My thoughts on 23 things

This was a great exercise. It forced many of us to try, experiment, explore and use technology that younger generations take for granted. It reinforced the need to stay current and open to new learning opportunities. Technology will keep evolving and all of us in the public service fields MUST keep evolving with it. If we don’t, we become irrelevant personally and as an institution.

Personally, I loved all the creative outlets that are free. My favorites are Etsy, Flickr, You Tube and all the Image Generators.

Thank you for this opportunity – without it – I would still be in the dark about 23 Things!

OverDrive

Well it seems like a great service . . . . . . but worthless if the software is unusable. I tried 3 times to download the software on the home PC and was unsuccessful. So I waited until I was at work and tried again. I was able to get the software downloaded – but when I went to activate the software I received an error message. No problem – I will ask a member of computer services what to do. They printed out special directions that require the user to go into the control panel and change settings on the machine. I follow the directions to the letter – go back and try to activate the software again – same error message. At the bottom of the directions given to me it says, ” If it will still not run from the OverDrive Media Console, the security upgrade may also be run by going to (in Internet Explorer only) the following site: http://drmlicense.one.microsoft.com/Indivsite  Well I did that too – and got the “Oops – link to this site is broken” message.

So OverDrive may offer down-loadable books, video and music – but it is worthless to the library patrons if they can’t access it.

I have NO patience as it is – and even less when it comes to machines that don’t work. So if I sound frustrated – I AM!

Podcasts

I didn’t really come across podcasts that I was interested in on Podcastally.com or Odeo. I did sign up for NBC’s evening news with Brian Williams, and MSNBC’s Keith Oberman’s daily podcast.

I find this a useful way to keep up with the daily news. The hobbies that interest me – aren’t well covered with podcasts to date.

Maybe it will be a reason to start a few of my own!

Happy New Year from NC

Well our adventure started on 12/30/08 at 2:00 pm. We were all loaded up and heading south to Chapel Hill, NC to spend New Year with my Dad. The trip was going okay until we got north of DC. Then it was a 3 hour parking lot – 8:30 pm and we were just south of I-495. My Dad was disappointed we would be arriving late – but we would still have 3 full days together!

Christmas Eve Story

A Christmas Eve morning that I will not forget. I’m not sure what woke me up at 5:45 AM – but I heard the Borough dump truck spinning on ice and the constant sound of a back up beeper. The dump truck was a block away – and when I looked out the window – a Nissan Pathfinder was sliding down our hilly street and into my parked car!!! All sorts of things run through your head, we called the police to report it – the dispatcher said unless there were injuries – don’t bother them. They had a number of police cars involved in accidents of their own! We went out and took pictures in case they were needed.

The guy was so apologetic, he was trying to get his newspaper route done before he went to his day job. A sign of the times. We exchanged information in case something needed fixing. Everything was so slippery – it was dangerous just trying to walk on anything. He was older and afraid of falling – so we took him hot tea and some toast. We finally were able to get enough salt and kitty litter down so he could get turned around and on his way. That took a few hours – but hopefully the rest of his day went better than it started.

On the bright side, we got an early start to the day and got a lot done. The house is clean, the dogs got a long walk to the bank and post office, we picked up the last few items and now we are “home for the holiday.” My husband just test drove the car around the block and it seems to be okay.

Even when things start off wrong, we have to remember, that we are only human and a little kindness goes a long way!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas

Yesterday I finished my last customer quilt, and today they picked it up. I’m FREE!!!!! The weight of responsibility has been lifted from my shoulders. To celebrate, my spouse and I headed for Longwood Gardens. We had received special guest passes for the work we had done on the Longwood Quilt and it would have been a shame not to use them. I had posted a photo in an earlier post, but the photo was black and white. Here is the quilt in all it’s glory!

We then headed for the conservitory and enjoyed the beautiful displays. We had freezing rain this morning, so when we got to the gardens, the crowds were light.

The conservatory smelled so sweet with all the Lilly’s in bloom. The gardens were a feast for all the senses. I’m glad we took the time to slow down our lives and enjoy this gift.

Merry Christmas to all!

You Tube

Love it, Love it, Love it! I LOVE YouTube. Earlier this year, my Spouse and I took a boating course. We have a canoe, but have always dreamed about having a little “tug boat” to cruise around in. This is the tug boat that we hope to someday own!!

Another of my favorite clips is The Chase, that was filmed in the Santa Barbara Channel. I have had friends say it is a thrill when the dolphins run with your boat – I hope to experience it someday!

My other love is horses! This is my all time favorite musical freestyle dressage video. This horse truely dances – make sure you watch until the end – just awesome!

You Tube videos could be used in libraries as short training clips to help patrons with tasks, to show what services the library has to offer patrons, and to showcase new items and technologies.

Twitter

After watching the short videos,  I thought this was a little over the top. I really don’t want to know what my friends are doing at every moment of their lives. I wonder if folks just don’t have enough to do!

I followed the exercises and found that libraries are using Twitter as a quick way to keep the public updated. Happenings at the library are noted, services that may be temporarily unavailable are entered – it is a way to keep everything current without needing a web master. So for the library – this could be a help – as for me – no thank you!

Etsy

A little bird, JP, told me about this cool website that is “Your place to buy and sell all things handmade.” The fee schedule is not outrageous. It costs 20 cents for each item listed and when you sell your item, a 3.5% fee will be charged on the selling price minus shipping expenses. Potential customers may search the site by craft or individual item. Example: King size bed quilt. 

Folks can put a request on the site for a custom item and potential crafters my bid on the request. The site also offers how to information, blogs, and an on-line community with forums, chat site and resource sections.

As a person who makes and sells homemade crafts – this is a site I will definitely use in the future. As for use in the Library, this may not have a use unless we were selling books that are 20 years or older. Of course we hope they have been weeded long before that!!

Google Docs & Zoho Online

Very cool!! Instead of signing up for our holiday party on the sheet at the receptionist’s desk – we could reply on-line via Google Docs Company Holiday Party RSVP. Do you need Holiday return labels for your Christmas cards? Print holiday labels using Google Docs Avery Gift Tag Label – Santa. There are numerous templates for personal budgets, mileage tracking, Letterhead, Business cards – 396 templates in all.

Zoho is just as cool! Zoho Writer and Zoho Sheet would be the ones I would use most often. Zoho Writer is a word processing program and Zoho Sheet is a spreadsheet. Both programs may be shared within a group with each member able to update information.

These are programs that I will definitely use. Excel requires special formatting so files can be shared from Office 2003 to Office 2007. If the intended recipient of a spreadsheet doesn’t tell you they have an older version of Excel - they can’t open the spreadsheet. This program would eliminate this problem.

Great products!