Monday, May 17, 2010

Thanks for a fun 23Things Experience

I had a great time learning new stuff. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks!

I did the survey as requested.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I think I see my car in the parking lot!

I finally got my Google Map to display correctly! You can view my satellite image of the library on my previous entry entitled, "Google Map", or save yourself the trouble and just check it out here:

View Frisco Library in a larger map

Monday, May 10, 2010

23 Things: Postmortem

Wow! What a great experience! Thanks to all involved!

Now to answer the parting questions:

Do I think social media has a future in libraries? Well, yah! It better. If it doesn't, that says more about the future of libraires than the future of social media. If you get my drift.... If libraries are to remain vital segments of society we must keep up with society. We must remain relevant. If we retreat to "tried and true" means of communication and forsake the new and untested, we start down a sad path to unsustainability.

What do I wish FPL was or wasn't doing? Well, I wish we had a few specialty blogs. Maybe genealogy, for instance.

Have I learned anything from the program? To quote Sarah Palin (or was it Tina Fey?), "You bet'cha!"

If so, what? To again quote Sarah Palin, "Oh, lots of stuff." Seriously, what I most enjoy is actually blogging. I never thought I would have my own blog, even if it was work-related.

What could we do better? I can't think of anything offhand. The program was well-thought-out and purposeful. The Things were succinct enough for us to do given our restricted schedules. Bravo!

Perhaps the only thing I can think of doing differently is taking a break about three-quarters of the way through and asking each of us what we enjoyed doing and what we want to continue doing. Then, it would be up to the library admininstration and employees to work out a way to continue using our skills. The most unfortunate outcome of the FPL 23Things program would be to learn new skills but not apply them.

Monday, May 3, 2010

RSS and Google Reader Revisited

Time to look back at a Web 2.0 social media of my choice: and I choose co-winners, RSS and Google Reader. I use these more often than any of the other items, so they were a natural choice. I love RSS because the info comes to me... it's pushed ... and I can access it in a timely manner. What do I access? Well, I get stuff from ESPN (They have a big site and they push lots of stuff!) Using Google Reader, I follow Un-Shushed. I was fascinated by Edward the Emu's story. Poor critter doesn't want to be an emu anymore. Can you blame him? Oops, I digress.... I get stuff from 23Things. (My favorite, of course!) I subscribe to stuff about museums. I follow a couple of bloggers that I met at a state museum gathering earlier this year. Library organizations send me info. ALA sends stuff my way, too. Because one of my responsibilities at the Library is to apply for grants, I subscribed to a couple of grant sites. It's a good way to keep on top of different grantmakers and their deadlines.