Thing 16- Assignment and Project Calculators

I'm support staff in a public library now, and I'm not in the position of advising students about their work, so I won't be using these tools at work in that way at this time. I might use the project one for myself at work, if I have a project that's lengthy enough. I take classes, so I might use the tools to help me with my classes. So I'm saving the links in case I need them.

http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/

http://rpc.elm4you.org/

Thing 15- Gaming in Libraries

Well, I am a female who isn't a gamer yet, but I really tried to keep an open mind as I read about this topic and looked at Pirates and Second Life. I thought it was interesting that the game The Sims was meant to attract more females to game playing. Both of my daughters enjoy playing Sim games. If I was going to play games, it would be Sims, not Second Life. The pirate game didn't interest me at all. Second Life seems kind of eerie to me, with the realistic-looking characters flying around in the dreamlike world. I'm more comfortable with Sims because it just seems more obviously silly, like a game, with goofy characters.
I suppose gaming in the libraries has its place. If libraries have often provided board games, then the idea of providing the type of game that's currently popular makes some sense to me. There's one big difference, though. It's in the B word, budget. Having games like this available all the time must cost a lot more than keeping some old board games around.
I did think that the idea of using Second Life for educational purposes really had some possibilities. I thought that was the most appropriate use of the game in a library.

Thing 14- Library Thing

I found Library Thing to be pretty interesting, although confusing. I'm sure the confusion would lessen if I used it more. I think that this would be especially helpful for librarians who select material and are asked to recommend reading to people. I recently read two new books and I put them in my library. The other readers had rated them a little more highly than I did. I also joined a couple of groups and that was kind of fun.

Thing 13- Online Productivity Tools

Before I get started writing about Thing 13, I want to comment that I really like an earlier Thing, using Del.ici.ous. It is efficient! I tried using it last week when I was sitting with my husband's laptop in a hotel room. Yes, I did forget my password, but it wasn't too difficult to access my email from a Web email site and fix things.
On to Thing 13. Well, sorry guys, I looked at nearly all the sites that were presented, and I am just not interested. I don't want a "customized home page." When I bring up my home computer, I immediately get a weather forecast, and I wouldn't waste time by looking at all those other things that a home page has, and this is even more true for me at work.
I don't want a Calendar or a List tool. At home, I have a calendar a few feet away from my compter, and I would use Outlook at work if I wanted to use a calendar, since my email is already there. As for making lists, I like the old-fashioned jotting down on paper method. At least that way I can grab my list and throw it in my purse.

Thing 12- Social Media Sites

Hmm, interesting. Digg, Newsvine, Mixx, Reddit...I haven't heard of these sites before. I looked at each one and I liked the appearance of Newsvine the best. I liked how many of the news items were organized by topic. I didn't want to have an account in it at this time, but I put the link in my blog. I'm not sure how I would use Newsvine at work or home except maybe to have stimulating conversations with people.

Thing 11- Del.icio.us and Tagging

I think the idea of storing my bookmarks in one place so I can access them from any computer is great, except for one thing. What if I'm using an unfamiliar computer, go to the del.icio.us site, and I forget the password for my account? I added the link to my other web links at work so at least I would be okay there.
I looked at the bookmarks that were presented, and I haven't seen any that I wanted to add to my small collection yet. I can see how sharing bookmarks on a library site might be fun, though.
I think I grasp the concept of tagging, but I haven't seen the need to tag my tiny bookmark collection yet.

Thing 10- Wikis

I've been away from my blog for seven weeks! It feels good to be back in it again. Maybe I can finish the 23 things this round.
Learning about wikis was fun. Last fall, the teacher of my online class started a wiki for us. I didn't even know what a wiki was. I looked at it and had no idea what to do with it. Now I would have a clue what to do. I looked at all the library wikis. I thought Booklovers Wiki was creative and fun,
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki was very informative, and it was awesome to see all the libraries listed in The Blogging Libraries Wiki. I read some of the stuff in the 23 Things on a Stick
Wiki and I added something to it.