Finish Line

By and large, I liked the 23 Things experience. It was a little overwhelming to sign up for or sample so many web services in a constant stream, but a lot of interesting "Things" were presented.

I liked the image generator and the motivational poster that I made, simply because that's the one that I had the most fun with. I liked Youtube, because I felt that that was the one with the simplest search engine to get the subject that you wanted. Although, admittedly, that might be because that was the one site that I was already most familiar with before it was assigned.

Finally, the one that appeals to me the most in a library setting is LibraryThing. It has the most comprehensive amount of information geared to and for book lovers. And, ultimately, that's the number one patron for a library.

Developing Your Own 23 Things

In developing a library's own 23 things, I think the most important issue is customer input.

Kids, for example, are way at the forefront of the learning curve for computers. If some new site or portal or web service becomes popular, odds are that they'll be the first to hear about it.

Second, the next source of input would be from "niche" groups. These are specific groups that use the web technology to flourish. Notable points are groups that use blogs, Facebook, Ning, etc. to facilitate meetings and to get new members. Another adaptation is that food trucks (The kind that sell take-away lunches) are using Twitter to let people know we they are at a moment to moment basis.

Finally, and specifically for library staff, there are online books and databases. This is a way to access huge amounts of info on just about any subject at virtually no price. This is a hugely useful resource.

Podcasting

I have to admit. On this one, I'm far behind the technology curve. For some time, I've been constantly chewing on myself to get an IPod (I'm not even sure about the grammar. Do you capitalize both the I and the P? Just the I? Or, maybe you leave the I as uncapitalized "i". It's a brand name, so it's hard to tell sometimes.)

The strongest use of this would be for subjects and media geared around sound. I.E. Music, Talk Radio and News and Old-Style Radio Programs. Personally, I've always been a fan of the comedies of the Twenties, Thirties and Forties, such as W.C. Fields and Abbott & Costello.

Education would be useful as well, particularily the literature and second language podcasts. I listened for a while to some of the Shakespeare podcasts on the Education Podcast Network. Very Nice. Hearing the words spoken, rather than slogging through the reading(and the numerous footnotes) would be a big help to students.

Other subjects, like math or chemistry are more visual, but the podcasts can be a good suppliment, particularily with the vocabulary or definitions. Stuff like that.

Used in conjunction with Youtube, just about every subjust used for distance education should be covered.

Home Stretch- Task #20

The fact that the next task is about Youtube is excellent timing. Just yesterday, I was helping an older gentleman with a question and the solution involved Youtube.

Originally, he was looking for lyrics to old time country and western songs (Ernest Tubb, circa about the 1950's) as well as other artists that might have sung the songs as well. The problem arose when he wanted to hear the songs before he decided to download them. Most of the music sites either cost money to download or only had samples of the most current songs. Usually both.

I steered him over to Youtube, because it's a safe bet that enough music aficianados are on the site and upload variations of the song, even if it's only for backgrounds to thier own clips. He searched for "Filipino Baby" and found a version, sung by "Cowboy" Copas, that he liked.

Back to Task #18

It seems like 90% of all computer frustration comes down to one small detail. You get that one thing right that you were previously missing and suddenly, it all goes as smooth as silk.

Apparently, you can't use a header to start the new page that somebody else has used. For example, I kept using "Hobbies" as the title for my new page and somebody had already taken that for thier sub-page. I used "Martial Arts" and then, it was no problem.

For my other two sub-pages, I used "Literature" because Books was taken and "Cinema" because movies was taken.

Task #19

This was much easier than the last one.

The following is the document that I created:

There's a blog I go to on a regular Basis called "This Why You're Fat".

People can send in examples of the most over-the-top food dishes ever seen. Stuff like the Pizzaburger, which consists of a hamburger the size of a manhole cover served between two whole pizzas. Or, a model of Stonehenge, done with Kielbasa, standing on a field of baked beans. And, below you have the ultimate:

The 30,000 Calorie Sandwich

Sandwich filled with ground beef, bacon, corn dogs, ham, pastrami, roast beef, bratwurst, braunschweiger and turkey, topped with fried mushrooms, onion rings, swiss/provolone/cheddar/feta/parmesan cheeses, lettuce and butter on a loaf white bread.


Pretty cool.

WikiFrustrating

The practice Wiki that I, well, practiced on proved to be one of the more difficult tasks out there. I posted the page, but when I tried to create the sub pages, it seemed like nothing was happening.

Now, when it comes to computers, I have no shame. I'm not afraid to ask for help. But, the WetPaint site had no "Help" or "FAQ" section. In my humble opinion, every site and piece of software should be equipeed with one or the other.
This task, I'm going to have to leave half-done and come back to it on a regular date.

Thing #17

This is a much more "Behind The Desk" tool than the other items were. Use of LibWorm will probably come more from the process of running and evolving the library than in response to patron questions.

The subjects ranged from Censorship to Wifi. When I enroll in Library School, this will be a great toy to have in my pocket.

LibraryThing

Before I even signed on to LibraryThing, I was impressed with it's concept. All of the ther services and utulities that we've used/reviewed for the tasks are useful, sometimes extremely so. But they were only useful in the sense that they are for the general public. LibraryThing, on the other hand, is created specifically by readers and librarians for readers and librarians. Pretty cool.

This vibe was re-enforced once I joined the site and started looking around. I've never even heard of the author Alain De Botton, but he has a group solely for him. Other book and author subjects ranged from Scuba Diving to Midieval Europe.

It'll take some to do an in-depth perusal of this site, but I would be willing to wager that there are very few subjects or authors that are not covered.