Thing 10 or So What if I Didn't Finish Until Today

Ok, admit it - I am not alone in finishing today, November 30, the last day in which to earn the Best Buy certificate. Many of you join me in this great accomplishment. The big questions are
- what will you do now that you have finished???
- will you forget everything in the time it takes you to spend your Best Buy gift card?
- will you continue to blog?
- will you create new content for the SPL website or wiki?
- will you share these technologies with other staff and/or patrons?
I look forward to utilizing many of the "Things" and sharing them with patrons. I will consider other ways of sharing information with colleagues and patrons. I will continually look for more effecient ways of sharing the SPL resources with patrons and the community at large. In looking at the web presence for several Libraries, I found a number of things we can learn from and/or try to incorporate on the SPL site. For example, the St. Charles (IL) Library lists their Monthly Staff Reads on their RS page which we could easily do since we discuss them at our monthly meetings. We can get programming ideas from other Libraries such as Ann Arbor which has a very active young adult community. We can experiment with "Tag Searches" on the Westerville, Ohio catalog and see if we think this could be beneficial at SPL. I could go on and on, but instead I am going to revisit many of the "Things" and try the Bonus opportunities as well. Let's see what this will lead to next...

Addendum to Thing 9

Naturally, when I looked at the "File" options in Google Docs I saw the option to rename (which I did).

Prior to creating "My First Google Doc", I discovered many very useful applications while perusing the vast Google Products. I especially like the Google Calendar features. I was so impressed with it that I even told my son about it and he is now very eager to set up his calendar online as well. A big thank you to TheSkokieTen crew for all of your hard work in educating everyone on the newest technologies and how they routinely impact us. While I was familiar with many of the "10 Things", I had minimal hands on experience so I really appreciate learning about all of these "Things", in particular, the productivity tools.

Thing 9 aka My First Google Document

So here I am, creating my first document in Google Docs. It has an interesting look to it - sort of a cross between MS Word and Outlook. Overall, it seems to be fairly user friendly with many shortcut keys for formatting. Since I didn't see a spell check button, I intentionally misspelled words to see if they would be recognized as such, but they were not. Eventually I did spot the spell check so at least now I know that I have that to fall back on when I want to see if my fingers spell words diffrently than my brain. I like the fact that I can post this to my blog so I am able to multitask. I also like that there is an auto save feature, but I don't like that it automatically names the document. Since this is my first time in Google Docs, I don't know yet if I have the option to change the document name. But I will find out soon enough - now that I have said all that there is to say on trying Google Docs.

Thing 8

Well, contributing to a wiki was certainly a new experience for me. Viewing wikis, however, is pretty commonplace though. I often look things up on Wikipedia because it is seemingly all encompassing. The external links are good options for pursuing the subject further and/or verifying the content. I have had great success with bibliographies and discographies for authors and musicians who do not have their own website or those who don't update theirs on a timely basis. I would share more about my wiki experience, but I think I need to edit my wiki post a bit...

Thing 7

While most of my "things" have gone pretty smoothly, podcasting was a little frustrating. While some of this may have been due to my trying to find the perfect podcast that would truly enlighten and/or entertain me, I also find fault with many of the sites I visited that were not updated. After finally finding podcasts of interest, I discovered that many of them were no longer accessible. That said, I continued my search even more determined (and annoyed) until I found A Conversation with Author Sue Monk Kidd (2/7/2006) through the Library Success Wiki. I have since found other podcasts that I would enjoy including a regular news feature that I usually only hear about half of because it airs while I am in the shower. I heard the announcer mention on the radio this morning that WBBM offers a number of podcasts. Now, I can go back and listen to the reports I missed, so, overall this has been a good experience. I think this can be a helpful tool on the desk when a patron asks for a book that s/he heard mentioned on the radio and remembers only vague (at best!) information on the author and/or title. Since the patron usually remembers the radio station, we might be able to find a podcast of the original radio report. Getting closer to finishing all of my "things"...

Thing 6 or, more importantly, Chocolate!

Who wants to read about Thing 6 when they can read about chocolate instead? (unless you are among the less fortunate people who can't have chocolate for medical or other reasons) As I sat here in the early-mid afternoon trying to think of a relevant website that could potentially benefit myself and other staff members, I couldn't help but think of chocolate. Ok, so that's a pretty routine thought on my mind, but that doesn't mean that others couldn't/wouldn't also benefit from my chocoholic mind. What if you are getting a little tired right about now and what a difference a little jolt of chocolate could make... What if you just had a less than pleasant encounter with a patron - just thinking about chocolate could make you feel better... What if you (like me) are still contemplating what dessert to make for Thanksgiving... Try going to the Hershey's Kitchens website http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/home.asp and see what grabs you. It is a tried and true site for me. I even used some of these recipes in the middle school cooking class that I taught. So, going back to Thing 6, the official subject of this post, I found del.icio.us to be an interesting site that can be very useful for collecting threads of similar ideas. Chocolate is probably the best tag for Library and any other users. Especially since this was easy to navigate, I could see myself using it especially when I am looking for a potentially broad range of ideas. In the meantime, I'll keep thinking about chocolate while I ponder Thing 7.

Chick Lit and beyond...

Chick Lit and beyond...
Originally uploaded by theskokieten

This is sure to be a popular display, but it could almost look bland from a distance. Do we need more pink? Also seems to be lacking the requisite Manolo Blahnik, etc. shoes on the covers. Oh my - what are we to do???

Thing 5

Ok, so I may have looked a little strange taking pictures in the Library today, but I probably look strange every day. My appreciation for the 10 Things continues to grow as I continue to find more applications I can use professionally and personally. However, I am now on to Social Bookmarking (I never knew bookmarks were social!)...

Thing 4

Ok, so now I have seen MySpace and Facebook. I don't know that I see myself using them for social networking but I can understand the appeal for others. I did like the "Groups" features in MySpace and could definitely see myself reading and contributing to some of them regularly such as the "what r u reading" ones. I haven't found any groups in Facebook that are of interest so far, but I will check periodically in addition to checking out some of the other social networking sites. But now, I am on to Thing 5...

Thing 3

After a minor glitch to start, Steven and I were very successful with our IMing - including using a URL. I have IMed in the past through AOL, but I hadn't used it much because I have this compulsion to type perfectly which means I end up going back and fixing my typos. Many IMers don't have the patience to wait for me to respond after I have verified the accuracy of my message. I am working on this compulsion and trying to overlook my minor mistakes and also improve my typing! Now it's on to Thing 4...

Thing 2

While I already receive email notifications from various news sources such as the Chicago Tribune, I never thought about getting RSS feeds until now. I enjoyed browsing just a tiny sampling of the vast array of options and can see the many benefits of using a feed reader to collate and organize the variety of subscriptions I have. I look forward to adding even more when I finish my "10 Things". I am open to suggestions if you have any subscriptions you can't live without. On to Thing 3...

My First Blog

Being relatively shy, I never thought about having my own blog. Of course, now I am going to have to start being creative so that you will want to read and post to my blog. Who is willing to be the first to post? "Talk" to you soon...