Thing #13 - Online Productivity Tools

After playing around in iGoogle, PageFlakes, and MyYahoo, I decided to go with iGoogle. I like the simplicity of its look. Even though I have a Yahoo e-mail account, I found the ads really distracting! Google is so much more peaceful. :-)
I added a few widgets: I have the calendar and Google Reader on my home page. I will use this at home, but not at work. When I'm at school, I use the school's Web site as my home page. When I'm at the public library, the LARL Website is our home page. I signed up for the Ta-Da List and created my first list - I don't know how much I'll actually use this, but if you're into making lists, I guess this would be a good tool. I took a look at the Backpack - that was very cool, especially to use with coworkers. We already have intranets at my workplaces, but I was impressed with the Backpack. Zamzar looks like a great tool - there sure have been times when I could have used this but didn't know about it. I'm glad I know now. Of course, the free version is pretty limited, but I think it would have worked for me on those occasions when I needed it. I looked at Sticky Notes - that's not for me. I also tried to add the countdown widget to this blog but each time I tried it got an illegal operation message. I'll try again on another computer...

Thing #12 - Do You Digg

No, I don't. But I Mixx. I looked at each of the sites and liked Mixx the best - I just liked the way it was set up. The categories (popular, news, entertainment, tech, etc.) made it feel easier to use. I read an article on the NYTimes Web site and shared it on Mixx - it was an article about health insurance, a topic that becomes more important to me as my husband and I consider retirement before we can qualify for Medicare. Yikes! Anyway, it was very easy to sign up and to share.
But the question remains: how could I use these tools in my library or at home?? I am no newshound and I refuse to listen to talk radio or television and I generally don't care much for reality TV shows - am I totally out of step with the world? And really, should I care about how much karma I've accumulated? There are only 24 hours in a day and I don't really want to spend any more of them staring at a computer screen than I have to, so I don't expect to be making much use of my Mixx account (but we'll see). All I can say is that I've only checked my GoogleReader account twice since I signed up - I'm afraid of how much is there now! I cannot imagine this being anything but a productivity detractor. Yes, I read the comment about how librarians should be on top of the popular topics because people will come to the library wanting more information. Wouldn't it be something if we had enough staff to be able to spend the time on these social media sites preparing to offer more our customers more information - this is not the world I live in.

Thing #11 - Tagging & De.li.cious

This is something I started last year, but never really did much with it. I work part-time at school and part-time at the public library, and I always thought it would be great to be able to have ALL of my bookmarks at each workplace - and this is great for that. I have added just a few bookmarks so far, but hope to get lots more included soon. I've tagged a few of my blog entries. And I can see where it becomes really important to tag photos on Flickr. I explored the Minn23 De.li.cious account and discovered a great new game: Babble. This is the fun part of social bookmarking - you start off looking at one thing and it leads to to something completely new or different
At my school library, I have bookmarks on my homepage, but I've tried to be careful about limiting the number so that students don't have to scroll to see them. This would certainly be a great way for me to lead them to many more good sites. I looked at the public libraries' pages and found it interesting that Menasha Pub. Lib. has theirs organized by subject and the San Mateo Library actually organizes them by Dewey numbers; the Seldovia Library simply arranges them in an alphabetical list. So much to think about! Hmm.

Thing #10 - Wikis

First off, the Commoncraft video was very helpful - aren't they always? I think wikis are wonderful!! I hope this makes up for my bah humbug attitude about GoogleDocs and Zoho. This is truly a simple way to collaborate. I saw some interesting school library wikis. I'm considering using a wiki now for my upper elementary students to post their recommended books. The only possible drawback to wikis is (and I don't really consider this a drawback) that anyone taking information from a wiki needs to understand that it has to be evaluated just like any other information source. So do I think teachers should ban Wikipedia as a source for student research? I don't know. For sure, any info should be corroborated. Hey, we read books that have errors, don't we? Just because something's printed in a book that doesn't make it true. Yes, I know... at least with a book there is editorial oversight. But we should always be reminding our students: buyer beware! They need to be taught to evaluate all information. So Wikipedia would be one source, but absolutley not the only source. I added my two bits to the 23 Things on a Stick wiki.

Thing # 9 - Online Collaboration Tools

I believe I have successfully edited the Declaration of Independence using both Zoho and GoogleDocs. It was not a pleasant experience and I'm not sure why I would ever want to use these tools. I think a Wiki would be better. Maybe I just wasn't using it correctly, but all I could do was write my revision outside of the document itself - what's the point of that??? I didn't find one easier to use than the other - just plain didn't care for either one. There, I said it.

Thing #8 Share Your Creations

Okay, I wimped out and took the quickest, easiest task. I did look at all of the tools and they are incredible - like, no Powerpoint? No problem! Who'd a thought?! And the eFolios look like THE way to go. I'm just trying to get through as many of the 23 Things as I can before our deadline. I definitely plan to share what I've learned about these tools with my coworkers (hopefully they'll be impressed). There are plenty of ways that teachers and students could make use of the tools and I think the kids would have a blast playing with them.

Thing # 7 Web 2.0 Communication Tools

I use e-mail at school to communicate with the rest of the staff. Sometimes, if I need to be sure that the message is received right away, I'll call on the phone, but otherwise e-mail is the preferred method of communication. I could use e-mail to send overdues out, but I haven't tried that, mainly because I don't have addresses for our students. Managing e-mail is always a challenge. I like to keep my inbox clean - if I have to scroll to see everything, there's too much! I empty the sent folder and the trash at least once a day.
Online reference - this isn't something that I would do at my school, but I know it's been used at public libraries and college/university libraries, using IM. I've also seen it done more simply, just using e-mail. I would have trouble with IM because it takes me too long to type and that would be frustrating to me (although if I did lots of it, no doubt my typing would improve).
Personally, I don't care to text or chat. For one thing, I'm too cheap to pay for texting. I visited with my 26 year old son about these tools and asked him how and why he uses them. He told me he texts sometimes because he has bad reception inside his home - also, he uses it when he doesn't REALLY want to talk to the person receiving his message. He said he doesn't use IM much anymore (did when he was in college) but he knows some offices that rely on it - rather than calling each other on the phone, (and when they need something that provides faster interaction than e-mail) employees use IM. I would be more likely to pick up the phone, but I can definitely see how this could work, too.
I've registered for a MINITEX Webinar next week on the Discovering Collection. I recently participated in a Webinar on the newest update to my library management program. I can't say that I enjoyed it - the presenter really moved too quickly through too much information - I know she had only so much time to cover the information, but to me it was almost overwhelming. Participants had the opportunity to send in questions, which were then dealt with by the presenter. Let's put it this way: it was better than nothing, but definitely not as good as a live training session would have been. Also, I had numerous distractions (people coming into the library) while I was trying to listen to the Webinar. There are certainly challenges to planning good webinars. When they are done well, however, they can be real time and money savers.