Thing 23

Thing 23

Huzzah! I have reached the end and ahead of schedule.

I am glad that I have made the effort to complete all the things, though it has been far more time-consuming than I ever imagined and I know that I have barely scratched the surface with many of the applications I've been introduced to. I know that I would have to engage more with Twitter and LinkedIn to get the full benefit of them, but I really can't see what use to put them too. I know with the latter it is mainly a case of needing a critical mass of people I know to use it, but I have other, more useful, ways of contacting them.

• The form in Google Docs is really useful and I had only been on the receiving end of them before.
  
• We seem to be getting a lot of hits on our facebook page, so I need to have a real think about how to make it better and work out how to add gadgets to it (I notice other Libraries have boxes for Copac and WorldCat searches on their Facebook pages - how does one do that?)
• Ideally, I would probably connect my Google Reader page through to iGoogle if they were set up for feeds I want in perpetuity, rather than just for 23 Things. I'd also want fewer gadgets - less clutter if I were using iGoogle every day. At the same time, I'd want to centre my web focus in one place, so I guess it would be a case of working out what I would actually use - something you can't know until you try. I worry with linking all the applications about privacy though, knowing that Googlemail reads what you write and targets the sidebar advertising in relation to it. One could end up putting pretty much all one's life out into the public domain without realising that way.
  
• I guess that means that realising how easy it can be to add gadgets to connect pages together has been the most useful lesson and the one I wish to investigate more in the workplace.

Thank you to the organisers of 23 Things for giving us this opportunity to explore with direction through the mass of web 2.0 technologies. But can anyone tell me how to use Twitter for the Library, PLEASE?

Thing 22

Thing 22

I have added the My Del.icio.us gadget to my iGoogle page, which then made me rearrange the layout of the page and also learn how to minimise some of the gadgets so I can see most of them at a glance without having to scroll them and can put the daily interest changing things like Optical Illusion of the Day, Word of the Day, Picture of the Day and Weather at the top and reference gadgets like Wikipedia, Trainline and Translate further down the screen so I can refer to them when I need them without them being in the way.

From Editor's Picks I added a Literary Quotation of the Day, which may or may not interest me depending on the kind of quotations that come up. Looking through the Library gadgets (for some reason the search term "Library" didn't bring anything up, "Libraries" did at the second attempt, despite some of them being called "Library x"), I can see a use for the Library Accounts management gadget and if I were in a school or public library, I would definitely add the Children's Book of the Day gadget. The Librarians' Book Revoogle provides access to book reviews written by Librarians, Library Staff and Users and could be useful, but is the kind of resource I'd want to go to when I wish to use it, rather than flash up new stuff everytime I log in which may not be relevant. I am Quite Tempted by the Libraries Photos gadget though...

I am amazed how many libraries have a gadget to connect through to their OPACS, mainly American. The Google Books gadget to create your own Library and reviews and get personalised recommendations is tempting, but I think another distraction. If I wanted to buy into the whole Google experience, it would be worth adding! I amused by the Escape the Library game.

Gave in and added the Libraries Photos gadget.

Thing 21

Thing 21

The end is in sight - hurrah!

It didn't look as if I'd remembered my Flickr name correctly from the Layout page, but when I viewed Blog, there were my four photos (two are the "improved" versions of the original). Not desperately exciting, I'm afraid. I didn't want a newsreel because I want to keep my blog uncluttered. I added a Twitter gadget instead, since that is part of the whole 23 Things experience and rearranged the layout so that the About Me was at the top (the idea being to keep the profile picture at the top, but Blogger seems to have lost it at the moment).

Thing 20

Thing 20

Well, this task took far longer than the brief description implied. I find it annoying that when you clicked the link to download the necessary Java application, it took you to a page with a whole load of option so you had to have remembered which one it was you were meant to be downloading. I got it wrong the first time, so have downloaded stuff I don't need. When I did get the right one, it took ages to download. Having downloaded it, getting ThinkFree to open me a new document took ages and is still catching up with itself, having allowed me to type three letters, but not delete them. It then keeps popping up as I write this and putting my words into ThinkFree instead. Bah humbug!

I successfully typed a document and fiddled with colours, fonts, sizes, borders, drop capitals etc. and just as I am finishing off, it crashes. I was impressed by the nearly Word standard of available fonts, but less impressed by the erratic nature of the application.

Uploading to My Office seemed straightforward enough - though I'm not sure that I'd bother. Currently trying to open a new note, but it is taking ages to do so. I can see that this is a fuller application than Google Docs, but as it takes so long to do anything, I find it too frustrating to use again, I think.

Having the templates is both useful and annoying for notes. I decided to use the book review, but couldn't find out how to fill in the fourth star to give a book a higher billing - neither fill nor font colour affected it. It also has a character limit for file names, which is annoying if the book you're reviewing has a long title!

Thing 19

Thing 19

It's such a relief to be up to date with this! Also that this week's tasks are not too time-consuming.

Google docs seem pretty straightforward. From a simple play, I find the lack of complex options actually helpful, but I suspect that if I was trying to produce something impressive and extensive for a real purpose, it's limitations would begin to frustrate me. I enjoyed being able to ask other participants the question that remains unanswered for me from 23 Things so far (i.e. What use is Twitter for libraries?) and sharing one of the poems from an anthology of one of our Old Members' poems. I made myself a presentation with three of the short poems in it. I was annoyed that centring both horizontally and vertically doesn't actually move the text to the centre of the slide, so I did it manually.

I have actually used the form function as a respondent many times and can see the use for sharing documents outside an organisation with a shared drive and for several people being able to edit the same document - prevents too many versions in circulation.

NB Why is Blogger being SO slow today?

Thing 18

Thing 18

The article on Wikipedia on itself was interesting, but I ran out of steam towards the end.... There were a couple of quotations that particularly tickled me, for different reasons:

"In June 2007, former president of the American Library Association Michael Gorman condemned Wikipedia, along with Google,^[93] stating that academics who endorse the use of Wikipedia are "the intellectual equivalent of a dietitian who recommends a steady diet of Big Macs with everything". He also said that "a generation of intellectual sluggards incapable of moving beyond the Internet" was being produced at universities."

and

"An English version, 2006 Wikipedia CD Selection, contained about 2,000 articles.^[134][135] The Polish version contains nearly 240,000 articles.^[136] There are also German versions.["

and I was intrigued by the subdivisions of subjects "biography, history, geography, society, culture, science, technology, foodstuffs, and mathematics" it aims to cover. I should have guessed, but hadn't thought about, that Africa wasn't really very well covered. There is a page for Juba, Sudan though, which I am pleased about, having been there, but wonder if I should get the friend there to contribute more to the page next time he's in the UK and has sufficient bandwidth.

I corrected a link on a friend's biography because the URL had changed when the website of his place of work changed. I also looked up HP Sauce as we had a discussion the other day about whether the fact that it had a picture of the Houses of Parliament on it and was called HP implied it had been concocted for the Houses of Parliament (answer, no, despite other people's suggestion to the contrary!). I also used Wikipedia earlier today to answer the challenge "If Robert Hardy's such a famous actor, what's he been in? Has he been in 'Spooks'?!" Amusingly, the answer to the second question is yes, but I found that out from IMDb.

I was quite surprised by the pointless vandalism of the Wikipedia on itself article revealed when one looked at the History and Discussion. I ca almost understand if one objects to something, but it just seemed random. Nowt so queer as folk, as they say.

Thing 17

Thing 17

Well, I tried to add Lincoln College Library to the Oxford Case Studies section of the Web 2.0 wiki and found that the "Easy-Edit" wasn't. I couldn't get it to allow me to write any text on the page, so ended up adding what I had to say to the thread instead. I see other people have managed it perfectly well, so I have no idea where I was going wrong!

Thing 16

Thing 16

I am not sure that I shall be a Twitter convert, but I suspect there is something about it that I am just not getting yet. I suspect I need to search it more for general subjects I am interested in and follow people who write about them to really understand how it works and what it is for.

I was pleased that someone I was following tweeted a link to an interesting article about the future of Libraries, given the current publishing model so that I could retweet it as something I actually wanted to share with other Librarians, rather than just to tick the box (though I originally knew it was there from her Facebook status!). I have also replied to a couple of tweets because I actually wanted to comment on them.

I can't quite imagine how I'd use Twitter for work, despite being asked about it in a job interview once. Again, this is probably part of the bit I have insufficient experience of to get. So far the best thing is the random quotations from Googlebooks!

Thing 15

Thing 15

Just reading through the Twitter terms of service makes me feel uncomfortable. So, they can reuse anything you write, but if anything bad happens because of what you write, that's your fault. I have heard of "crawling", but what, pray, is "scraping"?!

So, I have added a Bio, tweeted my sister and am following her, a Cambridge Librarian who was on my MA course with me (found via http://wefollow.com/twitter/librarian), another Oxford College Librarian (found via http://tweepml.org/100-British-Librarians-on-Twitter/) , Nuffield College Library, the Bodleian, Google Books and Stephen Fry. I replied to someone's tweet and posted my own about 23 Things. I have also added a photo to my profile. Where to next?

I am generally not too happy about Twitter...

Thing 14

Thing 14

I've tried to set up a profile on LinkedIn, having watched the video and read all the introductory stuff. I must admit to a certain suspicion about it and I didn't really want to put all that information out there. Unfortunately, I can't get any further until I get the confirmation email, so it will have to wait till tomorrow.

Thing 12

Thing 12

One of our students is in a band with her three sisters and they will be touring to Oxford shortly and she keeps sending me fan invitations on facebook. I said I wouldn't become a fan without seeing them, so she said they were on YouTube. This seemed an ideal opportunity, so I looked up one of their songs, then linked to their channel. They've had some nice comments. Maybe I will try to catch them when they play in Oxford!

Finding YouTube EDU was slightly trickier than the instructions implied, but I got there in the end. I'm surprised how few institutions are represented there. I am trying to watch a Cambridge University film called "The Music in Me", but it is taking ages to stream. Which is annoying as I actually really want to watch it, but I have got fed of getting 20 second snippets so am pausing it till it's caught up with itself. Grr.

I'm not going to do the extra things on this Thing because I don't want a YouTube account.

The Cambridge film is now in theory caught up with itself but has stuck at 2:30 and doesn't seem to want to let me past that point, no matter what I try. So I am more successfully enjoying the Ahmad Jamal Trio instead.

Thing 11

Thing 11

Podcasting in Plain English is very well constructed - I enjoyed it, though I am not sure it taught me anything I didn't already know.

From the BBC, I subscribed to The History of the World in 100 Objects and I am sad that I have missed so many episodes already. I have listened to the 15th February episode, which was the earliest that seemed to be available, but it seems the whole series has now appeared in my Google Reader account:-)

From Podcast.com, I listened to a couple of Alex Routledge tracks under Classical Music. I had never heard of him before. It was quite a nice discovery, but I think it's a bit too cheesy to subscribe to.

From the Oxford University podcasts, I chose an interview with Roger Crisp on Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, as I took the Nichomachean Ethics paper for Greats and enjoyed Dr Crisp's Utilitarianism lectures at Mods.. The first question made me snigger though - "What sort of questions arise in Ethics?" Also the fact that it sounds like he is described as "Hero, Fellow and Lecturer in Applied Ethics at St Anne's College". I assume it's actually the benefactor's name of the fellowship, but what I heard is much more entertaining....!

Thing 13

Thing 13

As I am still listening to the Waldstein, I am skipping ahead to Thing 13. I have actually used YouTube today and I'm happy that I can do Things 11 and 12 pretty quickly next Thursday, when I next have the opportunity to be in the office. So I am skipping ahead to Facebook, as I am pretty comfortable with this.

So, Lincoln Library has a fan page - must get it added to the Web 2.0 Directory. This was actually set up for us by one our students who had emailed us to ask for one and we didn't do anything about it, as the Librarian does not use Facebook and was concerned that if I left and she had a wait for a replacement, it would be yet another thing to update and maintain. (We are a two person Library). When the student left, he handed over the administration of the page to me. It contains some truly lovely photos of the Library and details of the term-time opening hours and links to our recently updated website, which now enables them to do anything they might need to or to find out how to do it (we hope). I'd like to be able to transfer some of this onto the facebook page, but I'm not sure how to go about it or whether it's worth the effort as I doubt once they've become fans that members actually look at the page and as notifications don't reach newsfeeds from fan pages, there's not much chance of them noticing if I do.

I would be keen to see what other Libraries' experience is though and to learn from them.

Thing 10

Thing 10

Oh dear. I'm starting to get really stressed about this. Having spent most of the afternoon on this, I'm still only just starting the next Thing from the one I'd already started three weeks ago. I'm never going to catch up or finish all the Things by 9th April. ARGHHHH! Have just been advised to listen to Betthoven's Waldstein Sonata because "it always puts things into perspective", so shall do so as I attempt this next thing...

I couldn't find how to send my bookmarks to anyone. I found the Network options at that point, but wasn't sure I wanted automatically to share any bookmarks I add with everyone on my network - after all, they may not want to see everything I add. However, Thing 10 demands I do just that, so here I go.

I tried at first just going to Oxford Libraries' Delicious pages and clicking "Add to my network", but that didn't seem to work. I then tried again using the method described in the 23 Things message and think I must just have missed when it asked me if I wanted to add that Library as it appears in grey at the top of the screen and doesn't really stick out. I tried to add an RSS feed for the Information Literacy tag in Angela Carritt's list, but it didn't seem able to add it to Google Reader and I've added it to Live Bookmarks instead, but I don't see how to see them on Delicious, so maybe I've misunderstood and that's yet another external application in which I'd have to set up an account and so I can't find it after all.

I feel like my experience with this side of things has been a bit hit or miss and that following instructions doesn't always help and sometimes that's because I'm not following them closely enough and sometimes it's not.

I can't use the Delicious Network Explorer as it would require me to install a plugin.

Thing 9

Thing 9

I set up my Delicious account about three weeks ago and found a very interesting article on what defines / underpins web 2.0 and bookmarked it with the ox23 tag. Then I am afraid 23 Things got lost under the pile of Everything Else. So today I have bookmarked my 23 Things blog, my allotment blog and two websites that I use most: www.virtualflowers.com and Amazon. Plus LOLcats for some humour, which I tagged with ox23 in the hope it will make others smile.

I looked through other ox23 tags and read a few blog posts about Library use of Facebook, but the only thing I actually felt like bookmarking was the link to the History of the World in 100 Objects page on iPlayer.

I find going through all these things to find things you wish to add so time-consuming. I had thought 23 Things would be something one could spend half an hour a week on, but it takes so much more than that, which is why I've got so behind and, frankly, a bit jaded. I want to de-clutter my life, not add clutter. The adding gadgets to my Google homepage seemed to me to be symptomatic of this. I feel like I have so many more things to keep checking - when is there meant to be time for actual work or really using these things we're being introduced to?

Thing 8

Thing 8

I have edited one of my photos using Picnik, but I'm pretty sure it looked better before!

Thing 7

Thing 7

I don't possess a digital camera, so had to borrow a colleague's to take a couple of photos to upload to Flickr. I have used Flickr quite often to view friends' photos, so I was familiar with it and the same is true of Picasa.

I did the extra things for this task and quite like the geolocator (once I'd actually worked out how to add the photo to the detailed map, rather than the world map!), but am uncomfortable with how much one could actually end up giving away about one's movements and location if one added this to all one's photos. I know I've chosen only to share it with friends and family, but it makes me more aware of quite how much one blithely gives away about oneself on the internet.

Thing 6

Thing 6

My first feed to subscribe to is Unshelved Answers. Connected with the Unshelved comic strip which brightens many of our inboxes each weekday morning, Unshelved Answers offers Library staff the world over an opportunity to pick each other's brains on topic as diverse as "What do I recommend to Twilight fans" to "Are there grants to pay for A/V machinery?".

I following a couple of other 23 Things blogs and may add others as we go along.

Thing 5

Thing 5

I already had a Google Reader account from an OULS introductory session a couple of years ago. This task gave me the opportunity to unsubscribe from lots of journals and ZETOC searches that I had set up for my Masters dissertation and no longer require.

Thing 4

Thing 4

I can't register my blog as the web page is too busy. Great start....

I am surprised by how much reservation is being expressed in the blogs I read. I thought more participants would be using more of this stuff regularly. I guess the people who use it a lot don't need to take part in the 23 Things program though. I am also aware that just plainly following instructions is going to make for a thoroughly unfollowable blog, but that the people who have gone off-road come over as a bit strange. Hmm.

Too many windows open - even with several tabs in use! It's getting unwieldy. And I wish the links in the 23 Things blog opened in a new window so you could refer back to the original blog more easily.

Thing 2

Thing 2

I found scrolling through all the possible templates and gadgets very tiring on the eyes and actually, I wouldn't choose to have that much cluttering my homepage. I like having a random picture though - cheers the place up! I Really like the E.M. Forster-esque template.

Gadgets: Art of the Day, Google Translate, Googlemail preview, Word of the Day, Google Map, Weather, Optical Illusion of the Day, Train Journey Planner. I've tried to use things that change, so are worth looking at more than occasionally and things I actually use and have always had to have added to my favourites i.e. weather, rail enquiries, maps.

Thing 1

Thing 1

The trickiest part of this was remembering my google login and password because they were set up for work purposes a few years ago and not used since! I thought I already had an iGoogle page, but it appeared not.

Thing 3

Thing 3

I am participating in 23 Things to learn more about what we can do as a Library to make more use of web 2.0 technology, if it is appropriate for our Library. As a two-person organisation, sometimes one between appointments, we don't want to commit ourselves to too many things to update. Most web 2.0 technology is only worthwhile if it is updated regularly, so this is a good way to experiment with what we can manage and what we can't and to find what might actually be used, rather than just jumping on the bandwagon of what is currently fashionable.

I regularly use facebook both socially and for work, though I am not yet sure what the use of our Library facebook page is. I share a blog for discussing the allotment I share with others, but don't follow other people's blogs, as a rule (life's too short!). I have never investigated Twitter, though I was recently asked what I thought about its use for Libraries. I used RSS feeds and online discussion groups when I was doing my MA course. For distance learning, the latter was really useful to feel connected to the other students, but I found the RSS feeds more of an annoyance than of use. Picasa and Flikr can be really useful for photo-sharing, but I find most people who used to share their photos this way now do so via facebook and that is how I would go about it. YouTube is a brilliant resource (and a fantastic time-waster!), but I'd never thought of it as having a work application, so I shall be interested to see what we discover on that front in week 6.