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.
Monday, April 14, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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.
Friday, April 11, 2008
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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.
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.
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