Thing 17: ELM productivity tools

1. I couldn't find the instructions to create a search alert.

2. I enjoyed creating a folder with interesting articles and then creating a Web page. It saved to my computer the second time I tried.

3. I skipped this one. I've already created a web page in #2 and I don't have a flash drive so it seemed a waste of time.

4. Adding notes in NetLibrary is a very handy way to compile usefule bits of information. I plan to use this in the future for work as well as recreational topics.

If we all had a bit more time I think the articles folder and the NetLibrary information and notes could be useful at work. It's definitely something we should share with our student patrons. I need to explore the web page part in more depth so I hope I'll be able to do that at some point.

Thing 16: Student 2.0 tools

I liked the Assignment Calculator a lot. I think that tool and the Research Project Calculator should be definitely be links on the Teen page. They are designed for older students so may not be as useful on the Kids page.

The AC would be great for a complicated library project and might be helpful for an employee who has time management problems. Since the library is heavily involved in homework help and Tutor.com these tools fit right in with our efforts to help students close the achievement gap. It might be interesting to figure out a way to inform teachers of these research helps so that they can pass the information on to students.

I wish I'd had such a thing for college research projects!

Thing 15 - Online games in libraries

Puzzle Pirates looked fun but I didn't have much time to pursue it. I've signed up for so many pages and downloaded so many sites doing 23Things that I just can't keep track!

Thing 14 - LibraryThing

This was a fun exercise with very useful implications for library use. We constantly have people asking to know which titles in a series they've already read. Here is a way for them to keep track of things like that. I think LibraryThing would be a lot of fun for kids; perhaps there is a way to use it for summer reading fun.

Unfortunately the LibraryThing widget wouldn't paste into this blog.

Thing - 13 Online Productivity Tools

I set up a homepage on Yahoo. This was easy to do and if I needed a homepage this is the one I would use. The calendars all have interesting features. Right now GroupWise is adequate for using at work. It does almost everything I want. For now I wouldn't use the homepage or calendar at home since there's no need.

Of all the tools we've learned so far the calendars seem the most useful for productivity. We can track meetings, time away from office, program attendance, schedules, etc. I depend on GroupWise for a lot of information every day. Whe I have some time I'd like to explore more of the productivity tools.

Thing 12 Newsvine

As usual for so many of these "things" the directions looked easy but evidently steps were skipped assuming one would already know what to do. I find this extremely frustrating and the whole social networking phenomenon truly weird. Who cares what I read or think about an article? I certainly don't want to read what some other person thinks about the news, I just want to read the news. It makes no sense to me.

As usual I can't get the link to work the way the directions say it will and there is no other help available.

Seed Newsvine

Thing 11 - tagging and del.icio.us

This Thing was fairly easy to do and I tagged some of my posts. I can see the uses for del.iciu.us for tagging and marking things on the web but I have to admit I would be extremely uncomfortable having so much of my personal information or choices available for just anyone to see. I guess I'm not the social networking type; I see it as a rather strange form of narcissism in our society today. Everyone thinks everyone else is deeply interested in what they do and think - and I guess some of them are!