#23 Woohoo!

Very interesting. Time well spent. I've discovered many new things.

I've incorporated LibraryThing into my routine- I think this is a great way to keep track of what I've read. I've also found the suggestions for other books to read pretty good.

I don't remember to use my bloglines, but when I do remember, the feeds are interesting.

I thought I would use some of the 23 Things exercises on the teen myspace I'm trying to maintain, but am discouraged with the myspace because the only people that seem to look at the space are YA authors or other teen librarians.

The use of Wiki's seems to be unbounded in the library world. There is so much to share, I hope we can use this to get info out.

But the biggest thing I've learned from the 23 things is that there isn't enough time!

I think a classroon environment might be better- at least for the first few exercises. People that aren't comfortable using the internet seem to have gotten stuck at the beginning and gave up at the start.

I would definately like to participate in any online learning offered. I find it stimulating.

#22 eBooks

We have access to Overdrive through Maryland's Digital elibrary. This has been getting alot of use at my house. My husband has a long commute, and has had required reading for work. He discovered that he could download audio ebooks and burn them to CD so he can get his reading done while driving. I, too, listen to audio books while working at home, and have found several titles not available in audio at WCFL. Kabul Beauty School is the latest. The biggest drawback is that you have to wait for your 3 week checkout to expire before getting a replacement- there is no way to check the book back in. I'm curious how copyright protection works with this.

#21 Podcasts

The world of podcasting is completely new to me. It is possible to be in meetings, classes, workshops 24 hour a day! The biggest drawback to watching archived podcasts is the time they take to download. I haven't had the chance to watch a live podcast yet. I am also having trouble keeping up with my bloglines!

#20 YouTube

I've had some experience with YouTube. I use it to fing PSA's for teen pregnancy prevention to use on the myspace page I maintain for the library. I am impressed by how easy it is to use. Here's something a bit different. I'd like to learn how to play the hammer dulcimer.

#19 Web 2.0 award sites

I looked at the retail award sites: threadless.com (a t-shirt company), etsy.com (hand-crafted items), and wipbox.com (info for selling items on ebay or craigslist). I've run across etsy before, but the other sites were new to me. All the sites were easy to use. The threadless user interface was different, but still easy. I liked the fact that threadless uses real-life photos submitted by customers for their catalog.

#18 Zoho and Google Docs

I have no idea what I did to make Zoho publish this test file to here!! It didn't work at first so I opened a new window and logged on to Blogspot. It still didn't seem to work, so I saved the Zoho document and retried- Then suddenly "MP's 23 Things" appeared in a box and here it is! More magic!!

I just created a test doc in Google Docs. Now I'm trying out Zoho. Zoho looks a lot more like the old Word I'm used to but with HTML buttons. Here is the anchor.

How about fonts? Bigger selection than with Google Docs, but I'm not sure how to get back to Verdana since it isn't on the font list. This is a bit irritating.

When I ran spell check, I lost my blank line between paragraphs!

Here is a bullet list:

• one
• two
• three

Now I'll try the spell check thing again. Ooops. Lost some more blank lines.^{x433_{cccc super and subscripts sort of cool.}}

#17 The Sandbox

Well, I discovered there are several knitters that work at the Maryland libraries, and yes, sometimes I'd rather be knitting. I found the sandbox really disorganized and confusing- I guess that's part of the lesson.

#16 Wikis

Of course I've used Wikis many times- at least Wikipedia, but I never understood how flexible they were or how useful they could be in sharing information. Guess I'm just out of it. I especially thought the wikis that shared teaching materials and the local history wiki were very good ideas. So much time is spent re-inventing the wheel. A wiki might be a good way for our branches to share program materials. Do other industries/buisnesses use wikis as much as libraries seem to?

#15 Library 2.0

I am particularly struck by the line from Wiki: Beta is forever. Change is hard-more difficult as I grow older. I embrace technology- it has been my lively hood for most of my adult life. I think Library 2.0 is evolving, and it is difficult to embrace things that are not solid.

Week 6, Thing 14

Technorati. Hmm. Seems the difference in the search of Blogs vs Tags is the presentation, Tags giving just a line, and dividing between blogs and video.

I'm really having a hard time getting into this blogging thing. The demographic (not sure this is the correct term) blogs are much more interesting than the personal blogs. I keep running into librarians learning Web 2.0! Sort of the blind leading the blind. But the biggest thing I've learned is that I don't have enough time.

Week 3, Thing 6

Somehow, I missed this until now. Oh well. This is a better picture of me anyway.

Week 6, Thing 13

Del.icio.us doesn't appeal to me at all. No thanks. I rarely use bookmarks, and I don't really care what other people have to say about a site. Who cares? This definately is not my thing!

Week 5, Thing 12

I am forever looking up recipes online. I prefer the sites that have user ratings. This is a perfect way to limit the search sites. Technology is amazing.

Select...My RecipesSearch The Web

Week 5, Thing 11

The LibraryThing is pretty cool. Very easy to use. I hope I can manage to keep my bookshelf up to date with the books I have read. This beats trying to keep a paper log-I keep loosing them.

I spent quite a while trying to get a widget onto my blogspot page and couldn't get it to work. I tried to use the example html to figure out where to put the widget code, but I couldn't figure it out. If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know. Thanks.

Week 5, Thing 10

Avatars. When I asked my teenage daughter if she knew about avatars, she didn't know what I was talking about. I told her they were computer generated cartoon characters and she asked, "Why don't you just call them computer generated cartoon characters?". Sanskrit...immortal gods to mortals ... Reincarnation... Yikes! The Generator Blog was pretty fun. I also liked the St. James website.

Week 4, Thing 9

I am having trouble keeping up with all the information. Yes, all the feeds are interesting and I like reading the info and keeping informed, but I don't have the time! I skipped over the MERLIN link at the start of this exercise, and tried to find it using the bloglinks search tool. I got several hits- too many of just merlin, so I added library and still had many more than I needed. But did succeed. There is just too much!

Week 4, Thing 8

I'm excited about learning about RSS. Apparently, everyone (at least in my family) has been using this for some time, but never bothered to tell me about it. I am always trying to think of subjects for the wcflteensonline myspace page, and this is a good way to try to isolate things teens might find interesting. I've linked to NPR: Pop Culture, and have just read about the search for the Springfield that will air the Simpson Movie first. Now all I have to remember to check bloglines!

Bloglines public URL: http://www.bloglines.com/blog/mpontius

Week 3, Thing 7

My digital camera is the best techno item I use. And I use it a lot. On my recent vacation, I took hundreds of pictures. The ability to view the photo right away is really great, and it is easy to share the pictures with friends and family.

However, I am having a hard time keeping up. My husband is a techie type, and goes for everything new. This weekend he spent setting up a wireless link between one of our computers and our new HD TV which allows us to view photo's on the screen-with background music, no less! It's nice- but I would never spend the time to set it up.

Week 3, Thing 5

Ponte Decchio by Vanvos

I am traveling to Italy in a few weeks, and will be returning to Florence again after 20 some years. I thought I would look for a picture of Florence, and found this amazing photo. This photographer has a true gift for capturing the light. The sky, the buildings, the water. Wow.

Week 2, Thing 3

7 1/2 lifelong learning habits

I think the easiest habit for me is to accept responsibiltiy for my own learning. I fingured out sometime ago that if I really want to learn something, I am the one that needs to make it happen. Putting the book under my pillow didn't work very well.

The most difficult habit is viewing problems as challenges. Usually, problems are just a pain.

Week 1, Thing 2

I am a lifelong learner. It is what keeps things interesting. But I may have met my match with learning another forgien language. I have been trying to learn some Italian, but I keep getting it mixed up with French and the little Spanish I've pick up.

Week 1, Thing 1

Here I go!