Conclusion

I admit that I am biased in saying that "23 Things" is an endeavor worth repeating in the future. The initiative has been a good alternative to past classroom-style presentations that were limited to 15 or 20 attendants and proof of this can be seen in the number and variety of staff-created blogs. Also, it allows for staff to help each other out and share their experiences.

Technology comes with stresses and headaches, but "good technology" helps alleviate problems. The creation of this blog and the posting of enteries has been greatly simplified since the early days of straight-coding in HTML. People share photos worldwide on a daily basis now, without having to develop film and mail the photos. Electronic research tools make it easy to access resources that you would not be able to previously consult. This isn't a list of "the wave of the future", but regular online tools that people are using today for any number of purposes.

What did I find particularly insightful? Novelist's new interface was a pleasant discovery and I will be recommending the tool to my patrons. Also, looking up Courier-Journal obituaries via ProQuest has been beneficial.

Booking it

I haven't used Good Reads in a while, so I will have to explore all the new features. I did find Mr. Joe Patron and recommended that he check out "A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" by Mr. James Joyce. Eventually, I will get around to finishing "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" (I hope).

Next, I added the 'Business' RSS feed in BookLetters to good ol' Google Reader.

Novelist's new interface is much improved. I would like to think they were inspired by LFPL's Music Corner. While mucking around, I found a list of "Humorous Horror". This is really beneficial if a patrons requests a book recommendation in an area that I am not entirely familiar in. Fantastic Fiction is another good site for readers, as is Good Reads.

Finally, there are books that recommend books! One such one is "1001 books for every mood". Bustin' out the print resources!

Wiki(d) potential

For a while it seemed that "wikis" were a taboo subject in the library realm. I am not sure if it was a matter of ignorance on how to use the technology or the fear instilled by the occasional media report about out how Wikipedia was manipulated to show incorrect information. As the CommonCraft video demonstrates, wikis are far better at centralizing content development, when compared with e-mail. 

The use of internal wikis are a great way for a remote team members to coordinate efforts. For example, when researching the history of our Fairdale library branch, our team used a pbworks wiki to host our research and this meant fewer face-to-face meetings and final, quality product delivered in a matter of weeks (not months).

For the purpose of 23 Things, I chose to add Manchester United's logo to the favorite team and Junot Diaz, Ernest Hemingway and William Styron to the list of favorite authors.

Consumable Media

The coverage on YouTube of Japan's tsunami and earthquake wreckage would have been previously unfathomable. What you would have been reading about in tomorrow's newspapers is being documented right now by individuals using their cellphones (or other digital recording devices). One such example:

Unfortunately, individuals are now confronted with sifting through large quantities of information to determine what is and isn't relevant to them. Time is the restrictive factor and savvy consumers utilize tools like Google Reader to pool their content into a single portal,  capable of being accessed via a multitude of web-connected devices. 

The word "revolutionary" is applied to almost every new technology, but sometimes it is the simplest technology that turns out to be a game changer. Podcasts may have been considered a geeky fringe topic, but it seems that you can find a podcast for nearly any topic. Organizations, like NPR, take it a step further and even let you design a custom series of podcasts, based on a topic. Equally, the BBC has several podcasts that I have equally enjoyed.

It is on that note that we should acknowledge a portion of digital content that libraries often provide for free - downloadable audiobooks. NetLibrary certainly has it's quirks, but being able to heck out an audiobook and listen to it on the same web-connected device is a plus. I took a look at "A way with words: Writing, Rhetoric and the Art of Communication" by Michael Drout, which is a 7 hr and 8 min book that I hope to work my way through.

The powerful simplicity of RSS

RSS isn't a revolutionary concept: You update your page, I know (almost) immediately. However, we enjoy one-stop-shopping elsewhere, so why not in the way we consume news/blogs/info?

My RSS reader of choice has been Google Reader for the longest time and 23 Things has see me add two blogs for the purpose of the exercise. The first is "Hack A Day" and the other is the current Louisville Cartoonist Society blog.

Mad skills and Research Tools

There are several articles on how to up your Google-fu (See: How to become an Ascended Master of Google-fu), but have you considered upping your research skills? The free electronic resources available to you from your library may not be on Google, but require a level of savviness to navigate.

To that end, I cannot imagine being without OED online, CQ Researcher or Business Reference USA. Those have to be my top picks, although I wish more people knew about CQ Researcher, which is excellent if you have to write a research paper, participate in a debate, or simply stay informed.

Anyways, as part of our 23Things exercise, I had to test my research skill. The result:

10a) Sent in. Woot!

10b) Betty Jean McMichael died on Sunday March 16, 2008 and was survived by four sons. Getting this answer mean using the Courier-Journal database to search for "Betty Jean McMichael" for March 2008.

10c) LFPL does have full-text access to both the "British Journal for the History of Philosophy" (03/1998 onward, minus the last 12 months) and "Clinical Medicine and Research" (02/2004 onwards). However, we do not have "Telos". If you want an article though, don't forget our awesome interlibrary loan service.

11a) Morningstar is such an excellent database. I simply searched for the "Vanguard Target 2020". Morning Star pulled up the ticker symbol  Anyways, Duane Kelly manages the Vanguard Target 2020 fund. The overall stewardship grade is a 'B' and Morningstar rates the fund 4 stars.

11b) The journal/magazine/newspaper search really helps with locating the LCD TV article. I simply searched for "Consumer Reports" and found that we had electronic access to CR using "General OneFile". Anyways, the most recent article was from March 2009 titled "Budget Buyer".

11c) Based on Business ReferenceUSA's Custom search for "Coffee shops" in the 40202 zipcode, Starbucks is your leading competitor with 3 stores. A total of 94 such establishments exist in the "402**" area. Wow.

Flickurges

On one level, Flickr demonstrates our strange desire to document our world, whether it be the people around us, beautiful pieces of art, random trash, or those inexplicable, fleeting moments. Yet, documentaries are (possibly by nature) story tellers and in uploading these images, they share  glimpses of their experiences with the larger community. For example, I was able to see photos of protests in Libya that someone took on their camera phone yesterday!

I definitely would recommend The Commons search for anyone wanting to gain access to royalty-free images or graphics for the purpose of creating flyers or graphics to advertise their business. Small business owners often have tight budgets and this would be a great tool for them. 

Lastly, mashups are such a creative way to engage the community. I can already envision ways to use Earth Album together with a larger touch screen computer. What a conversation starter!

(on left: Photo was taken on May 10, 2010 in Byron Bay, New South Wales, AU, using an E-3 by paul (dex))