Thing #19: Library Thing

Egad, it's been a long while since the Old Crowe has been able to lift her beak from the carrion pile and return to Learning 2.0. See, now you know why she was working ahead--not because she's a hotshot (though she is) or a brown-nose (which she's not) but because she knew in February she'd be too busy to eat lunch, let alone find time for her lessons. At last, things have calmed down a tiny bit and she can jump through those last few hoops between her and that laptop.

This is an easy one, because I had an account on Library Thing before Learning 2.0 ever started! (I've only had time to add 9 books, but it's the principle of the thing.) I can't even remember where I first heard about Library Thing--several people told me about it last year and/or I read about it. I've wanted to catalog my home library for a long time, and figured once I retired I'd finally have time. I thought I'd actually have to learn a database program but voila! Library Thing saved me the trouble. I've been using LC copy and am happy as a clam. A friend of mine, an experienced cataloger, turns up his nose at it. However, for those of us whose grade in Advanced Cataloging torpedoed our 4.0 in library school, Library Thing is a godsend.

I'm a little dubious about that search widget, though. I did try to do that, and it's on my blog--but it doesn't seem to search just my personal library, but the whole Library Thing database. I think. Anyhoo, I wonder how long before I hit that 200-item limit and have to pay them. It'll be worth it.

Thing #17: Adding Favorites

OK, I actually did this last week but this is the first chance I've had to blog about it. Added my favorite TV show (currently Bones), my favorite book (The Lord of the Rings, of course--read it 20x before anybody ever heard of that Jackson guy), and got the Crowe's Nest to show up on the "Favorite Blogs" list. Hooray.

How I might I use a wiki in my work at the library? I think I pretty much answered that in the last post.

However, it might have some interesting applications otherwise. Last Saturday the Council of Stewards (= Executive Board) of the Mythopoeic Society had one of our quarterly meetings, which we do by conference call most of the time. We agreed we all need to document our procedures since we serve 3-year terms (no term limits, though). On occasion people have had to leave without a lot of notice...somehow it's hard to get people to work for nothing. A passworded wiki would be a great way to do a manual in bits and pieces for a small nonprofit Board with jobs and real lives and such. Hmm, I may have to go back and read that stuff about free wikis--or dump the job on our Webmaster.

The Old Crowe is feeling very tired and stressed out right now. Sometimes she just wants to go back to her nest and take a nap; sometimes she wishes she could find some carrion to rip apart just for the hell of it. To cheer herself up she will remind herself that most of her relatives are freezing their butts off right now.