Thing 13

Well, I finally got around to Thing 13. Although I'd explored LibraryThing before, I had never created my own account. It is kind of addictive, and I can see how you'd sit down by your bookshelf and type them all in.

The tour mentioned widgets, and I wondered if we used this for new books in the library, could we then have a widget of new titles on our website?


--Jeannie

Thing 15

I wish there was a way we could easily try Twitter. I know people who Twitter, but I just don't get the attraction. It seems like a waste of time to me.

--Jeannie

Thing 14

I have used Yahoo (dilgerh) and AIM (JeannieLibrarian) to IM, but I didn't have a GoogleTalk account, so I set one up. I am JeannieLibrarian, in case anyone wants to find me.

I personally LOVE IM for communicating quickly with colleagues in other parts of the building. I am hoping more staff start using GoogleTalk and signing on all the time.

I have used Meebo, but I'm not terribly fond of it, because I always seem to miss messages when they come in. Someone suggested another aggregator, Trillian? Trillium? Maybe I should try that.

--Jeannie

Thing 13

I don't have any books handy here in my office, so I'm going to skip this one and come back to it.

Thing 12

I have used Delicious before. When I was moving to Chicago, I created a whole bunch of bookmarks for job hunting sites. It made it convenient to go back weekly and check for new job postings. Since then, however, I haven't really used Delicious.

I don't think I'd want to share everything with the world. I might, however, like to share just sites for vacations, or on a specific topic. I can see how that would be useful.

--Jeannie

Thing 11

I just tagged "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" with the tags "locavore," and "slow food." Pretty easy, but it only applies to the book version. I'd have to tag the book on CD, book on cassette, book-club-in-a-bag, etc. (I begin to see the challenges of catalogers!)

--Jeannie

Thing 10

I use Flickr at home for all my photos. It's very handy, and I worry less about losing all my digital photos in a fire or computer malfunction.

Bridget is great about getting library events on Flickr. But I wonder if we might be able to use it some other way, like encouraging patrons to submit photos of their kids reading.

--Jeannie

Thing 9

Like many people, I've already used YouTube before. I probably used it first when someone sent me a link to a YouTube video. My favorite part about it, though, is some of the older TV show clips that you can find. I just love searching for things from my childhood... everything from old Star Trek shows to Sesame Street songs. (Remember "Manamanah?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFD9pRw4iE)

--Jeannie

Thing 8

I took a look at MySpace. I couldn't find anyone I know. I was more interested in looking at some of the authors, libraries, and musical groups that have pages. I was interested to discover all the TV shows on MySpace Video, including the Kitchen Nightmares episode about Cafe 36. I'll have to watch that at home this weekend.

I don't like that you can't see anything in Facebook without creating an account. I refused to do so.

On the other hand, I already have a LinkedIn account. A college friend had invited me, so I joined awhile back. I am really addicted to trying to add to my network. I now have over 70 connections. I confess that I haven't really used it for networking yet, but hope to do so someday.

Jeannie

Thing 7

I like Ta Da for planning for parties, holidays, etc. I also have an ongoing list of home repair tasks, that never seems to get shorter!

Diane J suggested using this for books you want to read, and I love that idea. Right now, I just have little scraps of paper, which does not work well.

I tried Thingamalist, but was not that enthused by it. If you could import recipes from FoodNetwork.com, then I might be more interested.

Thing 6

I love podcasts! I have subscribed to a couple in iTunes, including one called Manager Tools. (www.manager-tools.com). It's two guys, Mike and Mark, talking about management issues, and they are funny and helpful.

Jeannie

Thing 5

This one was tricky to set up. Even though all staff computers have iTunes, I couldn't figure out how to get the audiobook into iTunes. (OverDrive says it can be done, but I'm not sure how.) So I had to ask Vince to download the OverDrive media console to all staff computers. If people have trouble, I hope they ask for help, because this one can be tricky.

The good news is, the Friends agreed to pay for the first year of an OverDrive subscription for our patrons! YAY!


Jeannie

Thing 4

I must admit, I am not a big fan of PBwiki, because when you really get into editing a document, it is tricky to make formatting changes. But for easy collaboration, it's the best wiki tool I've seen.

I'm glad so many people seem to like this. We can use it more for staff collaboration. People seem to have lots of great ideas!

Jeannie

Thing 3

For Online Applications, we are using Google Docs to track everyone's progress in TechPlay. Yes, I confess, we are actually reading your blogs! Each of the committee members is following the blogs of 5-6 staff members. Then we have a Google docs spreadsheet where we make note when each "Thing" is completed. It's working out pretty well. I'm even able to check it from home, where I'm working today.

Jeannie

Thing 2

Those of us on the TechPlay committee are each responsible for following the blogs of 5-6 staff members. So this week, I tried adding those blogs to my Google Reader.

I must admit, it wasn't as intuitive as I would have liked. Google Reader kept freezing up on me. I did eventually get it to work. I have used other blog readers, such as Bloglines, which I found a little easier to use.

Right now what I'm using is Netvibes. It's what's called a "Start Page." It works like an RSS reader, but also allows you to put other "widgets onto the page. The idea is that you would put everything you use all on one personal home page. My Yahoo is a similar idea, as is iGoogle. Netvibes is really fun to play with. On my start page, I've got some blogs, a Google search box, a Mapquest search box, a Weather Channel widget that shows the current local weather, and some Flickr photos. If anyone wants to see mine, let me know!

Thing 1

This is our first week of TechPlay, and I want to play along with everyone else. Even though I've already set up a blog (the TechPlay blog was my first!), it was interesting to see the other blogs that Noel & Debbie suggested.