelved on their, just the regular comics like Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield.

Thing 27. Twitter

I could see a use for this for myself in a library setting, if only to talk with the kids and teens about it, since they seem to be using it once in a while.  Perhaps Twitter would best be used better for me in a social setting, so I now need to try and get some of my friends to join.  My username is "23 things".  I would not want to use this on my phone, because I do not have enough money to buy a real phone, I had to purchase a pay as you go phone, so I cant get unlimited texts, I have to pay 5 cents per text.  It would be okay to try it out a bit, but using it too much would not be cost effective for me.  I liked just the basic "what are you doing" question, people were driving home from work, doing taxes, riding their bikes, it seems weird but even tho I have no clue who these people on they want to share with the world what they are currently doing, kinda neat really.  I added a Twitter badge that would keep everyone informed on what Im currently up to.

Thing 26. Join the Ning

I joined the Ning last year during the first round of the 23 Things project.  I actually have a couple of videos on my profile here, they are one of a grouse and of a car "burning out" at the Grand Rapids, MN car show in 2007.  My account is just under the name Chris.  I added a Ning badge to my site, as well as commenting on a forum question about initial impressions about the Ning.   No, I have not joined any groups yet, but I plan on doing so.  I think it would be great to collaborate between librarians, especially those outside of the NCLC area.

Thing 25. Bloggers' Toolkit

I decided to add the Vozume gadget to my blog, I noticed YouTube implemented a speech feature to their site a while back that allows the user to hear the posting before it is submitted.  Kind of interesting, but it has problems with the proper pronunciation of certain phrases, but it does pretty well for being a "robot speaker".  I also added Clustrmap not only to see how many people actually look at my blog, but where they live too.  Next I added a search bar to my page so that things or blog posts I added could be looked up quickly if they wanted too.  Lastly I added a poll to my blog asking if people were either:  inside of the ALS region, or outside of the ALS region, just to get an idea of who (if anyone) is reading my blog.

Realistically, any of the ones that needed to create ANOTHER user account, I sort of steered away from.  I have too many passwords and usernames floating around in my head.  Its best to avoid creating new accounts when possible, at least for me it is.  I spent about an hour sifting thru all of these tools/gadgets, but I was on dial up Internet, so that slowed me down a bit.

Thing 24. Refresh Your Blog

I retooled my blog a bit, I changed the template/background, and created a new avatar. This one is straight out of a South Park episode, in terms of the style of it. When did their very first episode in grad school, they would cut out every pieces of paper for the characters, backgrounds, sets, then use stop motion to animate an entire episode. For every second of show, there are something like 24 "frames", therefore 24 frames per second. Anyway, I couldn't get the site to save my avatar, so I print screened it into Photoshop (yes I have Photoshop now, I had to buy it for a class, and it ONLY cost $250, what a deal eh?). Then I was able to save it as a normal .JPG file.

I also edited my profile, and include info as to where I live, and where I work, as well as my hobbies. I also added a few new gadgets, like picture of the day, and quote of the day. There are so many new gadgets now, so it should be interesting to change them around every once in a while.