Thing 3: Photo Sharing and Editing

I used to be all about pictures.  I took a ton of pictures growing up, got them developed, got doubles, handed them out to friends and family...it was always a lot of fun and so exciting to open that envelope of freshly developed pictures.  But at some point I stopped taking a lot of pictures.  I have a digital camera I never use.  I have a smartphone with a camera I use to take pictures of our adorable sleeping dog...and that's about it.  I'm not sure when I stopped enjoying pictures as much.

So this item was a bit of a challenge for me.  I do have a Shutterfly account I use when I do actually take pictures, and some of my friends share pictures there, so I had a good handle on that.

I wanted to pick something that I could try out in multiple places, including my Kindle Fire. I chose Pinterest, which I know some librarians (and others) are completely addicted to.  But I didn't get it.  It just looked like a big mess to me.  What was the big deal?

After doing some exploring, and finding a few friends, I set out to build my own board. I focused on my library and called it Reading Promotion (original, I know), but it was really fun checking out other people's ideas.  I'm a big believer in collaboration and idea sharing, and I can see how pinterest fills that need nicely!

Pinterest also started something new where you could add a map.  At first I didn't see where that was all that interesting until I came across a board for where my relatives live.  It included great ideas of things to do in that city, along with a map of where those things were.  Genius!  I immediately looked up a board for Hershey, PA, where I'm headed next month, and sure enough, I found boards entitled Hershey Area Restaurants and other helpful suggestions.  I wonder if teachers ever have their students use this to express their research, instead of a Prezi or PowerPoint?

Oh, the possibilities!

Thing 2! Online Communities

So.  Twitter.  Like Blogger, I had an account, but hadn't done much with it since then.  I decided my goal was to discover the possibilities of twitter for me. I wasn't much interested in following the trendy stuff, (like Richard Sherman and his personal ego battles!) but how I could learn from twitter, or, at least, be motivated  by it.

I love the requirement to be short....it's perfect for a busy librarian.  I found other librarians to follow and give me new perspectives, and I started following organizations that would give me quick links that interested me.

I have to admit though, the coolest thing for me?  Following Pope Francis, hands down.