Sunday, March 30, 2008

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.

3 comments:

23 Things said...

Congratulations on finishing. We will definitely be quoting you Glad you enjoyed the 23 and learned so much.

Captain Crone said...

What a great job you did! And you are a natural blogger, lol, so I hope you do keep at it just for your own purposes.

Anonymous said...

I also found it puzzling that more people didn't leave their first name on their blog and where they live.