Time for reflection. Much needed after reaching roughly the halfway point of the 23 Things. However I have had longer to reflect than expected. I am doing all of the Things in my "free" time outside of the day jobs and that free time suddenly disappeared for a few weeks. In addition my home computer keeled over and gasped its last breath on a particularly hot day after thing 12. I'm glad to be back again on a shiny new machine and am looking forward to completing the course.
My main aim in setting out was to find new channels for promoting library services and informing readers. In addition I wanted to know if any of these Web 2 things I was hearing about could help me work more efficiently. My main frustration has been the lack of time I have had to devote to looking at each Thing - to really see if it can be of any use. The time needed for a full evaluation was proving longer than the few hours a week I have had available so I have modified my aim. I am going to give the time I can to each Thing now knowing that with this knowledge I can go back later for a more in-depth look. I am also learning from others - finding out which Things they are taking further and how they are using them for their libraries.
At first I spent too much time trying to read other people's blogs. They are just so interesting and I could while away hours catching up on all of them. But this has got to stop and I am narrowing down to following 3 or 4 with a view to reading others later. One blog that has been inspiring me is Calon Lan - doing the 23 Things while sailing in exotic climes is just so cool!
So how have I benefited from the Things so far? I have set up a Google calendar to share with my staff and I have scheduled meeting using Doodle. I access my iGoogle page to follow several blogs including some from Cam23. I would (and have) recommend any of these three things to colleagues. I am continuing to use Facebook but still feel it is more suited to personal rather than library use. Accessing Creative Commons photos via resources such as Flickr is something I had wanted to look into and is proving very useful. I am planning to use Delicious when I have more time to devote to setting it up and am iterested to hear how others are using it in libraries.
Overall then so far the Things have provided me with tools to help organise my work and share my diary with staff and promise some future developments in library services. I am grateful to the Cam23 course organisers for the clear instructions they provide for each Thing and for the encouraging comments in their blog posts.
Taking time to reflect has helped me to feel less time-starved and more appreciative of the benefits of doing the 23 Things. Bring on the next Thing!
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