23 Mobile Things 1. Blogging & Registering

Whew. I haven't blogged since 2009! Don't blogs seem quaint now? I still love them and follow them, though, even without my beloved Google Reader.

I want to be able to be more comfortable using my "mobile device." I work with a bunch of kids 20+ years younger than I am and they use their phones for everything. I have a tendency to wait until I get home to have the full screen and keyboard for ease of use, but I know that I really need to get the feel for having information in the palm of my hand.  It just seems so awkward and I want to get over that.

I've actually only had a smart phone for less than a year, so that's part of it. I think 23 Mobile Things will get me on track with everyone else.

Thing 35. Books 2.0

People around these parts seem to be reading books as much as ever. Our request lists are healthy; people read about books, hear about books and wait in breathless anticipation for the next book in whatever series they've come to love. I think reading for pleasure and for information is still the way to go for most people.

Some have come to love their Kindle or the equivalent, but I wouldn't say that they love them so much that books are doomed. These people seem to love them for vacation or travel. If I were a student and were able to get all my textbooks digitally, I would do it in a heartbeat. It seems, however, people still love the package of a book. It's like a receiving a present when you get it.

Web 2.0, in my opinion, is vastly useful for finding books and reviews. I love it for getting a good idea, based on a list of preferences, for what books I might like. Librarything and goodreads, for example, gives me a list of people who have read the same books as I have. I can then go to their pages and find out what is on their list that I haven't read, and chances are that I will like their choice, or at least be compelled by what they have chosen. I love the ease of being able to find booklists for almost anything and locating books that I have forgotten the title to, but remember the plot. The internet and Web 2.0 are awesome for this sort of thing. If anything, I think having these resources spurs people to read more books than they may have otherwise.

Thing 34. Is this Our Competition? Online Answer Sites

You know, I don't necessarily think that these sites are our competition. In many ways, these sites are answering questions that people never get up the nerve to come to the desk to ask us anyway. I've given this some thought long before this "Thing": the reference desk is somewhat flawed in that most people don't approach it unless they absolutely have to.

Two aspects are at play: time and risk. The internet gives people a "what the hell" card: they can have a fleeting musing and immediately get a generalized answer, and choose which generalized answer they think works for them, with no face-to-face interaction. People are risking something when they ask any question, and also placing themselves in an unpredictable situation. Any human interaction is fraught with some emotional connection, and I think people avoid this with strangers as much as possible, especially if they feel they can get what they need elsewhere. Sure, there are those who have approached the desk and had a perfectly satisfactory experience and would not hesitate to do it again. I would be willing to bet, however, that most of the people using the online Q&A sites are people who have rarely, if ever, used the library. Never mind come within a stones throw of the reference desk.

I'll admit, I'm one of the first to Google for an answer because, frankly, it usually serves me well. There's a big difference between finding out a general idea and doing a research paper on something. Even with things such as law or finances I feel I at least get an overview of an issue so that I can ask (more) educated questions about the issue. I guess, too, I think the Q&A sites are fairly okay for really pragmatic things like handyman things or household issues, but I've never once had an answer come anywhere near satisfactory on those sites. I've never actually asked a question directly, but the archives give me an idea of the caliber of the answers. I guess I would try to go to an expert website first.

The library would be a perfect place to get answers to many of the questions thrown up on these sites, but for one problem: you have to go to the library OR you have to get up off your fat ass and punch in your library card number to access databases (I guess that's two problems). Libraries are not available for drunken, 3AM stream of consciousness questions, libraries can't provide quick "good enough" answers in between work projects at someones desk and library websites are not the entire internet.

I think libraries are for different things than what the Q&A sites provide. And that's just fine.

Thing 33. Travel 2.0

Sure, I think travel sites are good for the library. I mean, as a supplement to the excellent travel guides that we have. I just don't find the user recommendations all that innovative or surprising (yet). It's that rule of the masses: more opinions don't mean more quality opinions. Unless someone is going to NYC, or London, or Hong Kong, there are not enough users at any one site to generate quality content. I want my content edited and vetted. Just like the selection process at the library or at my favorite radio station or even the grocery store: at some point I want to be able to rely on a trusted expert to tell me stuff, or show me stuff, or direct me to listen to stuff. I do use TripAdvisor because it has the most content, but I don't know that it is particularly wonderful. I mean, when people are rating chain hotels, it's hard to know what their standards are. Cause mine tend to be vastly different.
I thought some of the travel blogs were fun. Notes from the Road is truly one of the best looking blogs I have ever seen. The photos are lush and beautiful, and I like the tone of the writing. One of the sites that isn't included that I think is very useful is locally-created, but world encompassing VegGuide, for the vegetarian traveler. I'm not vegetarian, but I like to have the option, and I think it seems like a pretty good little resource. And what about wikitravel?

Thing 32. Google Maps and Mashups

View Come Visit My Roseville in a larger map
Uh, I created a map using the Google maps that takes you on a purely cursory tour of the neighborhood by the temporary location of the Roseville library. I did it because I had to, so don't judge. It seems fairly easy to do, but I honestly don't know how often I'd necessarily use this. I'm sure a lot of brides out there would love this and I think it could be really great for all sorts of specific purposes, I just can't think of any off the top of my head. Two really cool mashups are WalkJogRun, which enables you to track a route in your neighborhood or access the routes of others, and Panedia, where you click on a marker on the map and it shows you truly beautiful panoramas of the scene around you. Panepedia seems based in Australia, however, so there are few entries other than Australian ones. I cannot wait until it gets filled out, though I bet if I searched Flickr I could find some pretty good stuff.

Thing 31. More: Twitter

To say that I'm sick of Twitter would be an understatement. I felt like I said all I had to say in the last Twitter post. But, because I am trying to be flexible and open minded and young-seeming, I sucked it up and tried some other things that the More Things on a Stick Wiki (haha "stickwiki") told me I should try. Thing is, I have all the same feelings as before: it's a great marketing tool, possibly a great networking tool (if anyone you want following you actually has a Twitter account), and a fun phenomenon if you have time. Otherwise, I'm completely bored with it. I don't want to check it, even my (few) friends who are on it have nothing of interest to say, and I'm sick of hearing about it.
I added a gadget to my homepage so that my Twitter updates are all there, I practiced texting on my phone before deciding that I really, really did NOT want to have to come up with pithy status updates and tinyurls, and I messed around with the Tweeter Directory only to become more and more irate about the fact that I'm being forced to explore this platform ad infinitum. No my page does not reflect me as a person and no, there is not enough information there for people to get a sense of who I am as a person because I AM NOT OUT TO MARKET MYSELF. I am out to finish this endless "Thing," this monkey (or twit-like birdie) on my back. In that grudging spirit, I will answer the rest of the questions:
I am using Twitter to see if anything interesting comes of it. I've had an account for about a year now, 7 people I know have an account and a whopping 2 of them update with any regularity. I also subscribe to three businesses, two of which I'm told sometimes feature special Twitter-only coupons and one which I just want to know when their events occur. I tried subscribing to a local, interesting guy and a library specialty account, but they posted so much about so many trivial things that I quickly unsubscribed out of sheer uninterest.
As you've guessed I'm at "#2 Presence" in the 5 Stages of Twitter Acceptance and as far as adding to the list of what I think Twitter is... perhaps a graphic representation would suffice:

Any questions? Thanks for the image limeduck!

Thing 30 More Ways to Use RSS and Delicious

There is no reason for anyone to use the internet and not use an RSS reader. It is hands down one of the most useful tools out there and I adore it. I, of course, use Google Reader. In fact I started using it before I really understood what it was, but the prompts were so simple that I was able to figure it out and realize the awesome power of it fairly quickly. One of my favorite blogs, 20x200, is part blog, part art gallery and part store. Each week, this bricks and mortar gallery in New York introduces two new prints, one photograph and one graphic, and you can buy these limited editions for as cheap as $20!!! Jen Bekman, who runs the gallery, is cool, completely immersed in the latest art and came up with the idea of making the latest art available to the masses. If I did not have RSS, I would forget-JUST PLAIN FORGET- to check and see what goodies are waiting for me. Seriously, it's like having a little present that you've customized for yourself waiting for you. And you don't have to fill up your email inbox.
With that said, some of the feeds are a pain. I've subscribed to a couple of different news feeds and the amount of material has just been overwhelming. For instance, I started subscribing to the (new) White House blog when Obama became president. It was SO cool to get a play-by-play of what was going on every day. One of the problems, though, was frequently the feed would send me the entire blog: all the entries from the beginning, even after I had read them all. Now this was clearly a problem with the platform itself, but I unsubscribed because of it. Others, like the Star Tribune politics blog, inundated me with too many things. Same with The Morning News, an really great online magazine. Every year in March, The Morning News does a "Tournament of Books," pitting the latest, hippest books against each other according to the very subjective reviewers. It's funny and fun and I would like to subcribe to just that, but when I subscribe I get EVERYTHING that The Morning News posts, which is like a magazine's worth of reading PER DAY.
Now, I've heard the opinion of some that you should just subcribe to as many things as interest you and don't worry if you don't get to it all, but I just cannot do it. I have hand-picked these 28 subscriptions and I want to read it all. I don't like feeling unfinished. It's weird the relationship that I have with my subscriptions: I've unsubscribed if a blogger is too depressing, or makes too many of the wrong choices, or blogs about stupid things once too often. The choice of these feeds is so personal, it's like creating your own library.
Delicious, on the other hand, has not been as reveletory for me. I went through a spate of using it for all web pages that interested me, but, like my former files of articles that I would rip out of magazines, I rarely, if ever, accessed them again. I definitely like knowing it is there, and probably someday I'll have a use for it, but for now I just don't need it.