Thing 4: Social Reading

It was easy to decide which activity to try for this Thing.  I have used Pinterest for many months now - mostly for gathering ideas rather than storing them on my boards.  Most of my preschool storytime ideas come from Pinterest these days, especially crafts.  It seems that I can always find exactly what I need.  I think I need to start pinning more of the things I find though.  For me, this is much more useful than storing ideas in the network (in files) on my computer.  I prefer the more visual format in Pinterest.

One thing I really like about Pinterest is that when other people find interesting ideas for me, they can send me a note within Pinterest, and then I can easily transfer the idea to one of my boards.  For example, Jennifer H. has led me to some really fun knitting projects, such as this mandrake root:


Doesn't every Harry Potter fan need one of these knitted up for them?

Back to Pinterest though.  I hadn't updated my profile picture for years and years, so I finally put in a new photo.  I also included some basic info for the "About Me" section.  I was happy to see that you could only use 160 characters so it was quick and easy.

Thing 3: Utilities

I can see that I am going to like using the Key Ring app.  Downloading it was very easy to do, and thanks to the issues already brought to my attention by Holly and Christy on their blogs, I went right to the correct self-check stations to practice checking out materials from our library.  (Apparently not all of the self-check stations work well with this app.)

I also loaded my key tag numbers for LA Fitness and Kroger, the other two places that I frequently need to scan my bar codes.  Then I went to my Key Ring "dashboard" on my computer, and clicked on the "Weekly Sales" tab.  I really like this feature - all of the paper ads in the Sunday newspaper really drive me nuts.  I would love to be able to throw all of those ads right into the recycle bin.  (I do still like to read the print newpaper though.)

About the Weather app featured in "Thing 3" - I tried the Weather Kitty app that Katherine H. mentioned in her blog, and I am completely hooked.  I think everyone should have this app on their phone!  The kitties are adorable, and I like the format of the weather updates.

Thing 2 - Photos

For this "Thing," I downloaded Instagram on my phone and started playing with it.  I can see the appeal for this app for people who love to share their photos.  However, I realized that I am more of a "play with the photos and make a collage" kind of person, so I also explored Pic Stitch.  I had a lot of fun with all of the borders, stickers, overlays, etc.  I was happy to see that a lot of these are free, so I could at least try a few out.

For my "Weaver Pets" collage, I experimented with all of the options.  I especially liked Vignette border - you can see it really well in the photo of Wonder Woman (the black cat).

Then I exported my collage to Instagram and Tumblr, in my effort to get it onto this blog.  Of course, then I realized that I could have skipped those steps.  I'm hoping to take less time to get it all together when it comes time for Thing 3!

Thing One

I created a blog back when we did the Web Adventure, but honestly haven't given much thought to it once that program was over.  Now that I have a smartphone, I do see that a blog is something I would actually enjoy posting to from time to time, as I definitely need to do something with the photos that I take!  For now, the photos just sit there on my phone.  But like others, I do prefer typing on the desktop keyboard to using my phone.  I follow several librarians' blogs for storytime ideas and to find out about new materials to add to our collections.   Here are a couple that I follow:

Anne's Library Life

Ask a Tech Teacher

For Thing One I also explored Tumblr, set up an account, and even installed the app on my phone, but decided I just feel a lot more comfortable with Blogger.  I'm not giving up on Tumblr yet...