23 Coppell Things

In my library, two of us worked on 23 Things. It was a challenge to find time to do it all as we were very busy with summer reading club and other projects. What I would do is spend time demonstrating the ones we intend to use to library staff and then have them incorporate them into a routine rather than try to do the entire 23 Things project (unless they wanted to). Because it is time consuming, I think this would be more beneficial to staff. Perhaps this method would encourage staff to branch out and learn more on their own. In turn, staff would hopefully offer new ideas for ways to use the technology to promote the library and provide more services.

Podcasting

I don't know much about podcasting so I was surprised to see how many aggregator sites there are. It seems that these sites let you record, mix, and share your podcasts as well as view them. There was also one designed for the visually impaired.

I listened to one that discussed a library's document delivery service. It was very good in getting the message across about how to use the service. The sound quality was good and the script was entertaining and informative at the same time. The second podcast I listened to was from Mohawk College in Canada. They offer a series of podcasts about various technologies used in the library. The one I listened too had some sound problems but the content was useful. I liked their opening; the series is named Braincast and each podcast begins with a nice musical intro.
I don't think I would subscribe to them; instead I would seek them out as I needed information.

I think libraries could use podcasts to introduce stories, explain new technologies and talk about library services. They could be inserted into blogs, wikis and websites for more access.

U-TooB

I have enjoyed many YouTube videos in the past, usually from links in e-mails so it was interesting to do a search for something more specific. I watched one that gave a demonstration of how to do a craft, one that talked about a specific library department and their responsibilities, and another with an author interview. I think that each video was successful in accomplishing it's purpose, to teach something, to educate others about a library department and to promote a book. It's obvious that there are many ways YouTube is being used by libraries.

Google Docs

I think Google Docs could come in very handy. I had fun trying out the various types of docs that can be created and think it's very cool that you can share with others. What a good way to do a project with people from all over! It would be so much easier. I will have to consider other ways this tool can be used.

Wahka, wahka, wiki

Even though I've used Wikipedia often, it was very interesting to search for documentation re: the quality of the information being offered there. It's not listed on the particular page I searched but 'About Wikipedia' does clarify that users need to be aware that incorrect information can be posted and they should validate what they find.

I also found the discussion and history portions of interest. The discussion section was rather light; not much going on there about the topic I searched. From what I could tell of history, a lot of changes had been made over time to the page I searched. I did enjoy seeing who is involved in the creation of the page; you could click on the person's name and go to a page that offered their qualifications. Very nice.

I had some success adding pages to the wiki that was created for us, but I found it difficult to use. The edit bar kept moving down below my screen and I couldn't get it back. When I tried to load photos I had no luck. Maybe with more time spent on it I could figure it out. Just trying to finish 23 Things at this point!

LibWorm

I like the fact that LibWorm is library related. I found it mostly easy to use although some of my searches were not as successful as I would have liked. Keyword and phrase searching works pretty well, but I didn't find much using the feed categories. I tried subject searching and it was better; tag searching really only seems good for finding the popular topics of the day. If you want to find a less popular subject, going for keyword might be the best route.

LibraryThing

Tried out LibraryThing today. I set up an account and started my catalog, added titles, tags and reviews. Looked at Librarians Who LibraryThing and Thingology; they were interesting. I checked out other reviews on some of the titles I entered and noted that there are numerous cloud indexes to browse. I could not find ThingLang, ISBN Check or MARCThing although I looked everywhere for them. I can see how people would enjoy the social aspect of talking about books, sharing book reviews and getting recommendations from others. I would likely use LibraryThing mostly to get ideas for my next book to read or to provide Reader's Advisory assistance.