The final countdown....

Some final thoughts on the 23 Things programme:


What have been the highs and lows of the 23 Things for me?
Highs
Talking about 23 Thing with others
Discovering some exciting new tools I can use to help manage information
Finding some interesting blogs about library trends
Getting to "play" with new technologies

Lows
What is this obsession with having "friends"?
Managing all of my multiple identities
Second Life menace with limited vocabulary
Having a photo of myself added to a social networking page by another 23 Things participant without my permission and very much against my wishes


Where to next with emerging technologies?
For me?
Contemplate, consolidate, reconsider, be objective
Retreat from networks I am unlikely to use again

For libraries?
Review, evaluate, validate, implement, review, evaluate...

RSS retrospective

I deliberately wanted to leave this blog entry until I had received RSS feeds for a substantial period of time and my reflections were considered:

In what cases do you think RSS will be useful?
For users of news type services, web pages and blogs if the services are stable and reliable, updates are made regularly and not incessantly, and the interest of the user is sustained over a period of time

For you?
A useful way to keep a watch on library trends - I tend to look at posts occasionally but not regularly

For our users?
Useful for updates - a good way of promoting new services, trials, or resources
A different way of providing alerting services

What makes it different to email?
Only what I want to read , when and if I choose to read it
No spam!

Revisiting my goals

Revisiting the goals I set in Week 2. Did I reach them?

Goals
To learn about emerging library technologies
Well I definitely know more than I did before, in some cases more than I needed or wanted to know.

To evaluate these technologies and assess their potential for adoption
I can definitely see a use for some of the technologies, others I'm less sure about, some I just think are irrelevant - I think the Library as a whole needs to seriously evaluate these technologies and the role, if any, they should fulfill in the provision of our services.

To adopt some of these new technologies to resolve current workplace need
Have already begun using RSS feeds and del.icio.us to help management information, will possibly adopt other technologies as the need arises.

To help mentor others
I found that many of my colleagues did not need the assistance of a mentor.

As I thought at the beginning of this programme regularly finding time to complete the tasks was the greatest difficulty of all.

Now at the end of the programme, my overriding thought is that all of these technologies need to be rigorously evaluated and pedagogically validated before they join our current methods of service delivery.

In my eyes it is preferable that we use these technologies to find creative solutions for existing service delivery needs rather than the "lackey band" situation that causes us to deliver the same service using so many different technologies that staff and other resources are stretched to breaking point and we provide no service well. Just because a technology exists and other libraries have chosen to investigate its use, does not necessarily mean that it is valid or that we have to use it too.

Retroland

While in Learning 2.1 I had a quick look at Retroland and now I'm definitely feeling my age.

However, it did give me some ammunition to use in a disagreement about this horror product of the '60's and '70's - Fresca:



Big Brother remembered it as lemon flavoured but I was sure that it was the most awful version of synthetic artificially sweetened grapefruit drink that I have ever ingested. It used to be sold as a diet drink along with the equally awful tasting Tab, so I was amused to read this description in Retroland:

"In Spanish, the word "fresca" means fresh, and that's something the Coca-Cola company sought to bring to diet-conscious soft drink consumers in the early 60s. The grapefruit-flavored beverage catered to more 'discriminating' palates, and has grown a cult following over the years. While its popularity has grown slightly since its introduction, it remains a cult beverage with followers that grew up with the drink. It joins the ranks of Tab, another specialty diet soda that didn't get mass market appeal."

It was apparently the beverage of choice of US President Lyndon B Johnson - go figure.

Learning about Learning 2.1

The learning 2.1 activity that I chose to look at was Thing 45: Go With the Flow which is all about mind maps and flowcharts - I looked at two different web-based tools for creating this type of graphic: bubbl.us and Gliffy.

bubbl.us is an easy to use tool for creating mind maps - easy that is until you try to export or embed the image you have created, their help is non-existent! as you can see from my mind map I had lots of ideas about how this technology could be used in libraries, including brainstorming, project management, promotional literature and information literacy. I could see a direct tie in with the information road maps that were discussed at the Sharecase.



Gliffy is similar to bubbl.us but also has this nifty floor plan creator.

Sharing slideshare.net

Web 2.0, Hip or Hype - A Library Perspective

An intelligent and reasoned look at what libraries can do to harness the potential of the collective intelligence.

SlideShare Link

Most useful to libraries ... hmmm...

The two most useful tools that I have looked at so far are RSS feeds and del.icio.us.

I can see that these tools could be effectively used to aid information management by both library staff and library patrons - right here, right now.

Another advantage in my eyes is that they don't rely on critical mass and the obsessive need to have "friends".