Week 9, Thing 23

WOW!!!!!
It's hard to believe that I've finished! And ahead of schedule, too!
As someone who has always felt "technology challenged," I signed on for 23 Things feeling somewhat uncertain and quite a bit intimidated.

In the early stages I felt that I had gotten into something that was way over my head.
But I discovered along the way that stubborness can sometimes be a very positive personality trait. After spending quite a bit of my own time and working my way through untold frustrations, I figured out ...on my own!!!!...how to move widgets, avatars, and other "things" to my blog, simply because I was determined to complete some of the optional exercises. (It would have been nice to have had tips about this at the beginning of the program for us non-techie people.)

Then it became interesting and productive for me. Although I knew that I would find numerous applications for library use, I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that I will actually use some of these tools on a frequent basis. Merlin, del.icio.us, RSS feeds, and Zoho are my favorites and will fit into both my personal and professional lives.
I can see del.icio.us or something similar replacing Favorites on my computers and my bloglines account is a great way to keep in touch with items of personal interest as well as keeping in touch with library and technology news. I've already used Zoho sheets to send statistics and will be using Zoho Writer instead of Word. How wonderful to be able to access them from any computer!

I definitely feel like a success story! I've become more comfortable with these technology tools that have library applications and have more confidence in myself and my ability to learn about new technology in a non-threatening atmosphere. I'm pretty sure that I'm not comfortable enough to be a trainer, but I'm definitely glad to know about what's out there and to actually bring away things that I can use.
I would definitely consider another training project like this, but would prefer that it be offered at a different time of year.

Many libraries are already taking advantage of much of this technology to bring their customers to them. It is important that we (CCPL and other Maryland library systems) embrace new technology . We need to use it to make our online library an interesting and useful place to visit. Wikis for book reviews, reader's advisory and community events. Podcasts and YouTube to highlight programs, databases, and services.
Although I hope libraries will always have books in the print format, I can understand the need to make information available in other ways to engage a very diverse customer base.