Thing 23: Final Thoughts

Before completing the 23 Things (Yay!) I had read a lot about Library 2.0 but hadn’t tried a lot of the tools, either from lack of time or lack of incentive. This project gave me both. That was part of what made it so valuable. Actually using a tool gives one a much better understanding of it—both how it works and how useful it is—than all the reading in the world. And I have found some useful tools. What surprised me along the way was to discover that I liked Facebook and Ning and found Second Life boring.

My favorite of the Things has to be Google Reader. It makes reading blogs and keeping up with podcasts possible. I would never have time if I had to hunt them down individually. For this it gets my vote as the most valuable of the Things. It is also the one that has changed my work habits the most. Other Things that are now a regular part of my work are the reference wiki and reference Delicious account I set up. Hopefully, these will become a regular part of my colleagues’ reference toolbox, as well.

If there is a sequel to 23 Things, sign me up.

Thing 22: What did I learn today?

I have continued to use many of the things I’ve learned about and I do resolve to keep up with new web tools. How did we ever live without an RSS aggregator? Without blogs would we ever have learned about ALA’s new mini-read-poster generator http://www.ala.org/ala/productsandpublications/READ_Mini_Posters.cfm ? Oh, yes, I can think of some uses for that.

To my RSS feed I’ve added the Never Ending Search and 43 Folders. I have been a fan of Minitex Webinars for some time now.

More on Things 20 and 21

After a network switch was replaced in our building, I managed to sign up for the Law Librarians network on Ning. I’ve also added friends and exchanged comments. Even wrote on a friend’s wall on Facebook. This Ning group is a new one and still small for now. Interestingly, many people use pictures of their pets as their group face.

People who work in a physical space, such as Minneapolis’ compact downtown, where they can get together easily with friends for lunch or the downtowners network meetings are no longer the only ones who can keep up with their colleagues. Over the years a lot of people who I would like to stay in touch with have moved out of state. I appreciate having a way to keep in touch besides the AALL Annual Meeting.

Thing 20: Libraries and Social Networks – MySpace and FaceBook

Why is FaceBook the fastest growing social network? Because everyone is going there. The perception of being cool is nine parts of being cool. The fact that you have to be signed in to use it may also be a factor. It gives it more of an air of exclusivity and privacy, like a country club. MySpace, with its garish colors and ads, seems crass by comparison.

I registered with FaceBook and joined the Library 2.0 Interest Group (because of my interest in the subject) and also found and joined the group of American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Members on Facebook (because I am a member of that Association.) After seeing an announcement that one of my AALL friends had won his age group in the Hein Fun Run at the AALL Annual Meeting in July, I looked for him on FaceBook. Alas, he wasn’t there and I had to send my congratulations by e-mail.

I know that MySpace isn’t just for teenagers anymore, but that is who libraries seem to be marketing to there, and who can blame them. Considering the number of teens who are online, it would be foolish not to try to reach them there. The number of seniors using MySpace, on the other hand, is small enough that it probably wouldn’t be worth a major marketing effort. We do get questions from teens at my library, but they are not a big enough demographic to justify a MySpace presence. Before my library decides on social networking, we will have to decide which of our communities to focus on: the courts, the attorneys or the general public. They will not necessarily hang out in the same online spaces. Like any other expansion of service, we would need to balance the cost of setting up a presence in an online environment against the benefit of how much use it would get.

Thing 21: Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

View my page on 23 Things on a Stick


Working on this Thing made me decide that I really have to get my own digital camera. I posted the same picture of flowers I have been using all through the course. For the photo of myself, however, I used one of an alligator I took on a swamp tour last summer in New Orleans. Don’t be frightened, I’m really very nice. The comment I posted to someone’s discussion may even be helpful.

I am also trying to join the law librarians group on Ning. I credit the 23 Things experience with giving me the motivation to do so. I discredit my network for the glitches that have kept me from getting in so far.

The only reason I haven't joined dogster is I don't know when I'd have the time to spend on it, and I could spend a lot of time.

Thing 19: Podcasts

I first got turned on to podcasts when (one of) my alumni association(s) started putting lectures on Itunes. For this Thing, I listened to the Grammar Grater from MPR, Episode 59: What's in a Name? To do this, I had to add it to my Google Reader. I couldn’t listen directly from the Web page because my computer at work doesn’t have the software to play them. I also added the Morning Show skits and the weather podcast. I will listen to them as I have time. That’s what I like about Google Reader; I can access it at home as easily as at work so I don’t need two different aggregators.

To test the podcast directories, I searched each one for “MPR morning show” (without the quotes.) Podcast.com found Skits from the Morning Show right way and nothing else. Podcast.net was a broken link. Podcast Alley found a number of podcasts from MPR with the Morning Show skits at the top of the list, but there were other “morning shows” interspersed with them. Yahoo found “Garnet Rogers on MPR's "The Morning Show"” and nothing else, not even the morning show skits. So Podcast.com gets the nod for precision, but Podcast Alley was probably the best overall. All were easy to use. Yahoo had the cleanest interface.

Thing 18: Videos and You Tube

This Thing was just plain fun. The creativity in some of the videos is inspiring. Now our little Flickr tour of the library seems old fashioned.

Speaking of tours, I really liked Winona State’s library tour—the whole library in under two minutes! The first tour of a library I ever wrote was a self-guided tour for the opening of a new building. We had a packet of photocopied pages with the text of the tour which coordinated with numbered 8.5 by 11 tour stop posters set up around the library. Each poster had the tour stop number and an appropriate cartoon. The stops were linked in the printed tour by directions such as “look to your left to find the elevator; take it to the second floor.” Think of one of those guided nature trails at the state parks. Once the open house was over the tour had to come down. We used a different version of it during new student orientation, but if it had been a video, anyone interested in the library could have used it at any time. One of the problems with guided tours given during orientation periods is the feeling that you have to tell the students everything. They won’t remember it all. As in any other speech, concentrate on the three things you want the audience to remember, e.g. the location of the reference desk. The Winona video gives an overview of what is there and where, which is all anyone will really take away from a guided tour. And you can watch it again if it went by too fast, which is probably not a problem for most of the 18-year-olds watching it.

I went looking for legal research videos and found this one that makes some good points. It is aimed at law students, however, while many of the visitors to our library have no legal training but still need to so legal research. It would be nice to have some short videos linked to our Web site to help them. Another item for my to do list.