Thing 36 ! Comic Relief # 3

ago answer blog book checked com comic comments congress dc delicious enjoyed explore facebook finding follow found free fun http interesting kayh labels library link minnesota mla news online pages people places plan pm posted questions reading reference relief shelfari sites state things travel twitter updates washington west widget year

created at TagCrowd.com

I have spent WAY too much time on THING 36, so need to move on . . . A newspaper headline that I generated was added to my blog, and I did a Dewey Decimal number for my name. I tried most of the comic strip generators, and had fun with one for children. WORDLE was one of my favorites for this thing, and I plan to return to that again. It will probably be useful for library applications and maybe for making signs. I was amazed how the same information could generate so many different results. The tiny label maker was another fun one. Now I better move on as June 20th approaches . . .

Thing 36! Comic Relief # 2

Thanks to POSEYGALORE on ToonDoo for adding this comic in April, 2009.

Thing 36! Comic Relief

/http://235169358mn.blogspot.com/

Marcia's Dewey Decimal Section:
709 Historical, geographic & persons treatment
Marcia = 318391 = 318+391 = 709

Class:
700 Arts & Recreation

Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.

What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Thing 35! Books 2.0

Plundered from book sutlers in various ports!
Originally uploaded by lunawhimsy

Thing 35 is a very useful one for me. We just finished our third year of the Minnesota West Book Club. There are about 12 people in the group, but not all are able to attend each time. We meet once a month at noon and have more staff people than faculty attending now. This year I have had our selections posted on the sidebar of this blog. After Thing 35, I am happy for new sources such as Reading Group Choices. Now I am also following Twitterlit and Book Browse on Twitter. I also enjoyed looking at Reading Trails and What Should I Read Next?

In the academic library where I work, books are checked out less often now with students preferring to find most reference sources online. Some students still enjoy reading books. This year I remember how happy a student was to find the new book OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell with our NEW BOOKS display. She said that at her public library she would be on a long waiting list for it.

I think that the sites in Thing 35 enhance rather than detract from reading. Before I did the first 23 Things, I had accounts with Library Thing, Shelfari, and Good Reads. I have Shelfari on the sidebar of this blog, and have a link to Library Thing for Thing 14. A friend invited me to use a books application from Facebook, so I plan to add that option after completing Thing 35.

(Thanks to lunawhimsey for orginally loading the photo, "Plundered from book sutlers in various ports" (Flickr)

Thing 34! Is it Competition? Online Answer Sites

1 How do you get rid of a chest cough?

2. When does fall semester start at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah?

3. Does anyone still use a VCR?

4. What caused Amy Grant and Gary Chapman to divorce?

5. What books can you recommend for a 3 year old?

The above questions were some that I found on sites I explored in Thing 34 today. At a public library, they may not be unusual questions, but at our college library I am more likely to be asked if I can refill paper in the printer or help someone with the copy machine. Finding "instant answers" is motivation for people to use popular Internet sites. Other questions I found like "How do you find true love?" seemed to be something that one might post, but not ask a reference librarian. After browsing many sites, I have a better appreciation of them. Not all were satisfying to me. The ChaCha one was interesting for the many types of questions. At the SnappyFingers site which searches frequently asked questions, I had to ask about six questions before finding one with an answer. The one that I thought of that finally was answered was "What date will Easter be on in 2010?." I did ask a reference question of the Library of Congress, so will be interested to see if I have an answer in my e-mail in a few days. (Update: I had a response in less than 24 hours). While asking several questions, I did not try to answer any, so should try that soon.

For some questions, the collective wisdom of the responders may be more helpful than asking one reference librarian. The accuracy of the answers can be an issue. Slam the Boards is something I enjoyed reading about, and want to explore more.

The readings for Thing 34 on the future of reference were fascinating. I liked the one by Scott Carlson of the University of California - Merced from the Chronicle of Higher Education. I also enjoyed reading the views of Helene Blowers who is credited with the 23 Things, and enjoyed learning more about the origin of the project. It was interesting to me that she mentioned RSS as one of the most important when I have recently been reading of the predicted decline of RSS. At our college, the reference desk changed in the last few years. Although we still have a presence at the circulation desk, I found agreement with the article talking about our "reference questions" now having more to do with computer and printer problems. With the proliferation of Internet answer sites as explored in Thing 34, I will be interested to see the future of reference as libraries continue to evolve.





ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

Thing 33! Travel 2.0

Thing 33 was a fun one for me! I enjoyed exploring many of the travel sites listed. Lost Girls was an interesting blog. It was fun to check Baden-Baden (where we were years ago) in My Kugelhopf. In Notes from the Road, I enjoyed the great photos. The Texas Hill Country, Harmony and Lanesboro, MN and the SPAM Museum in Austin were places I checked. For review sites, I liked the collective wisdom of http://www.boo.com/ and plan to return to that site. It was fun to see what I could find on the Prague Castle and other places where we had been in Prague. I also checked the opinions of the Holiday Inn Capitol in Washington, DC where we stayed in March and found that I agreed with them. The Newseum http://www.newseum.org/index.aspx in Washington DC, is just a little more than a year old, so with nothing listed for it, I can add something myself! Gusto was fun for 10 Great Places on Earth You Don't Want to Miss. On http://www.vcarious.com/ I enjoyed the photos of Barcelona.

I definitely plan to do more exploring of Travel 2.0 and added some travel entries to Delicious. We booked hotels in Anchorage and Vancouver for this summer earlier. Now I plan to read more about them on sites that I learned about in Thing 33.

Although the sites in Thing 33 may apply more to public libraries, I could probably find some use in the Research QuickStart subject pages that we are adding to our library site at Minnesota West.

Thing 32! Google Maps

View My Saved Places in a larger map


I spent MANY hours with GOOGLE MAPS and did MANY of them. When I tried to load them for THING 32, I had problems. On June 17th after finishing most of the THINGS, when I tried adding a Lanesboro map, it worked on the first try! When I looked at the map, it was not the one that I wanted where I had identified where we stayed and places we ate on a fun "Sisters Weekend" last September. I had added comments and photos. Maybe later, I can add the detailed one that I really wanted, but for now I am just happy that one loaded, and will leave this simple one. GOOGLE MAPS are great, and I really did spend a long time with this THING even though that is not reflected in my simple map.