Thing 22

I’ll definitely add links and web pages about Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 to my RSS aggregator, so I can continue learning about all the interesting and cool stuff that you can do nowadays in the fields of technology and information.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can waste humongous amounts of time surfing the “net” without getting anything done (thank you, Facebook and YouTube!). Seriously, though, if you’re like me, then one way to keep updated with some of the new technology we’ve learned about is to say, “ok, instead of looking at the last pictures of my neighbor’s pet doing something cute, gross, or both, I’m going to do some work, or I’m going to read about…” whatever you think it’ll be useful to you in the future. You don’t have to put a lot of time into that to see some results, just a few minutes every day will do the trick.
Unfortunately, I haven’t discovered any other tool than the ones we learned while doing the 23 Things, but I’ll keep searching and I’ll post them in my blog whenever I find them.

Thing 15

I used Podcast.com to listen to “Terror y Nada Más”, a podcast in Spanish about horror stories. I had never used podcasts before, but I found it pretty straight-forward, so I didn’t have any difficulties to use it. I don’t think I will be doing any podcasting in the future if only because I don’t like listening to myself, but I will definitely try to listen to this podcast on a regular basis. The story I listened to is called "Sentencia de Muerte". And even if you don't understand Spanish, you can listen to the tones of the people talking; when the woman talks is really creepy, just like I like it! ;-)

Thing 17

As I said in one of my previous posts, I’ve had a Facebook account for some time now and I enjoy it very much. I must say that after reading the article in the Time magazine I was surprised to learn that there are so many other social networks that I didn’t know about. It makes sense that MySpace or Facebook wouldn’t be the only ones, but I never realized the extent of social networks of any kind. The Internet really is amazing, isn’t it?
When I read the article that talked about the online social library a couple of questions came to my mind. They said that people started sending messages to the library from all around the country, but I don’t understand what purpose those patrons had when they did that because in case they wanted to check anything out they would have to go to Tacoma in person, unless they checked out virtual books, which is what I suppose. Another question is how do they do it for patrons to check out movies? Do they let them download them from the Internet and for just a specific period of time? They don’t say anything about it and I want to know. Whenever I have more time I might ask them about that in the Discussion Boards they have.
Still, I find the whole idea of making a virtual library very optimistic; I don’t know if it would work for everybody, and I don’t really see this library doing it, but who knows? Maybe the future will say something different.
Goodreads looks interesting and I will definitely check it out because I’ve been thinking for a while now that it would be a good idea to keep a record of the books that I’ve read and to exchange opinions about them at the same time that I try to find something similar that I might enjoy.

Thing 12

Mixx is an awesome way to share stuff that you care about. I could totally see the library using it internally to spread important (or not) news rapidly, although I don’t think that it would help with productivity because we would spend time looking at it, reading what other people had posted… so we’d have to use it during our breaks if we wanted to.
Digg seems very similar to Mixx. People say that it’s been there longer than the other similar social-media sites, although I’d never heard of any of them. Digg allows you to create a profile, which I don’t think you can do with Mixx (at least they didn’t say so when I took the tour), and that makes sense if you want Digg to be part of your daily routine, to communicate with your friends, meet new people… The library could use it, of course, but I think that Mixx is more than enough for a workplace where pretty much everybody knows everybody.
Newsvine is more of the same. I kind of like it a little more than Mixx (which I prefer over Digg) if only because it looks more professional, like something that we would feel comfortable to use in the workplace.
Reddit looks intended for young people. I wanted to take the tour, so I clicked on the link that said “take the tour” and it took me to a page that didn’t explain much; it just told you some of the general information that you needed to start posting or reading news but it didn’t say anything about the different options that would allow you to configure the site to make to “yours”. The way they use to rate the comments on Reddit confirms that its users are mostly teenagers and/or young adults.
I hadn’t heard of any of these sites before, but after taking the tours and reading the comments people made about them, I would use Newsvine as my preferred social-media site. For me, it’s the most complete one and that’s something that makes me feel good and confident about it.

Thing 18

I’ve used SurveyMonkey before to create a training-oriented survey for the Circulation department, and the only difficulty I found was to remember my username and password. The way they let you choose your own design and the options they give to place your questions and your answers wherever you want makes it really easy to use. I tried PollDaddy and I think it is very similar to SurveyMonkey with the only difference that PollDaddy lets you choose whether you send out a survey, a poll, or both. I guess this might be interesting for people who want more specific statistics, but if you just want people’s opinion about something, then SurveyMonkey is more than ready for you. I created a survey that you can access by clicking the link "Survey 23 Things". Thank you for your interest!