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.