Thing 23

Well, I must start off by making two statements: I was so very unaware (to my shame!) of all these ways one could access or create information. And second, I was pleasantly surprised that I could work with them without too much trial and error! However, it's important to note that I had LOTS of help, so thank you to the great staff here for all their (patient) help.
I now feel much more confident in talking about, and using, such things as RSS feeds, YouTube, wikis, Flickr, and podcasts, just to name a few. Certainly I can trot out the well-worn phrase, "learning is a never-ending process" (or words to that effect). I was a bit skeptical and wary of learning all this, but thank goodness I just got to it, and took things one "thing" at a time, and well, had the mindset of having fun!
What was so pleasant to see was all the cooperation among the staff; the teamwork was so wonderful to see. And, wow, don't we need that nowadays, with all this dog-eat-dog, "get out of my way or I'll step on you" attitude that's way too prevalent in the world. And, I think, too, that knowing about, and working with, these sites, is important for practical, work-related reasons, not simply as "play" sites.
I would say, if there was an unexpected outcome of all this for me, it is that so much out there is more or less a community effort, with a person being able to add or subtract to them. And, as I have stated, in my posts, on more than one occasion, there are positives as well as negatives to this. The fluidity of the information on some of these sites makes you realize that, just because it's online, that doesn't mean it's the gospel truth.
So, my overall impressions of these exercises are very positive, for all the reasons stated above, and I would certainly want to participate in any future discovery programs.

Things 1,2,3, and 4

I did all these back in the beginning of the program, but I haven't officially blogged about them. I read the "about" page and the "FAQ"s part for Thing 1, and that eased my mind somewhat, since I was wary of what this was all about. With some very appreciated help, I set up my blog for Thing 3, and then registered it for Thing 4, and received a confirmation that it had been registered.
For Thing 2, the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, I believe that my strength is Habit 7: Teach/Mentor others. I really love to help other people. And, if I know something, and you don't, I am more than willing to show you or teach you so that you can do it as well as I, and perhaps, pass on your expertise to someone else. I would say this is my greatest satisfaction as a librarian.
My weakness is probably Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner. I have this built-in mindset of, "oh my, I'll never be able to learn this, or grasp this concept", and 9 times out of 10 I am proven wrong. With a track record like this, you would think I would believe in myself more, but I almost always start out with, "oh, no!" instead of, "oh, yeah!". I waste too much time acting so negatively.

Thing 22

Establishing an account was easy enough, and I found NetLibrary to be user friendly. I was slightly surprised to find that most all the titles are of the academic variety (For example, The United States and the European Trade Movement; Crossing the Minefield: Tactics for Overcoming Today's Toughest Management Challenges; and The Business of Newspapers on the Western Frontier.). I had done author searches for Tony Hillerman and James Patterson, and found nothing. I tried a subject search for "sports" and had just 6 hits, which were more of the business side of sports than the action on the field, or personal reminiscences. I think, for a person who is doing some academic research, or at least wants some in-depth discussion about certain topics, our selections may be appropriate. The general reader, however, won't find much of interest. Another drawback is that, when I did a subject search under "history", and browsed the results, I found several titles listed more than once. On the positive side, I liked that, in looking at a book's index, you can click on a page number and be taken to that specific part of the volume. Also, it's good that you are able to e-mail information. One last thing to mention is that is appears that most all the titles are nonfiction.

Thing 21

I took a look at podcast.net, but wasn't very pleased with my search. I just found too many irrelevant sites. I had much better luck at podcastalley.com. I did a search using the term "libraries" and had 25 results. However, under "education", I found an interesting podcast called "libvive", which is worth checking into further. That day's "cast" was about library funding, I believe, and it wasn't dry at all, but quite interesting, as well as informative. The podcast I added to my Bloglines account is NPR: Books, since I have listened to reviews on All Things Considered in the past and have enjoyed them.
I think, regarding podcasts, I have the same response as to some of the other "things". There is much that is interesting and/or useful, but wow, there is a lot of junk too, or just reasons (excuses?) for people to rant and rave about life. In a way it's good that we can vent, but on the other hand, all that clutter!!