23 Things

One of my current courses, “Reference and Information Services,” has required some interesting things already in this first part of the semester, including the Reference Practicum I’ve already talked so much about (here and here).  Well, now I’m going to be incorporating a new kind of reference content into this blog.

The exercise is based on the 23 Things for Libraries, an exploration that many different libraries have undertaken.  The 23 Things sets forth (you guessed it!) 23 things that libraries can do to familiarize themselves with the tools of Web 2.0 and how libraries can share information using various emerging technologies:

“The 23 Things is an online learning program that encourages you to learn about emerging technologies that are changing the way we access and share information, and the way we communicate.”

There are many different iterations of the 23 Things (the above link leads to the Brevard County Library’s version), all mostly similar but with slight variations.  Some of the iterations are due solely to the changing of technologies over time, and the above is a more recent version of the Things than was originally set forth.  There are also some interesting lists that have been geared toward the different sectors of information professionals, such as this one for archivists.  In light of these different lists of things, I’ll be exploring mostly the first link but, where I find it useful or interesting, I will post on a few technologies from the archivists’ 23 Things as well.  I will link to the Thing I am posting on each time so you will know where I’m pulling it from.

So, for this exercise for the reference course, I’ll be reading about the various 23 Things, trying them out, and responding via this blog to discuss the usefulness or interesting information as it pertains to libraries and archives.  The posts will be tagged as “23 Things” along with any other relevant tags, so they should be easy to find regardless of date.

So that’s the quick-and-dirty introduction to the 23 Things!  I’m excited to learn some new technologies (most of us consider ourselves pretty tech savvy already, with or without reason), and hope that you learn something, too.

[EDIT: It’s been OKed to mix-and-match from various different 23 Things-es (oof), so I’ll be mixing and matching from the Library list and the Archives list throughout the semester.  The numbers in my subject will reflect my number, and I will link directly to which “Thing” it is within its own list in order to provide some context for where the Things is coming from.  Hope this makes it a more interesting and rewarding experience, and I hope you enjoy seeing both on this list!]