Thing 23. Final Thoughts

Afraid I was too late for the survey. Interesting experience but feel like it used up a few too many Saturdays. Many "Things" were intriguing, even fun, but also think they take a fair amount of time to learn, and even more to maintain. Some may have library applications, but there would be a real trick to establish them considering all the "competition". While picking one or two and concentrating on them might prove effective, it seems the nature of this whole "new world" is in regular flux so that once one Thing is established, many will have moved on the the "next new thing".

Now it is a Door's (The End) tune running through my mind

Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?

Guess I learned this is a good activity for a winter day. Many on the things could get quite addictive and, if gotten into a big way, even useful. However, I will confess to being a bit reluctant to going there since a lot of them still seem rather contrived to me. (maybe due to lack of exposure, but maybe not)

My way of staying up-to-date, within reason, will be to get Thing 6 and Thing 8 done, try to figure out why when I try to Publish it errors out, and to keep my blog from expiring.

I keep humming the old Pete Seeger song "What did you learn in school today"

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

Actually had a little fun with this one. Found a couple sites on Gather to add postings to. Now I'm curious if you hear back from the poster? Also joined the RPL site even though it did not look real busy. Not real sure about the effectiveness of these things from the library point of view. Unless there was someone specifically coordinating the activity, it would likely become a "dead end" type of thing pretty quickly. It would also be pretty essential for the library "someone" to be quite enthusiatic about maintaining and/or recruiting for the site.

Hope I find a fellow "stogie" person

Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks

Finally got signed up with Facebook (I think). Don't know if this is a common problem, or some sort of sign, but the confirmation email ended up in my Trash folder. That may have been my earlier problem, but in looking through the rest of it, I could not find any earlier email.
Anyway, in my brief excursion, it looked quite interesting. Not sure if it is something I would want to get involved in a big way, but could have some uses no doubt. I did not try any of the suggested groups but might look into them in the future.

I guess the dog has finally been displaced

Thing 19. Podcasts

Another one of those things that once you got used to how to navigate around (or set things up with the suggested, but untried, RSS feed) could be fairly useful. Tried the MPR website but could not bring up what I was looking for (somthing from Speaking of Faith). I'm still not clear how much of this is "real time" and how much is available "on demand". Did end up briefly listening to one of the School Board debates through RPL's catalog which I understand was used a bit around election time. Must confess that the visuals reminded me of the 60's.

Are things becoming too convenient?

Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video

Sort of fun and, no doubt, a little addictive. Not having watched this much I was a little suprised and the variety of things. Tried looking at the items dealing with Mesa Verde first. Most made me cringe, but did find one that was actually pretty good. Also tried looking up Pete Seeger and while several were good was a little disappointed there was nothing from Washington D.C. performance. In honor of the day, thought I would try including the following in this post:

Rated: R (ish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ-VxoMbo24

Good luck!

Everybody is a critic

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

Not a lot of luck with this thing (videos just took me to QuickTime website, ELM search got hung up as well). However, don't think this means I'm unenthusiastic about ELM. While on Reference Desk, it has been very helpful in accessing a variety of information that we would not be able to with just the local library resources. Just a couple were a technical medical article on diabetes and wiring schematics for a vehicle we did not have any manuals for)

Let's hope the legislature keeps money in for this library service