Week 7 - Microblogging

I have to admit that my age or lack of desire is catching up with me this week. I have never had the desire to post a lot of details about what I am doing online. If I want to tell that to someone - I call. So, for now, I am holding off; I do not plan to set up a Twitter.

Week 6 - Social Bookmarking - Tagging

I have created a Delicious account which was not too difficult. I think it is going to be handy to access my favorites from any computer as I don't usually have my work computer at home. Now I can add sites at home and still access them at school. The other feature that I like is the idea of creating "Bundles." This may be useful when working on different research projects for the students and I want to earmark sites that would be useful during the project, keeping all the sites together in a folder

Week 5 RSS and Feed Readers

I chose Google Reader as my aggregator because I already have a Google account and I thought it would be easier to keep going with some items that I already understand. I have subscribed to several RSS Feeds. I did this by choosing the Browse option which allowed me to look at bundles on topics that interest me. One bundle that I selected was on libraries. I selected another bundle on cooking and a third on scrapbooking.

Now I have plenty of feeds to review. The next step will be to go in and edit the feeds as I don't want 80+ feeds to review every day.

Week 4 Photo Sharing

I have created a Flickr account and I believe I was successful at uploading several images. I do see how I could use this feature to add pictures of the library to the library's webpage. It was not too difficult. However, I am not sure that I was successful in tagging a photo so that it would show up on the 23thingsKansas site.

Week 3 Webinars

I went to two sites. The one I enjoyed the most was Stephen Abram's, "Twenty-five Technologies to Watch and How." When you listen, it is almost overwhelming when I think about all the things I don't know how to do. However, he had a "how to get started" section at the end and so I now have a plan:
1. Get a buddy - I need to find someone that I know, trust and who I won't hesitate to ask questions because I am going to have a lot of them.
2. Set a schedule - he suggested three times a week for fifteen - 20 minutes. Use the time to learn or begin to learn one of the new technologies (actually he suggested "playing" - keep it fun.
3. Pick 1 or 2 items and get started. I don't have to do it all. (This is where the 23 Things Kansas is going to be helpful because maybe we will cover some of these items this spring.) However, the two items I decided to learn more about this week are Avatars and Scrapbooking - both new terms for me.

The second site I visited was Infopeople where I listened to George Needham anmd Joan Frye Williams discuss, "Revitalizing the Library Experience." The key message from this presentation for me was to focus on the user or patron and respect what they want. Most user experiences are independent and they talked about tools, not rules. One term that showed up here and in the first session as well was "Cloud software" which I also know nothing about. My new motto adapted from Charles Darwin may be, "To survive - be adaptable to change."

Facebook Assignment 23things

I set up a facebook page tonight and while I found the steps easy enough, thanks to our mentors, I have a lot of questions about the security of the information. I don't have a desire at this point to list a lot of personal information.
I know that my nephews and nieces like facebook a lot and perhaps this will be an easier way to stay in touch with them. One of them has already added me as a friend.
I am still not convinced of the use of facebook in a library setting; I understand it has appeal in a social network. So, I am here to grow and discover new uses.

23things Blogging Assignment

I have created my first blogging page. Now I need to find a use for it. Since our school blocks blogging sites, I will need to do this from home so I don't think I am going to create many school applications.