Thing SIXTEEN

The Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculators were very useful tools. I would hope that more students would see these two applications and use them. It's amazing how students nowadays let their research and writing go until the last minute, and then oftentimes don't get the assignments in on time. The links to all of the tools and pages would really be a great help in the researching, evaluating, organizing and writing of the project.

The teacher's guide resources in the Research Project Calculator were really helpful. The Instructional Planning Guide is especially helpful for the library staff to have to be able to define their role in the project's outcome and evaluation. Both are useful tools that I will be promoting in our library. The teacher's resources are very inspiring, and might help to get the students motivated as well. The teacher might know better how to answer the students' questions about research in general.

Thing FIFTEEN

OK- Thing fifteen was all I'd hoped it would be and was. Second Life -Beyond Imagination. I really liked the OSU YouTube intro. It was well done and showed an application for the Academic Library. It is just plain fun! I had the opportunity to visit late-night with a hooker, and someone who appeared to be dead, but during the day, except for one character making a lewd comment, I was thoroughly involved in a second life.

The students of today think this way, it's easier not to get too close to another person, so texting is extremely popular, as is "writing on someone's wall" to communicate. I think it's all good, but we can't lose out on human face-to-face communication. It's great that you can sit in on book discussion talks on Info Island, but I think you lose your identity, and warmth, when you go into that virtual world. The possibilities are endless for educational purposes, as exhibited by the South Carolina Library System. There were training sessions scheduled, and links to web pages, as well as book links, and instructor pages. Because there is also validity for entertainment purposes, it has a lot of merit - There was SO MUCH STUFF!

Thing FOURTEEN

This thing is a Librarything application. You can do all kinds of neat things with this thing. It's a list of your books that you have in your very own library. You can find people with like lists, do reviews of books, share your list, and get recommendations for books based on your likes. I have added my partial list of those wonderful pop-up books that I have purchased for my kids in years past.

Thing THIRTEEN

This thing was productivity tools - and there were a lot. So many things out there that I didn't know about. Very good tools for everyday use... I have had an iGoogle home page for quite a while now, and the only downside is the slower load to my homepage. But here's a screenshot of very interesting themes to personalize your page. There are a lot of cool applications: Time, Temp, Interesting photos of the day (my personal favorite), Quotes, Google Maps, and etc. etc.

The calendar and lists tools were also helpful items to use. I registered with 30 Boxes. I found that this would be used really easily to keep meetings and events organized. It had some really neat features that would allow you, if you included brackets around a location, to go right to google maps for location of the meeting, etc. If you have an event that you want to invite others to, you just need to add a + sign followed by the email address(es) and an invitation will be forthcoming. There is even a reminder feature that will send you out an email on a timeline set up by you to be reminded of the meeting. Very Cool.

Another tool I registered with was the Ta Da List. I liked the simple format of this one, since I was looking for an organizational tool for my son who's starting college this fall. This one had a format just like an assignment organizer. Day by day, month, year, you just type in the item that you have to note, and when it's complete, it's very easy to edit it out, and the list counts down with what you have left to do. Also Very Cool.

Thing TWELVE

The Middle of the Road - Thing Twelve was very interesting. I tried to come up with a good application for libraries, and decided some things just don't work as well in libraries as others. I liked MIXX the best - it seemed to be the easiest to work with and the video introduction was easy to understand. I seriously didn't know how these things worked, even though I have seen reddit and mixx alongside news stories that I've read. Now I know! I looked up a topic I would like to throw up on my Facebook about an issue that is almost epidemic: teen pregnancy. So I researched ABSTENTION and found the articles that were popular were making light of the whole concept, and that it would be impossible to work with to reduce unwanted pregnancies. OK - not a good thing to try to promote. Anyway, it is an interesting concept, picking the top news stories by popularity, but also very time consuming.

Thing ELEVEN

Tagging and Del.icio.us were the themes of Thing Eleven. I found Del.icio.us to be another great tool for research compiling and organizing. It was fun to pick a relatively new Microsoft product, TAFITI, (2007) and see how many people have pulled information off the web and put it into Del.icio.us. There were only 297 hits on it, so it must not be a topic that is widely known. The reason Tafiti came into mind was because it is also about the concept of gathering information into one place. It is worth checking out. Here's how it is described on its homepage:

Tafiti, which means "do research" in Swahili, is an experimental search front-end from Microsoft, designed to help people use the Web for research projects that span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results. Tafiti uses both Microsoft Silverlight and Live Search to explore the intersection of richer experiences on the Web and the increasing specialization of search. Another good tool for gathering and organizing.

Thing TEN

Thing TEN is all about Wikis. The wiki I chose to edit was the 23thingsonastick wiki. The concept is great - what a collaboration tool! I like the fact that you can edit a document or entry without any knowledge of HTML. It is definitely fulfilling its mission: finding a way to easily collaborate and share information. I especially liked the format of the PBwiki page. You already know it's going to be easy, with a logo like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They really make it sound simple - no IT needed. If they have it so you can either post public or private (with password protection) then it's a safe and fun way for students to enter their thoughts, or opinions. We have a "suggestion box" in our library. Nothing has ever been put in it. I would bet that if we had an online wiki, which encouraged students to be frank about things, we would have some real suggestions!

What a great resource for the library staff to pass on information to each other. And to add and edit what's being presented. Many times we learn a new way of doing things or go "wow I didn't know that feature was there" as well as hear from students that we are doing things wrong, or that there are errors on our webpage, or that the IT people just let one of us in on a new technique or way to solve a problem that we should share with the rest of the staff. Rather than call the staff together, it would be pretty practical to post it to the wiki. This is already a major teaching and learning tool in our MnPALS consortium.

Thing NINE

Thing Nine was a fun one. And there are many uses for an application like this. On many occasions we librarians, located at different campuses, have made changes on patron checkout procedural documents or our operations policy documents and have had to email or snail mail various documents back and forth to each other to make corrections or comments. We could so much easier publish the original document and each made the editing online without duplicating our efforts, or thoughts on a certain item or procedure. This is a time-saving application to its fullest!

The little document I have linked to my blog is an old, unbelievable-that-it-would-even-be-published piece that I hope people will comment on. It is a VERY SAD picture of a librarian!

The LINK is the Title: Thing NINE

Thing EIGHT

Thing SEVEN

Thing seven was informative and interesting and about Web 2.0 and how the different applications can help in the area of communication in the library. It had some hints on email productivity, but none that I don't already do. The communication tool for allowing students to talk real-time to one of our librarians, is already in place in our college. We have a link for students to find us by way of a chat line. I don't believe this is as popular as it was originally thought it would be. But it is the option that we have out there for a communication tool.

Among our staff, we have Groupwise Messenger, which is a very good instant messaging system. It lists who of the registered users is online right up to the minute they are logged in and out. It is good since you are pinged there if you have a message. You know that if someone is online, they will be responding to you real soon...

We also use our students' cell phone numbers to get in contact with them about things that are overdue, or to let them know that something is in and waiting to be picked up. I have been an avid believer in text messaging since my kids got text message option on their cell phones. It's a great way to get their attention when I need to get in contact with them.

The MINITEX webinar list of helpful, extremely relevant web sessions, has been just wonderful. I have participated in many this year already, the latest one being Macros for Beginners, which was presented in their usual easy-to-follow-and-understand format. It's the BEST thing to happen to librarians who live in outstate Minnesota! I had never heard of OPAL, and will be checking in on that in the future to see what's being presented there.

Thing SIX

This is Thing SIX - I LOVE Image Chef - cool application!

Thing FIVE

Thing five is this lovely mosaic of my son, John's Senior Year Spring, 2008. It was filled with good times - family, friends, track, prom and graduation. It was fun making this creation to remember the events. This could be a really neat way to post new books - with all of the color and intrigue of the wonderfully enticing book covers. Another post could be a way to introduce staff and faculty. It's just a neat way to portray pictures.

Thing FOUR

Thing four is all about Flickr. I found this to be a really fun place to collect and share pictures. I took some pictures of our library a few years ago, and decided to post them to my blog. I remember the place was all spiffed up for our open house. I would think this application would be useful for publishing pictures of publicity for the library, posting winners of the various contests that are held during the year, and of the programs and parties held. I like sharing photos as much as possible and have a number of photo albums out there on other sharing sites. It is really a big tool for the social networks. The pictures are really worth a thousand (and more) words!

Thing THREE

Thing Three is How to do Really Simple Syndication - or RSS FEEDS. I have chosen to do an RSS feed on the latest and greatest Google News - Google does everything well. This is an interesting application for libraries in that you can present a constant updated, information page for your patrons, or students right on your webpage. This is great for current events - or just NEWS.

Thing TWO

Wow - I like the concept of Library 2.0. We have been moving in this direction for a long time. I have a son who has been a gamer for at least four years now, so I have seen what keeps the attention of a teenager, and how we would have to compete with that format.

The ARLD Seminar a few years ago on gaming and the library really presented a new facet to libraries. It was really easy for me to relate to it as it applied to my situation. This really has all of the IM, Virtual, Socializing, Engaging, Hands-on learning experiences all rolled into one big happy avatar.

Our students are most engaged in the lab when they are socializing in the online environments through Facebook and Myspace - so we as librarians have a major challenge ahead of us to compete with this exciting medium.

Thing ONE

Thing One and I have the blog set up. Now that I have completed a few and dropped a few other projects, I should have more time to work on this endeavor. So far, so good.