Thing 23--FINISHED!

I finished the InfoPeople 23 Things Challenge yesterday. You can see all my 23 Things here. I thought I'd copy the post here so you can see what I've been up to. The good news, besides being done, is that the challenge did reinvigorate my interest in the social web, and the biblioblogosphere in particular.

I'm happy that I've looked at some new and not-so-new technologies and ideas through the lens of "what can enhance my library?" I wasn't that interested in the "Library 2.0" bandwagon when it brushed past me in 2005-2006. Taking a good hard look at it now was useful. At least now I feel au courant with the buzz, as of last March. Looking more closely, I see the original 23 Things was "loosely based upon Stephen Abram's article, 43 Things I (or You) might want to do this year (Information Outlook - Feb 2006) and the website 43Things." I know nothing makes something dated faster than a blog post. Being au courant a year-ago-last-February makes me feel decidedly less au courant. But I don't care deeply, as I think my surfing and reading around were more current, and anything that let me sit back and spend quality time with Walt Crawford is good. (Of course, I saw the new C&I came out yesterday. I think I'll print it at work!)

I do intend to get back to biblioblathering! I have to note some recent likely candidates that have joined the great unfinished: A Distant Magic (Mary Jo, how could you?); The Lonely Patient, The Dog Whisperer (if he can whisper, I can skim); the two-volume history of the Kumeyaay (interest and intention but SO dry).

23. Summarize your thoughts about this program on your blog.

In checking to see that I had actually done all of the other 22 Things (one of the payments for going out of order), I had many chances to revisit what I liked, didn't like, etc. Plus what I didn't get to: if you want to know the only library use I found for twitter, email me.

The time constraints were difficult. I originally said I would set aside one to one and a half hours a week to work on this. Of course, there were some weeks when I just did not have a spare 5 minutes. There were also many weeks when I thought the Things were too interesting to leave alone and gladly spent my own free time to work on them. Not every student is going to want to do that. (Note: I have no idea how much time I should allot to training this week :D) My boyfriend did NOT approve.

I found my Learning Contract this week accidentally (it was in the Program Expenses file?). I had correctly identified time as my main obstacle, and told myself to find off-desk time, attention/focus, and access to the office PC. I have to report that these things did work a bit for me. My co-workers have been great about giving me time--now I know I can ask when I need it. My attention and focus have been pretty good. Once you have played with enough of these Things, you learn to stay on track. Or you make your boyfriend mad, don't meet deadlines, etc. ANYTHING that helps me with time management is GOOD. So that was an unexpected side benefit.

One of my thoughts is that I'd like to keep on mentoring others doing this challenge. I think a more active leader could really help. I hated hearing people say they were stuck on stuff or lost or whatever. Now that I'm done, I don't want to lose these skills. So I'm going to see if I can find a way to keep this going.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this course was I hoped it would be a way to get to know more people at MPOW. It was, but on a fairly limited basis. I think the decision to do our posting by email was a mistake. Subscribing to all the blogs with an aggregator really worked for me to see what others were doing--Outlook just doesn't have the same functionality for links, images, etc. Meanwhile, now I'm going to miss keeping up with some of 23 Thingers--I already have informal plans with a couple. The interactivity is my fave aspect of library 2.0. I would like to see more interactivity with my colleagues, as well as our customers!

When I read Walt Crawford's article (see Thing 15), I started to wonder 1)why did InfoPeople suggest an article so opposed to the "Library 2.0" bandwagon and 2)why were we all doing these Things?

I went back to the FAQ

There is a lot of buzz in the library press about Web 2.0 and its impact on libraries. The California State Library believes that Web 2.0, and the social software that it has given birth to, has tremendous transformational potential, perhaps second only to the introduction of the Internet itself. In recognition of the importance of Web 2.0, the State Library has made a special grant award to Infopeople for a series of FREE training events titled Moving Libraries Forward to Web 2.0.

I think staying fresh on new technology is important in our line of work. We need to know what our most "permaconnected" users want and need. In part because we need to serve them, but more because things trickle down from the early adopters. I didn't want to touch a computer when I was in college. I keep wishing I could find that boyfriend-with-the-incredibly-common-name who tried so hard to get me interested. YOU WERE RIGHT! I also thought iPods were kind of stupid less than three years ago. Now, you will take mine from my cold dead ears.

The fun aspect of 23 Things is important, too. Having fun helps us learn, and opens us up to innovations. Many of the 23 Things left me cold, and/or I never saw any compelling way to use them in libraries. But other people have. Great! Let's keep the candles burning.

So, let's make our online presence vital, let's reach out to our communities and start two-way discussions, let's look at new services, let's look at existing services in new and different ways. In the words of one of my top ten favorite biblioblogs, It's All Good.

Now I'm not going to touch a computer for at least ten minutes :D