This is the end...

So I have finally reached the end of 23 Things. As a member of the team it's been both rewarding and slightly stressful ('will people understand my instructions?', 'will they like my weeks Things?'), but it's been lovely to see how everyone has progressed in such a relatively short period of time and how enthusiastic the participants have been. And thank you to our Captain for leading and co-ordinating the whole programme.

The End by damaradealla

I started this project thinking that I was already aware of a lot of 23 things, but was surprised by how much I wasn't aware of, and the variety of 'stuff' out there. It has also given me an opportunity to test out these tools and a reason to look at them in depth rather than do my usual trick of quickly browse it, download it, get bored and ignore it...


At the end of this course, what did I find the most useful? Well for me I've found blogging particularly interesting and intend to carry on,  though probably not with this blog as I want to keep this as a record of 23 Things. This isn't because I expect people to be reading what I blog, but more because I've found it a really good way to organise my own thoughts and opinions coherently (well, sometimes...).

One other tool that I've also found surprisingly useful and now use every day is iGoogle - I'd played with it before and discarded it, but found using it along with my Google reader very easy to get used to - I am now officially a convert! I also found it really good to use Flickr (and had lots of excuses to play with it, seeing as it was 'my week'), and of course YouTube is always entertaining to trawl. And seeing as I've mentioned YouTube I think the video below is very apt for this post...plus it is a lovely song.



I've enjoyed each week of 23 Things, and have been very fortunate in the fact that I have had enough time to complete it - I really hope other people will get this opportunity at a later date. As for the other tools, I'm sure I will continue to use Twitter (both professionally and for pleasure!) and avoid Facebook like the plague. I know I will continue to use Google docs, diigo and I am sure I will find a reason to use SlideShare and the other things at a later date. In fact the only thing I am certain I won't use much in future is Firefox, simply because I've got used to Chrome now as a browser, and really recommend it.

As for Web 2.0 tools use in libraries, I think it's a  fact of life that these tools are out there and becoming increasing familiar to people,  so it makes sense for libraries to keep up with these developments - particularly when so many of them are free to use. I can only see people's usage of these tools increase, and who knows what exciting developments are waiting around the corner with Web 3.0 ? Being a fairly new member of staff I have already been impressed by how open the library at Warwick is to new ideas and technologies - long may it continue!

And as this is the last post, I will include these last two videos, the first is a lovely song by Cats Eyes performed in the Vatican, the second a rather ace recreation of a Joy Division performance. They aren't particularly relevant to 23 Things (if at all), but they are both well worth a look - enjoy!

Reflection week

So far 23 things has been very interesting to me. Though I already felt familiar with a number of things before I started, it has surprised me how much my attitude to some of them has changed. For example, I had played with iGoogle before, but then abandoned it, but by having the time to focus on personalising it for me, I am finding that I regularly using it again - and finding it useful!

One thing I hadn't used before was Google reader, and now (after adding it to my iGoogle page) I am finding it invaluable to keep up with the posts of my other 23 things participants, as well as other blogs I follow, and by having them all in one place, it is saving me time. With the social networking week, I was happy to see other people getting used to Twitter, and in a way it gave me a chance to start with it again 'from scratch' to create a more work orientated account.

The biggest challenge I have found so far has been the actual blogging itself. Though I read blogs, I had never blogged myself. However it is strangely therapeutic organising your thoughts in this way, and a good tool for reflection, so I definitely think I will be looking at this further - in fact I'm already starting to look into tumblr and wordpress!

I'm looking forward to the next half of 23 things, well except for the writing of the Week 7 things! But don't worry, I'm working on the instructions as I type...

Image Credit: Reflections (A) by Camil Tulcan