Thing 12: Books, Books & More

Okay, I'm sold on Audiobooks. I'm not generally a huge fan of audiobooks (except for books read by David Sedaris or Sarah Vowell) but many times we have patrons (especially students, or parents of students) need/want audio versions of classic novels. It's easy enough to track down ebook copies of titles in the public domain - thank you, Project Gutenberg - but audiobooks aren't as readily available.

True, you have to stream the audiobook if you want free versions, so it's not great if you're going to spend a week in the Guatamelan jungle.  But otherwise, with the wide availability of wifi (easy to locate thanks to Thing 3), it's a fairly useful app.

Wattpad was also on the agenda, and it's fine.  But not nearly as Earth-shattering as Audiobooks.

Thing 11: Library & Reference

My library is currently working with a web design company to completely overhaul the library homepage. One of the major points of discussion was how to either make our site completely responsive (and practical for use on all devices, regardless of screen size), or if we should stick with an unresponsive site, but create a mobile app for devices and phones.

Ultimately we went with the responsive option - we're under the illusion that it will be less work in the long run - and I can only hope it is as clean-looking as the ELM mobile site.

A few take-aways that I'll bring to the web design committee:
Our current mobile site actually isn't that bad.  But BookMyne is still just a little bit better (even w/o our library's branding.)
Make sure all databases linked to from our site are mobile-friendly.  (And if they aren't, make sure there is a note to the effect so patrons aren't frustrated.)
Put My Account at the top of the page.  That seems to be the common place for it, and let's be honest, that's what people are looking for first.
Don't use librarian-speak, especially on a mobile site. (Even down to "Location & Hours" v. "About Us."  Because then you have to ask, "What about us?")

Finally, our youth services librarians are working on a grant for the purchase of a small iPad lab, and I forwarded the following snippet from http://23mobilethingsmn.org/the-23-things/11-library-reference/elm-mobile/ on to their committee for future reference: "If you have a fleet of iPads in your schools, consider adding the ELM website to them to make library research tools prominent and easily accessible."

Thing 10: Sharing Photos

The following quote from a mediocre sit-com represents my first memory of the cultural phenomenon that is Instagram:

"Twitter is stupid, and Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read."

Having spent a decent amount of time trying out Instagram and Snapchat, I wouldn't exactly agree with that statement.  But I wouldn't exactly say I loved it, either.  They are both good for a quick "shoot and post" style of photography, and the novelty - particularly of Snapchat - is cool. 

But I can't banish stories I've heard about teens sending inappropriate selfies, assured that the image would disappear in 1 to 10 seconds, only to find out at school on Monday that the recipient took a screen shot, which he/she then forwarded on to everyone.  Everyone.

Plus, while using both, I just kept thinking, "I like Line Camera more.  A lot more.  You can do the same stuff, mostly, and there are so many more options/frames/filters...sigh."

Thing 9: Taking & Editing Photos

Tragedy.  Well, a first-world sort of tragedy.

Last week I wrote the blog post for Thing 9 after installing and playing around with Line Camera.  It was mostly me noting that this is fun tool, and I can definitely see work applications (posters, event recaps), etc., and I will never, ever , try touching up my own picture and then comparing it to the original.  Because that is a dangerous game.

Anyway, today I went to edit the blog post with my tablet, and accidentally "reverted to draft."  You wouldn't think this would be a big deal - I can't be the first person who's done it - so I quickly googled "recover blog post," and learned that you should be able to go to your browser history and find it lost posts.  So to the browser history I went...but it didn't work.

And since this exercise isn't about the finer points of blog recovery, and since I'm getting frustrated, I'm going to let. it. go.

And maybe try out Color Splurge.*

*I tried Color Splurge, and if I were a more artistic type of person it would probably become an obsession. Unfortunately, I found the ads soooo annoying I eneded up deleting the app shortly after installing it.

Thing 8: Social Media Management Tools

I rarely follow Twitter, only access LinkedIn if someone sends me a request, only look at Google+ if I accidentally click on it while checking my gmail, and typically only check facebook once a day (more if it happens to be my day to manage the library's social media posts, less if it's a weekend or I'm on vacation).

So, long story short, I'm not really the target audience for a social media aggregators.  That said, it would certainly be nice to be able to post to the library's FB and Twitter accounts simultaneously. So...Hootsuite.

First I created a HS account for my personal FB and Twitter accounts (no problems to report), and then realized that it would be more practical to create a Hootsuite account for the library accounts in order to schedule posts to Twitter and FB when I go on vacation

First, although I had to log into HS with my personal FB account, I was able to send updates just to the RPL page.  So far, so good.  Unfortunately, when I tried to add the library Twitter account, I got the error message that someone else had already created a HS account with that Twitter account (curse upon your heads, colleagues who actually finished this Thing in a timely fashion!)

So, while I can totally see how this could be useful, in reality I doubt I'll get much use from this particular app.  At least not until I can track down whoever has the HS account that allows access to the RPL Twitter account.

Thing 7: Content Saving & Sharing

Pinterest. Is. Evil.

Like many people, I have a Pinterest page that I use to collect random nonsense -- recipes, funny memes, particularly awesome Halloween costumes.  Unfortunately, I learned that you can never spend just five minutes on Pinterest; five minutes becomes fifty, and I'm left feeling foolish and drained.

Today is no exception.  However, after tearing my eyes away from a series of funny (and generally safe for work) pins, I decided, hey, time to figure out how to make this work for me.  Emphasis on work.

I'd never really thought of it as a way to collect all my bookmarks, and after my first failed attempt to "bookmark" a page that I can never remember (my work email), I realized why.  If the site you want to pin doesn't have any images (like the bare bones work email login page), you get an error message of "Oops! This site doesn't have any images to Pin."  Which is not terribly helpful.

For collecting book display ideas, or program concepts for Banned Books Week, Pinterest is a great visual tool.  I like that I can forward images easily to colleagues, and searching through various boards created by librarians was a lot of fun.  (The Goth Librarian's "Corporate Goth Wardrobe" was hilarious, although the Lusty Librarian's boards were oddly lethargic.)

Still...if you're looking to save bookmarks to access across devices, I'd recommend logging into Google Chrome.

Thing 6: Creating & Editing Docs

Since Quickoffice allows you to save documents to Google Drive and access documents that have been saved there, that is the one I decided to test drive.  Downloading the app and viewing/editing my saved documents wasn't at all difficult, and creating/saving a new document was similarly easy.

Since this seemed pretty intuitive, I decided I'd give SignNow a try, thinking it would be very helpful if, say, I need to sign my tax returns before sending them back to my tax preparer (selfish, I know, but it does tend to become a priority if, like this year, there is an issue and you are required to resubit on April 14). 

Downloading the SignNow app was not a problem, but after "signing" the test document, I spent the following 30-40 minutes in deep frustration as I tried to open an existing Google doc in SignNow.  Whenever I tried to open a document in SignNow from my email account, I was given the option to "Open in a new Window," "Save Link" and several others, but not "Preview" or "Open in a different program" as I was instructed to search for.  After the 30-40 minutes of the aforementioned frustration, I decided I'd reached the point of diminishing returns. 

However, if I can ever get a document to open in the app, I'm sure I'll like it very much.

Thing 5: Notetaking

I downloaded the Springpad app and created several practice notebooks - one for movies, one for tasks, one for quick notes, a holiday gift planner, and, of course, one for books.

Creating and maintaining the notebooks seemed pretty straightforward, although I like to include the date I read a book or watched a movie (I'm weird that way).  I tried including this information in the notes, but was not able to sort or search by this information.  But I supposed the wealth of data I CAN include (external reviews, where I saw it, what I thought of it) outweights the negatives.

I was thinking that it might also be helpful to be able to label items in my holiday gift list according to who the present is for, but after bumbling about for a little while, I did find that you can tag each gift, and search/sort by tag.

The task list could also be useful at work, except our email program currently has a task list that includes tasks I set for myself, as well as those sent to be by colleagues.  Still, this is good for stuff like "Don't forget to buy a new toothbrush."

Thing 4: Keeping Up

Flipboard was pre-loaded on my phone, so that's the one I went with. (One less decision to make.)

I stormed by way through the categories - News?  Of course.  Film? Sure.  Politics?  Don't mind if I do! - and before long I had 3 pages of the "proud to follow" (NPR, News, Politics, BBC World News) and the "slightly embarrassed I like but what the heck" (Mental Floss, Onion A.V. Club, BuzzFeed.  What I didn't find, however, in my initial browsing, was a link for books. 

So after I spent 20 minutes catching up the mining disaster in Turkey and Jennifer Lawrence's late night appearances, I did a quick search for books/reviews/etc, and promptly subscribed to the "books" feed, which had some pretty great articles from The Telegraph, HuffingtonPost, and The Guardian.  There was also an option to subscribe to "Bestsellers," (which I didn't find quite as useful), and something called "Word and Film: Intersection of books, movies and TV," which proved to be gossipy, mildly informative and a lot of fun, especially when I'm looking for book and movie display ideas.  (Ex: Last month I created a list of "Best 1940s Films," and I would have found the article Beyond Citizen Kane: Your Cinematic Guide to the 1940s very helpful.)

Only problem - too many articles, too little time.

Thing 3: Utilities

RedLazer Barcode & QR Scanner

I downloaded app, and was a little puzzled since didn't look exactly like descripion on 23 Mobile Things site, and i wasn't given the option to not give my location.  However, I did scan a couple of book & audiobook barcodes, and promptly got prices for same volumes online, where I might buy or check out copies locally, and "related suggestions" (which, unfortunately, were...unfortunate).  I didn't have any QR codes in close proximity, so I scanned one that I created to link to the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter book trailer (which worked fine).

Google Goggles
Good for a laugh with my colleagues, but as far as I could tell, no more useful than just typing a search into  Google.  Wait...I just scanned some stock art on my coworker's wall, and it correctly told me the artist and name of the painting.  Now, it's a well-known painting  - Wheat Field with Cypress by Van Gogh - but still cool.

WiFi Finder
This is so much fun!  I initially thought, "Why would you need this if your phone already tells you what wifi signals are available?"  I didn't realize it would list all of the free wifi options (or a good chunk of them, anyway) in my city.

I am very fond of Firefox, and so downloaded the app for my device.  I was puzzled by the mask icon at the top of the search window, but after googling the terribly clever, "foxfire mobile app mask icon," was pleased to learn that it allows you to do private browsing (in a window opened with this, firefox doesn't keep browser history, search history, cookies, etc), which is a nice feature.

I was also curious about Opera, so downloaded that as well; we'll see if it's actually faster than Chrome or Firefox.

Thing 2: Mobile Device Tips

Because I am cheap and hate the idea of spending $80-100 month for phone service, and because I work a lot with various devices as a point person for the library OverDrive questions, I didn't really think owning a smartphone was necessary for my existence.

However...I did upgrade to a Samsung Galaxy phone, and must admit that I kind of love it.  There are a number of features that my stone age phone was lacking - such as uploading photos to FB, accessing the internet, and, erm, texting.

I appreciate the above 3 features, but had a lot of fun playing and testing several other functions mention in the video and tips/tricks.

For example, after installing Lookout Security & Antivirus, I went to https://www.lookout.com/d/missingDevice and made my phone "scream." (At work.  And it's loud.)  I also downloaded the  OverDrive app, which worked well, except this particular version of the Samsung Galaxy (Galaxy S4 mini) kept shifting away from the library wifi to my data plan -- apparently our wifi, while quite strong, is considered unreliable/unstable by Samsung.

BUT, with the help of computer center staff, we found that we can MAKE it stay on the wifi by either turning off the mobile data or turning off the Auto Network Switch.  (If anyone else has the same problem, directions are below).

Finally, I had no idea my phone was tracking my eye movements with Smart Stay.  Creepy but cool.


Turning off Mobile Data will keep you from using up your data plan, but it also means you can't use the internet unless you are connected to wifi.  If that's okay with you:

Turn off Mobile Data:

From the Home screen, tap the bottom left corner menu --> Settings --> Data usage --> uncheck Mobile Data (this disallows data access over mobile network)

Turn off Auto Network switch
If you want to be on wifi as long as there is any signal, but then switch to mobile data if needed, turn off the auto network switch (this only works if the data access over the mobile network is turned on):

From the Home screen, tap bottom left menu--> Settings --> Wi-Fi -->bottom left corner menu --> Advanced --> uncheck Auto Network Switch