23 Things Summit

On Tuesday, March 3rd, you are invited to join WebJunction, MaintainIT and an impressive cadre of widely recognized and respected library professionals as we bring you a very special online event, our “23 Things Summit”.

This free, two hour, live online event will detail success stories, ideas and examples of how the innovative 23 Things Program has been used in libraries as a transformational training and continuing education tool. Join in, learn, share your stories and ask questions about this program and how you can use “23 Things” to help your library, your community and your career blossom.

Some of the special guests scheduled to appear include:

Brenda Hough, Bobbi Newman, Michael Sauers, David Lee King, Cindi Hickey, Helene Blowers, Ann Walker Smalley, Ruth Solie, Mala Muralidharan, Michael Porter and Shirley Biladeau. Please join us this coming Tuesday and add your name to this stellar line-up.

More 23 things info:

"23 Things" is a revolutionary staff development-learning concept centered on social collaboration tools. Helene Blowers successfully created the first program while at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

Thousands of libraries and library organizations of every size and type have adapted the idea for their staff. Hands-on, self-directed, and innovative, 23 Things style programs have introduced many, many library staff, volunteers, trustees, and others to 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis.

Times listed here are EST.

DATE: Tuesday, March 3, 2009

TIME: 2:00pm – 4:00pm

LOCATION: http://evanced.info/webjunction/evanced/eventsignup.asp?ID=1558

Thing #13

I've known about LibraryThing for a while but felt like I was spreading myself too thin to manage another online collection. Also, I've been active with Bookcrossing.com for many years and am a proponent of setting my books free. It's all a part of a personal goal of living with less, i.e. less material goods, collections, and "stuff" that just takes up space. However, I am interested in cataloging the books I've read and am keeping in my small personal collection.

So, I DID join LT and spent a little time checking out the site. I read through some of the group discussions and immediately found a thread on people attending ACRL. Since I'll be attending, I wrote a quick reply and continued my tour. I like the site even though I'm not a big reader. I'll continue to add books to my collection, just because it'll be a great way to keep track of what I've read and get suggestions for future To Reads.

As far as libraries are concerned, I think sharing a Book Club's "library" would be useful to display books that have been read by the group. It would also serve as a social networking location for group members to share personal libraries, discuss books read, and make suggestions for future readings. The same could be done for story time readings and recommendations.

Thing #12

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information." ---Michael Scott, "The Office"

This is a most practical exercise! It seems that so many folks are intimidated by wikis, thinking they have to be coders extraordinaire, but that's simply not the case. My experience with wikis has been through coursework. Here are two pages I've created/published:

Digital Storytelling in Public Libraries
Welcome to Connotea

I found SO many useful links from perusing the wikis listed on this Thing, most notably: Library Success. In the past, I've referred to the LISWiki. Check it out.

Thing #11

Social media is a great concept. For people who like to discuss current events, these sites are a useful outlet for opinion sharing and general discourse. Personally, I have no particular interest in subscribing to these types of sites because I prefer reading news from RSS feeds from sources I've selected. I think I am influenced by my history in media studies and therefore prefer the news sources over public opinion. As far as libraries are concerned, these sites don't really offer any value to libraries unless they're curious about what the general public finds interesting in the news. It all has too much of an American Idol feel to it, which does not appeal me.

After a quick review of all the social media sites posted in Thing #11, I noticed only one site featured local news... Newsvine.

Here's a twist on news gathering... how about getting your news based on geographical interest? Check out TimeSpace from the Washington Post and the good folks at Google.

Thing #10

First off, let me say that I am SO happy Delicious dropped all of its dots... I'd feel my blood pressure go up every time I read d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s..... silly, I know, but we all have our quirks!

With that said, I have not jumped onboard the tagging train, even though I find it quite useful. When I was first introduced to social bookmarking a year ago, and Delicious in particular, I discovered I was not very comfortable with it. Part of my unease was because the structure was so fluid. You say tomato, I say tomato. The use of folksonomies in tagging makes sense in the world of collaboration, but I had this undying resistance to using it. Now, a year later, I am still not using Delicious, even though I have an account and have explored the site. And as you can tell by my blog posts, I'm not one for adding tags, or labels as Blogger calls them. (I did make the effort, as an exception, for this post just to show that I'm willing to change.)

I DO believe it is a great tool though... especially for reference work. I don't think there is an easier way to share and use bookmarks than Delicious. What a great way to collect and manage bookmarks for a group of people to utilize in their information sharing efforts. Reviewing NEFLIN's Delicious account is all the more reason why reference departments should utilize this great resource.

An article published in the NYT suggests not blowing your nose while you have a cold. This caught my eye because I am currently battling a painful sinus infection. I used that particular article to compare Furl and Delicious and found them to be very similar. The only real difference I saw was the aesthetic layout of the sites. Both provided statistical information such as how many people had tagged a particular site/article. Furl provided links to other sites tagged by those who tagged the article I read. I did not see that function on Delicious, but I may have missed it while I was blowing my nose.

Thing #9

Since I'll be creating tutorials for the SJCPLS website, learning about screencasting/slidesharing has been a focus of study. Slideshare.net looks very simple to use and would be a great way for any library to share information, either for staff or for the public. For my screencasting efforts, I'll be using Jing, which displays real time desktop action! Whoa... how cool! You can watch ME click my way through a website AND talk at the same time.

Yeah! My first mosaic. This one is a collection of rural life. I'm a wannabe farm girl and these are some of my favorite personal photos.

1. Which Came First?, 2. JJ, 3. Working, 4. Astro, 5. Barn, 6. Red, 7. A Visitor to the Garden, Photo #2, 8. TIMMAY!, 9. Salad

Thing #8

I became an online communicator when I bought my first computer in 1996. My online life started with an ISP that no longer exists, it was called WOW! I was instantly sucked into the world of chatting via IM and loved it. I had a lot of fun online and began establishing relationships through the world of chat. In fact, I am still in touch with one of the friends I met online that first year. We have visited each others' homes and shared vacations and now we talk on the phone more than we visit online. So in retrospect, I have online communication technologies to thank for some valuable people in my life.

Currently, I have these types of technologies to thank for my ability to earn my MLIS as a distance student. :)

The use of chat programs in the workplace is brilliant, especially in libraries. The more I learn about practical uses of virtual communication services, such as Ask-A-Librarian, the more inspired I am to explore these technologies in more depth. It makes sense for libraries to incorporate a desktop reference service since so many customers are accustomed to this type of information seeking.

SMS, I don't quite get for library use.

Web Conferencing is extremely useful for library staff who have limitations on time and travel. These are great whether you view them live or recorded.

I have a Meebo account but have yet to use it. Some of my classmates have arranged meetings when working on group projects, which is helpful when team members are scattered geographically. Some library systems have branches separated by large distances, so this would be an alternative to driving to another location. It is also cheaper than long distance calling if that should ever be an issue.

Twitter can flitter away as far as I'm concerned. It serves very little purpose and infringes on productivity by what I can tell. Obviously, it has a huge fan base, but I don't think it offers much value to libraries. There are other ways to push information and promotion to patrons.