Step 23!

Thing 23- Here are some final thoughts:

My favorite “things” were number 12 (creating your own search engine using Rollyo) and number 18 (using online word processing/spreadsheet tools). I found it really fun to create my own customized search tool where I could only include the sites that I wanted. Also, it’s incredibly useful to be able to use an online word processing tool since so many people still have Word/Excel 2003 even though 2007 has been available for some time now.

Even though I was familiar with most of these “things” before I started this project, I still learned a great deal. I learned some new “things” and also became more familiar with some other “things”. I think this exercise is very relevant whether you are a technology beginner or a technology whiz.

I think some other “things” that librarians should know about are FaceBook, Smart Phones, and BlackBoard. I find that in my current position I need to be familiar with these. A complete list of 101 things for librarians to know can be found at: http://www.libraryman.com/blog/101rtk/. (BlackBoard is not on this list, but I think it should be.) While I think it’s important that we know about these things, I also hope that we don’t loose site of the basics.

Steps 20-22

Thing 20- I must admit that I love Youtube! I have never posted any of my own videos, but I love to watch videos that others have uploaded. Here is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0. This wedding dance video has been watched over 31 million times. I’m sure you’ve probably seen it, but it’s worth watching again! I am always amazed at what you can find on this site. I found old Walter Cronkite news clips that I used as part of my senior presentation on the Vietnam War.

Thing 21- I had no idea there were so many podcasts available online. Personally, I don’t have time to watch many podcasts, but I recently took a class offered by the National Library of Medicine and now I know how to create my own podcast using podbean. It was so simple. I actually created a podcast and my relatives in South Carolina watched it.

Thing 22- I’m also amazed at the number of audiobooks available now. I keep telling myself that I’m going to start listening to some of them, but I really love the feel of an actual book. I do have an mp3 player and I have figured out how to download e-books to it, so now I just have to actually do it.

Step 19

Thing 19- My two favorite sites from the Web 2.0 awards are "Craigslist" under the Classified section and "Farecast" under the Travel section. I have used Craigslist before to sell things and I always look at Farecast when I'm trying to book flights.

Step 18

HELLO TO MY FELLOW

23 THINGS BLOGGERS!!

(Created Using ZOHO Writer)

Steps 16-17

Thing 16- I am familiar with wikis because the university where I work uses them. There are numerous "staff pages" that are wikis. These include committee reports, procedure documents, etc. I also must admit that I often use Wikipedia. It's such an easy way to locate information quickly however, when writing a formal report or paper, I never use Wikipedia as a source. I often just use it to look at the citations for certain topics.

Thing 17- I created an account and added information about one of my favorite books-Night by Elie Wiesel- to the Learning 2.0 Sandbox wiki. It was so easy.

Steps 13-15

Thing 13- I think that Del.icio.us is an incredibly useful website for anyone. There are many times when I have bookmarked a website either at work or home and then I wanted to access it later from a different computer and have been unable to remember the site. I like that Del.icio.us allows you to tag everything and then collections naturally emerge.

Thing 14- I use the Technorati website quite often and I also find it very useful. I'm a bit of a politcal junkie and I used it alot during the recent election. It allows you to find blogs that you might otherwise miss.

Thing 15- Personally, I agree most with this perspective on Library 2.0 & Web 2.0: http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm. I am already tired of hearing these terms and I happen to believe that before you know it, we'll be hearing about Library/Web 3.0, etc., etc.

Steps 11-12

Thing 11- I frequently search LibraryThing, but had never created an account so it was about time I did. It is so easy to search for titles and catalog them. I catalogued five of my books in about a minute.

Thing 12- How is it possible that I've worked in a library since summer 2008 and I've been in the Master's program since fall 2008 and I've never heard of Rollyo??? Where have I been? I created my own account and made a search engine for recipes since I'm always looking for new recipes to try and I usually just use Google. What a cool webtool. One last note-I'm not sure if it's just me, but the Rollyo website runs incredibly slow on my computer.