Reflection - Thing 23

I am very glad I decided to do this program. A couple of my library friends told me about it. One decided not to do the program, one started but hasn’t gotten very far into it, as of yet. It has given me an opportunity to at least skim the surface of 23 useful technologies that I would not have had the chance (or taken the chance) to do otherwise. I consider myself to be somewhat technology challenged so I have a tendency to shy away from this kind of thing because it is out of the realm of my expertise and comfort zone. This was a comfortable, self paced environment and the instructional blog was great.

I hope that the North Texas 23 blog page stays up on the internet for quite awhile. I plan on going back to explore some of the items and try to find ways to incorporate them into my library instruction and making our library more “visible.” Some of the things I would like to spend some more time with are podcasts, wikis and facebook. I really liked flickr, image generators, delicious, libworm, library thing and blog readers. I have a better understanding of RSS feeds and tagging now. A few things such as, digg, twitter and ning didn’t really do much for me, but I am glad that I had the opportunity to look at them and decide for myself.

I would like to see this sort of class offered on a regular basis and for those of us already familiar with the “23 Things,” maybe an “update” or “new uses for” refresher course sometime in the future.

Overall, I will recommend this to anyone who hasn’t had an opportunity to experience it.

Developing your own 23 Things - Thing 22

Yes, yes and yes. I would love to get the entire library staff involved in the 23 things. It could be a fun way to reinvent excitement for the library. Sometimes it seems like the library is the best kept secret, not only for the students but the administration involved in supporting our efforts. Technology keeps changing at lightning speed, so just staying up to date with new technology and new ways to use that technology is, in itself, “a job.”

More and more classes are becoming internet based so the library needs to use many of the 23 Things to reach the students that are not on campus. We also need to make sure all of the students know what the library has to offer both physically and virtually.

Podcasts - Thing 21

Podcasts are interesting and something I might want to experiment with in my library. My daughter’s school is using ipods for language and some of the other classes. She also said that in some of the classes, that she hasn’t taken yet, they do some of their own podcasts.

I looked at the “Teen Show” from the West Covina Library – LA County Public Library System. The teens put together book recommendations and synopses. The librarians also have interviews from a comedian and business women.

Mohawk College in Canada had some excellent podcasts called “Braincasts” with topics including social networking, facebook/myspace, fiction books and a “how to” podcast. However, it looked like they hadn’t done anything new in quite awhile.

Moraine Valley Community College had a “Good Reads” book reviews for the remainder of this summer. North Texas Library Systems Librarian Live had a “Going Green.

I think I would begin with something that seems easy, like book reviews of some of the new books or maybe some of the older good books that are worth reading again that some may have missed. Then maybe move on to something more instructional. I also think that keeping them short, perhaps 10 minutes or less would be good.

You Tube - Thing 20

Now I understand why my teen son can spend hours watching random you tube videos. It is fun and entertaining and I guess addicting, if you have the time to waste.

I watched:

How to Read a Library of Congress Call Number from the University of Arkansas. It was very good and informational.

The TLA interview with Stephenie Meyer was so so. The camera was very shaky and the audio was a little hard to hear and sounded a bit echoed.

UNT Libraries Portal to Texas History was excellent.

It looks like some libraries are posting summer reading videos. Some are good, some not so good. I think it is a good way to get kids into the library or at least make them aware of summer activities at the library. It might be good to have links directly from the library home page. Making a library video could be a good activity for the library teens. Some are very tech savvy and would enjoy it. Cincinnati Public Library had a good 30 second Creature Feature. LaPorte Community Library’s The Henry Hound Dog Show was funny. It was a little too long at 10 minutes.

It might be interesting to have short info or program library videos not only on the library home pages, but also the city or community websites and the home pages of colleges and universities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI6ciJA1A0c

I thought this was a well done community college video.

Google Docs - Thing 19

I am not as enamored with Google Docs as many are. I have had the opportunity to work on many different office/library/computer lab computers and so far all have had some sort of office suite for documents, power point, excel, etc. The Library office computers also have had a shared drive for documents that are shared between co-workers. So far, I have not had a problem with sharing documents for work related projects. That being said, I am sure it has valid uses for some. I will have to keep Google Docs in mind and maybe explore it a little more. I will have a student going off to college in a year, so the “Docs” may be a solution to possibly having to buy office packages that may not be included on the a new computer purchase. I can also see its usefulness for student group projects, in which several students are working and interacting on the same document

Wikis - Thing 18

I have not really spent much time on Wikipedia because I know it is not recommended as an authoritative site. I do know that many students, especially the younger students seem to think it is. It does look like quite a well organized site. I did learn something about the discussion and history tabs. As many have suggested it probably is a good beginning point to start your search for other sources that are being researched.

I put together my three page wiki. It was fun and not too difficult once you got the hang of it. I do have and extra page with nothing on it titled Deborah instead of Deborah B. I would like to experiment with using a wiki in my library instructions. One of the other posts suggested it was easier than power point.