Exploration 5: Library Thing

Here's a link to my Library Thing catalog:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/theothers23

Years ago I kept a box of story time index cards. Every time I encountered an appealing JP with, say, a moose in it, I would dutifully note it on the index card for "moose." Then when I was ready to do a moose story time, I'd have my list of books. But, if the book had more than one potential theme, I'd have to write it on more than one card. I could do the same thing (way more efficiently) by the tags selected for my Library Thing entries. Very cool!

Also it's a great memory jog for other things...like what WAS that funny mystery I read about the biographer who lives in California. The tags you select are totally your own association with an item, making them easy to recall.

Exploration 4: RSS Feeds

Oh no! This assignment reminded me of the Bloglines account I had set up for 23 Things, which I hadn't looked at in, oh, 6 months or so. I had visions of thousands of updates to read in each of my subscriptions, but fortunately there were only a few hundred. :)

RSS Feeds are one of those innovations that I can appreciate in theory, but I don't use much in practice. There aren't any blogs that I visit regularly other than our library system blogs, and it would be great if they had an RSS feed, but I'm not sure how that would work with a private blog. Does anyone know if it's possible to set that up? I tried subscribing to them just as an experiment and got old messages, plus an "unauthorized" error message. I also went to several websites that I visit regularly for my own interests, and none of them had RSS feeds. But if they DID have RSS feeds, I can see that it would save me a lot of time to access them all in one place.

For patrons who are so inclined, this would be another great promotional tool for the library system. I like some of the services our neighboring library systems provide, such as notifying patrons of the new books available in various categories.

I subscribed to the Exploration blog and a few of the individual participant blogs. I'll subscribe to a few more as they become available.

Exploration 3: Willie Bear Lost in Cyberspace

Whew!

I wasn't able to follow the "Posting to Your Blog from Flickr" instructions exactly as written, but I stumbled around and thought I was still on track. I got a confirmation message on Flickr that my post and photo had been sent successfully.

However, the post and photo never showed up. Poor Willie Bear, lost in cyberspace again.

Later I realized that the post and photo showed up in a DIFFERENT blog...a test blog that I had created prior to this one. I thought I had selected the proper blog from the list, but apparently not. I'm just relieved that Willie is accounted for and won't land, splat, on some random blog somewhere. I'd hate to create an international incident.

Exploration 3: Flickr

I enjoyed all of these exercises, although some of those librarian photos are pretty scary. :) The Library of Congress contribution to Flickr is incredible. That's a valuable resource to share with patrons doing all kinds of research.

I was surprised at how many libraries and library groups have a Flickr presence. After doing this exercise I realize that Flickr is much more than a photo resource, it's also a vehicle for publicity, promotion and communication. There's lots of info about Maryland library programs, for instance, and there's even a library group called "Teen Library Spaces" with photos showing a variety of possibilities. Check out the library whose teen space is basically a large soundproof booth!

Exploration 2: Librarian Overboard

No, I'm not jumping ship...I mean "overboard" in the sense of sometimes getting carried away. For instance, I did the entire 23 Things project last August on an informal basis. I'll borrow from that experience and share my reflections as I wrapped up the 23 Things project.

"This is an excellent program that I'd highly recommend to interested staff. The experience brought to mind our 'Clowning Around' Summer Reading Workshop in July, where teenagers learned skills that they most likely had never encountered before in their day-to-day lives. The clowning instructors knew their stuff and presented a careful sequence of activities designed to foster success. By the end of the program the surprised teens were juggling bean bags, balancing plates on their nose, and walking on stilts. Will they ever use these skills again? Maybe not. But there's some thrill in learning something totally new and different, partly just to say 'Hey, I did it.' And to have fun along the way.

So here I am with my own set of new skills to juggle. It will be hard to keep all these balls in the air when new balls are clamoring to join in all the time, and I know that a few will drop to the floor and roll away without much notice. But there are others that really caught my fancy and I want to keep them soaring.

I joined the library profession in the days of McBee cards and regiscopes. One of my first grad school papers was about this new-fangled thing called an online catalog. You could type in the title of a book and it would tell you whether or not you had that book on the shelf. Imagine! Wow, I thought, what an exciting and energizing time to be a librarian. And here it is almost 30 years later, and it's still an exciting and energizing time to be a librarian. The whole concept of Libraries 2.0 (and beyond) is a prime indication of that."

It's been several months since I wrote that post, and I have found that what I said for the most part is true: I discovered some Web 2.0 technologies that I have continued to use, and others that weren't as applicable to my day-to-day responsibilities. And things are changing as we speak. As Michael Stephens' article points out, it's a constant evolution. I like his phrase "perpetual beta."

Part of our assignment was to personalize our blog, so I'll include the Avatar that I created as part of 23 Things. Yes, I know the corgi is wearing a raincoat...but it was amazing enough to find a corgi among the choices, so I won't quibble about its fashion sense.