By Bumbleboat

Week 5, Thing 12: Roll your own search tool with Rollyo

2007-07-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

I think I would have to spend a lot more time with this to make it work well for me. I'm not sure how to put up a link to the "search engine" I created... I'm marvinkmooney and the engine is called "my find this book."

Week 5, Thing 11: Take a Look at LibraryThing...

2007-07-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

My husband was teasing me for being a big-time librarian-type nerd when I was playing around with LibraryThing, but I had a lot of fun seeing how many others had cataloged my favorites (Jane Austen). I also couldn't resist finding out how many people were on the Harry Potter bandwagon with me! And speaking of nerds, here's an article a good friend sent to me about librarians:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/fashion/08librarian.html
?_r=1&em&amp;ex=1184040000&en=9ae24dcd72a1b0ff&ei
=5087%0A&oref=slogin

And here's my LibraryThing catalog:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/marvinkmooney

Week 5, Thing 10: Play around with an online image generator

2007-07-03T17:09:00.001-07:00

Here's my avatar! Had lots of fun creating her :).

Week 4, Thing 9: Explore MERLIN etc.

2007-07-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

I wish I'd known about MERLIN before... I concentrated mostly on finding book/author blogs because I've been (historically) really horrible at keeping up with what all is due to come out!

Week 4, Thing 8: Make Life Really Simple with RSS and a News Reader

2007-06-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Bloglines: what a beautiful thing! Most of my friends have blogs, and I just try to check them on a weekly basis to find out if anything is new, but this is so much easier!

In terms of libraries: there are so many book/author/library blogs out there we could be making use of. Not to mention the ability to keep our customers updated with our events!

Lego Sneaks

2007-06-19T11:23:00.001-07:00

sneaks01
Originally uploaded by marcnelsonjr

I was actually looking for James Caparas' pictures of Sneaks when I found this! Maybe I'm the last to see it, but I figured everyone would get a kick out of it anyway!

Week 3, Thing 7: Create a Blog Post About Anything Technology-Related

2007-06-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Wow. Soooooooooooooo much I could say here... but I think I'll go with my love for the Nintendo Wii :). Some of you may have seen these set up in local shopping malls (and the commercials- "Wii would like to play" - are all over TV), but basically it's the newest version of Nintendo; it's main distinguishing feature being the "wii-mote" control.

We got the Wii for my birthday this year (despite being a "girl," I have always loved Nintendo, and have owned every Nintendo system from the NES on) and I immediately fell in love with it. It comes with only one game, "Wii Sports," but that was all I needed for a good long time. The wii-mote works with a sensor to communicate your movements: you swing the wii-mote like a baseball bat while you're playing "baseball," you jab and uppercut to beat your opponent in "boxing," etc. It's fabulous! Wii Tennis is my personal favorite-- I played it so much on the first day that my legs and arms were sore!

Long-time Nintendo fans can purchase games dating from the originial NES library through the Wii. I've already gotten "Super Mario Bros." and "Donkey Kong," and it's like reliving childhood :). Another popular (and highly commercialized) feature is the ability to create an avatar (or many) called a "Mii." After creating Miis for ourselves, my husband and I moved on to Jon Stewart, Oprah, Dr. Phil, Howard Stern, Kim Jong Il, and a host of others.

As far as I'm concerned, the Wii is the best video game system on the market right now (and I also happen to own the Xbox 360, so I do have a basis of comparison). I highly recommend it :).

Week 3, Thing 6: Flickr Mash-ups & Third Party Sites

2007-06-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

I love Mappr! What a great idea! During winter break of my senior year in college I went on a month-long cross-country road trip. I have tons of pictures (and other stuff- like gas receipts for historical value), and did make some great scrapbooks, but it would have been so cool to document the whole thing this way.

Week 3, Thing 5: Explore Flickr

2007-06-12T15:20:00.001-07:00

palm tree
Originally uploaded by pshab

I'll probably start uploading my own photos to Flickr tonight, but for now I had to post this palm tree :). Who doesn't love palm trees? Palm trees are synonymous with "beach!"

A lot of my friends use Flickr, and it seems like a great tool for sharing photos. I'm a little late jumping on the bandwagon, but now is as good a time as any to get started!

Week 2, Thing 4: Register Your Blog & Track Your Progress

2007-06-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Done and done.

Week 2, Thing 3: Set Up Your Own Blog & Add Your First Post

2007-06-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Check.

Week 1, Thing 2: Lifelong Learning

2007-06-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

I would say that, of the 7 and 1/2 habits, the most difficult for me is viewing problems as challenges. In hindsight I might be able to see them that way, but, in the moment, problems are problems to me.

Play is certainly the easiest for me, but I feel like that's a cop-out so I'll choose teach/mentor others. As a librarian, I feel that this is part of my job. I also have a background in early childhood education, and "teaching" has always come naturally to me (just ask my younger brother, who was subjected to "playing school" as soon as he was born).

Week 1, Thing 1: About this Program

2007-06-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

This blog was created for the Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 ("23 Things") program. I'll try to stick to the topic at hand for each week, but, like my peers, I have a tendency to stray into other realms ;).

I cannot remember life without a computer. My dad was obsessed with technology, and so we got our first little Apple when I was 5. We had the Prodigy internet service as soon as it came out, and later switched to AOL. My brother and I were among the first of our friends asking others for their "screen names." When I was in middle school, my mom sent my dad out for a gallon of milk and he came back with a CD-ROM drive (he forgot all about the milk). He had a laptop and a cell phone for work when cell phones were still the size (and relative weight) of bricks. In high school, I had my own computer in my room (in the late 90s, this was a HUGE deal). My college experience was vastly different from that of my parents. I almost never physically entered the library (I know, I know, it's shocking but true) because everything I needed was available electronically. My friends and I hardly ever talked on the phone because everyone was on IM and/or Facebook at all times.

Not much has changed since then- we've added blogging as a way to keep in touch (most of us have started families at this point) but that's the only difference. You want to reach me? Email is still the fastest way (or just IM me). Of course, my cell phone is internet capable, and has bluetooth, and a camera, and I send a lot of text/pic messages.

So, what I'm trying to say here is that I'm no stranger to emerging technologies, and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm excited about this program, because I think libraries need to stay on top of the digital world. After all, how can we organize information if we're unaware that it exists? And how will we reach our customers if we can't find them in the digital universe?