Thing Ten!

10. Wikis.

The Wikis in Plain English video from YouTube is a simple example of the advantage of using wikis rather than e-mail. It stresses edit, save and link.

I enjoyed looking at the wiki examples provided for Thing 10. Maybe I have looked at the Princeton Public Library and Library Success ones before. On the Library Bloggers Wiki, I checked Ashland University under academic libraries being we stayed at Ashland, Wisconisin last week. (Ashland University is in Ohio!).

After finishing the Minnesota 150 book a few weeks ago, I enjoyed browsing that wiki. When I went to the 23 Things Wiki, I saw a Minnesota photo that someone had posted, so added a comment. I will plan to return to some of the wikis again.

Some of the public library ones might be useful for ideas for titles for our book club.

Thing Nine!

9. Collaborate.
We used ZOHO for an agenda and minutes for a May library staff meeting. The concept is great, and much better than having an "e-mail" trail for weeks before a meeting. We can each add and edit at any time. I probably prefer ZOHO just because I was more familiar with it.

The Declaration of Independence project was interesting. After seeing 1776 at the Guthrie last year, it was fun to imagine the characters who played Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and others having laptops instead of quill pens in Philadelphia that hot summer as they debated the Declaration and made changes on the original writing. (I added one edit to the copy.)

Thing Eight!

8. Share Your Creations.

The photo sites are so much fun! I can really spend LOTS of time using them. It took me awhile to decide what to post for this THING, so I waited till near the end. Now you can find my Picture Trail Photo Carousel of photos from Washington, DC near the book titles from Library Thing on this blog. Before I made it to Thing Eight, I enjoyed seeing the projects that others had posted on their blogs. I have had fun doing more "photo flicks." I plan to continue using Picture Trail and other applications from Thing Eight. I like being creative with photos from an event or a trip. After a project has been completed, the editing process is easy for making changes. I posted the PictureTrail project on Facebook.

Thing Seven!

7. Web 2.0. Communication Tools.

E-Mail

Some of the information in Thing Seven seems to me to be "common sense" or common knowledge. Example: The first video on What Not To Do With Spam E-mails. ("The system is already overloaded with spam, and we will not see the end in our lifetime.")

Of the five e-mail tips, I liked the one best that encouraged us to write less. We have so much e-mail to read at work and at home, that we are more likely to read brief messages than lengthy ones.

Our work e-mail recently changed so it was good to "start over" with no messages. This summer I attended a training session with helpful tips for using e-mail.

For awhile I had a hotmail account which is handy during travel. I have not used that for a few years, but access my regular e-mail accounts anywhere.

Instant Messaging

When some of my relatives had the same instant messaging, it was fun to use that for awhile, but now I think that we are more likely to use our cell phones to contact each other. The Library Journal article from 2005 had a key point of promotion for library instant messaging services. We have had a library online reference service available for several years, but I have not had many legitimate questions in the past year. I think students tend to call the Help Desk more. If the service is promoted during student orientation, new students may be more likely to use it. Although I do not do much texting, I find it a convenient feature available on my cell phone.

Webinars and Wikis

Webinars such as the ones MINITEX hosts are great for learning without traveling 160 miles to the Twin Cities. I have also taken some from GALE and other providers.

Wikis will probably see continued use by libraries. The MnPALS Office in Mankato has one now rather than so many mailing lists.

Thing Six!

6. Image Generators.

Play around with an online image generator.

Using Image Chef for Thing Six, I had fun with framed photos, signs, banners, buttons, floral images, and sand messages. Besides the photo here, I added a license plate on the sidebar at the beginning of the blog and a flashing banner at the bottom.

Thing Five!

My creation
Originally uploaded by kayh6951

5. More Flickr Fun.

I have had fun doing lots of "trading cards" and framed shots, but needed help figuring out how to post one to the blog. (Thanks, Connie!)

The photo is of the group at a National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop, The Gilded Age, that I attended at the Hayes Center in Fremont, Ohio. I like some of the other trading cards that I did better, and plan to try working with trading cards again.

Later: The Spell With Flickr was also fun to try, and I added a 358 near the top of the blog. It was fun to try many different combinations of the numbers. I also added a neon banner at the bottom of Blog 358.

Thing Four!

4. Explore FLICKR. http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaykivi/287714927/ Here is a link to one of many great Prague photos.

In FLICKR I enjoyed exploring a few of the many photos available. I saved some favorites of Prague in my del.ic.ious account. On the first day that I worked on this blog, I linked my del.ic.ious account on the sidebar on the right.

Prague is a wonderful city where I would like to return sometime. I was only there for two days (before digital cameras were available).

The notes that the St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict's Libraries use to label their books is a great use of FLICKR that I first saw at an MLA session last year presented by LeAnn Suchy.

LATER: On 09/07, I posted a photo from FLICKR on this blog as Thing Twenty-four.