Thing 23

The beginning of 23 Things is now a bit of a blur and, to be honest, it took me a while to get the hang of what it was all about - I had felt somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of information in the emails sent before it began.

As you can see from my first entry I thought the blog was just a blog - not a way to communicate my progress through the 23 Things.

It started to make sense and I was able to add the fact that I had created an iGoogle page and then I set off...

I have enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It has been interesting to explore Web 2.0 technologies that I have shyed away from (Linkedin and Twitter) and things of which I had no real understanding (Delicious and RSS Feeds). Creating a Google Document - a survey - was entertaining and learning that I can create PDFs easily with ThinkFree was a revelation.

Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia and Facebook were familiar, but it has been useful to reflect on them and their application to the library world, and also to consider some of the functions I had not known about.

Some of the purposes of the technologies will unfold over time (I hope), such as my membership of the Humsbox Wiki, as well as Delicious and Linkedin. Some I will be pleased to leave behind - Twitter, for example! - but above all it has inspired me to keep this blog. I have had encouraging comments (received privately) from those who have looked at it and it will be an interesting forum for writing about the libraries I visit, as well as, perhaps, the books I read and the thoughts I have about all things library-ish.

Thing 22

I have added My del.icio.us to my iGoogle page. It is great because it means I don't have to sign in on a different page and try to remember the password!

There was a fantastic YouTube video - a Lego version of The Matrix - which I watched and I have added Epicurious (for people who like eating) and Library and Information Science News. I like having one place to go for things I am interested in and, unlike Facebook, where I can control how much is there so that I don't feel overwhelmed.

Thing 21

There is now a Flickr photostream at the bottom of this blog with some rather woolly pictures of Oxford in the snow!

Please also note the Poll gadget, which asks you to vote about your reading position/environment preferences.

Thing 20

I found ThinkFree rather unsatisfactory to use - it was very wobbly and slow, and it was no different to word. The one great thing is the fact that you can save documents as PDFs however, and that is useful.

Thing 19

I have created a Google Document - a short survey about escaping - and I have sent it to a number of people. In the four minutes since I sent it I have had three responses. It is an extremely quick and easy way to canvass opinion.




The other functions would also be useful in the work situation - sharing documents and allowing others to contribute, edit and update them would be helpful with documents like the Standard Responses we use at the Main Enquiry Desk.