23 Things I Learned from "23 Things Kansas"

I feel my words would best be expressed in a google docs/slideshow monologue (that is my Mary Catherine Gallagher SNL reference. You're welcome ;) )

Week 16: Wrap Up Webinars and Final Posting

I listened to the evening session of the wrap-up webinar. It was interesting to hear comments from others who did the program. Also cool to hear one of my new co-workers, Cathy Newland, mentioned! Yay Cathy!

Week 15: Wikis

For Activity #1 I chose to add a blurb about the Coffey County Library to the Burlington, KS wiki page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington,_Kansas#Library

I had a little trouble figuring out how to add a picture of the library to the page. I decided to forgo that option.

I'm not sure if this is a tool I would ever really use. It's a little out of my comfort zone and not sure it could be used at our library or in my personal life. It was nice to be able to add a little info about the library to the page.

Here is my entry on the 23 Things Wiki:
http://23thingskansas.wetpaint.com/page/Elizabeth+Pugh

Week 14: Library Thing, etc.

Whew! I am finally getting caught up. Summer Reading crept up and distracted me there for a minute. For this week I chose to try out Goodreads. My cousin has been trying to get me to join for a few weeks, so it worked out well that this was our lesson. She got lucky ;) lol

I think I am really going to enjoy this site actually. I have added several books I enjoy to my bookshelf and have already received several suggestions. One of them I requested through ILL. I will let you know if it turns out to be a "Good Read."

*I have added a widget to my blog that allows you to see my bookshelf :)

Week 13: Slide Sharing

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

This week I used Animoto, to create a slideshow (with music) of some pictures I took this winter. I think I could have lots of fun with this, mainly outside of work. Though, I think I will make a video at the end of our summer reading this year. That would be a great way to make viewing several pictures more fun and interesting for the viewer. I'm not sure how much use the library has for this, but I could probably use it a couple times a year for special events.

I also signed our library up for the "Snapshot Kansas" program next week. We are going to do this on Wednesday, April 14th. I'll be sure to post the finished product :)

Week 12: Screencasting

I did a screencast of how to log-in to Iluminar for the Burlington Branch Library. I didn't find it too difficult. I did find using Iluminar to be a little tricky though. I kind of stumbled in the middle of my video, so I would have to re-do it if I were to use for the library.

I love the idea of this. I think this would be an excellent tool for the library. I am considering creating a library youtube account and uploading various screencasts of library-related "How-To's" and sharing the link on our webpage or at least or facebook page. So cool! I think our patrons would greatly appreciate it and it would save them having to call for us to walk them through the process. This is the second best thing to having them in the room with you, which is not always a possibility for a lot of our patrons, many who are homebound. Great lesson 23 Things!
Here is the url for the youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztkxiFg5k6E

Week 11: Break

Yay! So glad for that break. It was much needed and allowed us "procrastinators" to get caught up :)Thank You!

Week 10: Part 2

Here is a video I created of the Coffey County Library Central Office & Burlington Branch Staff. Thanks everyone! :) (I think they secretly loved it)

Week 10: Video on the Web

Here is my favorite little man in the whole world, my nephew Blake. This video I took on our way home from Oceans of Fun last summer. He was soooooo tired and a just a tad grumpy. He didn't know I was video recording him with my digital camera. He told me he didn't want any pictures taken, which I wasn't doing, yet he wouldn't quit smiling. I guess if he was going to have to take a picture he was making sure I got a good one of him ;) He cracked us all up and I could not quit laughing. The video is a little shaky, but gets clearer towards the end. My digital camera doesn't take the best videos, but hey it does the job right? lol I hope you enjoy as much as I do!

BTW...I love this week!

Week 9: Instant Messaging

I've been using facebook chat for a couple years now and I really love it. We even use it here at work to communicate with other branches. Initially, we were looking for a good IM site that didn't use your e-mail (since our e-mails all have personal info and we trade computers, leaving our accounts open all the time wasn't well received). We discovered facebook and it worked great. The only problem...if the window isn't opened you can barely hear if you have a message. Today, I tried "meebo" and I could definitely hear it. I was also able to import my facebook contacts, saving myself a step since I already have my co-workers on facebook. For extra credit, we had the option of using freenode/IRC to talk with several of the librarians on there. I logged in today and was able to talk with a few, especially Heather Braum. I liked the simplicity of it, though when multiple conversations are going it was difficult to know if I was being asked a question or someone else. I did like it though :) Interesting. Only problem is that, again, I couldn't tell when there was a new message unless I had the window open. I'm a big fan of multi-tasking, so that was the only real drawback for me.

And the winner is......Meebo!! I talked to my boss and I'm going to try to get us all here at Burlington to use it. Occasionally we have a weird patron issue or if there is ever a threat/emergency, it would be nice to be able to "silently" alert the other staff without drawing attention to oneself. Also nice for if you just have a quick question for someone in another room. I hope we can use this at our branch

Week 8: Cloud Computing

How handy is this! There have been many times that I've been at home wishing I could remember something that could only be answered by accessing documents on my work computer. Also, I have Microsoft Works on my home computer and if I need to print something because my printer is out of ink, not working, etc. it's hard to find somewhere I can print that doesn't have Microsoft Word. This would solve that problem. I could just type it up in a google doc and then print it anywhere that has internet. I am really excited about this week's lesson. I was sent a google document and I was able to add to it. The document was titled "23 Things Cloud Computing" and was started by Hilary Sorio. The option of sharing it publicly allowing others to make changes is great too. I may not go back to using regular Microsoft Word. hehe. Just kidding, though I am for sure going to quit using Works on my computer. :)

Again, I am so glad to be a part of this class. I'm learning so much. I knew things were changing in technology, but never realized how far behind I really was. Wow. Thanks 23ThingsKansas!

Mr Ellis

ell
Originally uploaded by beths23things

Had my camera with me this weekend and took a few pics. These are my faves

Week Seven: Microblogging

Look at me getting this done on time. I didn't do so good last week :(

This week's assignment: Twitter
I just have to say that I was never going to do twitter. I'm a big weirdo and when things become really popular and people can't quit talking about something, by the time it occurs to me to join I am so tired of hearing about it, that it is the last thing I want to do. Case in point, Twitter :) So, here we are week 7 and that is my task at hand. I'm doing it for the library and for the library only. When I get hooked and can't pry my fingers away from the keyboard, you know who to blame.

My twitter name is elizabethiepoo (it said be original lol).

So far, I'm not sure what I think about twitter. It's purpose is fairly similar to facebook, though it is nice to not have to deal with games, quizzes, etc. clogging up my news feed. I do like that is strictly what the person wants to share, but I kind of like not being restricted to just 140 characters. It's basically like texting via the internet.

It wasn't easy to find people to follow...twitter is "stressed right now and that option has been disabled" so there is no search option right now. Luckily 23 things posted links to several twitter accounts and from there I can follow that person as well as others in the class that are followers of them. Ha ha we've outsmarted you twitter ;)

I have to say that I do feel pretty cool since I am now following Justin Timberlake, Ben Folds and the Dixie Chicks....I'm now part of their close inner circle and we're going to start hanging out right?? Yeah, I'm definitely much cooler now. I'm also following several of my favorite magazines, fashion sites and foodie faves and discovered Random House, LibraryJournal and Penguin Publishing on twitter. I've discerned that just because I follow someone they don't necessarily have to follow me, which keeps me from posting on their page or speaking to them. Rude...I mean I'm kind of a big deal. lol. I kind of feel like....have you ever gone to someone else's family dinner and get caught in their family discussion. You just sit their awkwardly, privy to more information than they'd probably like or normally share. You can't say anything because they don't want your input and it's none of your business. Twitter seems to be a bit like that. I kind of feel like a spy with no interaction. Which I think is AWESOME by the way. ;) If we could all just share more than 140 characters.....hehe

I haven't really found any posts that helpful, but some have been interesting to read which has helped me get through this long week...so I guess it was helpful.

At first I was a little skeptical on how twitter could benefit our library. I read the article "100 ways to use twitter at your library" that was linked on the 23thingsks page. I found some interesting suggestions there. I think it could be helpful. I'm not sure how many of our patrons have twitter though. With facebook, there is a very large amount of our patrons that are on there. Maybe with twitter's increasing popularity we will see the numbers go up. I liked the idea of using it for question and answer discussions. We might try it out over the next couple of months and see if we have any luck, otherwise we might just stick with facebook.

My biggest pro for twitter: No ads, quizzes, games, applications, etc to clog up my news feed making it easier for me to keep up with what's going on with those I'm following.

My biggest con: Near constant need to tweet. From what I gather, the point of twitter is to post what you are doing many times throughout the day, which can take a lot of time especially if you are following a lot of people. I don't think I'll be very good at keeping it up-to-date.

We shall see...I'll post again when I have more time to play with all of these gadgets ;)

Week Six: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

Ok, I know I'm a little late (last week was a busy week). I decided to try delicious first and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. This could be a very useful tool, though I think I would use it more in my personal life rather than for work. I've already tagged several sites that I frequent and have found several I'd never heard of. I think I know what I'm doing this weekend....hehe :D

My username is http://delicious.com/beths23things

I also joined stumbleupon, even though my boss warned me of it's addictiveness. So far, I haven't found anything to impressive, but it's only day 1. I'll keep you all (I'm pretending that people are reading this ok. LOL) updated

Week Five: RSS and Feed Readers

Ok, I know I say this every week it seems, but this week's lesson was excellent and I am loving it! I have seen those little RSS Feed icons everywhere, but never really investigated what all you can do with them. I have added them to my "favorites" in my web browser, but had no clue that there were Feed Reader websites that I could use to have all that information just come to me, without me having to click each link seperately or without just going to each of my favorite sites everyday and seeing what's new. WHAT A TIME SAVER!!! Did I already say that I am loving this.

I decided to go with Google Reader. My plan for all these lessons is to hopefully always choose the tool associated with google because I like the home screen when you log-in and all of it right there in front of you, without me having to type in various sites. Google has my calendar, picassa photo sharing, blogger and now this. Very cool. I added several sites RSS feeds to my google reader. Both for professional as well as personal use. I will list the sites I am following below. I am also following several 23 Things KS class members blogs using google reader now.

RSS Feeds I am currently following:

9 blogs (23 Things Participants)
VideoETA (New DVD-for movie days) http://feeds.feedburner.com/videoeta-news
Weather.com
Ken Rockwell(photography site) http://www.kenrockwell.com/rss-daily.php
People.com http://feeds.people.com/people/headlines
Dictionary.com http://feeds.reference.com/DictionarycomWordOfTheDay
SLK News http://statelibrary.mykansaslibrary.org/?feed=rss2

I'm sure there will be more added to this list by the time I'm done exploring. :)

I also tried "Activity #3" and added a "feedmyinbox" widget to my blog. You should be able to enter in your e-mail address and receive e-mail updates about my blog. I liked feedmyinbox, but I think I will stick with googlereader.

Great week 23 Things Kansas!

Week 4: Photo Sharing

I had fun this week with photo sharing. I used our digital camera and took a few pics around the library. Here is the address (can't get the link feature to work) to my "virtual library tour" album on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/47240380@N03/sets/72157623360291324/ Click on "sets" then "Burlington Library Tour" and then you can view as a "slideshow." For some reason that is the only way they will play in the order I organized them. Hmmmmmmm...perhaps I need to work on this a little more

I really enjoy anything photography related, so this was an enjoyable lesson for me. I'm not too familiar with all of the photosharing sites out there. I use kodak here at work and at home. I've used snapfish on occasion, but it's not that impressive in my opinion. Definitely cheap if you order prints from there, but I'm not sure if the quality would be that great. I sent some pics to my boss using their website and she said the resolution was not good. She suggested I use winkflash, which I think I will take a look at this evening.

I'm not sure if I will continue to use flickr for the library or not. I didn't find it as user friendly as picassa or even kodak. I like that kodak has a feature where I can upload directly to facebook which is handy for us at the library. We can upload our pics, edit/touch up and send them straight to facebook without having to open up multiple browsers.

I looked at a few of the photo editing sites. I'm now hooked (and I mean HOOOKED) on picnik.com I can no longer upload a picture without whitening my teeth (and everyone else's in the pic-you're most welcome) before uploading to my facebook page. I love this website! Photoshop.com was fine, but for me paled in comparison to picnik. I have yet to check out animoto and infranview, but for now I am pretty content with picnik.

All in all, a pretty fun week! I will continue to use picassa and picnik for sure. I still need to play around with flickr a little more. What did everyone else think?

Update: May 12th
I now have a premium account with picnik since I loved it so much. It is so much more user friendly than photoshop. Great site

Week 3: Online Meetings

This was not my first webinar, but I always enjoy what I learn each time I participate in one. Over the past year + I've been able to attend/view a few archived, as well as live sessions. Here at the Coffey County Library we are also an ELMeR site and I have had the privilege of listening in on a few classes with it. Thank goodness for the Wimba session on Iluminar!! I was so lost before that lesson! Whew! The KS Tax Form webinar was also great and provided answers to our patrons many questions about "why are there no state forms." They are still not too happy when we tell them why, but at least we are acurately answering their questions right? :)

This week I listened to an archived OPAL session titled "Gaming & Libraries." It was hosted by Tom Peters, but was originally presented on July 15, 2005 by Matt Gullett, Kelly Czarnecki, Lori Bell, Chad Brekke, Chuck Thacker, and Diane Colletti at the Bloomington (IL) Public Library.

A co-worker and I listened to this session together, in hopes of offering a similar program at our library. The information was very useful and gave us some great sites to check out as well as answered questions about how many staff would be needed and how many children to allow to attend the event.

One library mentioned that they use their YA webpage to advertise this information. Since we are part of a library system, we don't have our own individual webpages. However, this gave me the idea to create a blog (thank you week 1 lesson!) of events that we could post on our facebook page. The Burlington Branch currently has over 300 friends, most of them being pre-teens/teens, so this may be an effective method of increasing program awareness and attendance. Monica also had the idea of creating a Burlington Young Adult & Burlington Children's Program Fan Page where we could also advertise events, such as a Gaming Night.

I think this new technology is outstanding and has the potential to be utilized in a big way over the next 10 years. It's convenient and nice that you can do it from your home base whenever you have time. I know that I am going to investigate other webinars available in hopes of finding ideas for senior programming. I sometimes forget that these tools are available. I hope after this week's lesson it will stick around in my brain a little longer :)

Week 2: Why I LOVE Facebook

I have had a facebook account now for the last couple of years and I have to say I am addicted. It's been awesome for me because almost all of my family and close friends are on there, which makes staying in touch much easier. Here's the best part:

I have a half-brother, who I had only met once in my lifetime (when I was 10). I had always wondered about him, but never really knew how to go about contacting him and wasn't even sure if he'd want to know me. I'd searched for him on facebook several times, but with no luck. Then, one day last March I noticed I had a message in my inbox. When I went to check it I was shocked to see his name on my screen. We had both been thinking about each other. Crazy! Since then we have kept in touch and have met for dinners and he even came to our family's fish fry this summer. It has been great getting to know my brother! All Thanks to Facebook :)

Look me up on facebook under Elizabeth Pugh. My e-mail address is bpugh@mail.cclibks.org

Week Two: Social Networking

So....today I set up a Ning account. I have to say that I am not getting the point. Hmmmm. I think I may need to do a little more exploring. Let me know if anyone else sets up an account on ning so we can "follow" each other.

Here is the address for the page I created
http://elizabethsfaves.ning.com/

Week One: Blogging

I did it! I really did it! I feel like now I can do anything in life :) Well, at least I'm on the road to new and improved!

About Me

Hi everyone! My name is Elizabeth and I work at the Coffey County Library-Burlington Branch, where I am the Assistant Branch Director. I started in 2002 as a Library Assistant and then was hired for the ABD position in 2005! With my new position I was given the privilege of doing the children's programming. I enjoy it so much! The kids are hilarious and it gives me an opportunity to be creative, which I LOVE!

I am so excited to be a part of this program and to learn about some of these new tools that are available. I'm only 26, but it seems like I am so far out of the technology loop already, so this will hopefully help catch me back up. Many of the youth that come into the library use some of these sites, so it will be nice to be able to answer any questions that come up, though I'm betting they will be answering more of mine :) It will also be great to use some of these networking sites for our library to better promote our programs and materials we have available. I think this is going to be a big benefit to our library as well as to myself. Thanks!

Yay for my first blog!! I did it. This should come in handy for summer reading ideas as well as just general program idea sharing. Excellent :)