Tangled thoughts about blogs

I've dutifully looked at quite a few of the other 23 Things blogs, and made a couple of comments when they've written about non-programme things. At this stage, however, I'm guessing that most of 100 or so blogs are almost identical, and so not the most exciting read.

Then again, neither is this - it feels rather like self-indulgence, both to write when I have nothing to say, and to assume that people are reading it...

My Start Page

Another thing I'd never heard of...

This was the task for last week. I already had a Google account, but I hadn't used the iGoogle function.

I've not found a background I really like, but this will do for now...

I added a load of gadgets to it, including:

• To Do list
• Wikipedia
• Weather
• Googlemail
• Shakespeare Sonnet
• BBC News
• Daily Literary Quote
• Facebook (a bit temperamental - it doesn't always load)
• Days Since (to create guilt about things I'm putting off!)

I do like the idea of having everything in one place, and replacing the myriad scraps of paper littering my desk that are my To Do lists, but I'm witholding judgement for the moment, as there are a few things I'm not so keen on. I'm concerned that the condensed versions of Facebook, Gmail and BBC News show me far less detail, but at the same time will give me enough to stop me visiting the actual sites, so I'll be less, rather than more connected to the wider world. I'll keep BBC News as my homepage for now, and see how much I use the start page...

23 Things

I've started this blog as part of the Oxford 23 Things programme, but as I've been thinking about starting a blog for over year, I'm pleased that Thing 3 has finally forced me to get round to it! That's why the title of my blog isn't related to the programme - I'm really hoping I can keep it up, blogging about other topics, so if I manage it, there'll be more about it anon...

I'm participating in the programme because I had never heard of Web 2.0 when I was given a talk about it during my first session as a library trainee. I had thought I was fairly up-to-speed with all things technological, even if I wasn't actively using them, but this suggested that I wasn't. In fact, it was mainly the term itself I didn't know, but it was about time I got using some Web 2.0 tools other than Facebook anyway!

Apart from reasons of personal/professional development, I'm interested to find out how Web 2.0 might be used in my library, the Codrington Library at All Souls College. We're a very unusual library (even by Oxford standards!) in terms of our who our readers are and what we do for them, so whilst some of the more common Web 2.0 tools probably wouldn't help us or our readers much, I'll be on the lookout for those we can adapt and apply.