And the Winner Is...

THING 23: REFLECTIONS ON THE 23 THINGS

It seems like an eternity ago that we were reflecting on our lifelong learning goals. Of course, this journey through the land of 23 Things has added considerably to my learning toolbox (#5 of the Lifelong Learning Seven and a Half). Most of all, learning the 2.0 tools, almost none of which I had a grasp of, relates to #6: Use technology to your advantage. I now feel poised to do so. Some of the tools I already depend on, many others I am incorporating into my way of life and learning more gradually, and still others I don't foresee using but will remain open to. Who knows what lies ahead? Embracing the question is part of the ride.

FAVORITE 2.0 TOOLS BY CATEGORY

Potential Personal Addictions:
Library Thing
You Tube

Most Personally Indispensible:
Delicious

All-Around Large-Scale Innovation Potential:
Wikis

Most Fun and Inspiring Methods of Communication
Blogs!
Podcasts

NOT SO FAVORITES

Most Frustrating Due to Tech Difficulties:
Rollyo
Technorati
NetLibrary

Couldn't Figure Out But Definitely Worth Trying Again:
Image generators

Time Sinks:
Twitter

SURPRISES

Why isn't social networking one of the 23 Things?
That said, I have a Facebook page, but I never visit. I use it to find people (and allow myself to be found) and exchange email addresses, then take our conversations to more private places. The ability of search engines to crawl through such sites sets off my Orwellian Alarm Bells. Social networking sites are the most disconcerting for their potential for abuse by outside interests. On the other hand, thanks to Facebook, and the fact that her son has an unusual name that I used to search, I was finally able to find my best friend from high school after 25 years...

THING 22: AUDIOBOOKS

Like other 635ers, I abandoned the notion of creating a NetLibrary account due to technical difficulties (and yes, 23 Things Narrator, a general reluctance to create yet another user account). I did cruise through the NetLibrary website, though, to see what it was about. The "About" page says that it's the division of OCLC that provides eContent to libraries and publishers--useful for acquisitions and collection development, etc. Honestly, though, I'm not sure what this means for an individual who just wants to download a book. This doesn't seem to be the place to go for that.

Like Lori, I checked out Audible.com. I listen to audiobooks in the car: on road trips now, and in the past during daily commutes in Washington, DC. The public libraries have always had sufficient selections, including current YA fiction, but I can see that having a monthly account with Amazon/Audible would be one of life's little luxuries if that beastly 3-hour commute still loomed on my daily horizon. Access to whatever you wanted, when you wanted it, in pristine condition, and for as long as you wanted are the obvious advantages of purchased downloads over library lendings on scratched CDs. And much less expensive than purchasing the CDs.

Downloaded books via the library...this would take care of so many issues in the public library that I have witnessed during my practicum: missing discs in cases, damaged discs, some other disc in the case. Problems with CDs and DVDs are by far the biggest collection and patron-relations challenges I see. The expense of maintaining the collections is enormous. My director only purchases used discs now--buying them new is not worth it. And indeed, I think that audiobooks via download are available through the library, but I have never been asked about them and I haven't investigated them...something to do before I finish my practicum, and before that next road trip!

This One Is Going Out to All Those Erstwhile Librarians Down in Dubuque

THING 21: Podcasts

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a DJ. This was when a DJ was Wolfman Jack sitting in a glassed-in room with twin turntables, spinning 45 rpm vinyl, pushing buttons, holding up a finger to silence anyone when the mic was live, running back and forth to the platter library (yes, that's what they had back then) looking for someone's request or the tune that was going to go with the next reflection on life and love. The job of my dreams. I'd think up radio program themes, I hung out at radio stations, I listened to radio all the time, even AM. My first boyfriends were DJs (ill-advised, but there you go). Top 10 Christmas present ever was the little transistor radio with the single earphone, secreted under my pillow so that I could drift off to sleep listening to the debut of Steely Dan, the Sounds of Philadelphia and Detroit, a bustle in your hedgerow, a little Nilsson in the night...

Fast forward. Podcasts. When I have time I can make that radio show. I can make a whole radio station! The list of podcasts on podcastalley.com is testimony to the thousands of radio show ideas that folks out there have, information they want to share for education and entertainment. (It's pretty amazing that podcastalley is created and maintained by a single person, one 26-year-old Chris McIntyre.) Podcastalley has decent searching and sorting features for anyone looking for podcasts in particular topic areas, and in the spirit of "wisdom of the masses" the most popular podcasts overall and podcasts in topic areas are listed. As a reference tool for those who prefer audio to visual, this is a fun site to poke around.

The podcast that I most often listen to comes out of the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a children's literature research library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The weekly "show" features one of the CCBC's librarians booktalking one or two or three Books of the Week, current items in all categories of literature for children (picture books, fiction, nonfiction). These are the great reads that will eventually show up in the annual book published by the CCBC--Choices. There's nothing like hearing the enthusiasm of the librarians, though, to get you hooked and looking for that gem to pass on to the kids in your life (guiltless admission: or to curl up with on your own before passing it on). The podcasts aren't broadcasting every week at the moment, since the recent departure of the CCBC's podcast maven Tessa Michaelson, but they will be back. You can find them on the CCBC's homepage (http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/).

Most of the links in the 23 Things podcast page are dead, which continues to be a frustration with the 23Things site. Only the Podcastalley.com and two of the "how to create a podcast" links are still living and breathing. Doubtless there are other tools for locating podcasts, which could be added to an updated THING 21...?

You Tube, Me Tube, Everybody Too Tube

THING 20: YOU TUBE

Something else to squander oodles of time on. This could be almost as bad as Harry Potter's Mirror of Erised. TV clips from the 1970s (see Information Professional in the preceding post). Formative music from adolescence that is nowhere to be found but--miraculously--is here. On a hunch, I even found clips of my own son (hands only) playing the piano.

Seriously, this is the place to find anything that anyone bore witness to with a camera, or that was ever recorded on video. I would like to see a better Help function, and of course the files are so big that computers may not be able to keep up with the download at busy times. But as an information source, as well as an entertainment source, this is huge. In terms of spreading news, getting the word out, You Tube is free and anyone can post, so commercial and political interests may not have power to censor. (Remember the debates?) But as Google gets bigger and bigger, will it remain so (absolute power corrupts...)?

Information Professional

Commended Classifieds

THING 19: Peruse an Award-Winner


What a great resource the list of 2.0 winners is! It's interesting to see Library Thing as only the Honorable Mention for social cataloging. I wonder what the First Place tool is like. Will have to check it out (chant mantra: in my spare time).

I checked out Craig's List, the First Place in the Classifieds category, which I used a few years ago when I moved. It is even better now, very user-friendly, with no need for a tutorial if you are the least bit tech-comfortable (although there is a good help section). Finding things is easy because of both the category-sorting and the searching features. There are many categories--sales, personals, real estate, free stuff, cars, employment, musicians (always fun to read). And if you are offering something but are not tech-savvy, this is the place for you. The help sections are plain English, comprehensive, easy to navigate. And folks are maintaining the site with scam warnings and such. There are even Craig's Lists for cities all over the world, so if you are about to do a year abroad or some such, you can look for apartments, houses, furniture, and more. I wish my son had had access to the Montpellier, France, list before he did his junior year over there...

Zoho-ho-ho!

THING 18: ZOHO WRITER

I am actually writing this post in Zoho, so that I can experiment with pasting it into my blog. I recently had the experience of writing a lengthy post in MS Word for another class blog, and couldn't copy/paste it into the blog. After hunting around online (and seeing that lots of people have had this problem), I found a solution, but who needs the anxiety? I am eager to see how this works.

Other reasons I have come to love online word processing:

• I can create a document on a computer at SLIS (I don't have a laptop or netbook), save it, and it's mine again for the asking when I get home.
• I can write a doc and then access it from anywhere without having a flash drive, a laptop, etc.
• If I am feeling paranoid -- let's say I just finished my 100-page research paper but haven't turned it in yet --I can quickly save it in Google Docs or Zoho Wite, and I know it's safe if my computer blows up, the house burns down, etc.
• I can collaborate with groups in producing papers and projects, sooo much more easily than email.

I especially like the revert-to-version function of Zoho. And the tags! I adore tags.

As a library/reference tool, it can be of service just as I have described: a patron is in the library and needs to make notes on readings, write a document, post to a blog, whatever. And doesn't happen to have his/her own computer (or other device, such as a flashdrive, an iPhone, etc.). Not a problem. Use one of the library's computers to transcribe, save in Zoho (or Google Docs, or...) so it stays out there in a cloud for Patron to retrieve any time, anywhere. Nice.

Hmmm, this #18 Thing page could use some updating, by the way. (I've said this about other Thing pages, too. Are they still maintaining it?) Google Docs has been around for a while now. And then some.

UPDATE: Wow! Posting to the blog from Zoho is incredibly easy! You don't have to know the URL or anything. Okay, I am a convert. :-)