Reflection

It really is the end. I find it hard to believe that I am at the end of the 23 things. I really enjoyed the North Texas 23. I did not realize there were so many "things" I was not aware of and how useful they could be to me and the teachers at my campus.

The thing I liked least was Ning. With all the controversy around this site I don't think I could see using it. Twitter is another site that I will probably not use. I just do not see me twitting about myself every day. The thing I lerned the most about was the RSS feeds. I really learned what an RSS feed is and what it does. It is amazing how I know notice them on sites now! My most challenging time was using the Image Generator. I could not figure out how to get it in my blog. I finally got it there but it took some work.

The thing I will probably use the most - besides Facebook - is my Google Blog reader. I like being able to access everything on this site. I also like the Delicious site and will be using it more. I like being able to access my bookmarked sites online.

I will be checking to see how many sites I can actually access through my district's filter. It blocks so many sites, but now that I am a librarian I may be able to get through the filter because I will have the password power!!

Thanks to all of you who worked so hard putting together the North Texas 23. It was truly a learning experience. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from all of you!

My Own 23 List

Thinking about how I would adapt the North Texas 23 to be used in my library is very difficult. I will be a new librarian this year. I would like to be able to show some of the teachers at my campus some of the sites we learned about in the North Texas 23 as well as use some of the sites in my library. Since I am new I would start small. I would show the staff Google Docs, Delicious, and Tagging. I think it is important that the teachers understand what Tagging means. This way when I showed them Delicious they would better understand how to tag things. I also think showing them Google Docs would be something they could use right away. I would like to create Podcasts for my library. I think Podcasts are a good way to keep students interested in things in the library. Since I will be a new librarian I will want to limit myself to just a few new things not only for my only sanity but also to not overwhelm the teachers and students.

Podcasts

I went to the Library Success Wiki and then went to the Kankee Public Library and listened to the "Podcast 2009 Teen Poetry Slam." It was a poetry competition and was a very good podcast. It sounded more professional than other Podcasts I have heard. The sound quality was exceptional, no breathing sounds, no background noises, and everyone could be heard clearly.
I also listened to the DeKalb County Library Podcast. It was a Podcast on specific authors. The Podcast was the author speaking about their work. It was a very good Podcast. The sound was clean and clear. You could hear everything and it sounded very professional.

I have created a podcast and found it to be a very easy thing to do. I had to do it for a class so it was on using the Big Six. I think Podcasts can be very useful in the library. I will be working in an elementary library and I believe that both students and teachers would enjoy using Podcasts. They could listen to information about the library or information on new books in the library. I also believe that students would enjoy creating a Podcast. They could create book reviews for others to listen to in the library.

The only problem I can see with creating Podcasts is the sound quality. You do not need a lot of equipment but if you have low tech microphones then you tend to pick up a lot of breathing sounds with the recording. Podcasting is something that you need to practice a bit before you go public with the recording.

You Tube

I love You Tube. You can find anything there. Some things on You Tube are terrible but there are some very interesting videos as well as some good instructional videos.

I searched for "elementary library" and found lots of videos on school libraries. These were basically tours of their libraries. It was interesting to see how other libraries look. I did enjoy the one called "Alan County Public Library" which had zombies chasing a couple into the library. They end up finding a book on how to deal with Zombies at the library. A really cute way to show the library has everything you need. I also enjoyed the "Betty Glover Workout Tape Ad" which shows the reference librarian sleeping. It was really funny! It is the only "medically approved workout video for librarians." This video was more of a fun video not necessarily promoting the library. The rest of the videos I watched were trying to promote library use. Some were more creative than others but all accomplished what they set out to do - promote library use.

Some of the videos I saw were created as part of a library contest. I think that is a good way to show off your library. Get your patrons to create a video about it, the more creative the better. I can see You Tube as being a fun way to promote your library, promote reading, and do it in a fun, creative way.

Google Docs

What else can Google do? There is iGoogle, Google Earth, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Scholar, and now Google Docs!

I had heard of Google Docs and have used it to share documents with some friends. This is a good way to share documents with others. Having access to documents online is a great way to be able to work. I do not use it on a regular basis and really knew very little about it. I did not realize you could actually create documents there. I liked the template options. The site is very easy to use and makes creating documents quick and easy.

I am not sure if my district allows this site to be accessed, they block so many, but this could be a good site to show students and teachers. This site could be used by students to post their writing to their teacher and for the teacher and other students to edit the writing. As an elementary school librarian it is important to help teachers find innovative ways to keep students engaged and this site could assist with that engagement.

Wikis

I am familiar with Wikis. I know what they are but I have never created a Wiki. I use Wikipedia often. I understand that the information is only as good as the people posting there and that Wikipedia would never be used as a primary source. I don't think everyone realizes this about Wikipedia. I think it serves a good purpose and is a good way to show what a Wiki does.

I created my home page on Wetpaint. I had trouble because I chose a page with a photo and when I tried to upload the picture it took over the whole page. I decided not to spend a lot of time trying to change the size of the picture so I just deleted it. I would liked to have deleted the whole page and started over but I couldn't figure out how to do this. I also ran into trouble when I gave my sub pages names that were already being used. I had to get a little creative to keep the page I wanted. I was not familiar with this part of a wiki, but since we are supposed to be sharing information it would make sense that if Itype a page name that is already there then I should be editing that page not creating my own.

The library media department in my district has a Wiki for the librarians to use. I can see using a Wiki at my campus library with the students and teachers. They could post information about books they have read or want to read. This could be a great interactive tool for students and teachers. Now that I have had a little experience with this Wiki I may go try my hand at my district's Wiki!

LibWorm

I really like this site. I didn't have to register, which is getting to be a pain. I feel like I have to give my personal information to everyone on the web to access information! This site is very easy to use. I searched for "challenged books" and found that there is actually a banned books week that is from the end of September to the beginning of October. I also search for "book awards" and had 53,773 records returned. I was interested in learning about e-books so I used the subject search. I found over 6,00 records relating to e-books.

I see this site as a good site for research. Like any other site there is relevant and irrelevant information returned. I like that you can do keyword searches, subject searches, and search by tags. I would like to see more tags but then I wasn't logged in so I don't know if that made a difference. I also liked the Feed Categories. I found some very interesting information under the school library feed. This was a good way to see how other schools are using technology to get their information out. Since I will be creating a library page for my campus I wanted to see what other schools were putting out there. I looked at blogs, as well as campus pages.

Libworm is aimed at librarians and it was easy to use. Those two things make this a site I will use in the future.

Library Thing

I created an account in LibraryThing. I added three of my textbooks that I had used previously in my course of studies. This site is easy to use, uses tags like everyone else, and is a great way to keep track of what books I have available. Once I find all of my books I may go ahead and put them in LibraryThing.

I tried to "Read the sections on ThingLang, ISBN Check, and MARCThing to see how they intersect with the tools used by regular libraries" and it took me forever to find them. Once I finally tracked them down I basically found out that you may need a developer key to get some results in LibraryThing returned the way you want them. I appreciate programmers I just don't want to be one!

I like the Groups tab. I enjoy reading what others are posting. I also liked the Local tab. You put in a city and state and it gives you all the libraries, bookstores, and other interesting places in that area.

I can see using this in the library to read reviews of books that others are reading or staying up on current events. There are times when I will need to order books and having some input by others can be helpful. The Author chats are something that I think could be useful it helps give more information about authors and books I may not be aware of or have not read yet.

Digg

I can Digg it Man! This site has some very interesting information. I couldn't believe all of the links that are posted there! I took the tour to see how the site works but I didn't join because I have too many things to keep up with right now and did not need another site to check.

This site could be a good site to search for links to information you want. I see it as a reference site. I did a search for "library" and found 3,127 links but just like any search some had nothing to do with libraries. It was very interesting to see some of the links that showed up. One was on "Most Famous Female Teacher Predators" and "The Most Bizarre Wills Ever Written." What either of those had to do with the word "library" I can't imagine.

I like the fact that if you join you can "Digg" the sites you like most and "Bury" the sites that have broken links or are off topic. Of course this is a two edge sword. Depending on what other participants feel are links that are "off topic" they could bury something you find very relevant. The only way to keep this site working is for active participation on the part of the members.

Delicious

I am familiar with Delicious. My district held a technology conference back in May and one of the presentations was on Delicious. I can see the use in this site. It is a great place to keep track of my bookmarked sites. I did not add the buttons yet, I am very leery of changing anything on my toolbar. I have had such problems with Internet Explorer I don't want to jinx it now that it is working.

I did add some bookmarks and tagged them. This is a very easy site to use. I searched by the tag "reading' and found lots of cool sites. This is a very useful site since I can bookmark sites and have access to them no matter what computer I am on. My only problem is deciding what tag to use for a site.

My Delicious site is http://delicious.com/ascam722

Tagging

When I hear the term "tagging" I think of people writing on walls - graffiti or street artists. Of course the kind of "tagging" we are talking about in Thing Thirteen occurs on the web. Everything needs to be categorized somehow and tagging accomplishes this but sometimes in a random way. I get to choose what tag I attach to my photos, webpages, or posts. I can assign them to more than one category so they can be assigned more than one tag. This is great for me but others may not agree with my tags.

Tagging is something that is very useful on the web. It is something that should be encouraged because it makes things easier to find. I believe that librarians are probably better at tagging due to their experience with Subject Headings. We understand the need to be able to locate things and tagging assists with this process. I am not sure how useful tagging would be in a library. Since the purpose of tagging is to allow me to choose what category I put things into this goes against the way the library is categorized. The library "tagging" aka cataloging is a set system to prevent individual selection of categories. It is done this way to keep things consistent so items can be located easily. Tagging removes this consistency and replaces it with individualism. This would not work in a library. The library does promotes individualism just not when it comes to the placement of materials.

Twitter

Twitter is everywhere. There is even a commercial for cable that talks about Twitter. I signed up on Twitter since that was part of Thing 12. My username is ascam7220. I doubt if I will actually use Twitter because constantly talking about myself gets a little boring. Twittering about yourself seems so Narcissistic. It is not like I am some celebrity that people would want to know my every move. Learning about the new Texas TEKS during the day and doing laundry at night does not seem like something I should twitter about. Now maybe my trip to Alaska later on this summer might be something I can tweet!

I don't see how I would use Twitter in a library unless I wanted to promote something we were doing. Of course my district probably blocks Twitter, since they block Facebook and My Space.

Instant Messaging

I use Yahoo Instant Messenger and my screen name is scamal12. I have also used AOL and Google IM software. I use Yahoo now because that is what my kids use and I can IM them to remind them that they can't get away from me --LOL.

I really like the voice chat on Yahoo. I get tired of typing and it is nice to hear the voice of the person you are talking to instead of just typing. Plus it does not tie up my phone line. I am not a frequent IM'r so I can't say I know all the ends and outs of IM'ing. I have found the best way to learn is by trying. I found that for me Yahoo messenger was the easiest to use. I have played with it more and am beginning to learn more things it can do such as sending attachments, changing the background, adding emoticons and audibles.

Instant messaging is blocked in my district so it is not something I could use in my library. I believe many of the students are familiar with the abbreviations used in instant messaging since these abbreviations sometimes show up in their speech and writing.

Ning

I had never heard of Ning and after reading the issues with this site I was not sure it was a site I wanted to know. I decided to go search for the ALA on the site and found it but there was a link saying ALA had is own networking site at ALA Connect at http://connect.ala.org/ . Iwonder if this disclaimer is due to the Ning controversy.

I decided to search for some reading sites and found http://readkiddoread.ning.com/ This site boasts being an award winner - three awards actually. This site also had a link to lesson plans. You could click on a book and get a lesson plan to go with the book. I thought this was very useful.

I found Ning easy to search and everything was up and running. It seems no matter what I searched for something came up -- some with no relevance to the subject I had typed. I am still not sure I would use this site but it was interesting to see some of the sites that were there.

More Facebook

I have found friends and relatives on Facebook that I have not talked to in years and that part is fun. I found a cousin that I have not seen since I was 10 years old and a friend from high school found me on Facebook. I still feel like I am reading other people's mail when I go to my friend's site and read what has been posted there. I like being able to stay in touch with people and keeping up with what is going on in their lives. I am very careful about what I post since I know it will be read by others.

Facebook recommends friends based on your information which I find funny. I listed that I am attending UNT and Facebook suggests people to be my friend based on their attending or having attended UNT. Like I would know the thousands of people who are UNT alumni!

I like the group/business sites which I have found on Facebook. These sites help me stay informed. One of the groups I am a member of is the American Library Association. I enjoy reading the discussions on this site. I am also a member of Feed the Children which I consider a very worthwhile organization.

Many of my friends on Facebook I have found by looking at the friends of friends. This to me is much easier than searching for people, though I have searched when I wanted to find a particular person. My children have a lot more friends than I do but then they tend to accept friend requests from people they don't really know. I am a little more conservative.

Facebook

I have a Facebook account which I have had for a while. I created one, never used, deleted it, then created another one when a friend of mine created hers. I was a little concerned at first about my information being so public but there are some ways to keep it private such as setting the privacy settings to only allowing friends to see it, not filling out all the information, and being selective as to who you add as friends.

I believe that this type of social networking can be a fun way to interact with others but just like anything else on the Internet it can be abused. I have found that there are lots of games and activities that you can do on Facebook but you need to be careful and read the fine print because somethings cost. These are the ones asking for your cell phone number and if you are not careful you will end up with charges on your cell phone bill. All in all Facebook is a fun site that when used properly can help you stay in contact with friends and family.

RSS Feeds

I finally learned what RSS means! I knew that you could subscribe to RSS feeds but I was not sure exactly what that meant. Now I know! I have learned about Marc Records and metadata schemes in my library classes but never made a connection to RSS feeds.

I like the links that were posted and plan to add some to my Google Reader. I really feel like I am learning so much with the North Texas 23. I am glad I am participating because this is fun!

I know look for the RSS feed symbol when I visit sites. It is nice to now know what these symbols mean. This is a great way to stay up to date on information. I just added the ALA Tech Source and the District Dispatch so I can stay up to date on information that can affect my library.

Blog Readers

It was very easy to create my Google Reader account. I am following several blogs and they appeared on my Google Reader site. I added subscriptions and created a folder. I had to drag one of my subscriptions into the folder because it appeared outside the folder when I added it.

I was not sure I would really use a blog reader until I set up this account. I am following several blogs and this reader makes it so much easier to see what is new instead of having to go to each blog site. I spent some time exploring and found another way to move my blogs into folders, I figured out how to unsubscribe to blogs I had added, and I learned how to remove folders I did not want. I like this site and plan on using it often.

More Flickr and Mashups

I went back and created an account with Flickr. I have been playing around with the Flickr mashups. I really like being able to create things with my photos. This could become addictive.

Thing Five

Image Generators

I created the image above using Image Chef. I tried to get it to post directly into my blog and never could tell if it had. Then I copied and pasted the HTML code and created the blog post. Evidently it had posted directly and from my HTML post and I had two Images in the blog. So I deleted the image and inserted this text.

I am still learning how to use some of these new toys but I will eventually get the hang of it.

Flickr Mashups

This was done using Spell it with Flickr. This was a lot of fun and very easy to do. The hardest part was figuring out how to get it in my blog the way I wanted. I had never used a Mashup but I know I will be using them more now that I have figured them out. I plan on playing around with more of the Mashups and maybe I will post some more cool things in my blog!

Flickr

I have never been to Flickr so this was a new experience for me. I searched for "books" and found over 2,000 results. I really enjoyed looking at all of the different photos. One of the photos I liked was called "Miniaturized book charms" the link below is to that site. I was really amazed at all of the different photos of books. I did not create a Flickr account but I may do that later. Right now I think I will just enjoy browsing the thousands of photos on this site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikacreations/1126714293/

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

In reading about Web 2.0 I feel like I am being bombarded by terms .... FOO camp, meme map, Ajax, mash ups, RSS, blogging, podcasting, and the list goes on and on. But what do these terms mean to the average user who is using the Internet, using Facebook, using MySpace, watching videos on YouTube, or even posting videos on YouTube? I think sometimes we so caught up with terms that we forget what we are actually talking about. I do not think you need to know all the terms that relate to technology in order to use the technology. I found I enjoyed watching the videos more than I did reading the articles. I really enjoyed the videos on NoTech's Blog about Web 2.0 and the terms related to it.

To me Web 2.0 is just another term to explain how we are progressing in technology. Being able to connect with people on the other side of the world, being able to access information in an instant, talking to people on my computer, not just by typing but by Webcam, all of these are advances that amaze me but are also things I have come to expect.

Library 2.0 to me just means the library must keep up with the demands of the users. This generation of users expects to be able to access information quickly, easily, and online. The library must make materials accessible on line. It must create an interface that the users recognize and want to use. The librarians of today need to be aware of what is being used in the world and to provide these types of programs to their patrons. I do not believe that technology will replace the library but the library needs to make use of the current technology if it expects to continue to provide a useful service to its users.

23 Things

I keep seeing Thing 1 and Thing 2 on other bloggers pages

and all I can think of is Dr. Seuss and The Cat in the Hat.

I have done my Thing 1

and am working on my Thing 2

which are part of my 23 Things I must do.

Abram's video

I really enjoyed Stephen Abram's video. I was surprised to see that it had been created in 2007. His comments about having to experience technology to really learn it is so true. This is my first blog and I am learning by doing which makes it so much more relevant to me. I also agreed with his comments about reflecting. I have found that by looking back and reflecting on what I have learned actually helps me to learn more. I found his comments about putting the library where the users are very interesting. I had not thought of using sites such as MySpace and Facebook to show off the library. I have a MySpace and a Facebook account but it is more for socializing - or to see my Granddog who also has a MySpace account. I know that there are groups on these sites but I had not thought about how it could be used to showcase the library.

Information about Me!

I am currently working as a Literacy Coach and attending the University of North Texas. I am almost finished with my library certification and my Masters in Library Science. I am hoping to be in a school library next year.