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 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.