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This newsletter is for participants in 23 Things On a Stick. It offers hints and tips, as well as news to encourage participants as they continue to learn.
Share any hints you have by sending them our way at minn23@gmail.com.
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On to the Finish!
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 Just in case you haven' see it yet,
this is the completion incentive--cool!
Keep working so we can add your blog to the list of finishers! Remember, the deadline is September 15.
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Questions & Answers
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These questions have arrived via blog postings & email. The answers may help others navigate the 23 Things On a Stick.
 Q. Help! How can I keep track of all the new Web 2.0 accounts I now have? A. One way is to use the same username and password for these accounts--at least within the constraints the sites allow--you may need to add a number or character in some sites. While it is not a good idea to use the same username and password for your bank accounts and these accounts, the risks are low if you use the same ones for your all of your Web 2.0 accounts. An inexpensive tabbed address book is a great tool for organizing and recording all your usernames and passwords. Enter the sites alphabetically by site name and the add username and password. Handy and portable for working on more than one computer. |
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Thing 19. Podcasting
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 Podcast downloading is growing according to a 2006 Pew
Internet report which showed a jump from 7 to 12% of Internet users
downloading podcasts. We can only assume that there are even more podcast
users since the 2006 report, and maybe now we've turned you into one of
them. So, did you listen to some of the local podcasts or find any
interesting ones when you searched a podcast directory? Nancy Pearl's Book Lust is a popular one,
or maybe you'd prefer her Book
Review podcast. You can even listen to past presidents if you
subscribe to the Presidential
Libraries Podcast. If you need a little library humor (and who
doesn't by the time you get to Thing 19, right?), then check out the video
podcast (sometimes called vidcast or vodcast) Erik the Librarian. You'll
even see a cameo by one of The Office actresses this week! And, don't
forget, you can subscribe to podcasts in your RSS reader or in iTunes.Here are some of the podcasts 23 Things participants found:
What interesting podcast did you find? Did Thing 19
inspire you to use some podcasts at work or maybe to create one of your own?
If you are adventurous and want to create one, check out How to Podcast or the Podcasting 101 Wiki for more
help. And, if you're concerned about legal issues when it comes to
podcasting, Creative Commons has a great Podcasting Legal
Guide you might want to read. Let us know what interesting podcasts you found or created!
Posted by LeAnn S, CMLE 23 Things Coach
Suchy's 23 Sticks
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Thing 20. Social Networking & Libraries
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So, what did you think of Facebook
and MySpace? Did you think of ways
in which you could use them to connect with your patrons or highlight your
library?  Here are some tips for each of them that might help.
If you joined Facebook,
try adding some Facebook applications to your profile. The Facebook
Platform is a set of Application Programming Interfaces (or APIs) which allows
users to develop applications that can add features to Facebook pages.
There are more than 20,000 APIs, and some of them can be used to highlight
library collections like Books
iRead or Flixter
Movies where you can rate and review books and movies. Or add your
blog to your page with an application like Blog
RSS Feed Reader. Search the Application Directory for other
applications you might like (like Librarian
or WorldCat)
and don't forget the fun ones, too (like Minnesota
Twins Fan or Scrabulous)!
In Facebook you can also create a Fan page for your library
like Hennepin
County Library has done. Users can then become "Fans" of
your library and you can send "Updates" to all your Fans.
As for MySpace, take a
cue from the Denver Public
Library Teens profile. On their profile they have their blog, their
Flickr photo site badge, badges to CQ Researcher and a Student Resource Center,
a YouTube video about the library, and they frequently change the song on their
profile to highlight different music they have in the library. Make a
profile for your library and try to get patrons to connect with you
there. Highlight your MySpace page on the screensaver of your library
computers or on library bookmarks or on library due date slips!
What other things did you find in Facebook and
MySpace? Do you have any great ideas for how we could use these social
networks to connect with patrons? Let us know! Posted by LeAnn S, CMLE 23 Things Coach
Suchy's 23 Sticks |
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Reminders & Hints
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 With the flurry of posts as the end nears, it is more important than ever that you:
- Label each post with the Thing number.
- Check your blog on the mother blog. You don't want to do all this work and not get credit for it!
DEADLINE: September 15
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Keep working on the 23!
Sincerely, The 23 Things On a Stick Team
Patricia (CMLE), Ann WS (Metronet), Linda (NCLC), Ruth (NLLN), Robin
(SAMMIE), Ann H (SELS), & Nancy (SMILE)
The Minnesota Multicounty
Multitype Library Systems
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