Thing 19: Integrating 'things'

The purpose of this week was to look back at previous posts and consider which elements were most useful and how they might be integrated into our working routine. So these are a few of my favourite (and not so favourite) things:

• RSS feeds – I used these anyway and still use them to (try) to keep up to date with news and info, but for the most part they have been replaced by…
• Twitter – I won’t bore you with how much I love this. But I find it much simpler to use this than RSS. Yes, I could be missing information, but at least I don’t feel like I’m suffering from information overload.
• Evernote – I’ve used this to clip webpages that I want to look at later. I’m sure it has other possibilities; I’ve just not had the time to explore them yet.
• Prezi – I love this and it’ll be really useful but I think I’ve only scratched the surface so far. I may use it for an Endnote workshop I’m doing next month.

Things I need to explore more:

• Mendeley/Zotero – It’s useful to learn more about alternatives to Endnote.
• Wikis – I added my Thing 10 post to the Library Routes project, but apart from that I haven’t had an opportunity to use wikis.
• LinkedIn – I need to fill in more information, although joining groups has been quite useful for seeing what other people are talking about, however I can find that on Twitter too.

Things I probably won’t use:

• Pushnote – I just don’t see any use for this.
• Google Calendar – I already use Outlook Calendar and can’t see any benefit in changing. 

     So far I think this programme has given me the impetus (excuse?) to try out new tools – not that I need any encouragement! However I have found the professional development elements a little more difficult although they’ve definitely given me food for thought. I have also enjoyed reading other peoples’ blogs and feeling more of a part of the librarian community.