Thing 5: Flickr

I am really impressed with Flickr and understand why so many people use it. I've tried Kodak EasyShare Gallery, Shutterfly, and Picasa Web Albums and been frustrated with the slow upload speed. Flickr was much faster when just using the browser, and it was quicker to select and add the photos to upload. The mini menus for the various functions make it easy to navigate, and organizing into sets is a cinch. It's robust, with tons of features, and the little balloon help messages are truly helpful. I can only upload 100 MB every month, but I guess that's reasonable. It only costs $24.95 a year to add more! I did have some trouble finding out how many MB I had already uploaded.

This is a photo I took of Mt. Rainier on a recent trip to Washington state, and uploaded to Flickr.

Thing 3.2: 7-1/2 Habits

Let me do the easy one first, i.e what is hardest for me. It's definitely Habit 7-1/2: Play. It must be that German work ethic in my background, but I'm so focused on things that need to be done that I often don't give myself permission to play. I love to read, certainly one way to "learn", especially since my choice of books is non-fiction on a variety of topics, but I often do it right before bedtime when I'm ready to doze off. It takes a long time to get through a book, I can tell you.

What's easiest for me probably would be Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind. I'm pretty good at painting a picture in my mind about a finished project, no doubt believing that visualization and the power of my imagination will help me reach my goal more quickly. : ) Much of my work requires problem solving and figuring out how to make an unfamiliar piece of software do what we want it to do. It's a continual learning experience and, although the road to the end result is fraught with the unexpected, I generally have a pretty good idea of what the end result will look like.

Thing 3.1: Off and running

So here I am. A place where I never thought I would find myself. I've read plenty of blogs ... admired the way other people have expressed themselves ... amazed at how minutiae, in some cases, can be so fascinating that strangers want to read it ... and wondered why we are all so interested in what each other thinks and does. It certainly has been great fun to fiddle with the template and add features to my blog. As you can see, I like color.

I first learned about "23 Things" when I attended a SirsiDynix webinar in early January. I was blown away by how beautifully crafted this training program was and couldn't have been happier when Maryland Libraries decided to offer it. What better way for all of us in the library world to catch up with the technology used by our customers!