Catch up time - Things 8&9

Well, for Things that are supposed to be about organizing yourself, I've done a fine job of being disorganized. Have finally found the time to take a look at two new (to me) tools - Google Calendar and Evernote.

Up first is Google calendar. My first thought was - yet another Google tool. I do worry about how much of my life I share with Google, but it also seems that unless you share the reams of personal data, you won't get the most out of a tool like the calendar. So, my calendar is currently very bare, without the added bonuses of tailored weather maps and news updates, as I won't give them my location amongst other things. 
I was most interested to see how libraries use this as a sharing tool, for advertising things like opening hours and meetings of groups. Users can then choose to download the library's calendar into their own, if they want to have updated information. There were also some really innovative users, such as the Hong Kong Institute of Education (mentioned on the Musings about Librarianship blog), who link the calendar into their LMS to generate overdue date reminders (depending on their users also having signed up to google calendar, of course). If you don't have the capacity for sms messaging from within your LMS, this is a great way of communicating with your users.
I already tend to use my work based Lotus Notes calendar a lot, and I can access this from any pc/laptop, so didn't feel in much need of another. However, other library blog posts on it have got me thinking about mobile access and so I'm going to look at loading it onto my android phone (or investigating whether it is already lurking there, waiting for me to see the light and discover it!).

Secondly, Evernote. I was also a little dubious about this, when I read the CPD23 blog introduction to it:

The problem:

You want to be able to make comments on webpages and archive them along with your own notes so that everything is all in the one place and easy to access.  

My first thought here was, I don't have that problem, so what use will this be to me! But I do love tools which organize things, so signed up anyway... 

I did really like the look of this once I got started. I like clipping just text rather than having to bookmark a whole web page, and it looks like there are lots of possibilities with Evernote. I am also the official queen of 'to do' lists, so the added functionality that allows you to create your own notes is handy. 

However.... I already have a hugely established and organized Delicious page, and whilst I'm sure I can export these links to Evernote, I'm not sure that I want to, as I love the simplicity of Delicious. Evernote looks a whole lot more complicated, plus my Delicious page is actually a household endeavour and I'm not sure my other half would want to move everything just because I liked the look of playing with Evernote. Perhaps he will read this and tell me otherwise!

So, maybe I might use Evernote for different purposes if I continue with it. Like the Google Calendar, I think a lot will depend on whether I can get it to work on my phone or not, as I think the note/list function would be invaluable there.

Next post will be along soon, as I'm determined to catch right up to date.