Thing 23 - My journey through 23 things

What a journey! or is it a beginning of wonderful lifelong discovery?

I have learned so much in the past few weeks, it reminded me how much I enjoyed and missed learning, especially the new technologies in that wild wild digital world. Of all the web 2.0 technology we learned, libraries are positioned to take advantage of every single one to expand our area of expertise and grow our profession. In reality, HCL has already utilized many to meet our customers and communities in the cyberspace: RSS feeds, tagging, downloadable audio books, desknow and other open source technologies, etc. So my favorites are many, though some of which have similar functions. I certainly will maintain, improve and expand on my current Blog, use tagging and my Del.icio.us social bookmarking tool to share ideas with others, check in on my RSS, using my MP3 player with audio books, podcasts, etc. I could use Rollyo to help someone who has special interest in one subject area. And I believe among all 23 things, Library thing will be most often used among staff for readers' advisory, etc. I will explore the possibility with John, of working with teens in our teen club to make photo albums with Flickr, or podcasting with podcast, or video clips with YouTube. And last but not the least, MERLIN - a local library professional information network, will be an essential tool to help me stay current.

It's overwhelming! The challenge remains to be the same - too little time, too many "things" to do. If there is any disappointment with this training program, it has to be time constraint, especially for me who've really enjoyed the exploring and learning experience. I was fascinated by all sorts of new discoveries and get carried away. Thanks to John - the web-wiz, who came to the rescue many times when I was stuck somewhere along the way. So polling resources, learning from my colleagues, and to separate the irrelevant from resources of real value are vital in handling the amount of information out there - the very same reason that librarianship or it's metamorphosis will sustain. If a similar discovery program is offered in the future, I would definitely participate. But hopefully, we would be given sufficient time to explore. Secondly, even though this is a self learning program which differs from a structured training, some staff would really appreciate more hand-holding at the beginning of each exercise, given everyone is not on the same starting line.

Journey through 23things has been a humbling experience for me - a tech savvy person years ago. I realized how far I've left behind. In today's world, technology advances at the speed of light, people's learning and information gathering behaviors are changing, and the libraries are evolving along with the advances. To stay relevant, we as a profession need to keep learning and discovering. I am thankful that 23 things gave me a chance to catch up and my blog is the jumping board to the fascinating web 2.0/library 2.0 world.

To close this posting, not the "things", you see, I'd like to show you a YouTube video of Jeff Han's multi-touch computer screen first made public in August, 2006. Oh! the wonderful cyberspaces we will go!



This is a latest demo on Perspective Pixel's website made in Jan. 2007.

Thing 21 - Discover podcasts

Podcasting, for short, is a technology that allows you to post audio files on the Internet. The examples of how libraries use this technology given on 23things website are terrific and thought provoking. We could make podcasts for our summer reading booktalks, children's and adult classes, author events, spelling bees, etc. The customers can get to them at their convenience. After a quick search on Podcast.net, I found The Calmcast. It features relaxing music, bird song and the sounds of nature to help you unwind. I have really enjoyed listening to it and decided to add the RSS feed to my bloglines account, and will come back visiting often.

Thing 20 - Discover YouTube

Oh! I finally made myself get out of it. This is addictive. YouTube makes posting, downloading and sharing videos easy and fast. I found pieces from 3D Morphable Model Face Animation to 3D Medical Animation of Childbirth. You can find information for teaching, learning, self help, entertaining, you name it. It's not a surprise YouTube has become a social phenomena. I found an awesome piece done by University of Minnesota entitled: Moebius Transformations Revealed. Enjoy!



Here is another one I am amazed by - Creation



As for utilizing this technology for libraries, why don't we try to make a YouTube video for Summer Reading booktalks or some of the A+ presentations?

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 awards list

Wow! the enchanted world of web 2.0! For the sake of saving time, I'm choosing Flickr since I already have an account, plus the fact I didn't spend enough time to explore it when I did thing 5 and honestly, it' s just so much fun playing with it! Flickr is really easy to use and dynamic. I had no trouble down load some pictures on my homepage, made my own icon from Meez. Knowing how the safety features work, I will make very good use of it. As for the library, a Flickr account to store all of our event photos may not be a bad idea.

Thing 18 - Online productivity tools

Well, I like the idea of online web-based applications. It's a convenient and efficient way to share documents in group projects, committees, task forces, etc. Personally, I'm just happy not to worries about compatibilities and to carry disks or flush drives. Not sure if this is a good idea for classified or sensitive docs, though. Let's try to insert a photo from the web and upload this entire doc to my blog.

My first Zoho Doc

I did it! The entire post above is imported from my Zoho account. Wish I have time for more.

Thing 16 & 17 - Wikis and Learning 2.0 Sandbox

The first time I heard about Wiki is at "Computers in Libraries" annual conference in Washington D. C. two year ago. I understood what it is and how it works but have never really studies it, beside occasional use of Wikipedia to help with reference questions, with caution, of course. As a social software, Wiki has democratized the process of designing a website. It allows anyone the ability to take part in the creation and editing of web content, thus providing an outstanding platform for collaborative work. As for public wikis, I still have some reservation due to the possibility of vandalism and spam. A look at the message on"Library 2.0 in 15 Minutes a Day" - a page of the Oregon Librarian Instruction wiki by Sam Wallin, validated my concern. Nonetheless, as previously stated, I found Wiki a valuable resource for internal information sharing, such as meeting agendas, documents and files, conference programs, etc.; certainly a great platform for bookclub members to discuss and share their thoughts and ideas; and can be a helpful learning tool. I found a HTML Wiki site, seemed like a great refresher for HTML coding and added it to my del.icio.us account.

When I get to the sandbox to play, the PB Wiki Tour is down. The Sandbox was fun to play with. I was able to create an new page and added this blog to the Favorite Blogs page. I can't "play" any more knowing I have more "things" to do. Will be back though!

Things 15 - Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries

The suggested YouTube video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" by Michael Wesch fascinated me. But it could be somewhat fast for those who are never exposed to HTML. I spent a little bit more time playing around the related videos listed on the right column and found the following video by Utechtips which, I think, is easier to understand. Take a look for yourself!



Library 2.0, to describe loosely, means Web 2.0 technologies, concepts and philosophies adapted to the Library world. A few years ago on our staff day, one of the group discussion topics is on the subject of future libraries. We had strong believes that books will never disappear, but along the journey of 23things, I am not that sure anymore. "Technology" comes at your fast! A decade ago I was able to use HTML to create my first personal website and showed it off to my colleagues, and since then, unaware I have been left behind. Thanks to 23things I was able to catch up, more accurately, start to catch up, with web 2.0 technologies. At the speed and direction we are going, the future libraries will not be confined in a physical location, they will be everywhere, barrier-free, and participatory. They will provide digital downloads of books; globally accessible catalog and invite readers' tags and comments; services that tailor information to specific needs and that develop participatory relationships with customers. There will be virtual librarians or librarian avatars helping customers organize, annotate and compare information from a variety of useful resources. We will be working in the virtual world as much as, is not more than, the traditional library we work in now. The best way to prepare ourselves for the future libraries is to adapt to user needs and to learn as technologies evolve, and make ourselves relevant to the community we serve. 23things training program just gave us a perfect opportunity to do that.