Week 10 #23 The end

I'm glad it is over. It was hard to find time some weeks and I didn't want to get behind since it can be so hard to catch up. The last 3 weeks were tough because I was tired of it and it was mostly read stuff and then talk about it in your blog.



The week that was probably the most fun was also the most challenging--Flickr. I don't know if I'll use any of it again but at least I do know about some new stuff if I hear people talking about it. I think

Week 9 #22 Downloadable Media

I took at look at our Overdrive collection. I thought it was interesting that in music we had Rainforest, Ocean Waves and Aromatherapy eMusic. I had not taken the time to look at the eVideo collection and was surprised to find IMAX films. I don't know that I'd want to watch a whole movie on my computer screen.

Looked at Librivox and since it is items in the public domain it didn't have the popular titles that we have in Overdrive. I would think it could be very helpful to students with Internet access who don't want to go to a library to find the book they need.

Week 9 #21 Podcasts

I have listened to a few podcasts in the past. I used Podcast.net to find The Bookcast which had several interviews with authors. This is really not something I enjoy. I don't like audiobooks or talk radio and so podcasts have no appeal to me. I find it boring to just listen to something...it just doesn't engage me.

I did subscribe to the Bookcast feed in my Bloglines account.

Week 9 #20 YouTube and video sharing

I thought it was pretty interesting that I could find clips of musical performances from many many years ago...like the 70s before there were video recorders and music videos. Some comedian performances are pretty good too. A lot of the home made stuff isn't the best quality but its a good place for people to share.

Week 8 #19 Apps

Okay. So I can type up something and save it into the Zoho account. I guess if I want to be able to access a document from anywhere I have Internet that would be useful. I can also save it as a word document or email it. I'm just not sure why I would want to when I can already use Word on my computer.

Week 8 #18 Social Networking

Looked at My Space, Yahoo 360, Facebook and Dogster. It took awhile to find anyone via the search on My Space but I did find someone I was looking for. I would have to have my own page if I wanted to really view their page and contact them. I don't find any of them very interesting but probably because of my age. I'm just not interested in meeting people online.

Week 7 #17 Technology

I have added comments on a couple of blogs. In one case I knew who's blog it was but in the other I have no idea who the blog belongs to but I commented about a photo that was posted.

Anything Technology, huh? Well, how about the difference in Reference over the past 10 years as the Internet and Online Databases have so completely changed reference service! When I went to library school the Internet was just being introduced and there really wasn't much out there yet. And online databases were harder to use than the book format at the time. It's all come a long way! It's just so easy to hop onto the Internet to look for info on anything. It evens out the resources available at branches no matter how small. They may not be able to house a huge collection of Reference Books but with online resources space doesn't matter! Hooray for Technology!

Week 7 # 16 Wikis

Added some favorite books to the iHCPL Wiki and a favorite restaurant. It was interesting to read some of the favorites from other staff members. Wikis could be used by libraries for sharing favorite sites or maybe for the Children's Dept to share resources or the Reference Dept to share resources.

Week 6 #15 LIbrary 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read some of the articles about Library 2.0 and though I agree that libraries are changing and should change--we also need to remember that we serve ALL of our customers and some will still need our hands-on help and don't want to use self check, databases, or the like. Librarians need to keep up their skills but should not expect that customers have the same skills. I worry at times that staff may think the technology means they don't have to be "bothered" by customers because we've made things easier for our customers.

Week 6 # 14 Technorati

Did the Library 2.0 searchs and yes I did get a different number of hits and the result list had a different look and feel.

When exploring Popular Blogs I thought it was funny that Library 2.0 was in Top Searches since our program has no doubt had an effect on this result! I thought some of the other Top Searches were kind of weird. The Top 100 blogs were kind of interesting because it looks like the kinds of things that computer geeks are into.

Week 6 #13 Tagging

Attempted to watch the tutorial several times but it kept getting stuck and wouldn't go forward so I just gave up on it. I have looked at del.icio.us before...in particular the HCPL account. I looked at the iHCPL account and saw that it had links so everything we've done. I do like that you can access your personal bookmarks from anywhere so having your own page makes sense. When I looked at the HCPL page before I thought that some of the tagging wasn't how I would tag the link to find it so I think that a page where several people are doing the tagging and choosing the links might not be as useful.

Week 5 #12 Library Elf

I created a library elf account. I don't think I need it since our system already sends me notices. I can see how customers might want it since they can decide when it sends notices and how often.

Week 5 # 11 Library Thing

Created a Library Thing account. Fairly easy. Put in a few book titles. I did think the Suggestions option was pretty cool since it gives other ideas of books you might like based on the book title you enter. This would be useful for customers needing Reader's Advisory.

Week 5, # 10

Cartoon created in Comic Strip Generator. Quick and easy. This could be used to create cards, invitations, signs, party stuff and more.

Week 5 # 10 Image Generators

Here's the image I created in Meez. It was pretty easy but took a lot of time. It's very similar to things I've seen on sites for kids such as Barbie.com.

Week 4, #9 Finding Feeds

I found the search aspect of Bloglines to be the best source of feeds for me. When I tried to find feeds using Feedster, Topix and Technorati I got a list of entries with my search term in them but I didn't really find feeds I would want to subscribe to. I did find a few good feeds using Syndic 8. I suspect that if I was interested in News feeds I would have had better luck with these feed finders. I did add a few more feeds to my bloglines account. I still find this to be a tool that I won't use after this exercise is over. I just don't spend time reading news or updates on the web.

Week 4 # 8 RSS

I created an account in Bloglines which was pretty easy to do. I looked through the feeds they offer but only found a couple I was interested in. I then subscribed to the iHCPL feed. Since I need to subscribe to at least 10 feeds for this exercise I went to sites that I visit regularly. I was surprised that most of them do not offer a feed so it took quite a while to reach my 10 feed minimum. I also subscribed to a couple of the iHCPL blogs. Since I don't spend a lot of time looking at any of these sites I don't think this will be something I use after I've completed iHCPL. I don't have time to look at all of this stuff. I know it says it will save you time but that's only if you spend time looking at a bunch of sites to begin with. I don't check any site on a regular basis. I just look at them when I need to for a specific reason.

Week 3, #7 photo editing

Did more cropping and played with the color options for this one. I thought it was easy and some of the effects looked pretty cool.

Week 3, # 7 Photo editing

Used the pixer.com and turned this into an 1840s look. Also played with size and cropping of photos. Pretty easy to use.

Week 3 # 6

Made a card at FDToys but the photo quality suffered in the making of the card. I can see how the map would be useful in business such as HCPL using it to put branch photos at locations around the county. I'm not sure why you would want to find other photos of the same color.

Flickr blogging photos

This time it was easier because my Flickr account and my blog already have a link to each other. I'm trying out editing this entry that was sent from my Flickr account. I can figure out how to change fonts and such but I haven't figured out a way to move the photo. I can drag it but that doesn't really work the way it should because its not taking the label stuff with the photo.

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Originally uploaded by librarygoddess1953

Week 3, # 5 Flickr

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Originally uploaded by librarygoddess1953

Opening the account--easy. Adding photos--easy. Adding tags--easy. Creating sets----not too hard. Moving into sets--not too hard. Figuring out how to get the picture into the blog--DIFFICULT and frustrating!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Internet Safety

You've got to play it safe and keep your personal info to yourself.

Test post--week 2, #3

Okay, this is just a test to show that the blog is set up and working.