Thing 22 - Staying Current

I've learned quite a bit during the past 21 Things. Some Things I will use everyday, some every so often, but others probably never again. But I don't feel like those Things that I didn't like as much were a waste of time. I'd like to hope that I will be able to pass along tools and tips along to patrons, coworkers, or friends. At the beginning of this, I had considered myself pretty knowledgeable when it came to the web, but I was wrong. I was surprised how many things I was missing out on. I am going to try and keep up with new things that will inevitably pop up on the web and pass it on. I'm definitely going to keep blogging; there's something almost therapeutic about it. I will probably make a new blog and really make it my own with all the new tools I've discovered. Our library district has already started incorporating many of the new tools which is awesome. We just launched a new website, and it really is amazing how great it looks and how many different things you can do on it. Everyone that I know who has been working along through these 23 Things has been very enthusiastic. It's great to know that others are excited about using these tools in our libraries and are willing to step out of their comfort zones and embrace Library 2.0. Like I said in my second post, the web is constantly changing and evolving, and Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are not the end. My guess is we've already moved on to maybe Web 2.2. Let's keep it going!

Thing 21 - Student 2.0 Tools

The Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator could be really helpful for students. Some students need to have a schedule and stick to it in order to finish a project or paper in a timely and well-done manner. I can't remember how many times I waited until the last minute to do a project and had to stay up late into the night to finish it because I didn't realize how long it was going to take me. I think I work best under pressure, but who knows maybe my work could have been a whole lot better if I had planned ahead. I really liked the teachers' guide section in the Research Project Calculator. It had tons of possible worksheets and ideas for how to approach an assignment. Links to these sites on our website and at our reference desks could really help out students as well as teachers. We could also give the links to the homework helpers that come to the libraries. I'm sure they get lots of questions about different research projects.

Thing 20 - Books 2.0

This was a long one! I started off reading the articles at the beginning. I had never heard of Kindle before so I was a little confused with the first one. So I Wikipedia-ed it and figured it out. I can't believe that I had never heard anything about Kindle before; it's kinda surprising. It would be nice to have if you hate carrying around lunky books, perfect for traveling. It's very interesting that libraries are technically allowed to check out Kindle books free of charge. I was very surprised at that. I'm sure Kindle will add a library fee once it starts catching on.

I really enjoyed the article Literacy Debate: Online R U Really Reading? I for one think that reading online is still reading. It's true that traditional grammar is often overlooked, and abbreviations and shortcuts are the way to go, but reading is much more than just helping grasp the grammatical concepts of the English language. I feel like this is the natural progression of things. We no longer speak or write like they did in Shakespeare's time, so why should we be so worried that our written language is evolving now? As for the tests that measure a student's reading comprehension and grammar skills, I think they are stupid. Standarized tests have always been crap. (On a side note, my boyfriend is in grad school for criminology and is currently doing research on university students' perceptions of delinquency and self control. In order to measure their self control, one of the questions on his survey asked if they thought getting good grades was very important. He asked me that same question, and I said they were very important. The thing is that I think the way we are graded is absolutely ridiculous, but I realize that in this society, those grades are important. So instead of thinking its very important to get good grades just because, I think its important in order to get ahead in this society. More opportunities are open to you if you are perceived as "smart" even though the actual tests and grading don't really accurately measure a person's intelligence. Sorry for the tangent...) Internet reading opens up whole other doors for people of all ages. You are able to be creative and add to the content. You have interaction among other internet users from all over the globe. Don't get me wrong, I love reading books, but for those that have trouble sitting down and reading, the internet can help provide some of the same things that books do.

I am just going to list the websites I went to in the Learn section and then touch on the ones I really enjoyed. It went to: BooksInMyPhone, ReadingTrails, BookLamp, BookStumpers, Overbooked, BookGlutton, Booksprouts, Librivox, BookBrowse, Facebook app Visual Bookshelf, SwapTree, and BookCrossing. Most of them were pretty good, but there were only a few I would go back to. ReadingTrails was neat. It's a nice place to go if you don't know what book to read next. BookStumpers was awesome! I read this book in middle school, and for the life of me I can't remember the title or the author. So I think I'm going to add it onto that site and see if anyone else knows it. Booksprouts would be great for a book club. I'm sure we could use it in our library. We could start one and have a link to it from our website. Librivox is pretty cool. I'm not much of an audiobook listener, but I know people who are and they would love it. I really want to look more at BookBrowse. It looked like it would be a great place to find really good books. If I had known about the Visual Bookshelf app for Facebook, I would have gotten it a long time ago. It's a perfect, condensed list of books that I'm reading, want to read, and have read. And last but not least BookCrossing was by far the neatest. It reminds me of the Where's George site for dollar bills, but much cooler. If I can part with one of my books, I'm going to release it into the wild!

Thing 19 - Other Social Networks

Social networks are great if you're looking to share a common interest with others. I haven't joined any before, so I tried to look at a few. I went to WebJunction, Ning, and Gather. They were ok, but nothing too special. So then I tried the book ones, but I still really love LibraryThing so they weren't too exciting. Then I went to Fuzzster. I love my cat and am a animal lover in general, but I'm not THAT crazy about them. Some people were posting as if they were their animal. That's great for them, but it's just not for me. It didn't have too much networking abilities or gadgets. Someone even made a post that asked what the whole point of the website was, and he had been a member for awhile. Then I went to Bake Space, and that was more like it. I'm not a big cook or baker, but I do like trying. It was totally packed with recipes, comments, and networking abilities. Now that's what I call a social network! I will probably go back to Bake Space again, and maybe I'll try to find some more social networks that really speak to my interests.

Thing 18 - Facebook and MySpace

I've had Facebook for over 5 years, so I pretty much know everything about it. I tried MySpace out once. I created my page, added friends, but never really got into it. I never looked at it so I decided just to delete my account. I'm much more of a Facebook girl. I used to be addicted to it, checking it at least 10 times a day, but now that I'm out of college, I'm lucky if I check it once a month. It definitely has great advantages, so I won't be deleting my profile anytime soon.

I checked out some of the listed libraries' MySpace pages. ACLD's seems to be lacking a little bit. It could be updated more often and have more apps added to it for sure. I know that with our new website, we are going to have a lot more gadgets and info available for the public, and I hope they spread that onto the MySpace page as well.

Anyway, not much more to add. This Thing was easy.

Thing 17 - Podcasts

I have tried listening to podcasts before, but found them boring. They are kinda like books on CD/tape; you wouldn't want to listen to them while you're just sitting around doing nothing. They are better if you are doing something, like driving or folding laundry. I don't like to be tied to the computer (my computer at home is in an office away from everything else that we have to keep closed so my cat doesn't chew through all the wires), so probably if I downloaded some podcasts onto my iPod, I could get into them more. I listened to Mugglecast very briefly. I think I could enjoy it if it were portable. I also went to Gcast and looked around. If I had anything I wanted to say, I would definitely make a podcast through them. It's amazing how you just have to phone in. I hate the sound of my voice though, so I probably won't make one anytime soon. Maybe I'll make my boyfriend do one...

Thing 16 - YouTube