In which reading instructions becomes a virtue

After yesterday's technology debacle (see tweets under NikeBlack, though you'll have to ask permission!) and a non-functioning MP3 player I was ready to throw the thing out. Well, today after hearing that, per the instructions, the MP3 player has to be charged before use and doing so, I am now successfully listening to Elizabeth Peters' Crocodile on the Sandbank. So. ta-da. I have an MP3 player and already have some music tracks on it, and an audio book.

23 Things wrap up..

Well, it was fun - I enjoyed playing around with Web 2.0 stuff and, especially, finding new things to play with. (just remember I need the next disc of a downloaded audio book! left our heroine on the banks of the Nile... ).

The podcasts and Overdrive were perhaps the most useful thing - at least to me personally. I found some interesting podcasts (other than NPR's) and Overdrive was pretty easy to use.

Technorati, I think, was a bit overrated... well, at least for right now I have no direct use for it. That may change.

I do like learning in this format - somewhat self-directed, some contacts in the virtual space, some in the physical. We certainly enjoyed sharing what we found and were learning here in my library.

Overdrive!

Not bad - found a title I wanted, checked it out, downloaded it, after a bit of fishing found the overdrive console software to download, and have burned part one to CD ready for me to listen to on the way home!

Based on this experience, I'd shop here again...

Podcast surprise

So, I noodled around on podcast alley and wasn't being particularly impressed by what I was seeing. Finally, I narrowed the list to libraries and found a list of likely podcasting libraries, most of whom are not podcasting regularly.

However, I clicked on the Lansing PL (Illinois, though I thought initially it was the Michigan Lansing) and found a fascinating author talk podcast! Yugoslav born, of German descent, Katherine Hoeger Flotz talked about what it was like to grow up in WW2 Yugoslavia. It wasn't fun. She wrote a memoir A Pebble in My Shoe chronicling her childhood and how she came to America.

This was a real find for me, one I never expected. WW2 has some interest for me as I have relatives who lived through it, on the ground as they say, in Germany. FLotz's account was great to listen too, and the best part was that I could hear what her story in her own words. I certainly never would have known about her otherwise, and going to Lansing IL for the actual program was not an option, even had I known about the program.

Socializin' on the web...

Yes - I have been twittering, facebooking, urging others to do likewise, and madly saving websites, articles and the like on Delicious. All useful tools!

The best part of Twitter has been keeping up with my sister who has been living under what amounts to house arrest in Islamabad for just over a year (she's due home next week!). Even got my mother onto Twitter so she'd know what was going on with our world-traveler. Anyway, via Twitter we've known that my sister was safe and sound, had experienced an earthquake, saw a Lamborghini in Islamabad, as well as assorted vehicles all hell-bent on arriving where ever they were headed before anyone else might get there... and on and on. It beat rare phone calls - try coordinating phone calls when the person you want to call is 10 hours ahead of you (it always seems to be tomorrow where she is).

Yesterday I was poking around the lists of libraries that use Twitter and found one in Manchester, NH (I think I've actually been in that one!) using Twitter to update their customers on library happenings. They let folks know when they had closed early due to weather, that a particular part of the library was closed, and other assorted pieces of information a library patron might want to know. Made me think that we could use Twitter to let our patrons know when a hot new title is available...

Now, if I could just get our Facebook page to feed all sorts of cool library info... but that means learning code. (just watch my eyes glaze over, besides, I don't think that way)

23things out of order- youtube..

I've tubing for a while - love it! Found some real fun stuff worth a giggle or two. Here's my favorite music video from an over-the-top Bollywood film of the same name: Om Shanti Om.

Have also found some intriguing new sounds: ever heard of a HANG drum?

And, then there's the incomparable Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Choir in Sweet Home Alabama. Of course, The Zimmers have to be in the fav list, too. This one's for all of us who will be rockin' the nursing/retirement homes in a few years. Kudos to you if you know what a "zimmer" is. And, no, in this case it's not the German word for "room."

Finally, for those of us who enjoy a good bilingual joke there's the German coastguard item.

Happy New Year edition

There is always a price to pay for being on vacation (even when that vacation is interrupted by bank deposits, security company calls, and overflowing book drops that need to be emptied). I'm still working through an endless to-do list and the darn thing keeps growing.

Right now the big push is to get nominations in for the library's Literacy Heroes program. Lots of opportunities to nominate folks who are working to improve literacy in Chester County.

A bonus message.