Orca Mystery

quiltville.blogspot.com

Thing 23

This has been great fun. So much fun I've felt guilty doing it but that didn't stop me. I have a much better understanding of the social networking idea and how businesses and groups use things like Facebook.
I think Facebook turned out to be my favorite but Youtube and some of the photo things were great fun.
I connected with old friends on Facebook and kindred spirits on 43 things. How interesting that there is a place to offer support and encouragement to total strangers who are trying to accomplish something!
Please though, don't set up the expectation that "it only takes an hour" The people I have talked about all took much longer and felt bad that they took so long.
I would love to do 23 more things, there's a whole world out there to explore!
My slogan: 23 things..........so much fun you'll forget it's work!

I hope the 23things listing will remain so I can go back to revisit things I want to know more about. It's a great tool.

Thing 22

I agree that we should keep on learning. At this point I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm eager to go back to some things and learn more about them. It has definitely whetted my appetite for more.
I think I'll try to explore some in more depth but first I have an online class I want to take.

Blogging wasn't new to me but I didn't think of it as a work tool at first. Now there is the RA blog and one I set up to communicate with others who help with Author Alert. Not much news in it but it's a place to leave information for each other about how many holds we've placed, etc.

Thing 21

I didn't find Friendfeed friendly. Between my own problems with remembering log ins for various things ( I know you told us to keep track but generally I remember them all) and the fact that it was very picky about what and where you got the url they wanted I was pretty frustrated. Some things were easy to add, some were not and some I never did get done.
Amazon.com didn't recognize my e-mail but I know it was the right one. Facebook url never did work despite the fact that I got it from the page they wanted.
I found the RSS much easier to use but don't really see the need in my life for either. It's good to know about them but they haven't changed my life.

Thing 20

This is my 2 day old grandson looking at a computer. My point is that computers are a fact of life and have been a part of daily life for much of the population since birth.
Gaming is part of this world and if libraries try to ignore it they are missing out. We need to acknowledge and embrace technology to remain vital.
Is this any different than the 23 things? Games make learning fun, 23 things encourages us to learn by doing fun exercises.
Like any other tool gaming can be used for good or evil but when used for good it can make the library a fun and relevant place for kids and adults.

Thing 19

Probably just bad timing but my introduction to Drupal was
The site is currently not available due to technical problems. Please try again later. Thank you for your understanding.

I'll try again another day

I tried today and was successful in getting in and changing my record. I wanted to put a picture in my record but it said it was too big. Probably would have been deleted at some time anyway.

I think this new Lint will be better once we get used to it. I'll miss having an Adult Services page as my homepage at the desk but the information will still be there just a little bit removed. I think the interactivity will make LINT much more vibrant and interesting, it has pretty much been a warehouse of information both new and outdated. If we can all take part in keeping it up-to-date I think we will all benefit.

Thing 18

I had one question on my survey that wouldn't take multiple answers. I didn't go back and fix it once it was sent out. I thought Survey Monkey was easy to use and I should have tested my survery before I sent it. I read this advice in Burl's blog and should have heeded it.
Here are the answers from my "essay question" about what questions we should ask about separating genre fiction:

Is "Inspirational" really a genre? What about SF Inspirational titles like "Oxygen"?
Fri, 3/20/09 11:00 AM

2.
I think you want to only have those who read from these genres answer the Q. re separation. I would follow it by a question about why it is important to them.
Tue, 3/17/09 3:25 PM

3.
We should probably know what percentage of our genre readers come looking for specific titles vs what percentage primarily find books by browsing. If you come looking for specific titles, it doesn't matter as much where they are. If you browse, the Adult Fiction collection is a lot of territory to cover when looking for one of the above mentioned genres.
Mon, 3/16/09 4:08 PM

4.
Popularity of genre; where will the separated genre be shelved; how will pages/staff know where to shelve i.e. will the genre be stickered or appropriately marked?
Mon, 3/16/09 3:53 PM

5.
What do other branches do (Ell BKM). Should we consider format? (paperbacks) What have patrons requested? If you take "A" out what is left?(ie literary fiction only?) Who gets to decide what is included in what genre? Your survey would not let me pick the same answer for 2 genres "Flaw Alert"
Mon, 3/16/09 1:24 PM

6.
Do you primarily read one genre?
Mon, 3/16/09 11:51 AM

7.
Would you read exclusively from one genre if they were seperated?
Mon, 3/16/09 9:45 AM

8.
What is your favorite section of the library? -BC
Sat, 3/14/09 6:16 PM

9.
Ask patrons how important it is to them to have browsing collections arranged by genre. Do the majority of fiction readers find their desired reading material through browsing or the use of the catalog.
Sat, 3/14/09 8:31 AM

10.
Do you prefer to browse within a particular genre? If so, which ones?
Sat, 3/14/09 8:21 AM

11.
Do people come in looking for a "section" of a specific type of book. Is there a particular genre reader that we aren't serving who would be more likely to use the library if we separated and made their reading choices easier to locate. p.s. your form would not let me tell you that I read 2 genres equally often...I wanted to. This may skew your results
Fri, 3/13/09 4:26 PM

12.
Solid definitions of the genres. That's why I think it's hard to vote for Horror, because I wonder if it would be difficult to distinguish the proper location, whether general fiction, horror, or maybe even sci fi? Speaking of which, Lahaye might be inspirational to some, but it's Horror to me :-).
Fri, 3/13/09 3:40 PM

13.
...
Fri, 3/13/09 3:27 PM

14.
How do you find books in your favorite genre?
Fri, 3/13/09 3:18 PM

15.
Do
Fri, 3/13/09 3:14 PM

16.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............
Fri, 3/13/09 2:59 PM

17.
Do we have enough room to seperate genre fiction
Fri, 3/13/09 2:48

Burl sent a link to a site that uses surveys as a Reader's Advisory tool. Very interesting!
Essay questions can be very helpful even though time consuming. They should be carefully constructed to yield helpful results. I was more involved in how Survey Monkey worked than in creating the perfect questions so I think my survey was mostly just an exercise in learning survey monkey rather than a scientific study.

Thing 17

I'm suffering from social network overload! Facebook is interesting, I see lots of things on Gather that interest me. I'm already on LinkedIn but that doesn't seem to work. Somehow I get messages saying someone has asked to be connected but the site resolutely says I have no messages. Meanwhile the e-mails continue saying I do. Then a friend asked me to join Hi5.
I can't get over the red being so hard to read on Ning but everything else on NIng seems to be easy. I've been a member of Care2 for a couple of years, just didn't think of it as a social network.
I put my goal of funding 60 cat spays in 2009 on 43 things. I may be the only one with that particular goal but maybe someone will like the idea.
I'm especially interested in how non profit organizations use social networking both for the library and the SPOT clinic where I work on my days off.

Thing 16

I've been looking forward to this one. I'd never explored Facebook but heard so much about it. I find it kind of spooky. The second I signed up my friend Suzanne showed up and asked if she was my first FB friend. So I wrote on her wall. I've already been sent a pizza salad, joined the Shiisa Quilts group and the Fabric Addicts NOT Anonymous group. I think you could get lost in this for hours and hours.
I'm very interested in the group aspect of this, I know many animal advocacy groups have facebook pages. I plan to investigate other librarys on Facebook too.
I can see why Facebook is so popular, I've already seen people listed that I've lost track of.
I'd originally thought I'd explore MySpace too but a girl can only stand so much social networking!

Thing 15

I liked the Dog Whisperer on Burl's blog. I found a Mugglecast by using Podcastalley. It started with a big ad for GoDaddy and then it was a bunch of people talking about Harry Potter stuff. Not very interesting. I think video podcasts are more interesting than ones that are only audio.
I think it could be interesting to have some booktalk podcasts but I'm not longing to do them myself.

Thing 14

My favorite hummingbird youtube done by a local videographer
Oh this was just WAY too easy! Watch to the end to see an amazing way to keep the nest clean.




p>

Gooseberry, the smallest of the bunch holds her own against her brothers and sisters and even fends off Mulberry's motherly efforts.

The Berries have moved from the newborn nursery to a room of their own. They are making the most of it, running and climbing like crazies. They range in weight from 15 ounces, Gooseberry, to 1 lb 4 oz (Huckleberry) Mulberry does her best to keep them in line but every day she asks for a room of her own! This is a video I did to promote kitten adoption. I believe I could do one about books.........but kittens are cuter!

Thing 13

Anyone who can do these things in an hour just isn't looking at much. I get sucked in and find myself spending much more time.
I put up books on Library Thing, put the titles on my blog, read amusing stories from other librarians, joined a group, looked at recommendations.................I'm a libraryperson, of course I enjoy librarything.
I also looked at GoodREads and found a book I didn't enjoy listed on the 50 worst books list.
Then I had to read what others said about it and they too found the narrator a self-absorbed bore.
I'm interested in LibraryThing for Libraries, I think our patrons would love reviewing books and the whole social aspect. I don't know about the cost though, that could make it much less appealing.

Thing 12

Not my day! All the news sites were featuring a news story about a kid in Oklahoma torturing a cat.
I looked at them all. Didn't like the looks of reddit (okay I'm judging a book by its cover but after all I'm a quilter) Newsvine had way too many ads cluttering up things and some of them were people doing situps so the motion was very distracting from the content. I read nasty stuff about Digg changing how they did things and alienating people so I signed up for Mixx.
Then I went to the New York Times, found a nice safe article on pets and the damage smokers can do to their beloved pets. It seemed like the least I could do after reading about that poor cat.
Most of what I see on these sites is sensationalized stuff like we see in the tabloids. They seem to be mostly a waste of time. I did see the full list of presidents I'd heard about in a news story this morning. Radio said Bush was #36 and Lincoln was #1 and Buchanan was last. I wanted to see the whole thing and found it easily. Probably could have found it easily without these sites making me see the cat torture though.
So I'm not a fan!