Thing # 10: Tagging and Bookmarking

Del.ico.us is a rather odd name for a website, specifically for a site about bookmarks. It is a useful site, though. It's a great resource for people who are constantly changing computers or need to keep a lot of bookmarks organized.

I can't say that it's my favorite site, however, mainly because I noticed that the Delicious toolbars try to take over your computer. They're more invasive than I like, but the tagging is a great idea. I like being able to organize all the websites I use, so that I can easily find them.

Of course, many people use different words for different things, so it may not be so simple to organize other peoples' bookmarks to your satisfaction. I can see many uses for Delicious, and I've met many people who abvsolutely love it, but I'm not so crazy about it. Maybe I'll try using it again for a while to see if I can get acustomed to its quirks. Here's Hoping!!

Thing # 9: Share and Share Alike

Playing with pictures is so much fun! There are so many creative ways to display pictures for people to see. This one was taken during our Big Read Kickoff, and I used Big Huge Labs to turn it into a Jigsaw Puzzle. Cool, huh? These are just for fun, and I'm sure there are many uses in the library, even if it's just putting pics on the web for free advertising.

I especially like the photo cubes and slideshows available. They're so much more interesting to look at he a regular old slide show. This stuff is getting to be loads of fun to play with!

Thing # 8: Virtual Communication?

Of couse, while communication might be transferred virtually, it really is communication. Technology has created so many different forms of communication, that we are rarely unplugged. We have telephones, texing, social networking, IM, webconferencing, and the list goes on. I think I've been involved in all of them at some point. I have MySpace and Facebook, text messaging on my phone, four different email accounts, and as a student, I participated in web conferencing daily on Blackboard. I also participate in Ask A Librarian, Florida's vitual reference. It's been lots of fun, because I stay in contact with friends and family so much more than I would strictly by phone or letter. It can become a little overwhelming at times, however. We get so involved with all of these things that we are constantly involved with other people. It's great, but often exhausting. I can't complain, though, because it means I stay extra close with everyone I care about.

Thing # 7: Image Fun

Online image generators are a lot of fun! There's so much interesting stuff available. For this, I used http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/. Like the mash-ups, this is great for unleashing creativity in the library, for kids, teens, or adults. Some of them are very easy, but some are quite complicated. You have to be very careful, however, because so many apps are copyrighted. Libraries always have to beware of copyright infringement.

Thing # 6: Mash 'em up!

I decided to use a spelling mash-up. They're a lot of fun and can help unleash creativity. I can especially imagine teens having a good time using these kinds of mash-ups. Web apps have gotten very exciting and advanced, and there are so many different things people can do. They're definitely addicting!

Thing 5: Flickr Fun!

Photo by Michaeljohn

Flickr is a great photo-sharing resource. There are so many amazing pictures that are available for anyone to look at. I especially find Flickr's Creative Commons portal fascinating. Creative Commons allows anyone to use pictures created by someone else, without restrictive copyright laws interfering with art and creativity.

There are probably many things libraries can do with Flickr. The most obvious, of course, is to post event photos for everyone in the community to share. The library could have online photo contests, also, to bring the community together.

There are, of course, privacy issues. It seems a bit scary to post all of your pictures, which tell your life story, online for all the world to see. People can make certain that those photos are kept private, naturally, but there are worries, especially when there are children involved. If people are careful, however, it's not too difficult to avoid giving too much information away.

I've never used Flickr, Photobucket, Picassa, or any of the other photo sites for my own ppersonal use, but I may try it out, just for the fun of it.

Thing # 4: RSS

I love my Google Reader! In some ways, it saves me so much time. All of my favorite blogs and news sites are readily available in one place. This could be a great tool for librarians. We all need to keep up with current events, and RSS is a great way to do that.
I've had my reader for probably six months now, and I made the same mistake that everyone else probably makes. I incessantly clicked on those little orange boxes until I was subscribing to so many feeds, I became completely bogged down. I've learned to tone down my enthusiam, but it's another way of showing how overloaded we are today.
Some of my favorite feeds include the humorous ones: Cake Wrecks, Unshelved, Engrish, etc. but I really enjoy Stephen Abrams' blog, as well as The Swiss Army Librarian and A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette.
I imagine I'll keep subscribing for a long time.

Thing # 3: Blogs, Blogs Everywhere!!

Wow!! There are a lot of blogs! It's really amazing. One of my biggest questions is: How are we supposed to keep track of all this information? This thing focuses on searching blogs.

Technorati is pretty amazing. Upon searching, however, I don't really like the way their hits are chosen. For example, I searched for one of my favorite blogs, "Cake Wrecks" and was disappointed to find that Technorati's hits mostly included posts from various blogs that mention "Cake Wrecks", but no links to the actual blog.

I also checked Google's Blog Search, mainly because everyone in the world uses Google. I like the relevancy of Google's search better, but Technorati has a lot more features available for blog searching, whereas Google is the same old basic search bar. I think people need to learn how to use both sites, as they both have their uses.

I couldn't believe that there were so many blogs created every day. We truly are in the middle of the information age. It's a great time to learn!

Thing # 2: Web 2.0 Excitement

You can't go anywhere today without hearing about Web 2.0. Many people say that's it's just a publicity thing, and that Library 2.0 is the same. When you look at how the the world interacts today online as compared to 10 or 15 years ago, however, it's clear that something has changed.
I think we spend far more time online than ever, but there's always so much going on, that we have to keep up! That's the whole point of Neflin's 23 Things. It's a way to teach us how to keep up and have fun while doing it.
I know quite a bit about Web 2.0, from school and just for fun. There's so much, from Flickr, to RSS... Del.cio.us, MySpace, Facebook, Blogging, and list goes on. It'll be fun to try out new things I haven't used before, and we'll how it goes!!