Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools

For a procrastinator by nature, I think these tools would have been helpful for me in college.

The U of M Assignment Calculator would be great for students there, it has many helpful links and I like how it is well connected to resources on campus, and even to professors.

The Research Project Calculator seemed easy to use, I liked the additional materials and teacher helps. It would be great for secondary and post secondary students working on projects.

I think a college library would make the most use of these tools. Our public library patrons would not make much use of the tools. I can see using them as a librarian on occasion if I had a big project, or had to keep myself on task for something with an upcoming due date.

Thing 15: Online Games

Ugh. That 2nd life video tour was really annoying. I might be too old for games. I played a bit on Pirates but I have little patience for it. I feel like I'm totally wasting my time. And, of course, while I was playing, I was interrupted by several people with legitimate work-related questions who, I'm sure, were wondering why I was spending work time playing a game.

I watched a hospital training demo in 2nd life that seemed somewhat useful. I guess I don't quite get a library use, other than displaying all the info we have on our website in a virtual format.

Thing 14: Library Thing

I grudgingly opened my Library Thing account, being grumpy about yet another sign-in, and thinking - ok here's another tool that looks cool, but I don't have time for.

However, now that I've added a few things and added my account to my blog, I am actually hoping to use this tool. I can see many uses for it at our library in Readers Services. I often get patrons coming in with long handwritten lists of books they have read or want to read, and I will show them this tool. We can also use it to keep reading lists by topic or readalike. It would be a nice way to do more unusual groupings like YA vampire books, as opposed to Janet Evanovich readalikes.

I like it, I'll recommend it, I hope we can use it in Readers Services.

Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

I tried out a lot of these things, thinking "there's got to be a better way for me to be organized." What I concluded is that most of these tools reminded me of the lo-tech tools I used to read about in parenting magazines when my kids were little. (If you make up this chart, and your child brushes her teeth and puts her toys away, you give her a star. When she has 25 stars, she'll be trained and you buy her a toy...) Ugh. I just don't have the personality to follow up on all these little tools. Our Groupwise at work is useful and ever-present.

I tried out iGoogle, because I already have a google acct. The page just gets too bloated with options, I have a hard time focusing in on what I should be doing. Also, my computer seems to slow down with all the added bells and whistles. I thought the countdown wizard was fun and perhaps useful for counting down for a library event. ta da I don't think would be useful in a library setting, but personally it was convenient for my hubby and I to share a list of things we were both working on (daughter's birthday list, groceries). A shared calendar between Doug and I seemed convenient in spurts, but not something I'd bother checking every day.

I wasn't greatly impressed with Backpack
I liked Zamzar for converting files - that's a great tool.

Thing 12: Social Media

I don't quite see the library use (or even a personal use for me) of these tools. They seem like they gather stories by popularity within your "news" preference. I don't like that they say the articles are "news", when often they are purely entertainment. I don't like that they limit the stories you might want to read according to some preferences I clicked on. It seems very limiting and like I'm being lumped into a group. And subscribing to them clutters up my toolbar.

I can see using them for, say, looking at fresh knitting patterns, but I'll keep using NYTimes for my news. I'll also keep checking my favorite websites for my own favorite info.

In my book, these are a dud.

Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

At first I thought del.icio.us just seemed like a glorified "Bookmarks". But now I've used it some and looked at how other people and librarians (not that those two groups are exclusive) use them collaboratively - they seem really useful. I love that you can have access to those bookmarks from any computer. I love that you can follow a trail of tags and see what other people are tagging for the same topics.

I know it's not very librarian-like, but I like that the way people tag is not standardized format, but random and vague and the terms they use can be so varied and inconsistent.

I will make much use of this, I'm always researching something, so I'll be able to group my researches. Cool