Thing 11: Tagging & Delicious

I've been using Delicious for a while, but after watching the tutorial, I feel I learned some new things about it. It is a great way to keep your bookmarks "portable", but in the future, I will be looking at it more as a way to find additional bookmarks on given subjects. When I am putting together the resources section of my newsletter, this would be an excellent tool. Never thought of it that way, so this is great. At a real basic level, whats not to love about a tool that makes it easier to keep track to your bookmarks?

Thing 10: Wikis

No sweat....I created the 23 Things on a Stick wiki (using PB Wiki), although I barely recognize it anymore. Because we wanted to give all participants an opportunity to post to it, and share insights and ideas, it has changed a lot. I must admit, wikis are not my favorite tool. I have been an editor of sorts for over 15 years now, and I believe there is a place for wikis, but I have a hard time knowing exactly "where we are at" in the publication process with such a free flowing process and document. Me thinks it may be fascinating for students to use in a group process of creative writing. Having said that, I could also see sharing a doc with my 11-member Governing Board to get their immediate input....just not my favorite tool, which is fine....

Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools

I think one of the coolest ways to learn to use these tools is when you are trying to solve a problem. Kicking off 23 Things in our CMLE region created just such a test case. My two other CMLE 23 coaches are LeAnn Suchy, College of St. Benedict, and Cindy Gruwell, St. Cloud State University. From the very beginning, we needed a way to share the registrations of our participants and Google docs became a great solution. We found it best to do the major creation of our Excel document locally, then upload it to our CMLE23 gmail account, where we can all get at our Google docs. In addition to keeping contact info on our participants, we are also able to keep our spreadsheet for tabulating the progress of our participants. This information helped us estimate how many completion prizes were needed too....

Zoho has a Project Management Software tool I would like to further investigate. Got into a tussle with trying to create a portal URL. Later....

Thing 8: Share Your Creations

OK, so I admit it, this has been a really fun day with playing with pictures...great fun, and fairly astounding results. I'm not sure anyone will believe "I did my own work". I dabbled with some of these tools a few years ago, but it is unbelievable how easy these things have become. I can think of all kinds of uses for these tools. When CMLE hosts it annual meeting, this would be a wonderful way to share photos of the author and CMLE participants. I am very excited to start using some of these tools for such applications. Stumbled across something called Smilebox, which looked very cool, and appeared to also include music in slideshows. Am thinking about things like 50th wedding anniversaries too, and how easy it would be to put some of these slideshows together. Waaayyy cool.....

Picture Trail Flick

Thing 7: 2.0 Communication Tools

I sort of forgot that I can change how often I receive email messages. I absolutely am going to set mine to check once every hour, rather than the continual barrage, which definitely can affect how productive you can make in the moment! I got all excited about Mail Template, but it appears it is a Mac application? In Outlook, I sort of do the same thing now. I create "template messages" for topics, then save them as a draft. Then, I copy and paste the text into a new message when I need it.I liked the quote, "stop letting your email poke you with a stick, its just not worth it". Funny, but a big part of my job is responding to these pokes, but maybe I can at least manage how often the pokes happen. I have noted an alarming increase in folks who just don't read their email, or maybe once a day!?!? Do we seriously have this luxury???
The instant messaging video was a good demo of IM, but I wonder how long it would take librarians to get comfortable with the lingo. I would be worried that I could not easily translate what the students were saying to me. I have found text messaging very handy with my kids. They seem to actually prefer it much of the time, and we've had some good laughs with trying to outdo each other in outrageous responses at times....
The multitype directors have been having some meetings using OPAL software. It is a nifty way to touch base, look at common documents, all have a change to talk, and save a fair amount of windshield time and mileage dollars. Not great for all meetings, but works well for specific needs. Over the last three years I have attended several MINITEX webinars, webjunction webinars, and others....love it! Most are free, and I don't have to travel.

I just set up my Twitter account for use at next week's PLA conference in Minneapolis. the conference will be humungous, and Twitter or texting will be a great way to find colleagues to have dinner or get together. What did we do before we had these tools???

Thing 6 Revisited

Now that I am finally getting a little discipline in my blogging for these tools, I revisited this thing and perused a couple more resources.

Image Chef worked well to create the Think Spring! animation on my blog. Have I mentioned how much fun I am having???

I also had a great time making a trading card of my grandson. At our CMLE offices we get lots of requests for interlibrary loan materials on famous Minnesotans. The students would probably love to make a trading card of their person to include with their dramatic presentation or final paper...they could be tasked with including the 5 most noteworhty accomplishments of their person....

Thing 5: More Flickr Fun

Waaay too much fun, with a little frustration sprinkled in too, but I will not be deterred! As you can see, I created a puzzle using Flickr, and I had a great time spelling with Flickr. Splashed around a bit in Big Huge Labs, and am moderately dissapointed that I could not get Mosaic Maker to work no matter what I tried. I am wondering if the site was not working right, and will return to it later, as I think this would be a great gift for someone at a library retirment, an 80th birthday, or a one year old's birthday. Biggest chunk of my day was spent uninstalling some software that came with my digital camera that has made it nearly impossible to easily upload any photos off of my camera. It is Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition, and whenever I wanted to do anything at all useful with my photos, this software would insert itself squarely in the middle of the process.

A true barnacle on the a _ _ of progress....smile....

Thing 2

Oops...almost forgot to do thing 2. I've been reading about and following the Web and Library 2.0 concepts for a while. Seems to me that we are smack dab in one of the most exciting times for libraries. Also one of the most challenging.Funding is tight, people can feel stretched (and cranky). For the last two years, due to stagnant funding, I have been doing two jobs. I managed it, but feel I lost out a bit professionally. Am playing a fast game of catchup at the moment. Some of these new tools do not necessarily mean all new services. They may actually make some of our services a bit easier to manage. Reader's Advisory is one of those examples that easily comes to mind. I believe the trick is to be clear about what services we provide, then look at all available tools to make those services fresh and exciting, using some of the tools our customers enjoy. Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

Thing 4: Flickr

I just bought my digital camera this year, and most of my pictures are of family, so I have been perusing the Flickr photos with tags of spring and Midwest. I took pictures of 23 things participants at MEMO mid-winter, created a set,made them public,and tagged them as 23thingsonastick so everyone can see them.The upload process is easy, and it always astounds me how many people are sharing their photos on Flickr. I tried doing a Flickr badge using pictures of spring in the midwest, but after three attempts, I gave up on that. WHATEVER!

Thing 3: RSS

I've been using RSS for a couple of years now....first time I tried to set it up, I forgot where to go to check my feeds (Bloglines). So, next time around I used Google Reader, and set up my I Google page so I see my feeds immediately upon starting up my computer each day. Much, much better solution for me. I absolutely could not do my newsletter, mass emails, or have any ideas what is going on in statewide meetings without my RSS feeds. I love the fact that not only is it a great awareness tool, but it is also a productivity tool. I'm all about finding better ways to manage my time....

Thing 1

Now that I have all of our CMLE participants lined up, with only one blog, I can attend to my own blogging. I've been flitting around with many of these things for a few years now, but maybe by blogging and following through, I will feel more concrete about what I know. Feeling the pressure....Obviously, I've set up my blog. Easy squeezy, had no problems with the avatar either. Don't you so wish you could look like your avatar? I hope to be thundering through the things at warp speed now...but the PLA Conference is next week, which will make it difficult.Will do my best!