#23 Summarizing My Thoughts

This is me after completing the 23 Things! Seriously, it was a very educational and often times fun experience. I like learning new things and if one wants to continue to work in a library system, one should keep abreast of new technology so I am glad I completed this "course." My favorite things ( I sound like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music) were blogging, Flickr, Online Image Generators (especially avatars!), Library Thing, Online Wordprocessors/ Spreadsheets, YouTube, and Downloadable Audiobooks. Can you tell I like to play?

One unexpected outcome was that I actually enjoyed much of this and I would not consider myself a "techie" type person. I still prefer to read a print book, give an in-person reader's advisory and help patrons face to face. However, I know I need to know about all these "Things" in order to better serve my customers with all the things they may want.

I liked working at my own pace but if I could change one thing about the format, it would be to have more options. By this I mean maybe to offer say 43 Things and ask to complete 20 of them.

Overall, I feel as though I learned a great deal in a relatively short amount of time. The structure forced me to learn things I never would have learned otherwise because I didn't know some of these "Things" existed! I also liked the "hands on" training where I could learn on my own but with the help of others who were also participating. If HCPL offered something like this in the future, I would definitely participate again. Kudos to all participants!

#22: Audiobooks

After exploring both Overdrive and NetLibrary, I think I prefer Overdrive. There appear to be more books that interest me at that site, including Choke by Stuart Woods, which I downloaded onto my PC. Choke was not a part of the NetLibrary database and the genres I like most were definitely less represented there. For instance, Overdrive had 122 historical fiction, 213 classics and 649 mystery/suspense novels. NetLibrary had only 37 historical fiction, 101 classics and 339 mystery/suspense books listed. I had to install Overdrive Media Console to download my audiobook. I chose Choke because I am currently listening to it on CD in my car. However, I don't think I would enjoy listening to my PC so I am very much looking forward to receiving an MP3 Player now that I am almost done these 23 Things! I hope it is compatible with Overdrive and has at least 256 MB but preferably 1 gigabyte of memory to hold these downloadable audiobooks that I will be listening to!

#21 Discover Some Useful Tools for Locating Podcasts

After exploring Podcast.net and Yahoo Podcasts, I preferred the Yahoo site. I was stumbling all over Podcast.net trying to find something interesting to me and it was difficult to search a particular subject, probably because there were too many remotely related feeds. Yahoo Podcasts was easier to use and find areas of interest to me. I also took a look at MERLIN podcasting and I viewed a Vodcast or video podcast, which is more interesting to me since I'm a visual learner. I liked the library related podcast at Westerville Public Library in Ohio that showed all sorts of Easy Books for children with the pages and someone reading the stories. Although nothing beats a live person reading to a child, this is the next best thing.

The podcast that interested me on Yahoo Podcasts was the NPR Story of the Day site. I added the RSS feed for this podcast to my Bloglines account. The story for today was by an interview with Paul Greengrass, the director of the newly released Bourne Ultimatum film, which is extremely popular and getting great reviews right now.

As far as podcasting goes, I think it is very similar to the radio if you don't have a Vodcast. The advantage to it is that you can listen when you want to listen and not when the program is scheduled to be on. Also, you can put it in your RSS feed if you want to listen/look at it on a regular basis.