Thing 18: The end of all 'things' (except Thing 19)

Ever wonder why Porky Pig where's a bow tie?

I've really struggled to write the start of this final post. I've probably typed and deleted twelve different beginnings. Now please do not think that I'm getting overly distraught about finishing the 19things programme, I'm really not. I've quite enjoyed it yes but not so much as to form any sort of emotional involvement. What I think I've struggled with, as far this post goes, is giving the blog a good and proper send off. I guess you could say I'm a bit 'blog proud'. I'm not sure whether this blog makes for entertaining reading to other people or not but personally, I'm quite chuffed with it, random structure 'n' all. But enough of me gushing over my own blog and yearning for the perfect finale, let me share with you my experience of 19things.
Did I enjoy it? 
Well yes I suppose I did. None of it was at all stressful and some of it was pretty darn useful. I can honestly say I've learnt on this programme and as I mentioned in an earlier post, I like learning new things but I especially enjoy it when you can practise them.
Has my attitude changed since the first blog?
In a word, no. I started with optimism and confident that the programme was a good idea. Throughout it all nothing has made me question that belief and in the end my opinion is that 19things is a good idea and worth doing.
Best 'Thing'? 
That award would probably go to both Thing 9: Creating a Protopage page and Thing 10: Adding RSS feeds to Protopage. I really enjoyed creating a Protopage, fairly easy to use and extremely satisfying when it all starts coming together. This may sound a little sad but I love RSS feeds and will find any excuse to use them. Adding them to the Protopage was simple and effective. I think it's an excellent tool to be able to use.
Close behind in second place is Thing 12: Adding a Pubmed search alert to My Library. This was a real eye opener, I felt so much smarter after completing this task.
'Thing' I least enjoyed?
If you put a gun to my head and said that I absolutely must pick the thing I least enjoyed I suppose I would choose Thing 6: Browsers. Didn't feel like I got a huge amount out of it, even though it was good to sit and think about how you could utilise the best out of different browsers. It could explain why I nearly forgot the task entirely and only completed it during the catch-up week. Maybe I subconsciously knew it would be my least enjoyable 'thing'.
Which 'Thing(s)' would I use for work? 
Without doubt I would use Protopage. In fact we already are setting up a page for the library. It looks great, it works well and I hope our users like it when we start sharing the link and directing them to the page. I've started using RSS feeds on My Library, great tool to have. I already use QR codes and Worlde (or the more impressive Tagxedo) for much of our marketing publicity. I would use Meet-O-Matic again when the occasion calls for it, so simple to use. Possibly LibraryThing, I've bookmarked the page in case we ever do want to use it but I'm not 100% sure on that one. I would definitely signpost students or staff who are studying to CiteULike. I'm thankful to 19things for showing me this site and encouraging me to practically using it, thus give me the confidence to be able to engage with library users wanting help or advice with reference management.
How do I feel now it's completed?
Like a majestic Lion looking from on high at the great savanna stretching before him on a golden sunrise... Actually that's a bit of over the top. I wouldn't say I feel proud of my self as such. I'm pleased that I've picked up some new tricks and have a better understanding of a few things. Semi-relieved that our IT systems allowed us to complete all the tasks. Slightly sad that I don't have a genuine excuse to write gibberish at work anymore. But all 'n' all I'd say I'm happy with how it's all gone.

So let me say a thank you to all who have helped create and run this programme. It really has been useful and I think the way it has been delivered has been excellent. I hope others have found it a worthwhile exercise as well. Muchas gracias!

That's it from me then folks! Not so much finishing with a bang but an unrelenting spiel. Bye.

Ok one last terrible, library related joke - My friend got crushed by a pile of books. He's only got his shelf to blame!

The end is nigh!

The most unsubtle illustration of a metaphor - ever!

A man goes into a library and asks if they have any books on pessimism.
The librarian says; "I doubt it." 

Well at least I've managed to put this 'catch-up' week to good use. I should now have completed and blogged about all the 'Things' from this programme and in doing so giving myself a chance at winning some chocolaty goodness. Any such prize would have to be shared with my pregnant wife however as apparently our baby always wants chocolate. I'm not foolish enough to argue with her... again!

So we are nearing the end and although I'll leave some reflective thoughts about the programme for the final blog I can't help but wonder if anyone will keep their blog going after all this is done? Maybe some of you already had a blog beforehand and this is merely an extension of that. It seems a shame to not continue the blog but I'm struggling to find a decent enough reason to justify it's existence. I've heard of libraries maintaining a blog and fair play to them but I'm really scratching my head as to what a library could blog about that would be worthwhile.

Wowsers! I mean Browsers, I nearly forgot Thing 6

In the immortal words of Homer - "D'ho!"

This weeks pause in all 'things' (see what I did there!) social media gave me a chance to go through the 19things programme with a hint of smug satisfaction such was my confidence that I'd completed all tasks set before me. But wait, what's this I see on week 4; Thing 6 - Browers: Internet explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox ... oh shoot! That'll teach me for getting all cocky won't it.
I suppose my blog was getting a tad too orderly. So, from my last post which reflected on the experiences with Thing 17 we now jump to how I got on with Thing 6, so here we go.
At work we use an antique version of Internet Explorer (IE 7) within the trusts secure network. We also have access to Firefox outside the network on which we use the library catalogue system. It's recently dawned on my colleagues and I that a lot of the websites in the 19things programme actually work better, both aesthetically and functionally, on Firefox as this is a newer browser. As a result we now regularly use sites like 'Protopage' and 'Scoop.it'* in Firefox.
If I'm honest from my experiences at home I don't mind either Internet Explorer (newest version obviously!) or Mozilla Firefox. If I had to pick I'd probably choose Firefox simply for cosmetic reasons, especially when using tabs. I do however prefer Explorer's favourites tool compared to Firefox's bookmarks system. I've had a little play with Safari in the past but as I'm not a fan of anything apple my opinion would probably be somewhat biased.

Stick a fork in Thing 6 because it is DONE!! That should be me all caught up but I'm certainly not going to get cocky about it... again!

* = I'm aware 'Scoop.it' isn't one of the 19Things but I use it everyday and it's a good example of social media websites not working properly within outdated internet browsers.

Thing17: CiteULike... to know what you're doing



Oh I get it!

For the first time during my 19Things experience, I felt completely lost.
I'd managed to follow the instructions without any drama. I searched and collected references into MyCiteULike library, using PubMed and Google Scholar, and exported the references into a word and PDF format, all fine, no problems. My confusion stemmed from not really understanding what the site was all about and how on earth I would use it.
And then eureka! The penny dropped. I'm still a little unsure why some URLs wouldn't import properly? There's a slight chance I could be doing something wrong, but that's crazy talk.
We are quite often asked questions on referencing and we would normally refer them to their respective educational establishments. CitULike is certainly something I'll now signpost them to and I like the idea I could be able to discuss referencing with some degree of confidence.
I also had a little play with importing search results from HDAS, as this is what we encourage people to use for literature searching and was pleasantly surprised by how quick and easy it was, definitely worth noting.
Link to Facebook? Why would you want to link references to your own Facebook page? I could understand it for your library or trusts own page, even if it does sound a bit dull.
Anyways, I can say with much conviction that once more I've learnt something new. Cheers 19things! 17 down 2 to go.

Thing 16: It's a LibraryThing

"An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them." - Stephen Fry

This was actually quite a nice task to do, I would even go as far as to say it was fun. As with the other tasks I haven't used this site for work purposes (yet!), instead I sat there for a wee while and just started adding some of my favourite books that I could remember off the top of my head. I decided to add not only fiction but some of my other favourite reading subjects; football (mainly Arsenal), history and music, so as best to use the edit collections tool.

I've added the links to each collection below. I may get judged by the lack of 'high-brow' titles as something like a moron... meh!<shrugs shoulders>

An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them.
Stephen Fry
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/library.html#I6h7YMO22diHIagK.99

Fiction

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?offset=0&previousOffset=0&previousOffset=0&view=liamthornhill&collection=290537&shelf=shelf

Football
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?offset=0&previousOffset=0&view=liamthornhill&shelf=shelf&collection=290536

History
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?offset=0&previousOffset=0&view=liamthornhill&shelf=shelf&collection=290539

Music
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?offset=0&previousOffset=0&view=liamthornhill&shelf=shelf&collection=290535

I can certainly see how this could be useful in the library. We change our book display once a month and produce a book list on the chosen subject. LibraryThing could be a much quicker, slightly prettier method of sharing those book lists. We also publish a list of new books once a month and again, this could be an attractive alternative. Giving people an option to simply click the link and actually see the new books is a nice idea.
However, there are drawbacks. The information we supply on our book lists contains the classmark which of course LibraryThing would not be able to provide. Another negative is you cannot seem to add NICE guidelines. For these reasons I'm not sure that we'd want to use LibraryThing as a substitute for our book lists, but we could find another use for it, I'm sure we could.

"We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when...": Things 14 & 15

A man walks into a library and asks the librarian for a book on tides
The librarian replies "Sorry it's just gone out!" 



Easy as

Quick and painless, that's the way I would describe this weeks two 19things tasks... oh and useful too of course! Meet-O-Matic is so incredibly, almost ridiculously easy to use, it's quite refreshing really.
My colleagues and I have set up a meeting to discuss how 19things is going but in all truth and honesty it was on the agenda for the next staff meeting anyway. So yes we haven't used it for real yet but hey ho we got to practise using something new and it didn't take a whole lot of grey matter to do it. Sending out the emails and checking the responses was joyously simple. It's certainly worth remembering this site next time a date and time for a meeting needs arranging.
The site has been added to my protopage with minimal fuss.

So 15 things down and I definitely feel like I've learnt some new tricks, it's brilliant as well to be able to practise them. As I believe Benjamin Franklin once said "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

Say it with a Wordle: Thing 1

Library Wordle

Library Tagxedo - Footprint

My hopes of a nice linear storyline for my 19Things experience were dashed before it had even began. So reading my blog will be like watching the Christopher Nolan film 'Memento' where the story is told completely out of sequence. That story telling method was a way for the audience to experience some of the confusion and frustrations of the protagonist who has extreme short-term memory. The reasons for my jumbled blog is because I was so desperate to catch-up with everyone I forgot to put my trainers on. But now we've all paused for a reflective breather I can now take the time to dress properly... is this metaphor still working?

On your right you'll see my quickly put together Wordle using text from the Salisbury Healthcare Library website. This is relatively similar to one that I've created before (probably due to using the same text!) and I really do like the way they look.
Also on your right is another word cloud creation using 'Tagxedo'. What's really cool about this site is the many visually impressive shapes you can create with your body of text. Here I've used the same text as my Wordle cloud to create a footprint, brilliant! There's also a lot more colour themes and fonts to choose from, very impressed.

So that folks is task 1 officially completed.