#11 Library Thing

I love Library Thing - My Dad has been cataloging all of his baseball books in Library Thing, and he is completely addicted, so I knew it was going to be a fun and interesting site.

I started cataloging some of my favorite books, including some of my newer cookbooks. I posted a Library Thing widget to my blog here - also a cool feature. I love the tools and the discussions on books that come out of Library Thing. At least one Library, the Danbury Library in CONN is using the Library Thing for Libraries.

Library Thing is social networking for bibliophiles.

#10 Image generator play

So I played with some image generators - kind of fun. Not something I ever thought I'd do - I don't think of myself as the creative type, so I've never been one to play with images. I recognize good work when I see it and appreciate it, but never thought I could do it. The Image generators change that for sure.

Here are the 2 things I created - a Tarot card for the Empress and a graffiti'd Mona Lisa. The possibilities are endless and these programs can certainly make it easier to add fun images to the web.

Finally got around to #5 - mashups with Flickr

I played around a bit with Captioner, to see what I could do with the bubbles over people's heads. I like the software a lot - it is easy and allows you to have a little bit of fun with some images. I can see using it for pictures on the web site, to create a more interesting slideshow on Flickr, with a kind of commentary.

The other mashups look interesting and fun too - it I was doing more direct design or live web production, I could see using these programs.

For creative types (i.e. not me) these would be great!

Well, I've signed on with Twitter...#9

I've signed up for Twitter and loaded a picture so I will now show up in public timelines on the site. I am comtemplating sending my friend in Austin an invite, and then we can play with Twitter and do some catch up.

The Twitter sign up is easy and simple. I'm not exactly sure how useful it will be for people to know what I'm doing, but hey, I'm willing to try it out.

#8 on the list of 23 things - useful Library Blogs

I have added numerous blogs to my bloglines account now, so I can regularly track things. I'm already subscribed to the Shifted Librarian, I've added Helene Blowers LibraryBytes, Michael Porter's Library Man blog and the open source for libraries blog oss4lib.org.

All are good for keeping up with new trends, services, etc. as libraries explore Web 2.0. I love the YouTube things that keep coming across via these blogs. Like the most recent video on the Transformation Lab at the Danish Aarhus Library. This was VERY interesting!

At least with bloglines I have a chance of keeping current with all this stuff.

# 7 RSS Feeds and Bloglines

I have a Bloglines account with about 10 RSS feeds that I'm now subscribed to - my favorites include Tame the Web, TechCrunch and Fast Company. I've added a few new ones over the past few days and need to grab the Library man blog to add to my list.

Bloglines makes it easy to track what's happening out there - and these blogs do keep you on your toes and bring new things to the forefront.

I've also looked at other aggregators - like SharpReader - to see how they compare to Bloglines. I think Bloglines is the cleanest and is incredibly easy to set up.

Looking at #6 on the 23 things list...

I puttered around on the Charlotte Mecklenburg County Library site and was very interested to see that they are recruiting Teens to help them develop Teen Services in Second Life. Very 2.0.

We have created an emerging technologies committee and they are going to be looking around Second Life, to see what we might be able to do or if any of our patrons might be interested in finding the Orange County Public Library on their travels through the virtual world.

I've visited the Ann Arbor Public Library before - we are starting the re-design of our website, so we are looking at how we can create an effective e-Library and AAPL always comes up as a good example. I really like the immediacy of their site - things are quickly and easily posted, and library patrons get to contribute to the site. They are definitely engaging their public in conversations about information and services.

Denver PL always has something interesting to offer - I really like the idea of Podcasts on a site. We could do so much with these - there could be short research guides, training sessions, homework assistance, all kinds of things seem ripe for podcasting. And I think podcasting would help us internally as well - We do a lot of staff training and are starting to look at how we can provide a blend of training options.

I kind of think it all boils down to bringing the services to our public - no matter where they are. So to do that effectively we have to look at everything - our traditional services and all the new ways of providing service in our wired world.

More on Infopeople's 23 things...

Well, it seems I've already got a bit of a headstart here -

I have a Flickr account and I do use it -we use it to keep in touch with best friends that live in Texas. We get to see current pictures of nieces and nephews thanks to Flickr. One of my friends loves to take pictures and she uses Flickr to keep her efforts organized, and shares them with us. I've been late to add pix, because we didn't have a good digital camera. But that has changed. I will bring in my Hawaii pictures and post them - and I'll play with some pictures for my libraries too.

#1 & #2 - Infopeople's 23 things

Well, I have already taken the online course Web 2.0: Developing a successful E-branch. And as a result, I've already created my blog. I also read the FAQ's on the 23 Things challenge and I am looking forward to filling in gaps in my knowledge of these new Web 2.0 tools and resources.