Thing 22: Staying Current

As I come to the sunset of my Neflin 23 Things Blog I thought I'd share my motivations for the future.

Yes, I will do my best to keep blogging...I'm thinking of starting something new and different. Something where I can share my thoughts and ideas. Something akin to my favorite blog to catch up with, Josh Jubinsky's Library Storytime Blog. His blog is wonderful and very inspiring!

I'm not sure if it will be a librarianship related...youth services related...still thinking about it.

Just this week I made my first YouTube video for the Library's homepage. Let me tell you, it was harder than it seems but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I'm glad we are embracing this new way to reach out to patrons.

I've been looking back at my previous posts and some are more interesting than others - some are very wordy, others short, but all will certainly clue you in to my opinions of this process. Blogs are supposed to be opinionated, right??

Thing 21: Student 2.0 Tools

When I was in high school, I had a well meaning English teacher who forced us to map our entire research paper onto index cards. We had to assign subject headings, sources, discussion topics...the works. I hated it. I felt like I was writing the paper ten times before I actually got to touch the page.

To me, my brain just doesn't work in a linear 1...2...3...you're done! sort of way. I like to jump all over the place, diving in where needed, cutting things out at the last minute, shifting direction as I see the need...

These tools are facinating and interesting, but they are so formulaic. I think the process of actually committing the information from understanding to knowledge is not as easy as these tools make it seem. If you going to demonstrate true mastery of the topic you might need to deviate from this "schedule." Also, by the time you are in college you should be beyond the "what is a thesis" question.

I thought, okay, I'll give the Assignment Calculator another go...perhaps as a project reminder service, and that email function is only for UM students.

I think that these resources are neat and I'd recommend them for a student that just didn't know where to start. Otherwise, I think they are a distraction from the task at hand. I'm not against "Student 2.0" just against trying to dictate the pattern by which we learn.

Off my soapbox now.

p.s. The handouts on RPC are neat, I bookmarked those.

Thing 20: Books 2.0

Booooooks!

Thank you for bringing Books 2.0 into this discussion. I secretly want a Kindle because it gives me massive techno-envy. I mean, I can be on the beach and download a novel right then and there. Wowee zowee. Anyone have one I could play with for a while?

I played around with Books on My Phone, which I would TOTALLY do if I wasn't too cheap to decline the data plan for my phone. Although I love the printed page I think the features of electronic books are awesome and right up my alley.

I was VERY sad to see that LookyBook has gone away. Britta and I shared some free moments there a few months ago enjoying the full page electronic versions of these contemporary kids books. Bye Bye Lookybook, so nice to know you...

I have Visual Bookshelf on my Facebook profile...this reminds me that I need to update it soon.

I also found some great wallpapers for my computer from the Vintage Children's Book Flickr pool. Beautiful!

Thing 19: Other Social Networks

I have a confession to make and it's going to give my age away.

I've joined a Ning for the combined 20 YEAR reunion for Allen D. Nease High School classes of 89-90-91. They hunted me down, said all sorts of nice things to me about how they missed me and I joined the Ning. Class of 1991 - Go Panthers! (it's not been 20 years for me. yet.)

Wow. I feel old.

The Ning is neat in that only those who are invited can join and we feel very comfortable in our 30 something world of career and personal updates. You create a profile very much like Facebook or MySpace and you can customize the Ning to do all sorts of whiz-bang things. Members have posted videos of themselves surfing, scanned pictures from high school (YIKES!!!), added polls, comments, created message boards. Overall, I really, really like the Ning format. I'm really comfortable with the Facebook style features and it feels more conversational than a Wiki.

It has latest a latest activity newsfeed, slideshows, newest members joined...you can also make your profile page look spiffy with themes, widgets and such.

I would love to see our youth services team move to a Ning. We use a wiki now and it feels cumbersome.

Oh, if only I didn't have to feel old to join my first Ning.

Thing 18: Facebook and MySpace

I'll have to admit, I get a certain bit of happiness when someone becomes my "friend" on MySpace or Facebook. It's like a tangible proclamation that we ARE friends.

Yay! You like me!

I use Facebook the most these days; mainly to catch up with college buddies that have moved on to glamorous world destinations while I stay in quiet little St. Augustine. They post pictures of themselves with celebrities and I post pictures of my kids.

I've joined a few library related groups on Facebook (I can thank Jae for turning me on to most of the cool widgets and stuff there). Ask a Librarian is there with a direct link to the service. I think that is the best way to use Facebook.

It makes sense to develop a presence there reminding friends of your good deeds and upcoming activities. Like I said on my Twitter post, I've fallen in love with the "microblogging" feature of the status update. Wouldn't it be cool to create a presence for your library and post things like,

"SJCPLS is really looking forward to the Florida Heritage Book Festival this weekend!"

"Clifford had a wonderful time at Storytime this morning."

"Did you know the Main Library benefited from 455 volunteer hours in March. Awesome!"

"Have you hugged your Librarian today?"

See? Cute and useful!

Thing 17: Podcasts

I had fun with this one...podcasts are super neat. I explored Podcast.com for parenting and library related podcasts. I was able to find a podcast that combined my love for non-fiction and parenting. I listened to an author talk from The Feminine Mistake about why women should work. Hmmm. Interesting.

I couldn't do too much with podcasting at work since I'm on the desk most of the time (shh!! quiet around here!) but I've explored them frequently in my free time at home.

I LOVE the idea of creating your own podcasts. Like pretending you were your own radio broadcaster...but without all of the money required to rent a license and tower.

Thing 16: YouTube

No. No. No. You WILL NOT watch YouTube at the Library.

That's what my computers at work have been telling me on this "thing." Apparently streaming video is a space hog on our already crowded Internet lines so YouTube has been ixnayed from our staff computers. I waste enough time on YouTube at home so I certainly don't need to go there now...

One funny aside, while my hubby was in class last night (FSU LIS class of 2011, go team!) they were discussing the use of YouTube clips to promote information literacy instruction. They watched a painfully awful clip about evaluating website validity featuring a college student dressed up like Elvis. Seriously.

Here it is, watch it if you dare.

Viva La YouTube!