Wiki Project Underway

I put together a wiki of our company/industry terms for internal use. I used SharePoint, but will also set it up in PBWiki for comparison before I present it. It was surprisingly easy to set up, except that I couldn't import a table and have it still be a table (data only transferred). I'm pretty sure that I'll need to do a training session before anyone is going to look at it, much less add to it, but I'm happy to share the knowledge now that I have a better understanding of wikis.

Thing 23. Final Thoughts

Well, it is with a sigh of relief that I write this. There was a whole lot more to this program than I thought. Some of it I will find useful, some not so much, but either way good knowledge.

I really like ImageChef and all the photo tools. Del.icio.us will be a great timesaver. I love the ProQuest web publisher tool. I've really gotten to like blogging! And I had a lot of fun with LibraryThing and hope to continue using it.

I was impressed with the amount of networking these tools can provide. This is especially important to those of us in smaller libraries for knowledge sharing. However, I thought more people that I know would choose to participate. I suppose it was a matter of having the time, but I really think they missed out. I'm so glad I had the support of my manager in this.

I would absolutely participate in 23 More Things, and/or revisit this program and take on more of the optional challenges.

Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?

I've learned a lot. Had to crunch there in the end, but still got to try most everything.

I will continue learning by:
- Using del.icio.us
- Creating a wiki for business use
- Staying updated with LinkedIn
- Trying more of the photo options
- Keeping up on my blog
- Reading other people's blogs
- Exploring WebJunction
- Sharing my knowledge with friends/coworkers
- Reading, trying, playing with new tools!

I'm getting used to blogging ... I think I would miss it if I stopped now!

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

I joined the Ning group, started a discussion, and posted the badge in my blog. Seems OK but I think I would just have to choose one network and stay active in it and learn all the bells and whistles. They all have different features and it takes some time to get set up, find friends, etc.

One network that I'm active in that I really like is LinkedIn. A lot of my colleagues, current and former, are on this network, and it's focused on professional networking. You can link to it through the button on the sidebar.

I also tried 43 Things for fun. I'm happy to know that 2170 other people want to pay off their student loans!

Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks

I joined Facebook. Sort of scary to be out there!

I found some other librarians, and some other friends that have "real" accounts. I found one friend via her email who has an account under a fake name, so I didn't "friend" her since she seems to want anonymity. I joined a couple of groups: 23 Things on a Stick, and Librarians Using Facebook. Apparently this is different from a network (Mpls/St Paul). I couldn't find some people at first that I knew were on there, but I think it was because I hadn't joined a network yet?

I would believe it may be the fastest growing social network. My high school neice has hundreds of friends on there, and she said that's how everyone is sending out graduation party invites. It seems like that's also the way gossip is spread and feelings are hurt etc. As an adult, I feel silly being on there.

It's cool that the public libraries have MySpace pages, but even better if they offer a portal to resources and act as an extention of the library web page. I think a lot of them accomplish just that.

Thing 19. Podcasts

I found it difficult to search podcasts. None of the directories seemed to have great capabilities. However, I'm really unsure of what I'm searching for. My prior experience with podcasts is limited.

Anyway I started out with Podcast.com and found a few things there. I listened to someone commenting on the latest episode of "The Office." I also found Seattle Public Library's podcasts with lots of author readings! I listed to Tracy Chevalier reading from her latest novel.

I found that if I double-clicked on the podcast, it would open in a new window in Windows Media Player. The other option was for it to play right on the site. I didn't find a way to fast forward in either. (I accidentally clicked out of podcast.com, so the podcast stopped playing, and when I went back I didn't want to start over at the beginning. Too bad for me.)

So I'm excited to hear more authors, although I enjoy seeing them in person, but this will be a good alternative. Perhaps my interest in podcasts/podcasting will grow from there.

Also, I added an MPR podcast feed to the sidebar - very easy to do!

Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video

All the instructional videos that I've seen have been really helpful. There was one that didn't work when I clicked on it (it "skipped"), but it worked when I went directly to the site.

I found an adorable little Wild fan video; with the playoffs going on this week I thought it would be a good one to share. Go Wild! And thanks Braeden.



Here's another one that will make you smile ... trying this one as a link to see what happens.

I chose these videos because I'm struggling to finish the 23 Things program and it wasn't feeling like "play" anymore. This is my attempt to lighten things up and not be so library-centric. Variety is the spice of life!

I liked searching YouTube better than Google video. It seemed more authentic somehow. It was also great to be able to use del.icio.us to save the sites until I was ready to choose one and post it.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

I use ELM almost every day in my work as a corporate librarian. It's a valued resource I recommend internally and to friends and family. However, I was not aware of all the productivity tools available through ELM until now.

Here's my sample web page I created with EBSCO's page composer. A little clunky but it works to create a simple page of search results. I suppose with more time I could make it prettier.

Creating a web page with results from ProQuest is quick and easy! I liked it better than the EBSCO page composer.

NetLibrary is handy, but in my experience a lot of people don't want to read online. Maybe they think it will be difficult to access? If you're just looking for a quick bit of info or fact check it works great, but not so much for in-depth reading. We're looking at a similar e-book product for our library and aren't sure of the response we're going to get. It seems like a perfect solution, but there is just such a huge difference between paper and an e-book.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

I wish these tools had been around when I was a student! I could see them being very useful, because some of those research projects seem so overwhelming unless you can break it down into steps and just get started.

I like how the Assignment Calculator links you to resources to help you along the way.

Definitely a great addition to a student or teen page of any kind.

Thing 15. Online Games and Libraries

Maybe I'm too practical, but I'm sooo not into gaming or Second Life.

Puzzle Pirates seems like a lot of fun if you have plenty of time (which kids do I guess, but we keep hearing about how even the kids are over-scheduled). I read through the "Starting Out" tutorial but didn't actually play; the download scared me.

Second life is more puzzling to me. There is no goal, no destination. And I can't believe it costs real money (a lot!) for land! Really? Who is buying this, and more importantly, WHY?

Even Michael Stephens, when he spoke on Library 2.0 in Roseville back in September, was not able to explain the usefulness of Second Life. Interesting but not really necessary. You could host the online learning opportunities elsewhere. But I've never been into video games of any sort so maybe for others this is a dream come true. I just don't get it.

Thing 14. LibraryThing

This is a FUN one! I set up my account with a bunch of favorite random titles, but this could have a lot of uses. Didn't find great conversations but liked the book recommendations and all the tags. Will come back to this for personal use and possibly to create book lists for the office. Not sure if it would work as our catalog as we have a lot of technical titles. The Amazon bookmarklet is a nice feature.

Check out the link to my catalog in the side bar.

Thing 13. Online Productivity Tools

"While it may seem that the Internet is populated by people with endless time on their hands who are out to torpedo our productivity ..." - Yes, I totally thought that about the last thing - tagging articles. Who has the time?

There was just an article in the Pioneer Press about online productivity tools. How timely! Title was "Growing number of Web sites help you help yourself." It focused mostly on goals, fitness, and getting organized. One that I liked from their list is StickK. It was developed by a group from Yale and helps you keep on track for any goal from quitting smoking to training for a marathon.

I've tried both Google's and Yahoo!'s start pages before, but they seem so egocentric and limited. I find I like Yahoo!'s general start page better than My Yahoo!

Thought Backpack looked like a cool tool that could be useful when compiling research data to send to a client. The emails often get clunky and hard to organize when you have a lot of different sources; this would streamline results.

Tried Ta-da. Not bad but to me the to-do list being on paper is essential. On the computer it's out of sight, out of mind. I use my Outlook calendar, contact list, and a lot of its other features and couldn't get by without it. If I didn't have that then for sure I'd set up a calendar, widgets, etc. to help keep my on track and organized.

Thing 12. Do You Digg?

Nah, I don't Digg. I'm glad some people do though because these sites are fun to browse. (Is Digg-ing the sharing or the browsing or both?)

I looked at each one and checked out the health section for comparison. I like the "bury" option on Digg, and I like its layout the best. "News in Pictures" is a cool feature of Newsvine, but harder to see what's really popular.

So I went to the New York Times and tried to share an article about the pope through Digg. Found it funny that "religion" is not on the topic list. Anyway it was a duplicate so they rejected it.

I really saw a lot of interesting stuff that I wanted to read though and ended up off on a lot of different tangents. Could be a great time-waster. I like the fact that you can post to del.icio.us for personal reference - that could definitely come in handy for research.

Thing 11. Tagging and Del.icio.us

Started exploring this one a few days ago, but just got back to it ...

This is my first time trying del.icio.us. I've always been a little apprehensive. It's actually a pretty cool tool! I set up an account and tagged some standards and patent sites that I use all the time. Also networked with minn23. What I would love to do is set up a site for our users like the colleges & universities have set up. But can I make it private for only a certain group of users? Or is it either private, or public? That would make a difference in how I tagged some of the sites (ie competitors, customers).

I also tagged some of my blog entries. How would this be helpful again? Maybe if the blog goes back years and years then it helps in finding things. ??

Thing 10. Wikis

I must say, I don't understand wikis. They are so messy and unclear. A group I am in has started using one to keep up communication, and I find it difficult to navigate.

BUT now that I watched the video and added a note to the 23 Things wiki, it's starting to click. Here's what I said:

4-7-08 I'm so happy I'm not the only one on Thing 10. The video was good. It finally clicked that the big draw of wikis is that everyone can edit ... kw

So this is really good because I've been tasked with creating a wiki for work. Going to sign up at PBWiki. Will give progress update on that later.

Thing 9. Online Collaboration Tools

This "thing" is driving me crazy.

I sent an email to be invited to Zoho, but is hasn't come through. Wasn't able to edit the Declaration in GoogleDocs either. However I did set up a GoogleDocs account, sent it to my other email, edited it, and then viewed changes back in GoogleDocs. Again this has similar features to SharePoint but is a free tool so would be very useful working on a team project. Wish I would've had (and learned how to use) something like this during group projects in library school ...

For now I will move on from this to preserve my sanity.

Thing 8. Share Your Creations

I tried out Lazybase and thought it would be a fun tool for our book club to use. I guess I should've created my own forms though because I couldn't easily import my current list into the tool. So I just entered a few recent titles to try it out. http://lazybase.com/woodsbooks This tool reminds me of SharePoint. Would it work as a catalog tool? Maybe a new books list?

I also looked briefly at eFolio. I'd like to try that one when I have more time - the examples are pretty cool. I have a LinkedIn account that I thought would work as a sort of career history, but it is actually more of a social tool.

Thing 7. Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Wow! A lot of components to this one. Took a while to get through it all.

Regarding email productivity hints, I had shut off my auto notification a few months ago and it has really helped. I just can't resist the curiosity when I see that little envelope pop up. So now that I don't see it, I check email between other tasks instead of in the middle of something.

I like all the YouTube videos. I am more and more curious about them and about creating one.

Tried IMing with my boss, but we got this message:

The Web Site you are trying to access:
http://www.google.com/talk/
Is listed in a category of sites which are not generally used for business.
If you feel you need access to this site, please Email the Help Desk.

I do use texting, although infrequently as I'm not very proficient with my cell-typing and also pay .15 per msg. I've done a lot of web conferencing, but was happy to be introduced to OPAL and (reminded of) Web Junction. The only issue I have is that every different program requires so many downloads and now I feel like I have tons of junk on my computer.

I watched the LOC Armchair Travel webinar from OPAL. Well, part of it. Will go back to this for other resources.

Did not have an invitation to join the 23 Things Google group, but I found them and put in a request to join.

Thing 6. Online Image Generators

This is a fun one! We are just thinking about something different to do for National Library Week this year ... maybe we can do some fun sort of sign. I like ImageChef a lot. Not a big fan of the trading cards. Are there any copyright concerns with any of this stuff???

Thing 5. More Flickr Fun

Check out my cool header of a small part of our collection that I made with a Flickr mashup. Was easy to do, but then I had to change the font and size of my blog title so you could still read it. That took me longer to figure out.

I also tried the bead tool from Big Huge Labs and posted that image here. It's a little dark.

Not sure how we could use this in our library ... I'll have to think more on that. Definitely could come back to this and spend a lot more time.

Here's how even EPA is using Flickr for their photo contest.

(And now I just learned to add a link to a blog post!)