Monday, June 9, 2008

Other than that Mrs. Lincoln

I didn't get the position, but it was nice to get interviewed again.

The upgraded Web 2.0 account is for a paid Flickr account. Just in time for the return trip to South Dakota. Look for photos of the Badlands.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

OMFG!

I'm a winner!

I won the upgraded Web 2.0 account.

I'm not sure what that will do for me, but, w00t!

And I got a call for a library job interview today.

Wish me luck.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Thing 23. Final Thoughts

Took the survey, set up the RSS feed for the next tools and maybe you'll hear from me again.

I hate to blog - I don't feel that I have much to add to the conversation except "Me, too!"

Had my say in the previous post.

See you on the funway!

Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?

I have to say that I was surprised at how current I am. Not bad for an over-the-hill boomer teetering on the brink.

Wait, I'm only 52. I'm not dead yet.

"I feel happy!!"

I guess being part of science fiction fandom has contributed to that. We tend to be a forward looking crowd and on the edge of all the technology trends.

I did email when the only program was sendmail. I was on Compu$erve over 20 years ago. Electronic bulletin boards & Usenet used to be big.

In fact, what folks call Web 2.0 has always been there - the tools just keep catching up to what people are doing.

And Libraries have always embraced the new technology. The first place I ever encountered a computer system was at the Stamford, CT Public Library. I used Dialog on a TI terminal with acoustic couplers and chemical paper. The big improvement was being able to craft your search while off line and upload it.

It's a question of mindset.

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Gather, WebJunction & Ning.

I'm a member of Gather, but have not devoted anytime there. Most of my social group is on LiveJournal, so that's where I tend to devote my spare time.

And Gather is pushy. It's always asking me to join one group or another and there's a lot of commercial involvement. It annoys me.

I'm part of WebJunction, since it first appeared around here. I haven't been as active as I should be.

I joined Ning as soon as this project started, but hadn't heard of it before.

I joined Flixster, but use it via Facebook

I joined Last.fm, but don't use it much

LinkedIn is another group where I keep in touch with people I used to work with.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks

I must confess, that since I'm not currently working as a librarian, Facebook is where I keep in touch with former colleagues. And friends from far away. And nearby. And family.

And I can quit anytime I want.

I have a MySpace page too, but I'm hardly active there.

I'm already a member of the ALA, Librarians and Facebook, and Library 2.0 Interest groups.

I just added HCL to my friends in MySpace.

Thing 19. Podcasts

I'm not too much into the podcasting thing, although I did win State Fair passes from a contest from the MN State Fair Podcast (Thanx Laurel!)

I subscribe to one podcast on my Blogline - Jet Streaming from MPR. It's about MN weather.

I'd have to have something I wanted to say for me to have a podcast - and I don't right now.

Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video and

Find a YouTube video I like and link it to my blog and tell why. Here goes!

I've chosen 110 Stories, a dramatized poem by my late friend John M. Ford. He died last year - yesterday would have been his birthday.

He was a brilliant man and I was privileged to know him. The Minneapolis Friends of the Library has a memorial fund set up in his name - he loved libraries.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools & Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

I have an advantage here because I worked at the MNLink booth at the State Fair in 2006, and we promoted all these wonderful things like crazy. The teenagers would glare at me when I showed their parents how to use the Assignment Calculator, especially the email reminder feature.

My kids are tired of my showing them all the neat things libraries on the web can do for them.

The Support Materials for Teachers on the Research Project Calculator are a gold mine!

W00t! I remembered my user name & password for ELM.. Ran a search for the company I work for now and set up an RSS feed.

Remembered my EBSCO name & password, too. - Finally found the link to PageComposer

Already a user on NetLibrary. I'm not able to access the 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site through my HCLIB content collection. bah, humbug

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Thing 15. Online Games and Libraries

As I've been avoiding Second Life, being warned in advance that it's a huge timesink, I'm giving Puzzle Pirates a try.



Arrggh! My pc won't run the java. Let's see if hitting the big red button will help.

Let's see: 3 power failures in one day and almost a half an hour to download the game. ick.

I'm not very good at those kind of puzzles. Now crosswords or jigsaw - any kind of logic game, is my cup of tea. But my eye/hand coordination sucks.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Thing 14: LibraryThing

I've been using LibraryThing for my personal new books - the retrofit would be daunting indeed.

I can see where smaller libraries could make good use of it, too.

Thing 13. Online Productivity Tools

Oh my goodness, I love iGoogle!! I've put lots of stuff that I look at daily there.

I've also had a web-based calendar for the family so my husband and I can easily negotiate our schedules.

Social Media: Del.icio.us, Tagging, & Digg, and More 11 & 12

I signed up for del.icio.us ages ago, but never used it. Let's change that now.

I've been using tags on my Picasa, Flickr & LiveJournal accounts.

Digg, on the other hand, I have been using a little.

Collaboration 9 & 10

My family has been using GoogleDocs for over a year - it's also very useful when you don't have a working printer at home to be able to grab the document at work and print it there.

I don't have a recent PowerPoint of my own to work on right now, alas.

Wikis. And after all the time I spent warning students away from relying of Wikipedia.

I watched the very good video and added my scratchings to our wiki.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Thing 8. Share Your Creations

I had signed up for eFolio when I first heard about it over a year ago. Beats a thumb drive. Just updated it, too.

Have not heard of some of the others. I'm checking out Thumbstack, Zoho Show 2.0, SlideShare

Ooh, new & improved PowerPoint poisoning!

I'm a little dubious about
PictureTrail and no one I know is using it. Everyone is using Flickr, Photobucket or Picasa. I've switched to Picasa because of the amount of storage available.

I like the Flicker Badge.

7. Web 2.0 communication tools and how your library can use them.

I've always been a big promoter of Instant Messaging and I use it constantly. I think that Google Talk has the easiest to use interface and it shows up right on my gmail page.

Yeah, I have all the web-based emails too.

I use the GAIM aggregator for IM on my Linux box at home and Trillian on my Windows machines.

I'm signed up on Twitter, but it can be pretty flaky at times.

I've used IM at the library as both a reference patron and for long-distance communication between campuses.

5> More Flickr fun

It's all fine and good, but too much borrowing might start to infringe on copyright.

Monday, February 4, 2008

23 Things on a Stick: Step 2

I've been a good little librarian and have done my reading (and viewing).

Yawn.

All this talk about Web 2.0 & Library 2.0 seems to miss the point that the Internet has always been about community and collaboration.

Monday, January 21, 2008

23 Things on a Stick, Step 3

I'm already a user of Bloglines, so it was simple enough to add the 23 Things on a Stick blog to the list.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

23 Things on a Stick, Step 4

Spam Booth at the State Fair 08-23-07. What could be more Minnesotan?

And now I'm a member

of the social group "23 Things on a Stick"

http://23thingsonastick.ning.com/

Sunday, January 13, 2008

23 Things on a Stick: Step 1

Create a blog.

OK, done and with an avatar from Yahoo, too.

Content, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. I haven't worked as a librarian in 1.5 years, and have some doubts as to whether or not I'll have another paid position as one. Still, I like to keep my skills up.

How different can this be from LiveJournal anyway.