Thing 10 - you wish you were coming

I learned to love online documents when we were doing Learning 23 Things and used Zoho frequently post the course.
Google Docs is even better - yet another great Google idea. 

My brother lives in London and in the last few years we have twice gone on holiday with him and his family. Many emails, attached documents etc have gone in to the planning of these joint trips.
I have signed up to Google Docs and created a spreadsheet to use for the planning of the next one.
I plan to rent an apartment in Rome for a week and be joined there by various members of the family in preparation for the significant day. We will be arriving I think by train from Paris across the Alps and departing from the Eternal city to travel to Sicily.
View from our window last time we were in Rome.

Thing 9 - Sharing

I like the idea of wallwisher - it's informality, and sense that anyone can contribute. However, I haven't found any great examples of its use in public libraries, although some schools appear to be using it quite heavily. It will be instructive to see if anyone uses this wall much.
I signed up to Pinterest but don't think it is the sort of thing that I will be using much. I'm not that much of a social animal although I do like sharing my own photos

Thing 8

I tested Minutes to Go on the minutes I took for the April Team Leaders Meeting. I like the concept (ie shortcuts, brevity, to the purpose) but found the application limiting. It tries to be too pre-emptive. It was not suitable because that meeting focusses too much on the disseminantion of information, rather than directing actions. It would be more useful at meetings that have discrete actions as outcomes. And it was clunky to save/send the file.

Thing 7 - I wish I had shares in Google

Predictably, I love iGoogle. I like to do several things at once, and have all my links and tools wherever I am. Moving from branch to branch as I do, I have always spent a couple of minutes customising the desktop by saving my bookmarks and links bar to my P drive so that I can import them. And using Quick Launch. This allows me to access all my applications and common files with one click. And now with iGoogle I can see all my updates in a single glance. Photo is hard to see but so far I have put Google News, Google Reader, Twitter, my Gmail and Hotmail accounts, Facebook etc on the page. There are more gadgets/sites that I want to add.

I will be using it as my home page. At work I have set it to open alongside EDNA.

Thing 6 - QR Codes

I didn't immediately comprehend what QR codes were all about although of course I tried to look knowledgeable but I am a convert now. The beauty is in the capturing of information in such a mobile form. We can use QR codes in the library to promote events, resources and collections. Scan this code I just created

and it takes you to our Library Anywhere app. We will hopefully be putting it on some of our publicity material. I would like to see it on our website, blog and Facebook page.
And I love this idea. Contra Costa County Library uses it for Text-A-Librarian

It helps people use their SMS reference service. Snap the code with your phone and it creates a new text message, adding "ccc" at the beginning (the "ccc" helps MyInfoQuest track which libraries are using the service). It also prefills the telephone number so all you do is type your question and press send. A librarian responds within 10 minutes.
Pikes Peak Library in Colarado sent out this postcard

as an invitation to a film premiere. When scanned, it connected the user to a trailer for the event.

Thing 5 - do I still need the plane ticket?

Does the Google Art Project replace overseas travel? You can traverse the galleries online, see the paintings, even visit the gift shop but what about the sore feet? The feeling of sinking into sustaining food and drink after a day at the Hermitage. Irreplaceable.
If I was Mistress Google, I would create a search option so that you could do a super search for an artist of all the galleries simultaneously. As it is, I think that the search for each gallery is perhaps too well hidden.
I created a collection of one of my favourite artists- Vermeer who sadly had a very small output. See <"http://goo.gl/wb1iI". For some reason I can't fathom the direct link isn't working.
The good news is that I will be able to see four of these during my travels next year - New York and Amsterdam here I come. Started my little brain thinking - maybe there are apps for these museums (none for the Art Project) - off to explore. In the meantime, who could resist The Museum of Me?

Thing 4

Big Huge Labs promises hours of endless fun. I created my new blog header from a photo of a wonderful old library that we visited in Prague at the Strahov Monastery. I then made an attempt to create a movie poster advertising the new service that I am hoping that we can offer later this year (mentioned in my last post) - a collection of eReader devices that borrowers can use within the library.

Good Reads I signed up to Good Reads but I don't think I like it as much as Library Thing. I loved being able to catalogue my books and see who else had a collection of similar titles. Not to mention the tags that have enriched our catalogue. I am happy to read reviews and recommendations from my friends, but I am slightly uncomfortable with the very social networking aspect of it ie pushing out recommendations.