From the Deep Quiet

23 Things: Thing 23

My reflections.

This has been a helpful exercise for me. Though, in the last couple of years, I have dabbled in most of the exercises that were required, I'd not actually spent a lot of time using many of them. I've found some helpful tools along the way.

Del.icio.us is one of the ones that I am finding helpful. It used to drive me nuts having to send URLs to myself at home when I knew I'd want access to it there, and vice-versa. While I was at the leadership conference last week, I used zoho.com to create a document being shared by several people in my work group. It was nice to be able to access the document from any computer without having to carry around a thumb drive or get back to the laptop to send the document to someone else.

I learned several of the things I did because I was willing to take the extra time to figure out work-arounds. YouTube was one of those. Dumping YT videos into some blogs is as easy as a couple of clicks of the mouse but that hasn't been set up for TypePad. I just couldn't believe that with TypePad being a very popular blogging program, that there wasn't a way. There WAS a way! I just had to care enough to make it work.

Whether we like it or not (and I certainly do), technology is becoming more and more sophisticated and a part of our lives every day. I've said it before, but I feel strongly that anyone who is going to work in a library these days must have, at least, a cursory understanding of what's out there and how to use it. Some of it is crazy and silly and probably won't be around for long, but much of it is changing our lives and making it much easier to share information. That's what we're about. Sharing information. If you don't believe that, you shouldn't be here.

The only thing I think I would do differently if this program was to be done again would be to encourage people not to try to do it all in a couple of weeks. I got to the point where I felt like I really couldn't spend any more work time on this project, as exciting as I found it to be. Maybe spread it out. Dole it out in pieces. That's more work for the people administering it, but I think it would have made it easier for some to do a piece and put it away.

I'd probably participate if another program like this was offered that had new information for me to learn. It's definitely worth it.

23 Things: Thing 22

Audiobooks.

I was pretty darned excited when our library began offering ebooks and audiobooks. Unfortunately, when I decided to buy an mp3 player, I didn't pay attention to the players that are compatible with Overdrive, the program we subscribe to. So, for now at least, I'm stuck downloading audiobooks to my computer. So I've decided to skip it until I get a player that works with Overdrive. I spend waaaaaay too much time in front of a computer during the day to want to spend my evenings in the same place.

I've downloaded from the site, though, and it's easy. Audible.com works the same way except that when you download the audiobook, it's yours to keep. Overdrive is too smart for that. Three weeks and the book is history!

23 Things: Thing 21

Podcasts.

Podcasts are cool, but if you want to use and mp3 player and you don't own an iPod, uploading them can be pretty tricky. It seems that every brand has its own software and few different brands play nicely with others.

Since I just got back from spending a week learning about leadership and how to be a leader, I decided to subscribe to a bunch of weekly podcasts found on Yahoo! Podcasts that are interviews with leaders from a variety of fields. It seemed interesting. I like Podcast Alley for the variety of 'casts that are available.

23 Things: Thing 20

YouTube. Oh yeah. Talk about getting lost in a website. Remember the Monkees? Uploading YouTube videos to TypePad blogs isn't as straightforward as for some of the other blogging software, but it's definitely doable. There's a place to create my own custom viewer. So I did:

Currently, this is my favorite video. Imagine what the world would be like if we gave more hugs and killed less people. I know it is making the 'net rounds, but I think everyone should see it.

23 Things: Thing 19

Web 2.0 award winners.

When my partner and I moved into our apartment two years ago, we used Craigslist for: a red Ikea couch, a black futon couch (for the visitors, don'tcha know), a moving service to bring the red Ikea couch to our apartment, and a cat (see upper left corner of this blog for photo of said cat). When you're having trouble sleeping and you don't really feel like curling up with a good book, "The Best of Craigslist" is a great place to pass the time. Might not put you to sleep, but it will certainly entertain you!

Etsy is a fun place for anyone who's crafty. It's eBay for anyone interested in handmade items. You don't bid on things, though. Just buy them.

I actually played with several of the listed. Check it out!

23 Things: Thing 17

Sandbox Wiki.

I played around with this a bit. I could get sucked in pretty easily, as there are quite a few topics here to choose from. I added my blog to the list but didn't add to anything else. Just looked around.

23 Things: Thing 16

Wikis.

We've had wikis on our Intranet for a couple of years, now. I know they aren't being used very well but I think the technology has a lot of potential. I like the idea of having moderated wikis on the library's website. I particularly liked the Biz Wiki created by Ohio University business librarian Chad Boeninger. Considering that one doesn't have to allow edits without a log-in, it makes sense to create something that's easily updated. That way, all changes don't have to go through the webmaster. Certain people would have certain privileges to edit specific parts of the wiki. I like it. I also like the idea of giving library customers a chance to respond, as we saw in the Princeton Public Library's Book Lover's Wiki. The possibilities are endless.