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Thing 23: Art

I downloaded MUSE and while it is fun to play around in, I was saddened by the lack of information about the artwork.  I liked that it told a little about the artist, but there was no information given about the work itself, such as title of the piece. 

I liked being able to view lovely artwork and save it to view again later, but wasn’t that impressed.

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Thing 22: Languages and Translation

I took years of French and even studied abroad and while my grasp of the language is still pretty good after all these years, I was curious to see what I could test out of on Duolingo.  What a cool app!  It was super fun to answer and made me realize I haven’t lost as much as I’d thought.  I would like to learn Spanish, so will have to give this a try.  

Occasionally we get patrons who’s English language ability is not super high, so I thought it would be fun to check out WordLens to see if it would help me better communicate with them.  I could write their answer in English and it would translate into something they could better understand.  Unfortunately WordLens wasn’t available.  I could download Translatable instead, but when I typed in the sentence, “The book you want is unavailable.” I was told I would need to purchase an upgraded version.  Bummer.

So I moved on to Google Translate as that was the other option that popped up when I searched for WordLens.  This worked really well.  I could translate the same sentence into Chinese or Spanish.  I can really see this being beneficial.  I noticed the patron could also speak into the microphone and have their words automatically translated into English.  I tried it by speaking a sentence in French and having it translated into English.  For the most part it worked, although my accent drastically needs to improve for it to work better!

Another fun and rewarding work related app.

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Thing 21: CCPL

When helping patrons I carry my phone with me in case they come up with another question about the location of a title (or if I forget the author’s name, or call #).  I can just pull out my phone, open up Safari and pull up the catalog.  This is time consuming, but works.  I downloaded BookMyne hoping it would be an easier, more user friendly way to search our catalog.  While the images are big and it is easier to read than the catalog (especially on my small iPhone 5s), there isn’t an easy way to see immediately the call number or if an item is available.  You have to go into each individual item.  There is also no way to filter out unwanted formats.

It does have some interesting features, such as linking to Goodreads for suggested reading lists and allowing me to log on to my account to renew items.  I wasn’t able to actually renew anything as two had holds and one said the record was currently in use and to check back later.  Oh well.  Overall, not too impressed with this one.

SO, I moved on to the CCPL Mobile App.  I must say the instructions were a little off.  I followed them, but instead of adding the mobile version of our site, I added the regular version.  This is nice and all, but I wanted the more streamlined mobile version.  I had to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to locate the link to the mobile version (way NOT COOL!).  But, I was able to get it saved to my home screen.  I opened it up and did the same search as I did on BookMyne and it was everything I needed!  Simple, clean lines.  Availability and call number listed right there.  I am so happy!!!!!  This will make it so much easier to help patrons out on the floor!

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Thing 20: Email

OMG!  Why have I waited so long to add my work email to my phone!  This will make my life so much easier.  I hated checking it on my phone because it didn’t work well using Safari and I could never figure out the mobile interface.  Did I really send a message?  Nothing was labeled so I fumbled along using it.  Now, it is as easy to use as my AOL mail on my phone.  Same interface and everything.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

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Thing 19: Communicating

I’ve heard of Skype before as a means of “free” phone calls, especially overseas, but with Facetime I don’t see the need to add that to my repertoire.  However, I’ve heard a lot about SnapChat, especially as it is used a lot by teens and young college students and that there are inherent dangers associated with it.

It was easy to download and get started.  I liked the quick tutorial they provided.  It showed things perfectly and made it super easy for me to send a quick snapchat to Gina.  

Reading through some of the links on the 23mt site helped me find some of the more fun things to do to photos, such as adding drawings, changing colors, temperature, etc.

I don’t know that I will use this very much, but it is a neat and fun way for people to communicate.

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Thing 18: Calendars

Recently I’ve started using my iPhone calendar.  I am a visual person and still need that print calendar on my wall at home, where I can see at a glance upcoming events, weekend days I work, etc.

However, once Fiona started softball this spring, I realized the value in also using the calendar on my phone.  I take my phone everywhere with me, so when family or friends asked when and where her next game was, I could pull it up quickly on my phone.  

It is relatively easy calendar to use.  I don’t like that I cannot click on a specific date to add an activity to it.  Instead I have to click the + button, and scroll through a bunch of dates to add something.  I haven’t used the alert feature, but am testing it out before a meeting later today.  I don’t know if this will be useful to me or not, but I’m willing to give it a shot!

I added a separate work calendar but it doesn’t seem to work the same as listed on the Mac website.  Items aren’t color coded in the window even though the items themselves are listed on different calendars.  Confusing as the brief description given makes it sound like you can view each individual calendar.  Maybe as I add more items it will make more sense.

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Thing 17: File Sharing and Cloud Storage

In our department we use Google Drive all the time for sharing documents.  Since I was already familiar with that, I decided to test out Amazon Photo for its storage capabilities.  It was easy to download and once I logged into my Amazon account, I was good to go.  It was super easy to locate my photos on my phone and save them to Amazon with a simple click of a button.  It didn’t take long to get it going, which was nice.  It did take some time for the photos to upload, mostly because I also had some videos.

I had it set to automatically upload new photos from my phone and when I first relaunched the app I didn’t see them.  However a quick swipe down brought them up.  It gives me peace of mind to know that these are stored elsewhere.  Now to do the same with the photos on the iPad and Jeff’s phone!

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Thing 16: Presentations

I have used Prezi before.  In fact, I learned it briefly last summer and used it for a few of my summer STEM programs.  It was fun to use for my roller coaster science one, as I could make it look like the kids were riding a roller coaster as we went through the slides.  However, it wasn’t as easy to use as Power Point (or it just might be that I’m so used to using PowerPoint it seemed harder).  Of course now I cannot locate the Prezis I made.

I downloaded Haiku Deck but since it isn’t optimized for iPhone users I had to go onto my desktop to create a presentation.  I liked that it was easy to use and if I was doing a lot with text, it would have been super simple and fun to use (something to keep in mind for the future).  However, I wanted to create a slideshow of our recent family reunion in the Black Hills of South Dakota and it wasn’t as easy to do.  I could add one photo only as the backdrop, not a couple (like in Power Point).  But since I was only playing with it, here is what I created.

https://www.haikudeck.com/p/FiBkioh0fH/untitled-haiku-deck

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Thing 15: Games

This is where I get completely sucked into my phone.  I love Candy Crush, Soda Crush, Farm Heroes and Trivia Crack (thanks Gina Smith for getting me sucked into this game as well!).  Unfortunately I play these way too much.  I like Trivia Crack for keeping my brain on its toes.  Sadly, I am horrible at sports and entertainment.  I will also never play it against my husband because he would answer pretty much every question correctly!  He’s a trivia hound.  Guess that is why he was such a great librarian.

I downloaded the New York Times Crossword puzzle, since I already have Candy Crush, and others.  I tried the Friday Mini and found it too hard.  I can do the crossword in the Indy Star, but the Times always stumps me.  I’ll keep at it, but doubt it will become part of my rotation.

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Thing 12: Hobbies

So I downloaded the Craftsy app weeks ago, intending to test it out at home.  Ha!  So not my style of learning.  I started listening to a gardening one, but it was too simple and I’m too cheap to pay for the class.  I really want to improve my knitting skills and learn tunisian crochet, but I don’t have the time right now to sit down with my phone to learn. I think I need a larger screen for that.  I might try YouTube videos instead, as those are free.  So, I’m giving up on that app and moving on to the RetailMeNot app which is more in keeping with my stage in life.  I love using the Meijer mPerks app and Cartwheel for saving money.  RetailMeNot was super easy to set up, allowing me to choose my favorite, most shopped at stores.  I don’t do a lot of online shopping (except for Amazon), so we will see if I remember to check for coupons.  I can see it will be dangerous as there are lots of fun deals (such as at Disneystore.com)!

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Chugging right along!

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Thing 14: Hoosier Helpers

I downloaded the Indy Star app since we get the Thursday/Sunday paper and I much prefer the print edition. It was easy to use, but I like skimming through the print much better.  I guess I am old school!  I will test it further once I get the full version unlocked.

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Thing 13: Education

Khan Academy is interesting.  I downloaded it to see if it might be something of value for my 2nd grade daughter and even for myself.  I liked how it explained basic concepts of addition and subtraction, but she is already beyond it and really just needs more practice than instruction.  Maybe it will be more useful as she gets older and I need a refresher on how to do the math she’s learning. 

I liked the history section (being a history major) as it had text options, which I prefer, and wish it had been around when I was in college as I could have used it for help coming up with my senior thesis!  Oh well.  Now I get to have fun rereading about my favorite parts of history.

I also tested Luminosity and boy is that fun!  I only did the beginning part, but I can see continuing with it just for fun.