Thing 24: Refresh Your Blog

After multiple attempts to give this blog a facelift by incorporating any one of the sweet blog templates I found on Pyzam [http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates] -- and losing my avatar and all of my images each time I tried -- I decided that despite my careful following of directions, I was probably doing something extraordinarily wrong. To use one of the Pyzam templates without losing everything but my posts, I would have to copy and paste all of the code back into my blog. It wasn't worth the effort.

So, my new look came from one of the blogger templates (a relative of the one I used for the first 23 things). Prettier, I think; hopefully as clear and easy to read.
Not nearly as fun as a blog with a VanGogh painting as a backdrop, but, you can't have everything. If anyone has successfully used one of these templates, I'd sure like to know how.

My avatar's new as well -- summertime seemed to demand it.

Thing 23: Evaluation

Well, well, well...I've finally finished these Things! It's been a valuable experience, albeit an extraordinarily lengthy one -- at least for me. And there are 23 More now ... a never-ending process it would appear.

What I'd really like to see (or even help develop) is a version of 23 things specifically directed at our new to the web and new to 2.0 library patrons -- the kind of tutorial they might be willing to tackle once they complete our basic Internet classes and want to keep on learning.

Is anyone out there working on this?

Thing 22: Keeping Current

I added LibraryBytes as an RSS feed to follow, in order to keep up with changes; looking at the pile of my unread items to which I've subscribed, however, I don't know if, for me, following a feed is going to be a particularly effective way of staying current.

Working on the next 23 things will probably be just as effective, if not moreso, and I intend to start doing that as soon as the first set of Things is done. Nearly there...

Thing 21: Other Social Networks

Nearly at the end of all of these Things!

Joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning group, sent a message to one of my colleagues; added a picture to my profile, and uploaded a bunch of photos to my page -- would have been easier if I could have done it directly from Picasa, but "sharing" a photo from a Picasa web album creates a mess with photo titles -- so I simply saved the photos to my computer and added photos from there. Nothing too exciting -- unless you want to look at some of my flower arrangements :)

Tried looking for NING friends from my AOL address book and gave up after the search went on...and on...and on...

Finally found the directions for adding a Ning badge to my blog.

Used Google to locate a florist's social networking site (on Chatter-media) and joined it -- but is sure doesn't look as if there's much activity there; British-based as well -- Think I'll look let that idea go, or look elsewhere.

Many Ning features are very similar to those on Facebook; not sure how many of these social networks I really need (or can possibly keep up with) -- I've even been neglecting my Facebook account for lack of time.

Thing 20: Facebook

I've had a Facebook account for a good while now, and thoroughly enjoy using the network.

When I first signed up, I used the utility that allows you to upload your email address book and match it with other Facebook users. My AOL address book happened to include the contact information for the son of a dear friend of mine. I extended to him the invitation to "befriend" me on Facebook; he accepted -- giving me access to his list of friends...which turned out to include my own son (they've been buddies for years) -- using an email addy I had not know at all! And yes, my son was willing to be my friend...

For the purpose of this exercise, I've joined a couple of new groups -- FacebookAppsforLibraries and Library 2.0 Interest Groups. Lots of interesting reads -- more to keep up with.

Profile is still pretty bare-bones yet...bit by bit.

Thing 19: Podcasts

Using the link to Minnesota Public Radio's podcasts and exploring from there, I found a very pleasant 2-minute gardening podcast, hosted by NPR member station WFIU, featuring master gardener Moya Andrews. Most apropos, since the gardening season is finally upon us.

For some reason, publishing the link as a link in this blog is a challenge -- the "insert link" function does not create a viewable link, so, should you want to listen, here's the URL for the podcast:

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510179

Thing 18: YouTube and Other Online Video

I had a lot of fun exploring the video possibilities on YouTube; students are always looking for video resources relevant to their projects--this is one good source that I have learned to use for that purpose. Another good source (for YouTube and other internet video sources) is the video search engine www.blinx.com.

My current favorite YouTube offering (after starting to get series about my own pre-Passover cleaning) lightens up my mood. I think I need young helpers again.

Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools

I've been using ELM for a very long time. Still,ELM offers many tools to explore of which I had been previously unaware.

Unfortunately, at least for me, much of what I explored felt incredibly time-consuming. An example: the idea of creating a webpage that serves as a pathfinder for a subject search is attractive; the pages I created thru ELM (I tried several) were not, and, to add insult to injury, took much too much time to develop.

For me, the most useful feature of ELM remains the article access, with the ability to save into a folder and share that folder a close second.

Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools

I liked these Things so well I shared the links with a local private high school principal who is part of my home community. I'm hoping we will add them as useful education links, and I plan to show them (especially the Research Project Calculator)to interested students during my reference interviews.

Great tools!

Thing 15: Libraries and Gaming

I'm no stranger to online gaming, although I've been more interested in Scrabble and other word games than role-playing; creating a character and moving through a fantasy world using skills built while playing the game or solving a puzzle are tasks that appeal to me, but...I simply don't have the time I'd need to do a good job of this.

I did create a character on Puzzle Pirates, looked a bit at the instructions available, and abandoned the effort after that.

Libraries that want to appeal to teens by offering this service, or a virtual presence on something like Second Life, are going to need folks with more time and skill than I have now or am likely to develop in the near future.

Thing 14: Library Thing

I really do like LibraryThing, as a reader's advisory resource (the tag mashups are grand), as a tool to keep track of my own book collection, as well as a possible addition to library OPACs, but I'm having an awful time getting the widget described at http://www.librarything.com/ltsw/ to work properly on this blog. Thanks to the help of a colleague, I can now add a widget by using its HTML; you'll see the one for LibraryThing added at the right -- but this widget certainly is not searching MY library! None of the seven books I've entered show.

Suggestions anyone?

Thing 13: Productivity Tools

Okay -- I've got a customized IGoogle page, complete with a passle of weatherinfo widgets (brrrrr it's been cold lately ), a spring theme (just love those cherry blossoms); Color Junction, an addictive game that I hardly ever win and would much rather play than blog; a calendaring tool thru Google, which I can share with online friends and family -- very useful right now since, outside of my workplace, I'm temporarily without online access; a link to Google's top news stories, and assorted other stuff that I'm trying out. There appear to be many widgets that simply don't work; others whose inherent slowness completely outweighs their potential usefulness; and still others filled with ads I don't ever want to see.

Adding "Remember the Milk" and its Google calendaring functionality as well as the Blogger widget to my Igoogle page were probably the most productive things I did in this Thing's activities. I've learned to add lists and locations to Milk. It's all paperless and easily accessible - I'm sold.

On my list to explore further: http://zamzar.com/ -- free online file conversion without the need to download software. Just added it to Milk!

Thing 12: Do You Digg?

I definitely don't Digg! I looked at several of these social media sites, got terribly frustrated with the shallowness of the comments I viewed, and very much put off by the rant. Just an old fuddy-duddy, I guess. I did actually set up an account on Newsvine, "seeded" an article, voted on two others. I can see this type of site might be useful to stay in the know about popular topics, but other than that, I think I'll pass. Too time-consuming for the value added.

Thing 11: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

Uncontrolled vocabulary -- whee! I did a little tagging on Flickr, and a bit more on this blog, and I see where tagging alone offers promise as a finding tool, but the real benefit seems to lie in the group effort. It hasn't taken me very long, but I'm hooked on del.icio.us -- and the tantalizing prospect of collective intelligence.

Note: the del.icio.us bookmark button does required downloading an executable file. If that doesn't work at your location, there are a bunch of widgets available for igoogle. They may not be as slick as the site's button, but there are a variety to choose from, and they don't require the download. Simply go to igoogle, click on Add Stuff and in the Search for Gadgets dialog box type del.icio.us ... Explore results, and choose.

Thing 10: Learn About Wikis

RCL has had an experimental reference wiki up and running on PBWiki since the Fall of 2006. I didn't get involved with it until sometime in 2007, when a team of which I was a member needed to develop a survey of staff technical competencies. What followed as I tried to learn the ins and outs of PBwiki design (without benefit of HTML) was months of frustrated grumbling as I found it repeatedly necessary to pull my MS-Word formatted table out of the wiki, do the corrections and reformatting on Word, and repost to the wiki. What I saw was all too frequently not what I got, and more than one of my colleagues were reluctant to post to the wiki because of the formatting difficulties.

Even though staff at PBWiki tried to be helpful, I feel that the inherent difficulties in this particular mechanism worked against the promise of collaboration.

Given my familiarity with this Thing, I didn't spend a whole lot of time playing with it again. I did,however, look briefly at the Zoho wiki editor. I had a much easier time editing a Zoho page -- and what I saw after I had saved my work really did look like what I thought I had saved. Impressive! I will definitely come back for another look.