Thing 23 - Reflection

My favorite things: Blog readers, Delicious
My least favorite things: Ning, LibWorm

Easiest things: Twitter, Digg
Most difficult things: Mashups, Instant Messaging (I cheated and used Facebook chat)

Things I want to use more personally: Google Docs
Things I want to see used professionally at my job: Wikis, podcasts

I think the biggest take-away for me was that most of these technologies are pretty simple to use--once you get out there and play with them for awhile to get a feel for how they work. Most things on the web are created for non-technical users. You don't have to be a programmer to use them! This is the lesson I hope I can instill in the rest of the staff to encourage them to participate in our 23 Things.

What Things do I think we'll be using at our library? Well, we've just started a blog; I hope that more staff will begin contributing reviews to our LibraryThing for Library application; I'd love to see wikis for internal use and podcasts and/or YouTube videos for outreach. Maybe our 23 Things participants will be inspired. I hope so!

Thing 22 - Developing Your Own 23 Things

I did this 23 Things because our library was already discussing doing our own 23 Things when the opportunity arose, and it seemed like a good way not to have to create a program from scratch.  (Isn't it great that librarians love to share?! ) 

We plan to recycle (we try to be a green library) a lot of the Things from this North Texas version.  However, we are making some changes.  We'll use LinkedIn instead of Ning.  We're skipping Flickr Mashups and Image Generators altogether in favor of a few more "productivity" technologies (like You Send It and Tiny URL) and entertainment technologies (like Pandora, last.fm, and Hulu).  The latter we'll use to spark discussion about the future of information and entertainment delivery--a vital concern for libraries.

Our 23 Things will be a little slower paced since I just couldn't keep up--and I have more flexibility with my assignments at work than most of the staff.  We hope that will encourage more to participate.  (It's not going to be mandatory.)

Wish us luck!

Thing 21 - Podcasts

Overall, I enjoyed the library-related podcasts more than the library-related YouTube videos.  I think it is easier to come across as professional when you only have to be concerned with an audio recording (though video podcasting can be done, too) than with video feed, too.

Booktalks seem to be a popular choice of subject matter.  And teens make a more frequent target audience than other library generations.

"Booktalks - quick and simple" by Nancy Keane (http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/podcast_list.htm) target a middle school audience with short reviews.  In fact, I'd shorten her introductory music and give her a few more seconds of content.  But that's just me.

The Wadsworth Library creates a series called "In Good Company" (http://www.wadsworthlibrary.com/media/podcasts/) that produces rather long, in-depth interviews on subjects of interest to their users.  I listened to the beginning of two: one on a partnership with an organization providing assistance to the caregivers of developmentally disabled individuals and another on funding issues.  Both were very NPR in style and content. 

The Manchester Public Library uses "Prime Speaks" (feed://feeds.feedburner.com/primespeaks) to post reviews of books for teens.  I enjoyed them for the personality and enthusiasm that showed through in the voices.  

The library podcasts I listened to were better about keeping their recordings short and to the point than were the ones from podcast alley that are obviously created out of personal interest.  

"That's one of the drawbacks to podcasts.  People like to ramble." -TKChase

I think that by tailoring podcasts to different target audiences, libraries could fairly easily disseminate a lot of information and fun.  An in-depth interview once a month covering an important issue (that also demonstrates the library's involvement in the community), book reviews once or twice a week, a weekly "events at the library" and other useful news.  (For our library, I'm thinking about a head's up warning about events in the square that create traffic problems.)  

And I don't know why you couldn't do a version of storytime.  A sort of chapter-a-day meets book talk.  Once a week read the beginning of a good book.  (Maybe one that doesn't circulate as much as it should.)  Remind everyone to come check it out to find out how it ends. 

It seems to me that there are a number of possibilities.  And it takes a little less work if you just use audio instead of video.  And if anyone else is like my husband, podcasts allow for multi-tasking.  Play them in the background while doing other work on the computer.  Or working out at the gym.  Or wherever.

Thing 20 - YouTube

I watched quite a few different videos with quite a few different intentions and audiences.  It quickly became apparent that the most professional videos were the ones created about, but not by, libraries, themselves.

I really liked the "Arlington Public Library PSA," which was well-produced and heart-warming without being too full of itself.  "Shout it out for your library" featured an array of celebrities talking about how much they love the NYPL system, and encouraging others to join the fight to keep the libraries open.  But how do you do measure success?  Watching a video is one thing, taking action because of it is something else altogether.

The "Texas Reading Club Jubilee" is a music video encouraging participation in the Texas Summer Reading Program (for the 50th jubilee year).  Not my cup of tea, personally, but my real question is who was the audience for that one?  Kids would enjoy it, but I hope that kids of the target age aren't watching YouTube videos without parental supervision.

The City of Plano Texas has an entire A2Z series providing brief introductions to various city departments.  I watched the "Library Technical Services" and "Davis Library" installments.  They were of better quality than some, but rather humorless.  

I think humor goes a long way to improving the watch-ability videos, but it should never get in the way of quick pacing.  The "Events @ the Library" series of videos posted by the Abilene Public Library prove this point.  They're too long and chatty--I want my information (entertaining is fine, but stick to the script) and not a lot of banter between the hosts.  On the other hand, they have the right idea using young attractive librarians.  Frumpy and grumpy don't look any better online than they do in person.

I like the idea of creating tours of the library, and idea brought about by the video "Jan Peck and David Davis visit the Azle Memorial Library in Azle, Texas."  Though otherwise I'd say the video is a "how don't."  Too slow-paced, too self-congratulatory, no voice over with explanations, no humor.

On the other end of that spectrum is "CSI: Library Instruction" an intentional "how not to" video intended for librarians to create discussion about best (and worst) practices in library instruction. 

Given that when my husband wants to learn a new skill, he heads to YouTube to look for a video, I think there's definitely a market for more "how to @ the library" videos: use the catalog, search the databases, place a hold, use the self-check machines, use the print stations.  And I still like the idea of giving a tour of the library--though in our case, I think we'd need to do four videos, one for each floor.

Take aways: keep it short, use humor if appropriate, put energetic and (if possible) attractive people on camera.

Thing 19 - Google Docs

I enjoyed playing with Google Docs.  Of course, Google seems to do a great job creating products that are practical, fun, and easy to use.  

Though the formatting options were more limited than those in Microsoft, I realize that's because Google is only making the universal ones available.  Which does make things more portable--and accessible.  Sometimes I wonder what has happened to the focus on accessibility in programming. That was a big thing when I took my Internet class, lo those six or seven years ago.

I think the benefits of cloud computing are pretty obvious, so it seems silly to rehash them here.  My husband gets entire IT industry trade journals on the topic, so enough ink has been spilled on the subject already.  

But, for the purposes of doing my homework:  easy collaboration without having to be geographically close is a major plus.  And I really do love having one document rather than billions of versions floating around.  But then, anything that reduces clutter (and yes, I believe in electronic clutter) is a plus in my book.

Just for a fun time, I enjoyed the Forms.  Does Microsoft not have that in their Office suite, or have I just never come across it?  

Revision control is nice for some, though I must say that it always seems very cluttery to me.  I guess I'm just not one to go back and look at old versions of things.  But then I haven't done much (any?) collaborative writing, so that may make a difference.

While I'm not sure I see Google Docs becoming a part of my daily life at the moment, I can definitely see the benefits and would be more than happy to use them if I needed them.

Thing 18 - Wikis

I've had experience using (or should I say, trying to use) two different wikis now.

Our library has set up some accounts with Zoho to try to begin the move from printed versions of procedures and how-to to electronic ones.  The registration process has messed up on me almost every time I've been invited to join.  And even if I do get in, I've never gotten the hang of it.

With Wetpaint I had no trouble creating my wiki pages (other than the website hanging up on me a few times), but I was NOT impressed with how limited the formatting options were.  And the fact that the ones I tried to use didn't seem to work.

I really do see how wikis could be useful as a more easily managed repository for policies, procedures, and knowledge-sharing.  Wouldn't it be great if the day-to-day duties (and instructions for performing them) were saved on wikis, so that when an employee moves on, you have detailed documentation for their replacement.  Since, after all, you work for the government and will never be allowed to overlap and actually train your replacement.  Unless, maybe, they're hired from within.

I just hope actually using wikis gets easier.

Thing 17 - LibWorm

I've spend the last hour playing with LibWorm.  

I'm pleased to learn about it as a resource.  I can see myself going back and using it for research on topics that are too recent to be in print yet.  Or, as a way to look at recent trends in library-related areas.

I'm hoping that some of the results that came up when I did an exact phrase search for "23 Things" will come in handy was we develop our own 23 Things program at work.  (I rather doubt all the blog entries from the amazingly wide world of 23 Things participants will qualify, though.)

I found the tags and subjects useful as a starting point for thinking about terms to search.  But most of them  were broader in scope than I'd want to wade through or subscribe to.  And I'd really like it if there was a way to limit the job openings to only appearing in the relevant feed and not showing up in the results of other queries.  

While I found some items of interest, my overall feeling was that the quality of what I found did not exceed the cost in time to find it.  So, I don't think LibWorm will infiltrate my daily life the way blog readers and Facebook have.  But I will keep it in mind for research on an as-needed basis.