Ten Random Things About Me

This is "bonus" Learn and Play. Some of you may already know these things:

1)My favorite color is blue. Ireally don't like pink that much (it was my sister's favorite color)

2)I was a valedictorian at Watterson High, but never got any public credit for it.

3) I took 4 years of Latin, and traveled to Greece and Italy with my teacher, and some classmates.

4)I have also been to Russia, with the Columbus Children's choir. We took a "cruise" down the Volga river, stopping at towns to sing along the way. I got carbon monoxide poisoning on a bus in Moscow.

5) My favorite place in America is the Adirondaks in New York. I have completed a 30 mile backpack trip, a 50 mile canoe trip, and a 50 mile backpack trip (with mountains). These were all planned by my grandfather, who continued to summer there well into his 80's and was a certified scout guide there.

6)I sang, but never learned to read music or play an instrument beyond basic recorder.

7)I have played djembe at a live show in a Columbus bar.

8)I originally wanted to be an architect. I took a tour of the in-construction OSU Horseshoe and have "blueprints" from the trip.

9)I invented the "magna broom" to pick up magnetic objects for a scince fair. I never patented it, and now they can be found at many hardware stores. I missed out!

10)I taught myself to balance and roll on a barrel. I could roll forwards, backwards, and turn the barrel. I can also do a headstand with my legs bent in the lotus position so i look like a seal.

Learn and play at an end?

This is my last official post for learn and play. I will cover some Q and A, and then leave any final thoughts. I hope to keep up a blog about various things, and i will have time to actually reflect on my personal life now that I will be done with school in a few weeks.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I discovered a lot through this program. There is a Web 2.0 app for almost everything out there. I can't wait to compile sites for Delicious, explore and upload pictures on Flickr, and read many more way too amusing blogs through my RSS aggregator.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I will continue to peruse the Internet for more handy sites. I just learned about some reader's advisory sites that are like Pandora only for books (and one for movies) that i want to try on my own time. My computer sites will be more organized, and hopefully so am I. I also want to look into starting an online business, so knowing what is out there, or how to look for it will be a big help.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was unaware of the variety and creativity of the free programs available on the web. i never really read blogs before, but now i have found some with great information or inspiration. The computer has become an even more important tool for me now.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
There seemed like a lot of stuff to go over and some of it was redundant. Some things we wrote multiple blogs about (like wikis), but there was not much more to say about them: it should have been one "thing". i appreciated the extra time as being a 20 hour staffer, I barely had time to get this done with my other duties too. Blogging about everything seemed like a bit much too. If you contributed to the library's wiki site, than that should have counted for the "thing", instead of having to blog about it as well. Overall though a very good and helpful program.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? I would love to participate again. i think some of these things should be mandatory to know, especially for staff who work in reference or tech. If you can not navigate MOLDI, then that is not good customer service. I think these programs enhance the person and their skills to help others, become more efficient etc. i always look for ways to improve myself, so i would do this again.

Our branch has started its own wiki with important info, and fun stuff too. I think we have gotten to know each other better, which contributes to better team work and relationships within the branch, and throughout CML. I think this will continue and congratulate CML for hosting such a successful program. i hope other's that did not complete the program now, still explore some of these things [ I am happy to help :)], to see how technology can help them. Kudos.

Not MOLDI at All!

I have looked at our digital collection before, but mostly for the movies. There are a few interesting ones, but they are not current films, so may have less of an interest to the general public. I am pretty impressed with the audiobooks though. I looked up "Twilight", a popular teen book (and now movie), and MOLDI did have the 3 books in the series on their site. There is quite a waiting list, which means that it is being used, but also there might not be enough copies. I also saw that it checked out for 14 days, which means you would want to listen to it right away. Downloading only one at a time would be the best way to go. I only occasionally listen to audiobooks, since I don't drive much, and the bus is often too loud to hear them well. I think it is a great program though, and sure to grow. Many cars manufactured now have an AV jack that allows you to plug your MP3 player directly into the stereo. This makes listening to downloaded books in your car very easy. Maybe I could listen to them while exercising? Anyway, I'm glad that we are leading the way on providing our customers with these types of products.

I'm a library Geek

I can't help it. i love the library. I find myself saying (almost) every day: "You should get that at the library", or "I picked that up from the library". I heard someone talking about how she love the library and was going to spend her birthday there, and she was not being sarcastic at all. It made me smile. So when I was encouraged to find a library related podcast, I just had to pick Library Geeks as my podcast to follow. I have not really had time to give it a thorough look over, but i am geeky about libraries, so it must be up my alley. Speaking of, i used Podcast Alley to find this podcast. I like the browse feature, and how the listings expand to give a brief explanation about the cast. Then you can click to add it and get more info before you commit. Many of the library casts seem very specific to their system, which is fine, but not necessarily interesting to me. It makes sense to have a podcast on upcoming events, new items, and upcoming technology that your patrons would be interested in. I will have to explore more to see if i can get into pod casts. I usually prefer to read. Imagine that!

You tube fun

I have been using You Tube for a long time now. Usually what happens is a friend says "have you seen..." and I just have to see it. So I go on and search, and there it is: The funny, crazy, insane video that everyone in America has seen except you until now. TV show snippets are fun, especially news show gaffs and interviews gone awry. I know some people who made short comedy films and posted them for all to see. I think it is a great creative outlet. The library could have intro videos to different parts of the website. A "how to" for using Aquabrowser could be linked to the catalogue for first time users. There is a lot of potential for video sharing, but a lot of fun there too.

Power tools

When the library first came out with their Power Tools page, I immediately looked at it. I loved the idea of LibraryThing and StumbleUpon. I have used the catalogue plug in too, and have found it to be convenient and helpful when there is something I want to quickly look up. I think this site is a great resource for patrons who want to get their web 2.0 feet wet, but are not ready to dive. It has a lot of helpful information for everything as basic as Gmail, to advanced as twitter. I will use this page in the future for its handy links, and direct others to it too.

More 2.0

I want to do some more browsing myself on these sites, because I could see some great apps for personal use. This site has logos which you can scroll over to get more info on each program. You can search for a term or browse in their common tags. I saw an interesting planning site, and a place to sell your own goods.

I went to another place that ranks apps and gives rewards to the top ones. They probably cannot visit every single one out there, but the ones they have chosen are sure to work easily. I checked out the list of winners and picked Yelp from the “reviews” section. From the Columbus page, a reference librarian can easily help someone find a computer repair store, copy center, or good place to eat. If you search for CML, you will find 3 reviews! The database is not comprehensive, but anyone can add a review and pictures. Check it out and add your favorite place to go in Columbus.

More 2.0

I want to link all of the interesting sites with more 2.0 apps so I can browse them later myself. Some look like they could be good for personal use, while others are more work related (or could be). This web 2.0 site allows you to see many different programs with a little blurb about what they do. You can do a search, or browse popular tags to pick a topic. I saw an interesting planning site, and site to sell items, but did not go to the sites themselves yet.

Another site gives awards and ranks various 2.0 sites, so you can go straight to the best. I don't know if they can check them all out, but there is a good chance you will find an easy to use program in their list. From the list of winners this year, I picked Yelp from the "guides and reviews" section. I could see using this in a reference setting to help people find good places locally. You can search for CML as I did in the columbus site, and found 3 reviews for us! if people are looking for a computer repair place, hair dresser, resturant or even and educational center, they can check here. The listings are not comprehensive yet, but anyone can add a review and pictures so that the database will grow. Check it out and add your favorite.

google docs etc.

Google Docs was pretty much what I expected. I tried out the document, presentation and spreadsheet. I did not actually publish any of them, but could see using them for presentations if the files they save as are readable and work well. I could see committees and other collaborative groups using these tools to easily create a document. It would be easy to modify by people in the group now, and at a later time if necessary. As Commoncraft also stated, it is good for newsletters, or any conglomerate similar. They seem to work well with some of the other social tools that i have written about previously. i had a friend that used Docs to write a screen play with a few other writers. Anything that needs to be edited by multiple people could be done in this forum.

Sandbox Fun

I liked the library's sandbox wiki. It was easy to use once I had permission to edit, and fun to read what others put down. These are great for collaborative efforts. At OSU, any student can sign up for a free wiki through the OSU library system. If someone is working on a group project, then all of the info and links to resources can be posted in one spot for the whole group to see. At my Branch, we often have discussion about practices, and this might be a better way to go about it so there are not as many emails. i could see other committees using it to like i would for a school project. This way everyone in the group is literally on the same page. Way to go wikis!

Library Wikis

As libraries move forward into the land of web 2.0, they have discovered wikis. The example sites i looked at didn't seem very helpful to a customer standpoint, but probably makes it easier for staff to add info. One of the wikis was for patrons to create book reviews for a summer reading club, but then it was archived instead of being left open. Another example was the best practices which patrons would have no reason to change. A community events page was nice, but I didn't see a way to edit from my side.

A virtual community bulletin board would be nice to have, since most of the branches have limited physical posting space. I also like the idea of an Amazon-like catalogue where patrons can add reviews, ratings, tags, and links to similar books. Wikis have a lot of promise for libraries, but they need to have a reason to be used properly.

Library 2.0

It seems much about the future of libraries is in the conceptual stag, but it seems to be very promising and exciting. We have just started exploring the possibilities of web 2.0 in learn and play, and already there are ways the libraries can use them. I love amazon for their tagging, and user reviews. What if our patrons could tag and review books they have read? What if they could have a "Library Thing" connected to their CML account, so checked out books could easily be added to a virtual bookshelf. Then reviews could be imported from their library thing to our catalogue. Books searched for, and put on a "want to read" list, could be linked to a reserve list. Book blogs, and online discussion forums could be hosted through our site. The potential is huge, but we will have to see what the public really wants, so the technology is not added for the sake of itself. What a great time to be in the library business!

So Delicious

I can't wait to get my own delicious account started. I have tons of bookmarks poorly sorted on my computer. In addition i have some on my parent's computer that have never made it home. Having the ability to easliy classify my favorite sites from anywhere would be a great help when I am working on a project at school, or buying christmas presents for people once a year. I also like the idea that i can see what others have found as a useful or interesting site. Googling can turn up nothing and be a complete waste of time. This looks to be a promising source for me in the future.

All Atwitter

So I am now part of the 1% of America on twitter, don't I feel high and mighty! I joined as caelumm224, my street name, so check it out if you are interested. I don't know how often I will be on to update though. I barely have time to check my email, let alone read about what others are doing. When on facebook, i only update the "what are you doing" box about 50% of the time. Who cares? I added some people I knew, then looked at who they are following to find others. I did find an amusing one I did not know and added. I could have fun with this, but it could be strangely addicting too. I could see the library using it as a "what is happening at this branch update". Today it would say "Insanely busy at the 'Stone. Stop procrastinating people and register to vote when you move!". Must go update my profile now, it has been more than 5 seconds...

Library Thang

When CML first added their "Powe Tools" page, I checked Library Thing out. It has every book imaginable in its system, and every edition of that book ever created too. It is nice that one can check out reveiws of books posted by others, and find like- minded people and forums, where more great reads may be found. I like the idea, but belonging to so many 3rd party sites creates more log in times, passwords to remember, and takes time. When I found out Facebook has a virtual library, I added the application, and started adding book there. I add books that I have read, not that I own, but it would be nice to catalogue all the ones I own too. I have not even put a fraction in yet either. I may not use my Library thing catalogue because Facebook is more convenient, but I think it is a great tool. Is there anything out there like this for music and movies too?

Generation: generators

Sign and text generators allow one to easily and quickly make a fake picture look (almost) real; or at least make you look twice. I found a nifty website where you can pick any number of premade backrounds to play around with. I made this barcode using one of the listed widgets. I could see this as being a lot of fun. This site gives you the option to send it as an e-card to a friend too.

Searching for time wasters wastes time

So after I found 10 RSS feeds for my new bloglines account, I had to go out and find more using various search engines. When i was looking for my 10, I checked my email for various newsletters I get. I found a few that way, which means i can keep track of stuff i'm already reading. I then used bloglines to search for some more, and found a possibility, but nothing too exciting. I then used Technorati, and found another good site form NY Times Magazine. Something else to read though. Will I ever have time for physical print again? I want to check out some other blogs that coworkers find amusing, so I will have to check out the Whetstone blog, add it to my feeds, and the blogs listed there to my feeds. I barely have time to finds the feeds to add let alone read them! Maybe it will be better when power and normalcy are returned to central Ohio.

RSS Heaven

Now I have set up my own personal selection of RSS feeds on Bloglines. It has a selection of library stuff and fashionista stuff. Please check it out if you are interested in either. I have been away on vacation (more on that later, hopefully), and have been affected by THE GREAT WINDSTORM, so that is all for now.

Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend

I just picked up a new sewing machine. It is slightly different than the 30 year old machine I used as a kid. This baby has a full color touch screen that is also used in BMW's. It can embroider whole t-shirts or dresses, or even leather jackets. It has a special system that senses the fabric and adjusts the pressure as it sews it, to give perfect stitches. The presser foot automatically goes up and down as needed. It ties knots off at the beginning and ends of the threads, and cuts the threads at the end. It has a built in computer that lets you adjust and embroidery, add things to it, and align it with your fabric. Sewing machines have come a long way, and I can't wait to show off my handiwork.

Pretty flower

I looked at a couple of mashups on Flickr today. The most interesting to me is Montager. I input a tag, like "flower", and it will make a mosaic. It did a geranium for me, and the outline is rough, but I can see the likeness. It also yinted the images instead of picking ones of that color already, but as I scrolled over the thumbnails, the images in true color appeared, and slightly larger. Then, if you click on one of these images, it will make a new mosaic based on it. The API is simple fun, and you can email it to a friend, but I don't really see any use beyond that. Other mashups seemed totally useful, such as the various uploading and manager API's, but not fun to play around with. As I search, i may eventually find one that would satisfy both criteria.

Flickr- Stories

Once upon a time in Stockville, Nebraska, originally uploaded by Madrid Miner.

Even when studying architecture, I was more interested in old houses than bright new buildings. They have a stroy, a lif lived, a soul that the new buildings lack. I feel some connection to this place, and will watch and wait for its story.

7 1/2 habits

I watched a PowerPoint on lifelong learning, and it mentioned 7 1/2 habits to do so. The easiest for me (besides "play", the half a habit) would be the teach and mentor others. I enjoy sharing the knowledge I have with others. The hardest will be to have confidence in myself. Sometimes I get frustrated, and the goal will seem far away. I do have confidence that I will learn a lot about web 2.0! I look forward to it, and playing along the way.

Learn and Play

I have never had a blog before. I have the usual excuses: not enough time, and my life is pretty boring anyway. However my job is actually paying me to do this, so I said "why not"? So some of this will be work related, but it will be personal stuff too. I hope you enjoy.