Twitter : some initial thoughts
I'm afraid ... very afraid ... to enter the world of Twitter ... but try it I shall, just not today.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thing 26 - Ning, redux
So I checked out Ning again and it was interesting to visit it again after using Facebook so much. Lots of similarities, sort of a "Facebook for MN Librarians", so to speak. I did post some photos of my lovely new library, added some "friends" and commented on a few postings. But really, Facebook is so slick (yes, yes, even after the horrible upgrade) that any other social networking (or in this case professional networking) type of site sort of pales in comparison. Ning is just, well, clunky compared to Facebook. Nonetheless, I do appreciate being able to share things with colleagues without the added friends that I have on Facebook. I can see that Ning could work nice as a transfer of ideas (or even a place to go for help!) between librarians and library systems. I may have to tuck it away in the back of my head as a go-to place for hard to answer questions ...
So I checked out Ning again and it was interesting to visit it again after using Facebook so much. Lots of similarities, sort of a "Facebook for MN Librarians", so to speak. I did post some photos of my lovely new library, added some "friends" and commented on a few postings. But really, Facebook is so slick (yes, yes, even after the horrible upgrade) that any other social networking (or in this case professional networking) type of site sort of pales in comparison. Ning is just, well, clunky compared to Facebook. Nonetheless, I do appreciate being able to share things with colleagues without the added friends that I have on Facebook. I can see that Ning could work nice as a transfer of ideas (or even a place to go for help!) between librarians and library systems. I may have to tuck it away in the back of my head as a go-to place for hard to answer questions ...
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
More on Thing 25
OK ... phew ... I am DONE. That was rather painful, but as I wrote below, I went (gasp!) away from the Google widgets and found three great ones at Widgetbox which I found much more useful than the Google gadgets. I especially love my kitty cat ...
After all is said and done, it was another (ahem) time-waster, but I can see that with further use it gets easier and easier. I had to muck around a bit to find the Flickr slideshow that best suited me. One thing I did appreciate was being able to resize the gadgets so that they didn't take up oodles of room on my sidebar.
That's it for now. G'night.
OK ... phew ... I am DONE. That was rather painful, but as I wrote below, I went (gasp!) away from the Google widgets and found three great ones at Widgetbox which I found much more useful than the Google gadgets. I especially love my kitty cat ...
After all is said and done, it was another (ahem) time-waster, but I can see that with further use it gets easier and easier. I had to muck around a bit to find the Flickr slideshow that best suited me. One thing I did appreciate was being able to resize the gadgets so that they didn't take up oodles of room on my sidebar.
That's it for now. G'night.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Thing 25 : Blogging tools n' such
Well, so far I dutifully went through and watched all he YouTube posted video clips and found that it doesn't look terribly difficult to add a widget/gadget to my blog. However, the first one I wanted to add (from Google) titled "Children's Book of the Day" (natch) did not properly load. All I got was the little box with the red "x". Hmmm ... I think perhaps it's time to try a (gasp!) non-Google product, so I will poke around and see if I can find something else.
Additionally, when I went back to the "More Things" site, I could not re-load a video that I had just watched seconds before. I received the "this video is no longer available" message. Bummer, I'd wanted to re-check something that I'd seen on the Robin Good series (very good, btw, almost as clear as the Common Craft videos ... tho' those are truly superior for simple, straightforward instructions). I will have to do this later.
My first thoughts, however, are that nearly all of the gadgets suggested are ones that I would not want in my blog. Why would I want to track my blog? No one is looking at it except for me, so that's just depressing. Sound? Nope. I always turn sound off when I visit a site, so I wouldn't want that one either. More photos? I already am satisfied with my Flickr site and if I want to display any stellar photos, I'll post them. So ... I will have to see what else I can find.
More later ...
Well, so far I dutifully went through and watched all he YouTube posted video clips and found that it doesn't look terribly difficult to add a widget/gadget to my blog. However, the first one I wanted to add (from Google) titled "Children's Book of the Day" (natch) did not properly load. All I got was the little box with the red "x". Hmmm ... I think perhaps it's time to try a (gasp!) non-Google product, so I will poke around and see if I can find something else.
Additionally, when I went back to the "More Things" site, I could not re-load a video that I had just watched seconds before. I received the "this video is no longer available" message. Bummer, I'd wanted to re-check something that I'd seen on the Robin Good series (very good, btw, almost as clear as the Common Craft videos ... tho' those are truly superior for simple, straightforward instructions). I will have to do this later.
My first thoughts, however, are that nearly all of the gadgets suggested are ones that I would not want in my blog. Why would I want to track my blog? No one is looking at it except for me, so that's just depressing. Sound? Nope. I always turn sound off when I visit a site, so I wouldn't want that one either. More photos? I already am satisfied with my Flickr site and if I want to display any stellar photos, I'll post them. So ... I will have to see what else I can find.
More later ...
Thing 24 : a blog refresher
And ... we're off and running. I think I did everything recommended (required?) of this thing, but I did not, repeat, did not refresh my Avatar. Sorry, I just don't have the time! To my credit, I did refresh it at least twice in the last go-round, so it's not that old and stale (you'll have to be the judge). I'm glad there are "more" things in this go-round -- I expected to touch base on a few items that weren't covered in the last set and happily, it looks like they're here! So I have that to look forward to. Here we go!
And ... we're off and running. I think I did everything recommended (required?) of this thing, but I did not, repeat, did not refresh my Avatar. Sorry, I just don't have the time! To my credit, I did refresh it at least twice in the last go-round, so it's not that old and stale (you'll have to be the judge). I'm glad there are "more" things in this go-round -- I expected to touch base on a few items that weren't covered in the last set and happily, it looks like they're here! So I have that to look forward to. Here we go!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thing 22 - Finish line is in sight!
Thank god we didn't have to create another account for this step. Now that I am (basically) finished, I have to say that has been the most frustrating part of this - that to truly evaluate any online tool, you have to join (dum-da-dum-dum).
In any case, I do plan to keep up with at least some of the things I learned during this process. I will definitely keep up with my Facebook account, my Flickr account, and del.icio.us. Those (for me personally) were the three biggest "finds" during this process. I'd put my RSS feeds in there, but I haven't been back to it in months, so that sounds scary. Some online tools (YouTube, podcasts, wikis, I.M.) I'd already been using and will continue to do so.
As far as benefit for the public-at-large, yes indeed-y-deed. I think that more and more folks are going to look to librarians to show them how to navigate through these online tools. The only problem I see is ... how. Yesterday a patron came in and wanted help on EBay, shopping for a kayak for his wife. He'd never used the Internet, let alone logged on to an Internet computer at our library, and wanted me to basically sit with him (for how long?) and walk him through the entire process ... selecting, bidding and all.
Hold up, dude, not possible on a Wednesday afternoon when the after-school kids are just about to hit the library.
So, that is a major roadblock that I see in terms of how we can use our knowledge of these tools to help patrons. It requires a lot of one-on-one help, and while you can offer classes on FB and blogging, getting folks to come (and retain the knowledge they learn) is up to the patron ... and as we all know, that don't always happen the way it should.
In any case, I am very glad that I had the opportunity to participate in this, and even more that I was required to finish (thank-you, Lynn!) which kept my butt in gear.
23 Things - Adios!
Thank god we didn't have to create another account for this step. Now that I am (basically) finished, I have to say that has been the most frustrating part of this - that to truly evaluate any online tool, you have to join (dum-da-dum-dum).
In any case, I do plan to keep up with at least some of the things I learned during this process. I will definitely keep up with my Facebook account, my Flickr account, and del.icio.us. Those (for me personally) were the three biggest "finds" during this process. I'd put my RSS feeds in there, but I haven't been back to it in months, so that sounds scary. Some online tools (YouTube, podcasts, wikis, I.M.) I'd already been using and will continue to do so.
As far as benefit for the public-at-large, yes indeed-y-deed. I think that more and more folks are going to look to librarians to show them how to navigate through these online tools. The only problem I see is ... how. Yesterday a patron came in and wanted help on EBay, shopping for a kayak for his wife. He'd never used the Internet, let alone logged on to an Internet computer at our library, and wanted me to basically sit with him (for how long?) and walk him through the entire process ... selecting, bidding and all.
Hold up, dude, not possible on a Wednesday afternoon when the after-school kids are just about to hit the library.
So, that is a major roadblock that I see in terms of how we can use our knowledge of these tools to help patrons. It requires a lot of one-on-one help, and while you can offer classes on FB and blogging, getting folks to come (and retain the knowledge they learn) is up to the patron ... and as we all know, that don't always happen the way it should.
In any case, I am very glad that I had the opportunity to participate in this, and even more that I was required to finish (thank-you, Lynn!) which kept my butt in gear.
23 Things - Adios!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
