What Are the 23 Things On a Stick?

We're glad you asked! These are the 23 Things On a Stick that participants must complete. All the red links below take you to the details and activities for that Thing.

Click on the links and read the entire Thing so you understand the activities and then jump in and have fun learning!

Be sure you have read this and this so you understand how the program works.

Getting Started
1. Set up your own blog, add your first post, & add an avatar. Register your blog and begin your 23 Things On a Stick adventure. Each participant must register her/his own blog to be eligible for the incentive.

What is Web 2.0 and Why Should I Care?
2. Read & watch these perspectives on Library 2.0, Web 2.0, and the future of libraries. Share your thoughts.

Keeping Up
3. Learn about RSS and news feeds and set up an RSS account of your own. Locate a few library-related blogs and/or news feeds to add to your RSS account.

Photosharing and Editing
4. Explore Flickr and learn about this popular image hosting site.
5. Have some more fun with Flickr and discover some services and mash-ups from Flickr and others.
6. Play around with an online image generator.

Communication
7. Web 2.0 tools make communication a snap. Try these tools and think how your library can use them.
8. Share your slide decks, photos, or presentation slides on your Web site or blog with these tools.

Collaboration
9. These Web 2.0 tools make it easy to collaborate on documents and presentations without the hassles of email attachments.
10. Learn about wikis and how libraries are using them. Add an entry to the 23 Things On a Stick wiki.

Social Media: Del.icio.us, Tagging, & Digg, and More
11. Learn about tagging and del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site.
12. Do you Digg? Have you Reddit? Maybe StumleUpon is your thing. Major publications (NYT & Washington Post, for example) offer readers the chance to "rate" and recommend their articles to others via these social media sites.

Online Productivity Tools
13. Try out an online productivity tool and learn about others.
14. Take a look at LibraryThing. It is not just for personal collections; libraries are using it too.

Online Games in Libraries
15. Libraries and games are becoming a hot topic. Explore some online games.

Minnesota Library 2.0
16. Media specialists, academic librarians, and public librarians can help their 2.0 students be more efficient in their research with these Web 2.0 tools: Assignment Calculator & the Research Project Calculator.
17. ELM is more than articles. Use these ELM productivity tools to maximize what ELM can do for you.

Podcasts & Video
18. Discover YouTube and other sites that let you watch and upload video.
19. Explore podcasts and consider creating a podcast of your own.

Social Networking
20. Facebook and MySpace are the way many people communicate--with each other, with the greater community, and in some cases, with their libraries.
21. Facebook and MySpace may grab the headlines about social networks, but there are other networks.

Staying Current
22. With Web 2.0 tools evolving, growing, and changing—not to mention all the changes in Library 2.0—how can you keep up? It definitely takes some effort, but here are some ways to keep learning.

One Last Thing
23. Complete this online evaluation and blog about your 23 Things On a Stick experience.

Thing 15. Online Games and Libraries

Gaming in libraries has been getting a lot of press in library journals and seems to be snowballing in interest—even getting its own American Library Association TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium in Chicago last year. The library world’s interest in gaming can be seen as a reflection of the general public’s interest.

According to the PEW Internet and American Life Project: America’s Online Pursuits Study, the number of online gamers increased 45% from 2000-2002. Many of these online games are Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMOPRGs). MMOPRGs have had a huge burst of interest in the past few years. Most MMOPRGs require a subscription, but there are a few that require no subscription, and even a couple that require no client download.

One free online game is Puzzle Pirates which allows you to navigate the pirate world based on your skills at various puzzles. Each ship requires multiple crew members, so there is a lot of interaction and collaboration in the community. Start by visiting their wiki, in case you want more detailed instructions before landing in the pirate world. However, this game does have guides, so jumping right in is always an option.

Another option that is more popular in the library world is Second Life. Second Life isn’t, strictly-speaking, a game. There are no objectives to fulfill, no goal at the end, no princess to save.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by nearly 200,000 people from around the globe. There are shopping malls, events, homes, lands of different types, and best of all, participants can contribute content, buildings, and other digital creations. Second Life also has had some unexpected results—there are virtual classrooms that one can attend and a number of institutions are using those classrooms as another avenue for distance education.

As in "real life," there are libraries. Alliance Library System, one of nine multitype library systems in Illinois, has created Info Island. Info Island offers reference and other services. Read more here.

For this Thing, you have some options…

A. Puzzle Pirates

1. Try learning two different roles in Puzzle Pirates—bilging is generally were you start. Other options are Learn to Carpent and Learn to Sail.
   

--OR--

B. Second Life
1. Watch this video tour (warning! music) of Info Island on Second Life.

Take a look at Second Life. If you are feeling adventurous, sign up for an account with Second Life and explore the islands. (Make sure your computer can handle the software requirements.)

Resources

• PBS built a website around their series The Video Game Revolution that has a lot of useful links to further information and reading about the video game phenomenon. Including Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked.
• Ohio University has a short video about their reasons for their presence in Second Life.
• The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County has an FAQ about their Teen Second Life.
• The Info Island Blog
• Sirsi Dynix Institute's Teen Second Life: Library Services in a 3D world with Kelly Czarnecki of The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. If you don't want to listen to the audio, there is an option to look at the slides under "supplemental materia.l"
• YALSA also has an podcast interview with two teens involved in Teen Second Life and Teen Second Life Library Project.

Blog Prompts

• If you tried Puzzle Pirates, write a blog post about how the interaction was with other sailors.
• If you chose Second Life, write a blog post about your findings and thoughts on Second Life. Is there a role for Second Life in libraries?
  

Challenge
1. If you have experience with Second Life or a MMOPRG game try the write a post comparing and contrasting the two environments and what you like and dislike about both and which is your preferred environment.

Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?

We hope you have learned many new things during 23 Things On a Stick. And one thing you have learned is that Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are anything but static. Changing, challenging, and exciting are hallmarks of Web 2.0. Here are some other things we hope you have learned:

• It really doesn’t take that much time. You have some new tools—Bloglines, del.icio.us, Digg/Reddit/Newsvine, calendars, to-do lists, and others that make finding news about new tools and ways to use them. You know how to use them to make keeping up easier. Of course, you can spend hours (and hours) playing around with Flickr or YouTube or other tools, but that counts as "improving your skills."

• You know you can do it. Sure, there were trials and tribulations as you learned the new tools or struggled with glitches in the products, but you did finish and you did get the tools to work. That means the next time you see a new tool, you will be ready to figure it out and make it work for you. No fear!
  

• It's fun to know and use these tools. Admit it, YouTube can be entertaining--and you can even see some uses for it in your library. Some of the tools have more toy-like features than others which have a more obvious use. It is amazing what people will think of and more amazing what they create to enhance Flickr, Google, or whatever.

• We need to keep informed. It is easy to get so involved in the day-to-day of story time, library instruction, troubleshooting, programming, reference work, summer reading programs, collection development, faculty meetings, system meetings, meetings and more meetings, and the on and on of the day in the life of a library. In spite of all that work, we do need to stay up on what our patrons are using, talking about, and asking us for help with. As libraries continue to evolve, we need to be informed to evolve with them and guide the evolution.

• We need the support of each other and our administrators and supervisors so we have the time and help we need to learn and stay informed. We hope the communities that have developed around 23 Things On a Stick will continue—whether in a building or a region. Stay in touch through your blogs, IM, and texting!

For this Thing,

1. Make a resolution to maintain your blog, use the tools you now know, keep up with new tools, and apply them in your library. Give yourself the gift of time—15 minutes a day, a Webinar now and then, conversations with colleagues about Library 2.0, whatever—but don't quit now! Put your resolution writing in your blog!

2. Every day, ask yourself, "What did I learn today?" Record your responses in your blog.

So here are some Web sites and blogs to add to your RSS aggregator. There are dozens more—choose ones that speak to you.

Library Web 2.0 Blogs

• Mostly News

• ALA TechSource
• LibraryBytes
  
• Librarian in Black
• LISNews
• Library Stuff

• News and Commentary

• Tame the Web
• Shifted Librarian
• Information Wants To Be Free
• Blue Skunk Blog
• Dangeroulsy Irrelevant
• NeverEnding Search
  

• General Web 2.0
• Lifehacker
• 43Folders

• Web 2.0 Directories
• Web2
• Go2Web
• Web2List
  

• Other Ways to Keep Up
• WebJunction-Minnesota offers newsletters, online courses, and other content (free to Minnesota users, thanks to MINITEX, State Library Services, and Metronet).
• OPAL has many online opportunities both live and in its archives to learn about library-related things—Library 2.0, technology, and more.
• Webinars from MINITEX and other sources
• Podcasts on Web 2.0 and library topics—find a few you like and add them to your RSS aggregator.
  

That’s enough. Glance through these, add the ones you like to your RSS aggregator, use others as needed. And remember, you can delete entries from your aggregator, too.

Blog Prompts

• Blog about how you plan to keep up with the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 tools.
• Recommend a way to keep up that you have found useful.