More Mead's Musings

Thing THIRTY-THREE

2009-06-13T01:04:00.006-05:00

Thing Thirty-three was the interesting travel 2.0 concept. Fastfoodmaps was the mapping tool I checked out - My kind of map, but really strange to me that someone would take the time to have that much detail in a map such as this, with locations that have fast food that is touted to have, on most of the menu items, high fat content, extremely high amounts of sodium, and many calories. Makes the world a very interesting place...

I found there are a lot of people who want to share their travel adventures. It was fun to check out some of the sites. There were many that were helpful and some I've even used. The blog that I checked out was Lost Girls. This is a blog put together by three evidently rich women in their twenties who were traveling the world and keeping a journal. They even had their own intern who was following in their footsteps. Even though their travels were over, it was still interesting to read about their exploits.
TripAdvisor was the trip tool I have used in the past. It is a good site to help you get all of your plans lined up at one place. We took a trip out to the East coast and set up the whole trip complete with bookings on this. Vcarious was one of those sites where you find people very willing to share their knowledge, opinions, and information about travels they have made. I looked at exotic travel locations as well as the good ole local trip to Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills - the trip we're taking next month. I'm glad these big city people didn't give bad reviews - I could never get too much of that beautiful inspiring monument on the mountain.

Thing THIRTY-TWO

2009-05-26T23:16:00.005-05:00

This thing was a mashup of a created-by-me map. This was definitely a stretch for me. I suppose I should have tried to do this with Firefox, but instead I worked on my son's MAC laptop while I watched game 4 of the Eastern Finals of the NBA. The little line to follow a road wasn't running consistently, but I got it together - I think. So since we were going to the Black Hills this summer, I thought I would make a map of the road tour from Keystone to Hill City, which runs past Mount Rushmore Monument - a very pretty trip. It really did have the trip mapped out - but it was having difficulty the day (entire 4 hours) that I was working with it, and I was ready to scream and start breaking things, so here it is, as good-as-it-gets:

View Mt. Rushmore Tour in a larger map

Thing THIRTY-ONE

2009-05-14T23:34:00.003-05:00

Twitter becoming more useful was the theme of thing thirty-one. I have enjoyed a few things on twitter. I follow the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Vikings - both prolific tweeters (?) I also enjoy this very upbeat and positive teacher at a school in Pennsylvania~Dr. Stephen Jones ~ always a Good Morning with an inspirational message and a Good night wish that it makes you feel the guy really knows you. I have also enjoyed Ellen DeGeneres and her tweets. I was following her when she had about 20 thousand, and now she has over one million. She is pretty prolific also. I joined the twitter directory under the name Empty-Nesters. I still don't understand mobile twittering, but then I think my life is too boring for anyone to care to read about. I put Tweetsnap on my blog, so maybe I will be more inclined to tweet more often, since the latest tweet is there now as well as the date I twittered - or is it tweeted - never could get that right...

Thing THIRTY

2009-05-14T22:30:00.002-05:00

This thing is using RSS feed Readers for more productivity. Since I have been using my RSS feeds on a limited basis - mostly because TIME is at a premium, I decided to check out a little more refresher info on RSS. I found an Oprah Winfrey description: The technical acronym for RSS is "Really Simple Syndication", an XML format that was created to syndicate news, and be a means to share content on the web. Now, to geeks and techies that means something special, but to everyday folks like you and me, what comes to mind is, "Uh, I don’t get it?"
So, to make RSS much easier to understand, in Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m "Ready for Some Stories". It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that? Now, that I like - to think of it as gathering stories. I will continue to find uses (and Time) for my RSS feeds and Delicious,but I will think of them differently from here on out.

Thing TWENTY-NINE

2009-03-14T20:15:00.004-05:00

Adding some more of the fabulous GOOGLE tools was thing Twenty-nine! I have had a Gmail account for a while now, and really recommend it for its comprehensiveness and ease of use as far as email accounts go. I really liked adding Google Alerts to my list of Gmail messages, and think it will be fun to keep up on the alert I chose: more things on a stick. I liked the little picture of the puppy, but it's not exactly a good thing when you get Wee Mail

I have set up a Google Calendar application, and think it will come in handy for our staff. I set up my May term hours and Summer hours, and will have each of the summer staff do the same. We can share the calendar, each add her own times, and always have access to it, when you don't remember where you put that schedule.

I added some more things to my Google toolbar, which I've also had for a while, since I find all of the google tools to be SO Wonderful! I wish I would have had the Google health when my kids were little, so when the school nurse would ask to see a record, or if the clinic would need it, you could just print it and go.

Thing TWENTY-EIGHT

2009-03-13T02:15:00.002-05:00

This is a fun thing, Thing TWENTY-EIGHT. I had an iGoogle page set up before that I was able to go into and revamp and renew. It has some pretty cool tools, things that you"can't live without". I put together some "stuff" that I find be very fun and useful applications. I picked iGoogle because I use a lot of Google utilities, like Gmail, Google books, and Images. I picked things like Google maps, Local Weather, Date and Time, Top news stories, Quotes of the day, YouTube and Facebook. Very cool to have all the tools in one place, with easy access.

Thing TWENTY-SEVEN

2009-03-11T01:05:00.002-05:00

Thing Twenty-seven is a study in IM-ing. It has been a long journey to get to the end of all of the tutorials, Help screens, even YouTube videos into the world of Twitter. I set up the Twitter Account, made a pretty pink background, and will be putting my picture on it if I think anyone will really want to know "what I'm doing" (I gotta say it's gonna be VERY boring). When I first tuned into Twitter, I had the fine fortune to be able to "follow" TheEllenShowTwitter" I love the Ellen show, and I'm sure it's going to be fun. I like the theory and premise behind the fancy IM tool, but I am not sure that I will be able to find time to use it. I do have a facebook account in which I IM, or at least message-and-read-later with my kids, "friends" and acquaintances.I might be surprised how often I use it, however, since it's so easy to open and read - even from your phone.

Thing TWENTY-SIX

2009-03-10T21:51:00.003-05:00

This thing was about NING. This is an interesting sharing and posting application. There were a couple of things I did with this one. I sent a comment on a discussion about whether this would be a useful tool if you use Facebook for your social networking. I agreed with the person who started the discussion, in that there might not be a useful purpose because you do the same things on Facebook, and have little time to utilize both applications. There are the same kinds of things like discussion, share pictures and videos, as well as post your profile.
The other application I added was a video of Saturday Night Live clips. I have always loved the Saturday Night Live comedy show. It's one of those silly things that make life interesting, and less serious. It's good to stay laughing at goofy stuff.

Thing TWENTY-FIVE Too

2009-02-28T01:07:00.003-06:00

Thing TWENTY-FIVE

2009-02-28T00:32:00.006-06:00

This thing took me a while to get through. I studied each link on this one, and found some new things as well as some of the things we used before. Widgets are definitely a fun part of blogging. I didn't know there was such a variety of things you could do to your posting.
I decided to put a "Brain Tuner" on my page, because of all of the games gadgets, I thought this one seemed to be the most "educational"-looking. I listened to the audio version of my blog title, but it sounded too mechanical or electronic. I looked at the videos and thought Spokentext to be the most all-around useful to students. The upload to your MP3 player of a whole book to listen to later, was something that if you were driving to school each day, might be the best way to study, especially if the text you needed to read was free full-text because of the Gutenberg Project - which I find fascinating.
I used a collection of HOCKEY pics in a Picture-trail presentation, and put a caption on a favorite family picture of mine, of three cousins - all little stud-muffins.
I added a wonderfully cool tool: the Meebo IM function - can't wait to get my kids to get on this one and chat.

Thing TWENTY-FOUR

2009-02-16T11:48:00.003-06:00

I am Refreshed! It was just like I hadn't left. I am sorry to say I didn't get things posted during the "off-season", but hope to be able to work it in now. I shouldn't have too much trouble staying with the posting - even if it's at one or so in the morning. The new avatar (such as she is) is enjoying the beach already, and the new photo is still from winter. I will have to get that coordinated. I decided to go with a BLUE blogger template, since I didn't see any I liked better than the ones that we had to choose from off of the blogger site. I did go to the Image Chef, one of my favorite places, and picked up an image for fun.

Thing TWENTY-THREE

2008-08-29T14:47:00.003-05:00

Wow - it is with a mixture of joy and sadness that I complete thing twenty-three. I have spent a lot of time and energy, and shown some patience and deep thought throughout this wonderfully fulfilling venture. I, too, am looking forward to the results from somebody who's a lot more intuitive than I to set up some more things for me to explore. I am very happy I set out to complete these things during a slower work time, so I could dig in and really explore each thing in depth. Thank-you for providing me the opportunity to feel I'm now professionally "with it".

Thing TWENTY-TWO

2008-08-29T13:58:00.007-05:00

Thing Twenty-two is all about continuing the quest; learning as much as you can about the wonderful world of web 2.0. The second generation has a lot to offer. It has been so easy to pick up new techniques, become comfortable with new applications, and test out new theories . I have a lot of webinar training experiences, online tutorial viewings, YouTube moments, and a few face-to-face sessions on teaching old librarians new tricks! I have become excited to learn more, and will now be searching more diligently through blogs and schedules of webinars for training opportunities on library 2.0 concepts. I have thoroughly enjoyed the 23thingsonastick, and will look forward to this being expanded upon. I will also use this blog to continue to record events and webinars that enhance my library 2.0 understanding.

Thing TWENTY-ONE

2008-08-23T19:03:00.002-05:00

This is thing twenty - more socializing on the web. I found some pretty cool sites for a person to get connected with a lot of people from a lot of walks of life. The groups that you can get into are endless! I am a member of Webjunction and have participated in a number of webinar sessions. The latest one was: Teaching Old Services New Tricks: Integrating Web 2.0 trends into everyday services and tools. I recommend that one to everyone. The 23 things on a stick group in Ning was also very interesting. I had no idea that my profile was going worldwide. I realized this when a message that my video that I had added was being converted was in about 8 languages! This had a few interesting threads of conversation going - and I may get back there soon and comment on some. One of the interesting threads was about finding time to complete the THINGS and how were people getting that done. I added my NING BADGE and will wear it proudly!

Thing TWENTY

2008-08-08T18:34:00.003-05:00

Facebook was the social networking tool that I chose to blog about in Thing Twenty. I decided to set up a Facebook account this Spring Semester, knowing that it was one of the "23 Things" and used that as my excuse to get going on it early. It has been a great tool for communicating with current and former students, as well as my own kids and their friends. I have been successful in getting a few other moms to get an account as well, and we have been having a great time peeking into our students' worlds. It is such a popular pasttime with our students that I wanted to see what the appeal was. I found it to be a great place for communicating, sharing, and feeling a part of a group. It is fun to share photos, thoughts on bumper stickers, sticky notes, and profiles. I was surprised how many of our students asked me to be their friend. I will try to use it as a way to support, encourage, and bring a positive influence. I joined the group: Libraries Using Facebook Pages, which I haven't had time to work with yet,and another called True Minnesota Twins Fans. It is so easy to add applications that make the personal page more interesting, and useful.

Thing NINETEEN

2008-08-07T12:30:00.004-05:00

This was a thing all about Podcasts. I have been interested in podcasts since I was in a webinar a few years ago. It is an interesting and useful tool; one that has endless possibilities for webpage linking, educational purposes, and just new knowledge. I decided to do a search on "things that you never heard of until technology changed our lives". The podcast that I have linked to is one on "TEXT WALKING" - there's a real danger here. The podcast is one that the NPR has put out from its All Things Considered radio news program. It was interesting in that people are now getting hit by cars or falling into holes in the sidewalks as they walk and text message at the same time! So sometimes I guess technology isn't all ~GOOD~.

The title: Thing Nineteen is the Link to the Podcast - Have a listen.

Thing EIGHTEEN

2008-08-04T11:38:00.002-05:00

This Thing was the wonderful and amusing YouTube. I have discovered I can spend "just Oodles" of time, when I have that rare commodity, watching what other people consider worthy of sharing in video. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's thought-provoking, and sometimes it's "they got a lotta guts to put that out for the public to view". But one YouTube entry that I was alerted to just recently was one of my nephew (a tech master), doing a commercial for a Sioux Falls Movie Theater. So I have to stay with my Friends and Family theme and put this creation out there. I am so proud of it, I want to share...

Thing SEVENTEEN

2008-08-01T01:15:00.004-05:00

I have used the group of databases provided by ELM for quite some time, and have been familiar with most of the tools. I have had Search Alerts set up in the past on topics that I have been using in the Internet Search Strategy pages, and appreciated staying current on new search techniques. I took a webinar in May regarding the latest Ebsco Products as they work to make their set of databases even better for the students, and library patrons. The Page Composer was really neat - never knew it existed before the webinar.
ProQuest has always been a wonderful source for Newspaper articles. The feature to mark, create a webpage and email was also something I hadn't tried before. What a great way to save your articles and share them, without needing a flash drive to save them to, which students are never able to find when they need one.
NetLibrary has always been one of my favorite things to show the students when we go into the classroom. It is just not used enough, and there are so many nice features. The notes field is one of the features I show the students, who all leave the training session enthused about the site.

Thing SIXTEEN

2008-07-30T21:16:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-29T13:02:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-27T16:30:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-26T15:23:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-24T15:53:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-24T10:43:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-23T13:03:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-23T11:34:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-20T01:25:00.001-05:00

Thing SEVEN

2008-07-20T00:05:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-19T18:53:00.003-05:00

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

Thing FIVE

2008-07-12T23:20:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-12T21:18:00.006-05:00

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

2008-07-11T21:32:00.004-05:00

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

2008-07-08T00:22:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

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.