Thing #23: Final Thoughts

Wow. Finally finished. I have to say I had fun using the geocaching theme. It always provided me some focus with my searching, exploring, and prompted discussion in my posts. I have to say that the Things that scared me the most were ones I knew would take a lot of time. I am really glad I didn't succumb to Second Life. I knew it was one I shouldn't get into. I have enough to do. I still don't go on Facebook as much as my friends and family would like me to.

The most challenging part was actually writing the blog and using the tools to add the links and embedded video and such. Not only do I now know at least a little about a lot of Web 2.0 tools, I know ALOT more about blogging. I was working on a geocaching streak of consecutive days during this adventure, and it would have been cool to have been keeping a blog of those geocaching adventures too. I do know a librarian geocacher from HCL who blogs. You know, there really are many geocaching librarians. Maybe more librarians like those who stumble on this blog should start caching!

I do think these Things are very valuable for students and researchers, and I now have enough info to be dangerous as I endeavour to help them through the info maze.

Thing #22: What Did I Learn Today?

Well, I sure have learned lots of new stuff! I have even learned some new tricks with old tools I have been using. I know I'll be keeping up with this blog for awhile, as I need to get going on the new 23 Things very soon. It feels great to finally get through the first 23. I'm adding more RSS feeds now!

Thanks to these first 23 Things, I also have found great ways to keep up with my favorite hobby, Geocaching!

Thing #21: Other Social Networks

I had not visited any of these sites before today. I had heard of Gather. It seems like beta vs. VHS all over again. Facebook is winning when it comes to attracting adults, though Gather seems to be more Audi or Lexus than Chevrolet.

I see the value of the 23 Things group on Ning, so you can meet your peers and help you through the Things. However, I do think people will gravitate to one network more than not, and perhaps just be in more groups on that one site.

I am on a couple of small message boards that are private, and I socially network with the 250 people or so on those boards. Between those and Facebook, I am over-socially-networked. One of those is a geocaching network, of course. Oh, one more geocaching item of note: I posted a photo of myself with two other geocaching librarians on my Ning account.

I don't have an interest in joing more networks. I am late to the game on Ning, and I see that my peers have not used the site in quite some time.


Visit 23 Things on a Stick

Thing #20: Facebook

This is one more Thing that I already had a lot of experience with. I have been a member of Facebook for some time. I am part of a large family and it is one way we can keep in touch easily, know what everyone is up to, and can share photos and video. It seems the younger members of the family are more active with mutliple posts each day. They have lots more Friends too. My mom even joined! Since I joined I have been "friended" by high school folks I haven't talked to in years. I have cousins that I haven't seen for ages contact me too.

As far as Groups go, of course I've joined geocaching groups, and I have many geocaching Friends. The weird thing is that Facebook requires real names, and geocaching.com doesn't, so it's hard to tell who someone is when they send you a friend request. I look to see who we have in common before accepting an invitation.

Here are my geocaching groups:

Minnesota State Parks Geocaching Wildlife Safari
Sports & Recreation - Outdoor Sports
Size:96 member

Cooler Crew Cachers
Sports & Recreation - Recreational Sports
Size:23 members

Garmin Oregon Users
Internet & Technology - Gadgets
Size:168 members

Personally, I have some hesitation to going "all-in" on Facebook, as I think privacy is a big issue. People put so much private info out there, and they, especially teens, friend so many people without really getting to know them all first. You really need to be careful with what you post. I don't think my brother's employer would like some of his posts. Yikes!

Thing #19: Podcasts

Here's another Thing that I have experience with. I have a geocaching friend named SirZman who does a weekly podcast called Twin Cities Geocaching Podcast. His special guest-host is his young daughter Super R. SirZman is married to Lady Z, who just happened to be a former library staffer at Washington County Library! Small world, huh? I have been subscribing to his podcast ever since Thing #3! I have also listened to podcasts of radio shows. I once called in to a radio station. I could later hear my call/conversation on the radio station's website through their podcast library.

I did search podcast.com for more geocaching podcasts and found 29 listed! My friend's podcast was not one of them. Have a listen:

Twin Cities Geocaching Podcast

Gcast is no longer free to post via phone, so I did not try that tool. I don't see myself getting into podcasting myself.

Thing #18: Youtube

This Thing I already know alot about. I have had an account for years, and have shared video with friends and family before. I know this site can be a huge time-eater, since there seems to be a video about everything on here. I once was trying to explain how my Pampered Chef apple peeler/corer worked to someone. I found it on Youtube! They could see for themselves.

For this Thing, I searched geocaching topics. There are tons! I even got to see Dave Ulmer discuss the hiding of the FIRST EVER geocache in April 2000. I also saw a geocaching event video that I am in! Watch if you want, and I'm in the background but very visable during parts of the coronation.




Just for fun, check out my 3-year-old nephew singing the national anthem before a Gophers Volleyball game!

Thing #17: ELM Productivity Tools

Here's another Thing that I really didn't know much about before working on my Things. The feature I had used was to set up a search alert to watch for new articles on Dog Parks for a task force I was on. That made the first part of this Thing easy. To keep with the theme of this blog, I set up an RSS feed for articles on geocaching, of course. I suddenly was linked to 43 newer articles. Awesome!

I then logged into Ebsco and tried out the Page Composer. I tried some of the page formatting features and I saved it to my PC. I have to admit that I didn't get very far with this. I downloaded a very simple web page. I can see this being fun and helpful for students though.

Next I went to ProQuest Newsstand. Again, I searched for geocaching topics instead of those suggested. I used the refine feature, which was a great idea, since I started with over 1000 hits. I ended up getting it down to 71, and marking 5 and creating a page with those. I clicked on the "download" button, but couldn't tell if that worked at all. I then used the "email" feature and was able to email all the links to myself quite easily, and I think that is a really good feature. I love the email feature on all of these databases, and often recommend it to patrons so they can easily keep track articles they found helpful. Knowing more about how to send a bunch at one time is even more helpful!

Last, I went to NetLibrary, very grateful that I remembered my user name and password I had created at work, since I an doing this from home. I was able to get in and search the ebooks. Unfortunatley, I had no luck with the term "geocaching." I switched to the broader term "treasure hunting" and found some books. I looked in the Idiot's Guide to Sunken Treasures, and made some notes. I had never noticed that feature before. That's pretty cool!

If I was doing some serious research and needed to keep track of some great resources I found in ELM databases, these tools would be very helpful!

Thing #16: Assignment Calculator & the Research Project Calculator

Wow! I had never heard of these tools before. Students have it so easy these days! If any students used these, and really followed them, they'd get "A"s everytime. I tried the calculator for a 6 week project and a 2-day project and it handled both. I looked in the teacher's area and noticed how it helped explain how the resources work. I felt like I could be out of a job soon! I liked how it explained how to search the databases and I think that is one thing in particular that could be printed out and left to aid students or other patrons.

I could see myself recommending this to students, especially the many History Day project students. It list many resources, like style manuals, that we own in the library and can help legitimize the resources we carry and have access to.

As far as my own projects, if I need to write a report, this tool has timelines that could help keep me on track and to keep the process moving. The prompts seem to be generic enough to apply to almost any topic.

If I were giving a presentation on geocaching, I could use this to create an outline of the presentation and flesh it out. I could adapt the timeline to my project. Perhaps I could try this for developing the geocaching class for the library!

Thing #15: Libraries and Games

Well, this Thing can sure be a big time-eater! I tried out Puzzle Pirates, since I think Second Life would be overwhelming. I did peek at SL, but it seemed far too complicated for me to learn in a short period of time. In Puzzle Pirates I created a pirate named Tessargh and she learned to bilge and carpent (since I have 4 carpenters in my family it seeme appropriate) and I earned 81 pieces of eight while working on the ship. I was challenged to rumble by someone on board and I took them on. Since I didn't have much time to learn, I was easily beaten. That was enough for me to jump ship and head back to my bedroll and crate with my rat. :(

I can see how people would want to come to the library and use our faster computers to play these games. Heck, it took over 5 minutes just to load the game at home with my broadband access. I can also see why the kids talk to each other as they play. They need help figuring out what it going on!

As far as geocaching goes, I googled "geocaching RPG" for role-playing games, and stumbled upon a game by Jeep. I tried to register for it and play, but it seems to be defunct now. Here's a screencap from it:

Thing #14: Library Thing

Okay, I have to admit that this Thing got me interested and I spent lots of extra time on it. I only added 22 books from my library, but I picked a diverse group of books, including a few bestsellers. I was surprised to see that someone had 8 books in common with me with only 22 to choose from! I can see the social and the personal reasons for using Library Thing.

I see the value of Library Thing as a reader's advisory tool. I looked up a few titles I know and saw other titles recommended that I agree, would be similar titles. I even found some titles I didn't know and could use those too! Many of the titles were by the same author, but we refer patrons to books by the same author all the time. I do think looking up titles in Library Thing for RA would be more useful for lesser known titles. I often just google "Who writes like..." and find lists online that work as well or better. Those lists are usually written by librarians.

I could see us starting up a library account for the staff to enter suggested reads. We could all put in our favorites, and get a diverse list of recommendations. We could have other area users "friend" us to get suggestions.

Now, I am really excited about the geocaching connections I have with this Thing. First, I added a geocaching novel to my list. It is a little known novel. It's a really weird book that my sis-in-law found on Amazon.com. Well, the funny thing is - I'm the only person to enter it on Library Thing! It's that unknown! It's also that bad. Second, and really cool, is that this Thing asked me to check out an account by a middle school media specialist. I followed the link and saw the profile, and lo and behold, here was Brook, AKA BookMN! BookMN is a geocacher I have met when caching in Detroit Lakes. I saw her recently at an event at Wm O'Brien SP too. Small world!

tesser's LibraryThing catalog

Thing #13: Online Productivity Tools

I have Google and Yahoo email accounts, so I decided to use one of those to make a personalized home page. I chose iGoogle and changed themes and chose topics and added gadgets. I really liked doing this, and made this new page my home page by editing the "Internet Options." I like having the local details that I didn't have with Comcast as my home page before. This Thing was pretty fun for me.

I have to say I wish I had worked on this Thing earlier, as I could have used a Count Up Gadget while working on my geocaching streak. I was trying to cache for at least 365 days, and I was successful. I stopped my streak on October 19th, 2009, so you can guess how far I got when you read this. You might want to use a gadget to compute that too. :)

I have used google calendar for a non-profit for which I used to volunteer. One thing I did for them was to search out events on the web that would be of interest to my group's audience and link them to our calendar of events. This allowed me to learn how to link to other calendars and how cool it is to be able to list the location, summary, and even link to google maps for directions. No paper pocket calendar can do all that!

As far as to-do lists go, I have trouble even writing down paper ones. When I need a list, I write it down quickly on paper and take it with me, usually in my wallet. Taking the time to log into a website to keep track of tasks is overkill. I think I have this feature on my cellphone. I could try that out. I can see the value of using it in a group setting. You can share a calendar or list with others much more easily online, especially if the team members are in different buildings.

Thing #12 Digg, Reddit, and other Social Media

I checked out the homepages and tour/help screens for Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, and Mixx. I did not register with any of them so that I could keep track of my favorite articles, nor my friend's articles. I noticed that the articles on the homepage for Digg, Reddit, and Mixx seemed to be from less well known sites, and the topics were less serious than the top news stories I'm used to seeing on my Comcast homepage or my local news sites. The articles that were most popular were often very bizarre. Newsvine seemed to have articles from sources I recognized more, and what I might call traditional news sources and perhaps had more reliable reporting.

People often talk about bias in the media, and I guess these tools can help the masses decide for themselves what is newsworthy. Someone still needs to write the original content, but those writers could be from anywhere and write about anything.

Honestly, in my worklife, I don't think there is enough time in my day for me to make Digg useful to my patrons. There are things you could do to create a bibliography of sorts, or to even spend time Digging articles that you think could help the internet world at large by, in effect "voting" for them, but I just don't have that kind of time. I could suggest to patrons to try those sites to find the
"best" articles on the topic of their interest.

As for geocaching, well I had a little fun looking up the topic "geocaching" in these sites. One article in particular that was amusing was from the Rachel Maddow Show. She was asking what people thought would be the best changes President Obama could make. One suggestion was to change daylight savings time to make the day lighter later so the poster could go geocaching longer before the sun sets after work! I love it!

Thing # 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

I read the info, watched the video, and created an account with Del.icio.us. I started bookmarking, and found it to be like adding "favorites" on steroids. Not only are you keeping track of sites you'd want to go to again, you can get to that list on any computer, not just the one you bookmarked it on. The tagging was interesting. I'm familiar with tagging, but it was weird seeing tags be suggested. As a librarian I can see tagging being sloppier than LC subject headings. The word can mean different things to different people, and false hits occur more often. I still see that it's much easier for people who didn't go to library school.

I can see the power this has in study, and I have a new question I can ask students when I show them a good website. "Do you have a del.icio.us account? You might want to bookmark this one..." What a nice way to keep track of stuff on a topic while researching.

As for the geocaching theme, I started bookmarking geocaching websites, and other related ones, like the one on letterboxing. I clicked on some other sites after going through the tags, and found some cool other geocaching links, like www.everytrail.com. Fun!

Thing #10 Wikis

I have been using/editing Wikis some but very little over the past 3-4 years. The first one I was involved with was for a trivia team I am on. Others include a reference wiki for work and the WB Reads wiki for a "One Book" program coming up in my community in 2010. I'm on the planning committee. I like the way we can all edit it and contribute. I like that I get notification when changes are made.

For this Thing, I went in an read from a couple of wikis, and paid particular attention to the Library Success wiki. I spent quite a bit of time reading through the best practices section on weeding, since I am in the process of doing a big weed at my branch. Much of what I read reaffirmed what I already knew, and some was giving me the nudge to let go of some things I drag me feet on. I also watched the Common Craft short video, which was alot of fun.

To tie into geocaching, I looked up wikis using Google. I came across some on the Wikihow site, and I signed up. I read through some the "Go geocaching" wiki, but decided to add soemthing to the one on choosing a GPS receiver. I have three GPS receivers now, so I feel somewhat knowledgable about what makes one better, and where to get them. Here is that wiki article:

How to Choose a GPS Receiver for Recreational Purposes

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The hobby of global positioning has become more popular than it ever has been. With the ubiquitous electronics store offering so many choices of GPS receivers, it's hard to know which unit is right for you. This wikiHow will deal with how to make the right choice.

Steps

1. Determine what you will be using the GPS receiver for. Believe it or not, GPS units are designed for a variety of uses, and the feature-set of each unit caters to different usage patterns. Some possible uses are:
   
   • Vehicle Navigation - Driving on the road
     
   • Off-Road Activities - Hiking, hunting, skiing, etc.
     
   • Water Activities - Boating, fishing, etc.
     
   • Aviation - Flying a plane
     
   • Geocaching - Navigating to waypoints for fun treasure-hunting
     
   
   
2. Decide on the form-factor of your GPS receiver. This essentially describes the shape & size of the technology, or how small of a space you want to use GPS functions in. Some possibilities are:
   
   • Handheld - A stand-alone unit that generally fits in one hand, with its own screen and buttons
     
   • Laptop sensor - A small, plain "box" that connects to your laptop, and lets software on your laptop do the rest of the work
     
   • PDA integrated - If you have a Palm or Windows Mobile PDA, you can get add-on sensors and software for them to do the same job as a laptop, but have it fit in the palm of your hand.
     
   • Marine/Vehicle mount - Something which will stay in your vehicle or boat at all times, and only provide vehicle/craft navigation
     
   • Wrist mount - Tiny GPSs have been integrated into wrist-watch form, ideal for jogging and other outdoor exercise purposes. Some of these units come with built-in fitness sensors, like heart rate monitors.
     
   
   
3. If you prefer the laptop sensor or PDA integrated types, your choices are limited only to compatibility with your operating system (Palm or Windows), and whether or not you want it to connect wirelessly. Ensure that both your laptop/PDA as well as the GPS unit are Bluetooth enabled if you expect wireless operation between the two. The rest of your functions will be determined by the software you use, which you can acquire independent of your hardware purchase. Despite this, all GPS units of this type will come with a packaged software bundle of some sort.
   
4. If you prefer a vehicle/boat mount unit, examine sizes, possible mount locations, antenna configurations etc. that are right for you. Consult your retailer for options. Some marine GPSs come with built-in fish finder features as well.
   
5. If you prefer a handheld unit, consider the following additional features and how important they are to you:
   
   • Colour screen - More expensive, but some people find them easier to read
     
   • Battery requirement & consumption rate - how many batteries does it take, which type, and how long does it take to drain them? Would you prefer a rechargeable unit?
     
   • Electronic compass - telling what direction you are facing while you are standing still. GPS units without this can only report your direction when you are moving.
     
   • Barometric altimeter - calculating altitude based on air pressure
     
   • Mapping - Displaying your current position on a map, uploading extra/custom maps into your unit
     
   • Data entry - Some GPS units only allow you to upload waypoints from a PC, while others allow you to enter them while in the field
     
   • Communications - Some GPS receivers have built-in two-way radios (ie: walkie talkies) to allow for communications as well as navigation. These units may provide position-sending functions so that you can locate others in your party
     
   • Removable memory cards for maps - Some people prefer to be able to swap maps while in the field, rather than connecting their GPS unit to a laptop. You may purchase a GPS that provides a CompactFlash (CF) or SecureDigital (SD) slot for map cards if this is important to you.
     
   
   
6. While there are countless GPS brands on the market, Brickhouse Security provides excellent GPS tracking devices:
   
   • Brickhouse Security: http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/gps-car-tracking-vehicle-logging.html
     
   • Lightning GPS: http://www.lightninggps.com/
     
   
   
7. Visit the following stores in your local area to see if they carry the model you're looking for:
   
   • Outdoor/trail shop - Anywhere that sells hiking or camping equipment
     
   • Electronics stores - such as BestBuy have a variety of GPS units for all purposes
     
   • Hardware store - Many hardware store chains sell GPS units in their hunting/outdoor departments.
     
   • Department store - Stores such as WalMart carry GPS units in their hunting/outdoor departments.
     
   • Marine equipment store - Even handheld units can be often be found at boat equipment shops.
     
   
   
8. The most important thing to remember about any handheld GPS unit is that the tiniest detail can ruin the experience for you. Buttons that are too small, or located in awkward places, or units that are *just* too big to fit in a certain carrier, etc. can all be deal breakers. The best way to deal with these challenges is to be sure that there is a money-back guarantee or return policy if you find that the unit doesn't work for you in a practical environment. To this end, be sure to set aside time as soon as possible to test your new unit out as much as you can before your return policy runs out.
   

Tips

• Borrow GPS units from your friends and see what features you enjoy and which things bother you about the unit
  
• What extra features are there? Extra functions are available in many GPS tracking devices, an example of this is using you in-car GPS system’s speakers as a hands free for a cell phone. These extra functions can make your life much safer, but do you need them? As appealing as it may be, don’t go for the GPS tracking device or auto GPS system with the most features, many of them are unnecessary for your average lover of the outdoors or vehicle owner. (more tips available at http://www.gpstrackingdevice.net )
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Decide On Which GPS Unit to Buy
  
• How to Get Better Accuracy With a Handheld GPS
  
• How to Win the DARPA Challenge
  
• How to Make a Smart Car Surveillance System Using a Mobile Phone
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Choose a GPS Receiver for Recreational Purposes. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

My thoughts on Wikipedia: I use it all the time. When googling, the articles come up often. I always give a disclaimer to patrons that the information is not always reliable, but I show them the sources linked at the bottom. Wikipedia is probably as reliable as most of our books. It is certainly more updated that many of our books.

Thing # 9 Collaboration

Okay, I admit I didn't really look at Zoho very closely. I didn't really care about it. I have used Google Docs before when I worked for a non-profit online magazine. I already had an account there.

For this Thing, I did use my own account. I am using a new laptop and didn't have the doc on wanted on it. So I went to my old computer and emailed the doc to me. It was a Word doc. I tried to open it on my new laptop from my email, and realized that I don't have Word on the new laptop. I was able to convert it to a .doc and then upload it to Google Docs. Yay! Naturally, the doc is about geocaching. I created a display for my library on geocaching about three years ago. This doc could use some updating. I invited a geocaching buddy of mine to view the doc and edit what she thought needed editing. Let's see how well I take criticism! :) I also invited my partner, Diana, to view the doc, just to test that feature as well.

I can see how this can help in a branch library system with committee work. Each committee member can edit a doc without even having a face2face meeting! As long as people are good about adding their name to edits, then we can keep track of changes and know who to talk to about changes.

Thing # 8 Sharing photo slides

I used PictureTrail to create a slide show. My simple slide show has a few scenes from a couple of recent geocaching trips. One trip was to Iowa with MinnesotaBrad and Speedysk1. The other trip was up to the Iron Range and Ely area with she_wolf. We saw some cool stuff! Oh, and the pic of me with jREST shows us celebrating a very challenging FTF! This is a nice way to do some photosharing, especially in an informal way. I can see it used to show off scenes from an event, such as an author talk or a teen program.

Thing #7 : Communication Tools

Email, yikes! Pretty much everyone uses it now. I have 5-6 accounts I use. I am still amazed at how many people come in that don't have accounts. It's tough to help them set one up when they aren't used to computers, but they need email addresses for everything these days; from online orders to filling out government forms.

I have been using IM for years, since 2001 when I started using AOL. I switched over to YM after a while and really liked that. I even used the voice part of YM to talk for free over the internet with my mom in Wisconsin. I have fallen off in my personal use of IM, but now I use it daily at work. I think it is a good tool for quick one-on-one communication and it really does help keep the noise down by not haver the staff calls ring in. I have to give credit to IM for speeding up my typing skills. I have improved a lot in the past 8 years!

I have been in chat sessions, but I really don't like texting, and have not used that feature of my phone. As an English Major, I really don't like what has happened to the language because of texting. I use some of the abbreviations in IM, sure, but the texting is so much worse.

I wish this Thing addressed Message Boards or Forums. They are communication tools that many people use. Maybe that's just too Web 1.0. I do regular posting on two Geocaching forums. One is for the MnGCA. The other is secret. Shhhhhh!!

I don't recall attending a webinar before, but I had seen snippets, since I knew what to expect. I watched one of the Minitex ones on Proquest Newsstand Complete. I never new that only the major 27 papers were indexed. I thought they all were. I see how webinars can be very useful to get training out to the masses. It's a little dry, but it gets information out there.