Thing 23: End

I found 23 Things to be a lot of fun. There were many things that I learned and a lot that I learned more about. The greatest thing that I learned was about RSS; what it is and how to use it. Also, I really liked being able to look and talk to other librarians and my colleagues about 23 Things. It was fun to read their blog and it was great to be able to vent my frustration to then when something didn't work. Like Thing 9 which wasn't easy as the title said "These Web 2.0 tools make it easy to collaborate on documents and presentations without the hassles of email attachments." There was more hassles using these tools then email; so that step really didn't showcase these tools in a good light. In all I found 23 Things to be a great program and I am very happy that I did it. It was really interesting to learn about different Library 2.0 things. This program really gives a good overview of different programs that patrons might find helpful and give a good overview of how these programs work.

Thing 22: Continuing to Blog

I have learned a lot with 23 Things and many aspects I will continue to use throughout my day to day life. Like Google Reader which has me linked to my local paper, fun blogs, interesting librarian blogs, and other news related information. I may continue my Nic23 blog however, I feel like I will start to blog more on Facebook and MySpace instead now that I feel more comfortable with it. I will also be using Flickr more and try to store all my pictures on my page. So, in conclusion there is a lot that I am taking away from 23 Things and a lot that I will continue to use.

Thing 21: Social Networks

Thing 21 was interesting and I took a quick look at Gather, WebJunction, and Ning. Then I joined 23 Things on a Stick Ning were I was able to costumize my own page. I added a Ning badge to my blog and I took part in a discussion about 23 Things. Finally, I added a Ning Widget Video Player to show one of the music video's I uploaded to my Ning. It is really hard to see the video though with my background so I added it to this post also. The Music Video was made by DuckMilk productions and contains a combination of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire's movies set to the song "Do You Love Me" by the Contours. The music video is really well made and very funny. I found these other social networks to be interesting and I liked how you could add a badge or widget to my blog so that other people can find and experience my Ning page.

Thing 20: MySpace and Facebook

I found thing 20 to be really easy mainly because I already have a MySpace and Facebook account. I first created a MySpace page just for the fun of it one day but I don't really use it that much. In fact, I don't really know of anyone that is on MySpace and sad as it is I don’t have any friends. I then created a Facebook account; mainly because my friend forced me to and again I didn't use it that much until recently. Facebook is a great way to keep in track with friends; by seeing what they are doing and reading their wall. MySpace I think is the better social network for a library to use because it has become really popular with teenagers and that is all I see them using in the library. Also, it is really easy to showcase pictures, books, music, and etc then on Facebook. Finally, I find MySpace less confusing to maneuver then Facebook. So, MySpace is the social network I would choose for a library to use; but for individual use I find Facebook to be the better social network.

Thing 19: Podcast

I looked at several different podcasting web sites. The one I chose to use was podcast.com; mainly because it was easy to use and easy to set up the RSS feed. I did look at local podcasting web sites; however most of the podcasts you had to listen to right there while the RSS feed really gives you more options. The first podcast I listened a little to was called Amateur Traveler Podcast: Travel for the love of it. I listened to the newest podcast which was about Walt Disney World. It was an interesting podcast but it lasted about 30 minutes long so I didn't listen to the whole thing. The next and final podcast I listened to was The Library Channel which was from a College Library in Arizona. It was about their Helpdesk and IT people and I didn't listen to a lot of it because again it was about 30 minutes long. I looked at some other library podcasts and most of them were about the events or activities that were happening in their library. In all, there is a lot of podcasts out there to listen to and no wonder if it is as easy as using G Cast were you use the phone to record our podcast then can mix in music then finally publish your very own podcast. So, virtually any library could create there own podcast. I just don't know if anyone would listen to it because as interesting as they are I don't find them interesting enough to waste 30 minutes of my time on them.

Thing 18: YouTube

When deciding what to post from YouTube I decided to add the video that first got me interested in YouTube; which is a remake of the trailer for American Psycho. So enjoy.

Thing 17: ELM

Learning more about Electronic Library for Minnesota or ELM is a great thing. The only problem is that I had to go through the ELM Portal. I looked at several of ELM items. I looked at InfoTrac which didn't have many instructions and was therefore very confusing. Many people made comments about this thing so I will not go into more detail. So, after a time I was able to add my search as a RSS feed onto my Google Reader. So, if I was doing research for a paper this would be a nice way to draw out the research and help me find up to date information. So, for students this could be a very helpful tool; however I was only about to access this through to ELM Portal and not through are own link to InfoTrac so I don't know how easily student will be able to access this within our library. The other thing I will talk about is my web page I made within EBSCO. I made it on April 1 so there is a little April Fools going on within my web page. I really didn't know what the point of making the web page was unless other people can look at your web page; however in reality it is not a viable source within a paper.