The 24th Thing

Woo hoo! (or W00T, if you prefer) I've reached the end!

I have really enjoyed this program, both as a participant and as the person putting it all together. Though I was familiar with, or had at least heard of, most of the resources and concepts we discovered through the 24 Things, this program gave me an excuse to actually visit some sites I had never been to and try out some of the cool web 2.0 tools I hadn't yet used. It also gave me a better understanding about things like RSS, wikis, etc. I've also really enjoyed seeing you all go through the 24 Things. I'm very proud of all the staff who have participated in this program, and I'm glad that so many of you have found it a worthwhile project.

I think my favorite thing about this program, as you might guess from previous posts (or how much I keep talking about it), was the wiki. I've wanted to get a staff wiki started for a while, and this was the perfect reason to make it happen. Doing it as one of the 24 Things was also a great way to get multiple staff involved, without me having to resort to pleading or arm twisting. I just hope we can get the rest of the library staff interested and involved, even if they're not participating in the program. I truly think it can be a great resource for us, and Rita and I are discussing ways we can incorporate other materials into this wiki (or build a new one).

I hope that I was successful in making at least some of the exercises relevant to your job. I do believe in the value of lifelong learning, and I think it's important that you have opportunities to learn while on the job. I think several of you have given good ideas of ways we can use some of these resources within the library, either for staff communication or to reach patrons, and I hope that in the next year we can explore some of those ideas. A few people have suggested to me that they'd like to see us offer a program like this for our patrons, and that's another thing we'll be considering.

I appreciate all the feedback you have given me as we've gone through this program, and I hope that you'll continue to share ideas and suggestions as you (hopefully) continue learning about web 2.0.