Summing up

· What was your favourite Thing?

Ook's favourite thing was Twitter. Ook is very fond of Twitter. Ook thought, what, they want me to go on Twitter? When I'm supposed to be working? As part of my work? Reeeallly? Okay, since you insist ....

· What was the most useful Thing?

For Ook's particular library, the most useful thing is actually using Twitter as a means of posting quickly to Facebook. It is a nice, fast, clean interface. Facebook is the most successful place to remind people about the Knitting Club. Ook enjoys using his original blog for "Ook's Book Club", too.

The library apps for mobile devices were actually the most useful thing to learn about, even though Ook's personal devices are too old-fashioned to take full advantage of them.

· What were you surprised to discover?

Ook was surprised to discover the Keep-Calm-O-Matic. That was a fun toy.

· How will you use the Things in your work or personal life?

Ook will continue to use Twitter and his blog to announce library events and post the book burbles he writes for the Village Newsletter. Ook thinks his summer student might have fun with Wordles or Pinterest. The latter could be particularly useful for researching and keeping track of possible projects for the different weeks.

· How did you feel after completing the 23NB program?

Ook needs to go do his paperwork now.

· What did you learn about yourself?

Ook learned that he likes making Keep Calm posters.

Week 11: StumbleUpon

Thing #23:

Ook has signed up for StumbleUpon. He has found a website and shared it via Twitter.

Ook does not really like StumbleUpon. Ook may like an untidy desk, but there is always order in his untidiness. Ook likes his online world, and indeed anything to do with computers, to be well-organized, easy to navigate, and efficient. So far, Ook is not finding StumbleUpon to be any of these. Ook does not think it is something he will use. When he wants to search for something, he will search for it. When he wants to find unexpected things tangentially related to things he is searching for, and actually has time to spare to do so, he will play "follow the links" or "let's see what is on page six of the Google search", which is always fun.

Oh well. At least it wasn't Reddit.

Week 10

Another catch-up week. Ook is all caught up. Ook would rather do next week, this week, because next week is the week when all of the end of the month stuff needs to be done.

Ook will go have some tea now, and a banana, while he thinks about this.

Week 9: Apps

An app is just another name for a program. Ook is fond of the banana-recipe-review app on his iBanana Jnr. 2000.

Thing 20: Oh no, the iBanana Jnr. 2000 is not compatible with OverDrive. What will Ook do? Ah, Ook has an idea; he will use his friend's Kobo. There, that was easy.

Thing 21: Ook has borrowed and returned a library ebook. But wait, Ook didn't have time to read that library ebook. Not fair! Ook will sign it out again.

Thing 22: Now Ook will look at the BiblioNB app. Hmm. This is just the Android mobile device interface for BiblioCommons used by many libraries. Ook is reading reviews of this app. Some of them say it does not work very well on some devices. Does this app do anything that Ook cannot do with OverDrive or with the NBPLS website? Ook can browse new releases and log into his library account but ... oh dear, scan an isbn. No, Ook cannot do that with OverDrive. He cannot do it with his device, either. Ook's device has no camera. Darn, Ook is feeling defeated by antiquity today. Ook needs to find richer friends with newer devices.

Ah, Ook has found a friend with a shiny almost-new device. Now he can play with his apps.

Week 8: Sharing

Ook likes sharing! He likes it when people share their bananas. That is happy sharing. He doesn't like it when people's perfume makes him sneeze. That is not happy sharing. Wait, you say that's not what this week is about? Oh. Please excuse Ook. He needs to go fetch a hankie.

Thing 18: Scoop.it

Ook has found a couple of curators of Scoop.it feeds on books, and children's books in particular, to follow.

Thing 19: Tweeting from Scoop.it

Ook had chosen two stories to tweet. He is a bit worried about the way Scoop.it claims he has given it permission to follow people on Twitter on his behalf. Ook always reads the fine print. This seems a bit too intrusive. Perhaps Ook will look at his settings and disconnect his Twitter account from Scoop.it again, now that he has completed his assignment for this week. Ook knows how to go to the source of a story and post it to Twitter from there, and he thinks he may feel a bit more comfortable doing that.

Week 7: Multimedia

Things 16 & 17

Although Ook looked at the recommended webcasts which it was suggested we watch to learn about webcasting and podcasting and the sorts of things they are good for, Ook works in a one-gorilla library and even during his supper-hour, this week he had too many things to do to watch a long webcast. He decided to be a Naughty Gorilla and look for something shorter instead of doing exactly what he was told.

Since it is Knitting Club night, Ook decided to look for something that might be interesting to his Knitting and Crocheting Club. On YouTube, he found a number of videos on the tricky Foundation Single Crochet stitch. This is often used to start off patterns by Doris Chan, a designer whose books are in Ook's library.

Here is what Ook learnt from the video he chose:

- A nice musical intro (cheerful swing music) can make a gorilla feel happy and ready to learn.

- Why do people use the foundation single crochet stitch? They use it because it's stretchy and tidy.

- Some people find it tricky to understand, but once you get the hang of it, it's not hard at all.

- It's a stitch that gives a row of combined chain and single-crochet stitches.

- And ... it's much, much easier to show how to do this stitch than it is to explain it. And that's why online videos can be a very useful tool for learning.

Week Six: Catching Up

Week six is a week to catch up, they say. Catch up on sleep? No, Ook, no, you cannot take a nap in the library. You have many, many books to shelve.

Week Five: Pinterest

Thing #13: Ook has a Pinterest account. Ook thought back to reading Terry Pratchett's Going Postal and considered making a pinboard all about pins, but . . . he was not sure that he wanted to spend a lot of time online searching for pictures of pins.

Thing #14: Instead, Ook has made a pinboard with pictures of Terry Pratchett, libraries, and quotes from Sir Terry. This is more interesting than pictures of pins, although Stanley from Going Postal might disagree.

Thing #15: Ook has followed some other library pinboards.

Thing #14b: Ook has made another Pinboard; this one has interesting things to do with knitting and crocheting, since Ook's library has a weekly Knitting and Crocheting Club.

"Extra Thing": Ook has "pinned" his favourite "Keep Calm" poster from last week.

Week Four: Using Images

For Thing 11, we are instructed to find an image and use it appropriately.

Ook decided to find a photograph of a relative of his. This is an orang-utan. Is this the Librarian? Since the Librarian is an urban orang-utan, probably not.

 

By gbohne from Berlin, Germany (Orang-Utang  Uploaded by mgiganteus) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Look! Look!
Ook has made a poster! He used the Keep-Calm-O-Matic.

 

 

For more on the subject of The Librarian, Ook recommends you visit L-Space. But if you are a librarian, shouldn't you already know about L-Space?

 



Thing Twelve: Word Cloud

We used to do "poems" like this in elementary school. Reared on a diet of A.A. Milne, Ook did not think such things counted as poems at all.

Here is Ook's Wordle. It tells the history of his library, and is taken from the text of an essay written by his dearest friend for the library's anniversary. Can you decipher it? That's okay. She can't either.

And now, Ook is finished for this week. He might be going to go and play with the Keep-Calm-O-Matic some more. Shh! Don't tell!

Week Three: Social Reading

Thing #7: Being an Official Library Gorilla, Ook has partaken of Social Reading prior to this. Not many gorillas can claim that! Yes, he has his very own library card. Ook has created an account in Vision, the NBPLS interactive catalogue, where he occasionally posts little reviews of new books that have come into his library.

 

Thing #8: Ook has made some Lists. This is a very useful aspect of the Vision catalogue for discovering new books one might like, or suggesting books to other like-minded primates. Ook has made lists about Steampunk and Picture Books. Perhaps, on another occasion, he can make a list of his favourite gorilla books.

 

Thing #9: Commenting on a book. This is also a useful tool. A gorilla can leave as long a comment as he or she likes, "I loved this book," or an in-depth review. Sometimes one might want to leave more information; for instance, if another commenter has remarked on book two that alas, the series is over, Ook might leave a comment to say that in fact book three has now been published and is in the library. This may make other people happy, not only NBPLS users, because Bibliocommons links library users all over North America. (Sadly, that a book is on the shelf in Ook's library does not do someone in Ottawa any good, but at least it means they can hie themselves to their library to ask for it -- or buy it at their local bookshop.)

 

Thing #10: Following other readers. Hello, a gorilla is now stalking you .... But Ook is very friendly; he likes to read your reviews, because you, too, enjoy picture books with lovely art. Perhaps by following your reviews, Ook will discover an author or illustrator who is new to him. 

Week Two: Ook has twittered. Or possibly tweeted. Yes, like a birdie.

Here is Ook, reflecting on today's achievement. Yes, Ook has set up a whole new Twitter account and tweeted a whole new tweet. He has even retweeted a tweet, which he had previously tweeted.

Twitter does provide a very useful tool for communication, so long as the people with whom one is communicating are Twitter users. The ability to have tweets post directly to Facebook can be very useful as well, since the Twitter interface is quick and efficient, far less cumbersome for a quick reminder-announcement such as "Knitting Club tonight" than going into Facebook. The streaming newsfeed and the ability to follow updates on a range of subjects are among the things Ook likes best.

What does Ook like least about Twitter?

It has the absolutely most horribly illegible Captcha non-robot-verification system we have ever seen. Make one typo in your password and you are doomed. Doomed! Doomed!!! You will never get in, as you try and fail Captcha after Captcha -- or at least, it will take you a good long while to satisfy the AI overmind that you are in fact a real person who made a typo and not a robohacker.

What does he enjoy most?

The elegant precision required to fit a thought into 140 characters is a pleasure, not that he would enjoy having to do that with every single sentence, no indeedy, absolutely not.

Actually, we've done this before

For the curious, Ook's real blog can be found over here at (ahem) the competition.

Ook's First Blog Post: A Haiku

Here I sit blogging
The emptiness of the screen
Demands attention.