Thing 23

I finished it! Here is my summary:

Favorite things:
Flickr - endless and well-organized supply of images
Image generators - I see so much potential in the classroom with these
Facebook - on a personal level, this was my favorite, because I have reconnected
with so many people, and I keep up relatives and friends so easily. Thanks for
leading me to this one; I doubt I would have done it on my own.
Delicious - professionally, this is very valuable. I have used it to sort out only work-
related sites, and it's nice to have them all in one place.
Tags - this helped me to see that there is organization to the Internet
LibWorm - I don't always stay current with what is going on in the library world,
and this will help me to do that.

Least favorite things:
I doubt I'll use Ning or IM very often; there are just too many other things out there
that serve the same purpose in a more accessible manner.

Most Challenging:
The image generator from Big Huge Labs was fun to play with, but it took a long time to
tweak.
I had a hard time with the wetpaint wiki; after about ten tries, I read on another post that
sub-pages needed original titles.

Thank you so much for organizing the 23 Things. When I first saw them, I thought the list was a little daunting, but I was able to finish them and pick up a great deal of information along the way. Best of all, I now feel confident enough to share this information with other librarians and the teachers and staff at my school. I took many pages of notes, so hopefully I'll be able to go back to them if I need a refresher. I also am happy that I now understand so much of the 2.0 jargon that left me baffled before. The Things will be very helpful to me in the coming school year.

Thing 22

I plan on adapting the systematic and organized format of the 23 Things to fit my program this year. I'll start with orientation, OPAC, databases, and so on, adding elements of 2.o resources I've learned whenever possible in a specific order (something I've lacked in years past). I don't know how many of the Things will pass through my district's very tight filter, but of course I can use them at home and transfer images, individual websites, etc., as needed. For help in creating my program, I'll definitely use Flickr, image generators, Facebook Groups, mashups, and I'd love to create podcasts with my students. For my own development, I'll continue with podcasts (especially justonemorebook.com), LibWorm and Library Thing. The Thing I have found most useful so far is Delicious, and I plan to share this with the staff. Even if it can't be accessed from school, it is a great resource and very easy to use.

Thing 21

Podcasts...I had good and not-so-good experiences. I enjoyed a virtual podcast tour of an Air Force museum and viewed a house for sale in Austin. I was disappointed by a Nancy Keene booktalk; she reviewed a book I had read (Runaway Radish) and either it was not the same book - I checked Amazon to see if a duplicate title exists, and found none - or she just made up a new story out of her head. I then moved on to a public library podcast of Tikki Tikki Tembo, and while they at least the right plot, the words in the story were totally changed. Less disappointing was a podcast about research done by second-graders at an elementary school. I would love to try something like that with my students. I then read blogs of other NT23 users and discovered justonemorebook.com, which is an excellent site, and now on my Delicious account. On another good note, the audio quality on all podcasts I listened to was excellent.

Thing 20

This assignment was just too much fun! After I finished watching book carts drills and library flash mob pranks, I was able to find some practical applications for videos in the library. One Texas library won a "Why I Love the Library" contest; this would be fun to do with students. I found a very good orientation for the beginning of the school year that detailed hours and rules. A librarian posted a video showing her library and why she loves her job. That one interested me because she described getting to know her favorite authors and the worlds they had created. Another good one showed the "life cycle" of a picture book. A child selected it, checked it out, took it home and was very careful with the book; she returned it, and the librarian explained how it was checked in and returned to the shelf. I may do something like this - thanks for the ideas.

Thing 19

I used Google Docs last October to set up a mock presidential election for my 3rd - 5th graders. The format allowed it to be totally anonymous, with the help of my student "precinct judges." It was interesting to see the election through children's eyes, especially given the diversity of our school's population.

My district also uses Google Docs to keep up with database usage, library statistics, and formal book complaints, so I'm used to the format, but I did not know that it could be used for spreadsheets and presentations. The presentation mode seemed to be a little simpler than the newest version of PowerPoint, which is a good thing for me.

Thing 18

I'm familiar with wikis through Wikipedia and wix.com, on which I made my library web page. I had not previously thought about Wikipedia's organization, however. I looked up P.G. Wodehouse, one of my favorite authors. I discovered that the his entry was supported by the A&E network, and then edited by Vanity Fair. The grammar as well as the content was edited; several discrepancies were noted and changed. The links to his many works were exhaustive and very helpful. I know Wikipedia isn't authoritative in the usual sense, but it is far preferable to Googling a topic and getting 3,987,351 results, most of which are ads.

Thing 17

Another great resource (I feel as though I'm blogging that every time). I was interested in banned books, so I found info on and tango makes three under exact phrase and read about the difficulties it has produced. I had never heard of it; at my school we do have several same-sex sets of parents, and this book would be helpful to the children of those couples, who are often confused about the situation. Am I brave enough to add it to my collection in a small-town, conservative school? Food for thought.

If I am ever job hunting, this is a fine place to start. Under subject, I tried "school library media specialist" and learned of many open jobs around the country and, in fact, around the world. It's good to know that we are in demand in this economy.

Under tags, I found a hysterical podcast of The Hound of the Baskervilles, read by John Crace and slimmed down to eight sarcastic minutes. Under the tag children, I learned that kids for the most part don't tweet - maybe they don't like the limitations? Anyway, it was an interesting and productive half hour. Thanks.

Thing 16

I was on LibraryThing for about two hours. What an amazing resource; where was it when I was taking cataloging? I tagged books from my "books about books" unit, and found others listed under similar tags. ThingLang seems like a good shortcut to me, but I imagine similar resources exist within the ISBN system. ISBNcheck is also useful. I looked up C.S. Lewis in the "I See Dead People's Books" group, but it seemed to be more of a cataloging co-op than a list of his books - maybe I misunderstood? The same thing happened with Astrid Lindgren. "Look at Librarians Who LibraryThing" was fun. I got caught up in many different threads, including one on the newest Harry Potter movie. I found a group on children's fiction, and I was interested to read other people's favorite childhood books. Other writers were attempting to remember titles of books, and of course many readers responded instantly. We do this on a small scale in my district, but of course this is a much larger forum and the answers come very quickly. One more group to mention: "Books Everyone Loves and You Hate." Lots of good threads to follow there.

Thing 15

One of my favorite things about NT 23 has been finding out that organization truly exists on the Internet. Digg was lots of fun. I read about Pete Rose, a woman in Killeen who has a warrant out because of a lost library book, a recent discovery of a carbon copy of the original Schindler's list in an Australian library, and a book titled Mama Voted for Obama. The tags make things easy to find, and the comments are fascinating, especially if you follow threads. I plan to investigate Digg further for professional uses; I did find some interesting "elementary school library" entries. I didn't opt to join, as I was able to enjoy the experience without adding my own Diggs.

Thing 14

I enjoyed Delicious, and it confirms my opinion that tags are essential to the 2.o library world. I was able to easily find sites that deal with library skills lessons and thematic story time ideas (I'm thinking of these things at this point in the summer). I decided for now to use bookmarks just for library-related sites, but I'm sure I will add to it as needed.

These are some of my bookmarks:

Mrs. V's lessons
ACL Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California
Information Skills Lesson Plans
Webquest
Education World Library Scavenger Hunt
Renzulli

This is my address:

http://delicious.com/RWickham47

Delicious is an incredible resource, and a great time-saver. I am curious to see if it passes through my district's filter, but even so, I'll use it again.

Thing 13

I looked up "TLA Conference 2009" on Flickr, and learned to my surprise that there was a tornado evacuation! It must have happened the day before I arrived, but I never heard anything about it.

After studying this Thing, I've decided I'm a fan of tagging. I work in an elementary school, and sometimes it's difficult for children to find books without the correct subject headings - and I can occasionally say the same for myself. I can understand that subject headings are far more organized, and we should keep them for cataloging. However, it occurred to me that strict headings made far more sense back in the days of paper and fiche cataloging, when tagging would have been completely unmanageable. Like most everything else in the library world, this has changed and this may be one more area in which we need to let the old ways relax a little. Patrons are so accustomed to Google and other search engines that they become frustrated when the subject headings in their minds don't match those in the OPAC. I'm going to look up other blogs for this Thing and see what my fellow librarians are saying. Thanks for a thought-provoking assignment.

Thing 11

I agree with the posts I've read about this one - it's hard to use unless you happen to catch someone online. I signed up with webmessenger, and my user name is rspelvin0309@live.com. I'm a participant in the North Texas 23 Things program, and I'd love to hear from other participants! I did find one especially useful tidbit from this Thing. I put the list of IM abbreviations on my Favorites list so I can impress my friends and younger relatives.

Thing 12

Twitter is fascinating. I have heard about it, most notably when our congresspeople are on the floor of the House or Senate tweeting when they should be listening, but until today I've never read any actual Tweets. Just for variety, I'm following Time, Joel Stein, singer Blake Shelton, Sarah Palin, NPR, and the official White House Tweet. That's a diverse enough group, I think, to get a feel for this activity. I will also follow other NT23 users just to see what they're up to, especially those who work in my district (time to gear up for school already). I tried #TLA2010 to find out any info that someone may already be aware of, but came up with no results. This is great stuff for a political animal like me. Thanks!

Thing 10

I enjoyed exploring Ning without having to add my own page, although several of the library-related pages required that I have a login. I found a good group that shares ideas for Promethean boards. I also learned, rather belatedly, that Governor Schwarzenegger has recommended free digital math and science textbooks for secondary California students. I then followed a group that was posting during the Obama candidacy, and was reminded of how alive and well racism is today - some of the postings were absolutely vile (and also anonymous). I finished up with a storytelling group to which I will return. I must admit that I am feeling a little technologically overwhelmed. It's like discovering that there is a universe full of populated planets, and they have all sent messages to Earth at the same time.

Thing 9

My Facebook page has taken on a life of its own, as I'm sure most people's do. I've received about 15 requests for friends, and even looked up a picture of my old college boyfriend (who I wouldn't have recognized). I have made only a few comments, but I guess I'll start adding to that once I get more comfortable with the concept.

These are my three groups (this was fun!):

1. Altered Books I attended a workshop on altered books at TLA and I was really interested in the entire process. The entries I read gave tips, examples, etc. and I've been looking for this info.

2. The Storytelling Center, Inc. of New York My story times at my school always include a flannel board story - believe it or not, these high-tech children ask every week if we're doing a "board story" - and I'm always looking for new stories and ideas. This group is great.

3. Border Collies My Border collie is smarter than I am, and I want to compare notes with other owners around the world to see if we share any of the same experiences.

So far, groups are my favorite aspect of Facebook. Thanks for the introduction!

Thing 8

Well, I'm now in the world of Facebook. I decided on opaque rather than transparent - my photo (taken this afternoon) is there, as are my years of high school and college graduations. I added about ten friends. Thanks for the warning about the email password, because I almost did that. I also opted not to list my birthday, since anyone who needs to know it already does. Now I guess I'll just wait for postings.

Thing 7

Thing seven was really just a continuation of six, so I found a few sites with "RSS" and added the Star-Telegram and Weather.com to my Google Reader. This will save lots of time for me, because I've checked the weather at least twice a day since it's been so hot.

Thing 6

I added the required subscriptions, then added Renzulli and Promethean Planet, two of my favorites. My school is getting Promethean boards this year, and I will be interested to see any new library-related flip charts that will save a little time and effort, or ones that I can build from. I also like the CNN updates, since I check this or MSN often. Now it will be fun to find sites with feeds, and Google makes it easy.

Thing 5

I edited this one for about an hour. It was a good concept, I think, but I changed images once and then I had trouble matching the captions to the background. I used Big Huge Labs, and it was fairly easy to navigate, even when I kept changing colors. This would be a blast to use with students! Hopefully it's not blocked, but I could probably use a Word program if it is. Wouldn't be as cute or easy, however.

This is my cat in the middle of Christmas decorating a few years ago. She thinks the dining room table is her own personal space. This was easy and lots of fun - I'm glad I know about this. I'm also following Flickr for images in Iran; it's so cool that they're getting out. We needed this in 1979.

Thing 3

Flickr is unbelievable. I spent almost an hour going from the town in Germany where I spent a summer http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightshadow/293052290/ to an image of my dog's alter ego somewhere jumping a fence http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladylabobo/57037478/ then to a species of bird I tried unsuccessfully to photograph in Winter Park, Colorado http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidspix/2093106536/ and many others, including some great shots of bluebonnets. I can see many educational applications for this site, but I'm almost positive that my district's filter will block it. Nevertheless, my husband and I had a lot of fun looking at our hometowns, and I will return to this site. Maybe I'll even get brave and download some of my own for the world to see.

Thing two

It's scary when you realize how little you know! That was impressed on me when I watched the "Shifted Librarian" video (if that's the right term). Another thing that stayed with me - I'm a school librarian, and I fight the authoritative/nonauthoritative source battle constantly. We have access to great databases, but it's hard to convince students (and teachers!) to use them.

Thing one

This is great! I hear about twitter, blogging, etc., and now it will all make sense.