Thing 12: Books. Books, and More Books

Thing 11 covered ebooks available at local libraries, however, Thing 12 covers other apps that provide free ebook content. I found Thing 12 to be especially interesting because I hadn’t realized there were free apps to get ebooks from outside of the library. Although many of the titles are classics due to public domain copyrights, this could be very handy for when students need a classic for school, and the shelves are bare! I thought it was great that an audiobook app was mentioned as well as an app that features ebooks, but allows people to connect with each other via the app.

I decided to try Free Books. I thought it was cool that book covers were featured in the app. There were genres to click on and inside were blurbs about the genre that highlighted many book titles. Also included in the genre was the ability to browse books by book cover –great for people who like to browse visually (I know, I know, shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but…). This made it easy because often patrons will want books of a particular “type” so I really liked the genre browse-ability factor.

Once you find a book you like, you can click on the title and it will open some basic information such as author, year published, languages available to read in, description about the book is about, etc. There are also some tabs along the top that let you see what reviews others have given the book (stars and written reviews) and suggestions based on the current pick (which are pretty vague as it just reverts back to a couple of categories, but still somewhat helpful).

Downloading the book was a breeze; all I had to do was hit the download button and it appeared in the app under Library ready to be clicked and opened. The text is clear and easy to read, a good size for reading and keeps your place if you go out of the book and come back in.

I can’t imagine wanting to read a long book like this on a small mobile device such as a smart phone (maybe an ipad/tablet, but a phone seems really small), but I know that there are people interested in that.

Based on the extreme ease of use (why, oh why can’t Overdrive be so simple?!? I know, I know, copyright protections, but this was almost just TOO easy!), ability to browse by genre, ability to search by author/title (and it is very intuitive!), clear text, and the app remembering where you left off I’d have to say this is a most excellent app and I would highly recommend it for patrons looking to e-read some of the classics.

Thing 11 Library Reference

Thing 11 is interesting because while I help troubleshoot and guide people through using library apps I have very little exposure to them myself (aside from fixing problems!) just because I don’t have an e-reader, tablet, etc.

While reading through Thing 11, I did think it was interesting that the ELM portal was ingeniously designed to automatically adjust to each users device (computer vs tablet vs phone) and that the web address is the same whether a user wants to access the portal on a computer or a mobile device. That makes it super slick and easy!

As part of Thing 11 I downloaded a couple of counties apps since I tend to cross boundaries for work. It appeared that many of the counties (if not all), used Boopsie for an app provider. Boopsie is quick and easy to use. The app opens to a general breakdown of tabs such as hours and locations, search the catalog, my account, search the catalog, ebooks, etc. I find the apps easy to use because they are more basic breakdown of the library website, but still seem to have most if not full capability of the usual website.

Both the ELM Portal and Boopsie apps were interesting to learn about and I can definitely see myself keeping my boopsie apps so that I don't always have to log onto a computer the next time I want to place a request or check my library account. It was good to get a first hand experience so I can know what my customers see and can hopefully help them better in the future. 

Badge 10

Thing 10: Sharing Photos

Now that you've taken those photos you probably want to be able to share them with others. In the past, in order to share photos you had to download them onto a computer and then upload them to a website or email or print them, however, since so many people use mobile devices there have been apps created to help you easily and effortlessly take your photos from your phone to the web. Both apps recommended in the 23 Mobile Things look interesting, although I don’t have experience using either (I tend to keep a lot of my personal life off of the internet). I started this thing looking forward to learning more about each of them.

Prior to this thing I had heard of Instagram, but never used it. One of the librarians at work had recently done a presentation about Instagram for staff because she is working on trying to use it in a Summer Reading Program for teens. Upon playing with it I found it was easy, quick and fun to use and it was very convenient that I could link it to my facebook account. 

I have heard quite a bit about Snapchat, but again, hadn't played with it prior to this Thing. I thought it was interesting that you could set a time limit for how long the receiver sees the picture and that was kind of fun to play with. It felt that Snapchat was like a picture instant messaging service.

Like I said earlier, I don’t put a lot of my pictures on the internet because I tend to keep a lot of my information off of the internet for privacy reasons, however, I could see myself using Instagram as part of my professional work. It is easy, a lot of people are already connected and using it, it is easy to connect to social media and it’s free! While Snapchat was interesting, there really wouldn't be a lot of reasons to use a disappearing photo on a professional basis (and none I would do in my personal life either!) and the app has a somewhat poor reputation overall, so will probably consider using Instagram more than Snapchat although it was interesting to learn about both and play with each. Happy sharing! 

Thing 9: Taking and Editing Photos

One...two...three...say cheese!

With the increase in mobile devices, it seems there has been an uptick in pictures taken (check anyones' phone and you'll see what I'm talking about!). Almost all devices today have at least a basic camera built in for picture/video taking, however, there are many apps that allow you to customize your pictures with frames, stickers, B&W or color effects, words and other flashy options.

I like to take pictures of funny things and it’d be nice to at least be able to crop them if nothing else.

Two off of the list that I decided to try were Aviary and Color Splurge. 

I started off feeling very excited about Color Splurge and so-so about Aviary, however, once I actually started playing with them, my feelings about each reversed.

I started by playing with Color Splurge. I enjoyed being able to play with the B&W vs color portion, however, there are a LOT of ads with this app. I understand it’s free for me to download and use so there has to be some ads, but I usually just like the ones that roll along the bottom instead of the full page, jump out at you, ha-ha we made you click an ad! Types that appear in Color Splurge.

Aviary is great and easy to use and has some of the basics which I found fun to play with (frames, etc.) and didn't have the ads that color splurge did. Cropping, enhancing and effects are easily provided and the user also has the option to pick from different frames and stickers which can be downloaded easily and for free. 

If someone is looking for picture enhancing and editing software on their phone, I'd have to say Aviary is the app to use because of the multitude of features offered as well as the lack of ads in the app. 

Now go take a selfie! 

Thing 8: Social Media Management Tools

It is no surprise to anyone that social media is big, popular and can be a really great resource! However, as social media has integrated into our lives we often find ourselves utilizing more than one social media service (Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Google+, Foursquare, tvtag, etc.). Of course this all comes with usernames and passwords and let's be honest...how many usernames and passwords can people be expected to remember?!? The beauty of course is now there are social media management tools that allow you to connect all of your social media accounts in one place easily with one username and one password! (Brillant!!)

The beauty of course is now there are social media management tools that allow you to connect all of your social media accounts in one place easily with one username and one password! (Brillant!!)

 Not only is this great for not having to lug a 10 pound notebook around to remember all of your usernames and passwords, but it also means that it is more efficient because you don't have to run from site to site checking things out, but can rather just access everything all in one place quickly and easily. 

Out of the three mentioned on the 23 Mobile Things page I chose to look at HootSuite because it said that it focused on people, and really, that is why I have social media--to help me stay in touch with all of my friends who live both near and far (several friends live in different countries and even on different continents!). 

For someone who has quite a few social media accounts, I could see this being a handy app. It is easy to set up and use. I connected my Facebook and it separated my news feed from my wall from my messages so that I could access each quickly and easily. I didn't have to log into anything, there is a check in feature, and there are options to switch between social media programs with only a few simple clicks. 

Although I can't see myself keeping this app just because I don't use social media all that much (mostly just facebook, a little linked in), I can see someone who utilizes many social media platforms enjoying this app. 

 Courtesy to Microsoft Word for the picture. 

Thing 7: Content Saving and Sharing

Thing 7: Content Saving and Sharing

Thing 7 is especially interesting for me because I work regularly for two different counties and infrequently (subbing) for a third county. As part of Job 1, I work as a traveling associate librarian so I travel to 2-3 job sites weekly. Job 2 I am anchored at one site, but am only there 3 days a week. In a typical week I work 3-5 different job sites for 2-3 different county library systems. While I love the travel and variety, this means that often nothing can be stored on a computer and needs to be “in a cloud” somewhere so that I can have access to it no matter which job site I am at for the day. I use a lot of email to do this and while that works well for certain items, for others it is just clunky, so I was excited to explore different “cloud storing” options that I might be able to use on a daily basis.

After reading through both apps, I decided to try Pinterest. This is an app that has received a lot of hype in recent years and I know a lot of my friends use it because they have their Facebook and Pinterest accounts linked. Nonetheless, I was kind of excited to try it and see what it is all about and see how I could incorporate this into both my personal and professional life. 

Conveniently, Pinterest is connected with Facebook so all I had to do is link my accounts for log in information (I chose not to publish my Pinterest items to Facebook). After a few minutes doing a general account browse through I decided to start checking out some categories and utilize the search feature to find topics that might be of interest to me. I must say, it's a lot of fun and I can see how a lot of people can easily spend a lot of time on this site! 

I think it's great because there are a lot of things offline that I look at, go "oh cool!" and want to file away for future use (gift ideas, decorating ideas, crafts, DIY projects, etc.), but then have a hard time getting said idea from book page to some place safe AND actually remembering to consult said spot when I actually am searching for the idea some umpteenth month later. Pinterest is convenient because all the ideas can be stored in one place (boards can separated into categories such as “crafts,” “cooking,” “DIY” etc., but it's all under the same account and the same website) and are easily accessible in the future so long as I have an internet connection.

Also, it's just kind of fun to browse and see what ideas are out there for library bulletin board, book displays, crafts, story times and other library orientated services as well as browsing for some personal interests of mine such as crafts, DIY, creating natural beauty products and healthy cooking.

I'd say that Pinterest is a useful website/app that is fun and useful for both pleasure and professional ventures. While I may not be able to pin things that are not connected to Pinterest, the number of items on Pinterest are quite a few that I could easily see myself browsing and saving pins and then just resorting back to email or Google Drive for other “cloud” saving like I do now.

If you’ll please now excuse me I have some “pinning” to do!