Thing 36

Which of these generators seems the most useful... none... they were a lot of fun and interesting, but mostly just a waste of time. I have not really used them for anything, but now I will think about how to use them in the future. Perhaps if we had a public library blog the comic tools would be useful, they could also be used for a newsletter as well. Maybe they would make board meeting agendas more interesting for instance. Perhaps a summer reading program weekly comic about.... whatever is going on that week or the week before.

Thing 35 Books 2.0

I have a friend who is an avid reader and recently got a kindle. What is nice about this tool for him, is that he does not want to wait until a book gets delivered, or going to a store only to find they are out of copies. This way he gets his book NOW and can immediately start reading. For those that travel a lot carrying several books in one lightweight device versus multiple books that you have to drag around is a huge benefit. I really liked the section for resources for children's books there are so many possibilities for these tools! I just wish the internet were safer and easier to navigate for children so that they could access these tools themselves. On a lot of the sites there were features that seemed like chaff to me, useless for the most part, but there is probably a segment of the population that would find them of use. I think that as romantic of an idea as everyone reading from books in the traditional sense is, it is no longer a reality and needs to be let go. BUT books will never lose their place in our society completely. Even in a demi-Star Trek reality there would be a few that would hold on to old copies of classics instead of reading them of a handheld device of sorts. I also don't think that we will ever give up reading and go to wholly audio books either.

Thing 34 Online Answer sites

I think the appeal of an online answer site lies in its convenience. If you have a question at 1am, what reference desk in your area will be open? (there are now online reference desks you can access 24/7 but they are not very popular yet.) A lot of the questions I saw related to things like, what kind of bug is this, my cat ate this plant is it poisonous, relationship garbage, cooking questions, and tech questions. Most of the actual questions (not the social advice ones) absolutely can be answered at a library and probably on a more timely basis than waiting for an answer on an online board. PLUS, you will most definitely get a better answer (unless by some random happenstance an Elizabethian scholar pops up to answer your random question about Shakespeare) I think that in truth many people use these sites because they do not know that they can go to their local library or even call and get an answer to their questions. Thank you to slam the boards, what an awesome movement!!! I will probably participate though not regularly, it depends on my schedule. I will chat with my fellow reference librarian about this and maybe as a group we will get involved.

Thing 33 Travel 2.0

Would any of these sites be useful to our library, short answer No, BUT it could be useful if, like we have talked about recently, we started a travel group or taught a class about these tools. Some of them are pretty neat and as one who likes to travel this would be a good way to share my experiences with my tech savvy relatives. I especially liked the travel blogs a few seemed pretty insightful and just interesting to read. I could see us putting together a pamphlet of such sources for the afore mentioned travel group/class.

Thing 32 Google Maps and Mashups

I made a map of the places I visited in Iceland with my fiance Ryan last year. Some of the mashups that were listed on the site that I tried only really worked well for the US, if you wanted to map anything international they got messed up which is a shame. We could create a mashup of all of the libraries in our regional library system including pictures, maps (and directions), etc. This one was a pretty short thing as compared to the epic proportions of some of them!

Thing 31

My Twitter page probably says I am pretty boring... but that is okay, I am not looking for a mass following. Although really, everyone should be interested in what I am doing!

I am using Twitter to tweet with friends and colleagues as well as following a few famous people, and new sources.

What Twitter Stage am I at? Honestly, while that chart made some sense, I felt it was wholly unnecessary and for the most part inaccurate. They weren't real "stages" as I would see them.

Twitter is a microblogging and social networking tool. As simple and complex as that. It could be adapted to be used for advertising, money-making schemes, and many other uses as well.

It is slightly addictive, I can see the appeal, I may be hooked...

Thing 30

I am trying to get a bit caught up here, there is a deadline and I have been getting side tracked with my real job as of late. However, I do get paid to do this so here we go again...

RSS Feeds I can see the handiness of these for many people. I had also been wondering what is del.icio.us update pop-up on my computer was all about. All I knew was that it was something I didn't use and thus didn't care about. Now I know, and really isn't that the point of this whole program, to be in the know about what's out there what the cool people are doing and how they get to know and find all this stuff.

After some investigation into rss feeds and delicious and looking at organizing bundles of info I can safely say that this is not the thing for me at this point. There was just too much and if I were willing to put more time into the actual organizing and seeking out of what it is that I really am interested in it could be great, for now... I am moving on with my life.

I do feel more informed about this topic and can now help others out with these tools. YAY!