Thing 4 Keeping Up

Keeping up has been a challenge for librarians for a very long time.  Learning new techniques to make it a bit easier always appeals.  I approached this Thing 4 with that attitude. 

After a cursory overview of Flipboard and Zite, I spent a fair amount of time exploring Flipboard.  Using it to keep current with library blogs seemed beneficial.  I tried unsuccessfully to subscribe to Best of Publib, Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog, LibrarianDOA, and  NYPL blogs.  I tried this several times.  Though my Flipboard includes 'placeholders' for each blog, no items ever loaded.  I checked several of these blogs directly, and there have been new posts in the week or so since I set Flipboard up.  Frustrating.

Since I am a new library trustee, I searched Google and United for Libraries (ALA)for blogs written by trustees.  Many libraries, library associations and library organizations have blogs, but I found just one post written by a young librarian who works in one library and serves as a trustee on the board of another.

I set up a couple magazines (Ports of Call, Potpourri) on Flipboard and also subscribed to various news, political and technology feeds as well as Facebook.

My conclusion: Flipboard adds one more layer, one more place to check for updates but not enough value to persuade me to use it to keep up. 

A postscript to Thing 3 Utilities...On a recent walk through the historic district in Beaufort, South Carolina, I admired a lovely old home that had a for sale sign in the yard and used RedLaser to scan the QRC code to see the price which was astronomical, of course.  An instant reality check.

Thing 3 Utilities

After exploring several of the utilities for iphones, I installed three and will experiment with all of them to see how useful they turn out to be.

RedLaser works easily.  Using barcode samples currently on my desktop, I scanned and quickly connected with Metronet's 23 Mobile Things site and Hallmark.com.  Shopping is not a major interest, but I will try using this app on a few shopping trips over the next couple weeks.

Wi-Fi Finder indeed is straightforward and easy to use.  It identified 6 free hotspots near my South Carolina location though not the one I use most often at a nearby café.  In anticipation of future travels, I checked a few international sites, found hotspots in three cities and none at all on the Aran Islands which truly remain a wild and remote place.

GoogleSearch has so many options and features, too many to fully grasp in a brief overview session.  I read several online reviews, including one on C-NET which said the voice search feature alone made this a "must have" app.  I'll spend more time exploring this one.

Thing 2 Mobile Device Tips

I am fairly new to the world of smart phones, having purchased an iphone last summer to replace a very old, very tired and very basic Samsung mobile phone which had become so quaint that I used it only surreptitiously in dark corners for the last few months of its existence.

Before exploring Thing 2, I thought I had learned the iphone features of most use to me from friends who provided tips and from exploring an intuitive interface.  Now I realize I had barely scratched the surface level of knowledge.  I spent hours on this Thing, experimenting with almost all of the tips--and sharing favorites with friends.  Because I recently upgraded to iOS 7, it was an especially good time to learn about the many features available.  My favorite: turning text to Bold enlivened the appearance of the gray-ish text native to iOS 7 and made reading easier.  The various swipes for searching, easy deletions, editing and more truly are enhancements which I now use regularly.

All in all...time well spent.  However, I need to pick up the pace with Things 3-23 or the generous timeline for finishing 23 Mobile Things will elapse before I explore them all.

Thing 1

The Gilded Giraffe last published a post in 2008 which seems long ago.  It is a long time in chronological terms and also in the technology world.  I was learning then about 23 Things on a Stick and now am ready to learn 23 Mobile Things courtesy of Minnesota's multitype library systems and their directors.

First, I need to take a step back and refresh what I once knew about blogging.  Whatever skill I had has rusted (it has been 5+ years after all), so a quick remedial lesson is in order.