Sheila-buzz

Bing

2009-06-06T09:49:00.003-05:00

Have you tried Bing? Do you like it? Do we really need another search engine? What can Bing do that Google can't? Will Bing take the lead away from Google????
I just started playing with it and I like the way the search results are displayed. I really liked the little pop ups that go into further details about your search without having to click over to see it. This way you can filter your search and don't have to jump around and back and forth as much.
I will be playing with Bing for a while to see what kind of results it comes up with. I guess time will tell if it can compete with Google.

GPS

2009-05-28T17:21:00.002-05:00

Who out there has a GPS like a Tom Tom or a Garmin to use in the car?
I want to buy one but I don't have a clue as to what to look for. I need some ideas, suggestions, recommendations... anyone~~

UPDATE
Well I went out and changed my phone to a BlackBerry. These things have everything.. I got my GPS right on the phone, and a whole lot of other things.. do I need them? NO, but are they fun to have? YES... Now I have no excuse for getting lost or not finding some place I am looking for. So far I haven't used it but I am glad to have it.
I feel like I have my computer with me all the time now as I have my GMail showing up on my phone! I can access Facebook and get instant weather reports. You all are probably saying, well duh...
So I am late to this technology, but I have finally arrived and I am loving it.

Skyfire

2009-05-27T08:37:00.004-05:00

Skyfire, a mobile browser launches today with its version 1.0
It already has over 1 million users. Wow.
Chief executive Nitin Bhandari says 'Skyfire users should be able to access the full features of any website on their phone, including those with lots of video such as Hulu and YouTube, plus complex, interactive applications like Facebook and Google Docs.'
You can read more about it through my link.
Do you have all this stuff on your phone? Mine is just a flip phone that I can make calls on or text. I am not yet into all this web stuff on my phone, but I know that is what is coming next, not coming.. it is here now.
Maybe we won't even need our computers as we will just carry it all with us in our phone and use the cloud. But I will need a bigger keypad and a much bigger screen, those little screens are just to hard to see with my old eyes..

Google chief Eric Schmidt hints at partnership with Twitter

2009-05-21T10:07:00.005-05:00

Google chief Eric Schmidt hints at partnership with Twitter
Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, hinted that a partnership with Twitter could be close, although he dampened speculation that he is planning to buy the microblogging phenomenon.

By Amanda Andrews and Emma Barnett
Last Updated: 12:12PM BST 20 May 2009

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted that partnership with Twitter could be on the cards
Speaking to reporters following the annual Google Zeitgeist conference, Mr Schmidt said the internet giant “can work” with Twitter without having to buy the social network, hinting that Twitter feeds could be indexed on Google.

Mr Schmidt suggested he had held conversations with the Twitter founders about a strategic partnership and said: “We do not have to buy everyone to work with them."

Despite ongoing speculation that Google could be close to buying the group, Mr Schmidt said it would be wrong to speculate that an acquisition is being planned. Mr Schmidt spoke of his admiration for Twitter and the world’s increasing appetite for real-time social networks,

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, separately admitted Google needs to learn from Twitter and make its search engine operate at real-time speed.

Speaking at the Zeitgeist event during in a "fireside chat", hosted by Mr Schmidt, Mr Page admitted Google had so far “done a relatively poor job of creating things that work on a per second basis”.

“People really want to do stuff in real-time and they [Twitter] have done a great job about it... We will do a good job of things now we have these examples,” said Mr Page.

He promised Google would improve at implementing real-time search moving forward, especially now it had examples like microblogging phenomenon Twitter to compare itself to.

Talking on a panel alongside Sir Richard Branson, chairman and chief executive of Virgin Media Group, Mr Page quipped that he had been telling Google engineers for some time that the search engine needed to operate on a per second basis, but only now had they finally got the message.

My question is: Is it worth it? Is Twitter a passing fad or is it here for good? Would having Twitter feeds on google make it more worthwhile?

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Wireless internet access

2009-05-03T15:03:00.006-05:00

Remember back when we would check into a hotel room and be excited they had cable TV? Now I think every hotel and motel along the highways have free wifi. I am amazed. They don't advertise they have HBO anymore, does anyone care about that?
We stopped at a rest stop somewhere along the road in the lovely state of Kentucky. They had wifi. Am I so far behind the times that this just floors me, did this just kind of happen all of a sudden? I know the coffee shops and the libraries have it, I didn't expect a rest stop though. But now I am educated. I guess I should have known. And here I thought I was Miss Smarty Pants knowing all this 2.0 stuff... ha!

The road to Nashville

2009-05-02T08:20:00.004-05:00

The drive down to Nashville was very boring. Going through Illinois was the worst. There is nothing in Illinois, no towns, didn't see any people, it was a horrible drive. Indiana is where things started to look really green. Now I know why, it has been raining in this area for days. It was so nice to see the green trees and the flowering trees. We spent the first night in Columbus Indiana. That is just south of Indianapolis. Talk about a green overload.. it was beautiful. They have so many architecturally interesting buildings in that town, a wonderful mixture of old and new. And it was such a clean city. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo, what an eclectic hotel that was, lime green and red walls, and a shower I wanted to bring home with me. We spent some time wandering around the city taking pictures, and had breakfast in an old time diner.. but it was hot and HUMID there as the hazy sun was out a bit in the morning. We left that town about 10 and headed south towards Nashville.
More to follow. Oh and lets not forget ROAD CONSTRUCTION EVERWHERE...

The Last Thing - Review number 47

2009-04-28T13:00:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed these 'more things' more than the first 23. Maybe I am more computer savvy now and could relax and really get into what I was doing without feeling like I had to learn this in order to finish this thing...
I had fun with all the music and videos, online scrapbooking and youtube.
Cloud computing really got me thinking about what the future may be like. I am sure there are many many more changes ahead as our needs expand and our computers get smarter and do more for us.
Could I live without my computer? Maybe, but it would be hard as I rely on it more and more. Kind of like when you first got a microwave oven. (Really showing my age here..) It was a novelty, something to try, but now.. I can't live without it.
Same with the computer, and if they continue to get smaller and all our information is kept out in the cloud, I can see great changes in what we have hooked up at home. We will probably just have it all on something a bit bigger than our phones and light enough to toss in a bag.
The web is constantly growing and changing. So will our lives as we learn to use the tools that are out there. I hope it never stops.
Thank you to all who made the more things possible. I know everyone worked hard putting it all together for us, testing and behind the scenes work. I have enjoyed the ride and hopefully there will be more things to do in the future.

Last week

2009-04-27T17:20:00.003-05:00

Here it is, the last week before our new hours start. I am still wondering how this will effect my life. It will be quite a change. I am wondering if any other public libraries in MELSA are also going to cut back their hours? I know some patrons don't like it at all. The Sunday closing seems to be the most vocal of all the times. Although Monday mornings are another one people aren't liking. The rest seems to be alright with most folks. I am hoping this change won't last too long, before we get into the mindset that these are the normal hours and to be open more would be to big a change... it is all about the change.

Number 44 The Economy - eeep!

2009-04-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

I really like whatbills.com. It has a tab for upcoming bills, adding a new bill and payment history. I like this in it's simplicity. I think sending reminders via email when a bill is coming due is helpful as I have a habit of forgetting certain bills that don't get paid each month, like the water bill.
ClearCheckbook.com would be a great place to keep and view your financial status at any time, but what I don't have time for is the record keeping. I want something that will interface with my banks and when I use my check card, if some place like ClearCheckbook.com would get that information and insert it into the proper fields, like where I spent my money, how much I spent there..I would be more interested in using it. I don't know if I would be able to import my information from my bank. I guess I should sign up for this and see what it lets me do. I am not real afraid of security issues, but having all my banking information at this site kind of scares me. Should it? Plus I think this site is just more than I really need.
I have a loan at a bank where I also have checking and saving. I can not pay this loan payment online, I have to write a check every month. I can do the automatic withdrawal, but I usually pay more than the amount due, so that wouldn't help me any. This is not a small bank either, why are they not 2.0?
I do pay a lot of my bills online with MyCheckFree which is a great service and they are free. You sign up with your account numbers of your bills and they have the electronic bill sent to them. It will show you when a bill comes in and you can view the bill, pay the bill, set up payments.. but they only service some places, not everywhere. They do not send out reminders either. I pay quite a few of my bills through this service. And they have good records of what you have paid and when.
I looked around at Wise Bread and didn't see much there to make me want to RSS it. To me a lot of this stuff is just common sense, Victory Gardens, Ride Sharing.. don't we all know how to save money in these times? Maybe not, I guess with my mom a product of the depression I grew up hearing about things like this. Maybe she was just trying to prepare me for these times as she always said they could happen again.
Craigslist is a good place to sell things you don't need anymore. I have some bikes I am going to put on the list in a few weeks. And if you have something you just want to give away free, that is the place to post it. My daughter did that with some things she didn't need anymore and put them in her driveway. A few hours later it was all gone. People must really watch that list for things that are give aways. I was amazed at how fast it went.
I don't think my neighbors would like me raising chickens, but if I lived out of the city I would probably give it a try. And I would love to have a garden again but my yard is mostly shade in the summer and I don't want to cut down any of my trees that we have planted. I do think having a garden is a great way to save money on vegetables and they always taste so much better. I will plant a few things in the sunny areas of my yard along with my flowers.
There are many options for us to save money. It is time for us to get out of the throw away mentality and start thinking about reuse, repair and recycle. I heard on the news a while ago that these new LCD and Plasma TV's, when they break it is cheaper to go get a new one than to fix the old one. Now, what is that telling you about our society and how, and where things are made?

Sad Day

2009-04-23T15:46:00.003-05:00

April 21, 2009
The end of Anokaberry. I will miss it very much as I used it to find many good books. Without it I never would have found Facttracker, Diamond Willow, Ways to Live Forever, and many others including one of my all time favorites, A Difficult Boy.
Thanks Nan for all the fun we had looking for that Newbery last year. You aren't going to axe 4U are you?

RSS feeds back to Number 30 again

2009-04-14T16:50:00.009-05:00

While waiting for the final 'thing' to be posted I decided to do more experimenting with FeedRinse and FilterMyRSS as I have more and many feeds and not any time to go through every post. I will be adding to this post as I find out more about how they work and if they work for me and what I want it to do.
I went to FilterMyRss and you don't have to sign in, all they need is the url and the words you want to filter. I set up my MakeUseOf to filter out all the titles that contain the word "MAC" as I don't have a Mac. It works! This will help cut down on the feeds I get from MakeUsOf, and the ones I get will be ones I want to read.

Zahi Hawass on Archaeology

2009-04-12T10:50:00.001-05:00

Zahi Hawass Reveals a Glimpse of the Latest Discoveries in Egypt

2009-04-12T10:45:00.001-05:00

Twitter Update

2009-04-11T08:02:00.005-05:00

So I thought Twitter was not going to be something I liked. I am playing with it and have found that it isn't just a 'what are you doing' place. I have connected with some local libraries, a few friends, a yarn shop, Zahi Hawass (he is the best!) and even words from the Dalai Lama. I am still wondering if this will be a useful tool, but it is nice to get a short burst of information from the people I follow.
I have also found that some people I follow, the MN Twins for example, send way way way to many tweets and it fills up my screen. I had to block them from my list as they were way to active.
This would be a great way to get out information to your friends and family if you were all following each other, one little tweet to reach them all. I am happy to see my library is using Twitter and sending out blurbs (I am sure there is a Twitter way of saying that, but I am not versed in Twitter talk yet) of information about what is happening, our new summer hours.. keep it up Anoka County, you are being heard.
I have also discovered TweetDeck and have signed up. I love the way it looks. You can see Tweets, replies and direct messages all on one screen. I am having trouble seeing the icons of the people I am following, when I click on friends nothing happens. I believe they are still testing and working out the bugs, but I do like using it. It is a download though, so using it on another computer that doesn't have it downloaded will not work.
Just like in the real world, sometimes you run across something you don't think you will like or use, and once you give it a chance, you find that it has uses you didn't think of. Some things can really fool ya.

New look for spring

2009-04-09T17:18:00.004-05:00

The blog has turned green for spring. It's about time, my eyes miss the green of spring and summer. Green leaves gently blowing in the breeze, flowers popping up in my flower garden... welcome green!

This week at ACL

2009-04-06T08:24:00.005-05:00

Our new library hours are to be officially announced this week. I am wondering how the public is going to take this change. I am sure we will have the people who will be very upset and very vocal about the change in hours. Hopefully everyone will understand that with the budget cuts from the state there wasn't much we could do, and that this change may not be the last of the changes for the library. I am hoping that our system can start doing more with our catalog to encourage people to read and keep using their libraries. Make it more exciting for them as we won't be open as much, but they can keep up with what is happening online, find new books online, request them online for pickup.. maybe an Anoka County Blog? Anoka County is on Twitter but it is not being used to it's full potential in my opinion. Come on Anoka County, lets use the tools we have available and not make the hours we are open be a bad thing, lets turn it into a great time to experiment with all library 2.0 'things' that are at our fingertips.

Number 45 Cloud Computing

2009-04-04T10:30:00.001-05:00

The Internet has already become “one machine” and our devices are windows into it.
Kevin Kelly

Cloud computing, the logical next step in computing. It would be great to have access to my information that is now stored on my home computer, from any computer, any where, any time... I am not worried about security, we have the ability to make these sites secure. And I do believe they will be safe and secure, that will be their drawing point to get us to use them.
I have heard about Mozy backup from their ads on television, I didn't realize there were so many out there. I liked the idea of SOS Online Backup security "SOS Online Backup, for example, encrypts your data locally, using SSL2 to encrypt during transfer, and then encrypts it again on the server—it can even scatter your data among several servers."
Imagine how great it would be to offer a keyboard and monitor at every desk at the library. With no data being stored on the computer itself, other than the operating system, this will be very inexpensive and a great tool for everyone coming into the library to do research or just to work on a project, check email, whatever they want to do. Everything would be stored in the cloud.
This would also make computers very affordable for everyone. It would still require a connection but there are lots of free wi-fi services all around town.
I use Flickr to store my photos as it frees up my computer, I can access them from anywhere and I know they won't get lost or erased by accident. Even if my computer crashes, they will always be on Flickr when I want to look at them. That is the cloud..
I use Google Docs and I think I will use it even more now, for example, for recipes that I want to keep. Now I am using Microsoft Word and storing the recipes in a folder on my computer.. goodbye folder. Although I can access this folder without having to connect to the internet,it is so fast and easy to get online to iGoogle (my homepage) which takes me to Google Docs. That is the cloud.
Ok, where did all these Web OS come from and why didn't I know about them. I feel like I am back in the '90's again. How do you choose one, does anyone out there have a favorite? Why is it your favorite.. do you think that this is the rush and that after a year or two the OS will be weeded out where only the 'best' will survive? I see that some on the list have already fallen. I think I may choose one and try it out for a while. But which one.. I guess I will look for one that has many options?
I tried Glide as it was for Mozilla Firefox, but it crashed on me, so that one is out. I signed up for StartForce but I am still looking for some kind of help on that one. eyeOS had you sign up before you could see what it was about, didn't like that.
I guess I will play with startforce and give it a while to get used to me. I did upload some of my files and I will check it from another location to see if it works. As I am using Firefox at home and Explorer at work, will it work? Does your OS system matter as long as you can connect? Many things to learn on this one.

Fun website

2009-03-28T11:06:00.005-05:00

I have this site on my RSS feed and I have found so many fun things to play with here. I would recommend it to anyone who loves to work with photos or learn something new.

www.makeuseof.com

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Louann Smith Day

2009-03-27T08:30:00.002-05:00

Louann Smith day was a big success. She loved her quilt and a good time was had by all!!

Changes at the Library

2009-03-26T07:47:00.004-05:00

As I am waiting for the next 2 things to be posted I have had time to think about all the new changes that are going on at my library. We are going to change our hours so that we are open just 8 hours a day. I am wondering how that is going to change my life as I have planned my off time around my hours that I work and now that is all different. I am also wondering how the public is going to like not being able to drop into the library at the times they are used to. We will be closed some mornings and I know that will interfere with some mom's bringing in the little ones, and we will be closed some evenings, which will really interfere with the working people who don't get home from work until 5 or 6. I know this is better than having to close a branch, but this is really going to effect a lot of people, public and staff alike. We will also not be open on Sundays in the summer. I hope this budget crisis doesn't get any worse or we will be talking about closing branches or maybe even having to lay off staff, which isn't unusual in these times, but when times are hard people seem to really need the library. Difficult times, hard to think about what will happen. I guess we just have to hope for the best.

Future

2009-03-23T12:15:00.003-05:00

Number 46 WJMN

2009-03-23T10:01:00.001-05:00

I like looking around at Web Junction MN. I filled out the questionaire.. maybe I will be featured sometime..
The courses that are offered sound interesting. I may try one on web design to get started. I like the self paced idea and if this one works out, who knows where I will be going next.

Number 43 Online TV and Video

2009-03-20T12:48:00.002-05:00

As a longtime subscriber to Netflix I love their -watch now on your computer- offerings. I watched all of the old Kolchek the Night Stalker episodes that way. It was great.
I really enjoyed both Hulu and Joost. I am not a big TV watcher but I do like certain shows. I think I would watch more if I could control when and where I could watch them. I do like lots of science and documentary shows and I would love to see more of them on Hulu and Joost. Like the online radio stations where you can pick what and when you want to listen, TV will be the same way. I don't think sitting in front of the TV to catch the latest episode of your favorite show will ever go away, but the ability to watch it when you have time and not miss it and have to wait for reruns is very appealing.

I removed my video from Joost as they no longer support videos. But you can still watch your shows at their web site and it is really easy to navigate.

I found this video on Hulu called Learn to Lasso...

Radio - iPod

2009-03-15T18:33:00.001-05:00

Number 42 Music 2.0

2009-03-15T08:16:00.013-05:00

Update:
I did get into Pandora and played around with it some. I am still trying to decide if I like the features they offer. I set up a Jimmy Buffet station and they were playing some artists I didn't care for so I skipped the songs. I guess you can only skip so many an hour, so you are forced to listen to songs you don't really care for, or you can stop that station and create another. I guess it would be the same as changing the station on the radio if you didn't like what you were hearing, only you could go to another artist you liked to listen to.

Growing up in the 60's I love my music and it is hard to find things I like on the radio these days. I am a mixture of Rock n' Roll and Classical tastes. I really don't like much of the music I hear on the radio so this thing really excited me.

I went to Pandora and they were down all day today for maintenance. Now, I understand that these sites probably do have a lot of maintenance, but this is a weekend, wouldn't you think they could do their clean up one night during the week? I was very disappointed to see that I couldn't sign up at all today.
So off I went to last.fm.
I signed up for last.fm and I am not sure I like this one because they were playing 2 songs at one time and I couldn't get it to stop. I think they need to close down and do some maintenance themselves.

Here again the big thing seems to be 'social'. I don't think my friends would be very interested in hearing my music.. and I don't think I would care to listen to theirs. I guess I would be interested if they 'found' some old song from years back that I didn't know about, but how realistic is that?
Maybe this would be the site to follow others who have your same tastes in music and see what they find to listen to.

I have iTunes on all my home computers but decided to try Songbird to see the differences. It lets you import your iTunes playlists into Songbird, but some of mine didn't cross over. I will have to play with it a while to see if I like it or not. I think iTunes is pretty easy to use but I am thinking that Songbird may be easier once they get the kinks worked out..

I can't see internet listening replacing broadcast listening, but it will go hand in hand. I enjoy listening to the songs I like on the internet but I think you miss out on the voice of the radio. That's where you hear new artists and learn about upcoming events, concerts, etc. Although you can get this on the internet I think hearing about it on 'the radio' is still the best.

Technology

2009-03-13T12:41:00.008-05:00

Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff Person

2009-03-10T08:30:00.006-05:00

A friend sent this article to me by Michael Edson. It is well worth going to visit and watching the movie. Maybe some of you know about it but I wanted to post it to my blog because it says everything that I am feeling about technology in the library.

Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff Person

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Number 41 Mashup your Life

2009-03-09T10:11:00.011-05:00

Warning, my opinions are showing again here.. read if you want but be warned.

Is it just me or does everyone really care what their friends find interesting on the internet? Do you really find it useful that your friend loves a YouTube video or has marked something on Digg?
I guess all of this, in my opnion, falls under the catagory of I don't have time for this. Sorry to be so blunt about it and I do love my friends, I love talking with them, doing things with them, sharing their lives, but I don't really need an RSS feed every time they do something on the internet.
Maybe I am of the older generation which values some privacy in my life. I want to know what my friends are doing, but it is of more value to me when they tell me, not what I find out about them in an RSS feed.
Does this mean I am not social? Maybe I am not. I am on Facebook but I don't like it much.. I refuse to be a part of Twitter.. I am on the 23 Things Ning, but I don't contribute to it much. I try, but I can't form internet relationships I guess.
I do love meeting my friends for lunch or coffee, going to my knitting group, coming to break on Monday mornings and hearing about all the fun weekends my friends had. Maybe I am just not internet social.

This thing really creeps me out. I think I better stop now and think about if these sites would be of value in any way... I feel like a social outcast because I don't find these sites to be fun and exciting...
I will try one of the aggregators mentioned in the do list and give it a try and see if it changes my mind about this thing and it's value in my life. I will be back in a couple of weeks with an update on how it went for me.

Number 40 Mashup the Web

2009-03-07T10:03:00.020-06:00

I thought BOOKTOUR was interesting, it shows where and when authors are speaking about their books and it also shows local authors if you want to see if they will speak at an event.
I love lUNCHBOX but there aren't enough restaurants in my area yet. I am hoping as this mashup grows more restaurants will show up. I also liked the reviews area.
WHEEL OF FOOD or is it Wheel of Lunch, was cute but not to informative.
VISUAL HEADLINES is a fun idea but the site isn't very user friendly yet.

WARNING, don't go here unless you have some time to spend looking at all the photos and marking favorites and just dreaming about far off places, and and and...
INTERESTINGNESS by Flickr

The WALKABLE isn't very reliable as it told me I was closer to a Snyders Drug store than my Target that is right up the road. Well, Snyders may be closer as the crow flies, but crows can fly across the Mississippi River, so don't rely on this tool if you live by a river! But it did list lots of restaurants, shops, even my closest library, so it isn't all bad. It is like everything else on the web, believe it or don't.

I would like to make a mashup and have a great idea. I went to the Yahoo site and learned about connecting the pipes and all of that but I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. I may do more investigating and if I can make my mashup I will post it here later. Mashups is a fun idea of taking things and creating something else out of them. The best part is a lot of the ideas are already out there, all you have to do is think of another way to use them.

How Green Is Your Library?

2009-03-07T08:39:00.004-06:00

How many circ's does your library get on each book it owns?
Using the idea of reuse at the library should be a big promotion these days as everyone wants to cut costs, reuse and recycle. What does this better than your local public library? Who has been using the green idea since before there was a green idea?
Your Library, use it, check out those books over and over again until they can no longer be circulated, what a great way to be green.

Number 39 Digital Storytelling

2009-02-26T11:58:00.006-06:00

I have played around with Scrapblog as this is the site I liked most. It is very easy to understand and quite fun to play with. I have started a scrapblog on my library. I have lots of photos in Flickr of the library and I could make pages and pages but I just don't have the time to do to many. This would be a great idea for a new baby or a wedding, anything you would want to share photos of. I am sure there are many creative people out there who could make their pages much better than my plain ones.
I am not seeing much for using it in the library, but it is a fun tool for home.
Click the link below to view my scrapblog.

My scrapblog of my library.

It seems to take quite a while for this to load...

Ft Snelling Upper Post

2009-02-22T13:20:00.001-06:00

Number 38 Screencasting

2009-02-22T07:34:00.011-06:00

I was reading about the LibraryLookup project and decided that would be a fun bookmarklet (another new word for me) to have on my computer at home as I am always looking around Barnesandnoble.com for new books. I followed the directions, found my library's url and tried it and it worked! Now when I am browsing Barnes and Noble or Amazon I can open this bookmarket and see if my library owns the book.
After being away from this bookmarklet and then going back in again I had trouble getting it to work. It only works when you have the book information up on the screen, so if you are in a list of the different Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone books it will not work, but if you click on one specific book and then try and use it, it works.
Okay, on to screencasting...
One of the things I learned right away is that when you are making a screencast, do not use ahh's and umm's. It is so very distracting and gives the impression you do not know your screencast subject very well. I found this to be the case in the screencast How to create a screencast. I am sure the presenter knew what he was talking about but didn't think about how distracting the ahhhhs and ummmmms are to the viewer.
After reading about screencasting and watching lots of information on it, I am not really sure that I want to make one. I understand how it works and I can see that if our library had a web page where we could put fun things like this, it would be helpful to show someone how to use our catalog, databases, etc. But as I said before, we don't do this on our site. It could also be used on an library employee blog to easily show updates and new databases to all the librarians.
Maybe I will come back to this thing later if I get an idea for a screencast.

Number 37 Photo Tales

2009-02-21T07:49:00.010-06:00

Okay, as you can guess, I LOVE ANIMOTO. I can see lots of fun things happening at this site. What a great way to show your photos on your blog!! It was so easy to pull photos from my Flickr account and insert them into the slide show, the hardest part was choosing 15 or so to show. I used their music, they have quite a few fun tunes to choose from, you can also import your own music. I haven't tried that yet but I would imagine you could pull something off your iTunes.
I tried numerous times to get one of my Flickr photos into Captionbubble but I couldn't get it to download the photo.
Splashup reminds me of Adobe Photoshop. I have that on my computer and use it often, but I am still learning as it is very complicated.
It was easy to create a mosaic at IMAGE MOSAIC GENERATOR so I made one of my big cat Rocky.
These are all fun and creative sites and if my library had a blog it would be great to use these to make it come alive.

Anoka County Library

2009-02-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

Number 36 Comic Relief

2009-02-18T11:20:00.009-06:00

Two blogs I follow on RSS are:
Makeuseof.com
The Generator Blog
I love the generator blog, it has fun things to do and make, this week it was words in a heart. Make use of is also interesting, they show cool web sites and tricks and tips for blogs. outlook, windows. Very informative and fun. I believe I found these 2 sites while doing the first 23 things and have kept up with them in RSS.
Another fun site we play with at work is Wordle.
We make fun word clouds using our favorite books or anything that we feel like.
The comics are cute and have lots of kid appeal. We used to have a librarian here who would 'become' LibraryMan.. I think a LibraryMan comic for our web page would be a hoot.
There are lots of fun generators listed here and I could see our library using many of them if we had a blog or a web page we could design and play with. But we have neither.

Number 35 Books 2.0

2009-02-16T09:43:00.003-06:00

The future of the book? I don't know, but I think it is hard to curl up on the couch with a comfy afghan, a cup of tea and a computer... or a kindle. What goes well with this scenario is a BOOK. And are you like me and just love the SMELL of walking into a bookstore?
But that is sooooooo books 0.1 not 2.0.
I do see enormous amounts of books being taken out by small children and I see older people coming in for the latest releases, but I don't see many young adults or gen xers taking out many books. Of course there are some that come in, but if a person in the 20-30 age range comes in, they usually aren't looking for a book but wanting to use the internet.

I think the printed page will survive but as technology moves forward I can also see school kids reading their assigned books on their cell phones. The cell is always with them, they can read a page or two anytime they want. I didn't know I could read books on my cell phone! What will they think of next.. I really need thing 35 don't I? I am just not sure I could see the words on my cell phone screen well enough to actually read War and Peace...

I did go to AMAZON.COM and look at the new Kindle 2 that just came out. I have decided that I want one. It will never replace a book but it is a great tool to have. You can take all your books with you inside this small little gizmo..(electronic books are about $10.00) amazing.

I looked at a lot of the suggested sites on this thing and came away feeling kind of overloaded. There are online book clubs, online book reading, places to make comments while you read.. some sites are turning reading into a social event. Is it reading for enjoyment or reading to be in a social environment? Does it matter? Is it helpful to read a book online in a book club? Do people feel free to voice their opinions when they are not face to face? Maybe the library should consider doing an online book club once or twice a year.. results may be very surprising.

Booksfree.com, isn't this what a library does? Browsing the lists of books can't be as enjoyable as browsing a shelf in the library... can it? And if the library doesn't have what you want, there is always the Interlibrary Loan option. This is like online shopping, you can get what you want or need and never have to leave your house. It comes right to your door. But in living this way you miss the social interactions of going to a library, browsing the shelves, happening upon a new book or new author... oh oh, I am reverting back to 0.1 again aren't I? New technology is fun but sometimes hard to pull yourself into when you like the old ways.

I did want to mention one site that I looked and and really like. BOOKCROSSING. I have joined and plan on leaving a book or two around for someone to 'find' and hopefully read. What a fun idea.
I love LIBRARYTHING and have my personal bookshelves there. I try and keep it current but, as always, there is not enough time. This is also a trusted place to read book reviews and to see what other readers think.
I use GOODREADS with my friends at the library to keep track of books I have read and books I read for ANOKABERRY. Goodreads is just books I have read and commented on,not necessarily ones I own. I find these two sites to be very important to me to keep track of my books.

Number 34 Is This Our Competition

2009-02-13T10:58:00.014-06:00

Online answer sites are easy and convenient from home or anywhere. Having online librarians is a way to be out there and be helpful to everyone. We have librarians who take a shift at the phones every day, we need to have some that take a shift to answer online questions too. I don't understand why this service is not being used. Using some type of IM service would be great for kids at home working on their homework and needing an answer but can't get to the library. Why should they have to google it when we have intelligent librarians just waiting for a reference question at the library? And the information you would get from a librarian would be trustworthy.
Instead of calling the library for an answer it would be much easier and simpler for most of us to be able to email or IM the library instead.

I do think people use Google and other answer sites because libraries are not available online. And the libraries that do offer this service do not promote it enough to let people know it is an available service. Librarians have access to many databases and can find answers fast, that is their job, they know how to do it.

A great article to read is THAT THING YOU DO. It challenges us to take a look at how we operate our reference desks and what we can do to change our services to become more of what our patrons are looking for. One of my favorite quotes from the article:

"Web 2.0 is good not because it makes the library more like the Web, but because it is making the Web more like the library."

Hitwise is another interesting site. I was surprised at the statistics and what the top web searches were. Maybe we should strive to have libraries make these lists.

Slam boards, interesting idea.. I haven't participated. “The Library is a resource, not a building” I love that tag line and I wish it was on every library web site. Library 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 is the future and if libraries want to survive we all must learn the new technologies and keep up to date on what we know. Times, they are a changin', help be the change.

Number 33 Travel 2.0

2009-02-11T19:49:00.011-06:00

As I am planning a trip to Nashville in the spring, this is a great tool for me to explore. I have already checked the hotel I will be going to at TRIPADVISOR, and found it to have really great reviews and comfortable beds! Yippeee.
I have used expedia.com to book and plan other trips I have taken and it is nice to see there are now 2.0 sites that let other travelers leave their comments on their experiences.
Travel blog 2.0 is a great site to visit to see new and fresh ideas. I went to the new site they were showcasing about WYOMING. What a great web page for the state! It is very new and fresh, with lots of photos of the state and little blurbs of information that you can click on if you desire more information. What a great site. If I were to make a site for our library, that is the one I would model it after, as I found it to be fun and informative.
There are lots of travel blogs out there and I think your best bet is to visit them and find one that shares your interests. I looked at some and they were to European for my tastes or talked more about food than travel. One site I really liked is the VIRTUAL TOURIST. I wish I would have had this guide on some of previous trips! I am going to close now and go explore what they have to tell me about Nashville.
I'm back and I have looked at the travel blogs. They don't interest me much as I don't like reading about other peoples vacations.
I visited some travel mashups, the TUBEJP is an interesting site, I didn't quite understand how to use it, but I didn't spend a lot of time there. I also visited the GREENROUTES site and found a few new places to stop at on my next tour of Minnesota.

Number 32 Google Maps and Mashups

2009-02-09T11:35:00.002-06:00

I use Google maps all the time to find places I am going or to have a look at where my friends and relatives live all over the country. I made a map of the library I work at, posted it on the blog. whooweeeeee
I did find some interesting mashups, one of my favorites is MAPDANGO. Go there and learn about a new city every day. I also put that mashup into my RSS feed as I think it is interesting. There are some fun mashups to look through at MASHABLE, take a stroll through some really fun maps.
Library use.. A good tool for reference.

Number 31 More twitter

2009-02-08T10:19:00.007-06:00

Twitter update: I am now following my library on Twitter. I still don't like it but I am beginning to see that everyone is going to be on Twitter so I may as well join them. Easier than fighting it.
I couldn't even remember my username, so I had to sign up again as sheilabuzzzz, if you want to follow me.. but I am boring so don't expect too much.

NOooooooooo don't make me go back to Twitter. I really hate that site and right now find it so useless. But I will do some of the suggested things and see if I can't grow to at least just mildly dislike this site...
I couldn't find any of my representatives from the senate on Twitter.
Only 2 of my friends use Twitter.
I don't want to find another knitting group on Twitter, I am on Ravelry.com and Knitpicks.com, which is plenty for me.
I do not like Twitter, I don't know if I will change my mind, but I have other things to occupy my time.
I am a Twitter novice, I will admit, but do I need to spend all day getting into something that I don't like... I don't think so.

Number 30 More ways to use RSS and Delicious

2009-02-05T13:45:00.016-06:00

I am playing with SPOKENTEXT. This is a test to see if I can get it to play my entry.
I got it to record this entry, you can listen at:
http://www.spokentext.net/recordings/sheilah/
You can create recordings from plain text files, Acrobat PDF or Word files, emails, a web page or enter text directly to be recorded.
The recording only lasts for one day unless you sign up for a Spoken Text Plus account, which I am not going to do. There is no charge for this but they ask for a 25.00 donation.
I could see this as a handy homework helper tool but they need to make some improvements on the voice. I only tried the english version, there were others to choose from. I don't think I would like my RSS feeds coming in this way, I prefer to read them.
I couldn't get to the page FeedRinse so I went to FilterMyRSS. I think this tool is a great idea as my RSS feeds really fill up fast and with things I don't care to read mixed in with things I do want to read. I can also think of uses for ZapTXT both in my personal RSS and in RSS feeds I watch concerning library information
For fun I added traffic conditions to my iGoogle page instead of to my Google Reader page, I think I would see it more often in iGoogle.
On to Delicious. I can see how this site would be very helpful to many people by having a place to keep all of your bookmarks. I have been at work and wished I had access to my home computer to get to the site I wanted to tell someone about. I had an account with the first 23 things but never really used it much, so I started it up again. I am interested in searching tags to see what sites others go to, such as knitting or quilting.
I am not sure how this would work at my library, maybe if we had a library blog we could use delicious to tag good bookmarks for readers.

Number 29 Google tools

2009-02-04T10:48:00.013-06:00

There are so many tools out there... it is amazing to imagine all the different uses for them.
I did add google 411 to my cell phone. I didn't know about the service. I am telling everyone about it and to try it out.
Google alerts-
I watched the video on plagiarism and thought that was very helpful and what a great way to use the alert. I put an alert on one of my favorite authors, one on my library, to see if anything comes up, and I am trying to think of one other alert that I could try to see how it works. I think having an alert on some of my authors would be fun as I could see what was being said about them and anything of note that I would want to know, such as a new book coming out. I will give it a few days and see if these 2 alerts come through with anything for me. If not, I will try something else.
I did get some alerts for my author today, and I used the company my daughter works for and got a whole page of alerts about what was going on with the company. Very interesting. My husband uses the alerts with his Navy buddies to keep up on any newsworthy events that are going on with his group of guys. So there are many ways to use this tool. I am not sure how I would use it at work yet, but I am sure that something will pop up and I will use it.
I couldn't install the Google toolbar and the Web History feature.
Google Web History Installer 1.0.20070529 could not be installed because it is not compatible with Firefox 3.0.5.
It may be time for me to see if I need an updated version of Mozilla Firefox.. I don't think I would mind having the web history feature. I am not to worried about privacy of the sites I search for, maybe I should be? I don't know. It only works when you are signed in to your Google account, so if you want privacy, sign out of your Google and go for it. Anyone have any comments on that? Please leave them for me to consider.
Okay I just found Timelope, that one doesn't sound like something I would like and I think their ad is a bit edgy.. I didn't say no to all of their points but I don't think they would want me, maybe Hooeey. I like that name.. I am going to give that one a try and see how I like it. There may be a Hooeey update later, and we will see if it works with Firefox..

Number 28 Customized home pages

2009-02-03T09:52:00.009-06:00

I have an account with iGoogle and I use it all the time. I have arranged my page to get news, email, weather, all the necessary things that I like to see when I first go to my page. I have added some photos of the day and some recipes and I also have my sudoku puzzle.
I decided that I would try another home page just to see if I liked something else more than iGoogle.
I tried to go to Pageflakes as I had registered there before with the first 23 things. I couldn't get to the page, kept saying error in displaying the page. I don't know if it is because I use Mozilla as my browser or not, sometimes that makes a difference. I don't want to use a home page I can't get to.
Next I tried NETVIBES. It is very easy to create and personalize. I like the way this one looks and I am customizing the page to show what I want to see. There are numerous skins to choose from and I really liked the valentine colors with the little red hearts.. There are so many choices on both pages that it is hard to decide what to put where. I see the public page is a place where people can leave you notes on your wall.. hummmmmm.
Nevertheless, I do think I will continue to use iGoogle because it is easier for me to use with my gmail, and google reader, and I seem to have an avoidance to any kind of social pages...
I love widgets and gadgets and all those do-dads that make a blog fun. I made one for sheila-buzz and added it to my side bar. I used WIDGETBOX and it was so simple. I see there are many more fun things to make. I think I will make widgets for my other blogs, and add them to my Sheila-buzz blog.

Number 27 Twitter

2009-02-01T09:47:00.004-06:00

I signed up for Twitter and I guess I just don't get it. I watched some of the videos and when I heard one man say he is on Twitter 3 to 4 hours a day, I cringed, then I decided I don't have that kind of time. I need to go back in and find something or someone to follow, maybe then it will be more interesting. I am sure I know someone who twitters, I will have to do some searching. I just don't see how this can be of any use to me, or why should I care about what one of my friends is doing at a certain time... My name on Twitter is sheilabuzz.
I did manage to find a few people I knew on Twitter and I am following the mnmorethings but I am still not getting the concept of What are you doing? I guess I am not very interested in these social sites and I don't really care what other people are doing at this moment.
As to how this could be used in the library? I don't have a clue. I did see one Tweet about someone writing a book in Twitter using the 140 words limit per Tweet. Won't that be fun to read?
I am completely baffled by this site and it's popularity, if one of my fellow mnmorethings can enlighten me, I will be more than glad to listen.

Number 26 - the Ning

2009-01-25T08:19:00.005-06:00

I went back to the Ning and did a post on the blog. I am not crazy about using the Ning, it just doesn't do anything for me. I joined the Ning with the first 23 things on a stick and never found a use for it. I can't really see how a Ning would fit in at our library. I will think about it some more today, maybe this is one thing I will have to revisit later if I come up with some ideas on a good use for it.

Number 25 Gadgets, Widgets, Whatsits and Whosits

2009-01-22T19:58:00.019-06:00

I have been having fun with widgets, do you like the snow? With a white background it just shows up on the header and I like that.
I played with OUTBRAIN, a comment tool, and added it onto my kb blog instead of this one as I am interested to see if anyone will rate the knitting books I have blogged about. I also added the recommendations and the one that really got me was for the knitting book called Pet Projects (things to knit for your pets) It gave an article to read called Biden nixes idea of pet projects in stimulus bill. This tells me it matches the title of your posting to articles it can find with those key words. I guess I will have to monitor what it suggests as related articles. I can see this widget as being very fun for kids on a library hot list blog. They could rate the books they like and view the site to see what other kids are reading, without having to read any reviews.
Next I added a site meter map from CLUSTRMAPS. Aside from being a cute gadget, I don't know for sure what it would do for me. But I am a fun gal and like cute things on my blog, so I added it. And I also played with gVisit. I put this one on my blog about quilting books. This needs 24 hours to update and just shows unique visits, not all hits, so that may be interesting. I will check back tomorrow and see if there have been any hits.
I have played with slideshows before and most times I find them boring as I am not interested in other peoples vacation photos, or photos of book covers... Maybe they could be used on a library page to show recent happenings at the library but would people really want to look at them?
I do love Flickr and have tons of my photos in my account, it is a great way to save your photos in case you loose your backup discs. I pretty much throw every photo I take in there. I love to look at other peoples photos, but I think that is the place to do that, not on a blog.
Adding a poll question was fun so I went to Ask500people and you can post an online question on their site, but getting it to go to my blog looked really complicated so I didn't do it. I don't know HTML and I think you needed some knowledge of the language to figure it out.
I think I will continue to play with some of these gadgets and see if any of them will work for me. I am not going to add sound to my blog because although I like podcasts, I really don't have anything to say.
Bye for today..

More things on a stick Thing 24

2009-01-21T08:23:00.004-06:00

I have decided to try and work on the more things on a stick. I don't know who else from my library will be working with me but I hope a few others sign up. I have kept my old blog but it has a new name and a new look. I have also posted some things on here but not to much as I have been busy doing other things (Anokaberry)...
So I am off on another adventure with the things, check back to see my progress!
Also, I removed my avatar, I think they are really creepy and hate them!

Been a while

2009-01-15T12:39:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted here in ages. I have been busy with my blogs kb and qb, quilting and knitting books. I got rid of the ILL on a stick so if I do the More Things on a Stick I guess I will just use this blog for it. Kind of a catch-all blog.
If you like to look at quilting or knitting books visit my other blogs, qb and KB. And don't forget about Anokaberry.

Practice

2008-08-21T08:02:00.002-05:00

Quilters have flocked to Elm Creek Manor to learn from Master Quilter Sylvia Compson and her expert colleagues. There's Sarah, Sylvia's onetime apprentice who's paired her quilting accomplishments with a mind for running the business of Elm Creek Quilts; Agnes, who has a gift for appliqué; Gwen, who stitches innovative art quilts; Diane, a whiz at the technicalities of quick-piecing; and Bonnie, with her encyclopedic knowledge of folk art patterns. But with Judy and Summer, two other founding members of the Elm Creek Quilters, departing to pursue other opportunities, will the new teachers be able to fill in the gaps created by the loss of their expertise -- and more important, their friendship?

"When I think of all the different paths I could have followed in my life, all the twists and turns that could have led me anywhere," muses incoming teacher Gretchen, "it's something of a miracle that I ended up here, surrounded by loving friends."

But what of friends departed? As Sylvia contemplates a tribute to the partnership of the Elm Creek Quilters, she is reminded of a traditional quilt pattern whose curved pieces symbolize a journey. Winding Ways, a mosaic of overlapping circles and intertwining curves, would capture the spirit of their friendship at the moment of its transformation.

Will Sylvia's choice inspire the founding members to remember that each is a unique part of a magnificent whole? Will the newcomers find ways to contribute, and toearn their place? The Winding Ways Quilt considers the complicated, often hidden meanings of presence and absence, and what change can mean for those who have come to rely upon one another.

Upper Post

2008-08-05T08:24:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday was another tour of the Upper Post. Not as many people came as we thought but we may have gotten a few new members. The post is in dire need of help and there is money right now for doing some stop gap repairs like adding shingles to prevent water damage and boarding up windows and porches. But there is still a lot more money needed and a lot of work to do to fix up these lovely old buildings.

Tired

2008-07-23T21:09:00.005-05:00

Does anyone else feel especially tired this week. I wonder if it has something to do with the full moon, or just because the air has been a bit cooler this summer and we are all sleeping with our windows open. I hate having the air conditioning on at night and not getting fresh air. Must have something to do with my Scandinavian roots.

I am looking forward to Curts trip to Gig Harbor this weekend and of course, the Nansters garage sale... I think I will drop Curt off at the airport and go right to the sale and spend some money on more 'stuff'.. love that stuff.

So that is it for today, wonder what the daily bowl is up to.. is it empty?

Oh yeah, today I gave Kay a copy of the pattern to make a quilt. Like my Egyptian quilt. Wonder if she will ever do it, or, like the rest of us, just wants the pattern in case she gets around to it.

No longer ILL on a stick

2008-07-21T17:18:00.002-05:00

Even if we do more 23 things on a stick, I am getting rid of ILL on a Stick and making this a blog where I can post anything I want to. If I decide to continue with the things, I will just make a new blog. So now I can go in and get rid of that creepy avitar and a few other things on here that really bother me. I couldn't delete the blog entirely, I will leave my old postings... I worked hard and learned a lot and maybe someday will want to go back and look at something. If not... I will just delete it as I feel I am ready.

ANOKABERRY

2008-05-22T19:34:00.005-05:00

Ok all you 23 thing on a stick people from Anoka County, (and anyone else out there who is reading this posting) let's support our co-worker with her blog. It is the Anokaberry. Help spread the word.

www.anokaberry.blogspot.com

Here's what Nan says about the Anokaberry:

Books published for youth in 2008 are eligible for the 2009 Newbery Award. The Anokaberry -- our own version ( a "mock newbery") of the Newbery Award -- is named after Anoka County, Minnesota, the home of this librarian and her blog. The Anokaberry will be awarded annually to deserving new books published in the current year, read and voted on by anyone interested in children's literature who responds with comments to this blog. Your reviews and opinions are welcome! Comments should include title, author, and the name of your local library. The results of our reading and voting will be updated and posted throughout the year. Lists of favorites and recommended reading will be compiled and published throughout the year. Our selections for Anokaberry 2009 (winner and books of distinction) will be announced the first week of January just before the American Library Association announces the 2009 Newbery Award. See the books at the bottom of the page? Ask at your library or bookstore for eligible titles. The book list is, especially early in the year, a list of "to be published" so expect to request the book at the library and wait for availability. As the year progresses more books will be available and lists compiled.

Show your support, read a book, write a review, send her an email, tell your friends, tell your kids, whatever you can do to support Nan and help Anokaberry grow.

23 things, round 2

2008-05-18T19:19:00.003-05:00

It is so fun to have the 23 things going again. There are a few people at the library who have decided to step up and join in the learning. I guess they heard the first group of us talking about the 'things' we were working on and wanted to find out about what we were doing. It is great. I wish them all luck in finishing the first 23 things! It is time well spent. When the next 'things' start later this fall or winter, there will be quite a big group of us learning together. I still sometimes miss working on one of the 'things'.

Keep on keepin on

2008-04-27T09:32:00.002-05:00

I am still into Flickr and my blogs. My friends from work and I have started a blog where we can just chat and post notices to each other. We are having fun inserting photos of our own and from Flickr. We also post about our knitting group and anything that comes to mind at the time. It is just a fun way to chat. Some of us are more into it than others and that is working out just fine so far. I am still on the lookout for RSS feeds as I move around the computer and my favorite thing to do when I want to just relax is Stumble Upon. I have found some amazing web sites, but I don't have lots of time to just surf the net.
I want to know what happened to spring?

Windows Live

2008-04-16T08:09:00.002-05:00

I got an invitation from Windows to sign up for Windows Live. Probably me and a million other people who have windows on the computer.
It appears to be a place where you can share documents with friends and coworkers from one place, edit them, etc. Sound familiar.. what thing was that again?
I have signed up and am going to take a look around at the site. It appears that you can make folders for private, share with friends, or make public. You can also insert photos, videos, and music.
I am going to investigate Windows Live a bit more today and write more about it once I get the hang of how it works.

Time to add something

2008-03-28T12:13:00.003-05:00

I haven't written anything here for quite a while. It has been busy at work with the Interlibrary loans, like usual.
I still follow my RSS feeds with my Google Reader, and I am still playing with Flickr. I have lists on TaDa and look at the 23 things Ning once a week or so. I think some of the things I signed up for I am going to sign out of. I don't seem to be using everything that I dove into with the 23 things. But it was still great to learn about them.
There's so much out there and so many new things coming up all the time, it is hard to keep up. At least with the 23 Things it has given me the spark to continue to try and find new 'things' and investigate them. I don't know where I will be off to next, but I am sure it will be something fun.

What did I learn this week

2008-03-09T09:20:00.003-05:00

After seeing some advertising on television I decided to look at Go To Meeting. This sounds like a great concept for people who need to communicate with others without having to actually be there. I looked on the web site called GoToMeeting.com but they wanted me to sign up for 2 months free before they gave me much information. I am thinking that this would be great for people who did their work on computers as it sounds like you can show anyone on any computer what you have on your computer. It would be great for showing demos of your product or idea, maybe show potential buyers how your product would work in their environment. I can see where this concept would be great for getting all the people of a team together to prepare proposals, view teaching aides, and all the other things that we all go to meetings for.

After some looking around I did find a blurb about using outlook or instant messaging to communicate with others in your meeting, and they did have a special chat function to talk with everyone at the meeting or to hold a private conversation with someone. I am sure you could also communicate with phones and conference calls.

The price on this runs at about 50.00 a month, which may be less expensive than traveling. Even people living in the area may find this a more cost effective way to hold meetings and I would think it would also be a time saver.

Coffee

2008-02-29T20:35:00.002-06:00

Thing Number 23

2008-02-28T21:59:00.003-06:00

I did the survey at the end of my 23 things. Now I think I am having thing withdrawls. I was used to working on my things every night for a while and now I don't have an assignment to work on. I did spend some time today with Librarything. I have started entering more of my books, boy do I have lots of books. I also added a counter on my blog, but I don't think I will have many visitors. Well, this is all I have to say today. Surprise!

Thing Number 22 What did I learn today

2008-02-27T08:27:00.008-06:00

I resolve to maintain my blog. I want to keep up on what is new because these 23 things have been really fun and exciting to learn.

I want to thank the 23 things people, the Directors and staff of the seven Minnesota Multicounty Multitype Library Systems , Jennifer Hootman and all the others that helped make this such a great experience.

One personal thing I have learned from this is that I go on and on when I write in this blog. I get excited about all the new things out there and just can't help but write about what I have found and learned. On that note I will say goodbye for now, and again, a big Thank You to the team.

Thing Number 21 Beyond MySpace

2008-02-26T19:46:00.005-06:00

I have joined the 23 Things on a Stick Ning and find that interesting. I think when more people from my library join it will be more fun. Right now there doesn't seem to be much activity or discussions going on. A Ning may be something for my library to start, we could post photos and share stories. There are quite a few people who work at different branches that I never get a chance to talk to. If we had a Ning we could share photos and tell each other what is going on in our lives and at our branches.

I looked at Web Junction, there are lots of ideas here. I joined Web Junction Minnesota. I want to do more exploring here as I think this will be a great way to find out what's going on.

I really enjoyed reading the article Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library by Steve Campion. He had some great ideas to share on how these 23 Things can be implemented at the library with co-workers doing parts of the network that they enjoy working on. We need an interactive library!

I will have to read the other article at work as I keep getting an error message here at home when I try to log on to it. Ohohoh thanks to Nan for comment and the info to get me to the article.

I have joined Shelfari but haven't had much time to spend there. I think I will also join Open Source Food as that looks delicious! I have to go now as this site looks fun!

I hope to add something to this site soon so my widget will have something in it.

I had to post this to my blog, very interesting and definatly NOT low-cal.

Thing Number 19 Podcasts

2008-02-25T17:52:00.005-06:00

I wasn't excited about this thing. I won't use it and I can't see any uses for the library right now. I ventured through the following suggestions.
Podcast.com
Podcast.net
Podcastalley.com
Yahoo Podcasts
I had the best luck with podcast.com, that is where I found Podchef's Gastrocast. I added it to my blog on the side bar, but I moved it down towards the bottom.
I didn't want to have to sign up for podcasts, I don't want any more news feeds.. I am just feeling this thing at all. Maybe this will be another thing I will revisit later and see if it gets any more exciting for me. Anyone out there have any good suggestions of podcasts they like? Let me know.
UPDATE
While working on thing 21 I was reading an article on Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library I came across an idea for a podcast for the library that I really liked. Interviews with authors! Wouldn't it be fun to feature a book and then have a short interview with the author on our web page? So maybe these podcast things do have a use at the library.. sometimes it just takes one idea to branch into many other possibilities. Like staff or patron book reviews. I will keep thinking about this thing.

Thing Number 18 You Tube & Other Online Video

2008-02-24T19:38:00.004-06:00

My eyes seem a bit blury as I write this. I have just spent the last couple of hours looking at videos in Youtube, Googlevideo and some other places from the list provided. I did like news videos. The News seemed up to date but some of the videos in the technology section was a bit old.

I enjoyed watching the library videos, Conan the Librarian was funny. I didn't see any librarians I knew in the Grand March, but by the time I got to that video my eyes were pretty tired. I think it would be fun to make a video of our library and show what it looks like and where to go for reference, where to return your books, what the back room looks like and what happens to the books once you put them on the track and they go to places unknown. It would answer the question of why the books are in the back room in the preshelving area and not immediatly out on the shelves as soon as they are returned. I think this would be a helpful video to show on our web page as people do want to know. And I think it would help the people who are new to the library, they would be able to walk in the front doors and know where to go for the services they want.

I put a favorite video of mine on my blog. The Short Pencil Saga. The only people who think it is funny are other library people, but I really like it. I also have a poll asking if you like the short pencils.

Thing Number 17 ELM productivity tools

2008-02-24T09:23:00.008-06:00

This thing was hard for me. I am not really familiar with these databases as I am not a librarian, and I have never ventured into the land of databases before, but it is good to learn. I signed in to another counties database as I heard ours didn't have eveyrthing I needed to do this thing. It was easy to work from their home page and I am glad my library card is registered in their county. Isn't it great to share these resources?

1. Gale - This database was easy to find and use. I searched the youth smoking and did the RSS feed into my google reader. I will have to see what I get. I enjoyed searching for the live broadcasts and found them interesting. I listened to the podcast on the Study: Kids Lack of Sleep Hurts Parents, Too, kind of brought back some memories of when my daughter was little. I also set up a feed with NPR.

2. Ebsco - I found this one to be even more intersting. I had to set up an account to do the web pages. I loved being able to add articles and things I found on a subject into a folder. Making the web page was easy and I saved it on my flash drive. I did a search about the Hubble and Space and made a web page, added the search box and keywords and saved it and sent it off to my colleague Nancy. I watched some of these how to videos and I thought they moved to fast and it was hard to remember what to do.

3. ProQuest - This one was very easy to use, I didn't even have to watch the how to video here. I enjoyed pulling up articles to read about subjects I typed in. I could spend time here, and now I am beginning to understand these databases and how important they are to the reference library. I am also getting better at making web pages and folders on these sites. I hope my friends don't get tired of me sending them files.

4. NetLibrary - This was by far the easiest tool to use, in my opinion. I found it so simple to do searches, add notes in folders and retrieve them. I tried to search for the ebook '101 ways to Promote your Web Site' and I couldn't find it. I did a keyword search and a title search. So instead I used 'Build a Web Site: The Lazy Way'. I also downloaded an ebook about WWII which I plan on listening to in my spare time. I am not sure how this works and I am learning as I go along.

I love ProQuest and NetLibrary. These tools are a great asset for students or patrons who want infomation on a subject. I am not sure how many patrons of my generation are aware of all these databases and how to use them. I think that libraries should have classes to show people what is out there and how to access these databases from the library and from home. Something like What the Heck is Ebsco and How Would I Use It. Or even one just on ELM and all that it contains. Lots of people would like to learn this at the library from a Librarian. Sometimes we don't have any idea of where to start looking for infomation that we want, and feel better being told by a person where to begin. Then they could be given the options to do extendend learning online with the Webinars.

This thing was very involved and there is a lot of infomation here on how to use these databases. I want to explore all the other databases that are offered at my home library and other libraries around the 7 county area. As I said before, sharing all this information is wonderful and to access it, all you need is a free library card. Amazing.

Thing Number 20 Facebook

2008-02-22T09:58:00.005-06:00

I have made my facebook, item number 20. That was kind of a scary thing for me to do as I am kind of a personal person and I was hesitant about putting my information on a site, even just the general stuff, like my birthday.. I am always amazed at the things people post online and sometimes I wish I could be more relaxed about it all.But after looking around at facebook I can see why people like to go to this site, to visit with friends and see what they are doing, to see photos... there is so much to see and do. And you can make new friends from all over.. I think I have a better understanding of what draws people to this site. I am glad this was one of the 23 things to explore. It really opened my eyes to something the kids (young and old)have known about for a long time. I am going to work on my facebook, just like my blog, as the more I do, the more I know, and the more I can speak the language and know what they are talking about.
Update:
Although I have had my Facebook now for about a month, I haven't really spent any time there after the initial first few days. I am going to keep my account active with them in case anyone from my past is trying to find me. I suppose I will check it every couple of weeks to see if there is anything interesting posted for me, after that I may only check on it every month. This is something I think the younger kids would really enjoy as a way to communicate with their friends, or to use it to talk with friends that do not live close enough to see in person. It is a great social site, but I don't think it is for older users. I found after the initial fun of setting up the account and finding friends it wasn't really something I was interested in. I am not coming up with any ideas on the way the library could use this site right now. I get the feeling from facebook that it is a social site for younger people and that is all it is meant to be.

Eclipse of the moon

2008-02-20T21:39:00.004-06:00

So did we all go out last night in the cold cold air and catch a glimpse of the eclipse? I did go out for about 5 minutes but then came in and looked out my window. It was much warmer, but it wasn't quite the same as seeing it from outside.

Thing Number 16 Assignment Calculator & the Research Project Calculator.

2008-02-20T21:11:00.007-06:00

As I am not a librarian I am not familiar with all the research questions that are asked by patrons every day. I do know, from what I see daily at my library, these dedicated librarians try very hard to put into the patrons hands the information they are seeking. They know the questions to ask the patrons to find out what they are really looking for and how they need to use the information.

But what the patron does with this information is up to them. I think the Assignment Calculator would be very helpful for a college student. I see it sends email reminders and seems to be a great tool for the older kids to use. This would be good for the student who needs to have a plan of attack made for them to get an assignment done on time, and the reminders would be great too.

The Research Project Calculator is also a very nice tool for the secondary students. It has lots of hints and helps to keep the assignment on track. This would be the time to indroduce this tool to the kids so they can get used to using it and by the time they are in college they automatically start with one of these tools.

Hopefully the kids are being told about these two sites. I think they should be advertised at the library in the way of links on our web pages and hopefully they are being told about them on school web pages and homework helpers.

Thing Number 15 Libraries and Games

2008-02-20T20:11:00.003-06:00

I went to Second Life and signed up. I walked around and tried my hand at flying. This site does nothing for me and I don't really see why it draws so many people. Maybe I need to spend more time there to understand it, but I don't have the time and there are many other things in my life I would rather be doing. I guess I have enough going in my real life to not worry too much about having a second life. I will give it another try later when I have more time, but I don't think my opinion will change. I don't see any use for these games at the library either. Maybe I am missing something and if I am, someone please enlighten me on this thing.

Thing Number 14 Library Thing

2008-02-18T20:58:00.007-06:00

I have had an account with LibraryThing for quite a while. I joined to catalog my cookbooks. (I collect them) I never did much with it, but lately I have been adding more and more of my books. I love this site. I think I am going to have to join for life.
I can see many uses for this on our web page at the library to use with our catalog. It would be great to use it to show off the new books in the New Book Lounge, or for a teen read page.
I joined a group, Librarians who LibraryThing. I can see there are some interesting articles posted but I don't have time right now to look through them.
There were many good ideas on how to use LibraryThing at the library on the LibraryThing Blog. It just takes someone to sit down at a computer and do it. I don't know if my library is ready, but we have to jump in sometime, and this may be a good place to start.

Thing Number 13 Online productivity tools

2008-02-18T19:08:00.006-06:00

So many things to try..

I already have iGoogle, I find it is very helpful for me to have this site as my homepage and every morning I look at the calendar, check the weather, check my gmail, see if I have anything on my to do list.. it is nice to have a page where I can write myself notes and check so many things in one place.

I am also having fun with widgets, I put one on my blog and have bookmarked this widget page on my del.icio.us so I can go back and do more later. I tried the countdown widget but it wouldn't count down on my blog.. oh well.

I made a calendar on Kiko which I don't know if I will use as I have a calendar on iGoogle, and a list on ta da list which I really liked. This is where I can email the list to others and they can add things to it. The one I made is titled -What I want to do on our summer vacation at the lake-. I thought my husband and daughter could add to it so we will all have an idea of what everyone wants to do. I made another one for books that I want to read that I marked private as I don't want anyone else adding to it. After I signed up for some of these I see there is one called Backpack that combines all of these features into one site. Maybe I could just do everything there. With so many choices it is hard to choose how you want to handle keeping track of your information, but I think that you just need to choose one service and go with it, but to be aware of the new sites that have the combined features you want. Choices are good but to many choices just end up being confusing.

I think a calendar of events would be nice to use at work for staff, where we could all put in our days off, days that are storytimes, meetings, something we could all share. As far as something for the public, I think if it were on our web site with dates and times for special happenings at the library that would be useful to our patrons.

Thing Number 12 Do you Digg

2008-02-17T08:09:00.004-06:00

This was a very interesting lesson. I never knew all these social media sites were out there. I spent quite a bit of time looking at all of these sites and then reading some articles and viewing others comments. Kind of like reading the Sunday paper with just the headlines and my choices about what to read.
I set up an account with both Digg and Mixx. I favor Mixx over Digg in the way they present their articles and it seemed easier for me to understand. It is very easy on both sites to share information by sending it via email to your friends.
I did submit an article to Mixx, which was very easy to do.
There is just so much news out there. It is hard to read it all. I think that would be the distraction, but the good thing is you can decide what you want to read and get others viewpoints, if that matters to you.
I think it would be a good researach tool as you can really narrow your searches down to what you want to read about and then be presented with many options from different sources to read.

So then I ventured over to Stumbleupon. This is my new favorite thing. I love it because you can personalize what you want to look for. One of my choices was knitting and I found this great wiki about Illusion Knitting. I guess I am not sure how we could use this in the library, but I know I will use it at home. I did have to put in a Stumble toolbar. Then I can rate sites and mark them as favorites, share the sites I find with friends and even send myself a favoites email.

Thing Number 11 Social Media

2008-02-16T08:36:00.006-06:00

I went in an put some tags on my blog posts and also tagged more of my photos on Flickr. Tagging makes sense to me now and I find that it is an easier way to find and keep track of things. I really love the tag clouds.

Then I went to del.icio.us and set up an account. I imported my favorites into my account and tagged them and also made bundles. I think this would be a great asset for any student that was working on an assignment that contained many web sites as they can be saved in del.icio.us and tagged and bundled so the information can be easily retrieved. I don't know how much I will use this at home. I don't really have a need to access my favorites unless I am at my home computer, which has them all on the browser, or can be found with google. But now they are stored at del.icio.us in case I ever want to find something and I am not at home.

Setting up an account / features of del.icio.us is a great article to read before you start out on del.icio.us. It gave me a good understanding of what this site is for and other information, such as tag clouds, making bundles, networks and sharing sites.

While looking around I came accross the Lansing Public Library. They were on a list of libraries that del.icio.us Lansing Public Library On their page they have links that go to adult blogs, teen blogs, youth blogs and a technology blog. It also has RSS feeds. I was blown away by all the work that they have put in to their homepage and how user friendly it is.

Blog clean up

2008-02-15T20:58:00.015-06:00

I just spent some quality time with my blog.. Now that's a scary thought!!

I thought it would be nice to get my things numbered properly and to change the links the way I wanted them. I don't know why that was a big brain block for me the first time I wrote my posts. Too many things floating around in my brain I suppose.

I am guessing that about 90% of the 23 things are new to me and this has been quite a bit to absorb. I am also thinking about Flickr, as you can probably guess by the photos. .

Actually I think I am really trying to stall a bit before I go on to the thing number 11. Give myself a chance to think about what I have learned so far and how I will use what I have learned in my daily work and personal life. There are many paths and every one is an adventure.

Question

2008-02-13T21:39:00.005-06:00

After working on the 23 things, have you found that when you are on a web site and read something, you look for the leave a comment link? I was just online at the newspsper and read an article and wanted to post a comment... geech!

Thing Number 10 part 3 wiki

2008-02-13T20:40:00.021-06:00

Well I jumped in and did it. I edited my first line in sandbox and found out it wasn't so bad, that is the idea behind a wiki, things change. I also added a comment on the 23 things on a stick wiki. That was so fun that I also edited the front page, which I am sure has changed many times by now. I am still struggling with the idea of going in and making changes.. I don't know why, unless it is that private property issue that was discussed in in Using wikis to create online communities, we don't want to change something that someone else wrote... why, are we wrong, are they wrong, will we make a mistake?

Did you know wiki means quick in Hawaiian?

I really enjoyed reading Using Wikis to Create Online Communities by Meredith Farkas
This wiki gave me a greater understanding of what a wiki is, what it is for, and how it can be used. I would recommend that this be the first thing you read when you are trying to understand what a wiki is. It contains some great ideas and thoughts about how wikis can be implemented into a library. I would love to have an interactive wiki that our patrons could use, it would really help them feel a part of the library and that their ideas are important to the library and to the other patrons. Everyone has good ideas and giving us a place to voice these ideas is a good thing.

Thing Number 10 wikis parts 1 & 2

2008-02-11T15:00:00.011-06:00

It is amazing how the internet is changing. We used to surf the net and look at web sites around the world, now I find myself surfing for wikis. On the Beekeeping in MN wiki I found:

A wiki for all things Dr. Who.. how great is that? As you probably guessed, I am a big Dr Who fan from way back.

I watched the video on wikis and that led me to other videos of the In Plain English Series with Lee LeFever, they are great. The vidoes give you the basic workings of wikis, RSS feeds and many other topics of interest. But back to wikis.

A few days have passed and I have looked around at some wikis from libraries. What a great idea. One I found that I really loved was from the Bartsville Public Library
They have a spot for teens to vote on their version of one book, they have audiobooks teens can download onto their iPods, many things to encourage and invole the teens in their community in their library system. We need to involve our teens in using the library and being involved in the many different ways we can serve them. These are the library users of the future, and what they want and how they want it is going to effect us all.

I also enjoyed the Albany County Public Library wiki
They have tech service information and circulation information right there for all the employees to see and update as needed. One place that is holding all the information that employees need to do their jobs, no looking through paper notebooks or into a log of past emails that were sent covering a subject you are questioning. I am all for this.

I am now off to try editing a wiki. That kind of scares me as I am not sure about editing something. But I will do my homework and read up on that part of the process and let you know what I did in my next posting. I just read in a blog that that is the challenge, to try something you are unsure of and get into the grit of the wiki....
Bye for now.
UPDATE: I just found another web site I want to share that is excellent on wikis. It is from the How Stuff Works site. It is called How Wikis Work by Marshall Brain. It is worth a read.

Thing Number 9 collaboration tools

2008-02-11T14:02:00.002-06:00

I played around with Zoho Writer and created an account with them. I liked all the features they had to offer and I don't really favor it over Google Docs. I already have Gmail and my Blog with Google so that was easy as I didn't have to sign up again. I guess I really don't have an opinion on this 'thing'. Maybe I can revisit this one later, after I think about it for a while.

ILL Soup

2008-02-10T20:51:00.001-06:00

Help me, I can't stop playing with photos......I think I am out of control.

Thing number 8 Summer at the lake

2008-02-10T10:06:00.003-06:00

I went back to Picturetrail because I saw that other blogers were able to use them. I still had some trouble but I managed to get this picture cube on my blog. Now I will see if what I write on here is also going to show up.

After saving and doing a preview it looks like this is going to work. I don't think the photo quality is very good on the photos, but I may have done something else wrong, or maybe my photos were saved at to low a resolution to come out clear. So now I have photos on Flickr, Phototrail.. and who knows where else, as I am not done yet. Having all these usernames and passwords is starting to get to me also. What are the rest of you doing about this? When you are done with some of these applications can you delete your account, or do we just leave it on there and forget about it? (although I still love Flickr)

I don't think I will spend any more time on this today, as so far it has not been a good experience for me.

Thing Number 8 Share your creations

2008-02-10T09:02:00.005-06:00

My first venture into sharing my photos was with picturetrail. I did manage to set up an account there and bling a photo, but I can not get it to copy inside of my posting. I finally gave up on that one as it just seems to be to difficult. Then I decided to make a photo album. Well, that didn't work either. There are some other sites to visit so I am off to explore and hopefully I will be able to get them to work for me.

I always have good luck with Big Huge Labs, they have so many fun things to make. I still have to make another presentation but I had to make this billboard first.

I went to do a slideshow but didn't have much luck with that. I created a database on Lazybase of the people in my knitting group. It was very easy to create this small database. I am not sure how I would use Lazybase at the library, but it is good information to know and some day I may want to use it. I liked it because you really didn't have to sign up with a user name and password. Lately that is my pet peeve... too many names and passwords to remember and write down and keep track of in my little red notebook. I think this may be something I will explore later on for my personal use.

Thing Number 7 Web 2.0 Communication Skills

2008-02-06T20:09:00.002-06:00

Finally a subject I am familiar with. Email and IM... I love IM. I use it all the time when I have a problem with my computer, (talk to the geeks at Dell), want to chat with family while I am on the internet (Carrie, do you have this recipe?) or to 'talk' with someone about an online order (I want it in blue instead of pink, is that a problem?). There are so many possibilities and I think this is one of the most basic things that a library can do. Connect with IM. People can sit at home and ask a question of a libararian and get their answer right away. How many times have you had a question for a librarian but no way to get to the library. IM is the answer. Would you use the library services more often if you could IM? Yes. Information could be found and the links sent through IM, instant help. So it would probably be just as easy to make a phone call, but today, that isn't what people want to do. I think people like the idea that they don't have to ask a question face to face with a librarian. I also think it is a great idea to have IM inside the library so we could all talk with one another about a problem, or questions about patrons accounts, talk between branches without having to use the phone. So much faster and simpler. We could get information to each other in an instant. Email is great and serves it purpose, but IM is for the right now conversations.
I definatly agree with the Library Journal article mentioned written by By Aaron Schmidt & Michael Stephens -- Library Journal, 4/1/2005, this is an article from 2005!! It is now 2008 and these ideas should be implemented, we are loosing touch with a big group of people who would use IM with the library.
As far as SMS using the texting on a cell phone, I can't see that happening in the library any time soon. I know it is a new way of communicating and I suppose sending a text message to someones phone to advise them of books that are available for pickup or that they have items due in 3 days may be somthing for the future. Would that be something our computers would be able to generate? I suppose so. I guess it would be something to think about. Maybe I just feel this way because it is not something that I do, and I wonder if that is really something that our patrons would want? Sounds to me like I need to do some more thinking about this one as I seem to be changing my mind about it as I write this.
I have also participated in webinars. When I was learning the new VDX system for our Interlibrary loans there was a webinar on the upgrades that were taking place. We also had telephone communication during the webinar so we could ask questions and interact with the rest of the group that was taking the webinar at the same time. (Maybe having a web-cam would have been the way to go instead of the telephone??) I found it to be an interesting experience and I see that Minitex has many different webinars offered. I can think of a few things that our library system could put in a webinar to help our patrons understand how to do things or learn about how things are done at the library. It could be something as simple as how the books get from the bookdrop to the discharge and then back on to the shelves. Okay, so that involves quite a few steps and isn't really simple now is it? Or it could be more complex, as how does an interlibrary loan book get from 'someplace up north' to my library and then into my hands to read.

Thing Number 6 revisited

2008-02-06T19:42:00.001-06:00

So I had to go back and do a few more fun things with Flickr... I love all the things there are to do with photos. Now I am ready to move on to number 7. The path has many curves.

http://www.flickr.com/

Moving on

2008-02-05T20:52:00.000-06:00

I think I better put Flickr behind me now for a while and move on to the next item on my list of new things to explore. So far it has been an amazing trip of learning and thinking and wondering where the next steps will take me. I can see that the world is evolving and if I don't keep up I will be left behind. Everything out there is so exciting and wonderful. I just can't wait to learn more. Hopefully once this journey is done I will be able to continue down the path I have now started.

Thing Number 6 Online image generator

2008-02-04T12:50:00.002-06:00

I got my trading card to work from Big Huge Labs. That was kind of fun and it would be fun to make some trading cards like Carleton College did with their staff. It could be turned into a treasure hunt for a summer reading activity, kind of like a 'find where this is in the library' type of thing. I am sure there are many possibilities. It would also be fun to post some of the cards on the web site. They could be made of books and have the descriptions put in the comments area.. kind of like a have you read this one yet, type of thing. I think I will go back there now and play with some more ideas!

Thing Number 5 More fun with Flickr

2008-02-04T12:38:00.002-06:00

I have had more fun with Flickr today and added the clock, which I think is great. I also had fun making puzzles out of my photos. I will have to come back here again later and do more exploring.
I have visited Clockr, Big Huge Lab, Spell with Flickr, and created puzzles. This is so much fun and very addicting. I find myself going back to play with something or a photo I have seen to create something new and fun. It is hard to step back from this and tell myself I have learned and now it is time to move on to the next thing. I can think of many ways to use this photo sharing and creating in a web site.

Thing Number 4 Learn about Flickr

2008-02-03T10:43:00.002-06:00

Here it is, almost 11 and I have been playing with Flickr since about 9 this morning. This stuff is dangerous as I am not getting much else done today. I have uploaded some of my vacation photos and some shots of the library. You can see my photo groups, I am registered under coffee to go
I am still learning about groups, sets and tags. But I think I am catching on. I really like going to look at other peoples photos and the photos from the Library of Congress really blew me away. I get a kick out of all the photos from the early 1900's and there are lots of them to look at. You could spend all day doing that...
I see that my daughter has uploaded quite a few old photographs of our family. I didn't know she had put all those photos in Flickr. That was also fun to look at.
Isn't it something how the Clemens and Alcuin Libraries have done that with those photos of books on a shelf and linked them to their catalog. How great is that. It would be perfect to have the 'hot reads' on a shelf with notes on what the books are about and then to link the photo right to the catalog entry. Sure is more fun than scrolling through pages on a catalog.
I also had fun with the Spell with Flickr page. I don't know how many words I spelled and I did add a couple to my blog. I wonder if I can resize them? They are so big.
I still have to go in and tag one of my photos of the library and add it onto my blog, but since it is now after 11 and I have much to do today, I will have to leave that for another time... maybe after lunch???
To be continued...................

Adding music to my blog and a new avatar

2008-01-31T19:56:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Kari I learned how to put music on my blog today. It isn't one of the 23 things on a stick but I am learning new technology in whatever I do, so I figure it is okay. This was so simple, you just create an account with Sonific.com and start choosing music. That is the hardest part. After you make a playlist and save it, you can create your widget and then sonific helps you export your widget to your blog. It is amazing.
I also found out about Meez.com where you can create an animated avatar. I did some experimenting and played around with all the different people you can create. It is fun to go to this site as you have many different movements to choose from, although when they are put into your blog the movements are restricted because of the size of the file. It did seem that this site is really busy because it hung up my computer twice when I was trying to save my avatar last night. I tried again this morning and didn't have any trouble getting onto the site. So I am recommending that you do not try and create this avatar in the evenings. I also didn't do the automatic download into my blog, but copied the html code and inserted it myself. I still have a problem giving these sites my name and password. More learning, more fun!

Thing Number 3 Learn about RSS

2008-01-29T21:41:00.003-06:00

Okay, so when I started experimenting with RSS feeds I was overwhelmed by all the news feeds I was getting, but then I read the directions again I realized that I was doing something wrong. I don't have to have 23 news feeds, I can choose many different feeds of all shapes and sizes. I picked a few of my favorites and added them to my blog. Now whenever I go to a website I will always look for the feeds logo to see if it is something I could add.
This is a wonderful tool that I can use to keep up on news, latest book reviews, and comics all at the click of a mouse button. I am more and more amazed at the technology that is available and that I didn't have a clue as to how to use it or even sometimes what it was.. What is that orange icon that says feeds.. what does that mean? How long has that been up there...
Well now I know what is it and what it does and I can decide if I want to subscribe and add it to my blog..
My first try at RSS was with Google reader and the more I look around the site the more I want to add to my blog.. I am assuming once this is no longer new and exciting to me I will only have one or two feeds added.
I am thinking about all the feeds we could add to our homepage to make it fun, like a library comic. Newsworthy, like CNN. Is there one for current weather conditions? I will have to check that out. What about book reviews and current best sellers? I know they are listed on our home page but wouldn't it be nice to have them all displayed together so they are easy to find and easy for the users?
And the beat goes on.....
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update 2-12-08
It is funny how when you are learning something new it seems so exciting and then after a while it becomes more important than fun. I have news and blogs set up on Google reader now. I am going there at least once a day to check on news, weather, what is going on with my friends 23 things on a stick blogs, and more, as I am still discovering and learning about this tool. I am so happy to be learning this new technology with the 23 things. I don't know if I would have learned about all this without their help as it seemed to be so overwhelming. I had so much to learn and it was impossible for me to plan it out as to where to even start. Thank you for helping me find the path.

Thing Number 2 What is Web 2.0 and Why Should I Care?

2008-01-29T19:50:00.002-06:00

I just watched the Stephen Abram video on Learning 2.0. I am excited to hear about so many new ways to help our patrons and also the library staff itself. It would be great to have some of these new and exciting things happen at our library. It is amazing to think of all the possibilities that could be done on our catalog and inside the library to be more welcoming people of all ages. I think that everyone who uses the library would benefit from a more user friendly catalog that could have book reviews posted from other library users, for example.
The younger generation has a different concept of reading and finding ways to make it exciting for the Millenials is a huge undertaking that is going to require us baby boomers to change the way we think. The way we have done things in the past is not the way we should be doing things in the future.
Change is good, and if we don't change we will loose all connection with a whole generation. Do we go the way of the rotary telephone or the TV set with tubes? YES-- They weren't replaced, they were improved upon and made better and easier to use.
I think this is an exciting concept and I would love to be a part of it. That's why I am doing the 23 things on a stick, to learn and grow.

Short Pencil Saga

2008-01-27T14:48:00.000-06:00

This is a great video showing how those short pencils make their way into our library. I never knew the work involved in making them, and I will not take them for granted ever again.

Thing Number 1 Adding an Avatar

2008-01-27T09:20:00.003-06:00

That was fun making an Avatar but mine is not moving. Maybe after I do some more editing I will figure out what is wrong. I also had fun with the fonts and colors on the page. I am going to try adding more elements to make it more interesting. When am I going to find time to do some qulting today?????

Thing Number one done

2008-01-24T21:36:00.001-06:00

Today I created my blog. Number one done on the 23 things on a stick. Yippeee.