Youtube

This is the fanversion of the Potter Puppet Pals' video "The Mysterious Ticking Noise."
Original:

I chose this video for a perfectly obvious reason: it's hilarious!

I think the library could use youtube for tutorials about ereaders, getting a library card, putting things on hold from home, etc. Informational videos about upcoming programs could be useful as well.

On an unrelated note, the keyboard on the shelf reading computer SUCKS.

Goodreads

I cannot even express how enthralled I am with goodreads. I really wish I would have known about it sooner! I am a HUGE reader, and I've always had a "to-read" list with at least fifteen books on it, but goodreads takes it to a whole new level! I really love that it recommends books for me based on my reviews. I recently got a nook, so this will make it even easier to find new books to read!

Here's my bookshelf:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/7093890?shelf=read

I joined Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Fans of Barbara Kingsolver (who is my favorite author).

I'm going to be using this quite a bit!

Facebook

I joined the Tippecanoe County Public Library group; this group is for current and past employees of TCPL. I think that it's a good idea for a library to have a facebook because it is a very easy way for the public to post any general questions they may have without having to come in or call. Additionally, it also provides the staff that is in charge of the facebook with time to research the query if needed without having to worry about wasting the patron's time.
There could be problems, though; most people are very active on facebook, meaning that they will expect a pretty immediate answer, and it may be difficult to divvy up the task of updating and checking the facebook account between staff so that questions are answered quickly. This brings up another potential problem, as well; most people have different language, communication, and grammatical styles, so it would be very difficult to present a cohesive appearance to viewers if the task was split across the staff.
Something that has always bothered me is when people do not follow conventions for punctuation and grammatical structure. Since people are only provided with text to read, it's very important to do everything possible to appear credible and intellectual, and poor sentences, typos, and major errors in punctuation or structure connote ignorance and incredibility. As such, I think it would be a very smart move to pay close attention to the presence that we are presenting by our writing.

Twitter

I signed up for a twitter a few weeks ago, but I haven't tweeted much. I really just use it to keep up with my favorite bands/authors/events/topics, and I've found it to be very useful when it comes to that kind of thing. I don't have the intention of using it as a means of social interaction; I have both a facebook and a tumblr, which is another type of blog site, and I keep in touch and converse with my friends through those.
I follow mugglenet, paramore, sugarland, jk rowling, and a sort of fan club for nerds like me who love literature.
I think libraries could most definitely utilize twitter to get the message out about events and announcements; because the tweets are short, sweet, and to the point, people won't be tempted to just skip right over the library's posts.

Picnik

I've known about picnik for a while now, but I've never actually used it. I think it's pretty cool, but it's fairly limited. Yes, it can crop, resize, and alter the quality of photos, but pretty much any Office program can do that too, to a certain extent. I think I'll keep it in mind in the future, but I don't think I'll be using it much. I think I'll investigate Pixlr.

Flickr

I have already had a bit of experience with flickr, but I don't know nearly as much as I could, so this exploration was very informative. I really like the option of searching for tags, since it automatically pulls up everything related to the search keyword. I use photobucket as well, but it does not have this option, so flickr may just have proven itself to be better than the current system I use. I searched for "library animals," and a picture of a snake that a library has as a mascot came up. That reminded me of when I was really young and my mom would bring my brother and I to the downtown library every week, and each week, we would be absolutely fascinated by the snake down at the end of the circ desk. My brother was kind of afraid, but I always wanted to go see it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mclspix/5571495837/

Google Reader

Now that I know what Google Reader is, I think I'll be using it a lot. It looks like it could be a real time saver for me, since I read so much. Bring on the rest of the 23 things!

First post!

I just got my blog for 23 things, and this looks like it'll be interesting! I think the library will be able to utilize many of these resources, but I hope we don't go overboard in trying. Sometimes, and I think in this case, less is more.

Library Homepage
Yay for links!