Thing 46

Joined WebJunction.

Thing 45

Didn't know it was called that. Not to be confused with cloud tags or results. UMM uses NetFiles for back-up

Thing 44

Some useful tools I hadn't heard of.

Thing 43

Hulu is cool. I like using it.

Thing 42

Alternatives to NPR and MPR!

Thing 41

Digsby and Lifestream could be invaluable at organizing all our social tools.

Thing 40

More mashups. More friviolity.

Thing 39

I made a photo album on Snapfish. Scrapbooking online is the next wave.

Thing 38

Looking forward to playing around with screencasting using one of the free tools. I'll need a mic which I can use for podasting too. I wonder which of the free screencasting tools allows you to edit?

Thing 37

I have a Flickr account and a Snapfish account. I also use Phixr for fast and dirty photo fixing.

Thing 36

So much fun so little time.

Thing 35

Great articles and very interesting book review/reading/cataloging sites. As always, the sheer number of social book sites is a bit overwhelming, but it's good to be aware of them. Perhaps when the majority of reading is online (Kindle, etc) we can still have virtual bookshelves to show off.

Personally, I feel that the Internet does provide a more superficial and scattered experience that robs concentration even as it assists struggling readers and gives a more varied opinion and layered media stimulis.

Thing 34

Really cool articles on the future of reference. Concerning Internet answer sites...libraries have always been behind the curve and fairly isolated. Only recently have they really branched out in a coordinated effort. Wouldn't it be cool if WorldCat offered a reference service with participation from subscribing libraries? We have AskMN, why not AskALibrarian?

Thing 33

More user feedback good. Need a filter, however.

Thing 32

Would like to create a Google Map for independent bookstores someday.

Thing 31

Surprisingly, a few interesting things about Twitter. The possible RSS applications were new and I downloaded Twhirl.

Thing 30

I really appreciate the feed filters as well as the Delicious search options. Unfortunately, I rarely search Delicious, using it simply as a online bookmark site instead. I do have rss feeds, and look at them occasionally, but I can't think of terms that would be ideal for either exclusion or inclusion. It works better for me to scan and review manually.

Thing 29

Google Tools is a lot like a college student who graduates with 6 majors and then has no idea what to do. As cool as some of the ideas are I really wish Google would work on improving their admittedly good search engine instead of all these alpha/beta experimental thingees that don't always work the best. For every GoogleEarth there's a 1-800-GOOG-411. Great in theory (free info look-up service) but not so great in practice. I tried it, and it took me several times for the automated service to understand my city and state correctly.

Google Scholar is another bold venture that was begun and then just quietly languishes. How many years will it be in beta? Perhaps the best thing that could happen to Google is Bing, a pretty good search engine in its own right. Privacy concerns notwithstanding, good may not be good enough sooner than Google thinks.

Thing 28

The trouble with iGoogle and the other customizable portal sites is that you can't always put EVERYTHING in them. Case in point. I have a university email and calendar that I can't drop and drop into iGoogle. These are probably the two most important tools I have on a daily basis. So what do I have in iGoogle? Lots of fun gadgets like Nature Pictures, clock, weather, even some RSS feeds with a library perspective. Others that don't. Which means I rarely use it. The university has a portal that does have my email and calebdar, among other things, I can add other tools as well. Truth be known, I haven't used it much either. But the interface is getting better so that may change.

So much of what we do is habit...

Thing 27

I've been trying (really I have) to discern true useful applications of Twitter for myself in a academic environment. At it's heart, Twitter is a really easy way to let individuals know what you're doing on a minute-by-minute basis either through the Web, IM or texting. For example: I just scratched my nose. That would be an awesome Twitter entry and well below the 140 character limit per post. One of the 23 Things videos explained that your friend wouldn't have to need to know that you're mowing the lawn, but then went on to say that others might like to follow what you're doing? My immediate reaction is why? Who has the time to post about trivial matters or read about them? To me, Twitter undermines concentration, focus and deep thinking and puts in its place scattered tidbits of gossip. Think of a bird, fluttering its wings and darting here and there. That's what Twitter does a thousand times over.

I do see a use for it as another means of querying a certain group on a question or problem. Instead of inanely posting gibberish it could be used as a means to get answers. Twittering conferences, is fine I suppose, but wouldn't it be better to summarize the speaker and then blog about it?

The reference applications of Twitter deserve further consideration. Right now, our online reference tools don't get that much use, but if our users start using Twitter then we need to be there as well. I've already begun discussions on setting up a library Twitter account for publicity purposes.