Week 6, Thing 15

Wow!! A 55% drop in circulation over the past 12 years!
In his article "Away from the 'icebergs'", Rick Anderson focuses on 3 "icebergs" and discusses what needs to happen for libraries to avoid them.
CCPL has already moved away from print reference sources to online databases and recommended web resources.
I'm sure that our new website will help avoid the other 2 by making everything user friendly (so important!) and creating a "come to us" style of library service by using some of the technology tools in 23 Things.
Take a look at http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

Although I rarely use Wikipedia when doing research, especially when sending sites to answer questions in AskUsNow!, I did find their entry on Library 2.0 quite interesting. According to Michael Casey in "LibraryCrunch" public libraries are at a crossroads and need to have "a strategy for constant change while promoting a participatory role fo library users."
Constant change and a willingness to improve/replace services with new and improved ones are a couple of the key principles to Library 2.0.
Although I just glanced at the References listed at the end of the article, I hope to go back later and look at them in more detail.
For more details go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_2.0

Week 6, Thing 14

Technorati is a search tool for blogs.
What a difference between the number of blogs and blog posts!
I looked at iphone under searches and found 325,132 blog posts and 1,495 blogs.
When I looked at the top favorited blogs and the top blogs, there were several that were on both list...Boing Boing, Techcrunch, and Engadget.
Although I obviously need to know what Technorati is, I'm not sure that I will use it

Week 6, Thing 13

If I had just looked at Us.ef.ful, I would have been reluctant to try Del.icio.us.
I found it too long and it made Del.icio.us sound quite complicated. I was much more hopeful after looking at Several Habits of Wildly Sussessful Del.icio.us Users.
Looking at thePLCMC interesting....I hadn't realized how many public libraries are blogging. Is this a possibility for our new website? I also read the YALSA's Positive Use of Social Networks, which provided a lot of food for thought, and gave me a better perspective on social networking and how libraries can take advantage of this technology.
When I explored the listed libraries, I found several items that interested me, such as Sachem Public Library Reader's Advisory and libsite.org
It was very easy to create an account and add favorites. I added 6 Reader's Advisory sites, including the Sachem Public Library one that I mentioned earlier. And I really like having the buttons on my toolbar! The only problem with installing them was that I had to wait until my shift was over so that I could close the windows on my computer.
Now that I understand tagging better, I do see the possibilities for using Del.icio.us as a tool for research. And it's so easy to access from your toolbar. For someone who telecommutes, it's especially useful that you can have "bookmarks" or favorites that aren't stored on your computer. Del.icio.us allows access from anywhere.
I located my reader's advisory sites by using Del.icio.us tags and also added some tags to some of the sites.

Faithful Companion

Playfulness
Originally uploaded by EddieB55

This kitty looks a lot like my TonyTiger!

Persistence

Finally, after looking at learner-learner's post, which kindly included instructions, I learned how to add my blogroll for RSS. Thank you, learner-learner!!!!

Week 5, Thing 12

Explored Quick Quotes, Public Domain e books Search, and PLMC's searchroll, which I really liked. I quickly saw lots of possibilities for the using Rollyos.

After I signed up for an account, I created a searchroll for my favorite genealogy websites. It's called Gathering Roots. I will go back and add more sites later. I also want to create some that I can use for reference questions but I need to take time to decide how I want to organize them. I will probably set one up for Reader's Advisory, too.

Select...Gathering RootsSearch The Web

Success at last!
Finally learned how to add my Rollyo here.
http://www.rollyo.com/readslikecrazy/

Week 5, Thing 11

LibraryThing!! Now this is something that I can relate to and go to for personal use. I created an account and added 8 titles to my catalog....so few only because I didn't have my lists with me. Even though I have a huge list of authors that I read, I'm always looking for new titles/authors and see this a possible source.
Here's the link to my catalog. I'm almost out of time, so I'll try to add a widget later.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/readslikecrazy

Back again, 2 days later. Hopefully there won't be any HTML problems this time!

Week 5, Thing 10

After taking a look at several image generators, I decided to use Meez.
It was fun, but I spent way too much time with it! I was disappointed that I couldn't have both a book and a cat, but chose the cat because I didn't want to have to be standing while I read the book! : )
And I'm really quite proud of myself because I added my avatar by exporting it, using the "little bit more techie" method!
Here is the link to Meez. http://www.meez.com/home.dm

Week 4, Thing 9

Although I already knew about Merlin, it had been a while since I had looked at it. After I subscribed to the feed, I explored the following Learning Links :

Gaming, Avatars and Virtual Worlds - Second Life
Social Networking - ALA-YALSA
Trends and Cool Stuff
I definitely need to pay more attention to this site!

Then I looked at several of the search tools for locating RSS feeds.
After looking at Feedster, Syndic8.com, and Topix.net, I found that I preferred Topix.net and subscribed to a couple of geographical news feeds.
After deleting some of my subscriptions from yesterday and adding several today, I now have a list of 22 feeds....news, weather, gardening, bookworm stuff, and library "things". Don't know how I'll ever keep up! More "weeding" soon!!

Week 4, Thing 8

I had never heard of RSS before. I can see the advantage of using this technology, both for personal use and for library use. Definitely useful for having all your news organized and available in one site! And a variety of uses on library websites...news feeds, program info, etc.
It was easy to set up my blogline account. Many of my choices came from the Most Popular list that appeared after I set up my account. I added Library Journal News, PLA Blog, Its All Good, and Unshelved, the library cartoon feed.
Right now I have 24 feeds, which is too many for me to keep up with on a regular basis. I'll take a look and see which ones are the most useful and most interesting and weed out the rest.
I found it easiest to subscribe while I was in my bloglines account and copying and pasting the URL.
Wow!! A technology that was new to me and easy to understand!!!

Week 3, Thing 7

Yesterday I read an interesting article on CNET, "10 Things Your Phone Will Do in 10Years". Yes, more "Things"!!!
Some of these features are ones that already exist but will be enhanced and expanded.
Here's the one that fascinated me the most:

" No wallet? No problem. A new technology standard called "near-field communications," or NFC, will turn cell phones into credit or debit cards. A chip is embedded in a phone that allows you to make a payment by using a touch-sensitive interface or by bringing the phone within a few centimeters of an NFC reader. Your credit card account or bank account is charged accordingly.
Unlike RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, which also can be used to make wireless payments, NFC technology allows for two-way communication, making it more secure. For example, an NFC-enabled handset could demand that a password or personal identification number be entered to complete the transaction.
The NFC mobile-payment application is currently in trials in the United States, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, and a few other countries. The technology is widely used in Japan, where people use their phones to pay for everything from sodas dispensed in vending machines to subway cards. Nokia announced the first fully integrated NFC phone, the Nokia 6131 NFC, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and the company is currently testing the 6131 with AT&T's Cingular Wireless in New York City.
Experts also note that NFC technology can be used for more than just retail transactions. It can be used to get data from an NFC-equipped business card, or to download tickets or other data from an NFC-equipped kiosk or poster."


Here's the link to the article.
http://www.cnet.com/4520-13387_1-6737990-1.html?tag=feat.9

Week 3, Thing 6

I spent quite a bit of time looking at the many uses for Flickr and there were some that were pretty interesting and that have practical applications, like calendar and card apps. I also liked the Flickr Color Pickr because it lets you experiment with colors and shading. After many attempts, I finally was successful at using the Trading Card maker. And finally I was able to add it to this post!!!

Success at last!

Week 3, Thing 5

Flickr is a whole new world! I learned about Tags (Keywords...a library word! and labels) and Sets ( way to group photos to make them easy to identify and organize).
Although it is fascinating, I'm not sure that I'm interested in posting my pictures on a public site.

Week 2, Thing 4

I successfully registered my blog.
So far everything has been pretty easy, which is encouraging.

Week 2, Thing 3

I successfully set up my blog.
The biggest problem was having to stop to answer the phone and losing my train of thought!

Week 1, Thing 2, 7 1/2 Habits

Accepting responsibility for my own learning has been a well-established habit of mine for many years, so this is the easiest habit for me.

I tend to be a slow learner when it comes to new technology, so using technology to my advantage is the hardest for me. I am mostly a visual learner and find that when it comes to new technology, I learn best with live demonstration, followed by practice lessons.
So it will be interesting to see how successful this online training will be for me.

Although my goal right now is simply to become familiar with these new "things," I hope that by the time I have finished this training it will change to regular usage of some of these technologies.

Week 1, Thing 1

I already knew that I had a lot to learn about new technology.
Reading about 23 Things showed me that I did not even know the names of some of what I'll be exploring.