Thing 22. What Did I Learn...And Keeping Up

Time to be wrapping it up for the "Thing on a Stick" part of Chilly, and moving into a proper blog, full of info about what's on my mind, what's going on with the family, what's happening with the world, or just the library world or...oh, hell. I don't know. Apparently 1 out of 7 internet users are blogging now, and if I'm going to be one of the better of the horde, I'd best come up with a subject. Write about what you know was the mantra of my creative writing program, and it's a good and proper one, but I'll have to do some thinking on that before coming back to Chilly.

How to keep up with 2.0?--that is the question. And it's a toughie. Because there's so much out there now. The more you seek, the more you find and then more and more and more. Like right now I've got 55 feeds in my Bloglines account (about 45 of 'em usually active), more than 300 links to my Del.icio.us page, about 20 items sitting in Google Docs, tons of connections via LinkedIn, yada yada. So the trick is to winnow out the chaff. It's rather like having a pile of library books on the bedside table, all good and all due on the same date. A pleasurable cause for stress, but Argh!

But one shouldn't stress from pleasure and usefulness, and that's what 2.0 is for me. So some tactics are needed: It's probably a good idea to go through and weed items once in a while, whether they be feeds, or Del.icio.us links or MySpace friends (now that sounds nasty). And to consider carefully what I add, no matter what the application. And finally, if I start stressing from essentially having too much info, I just have to remember--I'm in control, not the information. Nothing bad will happen if I don't read my Bloglines feeds for the day. Or a week. Or even a month. Life goes on. And so do I.

Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

I really like Ning and kind of enjoy Web Junction. The former is great, I've found, for discovering folks with similar interests. Like I'm really into guitar playing and blues music, and guess what: there's lots of groups in Ning that reflect those interests. Within these groups there's forums on all kinds of related topics, sound files, videos (including lessons)--pretty cool. And particularly so is the Ning page for old-fart rockers like me: Loud Old Guys--check it out!

Web Junction is different, but cool on its own. Not so much fun, but educational in a career-enhancing way. You can learn new stuff or brush up on skills in all kinds of areas. From my standpoint, what's especially useful are the resources on patron services and technology, with the classes either on vid. or self-paced. A few of 'em are free, but a lot are pretty inexpensive and would seem to be a great way to start learning about Cold Fusion or Dreamweaver or to hone one's business skills. On the other hand, though, there are a few that cost TOO MUCH: it seems wrong to charge 150 smackeroos to learn how to use Google a little better at the ref. desk, for instance. If I want to learn that any better, I can find it on the internet. By Googling.

Thing 20. Social Networking.

I have accounts for MySpace and Facebook. I got 'em both so I could see how each works and compare. Now, I admit I don't do a lot with either. I've set up minimal profiles but haven't created cool pages or anything. Heck, I don't even have any sound files to automatically deafen you when opening my MySpace page. I guess this is 'cause I'm of the age group that's reticent about letting the whole wide world know too much about me. Unlike modern kids who seem to revel in the thought. Also, I know few folks to network with (how sad, but we're all the same age kinda), don't have the urge to share stuff like songs with anybody and find trad. email perfectly fine for electronic communication. There--spoken like a truly old fart.

But it's a good thing libraries have established a presence in Facebook and MySpace. Every kid on the planet has an account in one, the other or both. (A speaker at a conference I attended said he asked the students in the classes he taught how many had pages and EVERYONE of 500 did.) And if this many kids are using an app., it's important that libraries be there. I've seen a lot of what many institutions are offering: communication options, catalog search boxes, links to groups, book talks, yadda, yadda. And it's great--the more kids see this stuff and use it, the better for libraries.

Thing 19. Podcasts

I'll admit it--I'm the last person in the U.S. without a MP3 player. I don't have an Ipod, haven't converted my CDs to digital to be kept snugly on my hard drive, listen to nothing fancier while driving in my ancient Chevy than those shiny silver disks. Yet I like podcasts, even if I have to listen to 'em on my pc. It's just way cool that you can listen to stuff other than music when just strolling around--although the tunes are good, too. (Ex: Minnesota Public Radio's Current has a podcast with the 'caster's favorite gee-tar solos and discussion thereof.) And great that so many educational institutions such as universities, libraries and museums are making podcasts available. One problem, and it's a "good" one: as with much of the 2.0 world, there's almost too many interesting podcasts from which to choose.

Thing 18. YouTube and other online video

Here's a YouTube vid. that anyone who spends time introducing newbies to computers or doing tech support can appreciate. Hysterical. There's another one as well, a golden oldie about librarians from M. Python back in the 70s.

Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools

Lots of stuff to do here: Gale, Ebsco, Proquest dbs, and Netlibrary to boot. It's very cool that ELM provides these resources; I mean, we get 'em through my library, but making them available as a MN-wide resource is a tremendous value. This brings to mind a pet peeve I've long had of the "industry"--we give so much good stuff to folks, but it's not promoted beyond a library's website or via the print lit a library puts out, or perhaps through an article in the paper somewhere. How about some of those hard-earned dues we pay to the various pro orgs: ALA, MLA in Minnesota, etc., going into TV or online PSA's that promote stuff like the ELM dbs?

In doing this Thing, some of the detail-stuff didn't work as described. That's to be expected. But for the most part, it's great being able to do research and then make it available to yourself or to colleagues via RSS or a webpage. I guess I do question the need for the latter, but I supposed having results published in HTML provides web-based accessibility that elimates the need for sending the same material in an e-mail attachment, etc. The more avoiding PDF, the better as far as I'm concerned.

Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools

If I worked in an academic library, or taught classes, I definitely could see the usefulness of student 2.0 tools. Both the Research Project calculator and the U. of M. Assignment calculator provide a guiding structure (timelines, strategy recommendations, worksheets, tips, etc.) that would be especially useful for students learning how to organize their scholarship. I could also see the value for those unorganized grownups I see around me. Nonetheless, I don't see much in either of these calculators for library project management. Other tools are better, such as Doodle or Ikordo (for scheduling/sharing meeting dates), Zoho or Google docs for sharing apps, or Nexo for file sharing, meeting setup, collaboration in general. And there's always good ol' wikis.