23 at last

Done and over but of course not--the whole point is to go forward and explore, right? But the pressure is off, and now we can play.

#22: Keeping up with keeping up

It took me twenty seven tries to do something we learned about in thing #4 way back when! But at least I knew I wanted to do it--add a blog feed to my dashboard--and that counts for something, right? It seems that there were actually about six ways it could theoretically have worked, but only one was the charm. Which seems actually to be me and technology. At least I know enough to try everything!

The main thing these exersizes have instilled in me is a less immediate cringing response to the new stuff coming out daily. I am able already to help patrons in ways I was clueless to negotiate before, and have a facebook page that's kept me closer to my far-flung family (and stalked by a not-really-boyfriend from high school). I guess there is a downside to everything. I love my new bookmarks and my Delicious account, and have added some cool blogs to my dashboard that I will find profesionally and personally useful.Photo management is fun, and I loved the site that let me design my own logos. I will continue to use that and several news and weather feeds for locales that matter to me.

#21: How to manage the time you have left after 23 Things

I thought this was possibly the most practically useful segment of 23 T's so far. I can see printing out almost every aspect of the Research Project Calculator for students in our local high school/middle school, as they come to us very unsure of how to get started on their projects and reports. As they progress, they often have huge issues with sources, proper citing, and organization of materials. I especially liked the emphasis on "reliable resources" and "ethical manner" of conducting research. These are sometimes so far from younger students' ken that they really have no clue what the phrases might mean in terms of what they are supposed to turn in at a prearranged date and time.I can see this being a HUGE help for any of us to use to help these patrons.

And speaking of time management--the assignment calculator slides right into place as a great tool for first-time term paper writers and grizzled library staff equally. Really helps map out a pace and a plan.

Thing#20: Now this is more like it. And more, and more, and more...

I visited more sites than I can keep sorted out, most of them truly not useful for me in either a personal or an institutional sense. In some instances I have other known and trusted sources for the same information. Other sites take more time to navigate than the information they yield is worth to me (or any patron I can imagine.)

Some sites were fun to visit. I particularly liked the Flickr sets of "Vintage" and "Old" Children's book imagery.I also liked BookBrowse very much; it incorporated so many cool features I felt like a kid in the candy store. Reviews! Prepub info! Author interviews! Even a used book search! News items, demographic tidbits, et cetera! Even super, pertinent Links! Attached to a hefty (for me) fee! So no, I can only visit, not join. Phooey. The only other tempting service I investigated was ReadingTrails. I took several amusing excursions along other peoples' ideological highways and hitchhiked a few folks'nostalgia trips via this site. There was a trail of "books I plan to read to my children someday" that featured Edith Nesbit's entire output--I wanted to cheer . Another trail was a series of cookbooks based on childrens' authors--really fun. A few were heavy-duty academic lists generated by professors for their classes. One optomistic contributor even posted a trail titled something like "Every book I Ever Read in My Whole Life"! Fortunately, he was quite young.

As far as reviews, criticism, swaps, and all the other stuff...good to know about them, but not anything I want to do.I have other sources and limited time to putz and/or schmooze. I'd rather be reading!

As for library uses--online book communities are great for either age-or genre-related fans;I can see a very lively use for some of these communities among our patrons.For those who prefer to get their info online, the review sites would work either in-house or for patrons at home.

Thing #19: Otherwise Social

I joined Craftster on the strength of their logo: "Cheaper than therapy". I may use this contact to explore technical questions about adhesives, material sources, and other tips for collage art.

By the time I have completed the 23 Things, I may be heavily into basketweaving and broom construction, or whatever the nice quiet place I've been hauled to suggests as therapeutic these days.

Thing #18--about Face

I added a Facebook profile, harassed all my family and a friend or two (for me, these are not mutually exclusive categories--quite the reverse!)Anyhow, I'm up on some walls. I remember when this was not exactly a good thing. One wished to maintain a reputation that didn't get you posted on any walls!I joined Librarians and Facebook. Probably the most interesting thing I found out was accidentally, when I deleted my dear son-in-law's emailed invitation to join his facebook coterie. I called him and begged him to send it again so I could respond the way I meant to--of course I want to be his friend! I heard back from him by phone right away--he tried and could not re-send the invite. This actually makes me happy. Apparently, if you delete someone's request to be their friend the Facebook regulators prevent the same person from repeatedly kinda "stalking" with followup requests for unwanted "friending".(My son-in-law? I invited HIM and that worked fine.

#17 Some very odd pods out there...

This is one Thing I could learn to truly despise if I allowed myself to spend any more time with the search and exploration of Podcast World. I did as directed and checked out all the directories listed in the suggestions for this Thing. I will not access one via a feed to my blog. I didn't feel the need to be subjected to a changing stream of "stuff" where I live, even virtually . Not now, not ever, not via the ether.

I liked Podcastalley better than the others, as one could choose a genre immediately and navigate logically after that. But I strongly object being taken to a list of questionable "adult" podsites directly below (and on the same page as) the "Most Popular" listings. Yuck.

I listened to "Open stacks", "LibVib," and "WordNerds." None were engaging enough to be much more than idle prattle.