Thing 16: Student 2.0 Tools:

This is great! I tried the online calculator and was impressed with the schedule it gave me. It gave several steps to follow and helps to plan the amount of time it will take to complete a research project. What a great benefit to students. I see it also sends email reminders. This is good for a project needing to be done on time and for keeping the student on track. I will recommend it to students/patrons who come in looking for information on school projects/reports.

In the library, this willl help to get to the patrons the information they are seeking. I see it being most beneficial in a school library, however because the site gives both student and teacher ideas and recomendations.

I will be giving this site information to my grandchildren and find ways to use it myself. A very cool tool!

Thing 15: Online Games and Libraries:

I spent some time exploring and checking out the videos of the different things one could do in Second Life without actually downloading it. I just don't have the time at work to create a place to "get away from it all!" I think it could get pretty complex. Second Life is an appropriate title for a game where people can log in and create just that.......a second life, a second place to live, a second community of people to live it with. Change your appearance and be someone totally different. You can be anything and do anything. Could be habit forming!

I started Puzzle Pirates but I guess the pirate world is just not my thing!

Thing 14: LibraryThing:

Social networking for book lovers! Creating a personal catalog is surprisingly easy, can be sorted by author or title -- or viewed as a colorful collection of book covers and the first 200 titles are free!

It is a wonderful site which provides book lovers with a way to catalog book collections and make connections with other readers who might have similar interests.

I like it a lot!

Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools:

So many time saving tools to work with! I wish I had the time to explore tham all! I did create a home page in iGoogle.

I often get emails containing a " Countdown" and now I know how they are created. I checked out the calendar sites, the Ta da list site and many others. A lot of these tools are similar to ones I worked with at my last job so I was familiar with many. Those, however, were company based but similar all the same. Great time savers at home and on the job. I did tryout Backpack and thought it very useful. I will work with that site much more.

Thing 12: Do You Digg?:

I viewed a lot of different articles and videos......some worthy, some not! I can understand reading and seeing what people in your community find interesting and are passionate about. This changes the way people get information online and you'll always find something interesting and unique.

I would think, however, that Digg's frontpage content could be controlled by a per centage of users who have too much control over content and could possibly cause misinformation to thrive.

Any one of these sites is definately the way to check out what is popular on social media sites. You could also build a network of friends enabling you to find news together and they can see what you are Digging and you can see what they Digg as well.

Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us:

It looks like tagging will be a lot easier and more flexible than keeping information in folders and will be great for organizing and finding personal imformation. It's also possible to view bookmarks added by similar-minded users that may be of interest to you. Use of Del.icio.us is free and most likely one of the most popular to use. Social networking at its best!

At first, I was hesitant about everyone being able to view anything posted but then read that a user can mark specific bookmarks as private collections. I enjoyed looking over the list of the most popular tags.

Thing 10: Wikis:

This is a very different place! Anyone can contribute, change, and add to a wiki. Most websites can only be read. With their knowledge-sharing tools, Wikis are great for libraries. The Library is a collection of organized information, resources and services. With the collection of media other than books for storing information, libraries now offer access points for maps, prints, and other documents on various storage media. Wikis are easy to use, are web based and great for group projects. Wikis are full of potentital, and are free and open publishing systems. Everyone is encouraged to share information in their areas of interest and expertise.

I experimented with editing the 23 Things on a Stick Wiki.