23 Things Accomplished, But Still Experimenting

Earlier this summer I finished the 23 Mobile Things program where I tried out mobile apps on my phone and Kindle Fire.  I had so much fun that I'm still trying out new things.  The exception is I'm trying out programs on the computer.  Just as fun and exciting.  And full of frustrations.

Since I do a lot of the posters around the library, I'm always on the lookout to jazz them up a bit.  Microsoft Publisher works pretty well, but there's only so much one can do with it.  So far I have found two internet sites that I've been playing around with,  Canva.com and infogr.am. Each have free options and pay options.  Right now I'm just using the free ones.  If they turn out to be super cool and I can't live with out them, maybe I'll upgrade.

Canva.com is a program where you can design posters, covers and pictures for your social media pages and posters to print.  It took me awhile to figure out how to print my poster.  It's a lot simpler to post it directly to Facebook or other site.  So far the free options are working just great for me.  There are a lot of text fonts to choose from, lots of colors, cool graphics and other options.  They also have awesome tutorials that walk you through many of their options and give great graphic design tips.  The one thing that I've found frustrating is that it doesn't work on Internet Explorer.  All our computers have IE.  I was able to download Firefox onto a couple computers.  Now I can usually use canva.  One time the computer freaked out and restarted itself while I was in the middle of trying to make a new picture.  Not quite sure what that was about, but everything still worked after.  Weird. But anyway, here's the poster.  Not too exciting, but I'm still getting a hang of the program.

I'll post about infogr.am next time.  I still haven't done much with that one, but so far it's super neat.

A Little Bragging

 

Completed all 23 Mobile Things! Yay!  It was a fun program, but I'm glad it's done.  On to something new!

 

 



Check out the 23 Things if want to check out all the apps we had to choose from.  I didn't try out even half of them.

Thing #23--Evaluate 23 Mobile Things

Doing this project was very fun and interesting.  Many of these apps I don't think I would have heard about, much less tried out, on my own.  I also came away knowing that there are more to apps than social media, games and buying things.

My favorite app has definitely been Wattpad.  My husband told me my motivation level has gone way down since I downloaded that one.  And of course the Facebook app I use a lot.  Both for checking my personal account and the library's account.  I have also found myself posting more and more photos on Instagram.  Never thought I'd be doing that. 

All in all, I'm glad I participated.  I learned a lot and I would definitely do something like this again.

Thing #21--Free-for-All

For this Thing I get to write about any app I want to.  Which is harder than it sounds since I just started using apps when I began the 23 Mobile Things. 

There are a couple that I use frequently (and I'm using the word frequently loosely).  One is the app for my bank.  It's super convenient when I just want to check how my accounts are doing (can I afford that new pair of shoes?).  Not a very exciting app, but very useful when on the go.

I've also been having fun with a QR/Barcode scanner app.  There are many of these out there.  I discovered I needed to try a few of them out to see which one worked the best on my phone.  I still can't scan every code I come across, but enough to make it worth while.  In fact, I thought QR codes were so neat, I decided to create and use them for the library.  I found a few websites where I could create them for free.  I made one and added a QR code to our Paws to Read bookmarks that lead to the website to register for the program.  Sweet.

And finally, being a weather junkie, I have the NOAA app.  Very handy when you need to know what kind of weather you'll meet on the trails. 

Thing #16--Audio

OK, so I finally tried out one of the audio apps.  I gave SoundCloud a try.  I'm not sure how long I'll keep this app.  It does have a lot of music and podcasts to explore, so I'll give it a little while.

So, SoundCloud is a social media audio platform.  You can listen to and share music, podcasts and other audio.  You can also record your own audio and share it.  Since I logged in using my Facebook account I automatically started "following" my Facebook friends who have SoundCloud accounts.  I could then see what they have recorded and shared and their playlists.  I also browsed what I could listen too.  Lots of music I've never heard of.  Under music genres I discovered such things as techno, tech house, minimal techno and hardcore techno.  Who knew there were so many versions of techno?  There are also the familiar genres such as country, classical, hard rock, and hip hop.  Under audio genres I found a podcast from Freakonomics that I saved to listen to later.  Looked (sounded?) really interesting.  Many news items about the world cup.  So many that I don't think I'll have time to browse through them all.

So far I haven't recorded anything yet.  It's not my favorite thing to do, record my own voice.  I also couldn't figure out how to do it.  It's probably super easy and I'm just over thinking the app.  I don't see ever doing podcasts.  They seem like they'd take a long time to set up.  And like I said, I'm not a huge fan recording myself talk.  Writing is so much easier!

 

 

Also, the badge for completing 20 Things! 

 

 



   

So Much To Do, So Little Time

At least that's how it seems here at the BPL.  Summer is finally here and with it comes the busy season.  The Library will be a hopping place during the month of June.  We'll be breaking up with the old stereotype that says the library is "a quiet place."

On Monday the summer reading program begins.  The theme this summer--Paws to Read.  Cute.  And since our online experiment worked so well last year, all registration and recording of minutes will be done online.  Our calendar of events for Paws to Read can also be found there.  Our first big event will be Thursday evening at 7:00.  We're hosting musician and storyteller, Jack Pearson, for a concert. 

The following week, June 16-21, is our annual Bemidji Library Book Festival.  We really out did ourselves this year with the number of events crammed into one week.  There are children's authors every morning, workshops in the afternoon, and at least one author presentation later in the day.  Whew!  Check out the link for the whole schedule of events.  Should be awesome.

New wall display in the children's area.  Looks a bit empty now, but I'm sure that won't last long!

 

Thing #22--Discovering Apps

So this Thing is one I should have tried nearer the beginning.  For this thing I had to try out an app (or website) to find new apps to try out.

I tried out Droid of the Day (DOTD).  This app sends you a notice once a day about a featured app from the Google Play Store.  So far, it's been a bust.  At least for me.  None of the apps it's recommended have appealed to me.  I did look at one of them briefly, just because I didn't know what it was.  Something about discovering what days in the future will be my bad luck days.  Or something like that.  I would rather be surprised, so I didn't install that app.  I'll keep DOTD installed for now.  It's rather interesting to see what kind of apps are out there.  Perhaps I'll get lucky one of these days and it'll tell me about one I can use.

I've had more luck discovering new apps by just browsing the Play Store and seeing what's available.  I've also found some by visiting websites or reading blogs.  And people always want to share things they like, so ask your friends!

I just had a sad realization.  I thought I only had 2 Things left.  It turns out I skipped Thing #16--Audio.  Oops!  I'll have to go back and do that one.