Thing Thirteen

When I first went into Library Thing to look around and view the tutorial, I was very impressed. Easy to follow and intuitive. I easily created my library of 5 books, but didn't get fancy by tagging, etc. Then I started working on creating the widget for my blog that would allow readers to link to my library. That's where I ran into problems. When my first try didn't get me anywhere, I called a coworker who had successfully completed this thing. Thank you, Mr. Anonymous! He walked me through the steps over the phone. Thank goodness he was helping me because one thing he had me do was something I would have never ever figured out.

I can see lots of people really getting into using this site for their personal use. But to me, it's just one more thing to keep track of. What I mean by that is it's one more list I have to make. Trust me, I love my lists, but not of books I've read, books I like, books I want to recommend, whatever. I don't have time for that, nor do I really feel like it's information I have to have. Life's too short to keep track of every little thing I do. I read for enjoyment, not to spend hours writing down the books I read.

I do think the Library Thing feature of being able to create your own private online book club will be very popular. And I think this site could be used to market your public library's services. Creating my library was very simple to do, which was nice.

You know what it is -- I'm feeling overwhelmed by all that is available via the internet. So much of it seems like just one more thing to do, to know, to use instead of something else. What I have to remember is that by participating in 23Things, we are all being inundated with technology week after week for learning purposes only. It doesn't mean I personally have to use all this stuff; I just need to get acquainted with what's out there.