Thing 23

Survey ~ This Neflin 23 Things was a great adventure and challenge! Some of the things were a lot of fun to do, others not so fun and more of a chore. All in all it was a great experience and I would definitely recommend it for others. If you know how to do some of these things it's a great refresher course and if not, it adds to your knowledge base. Thank you to all the folks at NEFLIN for doing such a wonderful job!

Thing 22

Staying Current ~ The 23 Things have been on the whole, a lot of fun! I've become a little more comfortable blogging, never thought I'd admit that. I just feel like some of the things I post might seem ridiculous and haven't been comfortable with others seeing that side of me. :D Reflecting back to the first thing, I would have to say that doing an actual blog was the hardest thing. Ran into a couple of glitches, especially with Flickr, but once I figured it out things seemed to go a little smoother. I'm going to try to keep up with blogging, don't know how I'll find the time but I'll give it a shot!

Thing 21

Student 2.0 Tools ~ Checked out all the linked sites. They are all great and depending on user's level I think they would be helpful to all students, especially those with time management issues. In the public library I think if we provided a link to these sites they would be utilized.

Thing 20

Books 2.0 ~ All of the linked sites are very interesting, I could spend hours and hours browsing... my favorite is Bookstumpers, what a fun site! You can just type in your search words and it gives a good list of books that contain that specific text. I typed in some random passages from books I've read and couldn't remember the titles and tada, my title was listed, it came back once I saw the title and author. Lately, in the public library I've noticed that more and more people are checking out audiobooks & downloading electronic books instead of the regular written copy. While out and about in the community I've also seen people reading their Kindle, they have sung it's praises but don't like the fact that you have to buy your books, you can't just "check them out" like you do in a public library, if you're a voracious reader it could get quite spendy.

Thing 19

Other social networks ~ It kinda sounds like I'd be cheating on my Myspace & Facebook. :D I'm more into just general and random topics while keeping in touch with friends, family & others whom I've met over the years. Not really into the "intellectual" aspect of networking, that would take just too much thought process and I don't have the energy lately to do it. I have been a member of Linkedin for a few years, it's a great way to network professionally.

Thing 18

Facebook & Myspace ~ Have been using both of these sites for the last several years. Lately, I've been prefering Facebook because you can just post to your wall and anyone who has access to your information is able to see it, you don't need to go specifically to someone's "page" to post a message unless you want it to be private between you and your "friend." Social networks are a nice and easy way of keeping in touch with friends, past & present without having to spend a lot of time going into a lot of detail. You can however get into some very long-winded posts. :D

Thing 17

Podcasts ~ I visited all the podcast sites with links on Neflins 23 Things. Podcast.com had the most user friendly site, however, half of the links I clicked on, the podcasts were not found. I tried going the search route and did not come up with much on my search terms, I'm probably looking for things that are pretty random, like "Indigenous People + Alaska Peninsula" so I just settled for listening to a FoxNews podcast.

Thing 16

Garneau ~ "Keep the Dream Alive"

YouTube ~ I chose this video because friends of our family, Mark Emory (camera operator of this clip) and his wife, Mary who live in Ocala, FL were involved with the video. Mark is an amazing photographer who has worked on many films and has a plethora of photos including wildlife and stills that are just so amazing I can't not share! Mark's wife Mary is in the video, she is the beautiful, serene lady sitting in the pew in the church. During the summer the Emory's spend a lot of time in my neck of the woods in Alaska. Hope you enjoy the video. This video is up for seven Grammy awards!

Thing 15

Thing 15 ~ Rollyo... this was a fun little excursion. I can see maybe adding this to a reference page on our library's web site because it is pretty easy to use. I created a search tool and added it to my blog and it works! :D Yay! I love how I was able to just go down the list and select my areas of interest. I mostly selected things about travel & leisure (what I'm mostly about). If I could post it to my desktop I would be set. Let me know if the link works for you.

http://rollyo.com/akflsmith/lorettas_news_sources/

Thing 14

Online Productivity Tools ~ I'm still astounded at how many things I'm coming across that are helping to make my home life a little more organized. Now work is another story...you have to have the time to use these tools & being in a busy library there is never enough time, there's always something keeping me busy. I've always thought that I've been very organized, I guess I could learn how to streamline a bit more. I've had my Yahoo page since it's inception and have been using it over the years but lately I've been steering more towards iGoogle. I think as I was browsing through iGoogle one day I saw that I can actually merge my calendars, just have to sit down and actually do it. :) I pretty much looked through all the other tools and found that life is complicated enough so I'll stick to the ones I'm already using. I thought that Remember The Milk would be a fun way to organize lists but I'd have to use a good chunk of time to sit and do so I've ruled that out. One of the best things I did like about it though was that I can have the list sent to my cell phone. Now only if it could actually do the chores for me...

Thing 13

I love Library Thing! If I had more time I would add all the books I've read in the last couple of years...I've read way too many books to do this consistently. The SJCPLS does use widgets for books, I just don't know if it's Library Thing. ??? I did add the LT widget to my blog, will add more someday. I do keep up with some of the newest books through Good Reads. It is a very helpful tool when running out of titles and/or authors to read. These tools have also been very helpful to patrons who find themselves in a rut. I've been told how much easier the SJCPLS's new web page is from some of Bartram Trail's patrons and how much they love all the new information available.

Thing 12

To Wiki or not to wiki... Love Wiki's. In the work environment Wiki's can be such a useful tool for different groups to communicate in an easy manner, you don't have to be jumping all over the place, using bulletin boards is an example. You can post to one area to share useful ideas and/or suggestions on a single topic or post to a whole community. I can see students not using Wikipedia due to the fact that not all posts are edited by "experts."

Thing 11

Social Media ~ I surfed around a bit, took a peek at some of the most popular stories on all four of the sites suggested, Mixx, Digg, Reddit, and Newsvine. I found the articles to be a bit too random and not what I consider "newsworthy." Again, it may just be a matter of opinion and preferences. When reading the news I usually read the local area articles, so it was nice that there was a tab on all the sites that made it a lot easier. I don't think I would use any of the sites at home or at work, again, a matter of preference.

Thing 10

Another amazing tool! I'm astounded at the fact that there are people out there who think of these things. The only problem I see with that is it creates another item you have to logon to. It could be very useful for travel, however, when I'm travelling I really don't care to be spending much time on a computer, I'm having WAY too much fun! Could be very useful in a library setting for patrons who have little or no knowledge of search tools.

Thing 9

Added the Flickr badge and it was a tough one. I couldn't figure out for the longest time how to post it to my blog. One of my co-workers very nicely told me I had to add a gadget (html) to be able to post it. Tada! The rest was easy...

Thing 8

Okay, so I've been doing the IM'ing, myspace, facebook, and texting for years now and have just added Meebo and Twitter, now it'll take a huge effort to get anything done at home. I'm still not as savvy as my kids are but I'm getting there. Social networks are a fun and admittedly addicting source to network and keep in touch with family and friends. Being that I'm usually face to face with patrons in the library on the circulation desk I don't really use these tools at work.

Thing 7

It's been hushed up, but only one village feeb absurdly feasted on nondescript Neflin's 23 Things.

http://unquietmind.com/insult.html

I don't know that I would use this tool in the library setting, I did have fun searching all the different tools and found this one of the most fun, considering my sense of humor...

Thing 6

What fun! I think using Flickr Mashups in a library setting could make the library web page more interesting and appealing to users. It certainly catches the eye.

Thing 5

Flickr... what can I say? This one really gave me a tough time! Once I figured it out, it's pretty easy to use but sure is a lot of work if you upload all your pics from your computer. At least now I have somewhere to store them other than on my hard drive. The bears showing are the LJS Nole Bear and the MSB Gator Bear, we may be rivals but we work well together and have fun. The Gators are the National Champs but the Noles ROCK!!! :D

Sunset at Ft. Myers Beach

Sunset at Ft. Myers Beach
Originally uploaded by akflsmith

One of my favorite places in Florida... love spending the day at the beach, from sunrise to sunset.

I'm trying to add Flikr to my page and not having much success! Anyone out there that can give me some pointers??? Help!

Thing 4

Woohoo! How fun RSS feeds are! I added the link for Neflin's 23 Things to my blogpage... Life is now so much simpler. It really is so very addicting, but in all reality maybe I won't be spending so much time doing all the shifting from tab to tab or looking in my favorites to see most of the websites I usually check on a daily basis. Now that I know what RSS feeds are, I am recalling seeing them in a lot of different places including the SJCPLS' website. I think I'm actually starting to have fun with these 23 Things...

Thing 3

Okay, another one down and ONLY 20 more to go! :D Tried Technorati and the other search engines provided under "resources." In my searching I found the other search tools provided were much more user friendly. I don't know... maybe it's a user preference. I did like the fact also that when doing searches video blogs were also included. It was really quite interesting and also another tool for doing a specific search.

Thing 2

Whew! What a bunch of information thrown at you regarding Web 2.0! Didn't think I'd make it through all the reading, yes, I read the entire thing, including all the links and then some. It seems that should anyone have the time to use all these tools then life could be very interesting and entertaining. But who in todays busy world has the time to use what's right at your fingertips?

1st Thing

Yikes! Not a creative writer and can never think of clever quips to post ~ so this is kind of a scary undertaking... we'll see maybe I'll learn to enjoy it eventually.