Thing #38 Screencasting

I can really see the usefulness of screencasting for new employees or substitutes. I don't have a microphone so that is not an option. I don't like to download to the library computer so I tried ScreenToaster (http://www.screentoaster.com/). ScreenToaster was not really easy to use and I wasn't able to edit afterwards other then putting in captions (at least I couldn't find it). Also I was not able to save it to the computer.

I then tried Screencast-o-matic (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com./) instead. First I had to download Java. This worked much better and I was able to save it to the computer. Below is the screencast I made. I would get a mic if I used it seriously.

Thing #37 Photo Tales

With the orginal 23 things I started a Flickr account for the library and myself and then right after that I got a Picasa account. I found Picasa much easier to use so I stuck with Picasa. It doesn't offer all that Flickr does, but for what I was doing it did not matter. I tried Photobucket, making a slideshow, but I wasn't too thrilled. I've also tried Picnik, but found it very hard to use. I just now tried One True Media (http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/public_home) doing both a slide show and a video. This was easy and has many options that are free. Below is a video I took at a Bluegrass Festival.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It would be nice to make a DVD each year of all pictures and videos that were taken. It costs $24.95 to have a DVD made at One True Media. I tried burning a cd of all library pictures from last year, but it would not play on all computers.

Thing #36 Comic relief - generate some fun

Lots of interesting things, but I didn't find much of use.

• Citations could be very helpful for students since we have an older version of word that does not do citations.
• I probably could find a use of graphs. I have always loved statistics and graphs.
• I wish I would have known about the timeline last year when planning the Library's 100th aniversary.
• Tag Cloud could also be useful. LibraryThing does that with the 'tags' (subjects) that are put in for your books.

I see some use for some of the generators at the library.

I tried out the comic strip maker, but ToonDoo got stuck. I found the comics about library's pretty stupid and if I tried to make my own it would be just as stupid since I'm not very creative.

Thing #35 Books 2.0 continued

Over the last ten years I have seen a big decline in reading for the chapter book age group. Though just in the last year there have been a few high schoolers that have found that reading is fun. The only thing is, they do not come into the Library and browse the shelves but order everything on the online catalog, getting their ideas from lists on the internet. There are quite a few adults who do this also. My big question is, "how do you get people to come in?" I guess we have become kind of a fast food service. Some of them actually go to book stores, browse the shelves, write down titles and then go home, get on the computer and order them (many we have). Seems like it would be just as easy (or easier) to come into the library. This is a little ranting...it is my pet peeve.

Many of the books 2.0 could enhance a persons reading, but be quite time consuming.

I did look into many of the sites or tools, but not too interested in many for myself.

Thing #35 Books 2.0

I don't use any of the personal book organizers since I don't have the internet at home, but I have been using LibraryThing for the Preston Library for about a year now ( http://www.librarything.com/home/prestonlibrary ). I don't think that it is used much and it is rather time consuming, but we plan to keep it up. I did look at quite a few of these, but I like the look of LibraryThing best. I may set up an account with lib.rario.us (http://lib.rario.us/) to list the Library's DVDs.

Don't have a cell phone that does anything special so I couldn't look into that part.

I looked at a few of the Reader's Advisory sites, Online Book Communities and Book Group Resources. Some really neat things! I liked the BookGlutton (http://www.bookglutton.com/) and wish I had internet at home to read some of the books. It is nice to know about these things to let partons and book groups know what is available.

Checked out a few in Book Swaps. Could be useful in finding books. Not sure about BookCrossing...

Not all the links worked. International Children's Digital Library might be nice for someone learning a new language or for someone unable to find books in their language, but I just can't see reading a book to a child from a computer screen.

Why rent a book when you can go to the Library! The college textbooks may be nice though.

I have been doing the visual bookshelf on Facebook for quite awhile, but it isn't real easy to use and I forget to keep it up to date.

I'm not much into Audio Books, but it might be fun to find one in German...

Thing #34 Is this our Competition?

Being a small library, we have never had a reference desk. Online answer sites are nice because of the anonymity especially when you live in a small town. It is also convenient. But unfortunately too many people trust everything they find on the internet. I think that the Slam the Board events is great, but I didn't join and try to answer anything.

Thing #33 Travel 2.0

Though I would love to travel I'm unable to do much. Most of my travel revolves around Bluegrass Festivals.

• I did not find the blogs listed interesting.
• The review sites were interesting and may use at some time. I, of course, searched Preston, MN, not much listed though, but when I searched on Virtual Tourist up popped a picture of the Preston Public Library! I think that the Preston Chamber of Commerce should look into this.
• Travel Journal sites may be fun and would work best if you were able to get internet service.
• Travel mashups didn't interest me either.

I don't find any of this useful for the library, but it could be suggested to patrons. I enjoyed the review sites the most.

Thing #32 Google maps and mash ups

I have used google maps, map quest and yahoo maps quite a bit for directions. Amazingly they are all different. I made a map of of my town with places that I frequent the most. Not sure if I would use map mashups for the Library.

Thing #31 More: Twitter

This took hours and I didn't even look into everything! I do find twitter fun. Am I a Twithead?!? What is Twitter? Good question...don't think I can really button hole it. Twitter means something different for each of my accounts.


I have both a personal (Beth A) and a Library (PrestonLibrary) accounts. Both have been added to the Tweeter Directory and LocalTweeps. I played around with a bunch of the "fun" things and they are just that fun, but they are time consuming and easily forgotten. I don't use any mobile device so didn't try any.


Personal Twitter: I'm probably at the conversing level here. I follow people I know and people who have the same interests. I don't like to put too much information about me on line so my Twitter doesn't say much, one can see my interest more by who I follow. I sometimes wonder what the purpose really is for Twitter...just another duplication?


Library Twitter: The level for this would be Microblogging as I use it to let others know about what's happening at the Library. So far I don't really have any library users following. Not sure if any are even on Twitter. I put Twitter on our LibraryThing account.

Thing #30 RSS and Delicious

I had already set up account for both. I set up Bloglines shortly before doing the things then I tried out Google Reader with the 23 Things. But now that I have set up an iGoogle I will use Reader.

I went back into Delicious, but could not remember what my user name was (found that out after bookmarking sites I had bookmarked before). I was able to add it to iGoogle so I will be less likely to forget. AND will be able to use it on any computer.

http://delicious.com/

By the way, I just added that last post from my iGoogle.

Thing #29 Google Tools

I really don't have much use for the Search Tools, but did try out Google News and then added a subject to the library iGoogle.

In productivity I set up a Sites for the library. It was not real intuitive and took quite awhile to figure out. But I have a Site!

I already had a Google calendar so I embedded that in my Sites.

My son put goog-411 in my phone, but have not needed to use it yet.

Thing #28 customize home page

I have tried both my MyYahoo and iGoogle. My email is yahoo, but I have Picasa (Google) for my photos. I added Facebook to iGoogle. I also added reader and a few other things. I originally set it up with the first 23 things, but hadn't used it since. I find it easier to open a tab for each thing I am using. MyYahoo does not let me add Twitter or Blogger.

It was actually quite easy to set up both, but could spend a lot of time tweeking.

I also have iGoogle for the library since we use Google for many things. I can do twitter, our blog and googledocs all in one place plus keep track of the temperature! I have found this really handy.

Thing #27 Twitter

I signed up for a Twitter account for the Library and have been twittering almost daily. I don't know if it is worth the time. How do you get patrons to follow you? How many actually have a Twitter account? Now I have three things to post events to; Blog, Facebook page and Twitter. I also have a personal twitter account. Not sure if it is really worth the extra time.

I like the short messages. No need to come up with almost a press release. Short and to the point! Don't have to read through lots just to get the main idea.

Twitter could be useful for libraries, if you had a large following, for letting people know about things happening at the library.

How do you get the word out? I mentioned it on our Library blog and Facebook page.

https://twitter.com/PrestonLibrary

Thing #26 Ning

I had joined Ning on round one, but did not continue to use. I added a few pictures. There doesn't seem to be any security and anyone can look at your page, something that I don't like.

I looked at the google group and found that I was already a member. I do not remember joining!

At this time I cannot see how Ning could be used at the library, but am open to ideas. I do have a FaceBook page and group for the Library. So far not many have become 'fans'.

Thing #25 Toolkit

Wow, that was overwhelming!

Posting from email was really neat, but will probably forget that it is possible.

I had already added sitemeter shortly after setting up my blog. I also have this on our library blog and it is fun to watch all the hits from all over the world.

I looked at widgetbox and finally decided on adding Live TV/Radio. With this you can chose a country and then there are many stations that can be watched. Right now I am listening to a station from Bahn, Germany.

I did not find very much that I felt was useful. I spent a couple of hours looking through Thing #25, but barely scratched the surface.

Thing #25 Email

I am now trying the "post by email" feature. This post is being sent by my email.

Stick #24 - Refresh

1. I have only blogged once on this, my personal blog, but do it quite frequently on the library blog (we don't have a web site).
2. I don't have a use for it personally, I use Facebook. For our library it is a way to let people know what is going on, past and present.
3. I rarely read other's blogs.
4. I made a few comments during the past 23 Things, but since I don't tend to read blogs, I don't comment.

I like my avatar so am not changing it. I added a German and Latin word gadget. And changed the template.

Update

I continue to use some of the things that I learned during the 23 Things on a Stick and others have gone by the wayside. Things I use:

1. RSS - I started out using this on an almost daily basis but haven't used it for a few months.
2. PHOTOS - I use this all the time for our Library blog. I put a picture on the blog and then a link to the album that I created for the activity. I use Picasa, but find that it doesn't have too many options.
3. COMMUNICATION - I do use the Facebook chatting and find it fun. I don't use this while I'm at work.
4. COLLABORATION - We are using Google Docs for our book orders, movie lists and other things that we use on both computers. We all log in with the same user name. This was very handy while at Best Buy and I wanted to see what was on our movie list.
5. PRODUCTIVITY - I use Google Calendar some, but mainly I use the calendar that I have with my email account. It is just not convenient for me to get into a lot of different accounts.
6. LIBRARYTHING - We are now adding our new adult books to this site. Since we are not paying for it we are limited to 200 books so at the end of each month I remove books from a few months back. Not sure if any patrons are looking at this or not.
7. PODCASTS & VIDEOS - I use YouTube when I want to see some music group. But sometimes I get carried away because one video leads to another and before I know it a couple of hours have gone by.
8. SOCIAL NETWORKING - I use Facebook on almost a daily basis since all of my family members have accounts. It has a lot of time wasting things on it.

I have not found much use for the other Things, but who knows.

Stick #23 Done

I just took the online evaluation and am officially finished with "23 Things On a Stick". This has been a great learning experience, albeit time consuming, and I'm sad to see it come to an end. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride in having finished. Ning would be a great place for all of us to tell about new "Things" that we learn.

"Thank you" to all who worked to put this together.

Stick #22 Ways to keep up

Wow! I can't believe I'm coming to the close of the 23 Things. I know that I've hardly scratched the surface of all that is out there. I plan to continue posting on this blog and hope to learn many new "Things". I will continue using my aggregator, but can't decide which is better as they both have advantages and disadvantages. I will continue to use LibraryThing on our library blog for new books. Google docs seems to work well for our book orders. I may find uses for some of the other things I've learned and many will fall by the wayside never to be thought of again. I now have about 12 new accounts!

Stick #21 Social networks

I looked at some of the other social networks, but I'm not a big fan of this sort of thing. Two years ago I joined Bebo, but promptly lost interest. I was surprised that I was able to still get into it. About a month ago I joined the 23 Things Ning, but a few days later when I tried to sign in I couldn't and ended up with a second account. I haven't been in since. I also belong to myfamily.com which I do go into more often.

Stick #20 Facebook

I just joined Facebook since some family have accounts. As soon as I finished joining there was a friend inviting me! So I had an immediate friend. I really don't see the purpose in these social networking sites and will probably lose interest in this after awhile. I just don't understand what others see in them.

Stick #19 Podcasts

Since my theme is bluegrass that is, of course, what I searched. I found a great site with half hour bluegrass shows by a family band.

http://www.banjonut.com/bluegrassblog/

I tried the different sites and found non really easier than another. Each had different strangths so it is whatever one gets used to. I did put the above on my Bloglines (didn't work on Google Reader) to listen to as time permits.

Stick #18 YouTube

I've looked around in YouTube before and it can be very addicting as you start watching all the videos. I'm putting a silly video that my son and niece did on my blog.



YouTube could be used to give a tour of the library, or show parts of a program. I don't have a video camera or I might do something.