This Is Really Funny

It's late and I'm a little hysterical because I just finished 23 Things, but dang, this is funny. I have tears in my eyes right now.

Thing 23: (Not So) Final Thoughts

I'm done, I'm done, I'm done! The deadline proves useful once again. Without it I would have stretched this out until Thanksgiving.

What has changed during this experience is what I commented on in the previous thing: I feel braver now and I'm a lot more interested in all the tools and technologies we have available to us that before I was doing my best to ignore. I actually care now. Deeply.

The one thing I've been using daily is del.icio.us. I LOVE that and have been showing it to anyone who will sit still long enough to look at it. I also love my blog. I may start another with a separate purpose.

What I didn't like was what I commented on previously - the anonymity of so many participants. Why??? It's hard to connect with participants when you don't know who they are. I mean, I can post messages for pseudonyms, etc... but that just doesn't feel right to me. Coming from a special libraries background, the names that were listed were all unfamiliar to me so maybe the point is moot anyway. But still, I found it frustrating. I also wished there was an easier way to find blogs that hadn't been abandoned after the second Thing. It helped a lot to see the finishers' blogs, but having half-finished blogs in a nice list would have been helpful a few weeks ago.

I did get a kick out of having my blog called out in Issue 4 of the newsletter. Perhaps a few could be mentioned in every newsletter for the next go-around. Recognition does wonders for self esteem.

I would definitely participate in a 23 Things program again. SLA claims to be doing one after the June conference so I'll probably join that one, but I'd do this one again, just to further cement my learnings. Plus, I really liked how the information was organized and presented. It made it so do-able, interesting and entertaining.

Here's my one-sentence takeaway: I learned more in the last two months than in the eight years since I left library school. And you can quote me on that.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who put this together.

Thing 22: What Did I Learn Today?

Ahh, keeping up. Therein lies the rub. Actually, with the base of the 23 Things to grow on, it should be fairly easy. Before 23, I was annoyed, threatened and discouraged when I heard the phrase "web 2.0" uttered. Now I'm all over it. I'm thirsting for more and will be reading everything I can get my hands on, going to the relevant sessions at conference and I'm starting to help put a tech program in place for SLA MN. I'll definitely be adding new adventures to my blog.

I think the best way to keep up, however, is by talking to other people. People with different backgrounds, "younger" (a.ka. newer) librarians, and anyone who likes playing on the computer. Media specialists probably have a whole host of experts coming through their doors every day.

I keep thinking about the video of the guy with the book who had to call for help. Last month I was terrified of pushing the wrong button and ending up lost in cyberspace forever. Now I'm all about the pushing of the buttons. It's crazy how easy it is once you get the confidence to explore. I hereby resolve to continue the adventures of a knowledge nomad.

Thing 21: Other Social Networks

Ok, I joined the requisite library group in Ning, then I joined the Craftster Community, and then I started wondering if there was a group for librarians who craft. I couldn't find one on Ning, although I did find something about Crafty Librarians elsewhere on the web. It didn't really look like a gathering spot, though, so I took matters into my own hands and created "Librarians Who Craft" (I would have preferred Crafty Librarians, but I would never take someone else's idea) and the page can now be found on Ning. It doesn't have any content on it yet, but it should soon. I'm hoping that librarians who make stuff - whether they knit, sew, shoot pictures  (that's more art than craft, but that's ok), bead, paint, draw, whatever - will put examples of their work on it and find inspiration there.

Up until this week I was not a member of any online community (except for Facebook). I can see where the librarian communities would be helpful, especially if one were in a solo library. What frustrates me is that so many people have their true identities hidden - how do I know if I know these people already, or if they're my mortal enemies (I don't have many of those, so probably not), or if I made an idiot of myself in front of them at the last holiday party? I've been reading some of the 23 Things blogs and some of these people I'd like to keep an eye out for at meetings and gatherings, but how can I? It would be great to say, "hey, I read your blog, I thought such and such was interesting" or "how did you find that template for blah blah blah", but it's going to be awfully hard to unless everyone starts putting their blog name on their nametags. We're all professionals writing about professional development - why are you hiding????

Anyway, enough of that rant. Again, this was a fun one. And if you're reading this, and you craft, and you're a librarian, check out the new space on Ning. And if you must keep your identity hidden to put your craft on there, ok, go ahead.

Thing 20: Social Networks

Several months ago when I couldn't stand the 2.0 buzz anymore I ventured into Facebook and slapped a little profile together. I was surprised that some random people from my life actually found it. I'm not sure why I chose Facebook over MySpace to start with. That's an interesting question - usually I know precisely why I choose one brand over another. If Facebook is the fastest growing social network it's surely because the name is out there so much - it's even used in the latest iPhone commercial.

Since I already had a Facebook profile I added one to MySpace as well (www.myspace.com/kspanier). It's not lengthy but I can work on it later. I don't know if this is accurate, but to me Facebook seems more like a place to hang out and meet up with friends. MySpace seems more like where to go if you have something to sell whether it's music or information. I can see me creating a Knowledge Nomads space with my capabilities and other pertinent information for potential clients. But on the other hand, couldn't that be done with a blog and/or website as well? Maybe the info needs to be everywhere to reach more people.

I liked how authors could post comments on the library spaces we were directed to. However, saying that Hennepin County Library is an 88 year old woman kind of seems at odds with the whole MySpace effort. First of all, who says a library is a woman? And even if the system is 88 years old, why do we need that information on a supposedly hip medium to reach younger people? Strange.

I wasn't a fan of all the ads on MySpace either. My space instantly had a picture of someone else's rear end with an ad for Apple Pants or something on it. This doesn't seem very professional if that's where I end up putting info about my business.

Trivia: only one other person from my high school class has a Facebook page.

The Birth of the iPod

My second guess was right: according to Wikipedia, the iPod was born on October 23, 2001. That seems like a long time ago. Now I know it's time to get a new one.

Thing 19: Podcasts

This was a fun Thing. Although I have the first iPod to get unpacked from the truck way back when (2002? 2001? must find out when they went on the market), I never really jumped on the podcast bandwagon. It was interesting to see how much library stuff is actually out there (as well as any other topic you'd want to learn about). Who needs to attend a conference thousands of miles away when you can just stay home and download podcasts?

Each of the directories had their own little quirks. The exercise I created for myself was to find podcasts by Mary Ellen Bates, my library idol as previously mentioned. I didn't find much. The only one that was easy to search and where I found some immediately was the Yahoo directory. The EPN directory was frustrating since you can't search it at all - you just go into categories the old-fashioned way. Podcast Alley had all of Sirsi's podcasts available in it and I discovered a program called Library Geeks. I downloaded one with Gary Price's name on it, but it didn't give any kind of time code so I had no idea how much time I was in for with it. Not good. 

I liked the search capabilities of Podcast.net, especially since you can search by host on it. Podcast.com had lots of library stuff, too.

Listening to podcasts is a good way to pass the time when commuting, cleaning the house or your stuck waiting for something/somebody. I'd have to be fairly motivated to learn more on whatever the topic is since my head rarely has time to be hijacked at the same time my computer or iPod is nearby. Plus, I have the sneaking suspicion my iPod is so old that it probably can't handle podcasts anyway. Maybe it's finally time for a new one.

Thing 18: YouTube and Other Online Video

I chose this video because it's a good interview with Rebecca Vargha, last year's national president of SLA. She talks about current issues that SLA is working on, including recruiting more members and the big centennial we have coming up next year. Plus, I sat next to her during a session at the midwinter conference in Louisville so now I feel important by association (no pun intended).

I started looking at the suggested library/librarian videos, took a quick detour to some with titles along the lines of "Sexy Librarians" which didn't really live up to their billing, and then ended up here. YouTube is fairly easy to search. In fact, we used it as a family last night to settle an argument over what Christmas movie the song "The Last Toymaker to the King" is from.

In a library setting it would be great to have short, fun videos on the website to show people how to search for books and articles and other popular requests. In a previous Thing we learned productivity tips with e-mail. One suggestion had been to have a template for questions that get asked all the time. If there were questions in a library that got asked a lot and could be answered through a simple visual demonstration, a YouTube video on the website would be perfect. If done right, they can also make librarians seem more approachable. 

We should all be getting more videos on YouTube to combat the stereotypes we face. March of the Librarians was funny, but, wow, does it do that much for our image? It hit a little close to home. I won't be able to shake those images when I'm in Seattle in June for SLA's conference.

Thing 17: ELM Productivity Tools

Am I the only one who never heard of ELM before? This thing is awesome. I already access many of these resources through Minneapolis Public, but it's good to have them here, too. I had no idea that I could create web pages and make notes in the way we were instructed to in this exercise. I can easily see myself doing a search for a client and then compiling it all in an electronic format in this way. It could be passed to the client really easily as well. If I were working with someone else we could build the results together. It would be easy to see where one started and left off and the other one could just pick it up in the middle of the project.

I really liked the notes functions since I'm usually working fairly fast and I could use my own shorthand and codes on results and then go back later after I've done the majority of the search and pick and choose what I want.

For Gale, I had the same challenges of some of the people who posted. Even though I watched the tutorial about five times, I couldn't get the RSS feed to work. I tried both Safari and Firefox to no avail. But I can see how that would be really useful for an ongoing search need.

On Ebsco, I loved Page Composer and that you can actually customize it to how you want it to look.

I thought ProQuest's web page maker was easier to use than Page Composer. 

I liked NetLibrary's full-text contents and the notes function as well. I started looking around for some books on other topics related to library science and was a little disappointed by how dated some of them were. 

This Thing took more time than some of the others but it was really worth it. Cool!

Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools

I read about the Research Project Calculator a few years ago and took a look at it then and thought it was pretty nifty. I just played with it some more. I think this is a useful tool for students who aren't used to project management. The prompts also would help people to fully think through the research challenge they're working with.

I have a great big messy problem I'm dealing with myself that I need to get into presentation form by May 1. It's so big that I've been overwhelmed with where to start and how much time I need to spend on it. I plugged in my dates into the calculator and now I have a nice neat outline - complete with deadlines - to work with. The deadlines are probably the best part of the whole thing. This would be a great tool for librarians or anyone who frequently has large research assignments and lengthy deadlines.

The handouts in the Teacher Guide are excellent pathfinders for students. I can see where those could be used again and again. I even took a look at a few for my project. The one on evaluating sites is really important for students. (I'll never forget the time one of my clients needed a current map of the world and downloaded something from the internet that had a date on it from around 1492.)

Thing 15: Online Games in Libraries

I definitely think games have a place in the library - and also that the reverse is true. Libraries have a place in games as proven by Info Island in Second Life. Even starting at a young age (as young as 2 in our household), games are a good way to draw kids in to the library and even help them with basic computer skills. I've been shocked at what my child has learned to do in three years on the computer just by playing games. Personally, I don't have enough time, patience or interest in gaming - yet Info Island is a powerful draw. If I trusted that my computer had the necessary requirements I fear that I might visit it and never return home again.

Info Island is a good way to get visitors to a virtual library who might not go to one in the real world. I read in the article that they'll be providing reference and databases so that's a great way to get new users. I can also see how youth services librarians would really need to be into gaming. The more relevant services (and librarians) are, the more we'll keep our patrons coming back.

Thing 14: LibraryThing

LibraryThing is pretty cool. This is exactly what I've been wanting for years. Here's a link to my library: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/kspanier. Or scroll down on the right to see some random books. 

What I liked was that after I put in a selection of books, more appeared that I might be interested in. Yes, Amazon does this when you purchase something, but this is more timely and constant. I found one right away that I didn't know about and now have a new one to hunt down.

There are a lot of people out there who have vast personal collections and want some sort of order to them, at least on paper (or online). This would be a great tool for them. I can see an independent librarian building databases for these time-pressed clients with LT.

This could be a great tool in schools for students to track their reading over the course of a year. It's also a good way to build reader's advisory lists. I think the visual images help a lot. 

It's so much easier to work in than LazyBase, although it is restricted to books - for now, anyway...

Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

I've been using iGoogle start pages (I have two) for a while. I really like the way they handle RSS feeds, plus they're easy to set up and they have some fun graphics. It's nice to have everything pop up right away. iGoogle start pages are the most appealing since I'm on my way to my e-mail anyway every time I'm online. 

I tried the Spongecell calendar and it seemed like it could be a useful tool, but I'm such digital immigrant that I have a hard time considering ever giving up a paper calendar. Maybe someday. The same goes for the list-making sites. What's wrong with a post-it note stuck to the paper calendar? Sometimes I'm away from the computer (it's hard to believe that anyone could walk away) and I still need to remember what I'm supposed to be doing.

Backpack, on the other hand, looked really handy. I can see a situation like this: Another Knowledge Nomad and I are working together yet separately on a project for a client. That would be the perfect repository for our research and information as we're moving along. It could also be a nice way to present final results to the client.

All in all, I think I need to spend a lot more time with some productivity tools to find those that will really change my life. The irony is that I need extra time to do that.

Thing 12: Do You Digg?

Digg, Mixx, Reddit, whatever. I've never felt more annoyed than when this crazy thing called "the internet" was introduced in my office (during my previous career) in about 1995 and I said, "what do we need that for when I can just cross the street and go to the library?" To me the sites look like productivity detractors, not enhancers. I see the little Digg icon often as I'm trolling around and not once have I ever clicked on it or the articles it's attached to.

I posted my necessary article for the sake of the exercise and it took time, precious time, to do it. First the link, then the title, then the description, etc.. And for what? To get a little attention, if any, online? To create a conversation? Please. Pick up the phone and talk to someone about something interesting you've read.

Then there's the whole other, more cynical angle of it all. If librarians are looking at these sites to see what's coming up for reference questions, or what's popular, or whatever, they have to remember that there are people, lots of people, working at PR firms and ad agencies and marketing communication firms all over the world getting their clients and their agendas to the front of these pages in any way they can. It's not necessarily the true zeitgeist.

Perhaps one day I will be proven wrong about these tools as I so quickly was about the internet in general (wow, was I way off on that one!). I do have to say that without the exploration today I probably wouldn't have caught the Tom Cruise birthday video and that made it worth it.

Now more than halfway through the Things. Yay, progress!

Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

Thanks to the Minitex webinar on del.icio.us that I viewed for an earlier Thing, I was able to hit the ground running on this one. And let me say that del.icio.us is quite possibly the handiest tool yet. I gave a tutorial on it for a non-librarian friend first thing this morning.

I began to tag earlier posts but it made Safari crash twice, so I will just tag from here on out. I also added Mary Ellen Bates' blog, "Librarian of Fortune" to the Minn23 del.icio.us account. She's my biggest librarian hero. I love her writing style and the way she presents information.

Del.icio.us is a great way to offer research to clients. (Mary Ellen wrote about it a few years ago, if my memory is correct.) A lot of times I just want people to be aware of certain websites for whatever problem they are working on and this is perfect for passing them on, along with why the sites are being passed on. But for non-researchers it is a good way to travel with bookmarks. That's how I sold it to my friend this morning. In essence, it's THE tool for the ultimate knowledge nomad.

Thing 10: Wikis (Collaboration, Part B)

My love affair with wikis began about nine months ago. I was serving on the awards committee for SLA MN and I was on a teleconference with everyone. We were talking about all the documents we needed to pull together and edits that needed to be made and Emily W. said, "Do you guys want me to start a wiki?" We all said yes, but I don't know if anyone knew what we were agreeing to. I know I didn't. It turned out to be the perfect way to get our work done. We didn't have a million emails flying around or documents getting lost in our systems. I think it also kept everyone on task because there was actually accountability attached to it as well.

I loved it so much I encouraged the current president of SLA MN to start one for the board. She's been getting it up and running over the past month with the help of Randi M. and it'll launch next week. I'm hoping that it will aid in the productivity of all the committees and actually foster more collaboration between committees as well. These goals could easily be those of any team(s) working together in a library or school. (Is it truly possible to get committees to work faster? If wikis do it we could see the rise of a whole new civilization soon.)

For this exercise I edited the 23 Things wiki and tossed in my blog address for free exposure. Normally email updates when a wiki has been edited would be a good thing - not for this, but it's easy enough to opt out.

As far as banning Wikipedia as a source of info, that's an interesting, if potentially ill-informed idea. I think that if students found a supporting secondary source there wouldn't be anything wrong with using Wikipedia (or am I being naive?). Every fact should have at least two sources for proper verification, if not more, so we all just need to research responsibly, including students. Wikipedia is an easy way to get started, but it's definitely not the place to stop altogether.

Thing 9: Collaboration Part A

I'm sure Thomas Jefferson would love it if he had hundreds of editors taking a look at the Declaration of Independence before it went out. We'd probably all still be drinking tea and bowing to the queen if that were the case. At least we'd have nice accents. Anyway, it was a fun idea taking a look at the document in Google Docs and Zoho Writer. Although I received the invitation to edit at both spots, I didn't seem to ever be properly signed in to Zoho, even though I created an account, etc... So I have to give my vote to Google Docs for being the easiest to work with in the end. It seemed to be more intuitive than Zoho as well.

As the author of hundreds, if not thousands, of documents, most of which had to have multiple people looking at them, I have to say that this is a great way to get feedback. In the past I'd receive five or more different attachments from people that I'd be forced to wade through to find changes and edit suggestions. This also brought back memories of ancient comp and fiction writing classes where we actually had to go to Kinko's, make 20 or more copies of our essay/story/whatever, staple them and hand them to our class members. Had the wheel even been invented yet back then? Online collaboration tools would be great in this circumstance as well.

I'm excited about this. I hope I never receive - nor send - another Word attachment again.

Thing 8: Part B

A few final thoughts before moving on:

The communication tools would be great for an information consultancy. Sharing presentations online that multiple people can work from is indispensable. This is coming up at a perfect time since I'm working on my webinar for the SLA MN Chapter on member benefits. When I get it done I'll post my slides.

I'm not sure how the photo mosaics could be applied to the type of library service I'm used to. I'll have to think about that for a while. On an intranet at an ad agency the styles of PictureTrail would be laughed at and not in a good way. Everyone is way too sophisticated in a design sense to even attempt to appreciate it. It would make the library look hopelessly out of date and out of touch.

I was excited by the prospect of lazybase.com but when I started to create my own database I thought maybe it should be called errorbase.com or doesn'twork.com. It's complicated and when I finally began to figure it out I got nothing but server error messages. If it worked it would be awesome to be able to deliver multiple pieces of information online to a client.

eFolioMN would be great for job hunters. You could really expand on your resume and other information you want a potential employer to know about. It's also a good place to get ideas of what the "competition" is up to.

Off to read the new Cornwell book (Book of the Dead, what a great title), controversially rented for $3 at the Edina library today. Can I get it done in ten days while completing more Things? We'll see.

Thing 8: Part A

The PictureTrail is fun to work with, not to mention extremely easy, but again, why do all the options look like bad Powerpoint templates? Where's Mies Van der Rohe when you need him? I have a feeling he's rolling in his simple grave at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago right now. 

Anyway, I love the pictures of the two little knowledge nomads at the library because they're using it exactly how it was designed to be used - and they weren't even coached. The toddler is about 14 months old in the pictures and he had perfectly decoded the whole book drawer system. The preschooler tried out everything she could.

A Day at the Eden Prairie Library

Thing 7: Communication

Whew, is anyone else exhausted by the activities of Thing 7? I learned a lot with it, though. E-mail is, of course, indispensable to information service, but it will never replace a reference interview with an actual voice, be it over the phone or in person. I consider e-mail a good starting point, but it's rare when the entire transaction is handled solely by e-mail.

I liked the productivity tips offered with e-mail because I can be easily victimized by it on a minute by minute basis. If I could train myself to only check every 15 or 20 or even 30 minutes I could get a lot more done in a day (I'm speaking of when I'm at an actual desk job with the computer in my face, not how life is right now.) I REALLY liked the template idea: having templates ready for questions that are answered frequently. And writing less in an e-mail, what a novel (pardon the pun) idea. 

I think that instant messaging would be a better tool than email for a reference interview. It's more immediate and forces the person on the other end to think through the problem a little bit more right on the spot. It's easy to ignore an e-mail from the librarian, or certain sentences in an e-mail, later. I used to IM back in about the year 2000, but hadn't really the need in the last several years. For the sake of this exercise I found a prospective library science student and experimented a little.

Here's a quick aside: The aforementioned prospective student is so deep into all this 2.0 stuff already that the idea of the 23 things is a little bizarre to him. For some people just coming into our industry it's like teaching phonetics to those who already know how to read. This is why we need to keep up recruitment efforts with people from tech backgrounds or younger people who are digital natives. Mentoring works both ways.

Back to the exercise: I was really into the webinar part of the exercise as I'm about to put together my first one for the MN chapter of SLA. The Minitex one on del.icio.us was great - it's so much easier to watch a 10-minute tutorial than to waste 30 minutes trying to figure something out by myself. Or at least it's a good way to get a headstart.

I also liked the short videos - or the idea of them - that were really marketing tools for university librarians. What a great idea. These need to stay entertaining without crossing the line into the neighborhood of cheese to be interesting to anyone under 30.

Speaking of cheese, it's time to watch Lipstick Jungle.

Nomadic Hair

Now that I see these photos next to the Avatar, it's a little frightening how similar the hairstyles really are. Even the bangs are broken up in the same places. Too bad I'm not wearing my glasses.

Thing 6: Online Image Generators

These are just too cheesy for words. I need to spend more time looking for some generators that have a bit more sophistication to them. In the meantime, enjoy my trading card and ID badge. There's a dearth of photos of the Nomad ever since the little Nomads came into the picture, thus the same shot is used both times.

I can see how these could be used in different libraries, particularly those in schools. It would be fun to make cards about the students who come in the most and what books they like or what they use the library for. In a special setting, like the ad agency I used to work in, it would be really cool to make trading cards with info on what kind of problem was solved in the library and/or the resources used (besides the librarian) to solve that problem.

I was frustrated I couldn't change the typeface and style on the trading card. I'd rather just build one myself.