Thing 23 One Last Thing: Evaluation and Beyond

Thank you to Metronet, and all the multitype directors, for your leadership in developing and sponsoring 23 Things on a Stick. You've heard kudos from many participants, and I am joining that group.


Before starting the program, I had heard of most of the 23 things and thought I understood something about each of them. Working through the Things helped me to understand each one more fully and to see (in most cases) possible library applications. My favorite things were RSS feeds, productivity tools, and Library Thing. I will continue to use them.


As is always the case, being able to talk about the program with colleagues who also were working on the program was a key component of my learning. Though I was the slowest to complete the program, we all were working on it at roughly the same time, creating a community of learners. I learned a lot by reading my colleagues' blogs and talking with them about their ideas for using the Things here. I also appreciated their help and encouragement to keep moving and complete the program. I'm glad I did. When the next phase is ready in January, I will be an eager participant.

Thing 22 What did I learn today?

Keeping current has been a challenge for librarians for as long as I have worked in libraries. I'm willing to bet it has been a challenge for as long as libraries have existed. How could it be otherwise when the role of libraries is broad, the scope of knowledge is vast, the search is engaging, the service ethic is strong? Really who could ask for more?

Surely keeping up, in the sense of always being in a 'caught up' state, is an elusive, probably unattainable goal. Keeping up in the sense of remainining interested, curious, and willing to explore new ideas does seem possible and enjoyable, too. I'm never on the bleeding edge of change, but I try to work at staying somewhere within sight of the leading edge.

Some of the 23 Things will help me, especially RSS feeds. I often listen to Future Tense, an MPR program on technology issues, and find it useful. Newspaper columns on new technology are another helpful source of information. Talking with people on the bleeding edge helps, too. For me, the most important thing is to remind myself that the daily routine will take as much time as I allow it and that I need to carve out at least a little time to scan the horizon for new ideas and perspectives.

Thing 21 Beyond My Space: Other Social Networks

Exploring Gather was my first foray into the world of other social networks. Since I'm working on a project involving public library services to children at the moment, I checked for groups interested in that topic. I found several groups but little useful information or leads. In one case, I found photos of a trip to Shanghai, of interest to me since I spent a few days there on a trip to China, but nothing pertinent to my work.

On to WebJunction which looks much friendlier and more streamlined in its new version. I created an account, mostly because MLA's Legislative Committee will use WebJunction for discussion of this year's platform planks and other legislative issues. The Committee tried this approach last year, too, but it did not work well as several members (including me) could not seem to get in. This year the path is much easier, and I believe the effort will succeed.

Also checked out the 23 Things Ning where I noticed the photo of a member from West St. Paul, the city where I work. Turns out she is a school library media specialist in a nearby high school, someone I have not yet met. I sent a comment and hope she will respond. That would be a first for me, meeting someone local through a social network!

I was able to add a 23 Things badge to my Facebook page but have not yet succeeeded in adding one to my blog despite several efforts. It's time to turn to my colleagues for advice.

Thing 20 Facebook and MySpace

I spent a fair amount of time on Facebook, less on MySpace. I set up a Facebook page where my first two friends are my son and daughter-in-law who have pages much more developed and interesting than mine. It's clear they use their pages actively, adding friends, tracking their travels, listing details in their profiles about music and reading preferences. In fact, I learned a few things about them I had not known before! I joined two groups, ALA and 23 Things on a Stick. and wrote several messages on my daughter-in-law's wall.

On MySpace I took a brief cruise of the site and looked at library pages for Denver Public and Hennepin County. The number of book ads in the form of thank yous posted by authors on both sites surprised me.

Of these two social networking sites, Facebook is the one I'd be more likely to use.

Thing 19 Podcasts

I've been an occasional listener to podcasts from MPR and from Nancy Pearl. Checking the MPR site, I noticed a variety of podcasts on political topics, including one on creating a Fantasy Legislature, a most intriguing idea.

The On the Road with MINITEX podcasts were a real treat. The interviews with wonderful librarians like Tom Shaugnessy, Beth Kelly, and Sue Colten were well worth the time. Wise librarians all, they had fascinating and thought-provoking things to say about their careers and the library field.

I explored the Education Podcast Network where I checked podcasts listed under 'Information Skills.' What an odd group, ranging from Stephen Abram talking about roving reference, to a basic introduction to Survey Monkey, and a long list of best baby names. A very mixed bag indeed.

Thing 18 You Tube

OK, an explanation is in order. I searched YouTube for videos on the Southdale Library, hoping to find a video made by Edina High School students who came to the library on a Sunday morning (before opening) a couple years ago with elaborate equipment and an equally elaborate script. They had a great time and promised to give a copy of their video to the library. That never happened. Thinking it might have been posted on YouTube, I searched. It wasn't there, but I did find this amazingly odd video depicting a ride on the public elevator between the second and third floors. It's a short ride, and a short video, but it manages to convey how little there is to do in an elevator except stare at the walls and wait for the doors to open.

I watched Conan the Librarian and a couple library jokes, and checked GoogleVideo briefly, too. I also looked for instructional videos on how to fix a faucet, prepare a powerpoint, make ratatouille, and knit. Success! Suggesting YouTube as a source in response to how to... reference questions is something I definitely will try.

Thing 17 ELM Productivity Tools

What would we do without ELM? I think of it as the Minnesota Miracle for students of all ages and for adults, too, who have myriad interests to explore. Having a statewide set of resources, available to everyone through their school library media center or public library, is wonderful. I remember a sense of pure exhiliration when state support for ELM became part of the base funding formula. That eliminated the need to lobby during every budget year for continuing the ELM subscriptions and provided a sense of security that ELM was a permanent resource, recognized as valuable by the legislature.

I explored Web 2.0 options on EBSCOHost and set up a folder. I was unable to load the QuickTime video with instructions for creating a web page but forged ahead on my own. Seemed to work out OK.

The challenges available with Thing 17 all look worth exploring, and I'll plan to come back to them later.

Thing 16 Assignment and Research Project Calculators

These are extremely useful and helpful tools. I've seen both before and appreciated their value for students. Parents, too, would benefit from knowing about these as a way to help their students plan a step-by-step approach to organizing the work needed to complete an assignment well and on time. As the mother of adult children who once were students, I would have loved an ally that set target dates and task lists, a sort of neutral third party to spur students forward in their work. They'd be useful for school visits, too, both visits with students and with teachers.

In response to the second question, I can imagine using these in my own work. Example: I'll be working with our children's librarians to explore service guidelines, best practices, and benchmarks. To prepare, I'll want to do some background reading first as a way of becoming more familiar with current thinking about children's services. Using the RPC which has a Library Science category is worth a try.

Thing 15 Libraries and Games

I've heard Michael Stephens' presentation on Library 2.0, including his extensive and enthusiastic comments about Second Life, so I was eager to explore that virtual world.

My work computer will not support a membership, so I confined myself to exploring numerous links on the site. I remember hearing that there was a flourishing economy of SL and found a whole raft of postings for Second Life jobs with detailed job descriptions and application requirements. None listed salary ranges. After finding a reference to Linden dollars on another SL link, I wonder if that's how staff are paid. I also discovered a column with the startling (to me) news that the Electric Sheep Company and Edelman PR, among others, were making a real (as well as a virtual) living on SL. The economic statistics page listed virtual land sales, resident transactions in Linden dollars, and also population statistics.

By contrast, I was surprised to note that a Victorian neighborhood in SL had a 19th century library and that the Land of Lincoln, a SL teen grid, is set in the 1850s and 1860s. Quite a mix of period nostalgia and current technology. I noticed that the Alliance Library System has done extensive work on SL, and found a long list of libraries that have some kind of a presence on SL. Because I could not join, I was unable to visit Info Island and learn about library services there.

What does it all mean? What is the organizing principle? Perhaps it is simply life with all its complexity adapting to a new dimension.

My experience with Puzzle Pirates was puzzling. I made an avatar, started an adventure, and found that I simply do not know how to fight with swords. Nor do I want to learn, so I will leave that to others.

The recent debate about reading, and especially whether the type of reading needed for gaming is different from that needed to read books is of great interest. I'll continue to follow that carefully.

Thing 14 Library Thing

I first heard about Library Thing from a colleague at Hennepin County Library in 2004. She used it as a reader's advisory tool at work and demonstrated it at a Readers' Advisory Roundtable meeting. When I checked today, I discovered that she has almost 900 books in her library, an impressive total. And she has published three reviews as an Early Reviewer.

I set up a very small (ten titles) library as a starting point, explored the various groups, read reviews, and checked out the FAQ for Library Thing Early Reviewers. The concept of bidding to review a book intrigued me although I noticed that the number of people who want to review titles vastly outnumbers the number of titles available.

Library Thing is an ideal tool for libraries to use in sharing book news with customers. Categorizing titles by format, audience, appeal factors, classics, accelerated readers, the list is endless. On a personal level, I will use Library Thing as the 'next gen' version of my trusty reading journal which superseded boxes of scrap catalog cards I used to use as my reading record.

Thing 13 Productivity Tools

Exploring this wide range of tools was instructive and fun. With its endless options (weather, YouTube, music, art...), setting up a homepage on Google was the most enjoyable. The first pass took just a couple minutes, and I already had more information on the page than I'd be likely to use regularly. After some deletions, I saved the page and will try using it for a while to see whether it is useful. Will it be a permanent homepage? Time will tell.

When I got to the calendars, I wanted to try Kiko because the evaluation in Wired was so favorable, but it would not load. I noticed comments from others who had the same experience.

The project management tools (Basecamp, Zoho Projects) looked appealing. I wish I had known about them a couple months ago when I was searching for a simple, clear project management template to track outreach efforts at the library. Though I did not sign up for an account, I'll keep these tools in mind for future projects. I also liked Backpack which would be used to keep standard answers to common questions and talking points about library projects in a single spot, accessible to everyone on staff.

Thing 12 Social Media Sites

I've noticed icons for social media sites on various websites, idly wondered what they meant, and moved on. Now I know what they are and how the sites work. I explored each one, noting that the story about Morgan Freeman's accident appeared among the most popular on all four, Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, and Mixx. Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn is big news at my library this week, so I expected to find lots of articles. Turns out Mixx had a bunch, Reddit and Digg had none, and Newsvine was still searching when I gave up.

Always drawn to the odd story and quirky news items, I was interested to read about the Ohio inmate suing the state on the grounds that he is too fat for execution. He contends that the lethal injection drugs would not work properly because of his weight. Now there's a story I'd like to follow. Today the Ohio Attorney General's Office had no comment as they had not yet seen the suit.

I finished my tour by sharing a New York Times article via delicious. I doubt that I will spend much time on these sites. RSS feeds from sites I know will be of interest have a bigger claim on my time.

Thing 11 Tagging and Delicious

News flash! Forget about the odd punctuation you learned to find del.icio.us on the web. Just yesterday, 7/31/08, the new address is simply delicious.com. According to the What's New page, the plethora of variations on the earlier version finally persuaded the designers to remove punctuation from the name entirely, a good move, I think.

Being able to bookmark sites and access them from any computer is a fine feature, one that is attractive enough to persuade me to try it. With one exception, the library applications I looked seemed OK but not great. The exception: San Mateo Public Library which bundles tags within Dewey ranges, allowing the user to search for tags or by Dewey.

On my own delicious account, I bookmarked travel sites for Hangzhou, China. One of them was bookmarked by 35 other people, some of whom had added notes. Seems like clutter to me though I can imagine using delicious as a tool for environmental scanning. Just knowing which sites have been bookmarked by the most people could indicate issues and topics of timely and broad interest.

Thing 10 Wikis

Reading the various library wikis was instructive. Creating subject guides and using a wiki as a web presence both struck me as useful ways for libraries to use this format. Less useful was a library wiki for a policy/procedure manual where all staff were allowed to edit. While this approach is democratic and probably a good vehicle to gather staff comments about policies and procedures, I wondered how a new staff member could use the wiki to learn the library's policy on any particular topic. Who has the final word?

For years, teachers have told students not to use encyclopedias for their reports, or at least not to use them as the sole source for information. The contemporary version of this advice is to avoid wikipedia. Just as print encylopedias provide a useful starting point for beginning researchers, wikipedia serves the same function in the online world. Wikipedia often does a better job of covering technology topics and celebrities of current importance in popular culture. Example: when I was looking for information on nings, wikipedia was my first source, and a very useful one.

Teaching K-12 students, and their teachers, to use and evaluate multiple sources of information, including wikipedia, is a role, and important one, for school library media specialists. Public librarians can help by reinforcing information literacy skills and helping students find multiple resources on their topic.

Thing 9 Collaboration

Google Docs looks easy to use and useful. I have been working on a draft RFP, planning to send it as an e-mail attachment to a colleague for comment. Instead, I uploaded the documet to Google Docs and invited her to collaborate with me in editing the RFP. If this works, I'll be a convert.

As others mentioned, I, too, am unable to edit the historical document in Google Docs or Zoho Writer. I'll take it on faith that editing is possible and move on.

Thing 8 Share Your Slides, Photos, or Presentation Slides

Another challenge here! Since I have few photos, I created an album of pictures from the library's Summer Reading Program Kick-off, held on the library's lovely lawn and featuring Bill the Juggler, a favorite performer who has been entertaining and engaging kids for years. If only the quality of the photo album matched the quality of the performer! I had several frustrations with this project. One, I could not find cropping tools on PictureTrail. Two, adding captions to the photos resulted in a gray band across the bottom of each photo, and I could not figure out how to fix that. Third, my blog layout did not accommodate the photo album as a sidebar (insufficient space for display). And, finally, fourth, posting the album within a blog post caused everything to freeze. This happened late on a Friday afternoon. I logged out, grateful to have a weekend free of blogging. Today I will try to overcome these frustrations by experimenting with other layouts.

Thing 7 Web 2.0 Communication Tools

My history with e-mail started years ago when my supervisor at the Department of Corrections insisted that the staff use e-mail every day. He made sure we did, too, by sending a message early in the morning and watching for a reply. If he didn't get a response within an hour or so, he'd follow up with a personal visit. "Haven't you checked your e-mail yet?' That was annoying at the time, but effective. What seemed like an interruption in the work day then has become an essential tool although overhwhelming at times. It was worth reading the tips for managing e-mail as a good reminder of how to make a familiar tool work for you.

I don't use IM personally, but I've had a little experience with IM reference. Its popularity, ease of access, and speed make it an appealing tool for the delivery of reference services. From the staff side, it seems far easier than the 'Cadillac' web chat software from vendors like Tutor.com. That software, while robust and full-featured, requires staff to learn extensive protocols for communication, file-sharing, and pushing web pages to customers' desktops. It's a fairly steep learning curve. IM seems easier.

Thing 6 Online Image Generator

Although I have nothing to show for my explorations, I had fun with this one, making a series of librarian trading cards, customizing license plate designs with library lingo, and creating buttons. In fact I was having so much fun that I kept moving from one project to another without posting any of them to my blog. This Thing has generated some conversations here about ways to use these tools at the library. Making trading cards for readers' advisory (with a series for a variety of fiction genres or graphic novels) is an idea worth exploring.

Thing 5 More Fun with Flickr

El Dia Puzzle, originally uploaded by gildedgiraffe.

More fun with Flickr? Well...here we have (and in more ways than one)....a puzzle! It serves as an example of a mashup, and I will take it after several frustrating expereinces in trying to create something--anything--from the list of possible mashups on the 23 Things site. The puzzle won the day because the instructions were easy to find, clearly written, and easy to follow.

Thing 4 Flickr

Wentworth 1 008, originally uploaded by gildedgiraffe.

Exploring Flickr was the easy and fun part of Thing 4. Moving this photo from the Dakota County Library website to my blog was frustrating. I read directions, both those posted on the 23 Things page and some provided by a colleague. While the directions seemed clear, I was not successful until another colleague stepped my through the process. Once again, I'm reminded of how important it is to have knowledgable colleagues who are willing to help.

A note about the photo itself.. This was the scene at the Wentworth Library on Friday, October 12, 2007, at 5 p.m. After weeks of preparation to move to a temporary location while the library was remodeled, the information desk was cleared and ready for demolition. Only when the desk was empty did we notice how shabby the desk looked after 15 years of use. The library closed 30 mintues later. When we returned three months later, a new and much more elegant desk was in place.

Thing 3 RSS Feeds

Alhough RSS feeds are not entirely new to me, using Google Reader to select and organize feeds from news and library sites seemed exceptionally easy to do. In a burst of enthusiasm, I selected more feeds than I'll be able to read or even scan quickly in a day. My plan is to work with the current selections for a week or so, then revise the list based on that experience. Having now completed the first three of the 23 Things, I have finished 13% of the program. Onward!

Thing 2 What is Web 2.0?

Having a colleague who is forging ahead with her 23 Things (already on Thing 4!) serves as a useful prod to my own exploration. Library 2.0 is the topic for today. I've heard Stephen Abram speak before about Library 2.0. His enthusiasm for the various technologies remains strong, but I was struck today by his comments on the importance of experiential learning and on time for reflection. This is an important point. Carving out time to work at the computer on each Thing is the easy part. It's a good way to build technical skills. However, applying those skills in a way that benefits library customers cannot be done as a solo enterprise. Time to reflect think and explore ideas with colleagues is essential, and that kind of time is tough to find.

Thing 1 Set Up Blog

After a couple false starts, I've created a first blog, Thing 1 of the 23 Things on a Stick. Working on this in my office where interruptions are few worked much better than my initial attempt to set up the blog at the desk. Two colleagues are just starting 23 Things on a Stick, too; we'll be the summer cohort at the library. Two other colleagues completed the progam during the first round and have offered to help those of us who are just beginning. It feels as if we are establishing a vital learning community here.