17th Thing - Google Docs

17th Thing Google Docs: Looking forward to our class on google docs! I did publish a document - Summer Reading Program Committee Agenda - to my blog. I used this as a sample seeing perhaps a future use for the members to help create the agenda and even edit the minutes afterwards.

16th Thing - Wikis

16th Thing - Wikis:
Oh Wikis, not to be believed necessarily but quick references! I wonder if George Bush's wiki is the most edited at Wikipedia? I recall recently how several universities had to forbid students to use Wikipedia as a source for papers. I was astounded that college students didn't know that the information wasn't reliable. Or maybe they did and it was just a quick reference.
A statewide youth services committee that I'm on is using pbwiki for our project work, signing on with passwords. Applications for Pamunkey - perhaps the Customer Service Guidelines project ;-) And speaking of true community readers' advisory, imagine the ability of any reader adding content to the catalog which OCLC is testing now!

15th Thing - Second Life

15th Thing Second Life: Role playing has certainly come a ways since my Myst playing days. I found games like Myst somehow more satisfying in their discovery aspect - not as weird?! But now TV shows characters like Dwight of The Office and The Gossip Girls are either playing or in second life. Librarians and libaries are in Second Life. I'm not going to be in Second Life personally but I see its applications for work. One of the neat uses I've read for Second Life was a college fair. Many universities participated with booths and gave out virtual swag.

14th Thing - Web 2.0

14th Thing Web 2.0: Library 2.0 is to me a way to connect with a younger generation of users. Promotion of library services through MySpace and Facebook accounts and even Second Life accounts can counteract the perception of libraries as stodgy places of the past. Though there may be internal 2.0 applications such as google.docs, I feel the major effect is external from the patron's perspective. It seems even more necessary for libraries to survive into the 21st century, for us to reevaluate the methodology of our services.
Reading Dr. Wendy Schultz's essay on Library 2.0-2.4 was thought provoking. I was interested in her distinction between the 2.0 and 3.0 tenants of product and service. Many economic analysts are predicting the evolution of the U.S. economy into a service economy. However, her Library 4.0 seems a throwback to the elitist first libraries - or is it impossible at this point to imagine what libraries will conceivably be like that far in the future?

13th Thing - Technorati

13th Thing Technorati: I'm almost afraid to dip my toes into the water - this is the one thing everyone is talking about! However, I am really liking Technorati! The ease of navigation, ability to see who's blogging, favorites, etc. Looking at the blog posts for Learning 2.0, I see 11,116 results including some PLA conference reports. Blogs on that subject are less only about 1,008 while tags equal 1,037. For some reason all peaked on that subject around March 11? Wonder what happened on January 7 ;-)

12th thing - Tagging

12th Thing Tagging: Will I use Del.icio.us? This one is a question mark. I can see the benefits however it does require establishing another 'set of bookmarks.' Although it is acclaimed for its unstructuredness, one must still remember what phrases one is using for tagging certain subjects. I never thought I would think like a cataloguer (sorry Alyce) but the plus about LC standardized subject headings is that they give you a clue where to look if you forget or don't know! An use for this site that I did find unusal is that one can create a unique tag so just a common group of users can find and use it. Amazon even offers tags now.

Tech Note: Several Habits link is no longer there.

20th Thing - Summary

20th Thing Summary:
The 20 Things was an excellent exercise both personally and professionally. It did meet my lifelong learning goals of always learning new things and satisfying my curiosity. My one surprise was the amount of people out there ‘sharing’ whether it is pictures, favorite books, music, etc. Not my style but apparently for many it is!

Favorite sites that I explored included My Space, Library Thing and Flickr. On the personal level, My Space gives me the opportunity to ‘visit’ with my new grand nephew in Massachusetts and other far away relatives and Library Thing is a good spot to put all those books I’m meaning to read. I am excited about the possibilities of using Flickr at work for a project long in the works – a visual storytime resource catalog. PRL may want to have a presence on My Space as well, especially for teens. Many branches found a great side benefit to the 20 Things project – team building.

If we were doing the project again: I would have preferred to set up the program with basic training by trainers and then let staff explore the related links and do their exercises independently. I know my husband is currently doing a train the trainer program at another library system for their 20 Things. I think this would have relieved a lot of the frustrations and produced a more positive experience.
The list of activities was a good selection and mix, excluding perhaps Technorati which seemed to stump many people! The number was very difficult to keep up with whether for our predominantly part time staff or for full timers.
On the technical side, it would have been easier to have required software and hardware in place before beginning the exercise. Can anything be done about the spy ware? I’d caution people initially about keeping a list of passwords and user ids – maybe even several copies ;-).
These observations are based both on mine personally and on other staff’s comments.