Thing #23 - the end or the beginning?

My favorite discovery by far was Pandora. I will use it everyday. Flickr is another discovery that I will most likely use a lot.
I think this was a wonderful "1.0" edition of learning about new technology. I hope we will do this again. I think we can improve this experience by not trying to cram so much into each week. How about only doing one thing per week next time? It may be too slow for some, but I feel we need to go much slower in order to have the maximum staff participation through to the end of the program. I would also encourage one of the first steps of the next learning experience being to create an identity online that would only be used for the library exercises so we wouldn't be "putting ourselves out there" on the web as much as we had to for this program. If I had known where this was going, I would have made up an identity with a Yahoo email address so I could remain anonymous.
If you offered another discovery program like this in the future, I would most likely participate. However, it would be important to me to remain anonymous to staff with the exception of the people administering the program. I would also suggest a less busy time of the year for the program. Thank you to all who worked so hard to make this discovery process a reality.
Now I am done! I have completed all 23 things.

Thing #22 - Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight")

I personally will not be a user of LibriVOX. It is great if you want to read books in the public domain, but I read most of those when I was in school. I did a test download of one of the titles several months ago and the sound quality was good. However the book downloaded in many parts instead of just one or two. At this time, I would rather rip the CD's from a book on CD that I have borrowed from the library and load it into my iPOD for listening if it is a title that I don't want to buy. If it is a title I do want to buy, Audible.com is a great way to buy audio books. I downloaded World Without Us and am enjoying it immensely.

Thing #21 - Podcasts, Smodcasts!

Ok, now you're talkin'. Podcasts are almost an addiction for me. I subscribe to many and I am always looking for new ones of interest. There is so much content out there! Granted, not all of it is quality. The most difficult task for me is to search out the good stuff. For this exercise I went to Podcastalley.com and added Knox County Public Library's Podcast to my RSS feed. This is a new podcast so I wanted to give them some support. I long ago subscribed to Pierce County Library News through my RSS feed. The discovery exercise asks "Did you find anything useful here?" My problem is that I find way too much that is useful! It is difficult to find the time to listen to it all. I must join a 12 step program. Hmmmm, do you think they have a podcast for that?

Thing #20 - Downloadable music at Spokane Public Library

This was fun! I had not yet investigated this resource, but I really enjoyed my couple of minutes exploration. I will definitely be back. There is a lot of music I enjoy listening to that I do not own. It is wonderful that on a lunch or break I can whip out my headphones and enjoy some soothing tones. What a great way to explore music that I might want to add to my personal library. Thanks Debra for ordering this. I will be visiting this site often in the future.

Thing #19 - Discovering Web 2.0 tools

Oh no. I have been sucked in by "The Goog". The site I decided to visit/explore was Start Pages - Personalized Google. I like my privacy so I have stayed away from the evil Google because they save every bit of information about you and use it to target the advertisements you see. I just don't like that idea very much. I hate knowing that there is so much information out there about me already. I know I am just fooling myself that by withholding information online I am keeping a bit of myself to myself. Anyway is 5 seconds flat I made a personalized homepage that I LOVE. It was automatically linked to my blog. I have to admit it is pretty cool. Now that the Goog has me in its evil clutches, I might even use some of the apps that I have been refusing to use due to privacy issues. Privacy, what privacy?

Thing #18 - Online Applications and Tools

Here I am again 2 weeks behind. Sigh. Zoho Writer actually looked like something I might actually use after this exercise is all over. I love the versatility of the program but best of all it is FREE. Who needs to spend a bag of money on spreadsheet or word processing programs when these free programs offer so much? I plan of exploring Zoho Planner in depth on my own time. On to thing #19.

Thing #17 - Playing with a wiki

I came , I saw, I played, I left. Thanks for the memories...

Thing #16 - So What's in a Wiki?

Oh my gosh! I am a week behind. I almost threw in the towel on this, but I hate to be a quitter. Especially since I think this is such a great activity. I took a quick look at some of the examples listed in the discovery exercise. I have to admit I didn't spend much time looking at them. The wiki I am most familiar with is the Wikipedia. Even though you can't bank on the information being totally accurate, I find it helpful to me in a number of situations. I was delighted that some of our staff got together and created a wiki to report on their experiences at INCOL. What a great idea! I am looking forward to seeing how SPL uses a wiki to manage SPLASH.

Thing #15 - On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

Thank goodness this was a quick "thing"! The articles were short so I could skim them quickly. "Into a new world Of Librarianship" hit some key points for me. Making our libraries user-centered, not impeding our customers, and being trendspotters are important points for me as a library user. I have been a library customer many more years than I have been a library employee. One of SPL's newer policies has impeded my use of the library and has forced me to go elsewhere for many of my books. (I wonder how this is affecting our circ stats!) Other staff have said they too are using our library less for the same reason. I am referring to having to wait a week to place holds on new materials. This has forced me to either take the time to manage a waiting list of things I want to read (takes too much time), buy my books (getting expensive), or use other libraries (more driving, uses more gas, takes up my time). This takes me away from my library and on to the internet to purchase or download what I want. As for being a trendspotter, I think SPL has done fairly well. We aren't exactly cutting edge, but with our budget constrains I think we do a pretty good job. I think it is important that we do our best to keep up with the latest and greatest or our usage will continue to drop.

Thing #14 - Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Sigh...once again I am so frustrated because I just don't have the time to complete these assignments to the standards I would like. I have to say again that I am so grateful for the chance to learn something new and I don't want to sound negative, BUT this is turning into a negative experience for me. Because of the time crunch, I feel like we should be spoon fed most of these experiences instead of exploring on our own. You can still learn a lot, get your feet wet, and not feel so pressured to get the next project completed by the end of the week. I have read other blogs, and I am not the only one feeling this way. We could then do the exploring on our own time if we wanted to know more. That said, I played around with Technorati and discovered something else I won't use but am glad to know about. Since the last thing I want to do after work is glue my eyeballs to a computer screen, this just does not interest me. I do not want to read blogs in my spare time. I want to read books. I absolutely positively DO NOT want to claim my blog. I am only writing it because I have to to take part in this learning process. I certainly hope no one is actually reading it.

Thing #13 - Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I can see a lot of uses for Del.icio.us in the library setting, especially for those of us that work on reference desks. As for personal use, I think I will continue to keep my bookmarks on my own computer. I have a Del.icio.us account that I created after Staff Day. I got really excited about it, but none of my friends were using it so my interest died. Maybe someday when I have a bit more time I will give it a go again.

Thing #12 - Roll Your Own Search Engine

Here is a link to my personal search engine: http://rollyo.com/techgirlwannabe/tech_sites/. Take a look and please let me know if you have a favorite tech site that I might enjoy.

Thing #11 - LibraryThing

Please feel free to visit my personal library @ http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Techgirlwannabe

This is not something I will use, but it is nice to know about. I appreciate the time and opportunity to learn new things even if I don't think I will personally use it in my daily life.

Thing #10 - Play around with image generators

Not much time again this week so my image is not very exciting. It will have to do!

Thing #9 - Finding Feeds

I have spent way too much time today looking at the various feed search tools. I am like a kid in a candy store, and I need to get back to work. I explored all of the feeds suggested in the exercise, and I really liked Bloglines and Feedster the best. They seemed to be the easiest for me to search. Syndic8 was the most confusing for me. I'm not sure if it was because it was at the end of my discovery exercise and I was getting tired, or if it was just too much information presented in a format that was not pleasing to me. At any rate, when/if I need to look for newsfeeds I know where to go, and if I see the feed icon on a website that I regularly visit I know how to subscribe to it. This was the week I was most looking forward to and I learned a lot!

Thing #8 - Make life "real simple" with RSS and a newsreader

This was quite a task. I was consumed with wanting to read all of the feeds! There is so much information out there that it would be very easy to get sucked into the vortex and never come out! I was pleased to discover that many of the sites I regularly visit have feeds available so this will be useful to me if I can control myself and not subscribe to every feed I find interesting. I was finally able to pare my choices down to 15. We are supposed to include our public Bloglines URL to demonstrate our completion of this activity. The URL is http;//www.bloglines.com/public/USERNAME. To protect my privacy, I have not put my username in the URL. The 2.0 team knows who I am so they can insert my username to get to the correct location and see what feeds interest me. On to Thing #9!

Thing #7: Blog About Technology

I am an avid fan of technology. When I think of the new gadgets we have now compared to just 3-5 years ago I am amazed. It just blows my mind to be able to do wireless downloads of just about anything and at such high speeds. I am totally turning into one of "those" people that wants that new book on CD, music CD, DVD, or television show right now! Automobiles can now do the most amazing things. They can even parallel park themselves. We can exchange information and ideas at an astonishing pace. The list goes on and on. To be able to be in a time and place that allows us to take advantage of the marvels of technology is truly a blessing. However, this is true for me only when the technology works. I like my technology best when it is simple. The last two years I have really made an effort to keep current in the field of technology by reading books and magazines on the subject as well as subscribing to a number of technology related Podcasts.

Thing #6: More Flickr Fun

Oh my gosh! I had so much fun exploring some of the things you can do with photos and Flickr. I mainly spent my time checking out customsportsproducts.com. I could easily spend some serious money ordering some very customized Christmas gifts. The trading cards are cute, but heck you can even order jewelry, magazine covers, bobble heads, banners, calendars, etc. (Okay, so I am easily entertained!) It makes me just want to get out my camera and start shooting photographs. With all of the beautiful Fall colors out there even I am bound to get a decent picture or two. I feel some creative juices beginning to flow...

7718 - A19 Flyover

7718 - A19 Flyover, originally uploaded by M R Fletcher.

This weeks assignment was a bit of a challenge for me. I have been really busy and finding the time to do this exercise was difficult. Anyway, I picked this beautiful picture to blog about. I really admire people who have the skills to take night photos. I know nothing about photography and would be lost trying to figure out how to do it. However, this exercise and this picture have sparked an interest in me to maybe try to get some shots of particularly interesting Chrismas scenes this winter. What have I got to lose? Maybe some kind person will even give me some tips!

The 71/2 Habits Tutorial

Well, here goes. I am most definitely NOT a blogger person, but I will give this my best shot. We were tasked this week with writing about which learning habits are easiest for us and which are the most difficult and why. The easiest for me are:

1. Begin with the end in mind. This is second nature for me. Most of my life I have been involved in competitive sports that require a great deal of goal setting, planning, and keeping my eye on the "prize." I also tackle my job in the same way by constantly setting goals for the day, week, month, & year. This has always helped keep me on track and allowed me a sense of accomplishment. No matter how small the accomplishment, it all helps contribute to keeping me motivated to reach the end goal.

2. Teach/mentor others. I have a lot of personal experience teaching/training fellow staff at work as well as working with a variety of people in my personal life. I have always enjoyed sharing what I know with others.

3. Play. I LOVE to have fun no matter what I am doing. I always try to put a positive spin on whatever I have to do. It makes life a LOT easier. Life is just too darn short NOT to have as much fun as possible.

Most difficult:

None of the 7 1/2 habits seemed difficult to me. If I HAVE to pick one, I guess it would be "Use technology to your advantage." I picked that habit only because I don't feel I know very much about technology. However, I am very excited for this opportunity to explore and even get paid to do it! Thanks so much Spokane Public Library for this opportunity!