Thing 23. Final Thoughts

This has been quite a journey of exploration. I am very glad that everyone had an opportunity to participate and to expand their knowledge. It was very easy to find the site and to come back and explore them at a later date.

In my library we have incorporated a lot of what we learned from this project and will continue to explore these sites for new information.

Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?

I have learned that that Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are anything but static. We are in the information business and have to try and keep up with or in the very least know about what is out there on the web.

In my experience of 31 years in education school librarians were the first to embrace and see the potential of the internet and tried to get other school personnel interested to see there was a better way to do things. It was slow at first but finally others saw the potential and the schools were off and running. I have been at the public library level for close to five years and I am very glad were still are on the cutting edge of technology.

At my library we have a fliker account, a blog, and a very great website designed by our children's librarian. Our patrons come to these sites daily and share with friends and family. We appreciate the effort spent on the 23 Things on a Stick. Without this information and sites it would have been very hard indeed to find and learn all of this information.

I do try to put aside a few minutes of my day to learn new things and encourage the staff to do likewise. I already had a staff member finish the 23 Things and she is using some of the information.

Thank you for this website and this opportunity. I have handed out many 23 Things cards and have other exploring the web.

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Find more photos like this on 23 Things on a Stick


I have enjoyed the NING site. It has a lot of features that would enhance our blogsite or website. It is very easy to use and to add sites which is always appreciated by advanced or novices. I added the music player but do not know how to add my playlist. Please help. Thanks.

I have already used an throughly enjoyed WebJunction. A great site to read and to talk to other library professionals. The site has been updated for even easier use.

Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks

My college daughter who is 29 has a presence on both websites and she is on them a lot. When asked why she said, "that is where all of her friends are and it is easy to use and add applications." So I poked around in her site awhile and was still wondering WHY!

I did enjoy the article on 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally and could see possibly why some would join and went to look at two other sites mentioned in the article. I could see our library or me being a presence on those sites before My Space or Facebook.

I think that these two sites might have an earned or unearned reputation and sometimes are not given a fair chance. On the other hand quite a few students have learned not to post everything they do and know as it can come back to bite you.

Fo me I cannot see how I would use this in a professional of personal setting. But it was good to be able to look at them so at least I have some idea what is out there.

Thing 19. Podcasts

I don't think I will be using this very much and especially do not need a RSS feeder.
I did listen to some of the library ones like the public librarian and and school librarian and as a person who has also done both you look at issues differently. I share some of her problems and solutions. Wish this would have been around 5 years ago. Ah well time marches on.

Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video

I have used and throughly enjoyed sharing YouTube with all I know. This is the greatest THING on the net to date for me. What a great way to share video of anything with anyone. Also a great teaching tool!

I chose the Librarian Song because it is funny and shows how something innocent can sound very very dirty. Enjoy!!!

I soooo want to start a bookcart drill team but I am having trouble finding similar bookcarts that can be used outside on the pavement. I have four people who want to do the drill team with me in our two local parades. So while I problem solve how I am going to do that, I downloaded a video of another library and their drill team.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

I am very well versed and I use and reccommend to patrons how to use the databases in ELM. I worked in the public school for 31 yrs as a media person and I was thrilled when databases came online. We could finally spend our money on other things than reference books and magazines.

I taught classes to new teachers in the three school districts I worked. Some of the new faculty had used the databases in college and many did not even know they exisited and how to effectively use with their students. I also taught the students how to get good results with these databases.

I enjoyed looking at some of the databases I had not used in awhile. Great refresher course.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

WOW!! Wish I would have had this when I was a librarian in the public schools and when I taught speech classes. These two product are phenomoninal and I have emailed all of my teacher friends and I know they will love this online form.

It should really help keep the kids on track with any project. The PDF files are great and I know the teachers will really appreciate all that is done ahead for them.

I can use this when I have a project do and need additional help with timeline, organization, and the thought process. Thanks!!

Thing 15. Online Games and Libraries

This thing was very difficult for me to do as I do not usually do games especially online games. I hated Oregon Trail as a kid but I know others enjoyed it as well as many do enjoy Second Life. My son, who is 29 yrs old, goes online nightly to play after the two kids are in bed it is his downtime.


Local libraries around the SELCO region have game nights and it seems to be very successful. But for us we have only two public computers and they are in constant use by all ages. We do not have the space or the computers to accommodate game nights. I would be interested in pursuing this with a larger facility.

Thing 14. LibraryThing

Boy could I have used this when I worked at the high school media center. This is GREAT!! I am going to add a widget to the library's blog to help other find our new books more easily.

I also like that is an online service to help everyone catalog their books easily and you can accessed your catalog from anywhere.

I can also see this as a social space, LibraryThing is advertised as "MySpace for books" or "Facebook for books." YI think its wonderful that you can check out other people's libraries, see who has the most similar library to yours, swap reading suggestions and so forth. LibraryThing also makes book recommendations based on the collective intelligence of the other libraries.

Thing 13. Online Productivity Tools

I throughly enjoyed and can really use quite a few of these tools. I like pageflakes and igoogle for the vast number of gadgets you can add to the page. Both were very easy to understand and use right away. I have bookmarked some tools and already shared with co-workers, family and friends. This program is wonderful for all that is out there on the web and all of us are very fortunate that you all put it togther in a easy to use format. Thanks!

Thing 12. Do You Digg?

I do like that this site it driven by the user and what they feel is important for information. It also would be handy when patrons come in with current questions that might be hard to find.

I also agree that this is the very essence of Web 2.0 but for me I am not as interested in this site nor find this very beneficial to my library as a whole. I did like newsvine the best of all of the four.

Interesting to know what is out there and how to find it. I did keep all of the on my favorite so when an occasion arises I will know where to turn for information.

Thing 11. Tagging and Del.icio.us

I really could of used this when I worked at a school library and researched for faculty and students. It is great that you can tag your your bookmarks and save pages that you access from any computer.

But now that I work at a public library there is not much call for us to do this for patrons. It would be of great use if there was a large project and many websites to keep and access. I will use it as much as I can in the future.

I think when some directions are written how to go about this should be even easier to use. I sometimes have trouble and I have been a computer person since the late 80"s. Oops I just gave away my age. I did have some trouble with my tool bar and I was not sure how it would work but I am delighted that I now have it on my toolbar.

I will tell my teacher friends about Pagekeeper as it will be a real lifesaver for them.

Thing 10. Wikis

Really enjoyed the video, it explained it in simple terms that anyone could understand and it made it all look so easy.

I already called someone who is helping plan a class reunion and let him know about how I thought the wiki would be very beneficial to their upcoming plans. He also has started to work through the 23 things and is enjoying the process.

I can really see how patrons, staff, well just about anyone, would benefit from this great free product. I can see in our library some possible places that this would be quite useful, when we find the time (after Summer Reading Program) in August.

Thing 9. Online Collaboration Tools

I found these hard to navigate through as some worked others did not. I tried to embed the code to have one of my annual reports on this page but I am finding it hard to do. I can place the code in the layout but not here. Could it be place in the blog or does it have to go into the layout format?? Will try to work through the issues.

I am still waiting to have permission (over 1 hr so far) granted to change the Declaration of Independence.

These have great potential for people working on updating the same documents and not having to meet face-to-face. But for our library were are not quite ready for this.

Thing 8. Share Your Creations

WOW!!!!

What a great a idea for showing off your pictures in a variety of ways!!!!!!! I can really seeing our blog and website becoming used more and more. Who ever design and are keeping up with ways to enhance your site I would like to wholeheartly thank them.

I tried the ZOHO to transfer a slideshow presentation but it took too long and did not fully load. I did try PictureTrail Flicks but only a part of my presentation showed up on the side. What did I do wrong or need to do differently??
I love the Flicks part of PictureTrail. What possibilities.

Thing 7. Web 2.0 Communication Tools

E-Mail
I have used this for many years in the library. It was a great way to communicate with colleagues, family and friends and keep up with what was going on. It was especially helpful when pictures could be exchanged with the local newspapers.

We have taken part in a grant opportunitythrough our regional library system to teach seniors and other how to use computers, emails, photos and file sharing. We also do one-on-one training for anyone who would like to sign up for a service.

We do have some patrons who use the e-mail to notify us of a books they would like to reserve, renew, or just see if we have the book available. We also receive reference questions from patrons.

IM
I see a real need for this even in our small library. I am asking the staff to set up their our accounts and start using this rather than calling across the room for an answer. This will be used by us a lot.

I really appreciate Round 2 of the 23 Things this time I want to finish and force myself out of my comfort zone and learn more about Web 2. Then I can help family, friends, colleagues, and patrons feel more comfortable about some of the really cool tools out there in cyberspace.

Thing 6. Online Image Generators

This is way coooool!! I made a wanted poster of my parents with a margarita sunglasses and mailed to all of my brothers and sister and of course my parents. Now my parents want me to enlarge the photo to hang in their carribean fun room. Success!! Really had fun with this .

I and some of my staff had a great time learning Image Chef. Lots of fun applications. Will be used more in the future. This would be great this summer for trading cards of bugs to give to kids.













I made a trading card of my sister and I in Progresso Mexico.

Thing 5. More Flickr Fun

I can appreciate how some libraries could use these mashups but at this time I really do not have a use for them. I will keep the links and maybe find a use int he future. I did put one up for my last name.

I went out to WebMonkey but it had moved and I could not find the ten best mashups. Would be interesting to see what other libraries are doing with mashups.

Thing 4. Photosharing with Flickr

I had started a fliker account about two years ago and used it a lot for library and family photo sharing. I stop using it as I started a blog for the library and used photos from Photoshop that was loaded on my desktop. It seemed more convenient to use but we now have a new Children's Librarian and she will be uploading photos to the Fliker account for all to share.

I feel this is a great tool for all to use and is easy to understand. The uses are wide and varied according to the library needs. We are fortunate to have a digital comera at our disposal and it get used a lot for all of our programs and I try and place on the blog the same day pictures of the events and them do a poster for the library patrons to see. I also let the local paper know about the programs and send pictures over to them.




This is a picture of Army Sgt Lolley reading a poem to residents at Prairie Meadows Assisted Living as part of the Books on Wheels outreach program through the Kasson Public Library. We were talking about Armed Forces Dayn and Memorial Day and what it means to us all.

Information at your Fingertips

Thing 3. Set Up an RSS Account & Add Feeds


I had always heard about RSS and other feeds but never understood what the benefit was to me and our library. I was always afraid of virus etc. with feeds that would cripple our computers.


I was a little frustrated on the blogline site. It took two of us awhile to decide how this works and how to place it on our blogs. We really wanted the weather feed but could not find the RSS feed, so we both chose other feeds. Could someone help us with this?

I did like adding 23 friends blogs that I check everyday. Took some time to figure out what add page element it would works with and how to add other links to the links part and name the element. Nowhere does it say how to do this. Some other instructions are needed.


I would wholeheartly endorse and show the staff and patrons how to do these great features. I have added a lot of the features we are learning in the 23 things program to the library blog http://www.kassonpubliclibrary.blogspot.com/. I have talked to staff and patrons, and family about the 23 things website and even though they will not get rewarded like I will I thought they would enjoy the step-by-step process.

I am really having a great learning experience. The only thing I worry about is I might forget how it all works, so I downloaded the information to have as a reference for the future and to hand out to others. A big thank you from me on helping learn Web 2.0.

Web 2.0

Thing 2. What is Library 2.0?

I been working in libraries for over 35 years and times they are a changing. Librarians over the years have always been in the forefront of using technology and helping others discover how technology can help them in their daily lives.

As Stephen Abram said sometime it is hard to find the time. But if it is important to us we can find the time. I come early in the morning and work on new skills I have learned and tell staff and patrons how they can be used. Technology seems to be a double edge sword sometimes you feel like it is taking over your life and other times what did I do without it. I especially feel this when the computers go down and all of my work is on it. That means I have to wait for a specialist to fix it. I have never felt particularly threatened by Google or the internet in general because I am pretty busy helping people all day long in my library as it is. The difference is that I help them do different things than I did five to ten years ago.

I have been reaching out to clubs and businesses in my community and the result has been wonderful. The response we get from people when we help then actually deliver the items they wanted has ranged from surprise to jaw dropping amazement. “I had no idea you could do that” is a common response, yet what they don’t know is that the project may have only taken ten or fifteen minutes. To me, this is the kind of thing that creates relevance- delivering the items that our clients want, whether that is with flickr , your blog or with a telephone. And those clients aren’t just millenials, they are anyone and everyone.

The internet and all of the wonderful sites are great to explore and tell others about your finds.
I am pretty proficient at some of the Web 2.0 tools and I am looking forward to learning about more of them through the 23 things on a stick program.

Island Princess Avatar & Site Meter

Thing # 1 Avatars & Site Meter

I finished my avatar a few minutes ago and it really did take a long time to decide the hair, clothes, and background . I went with what I would like to look like when I retire, hopefully in the next few years.

I still do not know what to do with an avatar but at least now I know what one is and where to go to get another.

I also took the challenge and added a site meter. It was very easy and quick and now will see how many visit my site.

Excited About 23 Things on a Stick

Thing #1 Blogs

I have been looking forward to this projects for a long time. Last summer I ran across the 23 Things You should Know from Charlotte-Meckelburg Library and started to work on the 23 items. I am glad MLA decided to get together and make one especially for Minnesota. Thanks Guys!

I have another blog at kassonpubliclibrary.blogspot.com. At this blog I have library information, events and even some fun stuff. Check it out!