#18

I'm already a user of googledocs which I find very useful for working on projects from home or office without having to email documents back and forth.

Kicked out of the Sandbox!

I feel like a little kid left out of the sandbox when all the other kids get to play! I am attempting #17 which is supposed to be fun - I could not sign in to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox. The link from the 23 Things page just asks for email address and gives a generic password. That didn't work so I clicked "help" and found a way to sign up for PB. Then when I tried to log in I was told I did not have access to the workspace. So I emailed a question to the "contact." Even that was fraught - I couldn't read two of the squiggley words. So now I have completed one of the web's frustrating sessions of spinning wheels pointlessly. Ah well, it is all a learning experience! I will await an answer to my email, if it hasn't disappeared into some black hole, so I can continue on the 23 Things track.

#16

All the links for this unit were working so I was able to get along today with fewer roadblocks! I visited several wikis, including the Princeton Library book wiki which was created for a summer reading program and allowed patrons to contribute their own book reviews. A good idea to engage patrons in the library web site, but the reviews themselves are a bit like reading those customer comments on amazon.com. More successful, in my view, is the Library Success wiki for sharing best practices. This demonstrates that if the community involved in creating a wiki have some professional interest and standards in common the end result is better quality. I think there are many potential uses for wikis in MCPL.

Library 2.0

I read all the referenced articles on web 2.0 and library 2.0 , finding most useful the discussion of library OPACs and how they are evolving in a 2.0 environment. The idea that all library services should be user driven is not new, but the technologies available to make that a reality are what is driving current change. I would just be happy to have a more user-friendly OPAC right now - the present catalog is the source of endless patron complaints and difficulties. Reading these conceptual articles is like looking through a glass at an idealized future world, one that may be hard to create in the current budget environment.

On a Roll

I am really on a roll today - stymied again at #14 by broken links and disappeared tutorials. I think the problem is that the 23 things training was written quite some time back and is not updated.
However, I did explore Technorati and found another resource to learn about tags:
http://www.wolf-howl.com/blogs/how-to-use-tagging/

13 spells doom

Well I'm definitely experiencing the web of doom today! And on unlucky #13 too! None of the links to resources for Delicious work, not even the "essential" 12 minute video. The message says it is no longer available.
Can I give myself a free pass for #13 because I use Delicious already to manage book discussion site bookmarks for the Readers' Cafe?

#12 delayed

Well I started on #12 today and encountered the dreaded site maintenance message - Rollyo is undergoing much needed maintenance and will be back soon. No definition of "soon." So it's on to #13 for me.