Thing 23

It was an easy 5 minute survey. Yay, I'm all done! ^o^

Thing 22 Stay Current

I can't believe the end is here. Looking back at all the things I've blog about was a lot of fun. There were some that I wanted to go back to and explore more in depth. I love the shelfari book shelves and the online library to keep track of all the books I have. I have so many favorite things I'm not sure I can pick a top favorite. I think I will continue to blog but I want to try other blog sites other than blogger. I learned a more about libraries 2.0 than I ever thought possible. There's no doubt that the lessons learned will be invaluable to the library patrons.

Thing 21 Student 2.0 Tools

Student 2.0 tools look very useful to help one organize themselves when they need to write a paper. The sets up step by step the things one should think about when preparing to write a research paper like reading the instructions to understand the assignment, how to go about choosing a topic, tips for creating a research statement, tips on creating an outline, tips on writing the first draft. Really everything you've probably already learned to do in all your English courses. It's a very helpful reminder because there's so many steps in writing a research paper that one might forget one but in these sites it's all outline in at least 5 to 12 simple steps. Very handy tool to use for any high school or college student.

I thought the Minnesota 5 student Researching Planning guide looked very helpful. It was simple and to the point. The worksheet formulated 5 questions using the 5 steps question, gather, conclude, communicate, evaluate to help start the thinking process for the paper. I can see students using it because it doesn't take much time to scribble down some quick ideas. The narrowing a topic using a general to specific triangle also looked useful because one can visually see the direction and the shape their research paper will take. I know when I choose a research topic my professors would complain when the topic seemed to general so I can see a lot of students wanting to use to him formulate a topic. The Teacher Guide had a lot of useful visual worksheets with all kinds of charts that can be very helpful for those that can't write out a paper without seeing it visually.

Thing 20 Books 2.0

The internet is like creating a new language. Those that oppose it don’t know the language and those that are for it sees potential in it. Standardized tests are outdated. When I had taken my Anthropology of Race class I learned how the IQ test was bias. The point of the IQ test is to measure one’s intelligence. Its popular test today but not many know that its origins stem from racial and cultural bigotry. Most importantly everyone keeps asking how can one measure intelligence if they can’t even define what it is? It has been argued that the internet has single handedly ruined reading scores. But maybe like the IQ test we need to reevaluate or redefine standardized tests to incorporate the language of the internet. People haven’t stopped reading, how people read is what has changed. So the internet can’t really be blamed. The internet doesn’t use big fancy words like flabbergasted or befuddled. It uses simple concise English to get to the point. But in a sense we do that every day when we speak to people. People might say there are things in a book that one can’t learn from the internet. But no one learns things the same way as the person sitting next to them. It’s what makes the human race special because if we all thought the same way we’d probably still think the earth was at the center of the solar system. Some people are going to prefer the internet and some might be old fashion and prefers books, it’s mostly a personal preference when you think about it.

Surfing Reading Trails, Readerville and several other sites listed in thing 20 has what seems like an endless list of books. While I was on Reading Trails I did a search on Twilight and the results showed a long list of people who have the book in their list as well as other books related to that specific top. Got to love booklists! I never knew there were so many sites on the internet just for book related information. I wish someone told me about Book Swim! Renting college books for a low price would have saved me tons of money! (That sounded way to much like the Geico commercials…) No due dates, no late fees, free postage for return deliveries! Seriously why is it always the case that you learn about something that could have been useful to you after the fact? I’m betting that not many teens know about these sites either. I think that might also be one of the reasons why teens prefer the internet. They don’t always know about resources available to them. I bet if some of this information was posted somewhere on the library website or the library teen myspace site, teens would notice it a lot more since they spend so much time searching for things on the internet. I think I’m willing to start a movement to beg to get someone who’s willing to post free available resources because it would such a shame to let it go to waste.

Since I’ve started working in the library I had notice one thing that I never knew about and thought was the saddest thing in the world to me. While working in the children’s department parents would sometimes come up to me and say I need help finding a book and the audio version so they can hear the story while they read it because I don’t have time to read to them. If their parents don’t have time for them what’s stopping them from saying why not go on the internet because there is more on there to do to entertain them? I bet you can even get the internet to read to them too. The internet seems to have everything these days. The internet is part of everyday life but I don’t think that books are going to the way of the dodos. Books can still be useful.

Thing 19 Other Social Networks

For this assignment I tried Shelfari. I had some issues adding books because when I pick the book it would some times show up as another book once on my shelf. I thought it was somewhat weird but every site has it's quirks. The Internet can't be perfect. I was able to do a number of things. Add books I've read, own, will read, and what I'm reading at the moment. I was able to mark which books were my favorite and write reviews for one or two of them. There were some books I couldn't remember off the top of my head but when I looked under "Explore" than "Most popular" I was able to spot a couple more books to add to my list. I think this site will be very useful to me because I can look up books that I'm thinking about reading to see what people wrote about and thought about them. Plus looking up most popular help me spot books I haven't heard about yet. I think is a useful site for book lovers.

Other sites mentioned in thing 19 that I recognized was Project Play list. It's a great music tool that I used on my myspace account a couple times in the past. It's a site where I can search for music and create a playlist or a list of music that I enjoy listing to. Plus you can make more than one list and you can name each list whatever you want. The last time I used it I believe it came in a varity of style options. As I said before I used it on my myspace. I would create a list of songs that I enjoyed, copied the code, than added it to my myspace account. I'm not sure if it still does it, I'm sure it probably does, but every time I went on to project playlist if I were to delete a song and add another it would automatically make the changes on my myspace account as well so that I didn't have to copy the code and add it again. Very use tool but I don't use it any more because I found another site, myflashfetish.com, which works just like project playlist only I think their designs are a little more innovated. As you see from my little ninja music player at the bottom right side of my blog, that is just one of my options. I could choose the colors for my ninja or I could pick a music player that looks like a teddy bear nodding it's head in tone with the music, or a music player that looks like an ipod, or an eighties retro cassette. All of which you can change up the colors of style of the music players background.

New Features on Myspace

Hi y'all. You don't have to have Tom as a friend. I see my friends delete him as a friend all the time. But I haven't because that's the best way to get the latest updates on myspace. Here's a link from Tom's blogs on the latest new gadgets myspace is featuring. I love the new things they're doing for photo editing. It's great to have a one stop option. Hope the link works... o.O

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=6221&blogID=479027241

Thing 18 Facebook and Myspace

I've had a myspace account for many years. If I had to roughly estimate when it was during the time I started college, about four years ago. I suppose I must have been living in my closet because my friend went on and on about it but for the life of me I couldn't understand what she was talking about. That's when I got my first crash course in myspace. She told me that it was a social network place and that I had to sign up for an account so that we could keep in touch. I had left Orlando to go to school up in Gainesville. I figured the request was reasonable and opened up and an account. I didn't fall in love with it right away. It looked rather plain and the only person I had that were friends were her and Tom. Over the years more and more people I had once gone to school with started finding me on myspace so I started to use it more often. I spiced up my layout and tried to add as many personal touches to make it feel more like me. But my myspace is set to private so most people don't have a lot to go on other than my display picture. I suppose lucky for them I'm so recognizable because it seems like I haven't aged a day since I was 13. All the same I'm always amazed by people finding me even if we haven't spoken in almost a decade. I prefer to have only friends and family on my myspace and an occasional comic site (I'm a big comic fan after all). I try to avoid strangers but some times people will come along and say they know me and have a picture to prove it but I still can't recall them. It's kind of hard to keep track of people when you've been to so many schools. So it can't be helped if I have a few mystery people here and there, it's worked out ok so far.


Since I already have a myspace I decided to open up a facebook and explore. I added some of the friends that I already had on myspace on to my facebook account. Apparently it's not uncommon to belong to several social networks. For some reason it just makes the world seem like such a smaller place. I had signed up for an account about a month or so ago and really found myself somewhat enjoying it. However, lately they have recently made so upgrades so I'm finding myself lost once again.

With myspace I can go to several different sites to find a layout or I can even tinker with the xhtml codes and design one of my very own. Right now the design on myspace is my own. In the background is a huge panda bear showing it's back to the viewer and underneath it is a much smaller panda with it's head poking out. The modules have a supergirl motif to it as well. My layout is simply put together. Nothing to flashy and not to much clutter. I hate clutter on a web page. It ruins the visual effect. When I asked my friends about layout designs on facebook they sneer at me and said what for? Supposedly grownups don't need flashy designs. I must have missed the memo for that. I wasn't at all satisfied with the plain layout and went in search for layout designs for facebook. I actually found some! But there was a downside. Unlike myspace where you can tinker with the xhtml and post with facebook you have to download some kind of software or other so that any layout you choose can be visual. At least on your computer that is. If your friend doesn't download it they would never notice your layout designs. I thought that was a load of stinky cheese if you ask me.

On myspace you have 4 options to converse. There's email, blog, comment, and bulletin. Email is standard, it's a personal note from you to your friend. No one else get's to see it. Blogs are notes you post that are attached to your myspace page. These are just one's personal thoughts that friends can view if the mood strikes them and they stay posted up unless you delete them. Comments are notes you post on your friends myspace page where they and they're friends can view. Bulletins are alerts that go out to all your friends so that if you have a message you want to send out at once it's easy then contacting them one at a time. With facebook? Good grief I'm not exactly sure. With my facebook some times I'll write a note and then my cousin comes along and posts a comment but when I reply back its on my page not hers so how does she know she's been responded too? Some times I'll write notes about books that I've read or moods that I'm in and I'll have one person comment on one thing while another is commenting on another so I'm trying to respond to both and before long I have no idea where the heck I'm at. Facebook also has email and instant messager. Maybe I'm just to use to myspace but for me it just seems more easier to communicate than on facebook.

I joined facebook apps for librarians and I've visited the Alachua County Library District myspace page to explore what these sites have to offer to the library. Both sites are useful resources for providing knowledge to librarians and patrons alike. With myspace the lastest news for ones library is neatly posted and organized providing fast facts like NEFLIN's 23 Things and other local events. It even has video on bookmobiles and that one video about what we do at the library with the fun music and all the people I recognize from work. Also what Erin did with that one myspace page was very hip!

Even though I hear more and more people signing up for facebook and look down on myspace I think I'm always going to prefer myspace. In matters on design and organization of how people communicate I think myspace has facebook beat hands down.

Thing 17 Podcast

I explored several podcast's and preferred using podcast.com the most. It was a lot simpler to use. I just went under browse our podcast collection and selected books, than comics, than DC. I found pages on options to choose from. I especially enjoyed the one called "Superman World of New Krypton." The following is a link to the podcast:
http://books.podcast.com/episode/35796596/13350/

I wouldn't want to make my own podcast however. I'm not much for a broadcaster. Just thinking about how many people tuning in gives me stage fright! I know it's a weird way of thinking about it but can't help it. But I wouldn't mind subscribing to the one for comics and whatever else I find.

In Response to Erin's Comment for thing 9

This is in response to Erin's comment for my thing 9. I was having issues with databases and she recommended that I try Blist. So here it is! Sorry Erin that I'm responding like 2 weeks later! Just needed to think about how I could use it for the library.

I used Blist to create a list of possible books to use for a display I've been thinking about called "All a Fluttered." It's a display about birds.

Display: All a Flutter

Get your own blist widget

Thing 16 YouTube

Attached is a video clip of the library scene from Gone with the Wind. It's a classic scene from the movie and plus it's got books in it. It's the best of both worlds. I think Scarlet was out of her mind to not instantly fall in love with Rhett Butler. It took the whole movie for her to realize it. Tisk Tisk...



So what did I think of youtube? Well not much I normally go to sites like veoh.com or http://www.crunchyroll.com/ because I think the video isn't as fuzzy or grainy. I found a video clip on youtube with the Cookie Monster in the library (the blue puppet from Sememe Street). But the volume was so low that even with no one moving and the volume turned up to the max it couldn't be heard. Youtube can be handy but the quality isn't always the best. There's a million of these sites out there, I think, that have more to offer.

What I did notice was that there were over 2,000 videos that came up under the search for library tours. I think that can be useful to a library. You can show the patrons around while they are in the comfort of their own homes. It might entice them to get up and visit their local libraries! The wackier the video the more interesting the library might seem. Like this library tour done by Haper College library!



We could probably make our on videos to promote the summer reading programs too. All we need is a camcorder, a director, and actors! ^O^

Thing 15 Rollyo

I went to Rollyo and created a search engine for children's literature using sites like:

www.randomhouse.com
www.kidsreads.com
childrensbooksonline.org
www.cbcbooks.org
www.harpercollinschildrens.com/harperchildrenschildrensbooksforparents.com
www.slco.lib.ut.us/children.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

It's a handy research tool because you can create a list of all the research sites you normally go but instead of going to each one at a time you can go all at once. Very useful for patrons at the library that have a hard time figuring out where to begin their search.

A link to my Rollyo

Thing 14 Online Productivity

I choose to use pageflakes as my homepage. Mostly because it had the myspace and facebook features along with it. I could pretty much do the whole assignment from it. It had a link to my bookmarks from delicious. It had a sticky note option. It had a To Do list option for creating lists. I could get news feeds from diggs. It also had box net online storage where I can upload documents and save it on to it. I thought it was pretty handy. Even so I did try 30 Boxes calendar and I loved that fact that the calendar was huge. I hate it when computers try to use fine print on you. It's a huge screen why on god's beautiful green earth would you want to only use a third of it and make yourself go blind? It was simple and easy to use. I don't need any fluff. I also used Tada and created a book list of random books I've seen recently this week while putting away books. I say by far though pageflakes had the most uses for me. It had a ton of features that we've already gone through so far in Neflin's 23 things. Plus the Tada list will do wonders for me when I'm creating new display's. I simply listen to my Jimmy Cricket(that's Pinocchio's little fella right?...) to give me an idea for a new display than use Tada to create a list of books that I can use for that display. When the display runs low on books I just pull out my handy dandy list and get the books. Don't have to hassle through the cataloger because I'll already know where to look.

Thing 13 Library Thing

Well I can put some of the books I own on it but I couldn't find everything. Well books were easy to find but not comics, or magazines. I mean yes I was able to find some it's just that not much of it had a picture to go along with it. I like having a picture to go with it. I'm a very visual person. Just a personal preference.

Creating book lists can help people narrow people search for specific types of books that match their interests whether it be for vampires or dogs. It's also very handy to keep organized. You can create lists of summer reading, or most popular books, or classic books, etc.

Truth be told, I only knew of books a million on 13th and Newberry, Barnes and Nobles at archer and the library. Never knew there were so many places that were book related. Maybe I did but it never sinked in I guess.

Thing Twelve Wikis

What did you find interesting about the wiki concept?

I've heard about how wiki can be used to build on previous knowledge. I always assumed it was for educational purposes, not really everyday life. So after watching the short video clip in regards to email vs wiki I felt enlightened. As if I were whacked with a stupid pillow (yes pillow because a stick would hurt)!

What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki?

I believe the youth services department is using wikis for book lists. For example, a list for displays created and a summer reading list. I'm sure there's tons of other uses they are employing but that's beyond my knowledge at the moment.

Many teachers/faculty "ban" Wikipedia as a source for student research. What do you think of the practice of limiting information by format?

When I went to college I remember all my professors banned wikis as a research tool because they felt it was not a reliable source. I'm not sure why it's not consider a reliable source. It's viewed by it's peers and critiqued is it not? What gives an individuals judgment more authority over another? In a way wikis always seemed like someone else doing the research and providing a summary of what they took away from it. But that's there opinion; if I were to read it I might take something else away from it. Maybe what my professors hoped I would learn is that some times it's better getting it straight from the horse's mouth.

Which wiki did you edit?

neflins23things wiki

Thing Eleven: Social Media

I browsed through Digg, Mixx, Reddit, and Newsvine for a short bit looking at the latest headlines, what was the popular story for the week, and comments left on the sites. I can't say it's my first time browsing sites like these. I've been in the habit of checking the latest news ever since I was a child. Having it on the Internet makes it a lot more convenient and cheaper to get. These tools can be used anywhere you happen to have a computer at. People will always want the latest news, whether it be political, environmental, famous, or celebrity related. In regards to productivity, what does that have to do with anything? I would like to think learning any kind of news is useful to me to stay current. In my opinion culture is all about downloading information no matter what kind it is.

Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

Thing Ten Tagging and Delicious

Sidenote:

Can't the information on the blogs be more streamed line? I got so lost reading blog ten as I do in almost every blog. It's in no way easy for me to read. I read the entire blog and by the time I got to the end I felt like I was in class with Charlie Brown with the teacher going "Bla Bla Bla." I'm not trying to say it's boring I'm trying to say I was totally lost as to what the I was suppose to be doing. I had to read over it and some how mark where the tagging part began and where the delicious assignment began. It all seemed to blend in to much for me.

What was worse is that once I figured out where the assignment part was for tagging I was still lost. It was like an episode of Bleach where they get to the climax of the story and instead of finishing it they simply moves on to another story. All the while I'm left sitting there wondering what did I just missed? It's a bit of a let down. Kind of the reason I stop watching that anime. Any way my point is that I kind of felt like I was left hanging at the end of tagging assignment. You say, and I quote,

"You can tag (Blogger calls them labels) your Blogger posts with keywords or phrases. From the Dashboard, go to Manage Posts and choose the post you want to add tags to. Enter the words in the “Labels for this post:” box in the lower right. Type in your tags (commas between each word or phase). Click Publish Post to re-publish the post with its labels (tags) to your blog."

Than you moved on to delicious. But you didn't finish explaining tagging! Ok so I go manage post, pick a blog, click edit, than go to labels for post, than what? I mean there's no explanation as to how it works. Am I suppose to create a hyperlink or is that creating a hyperlink and if it's creating a hyperlink where the heck is it linking to and from?!? I was completely befuddled but was able to find some one to explain it to me somewhat.

And if there's any way to make reading the blogs more stream line and less information overload that would be great. Hope I made some small amount of sense.

Tagging:

I did the tagging assignment on my last blog, number 9. I used the words Graphic Novel and Manga Books because I had pictures of those two items so I figured it fits.

Delicious:

I should have done this at home and not at work because all my bookmarks are on my personal computer. Hopefully when I get home I can figure out how to uploaded if not oh well. I used it to bookmark NEFLIN's 23 Things. This can be very useful for libraries to bookmark other library sites, slideshow (to create presentations), and other useful sites library uses. Of course it would also have great potential as a research tool. If your computer crashes and you need to do your research over you still know where to go to get your information from.

Things Nine Sharing slides, photos, and databases

Zoho:



Slideshare: I wasn't able to download a PowerPoint presentation on it. I think it's probably because I have the latest version of PowerPoint so it saves it under pptx and not ppt. I know it says just change pptx to ppt but than some of the things I have on it will no longer work so really what would be the point? I'm amazed that it's not really undated to accept the latest program but hey to each his own I guess.

Share Your photos with Big Huge Lab:

Well it took me a while to realize I might have mixed some stuff up, but all fixed now. Using the mosaic on Big Huge Labs was tons of fun cause it comes with a lot of options. I used it with my manga and comics. I can also see Big Huge Labs being used to create interesting graphics for slide presentations. There are a ton of different ways for slide presentations to be used, such as presenting new ideas, whether for artistic or instructional purposes. These tools weren't to difficult to use. I feel Microsoft powerpoint has more options but some times the many options end up making the file size massive. I once had a powerpoint presentation with a group that wanted the works design wise. Unfortunately it became to big and we couldn't really save it on anything but the computer. So we had to find the gadgets to connect our computer up with the projector in class, which ended up being very stressful because we happened to realize our mistake at the last minute. I voted for deleting stuff but no heaven forbid they listen to the shrimp. Any way being able to save it on the internet and not having to worry about saving it on those small portable sticky thingys is great. Only one draw back I see is that the internet access might not work so you can't pull it up. I've had that happened to me once before. Sometimes you just can't win. All the same they are very useful tools and I would recommend it to others. As for databases I couldn't get Lazybase to work. I'll go back and give it a try later. Maybe whatever issue it's having will be fixed in a couple days. Even so I can see its appeal. A database you can put up your personal work and not have it messed with; it sounds dreamy. Sometimes with the internet it's hard to tell whether or not it's free.

Thing Eight Communication Web 2.0 Style

Well I think it's safe to say I'm a communicating junky. I use several instant messengers, for example, aim, msn, myspace, google chat, and I use to use yahoo but I was getting way to much junk mail so not so much any more. I use so many different one's because each of my friends have their own preference. I don't actually use msn as much any more because the friends I had on it doesn't use their accounts any more. Nonetheless, I still log on everyday so that while I'm working on the computer should I get an email from someone I can get an alert so I can stop what I'm doing and view it. Pretty much same goes for all the rest of the messengers I have, which wasn't mentioned on all that information for Thing 8. There are other features that come with instant messenging besides chatting. You can be waiting for someone to send an important email but you don't want to have to check it every five minutes. But with instant messengers you don't have to. Just turn it on and do your thing while you wait for the beep alert.

I also use text messaging every day. I prefer texting for two reasons. One is because for a small cost I can select unlimited text messaging as part of my phone service and never worry about going over and having to pay for it. Where as for some strange reason unbeknown to me unlimited calling is about $100 or more so I can't afford that. But when I get the cheap minutes I might accidentally go over and it would cost me two arms, a leg, and maybe my soul! Cost wise I think texting is more efficient, but that may just seem that way to me. Second reason is because like it was said in one of the articles, it's silent. No one notices and no one is disturbed by it. Libraries are all about quiet how can that not be useful?

My mom is my text buddy at the moment. I gave her a list of abbreviations to help her learn how to send text messages. Abbreviations are used because your only allowed about 100 letters give or take. If you have a long message you have to know how to condense it that way it can get across to whoever your sending it to. She actually studied it and tapped it up next to her calendar on her bedroom wall. If a library did use texting and instant messaging they'd have to learn the language, which to this day I'm still trying to learn. The list is always growing because they come up with new short phrase everyday. Teens, I think they have way to much free time... Here's some phrases:

lol: Laugh out loud
lmbo: Laugh my butt off
ttyl: Talk to you later
omg: Oh my god
nvm: Never mind

Check out this site, it has a massive list of them!
Or just copy and paste the link. Whatever works for you.
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp

I think instant messaging and texting would be great tools to use in the library because it's so much more convenient. For example, when I needed to go to the library to find books for a report but couldn't go because some one had to stay home to wait for the repair man. I could easy use ask a librarian about how to focus my search than go to the catalog to request the books I needed to be put on hold and still be able to be at home to wait the repair guy. It's just so much more handy when you need to do a million things at once.

Thing Seven Online Image Generators

Big Huge Lab:

Big huge lab has a ton of options. I think I might have ended up spending the whole day on it if I had not used all my will power to move along. Since I already used the jigsaw maker on my last thing entry I tried out the magazine maker. It can out alright but I can't say I'm in love with it. If there was more layout options just maybe I could. The picture used for the magazine cover is a picture of the sky I took myself and changed the tone to sepia. I'm not stealing anyone's pictures. ^O^



ToonDoo:

Yes I know, I'm not an artist but I can still dream. This assignment was a lot of fun even if it took me all afternoon to figure out how to work ToonDoo. But I can see myself using it for the A Frames. Using visually interesting graphics will always draw in a crowd and that is the goal right? To grab patrons attention and bring them in? Graphics is always a great tool to use for that.

Thing Six Flickr Mashups

Spell with Flickr:





Jigsaw:

This is a picture of the "Alachua," a public work of art located at the University of Florida, which is also know as "The french fries." As I was heading to class one day I noticed that some one had added the red McDonalds poster on it's lower half (no that's not originally part of the artwork, just the yellow sticks), so I took a picture of it with my cellphone camera. I guess it was meant as a joke; glad I had a camera with me at the time. I always have one on me somewhere. I'm not sure why but I feel like if I didn't have a camera on me I'd be missing a Kodak moment... ^O^



How can you use any of these tools in your library or media center?

I can definitely use this at my library. I love to work on the A Frames and create displays. I can go on Flickr Mashups and create great titles for them. I was getting tried on using the same old plain lettering. I think this could be much more visually appealing.

What do you think of sharing photos online?

I normally don't enjoy sharing my photos online. I like being artistic with the photos I take and I don't want some one to take it and claim it as their on. It isn't fun doing all the work when some one else get's the credit for it.

P.S
The "spell with flickr" misspelled what I was trying to say. It isn't my fault I've tried it a couple of times and it just does not want to add the letter. So I'm not stressing over it. It still looks cute so I don't care. Technology isn't meant to be perfect any way right? I still think computers will rule the world someday... >.>

Thing Five Flickr

Good grief, it took me an hour to figure this out. My brain most be on vacation or something. Any way I couldn't get the picture (it's a display I did for the childrens department) from flickr so I just uploaded it from my computer. I tried to play around with picnik but I just wasn't getting it. I thought how Clemens library had that interactive picture was cool. Maybe if I have time I'd like to figure out how they do that. But when it comes to editing pictures I think I'll stick with photobucket. At least I know for sure that will be free. Plus I like how with photobucket you can have your pictures set to private and remove it from searches but with a password your family and friends still have access to it. I'm not sure Flickr has that feature but after an hour of wondering around it lost I think I've had my fill of it for today.

Thing Four RSS and Newsreaders

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

I don't see the magic but to each their own I guess. It kind of reminds me of those email subscriptions that junk up your email only it's news not junk. But I actually enjoy going on the website and checking out the site. See if the designer added new features or graphics. I think websites are people's personal work of art. It would be a shame to me if no one ever went on them any more to enjoy it. It's kind of like museums. People think if they've seen it once they've seen it a million times but that's not the case. Exhibits are always changing and new things are always coming in. I guess that's kind of a weird thought, but long story short it's not a hassle to me to go to the site.

How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your library or personal life?

It'll be an accessible and fast way for patrons to get the latest news on the comings and goings of the library. People can live busy lives and don't want to waste more than 5 to 10 minutes finding stuff so this can be very helpful for their lifestyle.

How can librarian staff or media specialists use RSS or take advantage of this technology?

The same way patrons use it basically. As a page I'm usually busy shelving books all day and only have about 10 minutes extra time before I have to call it a day. So RSS feeds can be an easy way to get information in no time flat. But I still prefer look at people's sites. You can call me old fashion if you like.


Which tool for finding feeds was easiest to use?

I just used google not blogline. Sorry but I figured one would be enough. I don't need to have a million different accounts on the internet. It would be way to hard to keep track of. Plus I have a life...


What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?

In google reader I selected browse for stuff and entered my search. Simple as pie.

Thing Three Blog Search Tools

Side note:

Holy swiss cheese it's not even February and she's already posted thing 7? I thought the end of the NEFLIN 23 Things workshop is in April? It is the fourth month of the year right? She's posting the things every day. It just makes it feel harder to keep up. Plus I was thrown off when I no longer saw Thing 3 on the blog any more. I had to calm myself and over come the fit of panic to notice that there was a link to the blog on the side panels. In the words of Charlie Brown, "Good Grief!"

Blog Search Tools:

The Results

It wasn't what I thought it would be. For example when I tried about.com blog search engine the first thing that poped in my head was, "What the heck am I looking at?" It doesn't look like any search engine I'm use to like Google or ask.com, which has a seach box, a graphic and that's it. There was so much on the page I wasn't sure where to start. I had to read the page to figure out that I had to click on a link to get to the blog search engine. So the link was orginially a link to a "list" of blog search engines. This is when my light blub went on.

I choose the Google Blog search engine, than I type in Archaeology. I find a long list of blogs dedicated mostly to classical archaeology. With the advance search feature you can narrow your search even further which is great. In essence it works just like google scholar search engine.

Than I try Technorati Blog search engine for Archaeology. The results that came up weren't perfect. Like google it gave me a list of blogs so I click on one link at random. It gives me a page with a short five second summary and picture. But the picture link doesn't work. I try clicking the pictures on a lot of these links and maybe it's just back luck but either nothing would happen or it would give me an error message, "Sorry! We have a Zillion pages, but not that one." I find it hard to believe you have a zillion pages when I get about 20 of these messages. Any ways, beside the picture, under the title of the blog is another link to the blog site which actually worked, somewhat. For example, I clicked on the title, "Treasures from Medival Halkis." Turns out that five second summary was it! The blog page was covered with advertisements. It was somewhat annoying. The blog doesn't talk about the artifact itself, nor the location it was discovered, the time period it originated from, or even the people who found it. Just that it will be on display for the first time to a scientific audience. Sorry but not very scholary or informative, which I thought was a bit of a let down.

I like Google's better, forgive me for wanting to be educated when doing searches on the web. I'm not into mindless junk and brightly flashing ad's.

P.S
If you think I sound testy and are wondering why read my side note. Grrr...

Thing Two Web 2.0

Where will you find the time?

Well so far I honestly have to say finding time has a been a bit rough. Partly because I have two jobs, plus I'm in the process of renovation. Also partly because there are so many things being posted it's some what terrifying. I do have some spare moments of the day but the only time I will be able to work on the 23 Things is when I'm at home. It would be useful if the blog that contains the 23 things didn't seem like information overload. I had to read Thing Two a couple times before I could figure out what exactly I had to do. I wish it was more simplified and streamlined.

Why are you participating in 23 Things @ NEFLIN? What do you hope to learn?

Well simply put I don't know everything. I'm participating in 23 Things because it gives me an excuse to sit down and actually try things out like Flicker and Wikipedia. While I was in college my professors have forbidden their students to use Wikipedia because it wasn't a reliable source. So I missed the boat on that craze. I normally don't "surf" the web. I get on, use the tools I need, than get off. So shamefully I will admit I haven't a clue what Flicker is, nor have I really heard of it until 23 Things. I'm hoping to learn new computer tools and try to stay current.

Where are you in your knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools? How about your library?

Well I guess my knowledge of Web 2.0 is somewhat basic. I know of youtube.com even though I'm more of a fan of veoh.com because the video footage looks more crisper to me for some reason. I know of photobucket.com where you can download pictures and use it to send web links to family and friends so that they can view it. I've also have a myspace account for about 3 years, give or take a month or two. I use myspace to stay in touch with my cousins who live up in New York. Sending comments and IM saves us a truck load of money! I find it the best way to keep in touch. Everyone says facebook is better and I have to admit the way they describe it does sound better. However, the only reason I have a myspace instead of a facebook is becasue I enjoy creating and messing around with the layout design. As to where my library is at in terms of Web 2.0, I don't really know. That's something I never thought to ask anyone and if I did I don't think I'd know who to ask.

What are you looking forward to in 23 Things @ NEFLIN?

Learning about new tools, I'm a huge gadget fan. Although I'm still trying to figure out how to get my evil remote control to work... Must be a guy thing?

P.S
Still not sure what's up with the comments link. I looked over the HTML and nothing looks like it's missing. I'll have to check if people have to leave comments because if they do than I might have to delete my template and use they're boring one. Evil blogger! >.<

Thing One Set Up a Blog

First step done!

I didn't like those standard template choices blogger had to offer. Seemed so generic and impersonal. Worst of all they didn't have any cartoon or anime choices! What were they thinking? There's always a cartoon or comic or anime choice for layout designs!

Well I found that unacceptable. I went and got a simple layout design that I enjoyed. How can you go wrong with Hello Kitty? I went to edit posts so I can access the html section and embedded the layout code. It asked me if I wanted to continued even though some of the gadgets would be deleted like "Followers." I accepted because I knew I could always go back and add it again.

That's another issue I have with Blogger. If I would want to change my layout design using a third party, like I did with Hello Kitty, than I would be forced to delete everything but my blogs. Virtually starting all over. That can be annoying after a while which is the reason why I deleted my account with Blogger a long time ago. Ironic that I have a new one again. You'd think they would have corrected this problem after a year but I guess not. For this reason I feel that sometimes Blogger is harshing my creativity. So I'll have to fight the desire to change my layout throughout the course of this workshop, which for me will take a lot of willpower. After that I'll most likely get rid of it again. ^O^

Oh and I added a song to my blog cause I just wanted to add another personal touch. I like ninja's cause I'm a fan of Naruto. Hopefully it's allowed for the workshop. Have a nice day!

P.S
Otaku is Japanese for anime geek. In case anyone was wondering about the origins of my display name. ^O^