Thing 23: Final Thoughts

Overall this has been a very positive experience. It is always good to learn something new & if you can have a little bit of fun while doing it, that's even better. When we first started this program, I knew about social networks, video-sharing sites, blogs, etc., but had very little personal experience with them. I've learned a lot (Yea Me!) & will continue to build on what I've learned. Thanks to all the staff who worked so well together & helped us successfully complete these 23 Things.

Thing 22

I have completed the survey.

Thing 21

My 6 are as Google Docs, Flickr, Podcasts.com, YouTube, RSS/Reader, and the Time 50 Best Websites (how can you narrow it down to just one?!) The common thread is that all are easily accessible from anywhere, at any time, with a computer. For the most part, they don't require the download of any software. Most of what you save is stored on your computer, although you may download to a portable device such as a Flash Drive or an iPod. You can limit most of your searches to just what interests you & share what you find/create with friends, family, or co-workers. Each of these are fairly easy to use.

Thing 21

The six I chose were: Google Reader, Flickr, Comic Strip Generator, Del.icio.us, Library Thing, and You Tube. I would say that a patron might find many of these things useful or interesting. Google Reader puts everything on one page, which makes it much easier to check sites of continuous interest. Flickr was best for sharing photos, and Comic Strip Generator was fun. Del.icio.us was a great way of bookmarking things, Library Thing helped to keep a list of what you've read and liked. Probably You Tube is a standard for a young computer user.

Thing 20

I don't see any practical application for this. I didn't save iGoogle page because I wouldn't use it.

Thing 20

I set up iGoogle page with Happy Trails theme & saved it. The gadgets were easy & fun to add. Try the Idiot Test gadget. Looks easy but you'd better pay attention! I have the game on my iPod. The tool I selected was Picnik. Easy to use. I could see recommending it to our patrons who may want to easily edit pictures & save to email, Facebook, etc.

Thing 19

I explored several of the Top 50 sites, although one I would've really liked to check out was the games site which was blocked, of course. National Geographic was interesting, as well as MayoClinic (a site I had referred a patron to earlier in the day, when the medical site she wanted was unavailable). Some of the 50 sites were ones that we had already visited as part of our 23 Things. Again, more time would be required to really investigate these site(s), in order to be more informed, before I would recommend to patrons.