Reflection (Thing 23)

I just completed the last Thing and completed the survey! I learned a tremendous amount of information on social media (in a short amount of time) through 23 Things. I thought I was some what knowledgeable when it came to technology and social media but this definitely proved me wrong.

Here is a list of social media I had never used before 23 Things. (Please don't judge me.)
RSS Feeds, Wikis, Tiny URL, Google Docs, LibraryThing or GoodReads, Delicious, Tagging, and Digg

I used these things before I started 23 Things:
You Send It, Google Maps, Facebook, Linked In, Instant Messaging, Twitter, Blogs, and Picture Sharing

I think social media in libraries is extremely important and will become even more important in the future. Libraries can use social media to communicate with their current patrons and to reach out to gain new patrons. I think FPL is doing a great job using social media like twitter, blogs, Facebook, and You Tube. I know it takes a lot of time, committees, meetings, and behind the scene work to get it in place and rolling. I have really enjoyed doing my very small part in writing several blog posts for the new FPL Parent blog. Speaking of blog posts, I have one to write now!

Thank you Adam and Elizabeth for putting this together. It was definitely worth all of your time and effort!

Podcasting (Thing 20)

My only experience with podcasts are listening to sermons I have missed at church when I teach the 4/5 year old Sunday School class. We only have one service at our church right now so thankfully through the podcasts that they post on our church website, I don't have to miss the message on the Sundays that I teach.

I listened to Chapter 12 of Alice in Wonderland through the Contra Costa County Library story time/chapter-a-week podcast. The audio quality was fine but the narration was very dull. It definitely did not keep my attention long enough to listen to the entire chapter. It makes you wonder if these are the same librarians reading at their story time. I listened to A Big Quiet House read by Denver Public Library. The sound quality was good and they made the listening a little more interesting by using two people to read the book. Last, I listened to several of the teen podcasts on the Los Angeles Public Library website. They do a pretty good job of mixing up there podcast topics by including podcasts book reviews, poetry readings, commercials, news and announcements, and read the book - see the movie reviews. It looks like the story time/chapter-a-week podcasts are a popular theme that some of the local libraries are now offering on their websites.

I looked on our FPL website and I didn't see any podcasts available. I don't know if this is something the library has tried in the past or not. I think podcasts could definitely be useful to our customers if the right selection and topics were offered. It would be great if we could offer a podcast on the Dr. Jim Thomas workshops that are currently running here at the library. I wanted to attend one of his workshops but I couldn't make it work with my schedule. We could also possibly podcast the computer classes that are held by Adult Services. This could be useful for our patrons who need the computer instruction but can't make it to the class times that we offer. After listening to several of the podcasts from the link provided, I believe the presentation and recording needs to be professional and first class for it to draw an audience.

Hulu (Thing 19)

I have heard about Hulu but I have never been to the website until now. I caught the first night of The Voice on tv a few weeks ago and really liked it. I forgot to DVR the show and missed all the following episodes so I watched the beginning of the 2nd episode on Hulu. Pretty neat! It's amazing they don't charge a small subscription fee to watch it but if you are watching it from home you are already paying a monthly Internet access fee.

I know our youth DVD collection is extremely popular (I'm not sure about the adult collection), but I don't think Hulu and its other competitors will have a negative impact on our DVD collections in the near future. I think a lot of parents check out DVD's for their kids to watch in the car (this includes myself) or on the big screen at home rather than putting their (younger) kids in front of the home computer to watch a movie or show on Hulu. Children also like to come and look at the DVD choices to make their OWN selections. It makes them feel very grown up - just like when they get to pick out their own books.

User Choice (Thing 22)

I chose social media site Wufoo which is a site to use when making forms or surveys. I made a library tour survey and it was super easy and fast. Wufoo allows you to create an online form so you can have others access the form and input information. Wufoo then stores the data and provides reports.

Wikis (Thing 21)

I have used Wikipedia in the past, but I have never made my own wiki page. I chose Mattitos on the practice site and added information under the general headers since they were blank: http://wiki23things.wiki.zoho.com/Mattitos-1.html
I posted a comment under the Babe's page. Last, I created a page for In-N-Out Burgers that is supposed to open May 11th in Frisco.

You Tube (Thing 18)

I don't visit You Tube much but it has been useful when the children's performances at church have been recorded and posted on You Tube. I can email the link to friends and family and they see Austin and Alivia perform.

You Tube is a great marketing tool for libraries to use to show off their services, librarians, programs, collections. I watched the The Adventures of Super Librarian,  Super Librarian, A Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto, and Allen County Public Library Channel videos. The first two videos promoting librarian services were a little cheesy. I wasn't overly impressed with either one but they get the point across. I enjoyed the Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto even though it was a little long. The pictures were pretty amazing and the librarian's message was received: Excel in the advancement of technology to provide excellent library services. The Allen Public Library's video would make for a good commercial and came across much more professional than the 'super' librarian videos.

Cindy just recently sent us a link to Plano Library's video with puppets Eugene and Charlotte promoting Deborah Underwood's books: http://kidsbrain.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/introducing-eugene-and-charlotte/ Cute idea!

I know FPL has used You Tube in the past to promote its special events like the Summer Reading Club and the Storytelling Festival.  I searched Frisco Library on You Tube and found a Storytelling Festival video/teaser from 2009. I also found the Summer Promo video that was recently recorded in Mayra's backyard using the Dig Up a Good Book theme. Nicely done!

Music Streaming and Sharing (Thing 17)

I don't have a lot of experience with music streaming so I decided to try out Last.fm. It was super easy to set up a free account and I really like the recommended station feature. I typed in several artists that I currently listen to and it made a recommended station. I also like how you can build multi-artist stations. With music listening/downloading so accessible from music streaming (user friendly) outlets such as Pandora and Last.fm, I think we will continue to see a decrease in cd checkouts here at the library.

Google Maps (Thing 15)

I use Google Maps all of the time to get directions but I have never taken the time to look at the other tools. The picture tool is my favorite. I could see the front of my house! I tried looking up the old house I grew up in. I am pretty sure I had the address correct but I didn't even recognize the house. I guess it has been a while (16 years). I tried looking up another house I had lived in but it didn't have a street view for some reason.

Here is the super long link to the map from my house to the McKinney Library. I should have made it a tiny url! I tried to embed the map as well but for some reason it would only show the link and not the map. I will have to figure out what I am doing wrong.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=1736+Kittyhawk+Drive,+Little+Elm,+TX+75068&daddr=33.21921,-96.82527+to:33.21921,-96.82527+to:33.21366,-96.82036+to:101+East+Hunt+Street,+McKinney,+TX&hl=en&geocode=FRHX-gEdTus4-ikJnaeUkTdMhjHu5sCjs1h8jw%3BFYri-gEdSpA6-inxz0K5MT9MhjHrMZ-5btEFKQ%3BFYri-gEdSpA6-inxz0K5MT9MhjHrMZ-5btEFKQ%3BFdzM-gEdeKM6-ilb9EnqJD9MhjEmA4jH2sG0Ug%3BFY-U-gEdV7w9-ilBeUijSxJMhjFbh1NQpc_lfA&mra=dpe&mrsp=3&sz=11&via=1,2,3&sll=33.195604,-96.742859&sspn=0.385548,0.614548&ie=UTF8&z=11

Tiny URL and You Send It (Thing 13 & 14)

So I skipped ahead and did Thing 16 (Google Docs) before I did Thing 13 & 14 which worked out really well. I needed to make a Google Doc for Cindy so she could have the student tellers sign up for their own coaching sessions to cut down on emails and phone calls. So I made the Google Doc and then went to the Tiny URL website and made this long url https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlMBdTJHtvgJdEYtVFVFd1hTUW1lS3J5ZS1uYjctOHc&hl=en#gid=0 into

http://tinyurl.com/2011studenttellerschedule. Not only is this a shorter url to send to the student tellers but a more memorable url! Tiny URL is a great tool!

I actually used You Send It several years ago when I was doing marketing for golf courses. When I needed to send large pictures and ad files back and forth to the printer for proofs we would use You Sent It. I haven't used it in a while so I went and uploaded a large picture file and emailed it to my personal email. It is super easy and quick! I am trying to remember what we did before You Send It when we had to get large files to another company by a certain deadline. I think we wasted a lot of money with Fed Ex!

Google Docs (Thing 16)

I have never used Google Docs until I started working here at the Frisco Library. My first experience with it was viewing our work schedule in Google Docs. The documents and spreadsheets seem to be very similar with Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. I haven't really noticed any differences except for the most obvious ones that you can share the document (instead of just saving it to your computer and sending the attachment) and publish the document as a web page. I have had a task on my to do list that I hadn't gotten to yet that involved creating a new Google Doc schedule for the 2011 student teller coaching sessions. So I decided to create that document for this Thing. I just finished and it was super easy! Last year, the student tell coaching sessions schedule was in a Word document. The student tellers had to call or email Cindy everytime they wanted to sign up for a coaching session. This involved a lot of headaches for Cindy as you can imagine (especially when students would sign up and then need to make schedule changes). So now students will be able to access the 2011 student teller coaching schedule (from any computer)  and sign up for the sessions (or make changes) all on their own. What a wonderful 'thing'.

Facebook (Thing 12)

I have had a Facebook account for a while now (even though I did rebel it at first). I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love that you can communicate with people all over the world from your past and present. I also love that a friend who took a great picture of my kids can post it and tag me and then I have a copy of the picture. I hate how it sucks you in and when you think you have only been on for a few minutes an hour has passed. I very rarely post comments and usually end up reading other peoples posts. I think it is pretty silly when people post the small things they are doing like 'drinking a good cup of coffee' or 'just finished watching American Idol'. I only check my Facebook account once a week which I know is not the norm. I just posted a comment that Frisco Library rocks and put a link to the spring story time schedule. Maybe my mom friends that haven't tried story time will see the post and attend. I did become a fan of the Frisco Library! Whoo hoo! I think the Frisco Library does a great job 'humanizing its page'. The library staff (not sure who) makes sure to post a comment on a daily basis and they also do a good job in posting information that would be interesting to both adults (without kids) and parents. The only suggestion I can think of at the moment for the Frisco Library Facebook page would be to add more information/posts that would cacth the attention of the teens. Since Facebook is so popular with the teens, this could be a way to increase our friend count. I love David Lee King's analogy of a Facebook page like a party. It is so true. The more friends and the more action you have going on in your Facebook page, the livelier the party!

Linked In (Thing 11)

I made a Linked In account quite a while ago so I didn't think I would remember the password but I did! I went into my account and updated my profile since it was dated. I found a few people and added them to my network. I think the whole idea of a professional social networking site is a great concept. Link In is a great tool to use to stay in touch with people in your current and past professions. I personally don't really use it right now but if I was job hunting I think it would be very beneficial. Not only can you search for jobs, but you can have past employers and colleagues recommend you.

LIBRARYTHING and GOODREADS (Thing 10)

I signed up for a LibraryThing account and I am really liking it. I added several books to my library and the part I like the most is the recommendations that LibraryThing provides once you enter books in your library. I would like to keep two separate lists. One list for books I have read and another list for books I would like to read. I'm sure this is possible - I just need to get more familiar with the website. I went and looked around on GoodReads and I really like the 'Most Read Books This Week' section.

Delicious (Thing 9)

I am now a proud owner of a new Delicious account! Click: http://www.delicious.com/ashleyallen

I have never heard of Delicious and it is a brilliant concept. I added several bookmarks to my account and it was super easy and fast. I have several blogs that I follow under my favorites tab on my home computer but I can't ever access them from a different computer because I can't remember the exact website addresses. I would like to add a lot of my 'favorite' websites to my Delicious page but I will have to wait until I get to my home computer. I think Delicious could be really useful for libraries in regards to exchanging ideas, research, book picks, and favorite reference sites.

Tagging (Thing 8)

I think tagging could be really useful for libraries but without standardization it would create problems. My experience with tagging is from blog reading. I can click on a tag and read the other posts that the blogger has written with that particular subject. It saves time so I don't have to read through all the blog posts to find the topic I am interested in.

Instant Messaging (Thing 7)

My personal email is through AOL so I have used the AOL instant messaging for a while now. I don't really use it often but I have used it if I am online late at night and have a question for a friend. If I see they are online, I just send them an IM instead of emailing them. I have also used it to ask a question when I  have been on a company website. I would much rather IM a customer service rep and receive my answer in seconds rather than sitting on hold for 10 minutes. I have never used Communicator here at work so I just sent Claudia a message. I went ahead and added the youth staff under my contacts. Claudia and Sarah were the only two that showed they were 'available' and the others said they were away, offline, or out of office. I think this would be a very useful tool to communicate with employees if everyone was 'available'. I sent an IM on the Belk Library site and they answered my question in just seconds. Pretty impressive. I see that we have an "Ask a Libriarian' form on our Frisco Library website that works as an email and gets answered in 48 hours. The IM option would be a nice addition (and much quicker for the patron) but I am not sure how often it would get used. It would be interesting to see how many IM's we would receive on a daily basis if it was available for our patrons to ask questions.

Digg (Thing 6)

I didn't think I was that far behind in the social networking times but I guess I was wrong. I have never been to the Digg website and I have never heard of Digg. I just went to Digg and viewed the top stories. I didn't really have any interest in reading most of the articles. The one that caught my attention was "Why You Are Probably Paying Too Much for Auto Insurance." I was just on the phone yesterday with my car insurance company asking them why my monthly premium increased. I went on and read the article and it wasn't very informative. At the end of the article there are two links to InsuranceTips.com. So in my opinion, this article comes across as more of an advertisement than relevant news. So far I am not a big fan.

Twitter (Thing 5)

I set up my Twitter account today! The first time I tried to sign up I received this message: Twitter is over capacity. Too funny. Just shows you  how popular it really is. I am now following a few organizations but no friends. I really don't have the desire to receive any friend tweets. I already think it is a little ridiculous when people post on their Facebook pages that they are 'tired and need a nap' or 'having a rough day'. I think it is odd that they take the time to post comments on where they are at or how they are feeling, but that is just my opinion.

Now, from a company's position I think Twitter can be a very useful tool in staying in touch with customers. Twitter is a very effective, quick, and free marketing tool for a library to stay in constant communication with its patrons. Just think, before websites, emails, and blogs - a library had to (snail) mail letters to its customers to let them know about a special event. Now a librarian can tweet announcments, special programs, and reminders to its patrons in a matter of seconds.

Picture Sharing (Thing 4)

I love taking pictures so picture sharing sites are a great way to keep my hundreds of family pictures organized. I currently use Shutterfly and Snapfish to share my pictures with other family members but Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket are new to me. I am excited to learn more about these photo sharing sites and the differences between them.

As far as the library goes, using photo sharing technology can be a great marketing tool for the library to promote its puppet shows, story times, and special events. Reading about an event is one thing but sometimes a picture speaks louder than words. When a parent can see pictures of how much fun kids are having at the library events they are more likely to try it out.

After viewing several of the library links provided, I think Plainview Library does a great job with their Flickr site. I really like the way the photos are organized. Instead of small photos going down the right side of the page (like a lot of the other sites) they have large pictures in a grid format with a title above the picture and a caption below the picture. Alexandrian Public Library also does a great job by posting a variety of their events like family storytime, Craft Club, and Lego Club. I wasn't very impressed with the pictures posted on the Marathon County Public Library Flickr site. They posted a lot of 'employee events' like employee birthdays and an anniversary party. I don't think employee party/event pictures should be posted on the library's main photo sharing site. There could be a photo sharing site set up for employees to post employee event photos. The patrons want to see pictures of events they can attend and of course pictures of the little ones having a blast at the library.

RSS Feeds (Thing 3)

RSS Feeds can be a great way for libraries to communicate with their patrons! Before RSS Feeds and blogs, a library would post new or updated information on its website and wait for patrons to visit the site and view the information and changes. The great thing about the RSS Feeds is the library can deliver news, updates, or event information directly to its patrons! Not only does this speed up the information delivery process but it allows patrons to be specfic in regards to the library news that they would like to receive.

Blog Reader (Thing 2)

I am excited to learn about Blog Reader. I follow several of my friend's blogs but I just have them saved under favorites.  I am always looking to see if they have posted anything new so this tool will save me time! I also follow several blogs that give great advice on partenting, kids activities, cooking, photography, and scrapbooking. I can't wait to start using Blog Reader!

Blogs (Thing 1)

Hello my fellow bloggers!

I have a personal blog that I started in 2009 on my family. I started it mostly to keep my family who doesn't live close updated on my children. I post anything from special events in their lives like birthdays and vacations to just every day life like the silly things they say. I realize now that it has also become a digital scrapbook that I will always have.

Blogs are of course a great way for libraries to stay connected with their patrons and inform them on upcoming events and great book picks.

I am excited to start this new blog!