Thing 8: Share your creations

Well, I found this Thing very informative, but I am having great difficulty uploading my slideshow. I am going to leave it be and try uploading it again on Monday. Maybe the incredible snow is slowing things down or bogging things up. I am imagining all sorts of uses for these tools with programming and especially for the promotion of our libraries. Using all of this technology makes libraries look very appealing for younger users and hopefully people in my somewhat older age group as well. For some reason even with all of our efforts young people look at libraries as old and stuffy...and we need to change that image with using technology that we have at our very own fingertips. I am so very glad that I signed up for 23 things!

Thing 7: Web 2.0 Communication tools

Web 2.0 has some information that I did know and some that I did not. E-mail has been around for a longtime. Some are not embracing it...but others are and are using it in a variety of ways. I have embraced and ran with it. Ha! I did have a bit of a problem with IM though..finding someone to IM with. Yes, I couldn't find an adult that I knew to IM with! I could find kids...but not adults. So, it looks to me that I will be signing alot of people up for IM. As far as webinars go, I have signed on for a few of them in the past and think that this is really a wonderful way of being able to participate live...or archived. I just keep learning...one thing at a time.

Thing 6 : Online image generators

I found online image generators very interesting. I like the idea of being able to create these trading cards for whatever you want...at a point and click. The only trouble that I had was when I was uploading my image to my blog. The image gets stuck...and then if you cancel the job and retry it...it seems to upload properly. I really want to think on how we can use these for programming at our libraries or better yet as a way to promote our libraries..generating hype..and having everyone wearing a I Love the Appleton Library button. I plan on creating a few more items...so, keep watching my blog...for more.

Thing 5: More Flickr Fun

I found these items to be very useful for a variety of purposes in our libraries. I think we could use them for programming, advertising, or just making our libraries look like they are cool and hip places to be..which we have known all along. I plan on exploring more and more of these things. WOW! The possibilities are endless!

Thing 4: Photosharing with Flickr

All I need to say is that I am a scrapbooker. I have been one since before it was the trendy thing to do. Digital images and photosharing is something I am very interested in. I was able to take my photos of the library, open a Flickr account via my yahoo account, upload my photos onto flicker, and tag them with ease. It was uploading onto my blog...that seemed to slow me down. There seemed to be some technical problems..either operator or online...it is anyones guess..that is for sure. I have really enjoyed this exercise.

Thing 3: Set up an RSS Account and add feeds

Today I set up an RSS account and added some feeds to it. After viewing the short films and reading about an RSS account. I think it is a very cool thing! I want to play around with it more to be more choosey about what websites and blogs that I want to have in my account, but I think this could be a huge time saver for information and fun.

Thing 2: What is Library 2.0

The kick off for Library 2.0 with Stephen Abrams talks about making time. I totally agree with him that we can all make time for the things that we want too....and then my comment back is that we can make excuses for the things that we do not want to make time for. Sometimes we librarians can bury our heads in the sands of time aka our books...and want to forget about the technology aspect of libraries. My hope for myself and my staff is that we stretch our minds to include both.
11 Reasons why Library 2.0 exists and matters by John Blyberg was a very interesting article. I really liked his thought of "Make the Library a destination, not an afterthought." With all the budget cuts are we really thinking about the future of libraries....or are we thinking about only basic service? If we do not think about the future....no one will be thinking of the library as a destination....but only as an afterthought.
The Ongoing Web revolution has some excellent ideas of how we can communicate, interact, and relate to others inside and outside of the library.