Thing 17

ELM (Electronic Library for Minnesota) is wonderful. Because this is statewide, it provides access to information for everyone! What a great concept! The steps were lengthy but I learned a lot while completing them. I will continue using ELM to research topics of interest to me. I was not aware of all of the features prior to the "23 Things". I am happy to have learned this and I'm sure it will be helpful in the future.

Thing 16

I reviewed the Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator. These tools would be very helpful to stay on-task to complete assignments. I entered a few "sample" assignments and was amazed to see how accurate the timeline was. I would recommend the use of these tools to students.

Thing 15

Thing 15 was quite interesting. I opened an account in Second Life. It was very challenging to learn to navigate but flying is fun. :) I visited Info Island and was impressed. It was fun to try but a real time waster. I got lost with all of the options, making your avatar laugh and gesture. It was really intriguing but I didn't learn a lot other than some things aren't necessarily what they seem. There were a lot of friendly people willing to help which I found to be wonderful. I don't know if Second Life would be good to offer in the Library because it is tricky to navigate. Librarians would have to be avid users of the site in order to give assistance to patrons in the use of it. I found some of the content offensive.

I do support the Nintendo Wii. Our society is becoming more and more sedentary and this provides an opportunity to exercise while having fun. I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for children's libraries and I also believe that adults would like it, after they tried it. :)

Thing 14

I think LibraryThing is very handy. It was interesting to browse reading lists and see what others are reading. I don't have many books right now but plan to utilize this service when I get more organized at home.

Thing 13

I tried ThinkFree (www.thinkfree.com/html/guide/guide_01.html). This was an online collboration tool that allowed you to edit documents. It was very similar to the tasks that I tried back in Thing 9. There are also plenty of "time wasters" available. It was interesting and fun to try different tools and see what they could do.

Thing 12

I reviewed the "Digg" information. I think it's neat but I like to form my own opinions. I think when we view others' "ratings" we are more apt to change the way we feel. It is interesting to see what other people think but I'm not one to fall prey to their 'ratings'.

Thing 11

I have set up an account with Del.icio.us. It seems as if it will be helpful to be able to access my 'favorites' from any computer. There have been many times at home where I would like to find something that I ran across at work but have been unable to locate it. Now, I will be able to add it to my del.icio.us account it and *presto* I will have access. Very neat. I'm happy to have learned to use this site.

Thing 10

Our library set up a wiki. I think it's awesome. I haven't done too much editing in it (other than the training class) but that's because we were not sure which information that we wanted to post. I like the advantage of being able to post a link to a document that people can access through the wiki. It will help with unnecessary printing. People will be able to view the content before printing. :)

Thing 9

I requested access to the documents but still haven't heard anything. :) I have worked with this collaboration software and it is really nice. I like the fact that you can access the documents from any computer and make changes. Having the document available on the web is a plus because you don't have to have specific software to make changes. Very beneficial!!!!