Task 22 - Social networking

I know that Facebook and other social networking sites have lots of followers, but they are not for me. I didn't create an account.

Task 21 - Twitter

I must admit that I was pretty sceptical of Twitter - I really don't care what celebrities do and I don't think that I need infinite details about what my friends do either. But I have noticed that quite a few libraries are now on Twitter, including Library of Congress; New York Public Library; and our very own ICML page now has a Twitter link.

I also came across an article titled "9 logical reasons why you need to integrate Twitter into your website" which had some very valid reasons for using it. I was wondering why you would bother to have a blog and a twitter page, but this is a good explanation "Each time I post to our blog, I RT the post title and link (Tiny URL’d, of course) on both my personal Twitter account as well as the CHROMATIC Twitter account. Those tweets are then displayed on various pages found throughout our website and blog, instantly increasing the exposure of the latest article and, as a result, increasing the odds that we experience the “Twitter Effect“ (from the previously mentioned article).

After looking at some of the personal Twitter pages though, it reinforces my original lack of interest in the site. Apparently 60% of Twitter users stop using the site after one month (from the Charleston Report, May/June 2009).

Task 20 - Podcasts

I have really enjoyed some of the podcasts I've been able to download to my iTouch via iTunes, including Margaret Throsby's interviews.

Out of the 3 links on the 23 Things page, I could only access Podcast Alley. This was easy to search, but I wasn't sure what to do with the podcasts when I found them, as I wanted to load them into my iTouch. So, then I found the same podcasts in iTunes, but needed to try several before I could get any to download - kept getting an error message, which I found a bit frustrating as a still uncertain podder.

Great technology, huge range of material to download, I think this is one of the most enjoyable tasks I have done. I will soon be an expert on the meaning of life; the path of the heart the evolving thought and more!

Task 19 - YouTube

I haven't used YouTube much, I have seen a few of the really popular sites, but generally don't search for videos. But I did find a video on the Cochrane Library recently when looking for something for a lecture.

The Library of Congress have a YouTube page now, with some fascinating pieces of footage- the current one is the Buffalo Fire Department in action (1902).

I can see that it would be quite addictive and what a time waster!!! I really like this treadmill dancing video ( I am no. 1,004,408 to view it, so obviously a bit behind the times).

Task 18 - iGoogle

I set up my iGoogle page quite a while ago, but hadn't used it for sometime. I have revisited it since doing 23 Things and have added a few more gadgets. I really like the way you can customise your page, and some of the add-ons are really nice. Such as the National Geographic photo of the day; Places to see before you die; Word of the day;Delicious etc.

Task 17 - Google

I'm very impressed with the range of Google products, I didn't know about a few of these. Google docs is an interesting idea - I like the templates and the ease of creating a range of documents. It would be really useful for sharing information, but I wouldn't want to save anything at all confidential on the Google server.

I have seen a few items of information about the amount of data that Google has stored and I admit it seems a bit scary.

Really like Google maps too. But when I did a search on University of Queensland I got some quite strange results. I checked on my house, and my neighbour is on the footpath mowing his lawn.

Tasks 15 / 16- Wikis

I have had quite a lot to do with Wikis at UQ, particularly our branch wiki and find them to be a great tool in keeping all of the information and communication in one spot.

My biggest gripe is attaching documents and then having to reattach when the document is updated.

I also found some interesting wikis from the examples listed - the Library Success: a Best Practices Wiki had some good links to information literacy which I have bookmarked.

I liked some of the public library wikis and found some new authors to try. Also a fan of Wikipedia.

I loved the quotes and ideas on the Task 16 wiki.