Thing 23 Culmination

When Central Library re-opened there was an opening for the BTC. I can remember David Anasco, Liz and I talking together about what this position entailed and David saying that I was not qualified to do the job. I guess Liz had other ideas, or more probably no one else showed an interest because I became a member of the BTC. Why did I volunteer? Because I realized that I would be one of the first staff members to receive hands on tech training . I was just really curious and a bit scared about all the "tech stuff" coming down the pike, but also knew that I had really good teachers in my fellow staff like Beth, Chuck and Ruth.
So along came 23 Things. When I first learned about it via a note to the BTC, there wasn't an option to "opt out" and I am really glad that I took on the challenge. There were so many different expressions of awe and wonder and yep a bit of cursing, too when something I was trying to do didn't work or I couldn't make something work. My non-techie mind was often overwhelmed, because along with 23 Things, came Ubuntu and DeskNow. This was such a tremendous learning experience. A true adventure into an unknown world. Yes, I want to go back to some of the sites that made me mutter under my breath like Rollyo and see if I can figure out what went wrong. I hope to do just that. There were a couple of negatives. One was the need to create so many accounts. It's a good thing that I was able to use the same username and password for all the different accounts. The other negative was the lack of time to do these exercises during my working hours. I really value my time at home with my family and was peeved at having to use some of my leisure time at home to do work-related activities. So, if there is more of this type of exploration in the future and I hope there is, then I also hope that staff will have time built into the work schedule to explore.