Thing 23: Survey

Ok, even though it's not required, I'm adding a Thing 23 to my blog. I just completed the survey and attempted a brief run through in my head of all of the Things I had completed during the course. It was a great experience and I am really glad I participated. Throughout the course, I enjoyed reading some of the other participants' blogs and commenting on a few where I had a similar view that the participant did. Unfortunately, no one commented on any of my blog entries except the first one and it was someone I knew who I had told that I had registered for the course. I wish I had thought of this before and had suggested it in the survey, but it might have been helpful to place the participants into groups where we could "keep up with" a few of the other participants and have the opportunity to comment on their blogs only instead of digging through all of the ones in the list. Many weeks into the course I finally found a few other blogs that I could "follow" and comment if I desired. It was frustrating to click on one blog after another to find that the participant was not posting. It also would have been nice to have others comment on my blog to see if we shared similar or dissimilar views. Anyway, maybe I will send some of my suggestions through IM. Sorry for not getting them into the survey!

Thing 22: Staying Current

How will I stay up-to-date with all of the latest web 2.0 tools? Well, I will never have the time to learn many of the things that are out there, but this course has sure helped me find and learn about a lot of them! First of all, I will probably use the tools I enjoyed the most often. Then, hopefully, I will find ways to use some of the other tools for library or personal projects or offer help with them if they could be used by someone else. Between the 2 of these, I hope I can continue to remain knowledgeable about current web 2.0 tools, but I also hope these tools will lead me to other useful tools or newer tools that are out there.

I have added LibrarianInBlack and go2web20.net to my GoogleReader, but I will have to work hard to read the news, blogs, and other information even from GoogleReader since I have never been much of a news fan. However, I will attempt to glance every few days and see if there is anything new and interesting in the web 2.0 world.

The best way I have found to keep up with new tools is by talking to my co-workers and friends who are into web stuff. They offer good advice and recommendations about the tools they are using right now. Another source for great information is student assistants. These people are in college right now and were born digital! I even asked one student assistant about using Facebook! Mostly they are very helpful, patient, knowledgeable, and honest! Don't be afraid to ask!

I have learned a lot from this course and I really liked the work at your own pace style. I was able to explore the "Things" and blog as I had time and it worked out really well for me. Thanks for planning this course NEFLIN! I feel like I can better help patrons, colleagues, and myself with future questions and projects!

Thing 21: Student 2.0 Tools

It is great to see all of these research planning tools for students organized in one place! I think these tools would be very useful for librarians who work closely with teachers/professors on class research assignments. It would be very helpful for librarians to be able to introduce teachers/professors to these tools (The Assignment Calculator, RPC, and some of the resources in the RPC Teacher Guide), but I think most of them would be most useful in the classroom.

I think the Assignment Calculator and the RPC would work well with high school students, but I am not sold on using them with college students. As easy and quick as they both are to use, I just don't see a lot of students taking the time to follow all the steps, keep up-to-date, and fill in all of the information unless the students are required to do so by their professors. The same goes for most of the handouts in the RPC Teacher Guide. Some of the tip sheets (Boolean Basics, Improve Your Google Search) may be used by college students, but most students wouldn't take the time to complete handouts such as the Student Research Planning Guide, KWL & Q chart, Research Process: Questions & Answers unless they were class assignments.

I did take the time to open and read most of the resources in the RPC Teacher Guide and used it as an opportunity to "brush up" on my research skills. I do think that many of the handouts are useful for anyone doing research and I would definitely recommend these tools to any student in need of research assistance - especially at the beginning of his/her assignment. But, I definitely think these student 2.0 tools would be really valuable for media specialists, teachers, and students at the high school level since there is much more interaction among the 3 groups of people than at the college level (in many cases). It's not that librarians aren't involved in the research processes of college students (many are greatly involved by offering class presentations, individual reference appointments, having knowledge of class assignments, etc), but there are so many students and so many classes that they can't be as closely involved in class research assignments as librarians at the high school level may be. As a former high school teacher, I appreciate the opportunities my students had in the libraries and the knowledge and assistance the librarians offered me and my students on a regular basis. They are EXCELLENT resources! Thank you library media specialists!

Thing 20: Books 2.0

I don't have any facts and figures, just my observations, but it seems that patrons are still using real (paper) books. Of course patrons want access to materials faster, but many only seem willing to read articles online. They don't seem as interested in online books. People still want to read paperback novels and fiction and even though technology offers access to reading on laptops, kindle, etc, they are not willing to read lengthy stories online or electronically.

All in all I believe it depends on what you are reading to determine if it is enhancing or hampering your reading experience. If you are reading short stories, or the news, or research literature, etc., you are probably enhancing your reading experiences. But, other ventures on the internet may hamper one's reading experiences. I will not list any of these experiences because I think we all know what they are.

I read several of the articles which discussed the future of the book and found them all interesting. I guess the debate will go on . . . I also visited many of the Book 2.0 sites listed and explored their features. A few friends and I have a small, fun reading group and we can never figure out what to read next. So, I checked out all of the sites under "Readers' Advisory" and a few "Book Group Resources." The sites that seemed most useful to me personally were Twitterlit, Reading Trails, What Should I Read Next?, What's Next?, and Reading Group Choices. I thought they would each be helpful in determining new books for our group and they were so simple!!! I also like the Book Browse site under "Book Reviews." It's always great to read a few other opinions on a book before deciding to take a chance on it!

I did explore a couple of the "Books on Your Phone" sites even though I am not interested in reading ANYTHING on my phone. I think would go blind very quickly! The children't lit section was pretty good, too. I have a young child who loves to read, but is way too young for anything on the internet. The sites were a great place to find all kinds of books for children.

As for professionally, I only thought a few of the sites were useful in the libraries. I think any of the "Readers' Advisory" sites would be helpful for students looking for books to read. However, they would still need to use the library catalog to find out whether the library owned it or not unless they were using the WorldCat/Facebook tool. (I was leary about trying any of the Facebook apps because I really didn't want to fiddle around in Facebook more nor did I want to install any more apps.) So, I don't know how well the WorldCat tool works in Facebook, but it could be useful if it can find books in any library.

I also thought a few of the "Children's Books" tools may be useful for Education-specific library. In the NEFLIN's 23 Things - Thing 20 post, I made a comment regarding the "International Children's Digital Library." We currently have that database listed under our Children's Literature Resource Guides on the Education Library homepage. The site is so cute and fun to use!! I especially LOVE finding books in foreign languages!

There were so many sites in this "Thing" that I had to bookmark them in Delicious! At least I am still using things we learned previously (Thing 10)! I also went back to Library Thing (Thing 13) several times while exploring this thing since many of the sites were related and I love that site! Wow - this was a big thing to explore, too. I have been back and forth on it for 4 days!

Thing 19: Other Social Networks

What, we're moving past Facebook? But, I can't. I'm stuck there. I j u s t c a n ' t p r y m y s e l f a w a y f r o m i t . . .

Okay, back to reality. I looked around for a few social networking sites that might interest me. It seems like Ning offered quite a few interesting sites. I didn't join anything since I didn't have too much time to look around (since I was stuck in Facebook - just kidding.) I will definitely come back to Ning later since I registered and find some interesting networks to join. The Library 2.0 network looks like a great place to share/read information. This could be a great place for librarians to get more information about the ways other libraries are reaching out to their patrons and how they are using today's technology.

Thing 18: Facebook and MySpace

So, I finally did it! I joined Facebook after countless times of being asked, "Where are you?" I decided to wait until I reached this point in the 23 Things to create an account. I have been thinking for a while now about how scary it could be. You basically can't hide anymore once you exist on Facebook. Everyone goes looking for you! Will people I don't remember, don't know, or don't want to know want to be my friend? UGH! I don't want to mess with all of that. I just want to friend a few people (real friends and family) and that's about it. I guess that doesn't work here.

I added a few friends (people I talk to often), joined the Library 2.0 Interest Group, and posted my "I'm here" stamp on my wall. Now I can be as cool as everyone else (Ha Ha)!

p.s. I have come back to edit this post because I have more to say after my journey through Facebook yesterday and today. I can't believe how many "Friends" they suggest! Anyone from people who went to my college to friends of friends of friends friends! It was fun to see everyone that was related to my profile in one way or another, but truly overwhelming! The funny thing is that there are way more people out there that I could search for (that I really know) that Facebook wouldn't pick up on. The problem is that I could be here for HOURS looking for friends (which is what I think a lot of people do). Hopefully the answer for those that want to spend loads of time socializing on the Net is Twitter. I guess they will leave me in the dust as they speed off to the next big thing on the Net.

I should add a bit about why Facebook is the fastest growing social network. Since I am just a beginner, I haven't had the opportunity to explore all of the bells and whistles of Facebook. But, just from my early experiences I would say it's because of how easy it is to connect with EVERYONE! The question is where do you draw the line? Do you befriend EVERYONE or only specific people and will he/she be mad if he/she finds out you are there and don't want to be his/her friend? This could be fun and dangerous all at the same time . . .

Thing 17: Podcasts

The first podcast directory I tried was podcast.com. I used the "Browse Podcast Collection" on the right side of the screen to browse for foreign language podcasts. Then I briefly listened to several of the podcasts featured in the German collection. I chose a few in the Zicklein und Familie (kids and family) collection and several of the DeutscheWelle selections. A few of the podcasts had audio and video, but most were just audio. I guess I just prefer watching, but I am not a big fan of just listening to news, cartoons, or shows. I prefer to watch television for these types of things and so the podcasts just didn't appeal to me. The selections that included video didn't seem very "professional" either. I prefer watching professionally produced television programs and movies to "home-made" programs. Basically I only enjoy listening to music and sometimes comedy, but not much else. I think if one was trying to learn something specific (learning/practicing a language) or liked listening to certain types of "talk-radio" (gardening tips) a podcast might be the answer. However, I am not sure that I would download or especially spend money to download most types of podcasts out there.

I liked the directories in which you could browse for podcasts (podcast.com and Educational Podcast Directory) more than the "search for a podcast" directories (Yahoo podcasts). It was kind of interesting to see all the different subjects of podcasts out there and get ideas on what ones I might like to listen to.

Thing 16: YouTube

I could not find the "Embed" box on the YouTube page for the video I wanted. The only "Embed" box I could see was on the right side of the page under another video on the history of the University of Florida. But, I copied/pasted the code anyway and I see that it is the one I wanted. Anyway, the video I embedded is from a set of videos created by a few of our librarians to offer patrons a quick overview of the collections and services at each of the libraries at the University of Florida. This particular video is the "Introduction" to the series. I thought this was a great example of how YouTube can be used in the libraries and our staff did a great job with the videos!

Thing 15: Rollyo

I created a Rollyo to search several publisher websites at once. When searching for music scores and recordings to purchase for the library, I often have to explore several different sites to find items and compare prices. My first Rollyo contains several different music vendor and publisher websites. Hopefully I will be able to use my Rollyo to search several websites at one time and compare prices, etc. from one screen.

I checked out a couple of the other examples of Rollyos that were created. The Rare Book Library Search is similar to the Rollyo I created. In the past I have used several sites to search for rare or out of print books for library purchase as well and this Rollyo might be useful to me or other librarians/collection managers looking for hard-to-find materials.

Thing 14: Online Productivity Tools

I chose Yahoo as my start page because I already had a MyYahoo start page set up. However, it had been a while since I had edited and I found there were many more "apps" I could add to it. So, I played around with it for a while, adding my favorite team's baseball schedule, added cities for the weather forecast, adjusted my t.v. listings to Eastern time, etc. I also read a few of the news articles. I guess I didn't have to do too much work on this one since I had done this a while ago. As I said before, it had been a while since I had used my start page. I don't use it much and had forgotten all of the stuff that was there. I guess I could have used it many times to look for game times, news, and t.v. listings. Bummer! Well, hopefully I'll use it more now!

I didn't try any of the online calendars or sticky notes because our email program at work, Microsoft Outlook, does most of that for me. I move around to different libraries and rely heavily on my calendar and tasks to remind me where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing! I also have a paper calendar and a calendar on my phone that I try to keep up-to-date in case our email system goes down. So, I don't really need ANOTHER calendar.

I have used Basecamp in the past, though. A committee that I am on used it last year to plan a library event. It worked great for us. We were able to assign tasks (to-do's), post comments, share files, and keep up-to-date about what we had completed and what we still needed to do. It was a great tool!

Thing 13: Library Thing

I had a lot of fun at LibraryThing. I created a library and played with my profile a bit. I also added a My Library widget to this blog sidebar. The first idea I had in my mind when I read about LibraryThing was to create a place for my book club members to keep our books (virtually). We can never remember the titles and authors of the books we have already read nor the titles of any of the books we want to read in the future. So, I added all of the books we have read so far with the intention of creating a group and inviting my book club members to join. We can also read reviews of other books and help get ideas for future reads. Finally, a site I might use every now and then!

Thing 12: Wikis

My only practice in the world of wikis has been in pbwiki. Our library has several wikis set up through pbwiki for staff use (and I already have an account - YAY!). I have edited pages on several of the wikis there before and it was an easy task - after being invited, registering, and setting up my preferences of course.

The wiki world seems to have served our library staff well so far. Many people are using the wikis for one reason or another. One main use of the wikis has been for scheduling reference desk hours. Staff members are free to "adjust" the schedule as needed for trades, subs, etc. The wikis have also been used as a source of information for new procedures and practices in the libraries. Staff can go to the wikis to view instructions, captivate videos, training guides, policies, and announcements. I probably use the wikis a few times a month to view a few of our training guides and edit the schedules, but I am definitely not a daily user. So, I don't do much heavy editing or creating of new wikis, but I do understand the process. It is so much better than trying to organize anything through email!

Thing 11: Social Media

So, what news is worth sharing? That was the hardest part - finding an article worth sharing. I was able to find something fairly interesting and then easily "recommend" the article within the news service itself. Simple enough. Sharing the article seemed simple enough, too. Just click "share" and then click one of the social media icons right? Not so fast!! Here we go again with registering at ANOTHER site in order to use the service. I chose Newsvine since it seemed more professional-looking and news-oriented, not popular media oriented. However, I have yet to be registered since I had to give them an email address and wait for an email from them to "complete the registration process" and I have not gotten the email yet!! So, I have not been able to share a news story yet via Newsvine. However, I went ahead and tagged and shared an article I read in Delicious since I already have an account set up there.

I am not sure how useful these Social Media sites would be to any library. I guess a link could be set up from a library homepage where patrons could quickly access the most current news or even a place where patrons could "edit" the news. It might be good for a college or university to keep students up-to-date with current school news, activities, etc. I don't know, I'm grasping at straws here and trying to keep up with all of the sites I have registered an email, username, and password with now!!!

Thing 10: Tagging and Delicious

First of all, I added tags (labels) to all of my blog posts. This was easy enough to do by editing each of the posts and putting keywords in the label field.

Then I created a Delicious account. I decided not to import all of my current browser bookmarks. Instead I chose a few often-used browser bookmarks and added them separately to my delicious account. I tagged each one with one or more keywords for easy finding later. Again this process was pretty simple, but I started to get worried about all of the accounts I have created in these last few "Things." Am I going to remember all of my accounts and what usernames and passwords I chose? Some of these web tools are already tied into to other accounts (such as google/blogger.com) and you can use previously created account information. I guess that is a good thing, but one more thing to remember!! I found out (after I created my delicious account) that the site is a part of Yahoo now (from the "Several Habits of Wildly Successful Delicious Users" article). I already have a yahoo account from MANY years ago, used it for my Flickr account, and wish Delicious would have told me that when I registered like Flickr did!!!! Then I wouldn't have created ANOTHER account!

After all of this account creating, blogging, photo & bookmark sharing, etc. I have started to feel web vulnerable. So far, I have tried to be careful about the personal information, pictures, bookmarks, and ideas I share publicly, but it has gotten difficult to "cover my tracks" everywhere I go. Sometimes I don't even understand what's public and what's private anymore. In fact, I'm totally confused by the "Inbox" on delicious. I got worried when I read in Brendon Connelly's "Several Habits of Wildly Successful Delicious Users" that "you can check out other users' inboxes by just replacing their USERNAME in this url:http://del.icio.us/inbox/USERNAME. By exploring through a few layers of who is watching who, you'll start to come up with your own list of people to stalk--just add them to your inbox!" Maybe I don't understand this, but other people can read my inbox?? I checked the FAQ's in delicious and one of the questions is: What is my Inbox (formerly known as "links for you"), and how do I use it? The ANSWER: "This is where you can receive bookmarks from other Delicious users. Your Inbox is not visible to other users." Huh? Which is true? Whatever the answer is, I am going to try to be sure that anything I post anywhere is going to be something that I don't care about being public!

Ok, so after all of the paranoia, back to delicious and social bookmarking. I feel that it will be useful for me personally at work since I work in several different locations during the week. I have actually noticed recently that keeping all of my bookmarks in my browser is becoming a problem since they are only set to one computer. Delicious will help me retrieve all of my important bookmarks from ANY computer. YAY! I can also see how this web tool could be useful for librarians who work at a reference desk, point, etc. away from their office computers. And, if I understand it correctly, I guess a library could set up a delicious acccount of frequently-used web resources and share it with patrons. Or the patrons would have access to the library account through tags or bookmarks sent to an Inbox? I think I will need to do some further investigation into this tool. I suddenly feel uncomfortable . . .

Thing 9: Sharing - Slides, Photos, Databases

Thing 8 - Communication - Web 2.0 Style

I am familiar with all 3 parts of Thing 8 - IMing, txting, and web conferencing.

I am currently participating in our library's version of chatting/IMing, Ask-A Librarian. It is a web-based service that requires no downloads, just an updated version of Java. Therefore, it is convenient for the librarians to use anywhere, even at home. Also, patrons just click on a link from one of our library webpages and can chat with a librarian after entering some brief info about themselves and typing their question if they choose. In my brief experience chatting with patrons (1 year), we also used another type of software called Pidgin before moving to the web-based service. It required downloading the software on each computer you used and required the Meebo aggregator so patrons could use the service from various other IM services including Yahoo, Google Talk, and AOL. The Pidgin software worked fairly well, but most seem to be pleased with the new service. It does, however, take some getting used to typing quickly, searching the web for answers to questions, pushing pages, and handling more than one patron at once!! I have enjoyed my experiences so far and look forward to my time chatting each week.

I am familiar with texting in my personal life - mostly friends, but have not heard of anyone using this service in the libraries. I'm not sure I understand how librarians can use texting with personal cell phones since the service usually incurs a cost. However, it seems from the article, that there are other ways to incorporate texting with library services: "To make it easier for libraries to include SMS in their communications options, Innovative Interfaces Inc. (III) says it build SMS messaging into future versions of its Millennium library automation system. Some of the functionality expected from the vendor’s SMS integration into its ILS includes the ability to send text messages to patrons’ mobile phones so library users can be alerted when requested materials are available as well as to help libraries provide other circulation-related functions.Given that many library patrons interact almost constantly through their cell phones, receiving library notices through them will be more convenient and immediate than printed notices or even e-mail." If this service was provided, patrons (especially of the younger generations) could benefit since they are so often using their cell phones for communication.

I have also attended a number of "web conferences" on various library-related topics. With a bit of planning and time management, they all seemed to work well from the my end (the attendee). Usually I just had to go to a few sites, download a bit of software, dial a phone number, and I was "in." It was fairly effortless for me to be at my desk and learn new information and also participate in the conference without having to go anywhere. Creating a web conference, on the other hand, could be a bit more challenging. I could see how creating or participating in web conferencing could benefit many librarians since most do not have the time or money to travel. I also believe that much more library-related information can be shared this way.

The web 2.0 communication tools presented in Thing 8 could all be useful to libraries of all sizes. They are being incorporated in many ways in many libraries today and are helping patrons get information better, faster, and in the way they want it.

Thing 7 - Online Image Generators

So here is the result of playing with the online image generators for over an hour. Check it out at NeonCentral. I also made myself a Bayern München football jersey at FootballShirtAvatar - SWEET! You could definitely use image generators to get creative with any online material provided by your library. I have heard of several libraries making trading cards of their librarians and they seem to be a big hit with the students!

Thing 6 - Flickr Mashups

As you can see I had a little fun with the Flickr tools and mashups. It's true, you could spend ALL DAY here. I don't know exactly how some of these things would be useful to librarians unless they were working on a very specific, creative project. I think someone would have more fun editing his/her own pictures and creating fun stuff for friends and family. I guess I'm still not on the photo sharing bandwagon. It just seems a little risky to have photos floating about on the web that are available to anyone. I'm sure you can set all kinds of privacy settings, but photos always seem to find their way to a place we don't want them . . .

Thing 5 - Flickr - ArtBash at AFA Library

ArtBash at AFA Library
Originally uploaded by ijude2

This is the only library-related picture I have at the moment. I'll have to work on getting some others.

I checked out the Clemens and Alcuin libraries of the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University Flickr feature called "add a note" to highlight books in their collections. Their idea is pretty interesting. I can see how this idea would be great for a new books collection or a special collections display. I like the idea of people being able to add a tag or maybe even comment on a book they have read already. I also looked at what some other libraries were doing with Flickr - Library pictures, 365 library days project, Second Life Library 2.0, etc. I was not too interested in the Library pictures site since I would need a lot of time on my hands to scroll through the pictures and I wasn't sure what the point of the 365 library days project. Also, I checked the Second Life Flickr site and was appalled at some of the images. This is the problem I have with "open to the public" sites. There's always someone who has to "ruin the party." It seemed like a good idea to share images of library spaces in Second Life, but I was immediately turned off when I saw the disturbing images. I guess the hard part of creating a library project in Flickr and making it public would be grasping the concept that you don't really have full control. Anyway, I do think some very good ideas are coming out of this 2.0 tool and I am thinking of using it to host my personal pictures - private for friends and family ONLY of course.

Thing 4 - RSS

News? What news? I can't keep up with any news and I visit very few websites regularly so it was hard for me to come up with some news I would care about keeping up with. So, I just picked a couple things I'm interested in (pro baseball, college softball, parenting, and Library 2.0 of course) and started adding feeds.

Google Reader seemed the likely suspect as my aggregator account since I already used Google for email and to create my blog. I had also used it as a blog search tool. Hello Google World! Anyway, it was very easy to either click the RSS icon on some of the websites or "add a subscription" to my Google Reader by copying the site's URL. So, I'd say news feeds are pretty easy to set up.

I guess I am happy that I have "centrally located" all of the news I want to know about, but I will still need the time to read it all! I guess it couldn't hurt to do a quick check on the news I care about each day from one place (only 5 minutes, though ;). I think it would be a useful tool for busy librarians who are interested in a quick way to learn anything new about web technology, new books, collection management, and even library building structure!

Thing 3 - Blog Search Tools

To be honest, I don't know if I would ever use these tools. I used the same phrase in 3 different blog search tools - Technorati, Google Blog Search, and BlogPulse. I started with basic search in all 3 tools. They all picked up the most recent blogs, but were sorted differently. The Google Blog search found blogs basic search default seemed to be by "exact phrase" wheras the Technorati and BlogPulse tools picked up words within the phrase. It seems that the Google Blog search would be most relevant to me if I was looking for a blog about something very specific. The Google Blog search also picked up titles of blogs that had the exact phrase, but the other two were finding the words within the post.

Now, each of the tools offer "advanced searches," so you could eventually find what you wanted by changing the relevance or date. All of them offer an "ALL of the words" and "the EXACT phrase" search in the advanced search option. Some of the other available search features include a "Tag Search" in Technorati and a "With these words in the blog title/post" search option in Google Blog Search.

After entering my search phrase in each tool and getting my results, I clicked on a few blogs. I was mostly not interested in any of them since I just randomly chose a phrase, but I it was definitely an experience to see what people around the world are blogging about and how they all seem to have time to do it!!!

Thing 2 - Which Web 2.0 tools do I hope to use?

Thing 2 - What are you looking forward to in 23 Things @ NEFLIN?
Personally - Photosharing (flickr) and social networking (Facebook/MySpace). I've been hounded long enough about "getting on" Facebook or MySpace or SOMETHING. I feel like I just don't have the time - definitely not at home with an 18-month old. I am also afraid of getting "addicted" to it. Sometimes it's hard to pull myself away from the great treasures of the internet! I finally got an iPod for Christmas this year. Again, it was one of those things that I said I would never have any time for. When I finally took it out of the box almost a month later (mind you, I would have LOVED this kind of thing 10 years ago when I loved music and had plenty o' time on my hands) I played with it on iTunes from 10:00 at night until almost 2am! This could be a problem - I need my precious sleep!! Anyway, I'm feeling left out by not keeping in touch with family and friends, sharing photos/videos with everyone, and keeping up with technology. So, I guess there will be no excuse when Things 5 & 18 come around!!

Professionally - I have never posted a video on YouTube, but have checked out many others there. I was thrilled when a team of librarians from our university created tutorial videos for each of the libraries on campus. Each video gave a tour of the specific library and the resources available to patrons. They should be very useful for our students. I can see how more videos could be created in the future for a variety of uses in our libraries! I am also looking forward to exploring Florida Electronic Library. It seems that there are many helpful resources consolidated into 1 place and I would like to use it as a reference tool especially during Ask A Librarian shifts.

So, bring on the Things!

Thing 1 - My First Blog

Well, I guess blogging couldn't be any easier! It is simple to create one on blogger.com! Now I hope I have time to update it and work on the settings and layout! We use several blogs here at the university and it's a great way to keep employees up-to-date on what's going on around the libraries on campus.

Go Gators - Congratulations on winning the 2008 National Championship!!