23 things #8

I created my bloglines account and subscribed to a number of feeds. I think that I'll reserve judgement on usefullness of this one, for me personally, for the time being. There really isn't any site that I feel like I have to check regularly. It's more like I check them if I have a moment and if I miss something it isn't devastating. So now, I will be checking a bloglines account and due to the nature of some of the sites I subscribed to, there will be numerous updates. So will I be spending more time scrolling through them? Only time will tell.

I love the idea of being able to subscribe to a specific blog. I subscribed to the system's Innovation Blog. That is one that I keep meaning to check but never seem to. So now I'll know if something new has been added!

Well, I seem to have gotten through thing 8, and if that's the hardest one, I guess I'm doing better that I thought.

23 things #7

I saw 2 articles in my professional reading this week that I felt were very applicable to this 23 things project. I copied the articles and am routing them to my staff.

1. Meredith Farkas, "The Evolving Library: Ten timeless tech tips," American Libraries, (June/July 2007): 50. I thought that several of the tips were extremely relevant to this library system and to the 23 things project in general: Tip 1. Develop a risk-tolerant environment - with our emphasis on innovation over the past year + we've already come a long way in tasking risks and accepting possible failure. Tip 2. Avoid technolust - It is always so easy to be caught up in the latest and greatest phase. We should always remember to critically look at the new technologies and determine which ones actually fill a need in our service. Tip 5. Play with technology - That's what this 23 things project is all about - exposing us to the new technologies so that we know what they are, can hopefully assist our customers with their needs (instead of having no ideas what they're talking about), and helping us be better equipped to do evaluate and incorporate the new technologies into out work (see tip 2 above).
2. David Lee King and Michael Porter, "Thirty-seven Sites in Two Thousand Words or Less," Public Libraries, (May/June 2007): 30 - 33. I loved this article. I was very fun to read and very non-threatening. They list (and give a short description of) many of the sites that we will be exploring during this 23 things project and many more that we can use to continue or 2.0 journey (if desired).

In addition to my professional reading, one other technological thing struck me this week. My daughter is taking swimming lessons and in packing her back pack (which is a new one - received at school for sucessful completon of a project) I noticed a rubbery hole on the side of the bag. Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was basically an AV jack. I'm assuming that the cord of the MP3 player is inside the bag and the cord for the headphones goes through the hole. It was just a reminder to me of how fast technology advances and how young (my daughter just finished kindergarten) children are learning about it. I won't totally date myself here, but I didn't use a computer until high school. She started using computers in her 4 year old class and has to show her grandmother how to work the DVD player when she comes to our house. I'm sure as soon as she sees my MP3 player (that I'll receive for completing this project), she'll want one for herself. And in no time she'll probably be showing me all the cool little things I can do to enhance my blog.

23 things #6

I've been playing with some Flickr mashups and have found some interesting ones:

• Bubblr (http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/) - This application allows you to add a word "bubble" to your photos to create a comic strip or to simply add a caption. I though this would be great fun to use at home with photos of the family and kids. I always add captions to my photos and this would be a unique and creative twist to the way I usually do it (a sticker on the photo). I'm late to the world of digital photos (and am way backed up in my filing of the tons and tons of photos I have), so this would be perfect for those pic still in my camera. I'm a scrapbooker wannabe (want to do it, have lots of supplies, and lots of ideas, but no time to actually do anything) and with this I could just caption, print, and stick it in the book!


• Waholizer (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/warholizer.php#) - This one is just for fun. It turns your photos into an Andy Warhol-like print (inspired by the Marilyn Monroe painting). I tried a bunch of pictures, but none really looked great. At the beginning of this post, is a Warholized photo of the branch. Not identifiable at all - it kind of looks like a southwestern landscape to me. But if you could find the right picture, it would really be cool (and a nice addition to that "one day I'll actually get to it" scrapbook of mine).

23 things #5

(Photo caption: Flickr artist photosfromonhigh)

I've explored flickr and found that just about anything imaginable is out there. I even found a photo of myself from a library event.

As I was exploring I came across a number of photos of a rock quarry/sculpture garden located in the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York. My dad used to take the family there when I was a child. The place is really cool. From the Opus 40 website, "The work is an immense composition of finely fitted stone, rising in ramps and swirling terraces around pools and trees and dfountains out of the rock bed of an abandoned bluestone quarry. It spreads out over more than six acres. It is the product of more [than] thirty-seven years of a man's life. His name was Harvey Fite. He worked alone, using his hands and traditional quarryman's tools, while building his masterpiece: Opus 40." Vistors can tour the site, enjoy an evening concert series, or even get married at Opus 40 (my cousin actually did - right in front of the monolith). For more information on Opus 40, visit the wesite at http://www.opus40.org/.

So what does this have to do with technology? Well, it demonstrates the power of one person to accomplish incredible feats if they put their mind to it and work at it. So, if Mr. Fite could create this incredible site, I should be able to complete this Library 2.0 project.

P.S. Thanks to Beth from beths place for helping me get the photo loaded!

23 things: 7.5 habits

I think the easiest thing for me is habit 2: to accept responsibility for my own learning. I have always been curious about all sorts of things and am highly motivated.

But this can be a double edged sword in the the hardest thing for me is habit 3: viewing problems as challenges. Instead of some sort of mistake or something on my part. I like to call myself a recovering perfectionist. I was always so motivated to succeed, to always be the best, that problems could become potentially crippling to what I was trying to learn. Getting older, and becoming a mom, have pretty helped me see that I'm not perfect.

So, let see if I can have some fun while I learn some stuff . . . and play, play, play!

23 things #3

Once upon a time, I really was pretty good at all this technolgy stuff. I was the technology trainer for my department and branch. I fully trained my staff and wrote the manual for them when we switched ILS systems. I was an expert at Pine e-mail (okay, that dates me a litte) and even used it to IM with friends. Fast forward, oh about 10 years, and 3 kids later and I've lost my edge. I play, all the time, just not in the technological sense. I'm hoping that completing this project will make me more comfotable with the web 2.0 technologies.