Fantasy Booklover's Interests

Thing 70 free music for MP3s

2009-01-21T11:43:00.002+11:00

Nice to see that there is so much free out there. This lesson seems to really be an update on Thing 48.

Thing 48 only offered music.download.com.

Thing 70 offers many more sites for free MP3s to download:
Amazon MP3 Store
AmieStreet.com
Archive.org
ArtistServer.com
BeSonic.com
BetterPropaganda.com
CCMixter.org
Cooltoad.com
Download.com
Epitonic.com
EZ-Tracks.com
FreeAlbums.blogsome.com
GarageBand.com
Imeem.com
ItsFreeDownloads.com
Jamendo.com
Last.fm
Live Music Archive
MetalHordes.com
MP3.com
MP3.com.au
MP34U
MP3Raid.com
Muzic.com
Music.download.com
Purevolume.com
Ruckus.com
SoundClick.com
SpiralFrog.com
Stereogum.com
TuneShout.com
We7.com

Great to see so much choice now for free music.

Some sites which are not free, but fairly cheap to use, are also noted:
Emusic.com
Napster.com
Rhapsody.com

Very informative lesson with lots of music MP3 sites to recommend to patrons.

Thing 69

2008-12-04T12:27:00.002+11:00

Easy lesson related to Library 2.0 Thing #8 (Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader-Bloglines).

FeedMyInbox is very easy to use. Just have to remember that when it asks for a website URL, it means the RSS feed address.

I signed up for CNN's Most Popular Stories RSS feed. Confirmation email was instantaneous. And as soon as I clicked the confirmation link, it popped up that the subscription was confirmed. It's easy to add additional feeds--you just keep clicking the Add Another Feed link.

Nothing much else to say. Good to recommend to news hungry patrons. Plus, it's great that it goes directly to your email instead of making you log into another web site.

Thing 68 Filtering Flickr

2008-11-16T04:05:00.002+11:00

Fun lesson about 2 web sites that locate images posted on Flickr.

flickrCC: I like how once you pick a picture, it has links for editing inhouse or using Picnik.

Tag Galaxy: I like this one just for how neat it looks as you go from a 'galaxy' of pictures to a 'globe' to an individual picture.

Thing 67 Stress Savers

2008-11-16T03:10:00.005+11:00

Very, very, very useful lesson.

I can recommend these websites to many people, along with using them for both myself and to help patrons.

Dial A Human: The best stress saver ever--tells you exactly what you need to do to reach a human being instead of being stuck in all those automated telephone menus for many companies.

Custom Guide: free quick reference guides to many computer programs. These may be useful to try with some of our library patrons that need a great deal of computer help.

Where is Your Username Registered?: I like how you can not only see if you can use that username, but remind yourself where you may have already registered accounts for yourself (or see who else really liked to use that name).

Thing 66 Directory 2.0

2008-11-16T02:25:00.004+11:00

Lesson about two great directories of websites organized by topics.

AllMyFavs.com is very eye-catching, with all the website icons. It has lots and lots of categories of websites. Really seems to have anything you want right on the home page. As it's logo says, "Why Search?"

43marks.com is much more low-key. Text only and not as many categories as AllMyFavs.com. But does have nice searching, where you can toggle between Google & Yahoo search results.

Thing 65 Current Economic Crisis of 2008

2008-11-16T01:37:00.001+11:00

Not a happy lesson, but it's true that it's on all our minds.

Lots of links to articles about the financial crisis.
Kiplinger.com: 15 Things You Need to Know About the Panic of 2008
BusinessPundit.com: Subprime Primer
Time.com: Credit Crunch: Where is it happening?
MSNBC.com: Economy in Turmoil: How the global financial crisis has unfolded interactive timeline
The New York Review of Books, www.nybooks.com: The Financial Crisis: An Interview with George Soros
HowStuffWorks.com: How can mortgage-backed securities bring down the U.S. economy?
Slate.com: Many articles found when you search: Mortgage Crisis
Wikipedia.com: Subprime mortgage crisis & Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
NPR.com's Planet Money: Understanding the Crisis
Another radio show--This American Life (www.thislife.org): 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy
Metafilter.com: Questions, answers and postings--link doesn't work unless you're a member of Metalife (which is not free), can search bailout or economic crisis and find articles to read.

Anyways, I guess it's better to be an informed depressed person about the economy instead of an ignorant depressed person about the economy. That would be why I had such a great drive back and forth to the Summer Reading Workshop last week in Wooster, OH, when the people riding with me insisted we listen to NPR on the radio. Such joy to hear all the bad economic news both here and around the world.

Thing 64 One Hit Wonders

2008-11-14T06:19:00.005+11:00

Fun lesson of many sites to try:

CopyPasteCharacter.com
--I would definitely use this site sometimes when typing up foriegn language rhymes/songs for storytimes
Kuku Klok
--humorous, not useful for me
Stormpulse
--interesting to see storm track, sent it to my father (a weather addict)
Pixadus
--not really useful for me
Fake Name Generator
--the site to go to when a patron needs help coming up with a unique username
PicApp
--good picture searching site, I used it for the picture below:

I used Regator to locate a blog posting on Cool Websites and Tools. It nicely summarizes quite a few useful websites and tools out there.

Thing 63

2008-07-04T09:08:00.002+10:00

Another interesting lesson about a different pdf tool to recommend to patrons. Foxit Reader 2.3 is nice, but I do wish that it worked right on the web--I dislike having to install more software on my computer. There is also the fact that the typewriter tool is actually part of the 'paid pro pack' version of Foxit Reader. You can use it free for one year, then you must pay for it.

Comparing Facebook and Myspace

2008-06-22T00:15:00.007+10:00

I decided that since we finally had a lesson requiring us to make a Facebook page, then I should also try out the massively popular Myspace. So I now have both a Myspace page and Facebook page. In comparing the two sites, here is what I've found:

Facebook:
Limits layouts--you cannot have massively creative backgrounds (or annoying backgrounds as I've seen posted by some bloggers on their blogs) Facebooks alternative is that you can add applications to your page which will add pictures. Uses applications to add anything extra to your profile page, such as: video, music, pictures, etc. You cannot add HTML or Javascript to your descriptions of yourself or interests. Allows you to join Networks--very tricky to join college networks as they require college email (really cute thing--their discontinuing the college networks [maybe all networkds] soon. I got an email address from my college alumni to be able to join the alumni college network, and as soon as I completed the network sign-up, it came up with a note that networks would soon be discontinued!) Still, it's nice that everything in your profile is clickable--you click on it & Facebook checks for other Facebook people that have that item in their profile.

Myspace:
Allows you to add fun, creative backgrounds. Lets you add music to your profile & vdieos. Let's you add HTML/Javascript to your entries about yourself, your interests, etc.

Both:
Allow you to find and add friends and will show your friends on your profile. Allow you to join groups (found many Library-related groups to join on both sites), but only Facebooks shows your groups on your profile page.

That's pretty much all I've found so far in my comparison.

Thing 62

2008-06-21T23:55:00.002+10:00

Good lesson to know; although, I'd rather find another PDF form filler that doesn't want to keep adding logos to the PDFs. If you mention this to a library patron, you kind of have to point out that they will only be able to fill out 2 non-editable PDF forms for free at PDFescape. After that they will have to buy some credits with real money.

I'm looking forward to the next lesson. Maybe Topia will be completely free and not add logsos.

Thing 61

2008-06-17T07:43:00.002+10:00

It was interesting to do this lesson, researching libraries on Facebook. I found that both my undergrad & grad college libraries are available as apps on Facebook:

Alvernia Library Search

BISON Catalog-UB Libraries

I added some library apps to my profile: Library Gifts, Librarian, My Library Thing, National Archives Libraries & Museum. And I "became a fan" of: Library Journal and Internet Public Library. Finally, I joined some library groups: Libraries and Librarians, Librarians and Facebook, FacebookAppsForLibraries, Library 2.0 Interest Group, and Don't Mess With Me, I Worked in a Public Library.

I noticed that some libraries have created and made available a Ask A Librarian facebook app for their library systems.

I think it would be great if we could get the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County added as a profile page on Facebook. Plus, maybe Ohio's Know It Now could be added as an app on Facebook.

Thing 60

2008-06-14T05:11:00.002+10:00

I completed the lesson. Facebook is another way to connect with people on the web. It is fairly easy to use, check out my profile. I had problems trying to add some networks--the colleges I attended required a college email address, as an alumnus I don't have a current college email. The good thing about this lesson is just getting some practice in for using Facebook so I can help any patrons if they have problems using it.

Thing 59

2008-05-08T05:34:00.002+10:00

Great lesson for all of us librarians--and any bibliophiles out there! The Book Report Network is a great resource. I've used the Kidsreads.com site before, but never saw a link from it to the other sites connected by The Book Report Network:

TheBookReportNetwork.com
BookReporter.com
ReadingGroupGuides.com
AuthorYellowPages.com
AuthorsOnTheWeb.com
FaithfulReader.com
Teenreads.com
Kidsreads.com

Great for reader's advisory! I will definitely be using these resources again and again.

I would add that while these are great, they aren't the only reader's advisory sites. I was sadly disappointed that some of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi authors are not listed--however I know other really terrific specialized web sites for fantasy/sci-fi:
Fantastic Fiction
Scifan
Sf Site
and for mystery:
Stop, You're Killing Me!
romance:
Sequels and Prequels for Romance Novels
The Romance Reader
Still looking for a really great Christian Fiction resource with many more authors than FaithfulReader.com.
Another great all-inclusive reader's advisory site:
Reader's Robot

Thing 58

2008-04-24T04:59:00.002+10:00

This is a good lesson to return to each year at this time for ideas for Earth Day. Of course, it can be used year round, too, to help us all live a 'greener' life.

Great sites listed in this lesson:
Going Green Matters
Daily Green
Yahoo! Green
Earthday Network
National Geographic's Green Guide
Time's Top 15 Environmental Websites

I think since Yahoo was listed, to be fair I wanted to include Google
Google Goes Green Google 2008 Earth Day

Something I found using a library magazine & the web: Book Links just did an issue in March devoted to science and the environment--web connections for Green Earth Book Award, Appreciating the Wonders of Nature, and Wet and Wonderful Books About Aquatic Life can be found at: http://www.ala.org/ala/productsandpublications/periodicals/booklinks/webconnections/webconnectionsmar2008.cfm

My 'green' project at home this year is to replace all my light bulbs with the more enegy efficient bulbs. I do drive a fuel efficient car--not a hybrid (costs too much, maybe in the future if they ever lower the prices on those vehicles). Hey--why is it that healthier options for the environment and for ourselves always cost more???!!!

Thing 57

2008-04-24T04:48:00.003+10:00

This lesson didn't really teach anything other than showing all of us a great web site with photos of food linked directly to their recipes--Tastespotting.com a photo-foodies dream cookbook. I liked how easy it was to add photo and recipe link, and I found some interesting recipes to try sometime. It was fun to read some of them as they came from other blogs (not just recipe sites like Allrecipes.com), so you got a real story behind the recipe. That Famous Chocolate Icebox Cake was lots of fun to read, with a sad ending.

Thing 56

2008-04-15T09:57:00.002+10:00

Smilebox assignment. Easy to do. Similar to Scrapblog--but without viewing problems (Scrapblog never liked fitting itself into display so you could read & click buttons). You can make scrapbooks, postcards, email cards, slideshows, etc.

Here's the URL to my Smilebox creation:

http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d7a41344d5455304d5877324d6a59324e5467780d0a&sb=1

I think it was easier to just post it directly to my blog than to email it to myself and then copy/paste the URL into a blog entry. Not sure what the point of that part of the assignment was.

Library uses--obvious, you can use it make computerized scrapbooks. Also, online invitation postcards to announce programs.

Austintown Library Smilebox creation

2008-04-15T09:52:00.000+10:00

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Computer Generated Flannel Boards updated

2008-04-08T10:44:00.001+10:00

| View | Upload your own

Thing 55

2008-04-06T01:07:00.002+11:00

This was both a learning experience and fun assignment.

I had never actually made a PowerPoint Presentation before. Now I had a reason to make one, and I even had an idea on what to put in it, since I had just recently come up with a tutorial for my fellow librarians. It was easy to do--may not be the most polished presentation, but for a first time attempt, I'm happy. Now I had something to upload into SlideShare. Uploading was interesting--I know we have a fast connection, but the presentation did not upload fast. I actually ended up uploading it 3 times because it didn't seem like the uploader was working--took over 24 hours for the presentation(s) to actually upload and convert to SlideShare's coding for the web. I did find searching, embedding presentations in blog, and embedding SlideShare widgets in blog very easy to do.

I can see this as being a very useful web application to promote to people needing to do PowerPoint presentations. Great that you just put your presentation on the web and then it's available anywhere you go that has internet access.

My Own Slideshare

2008-04-06T00:23:00.000+11:00

| View | Upload your own

Slideshow found using SlideShare

2008-04-04T07:30:00.000+11:00

| View | Upload your own

Thing 54

2008-04-04T05:13:00.002+11:00

Great assignment! I really like Bookjetty. It's very easy to use. I like the ease in adding books to my library, easily marking them as wanted, reading, or read. The tie in with Amazon.com works great--I discovered upcoming books by my favorite authors that I very much want!

What more can I say...I just really like it alot. One of the best book-related sites that Library 2.0 and Library 2.1 have pointed out to us.

Thing 53

2008-04-04T01:19:00.002+11:00

This was another interesting assignment. Good to know that there is a web site for book clubs like Litlover; however, I did find it very limited. Litlovers is devoted only to lovers of 'serious' literature. They actually call it "imaginative fiction" as opposed to escapist "formulaic fiction". And, according to the first lit course, they seem to say that all fiction is either one or the other. Looking at the Reading Guides for books, they are further limiting "imaginative fiction" to mainly those books suggested by Oprah's Book Club--must be realistic fiction of any time period, dealing with serious issues.

My main problem with all of this is that there is great literature done in other genres than just best-selling realistic &/or historical fiction. It seems like they are saying any other books are just pure "formulaic fiction". This is a severe limit to the audience for this web site--so many people read mysteries, romance, suspence, thrillers, sci-fi, westerns, biographies, other non-fiction, etc. Many books in these genres are challenging, not written to just one basic repetitive, simplistic formula. I, myself, read a great variety of books. I 'escape' into anything I read. Many times I learn new things from what I'm reading, whether it's non-fiction, biography, fantasy, sci-fi, or mystery. None of the authors I've read for myself are listed on their site. I guess my mistake is that I've never been fond of the books that make the bestseller lists or the 'classic books' assigned by teachers.

In all--I found it a 'stuffy' web site that looks down on other types of fiction. I've come across that attitude before. I once had a class where we were actually assigned to read a science fiction book--one student who did not like sci-fi wanted me to tell her all about the book so she wouldn't have to 'demean' herself by reading it.

For the library, I guess we can recommend the site to any book clubs and patrons working on books promoted by Oprah.

Thing 52

2008-04-02T11:17:00.002+11:00

This was an interesting assignment. Clipmarks seems to have a pretty good webapp up and running. I wish you didn't have to install the button on Internet Explorer to do it, though. Once installed, I did find it easy to clip and post to the blog. I also embedded my clipcast in my blog--you can see it at the bottom of my blog page. I could clip sentences, paragraphs, images, and video, and post them directly to my blog and/or save them to my clipcast. I learned one slight bug with Clipmarks--apparently video clips can be posted to the blog but will not save correctly to a clipcast.

Library applications--I can see this as very useful for online reference work. You can send clips as answers. Great thing about the clips, too, is that Clipmarks automatically puts the source info. (website) with the clip.

Trying to Clip a Video

2008-04-02T11:15:00.001+11:00

clipped from www.youtube.com

Dragon lore from www.strangescience.net

2008-04-02T10:22:00.001+11:00

first time clipping

clipped from www.strangescience.net

Despised in the West and revered in the East, dragons have a long history in
human mythology. How did the myth start? No one knows the exact answer, but some
"dragon" bones probably belonged to animals long extinct — in some cases
dinosaurs, in others, fossil mammals. Starting in the early 19th century,
scientists began to find a new kind of monster, one that had gone extinct tens
of millions of years before the first humans evolved. Because the first
fragments found looked lizard-like, paleontologists assumed they had found giant
lizards, but more bones revealed animals like nothing on earth today. Did these
terrible lizards ever coexist with people? No. Although some creationists claim
that medieval dragons were really dinosaurs that survived into modern times,
this notion enjoys no support from any credible scientist

Thing 51

2008-03-26T05:56:00.002+11:00

I’ve recently read articles for and against having libraries join social networks on the web--librarians all for it while some non-librarians (but hopefully library patrons) are against it. One article I read was in Computers in Libraries (November/December 2007 vol. 27 no. 10 issue). For myself, I’m all for it.

Libraries & Librarians already do physical outreach driving to preschools, etc. Social Networking on the Web just means extending our outreach into the Internet. I really liked what I read in the sites linked to from this assignment. In searching the web for more examples of what other libraries have done, I found some other great sites:

http://www.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=17981 has a really great article about how a library can set up a social network on the web

http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Social_Networking_Software is a great wiki with examples of libraries social networking on the web

Meredith Farkas' Informations Wants to be Free Blog has a great blog entry pro/con about libraries social networking

TameTheWeb.com has a couple relevant entries for this topic:
http://tametheweb.com/2008/02/25/links-in-the-hyperlinked-library-2008/
http://tametheweb.com/2007/04/the_social_library.html

These were just a few sites I found doing a simple search for Libraries and Social Networking. So much more came up, pointing out that many libraries & librarians are thinking about this and actually doing it. It is so great to see what other libraries are already doing. I just hope that my library will someday be doing those things as well.

Thing 50

2008-03-25T10:09:00.002+11:00

Ok assignment. It was somewhat fun to look for something odd to cook or to watch a famous actor that I like cooking. I’m not really into cooking, so didn’t find anything I would actually want to make. I would recommend imcooked.com to any patrons into both cooking and computers, though--especially if they enjoy watching cooking shows on TV.

Thing 49

2008-03-25T10:05:00.004+11:00

Great assignment for work. I really like Soundsnaps sound effects—I browsed by category under Animals, then Insects. There are great Insect sound effects to download for bees, crickets, etc. I can see adding that sound to our library web pages for Summer Reading this year—have insect sounds playing in the background as people read about our many fun programs for the theme Catch the Reading Bug @ Your Library. For other times of year, I can see just picking a sound to add to the website to identify that month. October Halloween spooky sounds would certainly be lots of fun to add.

I must say Musigy looks neat. I would definitely recommend it to any musicians I know.

Thing 48

2008-03-25T09:31:00.002+11:00

It was fun to look for free songs to download. I like that you can play all of them for free at Music.download.com, even if you can’t download them for free. Easy to find the free songs--when you click on the yellow ###### beside words free MP3, it automatically brings up the free MP3s. However, once you change how the songs are sorted, the songs that now show up are not all downloadable free MP3s. It took me a while to find one that I liked which I could download for free.

The downloading was easy as well—just like downloading anything from the internet, Of course, you always want to keep track of where you are saving your download and what name you saved it as so you can find it afterwards.

I think this site would be really easy for patrons to use.

Thing 47

2008-03-19T23:52:00.004+11:00

This exercise was a lot of fun. Even me, who is not instrumentally inclined--I can sing, but not play an instrument--could make music at Jamstudio. I emailed my song and you can try hearing it here.

Thing 46 Updates

2008-03-19T23:41:00.002+11:00

Well, I didn't really need to do this exercise. Since our library system didn't start Library 2.0 until July 2007, most of the updates PLCMC has discovered to Blogger, Flickr & Mashups, Bloglines, Finding RSS, The Generator, LibraryThing, Rollyo, Del.icio.us, and Technorati were already in place. Obviously, The Generator blog is always updating, reporting new image generators out there. I have discovered that those image generators that I've used to add items to my blog don't always continue to work. And really, that's all I can say. In another year (or less), there undoubtedly will be changes that are new for those of us at PLYMC.

Thing 45

2007-12-13T07:00:00.000+11:00

This lesson was interesting. I visited all the sites:

Gliffy
Bubbl.us
Flowchart.com
Mindmeister

I even made 2 practice charts which I posted. I don't have much of a need to use it for myself or for my job. However, I can see how these would be valuable web sites to recommend to anyone in administrative, managment, and business. People applying for grants or other forms of financial aid, for their business or non-profit, could certainly use these to make informative charts to add to their application. I did find most of the sites fairly easy to use, too, another big plus to them. My favorite would be Bubbl.us. But they all seemed like good choices.

Bubbl.us Practice

2007-12-13T06:47:00.001+11:00

My Practice Gliffy Flowchart

2007-12-13T06:23:00.000+11:00

Thing 44

2007-11-15T04:18:00.000+11:00

This was a fairly easy assignment. I find Jott interesting. I'm not sure if I'll use it much, though, since I rarely use my cell phone and don't tend to think of calling myself with a To Do List. I think it's easier to write a list on paper. Also, it doesn't seem to work very well on my computer--maybe it's a software issue, but you can't listen to the Jott messages, just read what it transcribed.

I did use Jott with Twitter & Blogger. I even added a Jott widget to my sidebar. Then, since I didn't like it, I deleted the Jott posts and widget.

The only library application I can think of would be to link a library cell phone with Jott and post announcements to an official library blog. For example, if we had a blog with daily announcments on it--you could just call Jott to add your newest announcement--say it's to announce the Library closed due to weather, the person with the cell phone could call that in.

Thing 43

2007-11-04T08:08:00.000+11:00

This is the only assignment I’ve come across that absolutely requires downloading and installing software—not something I could recommend for our library computers as installing on public computers requires an administrative logon. For home use, I can see the possibilities—particularly for any musicians or other musically oriented people. The sheet music application would also be a big plus for them. They should add in the assignment instructions that you will also need to download winzip to unzip and install the jazz sequencer program. At least they do have a link to the winzip download on the same page as the sequencer download. Really, this is something I'll think about using on my home computer once I have high speed internet access--looks like it could be a lot of fun making my own version of some song.

Thing 42

2007-11-04T07:54:00.000+11:00

Neat, this lesson showed that something that was around before WWW is still here today and still in use. Harley Hahn does give a great, fact-filled tutorial about usenet.

I visited the Library usenet group: soc.libraries.talk. Not a lot of activity—Activity Low--only 20 recent authors. Much as it says its all things library related, I found an obvious spam posting that made it into the group. It was most used in 1996 and 1997, actually, there was lots of usage from 1994 through first months of 2000, then it really drops off, hardly ever getting up to 100 posts per month after that.

Since you have to pay to access Harley Hahn's Internet Yellow Pages, Google Groups is a great free way to find usenet groups. I had a lot of fun as you can search for groups on anything—vampires, authors, movies, cars (I searched my car make & model), etc. Main thing to keep in mind is that all the information is informal, undocumented, opinions. As groups also have RSS feeds, Usenet seems to be very similar to the news groups/social marketing sites we learned about in Library 2.0: Bloglines, Technorati, Topix, etc.

Thing 41

2007-11-01T05:12:00.000+11:00

I am so glad to finally reach this assigment. Live Mocha is a great language learning site--best of all its free!!!

I have signed up for a French class to remind myself what I’ve lost in the 15 years since I last took French in college. This is something that I’ve wanted to do. If this site really works at helping me relearn my French, I plan to try other languages in the future.

This would be very useful for all of us in learning new languages to speak with our visitors and immigrants from other lands--improve library communications and improve library relations with our public.

Thing 40

2007-11-01T05:09:00.000+11:00

Very enjoyable assignment. I really like visiting Retroland. Lots of fun to go through and find my old favorite foods, movies, etc. I did a TV show I had forgotten that I liked—Kids Incorporated—and my favorite breakfast cereal as a kid—Quisp. I added a few memories. Good place to search for information on everything. I like all the information in the About section for each item and the links to official sites some items have under External Links.

Thing 39

2007-10-31T06:32:00.000+11:00

This was another fun assignment. I really liked Animoto. It was very easy to use.

I made a video of the library and tried 3 times to post it. Maybe someday it will show up on Blogger--who knows. I've sent an email to Animoto's techs to see if they can figure out why Blogger can't find the widget. I've also contacted Blogger Help to let them know that Animoto is not working properly with Blogger.

****Update: All 3 started working about 24hrs after posting.*****
Either Blogger, Animoto, Internet Explorer, or our server fixed itself or ... I just have no idea. But I deleted 2 of the extra Animoto postings of my video. Also just wanted to say Major Big Thank You to the Animoto Techs--they replied to my email and kept trying to discover the problem and solution.

I do think Animoto could be very useful for creating mini videos of our libraries and programs and posting them to our website. They would make exciting & fun library advertisements!

Here's a link to my video that also works in case the bug acts up again making the original video post not work.

Austintown Library Animoto Video

2007-10-31T06:22:00.001+11:00

My ToonDoo Comic

2007-10-31T03:55:00.000+11:00

Thing 38

2007-10-31T03:49:00.002+11:00

This was an assignment for the creative people. I did visit these comic strip generator sites:

ToonDoo
Stripgenerator
Strip Creator

I searched for some fun library themed comics and have posted one. I'll post one I created next. It is easy to use them. Could be a fun feature to add to our website--maybe have a more creative humorist make a monthly comic strip to add to our online happenings? Also, could use them to create fun instructions for use of the library.

funny comic strip

2007-10-31T03:49:00.001+11:00

Thing 37

2007-10-31T03:44:00.000+11:00

This was a fun assignment for those of us who are music lovers.

I like how both web radio sites pull up music similar to what you want to hear. It's too bad that you can't just listen to the specific song or artist you want, though, on Pandora. LastFM does let you listen to the artist, but you are limited to albums currently on sale. In any case, I consider these to be the 'Novelist' sites for music--if you like this artist/song, maybe you'll like these others as well!

Tennessee Vacation

2007-10-26T08:20:00.000+10:00

fancygens.com

Thing 36

2007-10-20T07:07:00.000+10:00

A great lesson for fixing up photos. Obvious use--fix up photos taken during library programs for your online scrapbook!

I tried Picnik. I really like the AutoFix function. It corrects everything that it automatically deems needing fixed--sharpness, exposure, etc.--all at one click.

Here's an untouched photo:

Here's my photo fixed from Picnik:

I did try the other online image editers mentioned:

Fauxto

Pixenate

Snapfish

But I like Picnik the best.

Thing 35

2007-10-20T06:57:00.000+10:00

This is another interesting lesson. I signed up for a Twitter account.
You can see my Twitter Badge and mini-blog over on the left of my blog page.

I think a library use would be on an official library blog or web site, use Twitter to highlight a website for the public/staff to use each day. Or run a month-long contest where you post a new question to be answered each day.

Thing 34

2007-10-20T06:51:00.000+10:00

A healthy lesson for us all.

FitDay and Nutridiary are two of the many healthy nutrition/lifestyle sites out there. Both allow you to keep track of your weight and nutrition and try to improve your fitness. Both seem equally good. I like the pie chart that FitDay uses, and bar chart that Nutridiary uses.

Thing 33

2007-10-20T06:44:00.000+10:00

This was a fun, relaxing lesson. I enjoyed trying all the sites:

Mr. Picassohead

Falling Sand

Snowflake Maker

String Spin

I could see using the string spin for a children's program--have one playing on the big screen while others wait in line to play with Spin Art machines. Too bad you can't print the art or save and post it to a web site. The only one you can save is Mr. Picassohead--here's my art.

Thing 32 Mystery Program Omnidrive Zoho doc

2007-10-16T23:32:00.001+10:00

Mystery Program

Madlibfrom Scooby Doo

Mystery Picture Observation game

Click here for great websiteto test your ability as an Eyewitness

Brain Teasers and Short Mysteries to Solve

Decode the secret message

Good web sites for Codes & Ciphers:

CIA's Break the Code Kids Page

NSA's Cryptokids Page

Secret Language Page

Mystery bag

have them guess what’s in various paper bags

then leave items out on cardboard tray to test their memory later on

Play Winking Murder Game

5:15pm—staff member comes in, steals item from mystery bag tray

Craft— Paper Hat Tricks 1

Detective/Sherlock Holmes Hat and Magnifying Glass

Take Home game---Create your own coded messages

Thing 32

2007-10-16T10:16:00.001+10:00

Fun, interesting, and useful lesson. I found Omnidrive very easy to use. I really like how it works with other programs so you don't store a file there and then have to go to another website and logon into it in order to work with the file. It recognizes the file types, so when you click on it to edit, it automatically opens the correct program for editing: ZohoWriter, ZohoSheet, or SnipShot. The only logon you do is logging on to Omnidrive. Omnidive, along with editing, has easy features for sharing your file with others, publishing it, or just deleting it when you don't need it anymore.

Here's a picture enhanced with SnipShot:

And here is the original picture, unenhanced:

This is a great site to work with files to share with co-workers spread out among many library branches across a county, where everyone can work together adding their bits to the file--as long as you Share it as Read & Write (not Read Only). Makes it so if you are working on a committee where everyone can't meet face to face, they can work on a project through email this way.

I did have one problem--could not post my Zoho edited document to my blog--received a failed message when I tried. This may have been a Blogger problem though, as Blogger kept having problems--took me two tries to get each of my pictures to upload. Here is a link to my published Omnidrive text document: Mystery Program. Because I'm not really thrilled that it links to the ZohoWriter Editer Page of the document, I've saved the document as HTML, opened regular ZohoWriter, imported the HTML Document, and posted to my blog. Really wish the Post to Blog worked from Zoho on Omnidrive!

Thing 31

2007-10-14T05:30:00.000+10:00

This lesson definitely has some work related uses. Signing up for Plaxo was very easy. Adding events was also easy. Once I figured out that creating separate categories actually meant adding new calendars with the Share & Manage link, that was also easy. Every event from all calendars are overlayed on the 'Master Calendar', you can select/de-select calendars to view events from one calendar type at a time. Creating a task list was also simple. The hardest thing for me was subscribing to a band, TV show, or sport using icalshare.com. I just did not notice the tab for icalshare when you open the Share & Manage link for calendars. Then, when I did find it, subscribing was somewhat difficult--the calendars I found interesting must have been obsolete--nothing was added. Finally, I just had to link to a recent calendar for the Pittsburgh Steelers--even though I couldn't care less about football.

On to the relevant uses of Plaxo: My co-workers & I could use Plaxo or Remember the Milk or Jotlet to create work calendars for ourselves, and lists of tasks needing to be completed. As a children's librarian, I created a work calendar doing just that.

Thing 30

2007-09-25T06:34:00.000+10:00

This was a fun assignment!

I really like this one--isn't it cute! I like that the I Can Has Cheezburger site lets you do a keyword tag search for photos. I searched for "books" and found this one.

I found another lolcat photo I really like on the LOLcats site. Click here to link to the photo below.

I always wanted a DIY talented pet! I do wish you could search on LOLcats.com, not just browse through all the images.

FantasyBookLover's Scrapblog

2007-09-25T02:33:00.000+10:00

Thing 29

2007-09-25T02:23:00.000+10:00

This was not the funnest assignment for me. I had a very difficult time getting Scrapblog to work.

I read through their FAQ section and searched the internet for information on why I was not getting Scrapblog to work. I should have just gone back to the assignment page and clicked on their Hints and Tips Link for Scrapblog--would have had all the answers to what I ended having to do right away. I discovered that I had to enable Pop-ups, put Security on Low, make certain my Filter allowed the website, hide the bottom taskbar, so that finally all the buttons would show on the screen (or almost show--could see top of button at bottom of screen and guess what it was for, and see bottom of buttons on top of screen and again make a guess as to what they were).

Anyways, I did complete the assigment and created my own Fantasy Book Lover Scrapblog on Favorite Books and Authors. I posted to both Flickr and my blog--however, the blog posting did not work. It said that it posted it, but it didn't show up. I had to export the scrapblog pages as JPEGs to my computer, then upload them as pictures into Bloogger to post them to my blog--ANNOYING!

Uses for Scrapblog with a Library--well, the main use that comes to mind is using it to create an online scrapbook of library programs and events. Create fun advertising for the library by showing the fun from past programs.

Thing 28

2007-09-22T05:02:00.000+10:00

This assignment was very easy to do. Hardest part is coming up with creative fake headlines. Library’s could create fake covers to advertise programs/events—creative advertising.

I made a Wired Cover, Time Cover, and Generic Cover.

The links for the Time Person of the Year and Rolling Stone Cover did not work for me.

Thing 28 Generic Cover from BigHugeLabs

2007-09-22T05:00:00.000+10:00

Thing 28 Time Cover

2007-09-22T04:58:00.000+10:00

Thing 28 Wired Magazine Cover

2007-09-22T04:22:00.000+10:00

As the image has problems, here is a link to click on:

FantasyBookLover's Wired Magazine Cover

2007-09-21T06:29:00.001+10:00

Thing 27

2007-09-07T10:21:00.000+10:00

There's a lot of fun to be had with this assignment. Like Flickr, Photobucket has many features, but more flexibility with creating albums since your not limited to your own personal photos.

I enjoyed myself. See my photos at my Photobucket webpage.

This is a great site for libraries to find photos to add to advertising/promotions (as long as credit is given).

With many people creating avatars on the web--as I saw on ABC's i-Caught this past Tuesday 9pm--it's good to know how it's done, so I can help others if they ask.

Photobucket Art Cats Slideshow

2007-09-07T10:20:00.001+10:00

My Meez Avatar from Photobucket

2007-09-07T10:04:00.001+10:00

Austintown Library Remix

2007-09-07T02:52:00.001+10:00

Thing 26

2007-08-30T22:40:00.000+10:00

This was a neat assignment to do.

I like all the things at Yourminis.com you can add to for creating your own widget. It was fun. Everything can be personalized to whatever background color you want. The background of the widget itself can be personalized to color or photo background. Very easy to use.

Here's my yourminis.com widget:

I love the humor of their website administration, too--here's a copy of the email on accepting my application for membership:

Thank you for registering for an account at yourminis.com. A team of 33 highly respected individuals analyzed your data and performed a thorough background check to ensure that you meet the proper requirements for becoming a member of yourminis.

We then held an anonymous vote in which, 31 of the 33 aforementioned individuals voted to accept your application (the other two were out to lunch). We had a big celebration in your honor and toasted you as our newest member.

You are now an official yourminian! Congratulations!

You now have the ability to access your personalized start page from any computer, publish your pages into the community, rate and leave comments for pages, widgets, blogs and people. You can even create your own widgets and blogs and upload them to the community.

We hope you have a wonderful experience using yourminis.com and tell all your friends and family to try us out. Thanks for your support - have fun!

- yourminis team

Thing 25

2007-08-30T22:27:00.000+10:00

Another fun assignment!

Letterpop was a lot of fun to use. The only thing I found annoying about it was the the window on the side offering templates & photos floats downward when you want to scroll to see the bottom items. I liked how you could move photos around in the blocks; changing an image was a little challenging since there isn’t a delete photo option—you have to just pick another photo to drag over to that block.

I can see our library turning the Happenings at the Library into an online newsletter. Of course, the only way this would work would be to add a link to the newsletter on the library webpage—can’t actually post the newsletter itself on the webpage (as far as I could discover). You wouldn’t want to email the newsletter to everyone—the free account limits email to 10 mailings & only 25 email addresses. You would have to delete old newsletters as you can only have 10 published newsletters, too. Well, maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to use this for the Happenings…

But it’s still fun & easy to do and easy to recommend to others & to help them use it!

You can see my profile and newsletter at the following links:

Fantasy Book Lover's Profile on Letterpop

Fantasy Book Lover's Newsletter

Thing 24

2007-08-30T22:20:00.000+10:00

This was a great assignment pointing out a very useful web app.

Zamzar was very easy to use.

Hardest part was deciding what document I had made that I wanted to use as my test for this assignment. Here's a link to my document, in case anyone's interested in downloading it:

Solve Raccoon 5 Finalized Answers Poster.pdf

This makes it so much easier to share documents and everything else (it can convert images, documents, music, and video) with others across the world. For librarians, it’s a great way to share program ideas. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn now that some of the pdf documents I’ve found on library storytime websites were created by using this program. We, at YPL, could work at creating our own wiki with pdf files of storytimes to share.

part 1

2007-08-28T10:37:00.003+10:00

Get Your Animation

part 2

2007-08-28T10:37:00.001+10:00

Get Your Animation

Part 3

2007-08-28T10:31:00.000+10:00

Get Your Animation

Beyond 23 Things

2007-07-26T08:52:00.000+10:00

Alright!!! I'm at the next step after Thing 23. I'm now signed up to the feed for Library 2.1. Also, I'm listed on the Library 2.1 wiki. This wiki uses Front Page for editing--little different look, but more dressed up, too.

I even joined Explore Discover Play Ning site. Here's my page:

http://explorediscoverplay.ning.com/profile/fantasybooklover

Well, I've got 10 steps to complete to catch up with everyone else here. Looking forward to starting them at some point. I'm going to review the first 23 things some more first. I am glad that we can move on to learn more though.

Thing 23

2007-07-26T08:32:00.000+10:00

I am so happy to have successfully reached this point. I love computers and usually have no trouble learning new computer applications, but I must admit that some things stumped me a bit--took looking at help pages and sometimes searching the internet for answers to problems I encountered. Just yesterday, I was helping a co-worker with her blog, and I could not get blogger to accept a photo into her profile--something that I do have on my blog and did all the 'supposedly' correct steps to put on her blog. Just like many things in life, computers & their applications sometimes have annoying bugs or other unknown problems. Of course, I may have missed some step or the problem may have been because our computer server was going up and down most of the day.

Let's see, my favorite discoveries/exercises, hmmm. Wiki would be one of my favorite discoveries. Playing with image generators would probably be my favorite exercise.

This program has definitely assisted my lifelong learning goals. I want to keep learning new things, and this certainly taught me a lot. I look forward to keeping up my learning by re-looking at many of the lessons. I hope to pick up more new Web 2.0 learning in the future.

The only thing that really took away some of the fun and made things harder at times were that some of the lessons were dated in their tutorials. They showed how to do something one way, which no longer exists today. I think that those need to be updated if anyone is available to do that.

I definitely would participate in another discovery program like this in the future. It's so helpful to have something set up that takes you from one step and application on the web to another, even with the problems of dated tutorials. It helped learn what I didn't know and should work on learning.

Well, that's all for now. I'm heading to Beyond Thing 23 now.

Thing 22

2007-07-26T08:14:00.000+10:00

I found the most information about both NetLibrary and YPL's Digital Books by going to the Help pages. NetLibrary has a really great Demo from www.oclc.org.--nicely paced and very informative. Digital Books also has a good easy to read Quick Start Guide.

Both have so many thing to see. NetLibrary has many ebooks--from the Demo, other subscriptions to NetLibrary also have audiobooks and ejournals. There are quite a few language options. The books cover any topic I could think of. It's very easy to use and has a nice format. You can read the books right on your computer.

Digital Books also has wide variety of books and audiobooks to choose. Their books must be downloaded--you cannot just open them up on the screen like NetLibrary.

The advance search options on both are very versatile. I like all the different options you have for searching.

I can definitely see the uses for ebooks and audiobooks. It's great to have something you can access anywhere in the world as long as you can get to a computer and have the necessary devices for reading/listening to the material. With ebooks, particularly, it's nice to be able to search within a book for certain keywords if you can't remember where you read something before and the index isn't helping you. I don't know if I will ever actually use audiobooks for myself, though, as they tend to put me to sleep. I'll use the MP3 player mostly for music.

I'm including a link to the original PLCMC lesson, mainly because I like have a link to each of their lessons in my blog.

Thing 21

2007-07-26T06:29:00.000+10:00

Podcasts are interesting. I searched on the 3 podcast directories listed in the lesson:

Podcast.net
Podcastalley.com
Yahoo Podcasts

I found them fairly easy to search. I didn't like that you have to download software to subscribe to anything on Yahoo Podcasts--ended up not subscribing to anything from them. The assignment said that Yahoo wouldn't require downloading--maybe Yahoo changed since the lesson was written.

There looked to be some really useful Library podcasts. I subscribed to 2 different ones, but there were many to choose from.

There certainly are tons of podcasts out there, and many of the ones I found on topics I liked were really long.

I don't know if I will ever make my own podcast, but I did change my blog itself into a podcast. I signed up for Odiogo.

Thing 20

2007-07-26T04:45:00.000+10:00

There are a lot of fun videos to watch here. There are also educational videos. One thing I discovered was I didn't need to copy the embedded player code as shown in the lesson. When I clicked Share This--it only brought up the option to email the video. I went ahead and signed up for a Free YouTube Account, and then was able to use the Post Video link to directly post the video to my blog. When I looked at the edit of my post, all the coding for the embedded player is right there. Apparently, YouTube, like Flickr, now offers one step direct posting to blogs.

I like the searchability by keywords, tags, or category. I wish there was a way to search by length of video--mainly because it took a while to find a really short video to post to my blog. It does sort videos by relevance, date added, view count, and rating, though. All of which are helpful. When you find a video, you can click on its category or tags to find similar videos; you can browse related videos, see more from this user, and see playlists.

Oh, just realized the embedded code is listed on the right side--below tags & URL--just missed seeing it. Well, Post Video was just as easy to do anyways.

One of these days, I'll check out the other video sites as well:

Yahoo Videos
Google Videos

And many more sites to try at the Web's Top Video Sites review.

There are just so very many sites to watch videos on, and they include all kinds of videos, instructional to just plain fun.

Library Olypmics, Part 3

2007-07-26T04:30:00.001+10:00

Well, we've all heard about "Pimp" your Bookcart; now, here's another use for bookcarts.

Thing 19

2007-07-26T02:31:00.000+10:00

For this assignment, I looked at the top winner for maps: Google Maps.

It is a very good tool. I like that you can change the route it offers by clicking on the route on the map and dragging to the highway you want to use. I've always used Mapquest.com before, but I think I'll switch to Google Maps now, and I would recommend it to others for travel directions. You can add all sorts of tools to your map search, too. I think this would be very good for use with library patrons needing travel directions.

There are so many other tools to look at--I know there are others that are also useful. We've already used some of them in previous lessons for Library 2.0, like: Technorati, Bloglines, Library Thing, Flickr, Rollyo, and Del.icio.us. That's just the awardwinners!!! Lots to see and try whenever I find the time.

Thing 18

2007-07-25T22:27:00.000+10:00

Well, I found this assignment interesting. I liked seeing all the templates for documents on ZohoWriter. I didn't like that it would not let me really resize images! Also, after publishing to my blog, I discovered that the cute emoticons do not work in blogger--oh well.

The features for ZohoWriter look pretty much like all the features you would find in Microsoft Word, and work pretty much the same way. There were just a few extras--like inserting "layer" and "anchor"--things that are obviously related to web publishing (I think). I do wish it had better Help information--All I could find was FAQ and the Forums or Contacting Zoho directly. I guess if you can't figure out something in Zoho on your own you have to post to the forum or email Zoho your problem and wait for someone to answer it.

Still, I can see how it makes good documents to share everywhere--travelling from computer to computer. And, like I said before, there are so many templates for any kind of document imaginable--much more than MS Word offers.

I really need to look at some of the other online tools out there that PLCMC pointed out on their Zoho Document.

Fantasybooklover uses ZohoWriter

2007-07-25T04:00:00.001+10:00

Fantasybooklover--that's me. Do you see me at the Librarian's Desk?--Hint: I'm the cat! My alternate name is: Hey Diddle Diddle.

This ZohoWriter is fun to use. It's so easy!

Here's another picture:

Isn't it beautiful? This tree is in my yard, and I took the picture this spring.

I'm working on the 23 things for Learning 2.0. This is step #18--Web-based apps.

I have blog, called Fantasy Booklover's Interests, where I have all my completed steps listed.

Thing 17

2007-07-25T03:26:00.000+10:00

Great Discovery Resources--easy to follow, easy to use. Really showed why it is so easy to set up and use a wiki. I had no problem adding my blog--especially once I realized that part 2 of the exercise told me exactly what to type. I look forward to seeing other YPL blogs added to the Library 2.0 Wiki Sandbox.

Thing 16

2007-07-24T22:08:00.000+10:00

I read all the discovery resources and what I found most interesting was that wiki comes from the Hawaiian language, meaning quick. I wonder why or how Ward Cunningham came up with picking a word from the Hawaiian language when he created the first wiki.

I looked at quite a few of the library wikis. For one stop looking to really see all the kinds out there, Library Success: A Best Practices wiki was the best. It was really interesting to see how many libraries have already made wikis. I didn’t realize that some sites I’ve gone to in the past, like the Mid-Hudson Library System’s EZ Library Program Database was a wiki. Seeing all the successful ones listed shows that almost everything a librarian does can be organized into a wiki.

I think our website could easily be converted to a wiki with its organization of information about the library, electronic resources available and directory of internet resources, and more. Staff are already encouraged to contribute to it. The difference would be that staff and everyone “on the street” would be able to directly update links, and delete or add others. From what I saw that could be very good for the library, because as one of the wiki articles noted it can be difficult for librarians or the ‘webmaster’ to keep up with checking that all links are still current.

Further, to stop constantly re-inventing the wheel, if all of us librarians contributed to a programming wiki, we would have our own online database of Baby Brilliant (baby, toddler, & preschool), School age, Teen, even Adult programs to share with all of our branches and all the internet. Particularly for children’s programs, where we type a sheet to give parents/caregivers, this could save time and make our job easier.

Really the discovery resources about wiki listed many of the uses for them: subject guides, community guides, conference guide, education tool, etc. The Libsuccess wiki lists any that the resources missed. I think that wiki really ties in with the previous Thing 15 on Library 2.0—it broadens the library to everyone—other librarians & other libraries all the way to the entire world.

Thing 15

2007-07-24T21:53:00.000+10:00

I read all five of the different pespectives on the Library 2.0 assignment. When I read them, they mostly all seemed to agree with each other, actually.

Into a New World of Librarianship seemed to point out the ideal Librarian 2.0--really what I think all of us as librarians strive to be now and hope to become in the future. Trying to offer the best of ourselves to the library profession. Answering all questions with the best resources, print or tech related. Teamwork beyond your library system, worldwide teamwork. Trying to keep up with information and new resources—again print & tech.

To More Powerful Ways to Cooperate seemed to move the previous perspective from that of the librarian to that of the entire organization/library. OCLC as an organization is implementing all the ideals the New World of Librarianship seemed to talk about--just look at OCLC's Worldcat. OCLC’s Web 2.0 is Librarian 2.0.

To Better Bibliographic Services talked of using metadata with Web 2.0 and Libraries, expanding beyond the traditional library building or system to include other library systems, even bookstores. Greater cooperation among all such entities. Allowing contributions from all users—staff and patrons, not limiting to just the cataloging professionals. Points out OCLC’s Worldcat as just one example that is working on doing this.

To a Temporary Place in Time is an essay showing what the library is today and what it will be. I like the look of the future library.

The only perspective I didn't completely agree with was the first perspective: Away from Icebergs. The author seemed to go very radically to pro-tech/all-tech. When I read it, it seemed to say that libraries should do away with all print resources. Maybe that's not what he meant, but that was how I read it. I can't see the library surviving on tech only--what do you do in a power outage or server crash? or when all the computers are in use and more people arrive looking for answers? or the people arrive who, no matter how easy you make something, will NOT touch a computer? I just felt you still need to balance Tech with Print, and the other perspectives seemed to agree on this.

Library 2.0 for me means integreting more technology into the library. Networking with everyone from library professional to the person on the street. Doing our best to incorporate all that—technology and networking—into an enviroment that is user friendly and relevant to all needs. It really means doing my best to keep up with learning about and using the new web-based technologies/programs/applications as they come into being. It means my future as a librarian.

Thing 14

2007-07-24T02:49:00.000+10:00

Technorati certainly looks like a fun site. I tried the "Library 2.0" searches:
Blog Posts search found 1196 blog posts
Blog Directory search found 205 blogs
Tag Search found 6620 blog posts, 206 blogs, 4 videos, over 7 pages of photos.

It is really interesting how much you can find! I like the organization of the site which makes finding topics very easy. I have "claimed" my blog as mentioned in the assignment and am working on a Watchlist and Favorites. This blog is tagged with a Technorati tag.

plcmcl2

Very humorous video

2007-07-22T06:45:00.000+10:00

www.technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dz4vDClhnJjs

It was one of the most popular on Technorati

Thing 13

2007-07-22T05:26:00.000+10:00

Del.icio.us seems to be a great way to really organize bookmarks. I can see that it is useful for connecting to many sites. Like Flickr, you create tags, but instead of tags to photos, it is tags to web sites. I think for reference purposes it would be most useful to just bookmark the del.icio.us web site and search tags for a topic/answer to a question. Trying to create bookmarks for every single useful site for each single possible subject would just become a major amount of work, otherwise.

I must admit that I skipped creating Buttons on the toolbar as I cannot do this project on my home computer--dial-up access only at home and would take hours to do any downloading and installation. I did add a button to my blog's sidebar, though. I'll have to re-visit the assignment page for reminders and tutorials on how to use Del.icio.us.

Thing 12

2007-07-22T04:25:00.000+10:00

This is a really neat assignment. I made a search engine to search for fantasy, science fiction & horror:

http://rollyo.com/fantasybooklover/fantasy_scifi_fans/

Really wasn't that hard to do. I can see how useful this is for searching topics. Really similar to Feedster, Technorati, Topix, and Bloglines in many ways, but can be made even more specific as you create an engine specific to what you want to search.

Check out my side bar for my Rollyo button.

Thing 11

2007-07-22T01:33:00.000+10:00

I really like Library Thing. My catalog is at:

www.librarything.com/catalog/fantasybooklover

I especially like the rating feature, suggestions and unsuggestions--hilarious! It is so easy to use. I'll have to keep adding more titles to see how my reading interests fit with others in the fantasy area.

This assignment is set up perfectly for our career. I plan to return to become more and more familiar with this site and to add more to my catalog. I've considered adding all the fantasy books I own, but I would have to upgrade to a paid account as I own over 600 paperback fantasies.

Thing 10 continued

2007-07-22T00:18:00.000+10:00

Wow!!! There are so many image generators out there! I had a lot of fun with this assignment and have posted a few items to my blog from pyzam.com, FDToys, and YourGen.com.

Fun toy

2007-07-22T00:13:00.001+10:00

Create your own Scratch Ticket

Thing 10

2007-07-21T23:12:00.000+10:00

Here's a mosaic created using an image generator from FDToys & Flickr photos at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

1. Lili Tells Cat Tales, 2. Feel-line Pretty as a Princess, 3. Milky Way, 4. Wonder Cat, 5. Who Me-Cat, 6. Skye's-a-Flutter, 7. Senorita Gato, 8. Nittany Kitty, 9. New York Kitty, 10. I Am Siamese If You Please, 11. Catolina, 12. Hey Diddle Diddle, 13. Crazy Calico, 14. Coral Cat15. Not available

Thing 9

2007-07-17T04:39:00.000+10:00

After looking at Thing 9's instructions, I realized that I jumped ahead on Thing 8. I didn't realize I was supposed to pick 10 of Bloglines choices only at that point. I followed the tutorial instruction all the way through to step 9, checking out various sites to look for RSS feeds, including:

Feedster.com
Syndic8.com
Completerss.com (which apparently no longer exists)
Flickr.com

Now I see that Thing 9 is when I was supposed to try alternate ways to subscribe to RSS feeds.

Today, I re-checked Feedster--it worked today--Yippey!!! Don't know why it didn't come up with feeds Saturday. Did anther search for feeds on Syndic8, as well. Checked out Topix and Technorati. I really like Topix the best--easiest to use, good summaries, easy to see source. Of the 4 choices, Feedster is my least favorite with what it finds. I found Technorati a bit difficult, as well--hard to find RSS symbol, went through all the tabs before discovering it only shows at Posts tab. Going back to Bloglines own search tool, I found I really liked it for its ease of use and summaries.

All in all, I found that various searches pulled up all sorts of things I might not expect. Just like searching the internet in general, you have to be careful what search terms you use.

For more Feed Search Engines, I found a huge directory on Google.

Thing 8

2007-07-15T05:41:00.000+10:00

There really is a ton of things to learn here, and some very good tutorials.

Well, I have a bloglines account with over 10 RSS feeds. You can check my choices at:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/fantasybooklover

It was annoying to me that I could not get Feedster to work--web site didn't look like the one shown in the tutorial. Problem may be because it said you should have IE7, and I have IE6. Another annoying thing was that Vindy.com and Tribune-Chronicle.com have RSS buttons but don't actually have any feeds running according to the computer when I tried to subscribe.

I like the one stop, fast access to news, etcetera. I think it is a good way for librarians to keep current on topics.

Thursday, July 26th--Late addition that fits this assignment--added a Bloglines subscribe to my feed for my blog button. This was not easy, took me a long while to find what my feed URL was--actually there are multiple choices:

http://fantasybooklover.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://fantasybooklover.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://www.blogger.com/feeds/3502308811190008554/posts/default

Now, I know that it can easily be found just by typing my blog name into Bloglines subscribe to feed search. I picked the ?alt=rss feed to use for getting the button. For any interested, you find the link about adding a Bloglines button when you first login to your account and scroll down the right to Publish, Share, & Save. It's just above the Share your Blogroll link that the assignment asked us to complete if we were up to the challenge.

Thing 7 part 2

2007-07-15T01:12:00.000+10:00

I have posted a comment on EvilLibrian's blog for the July 13th entry.

Thing 7

2007-07-15T00:29:00.000+10:00

Well, this is a fairly easy assignment.

I love using new technological devices--although I tend to be a bit slow about purchasing them. I finally bought a digital camera last year and have enjoyed using it. I've been playing around with editing pictures, mainly using the Paint Accessory & Word's photo editing. Amazing the amount you can do with the very basic applications that come free on your computer.

I've owned a cell phone for only 2 years--bought a pre-paid cell phone that I only turn on to make outgoing calls. Like I've said before, I try not to spend a lot of money.

I'll get an MP3 player once I complete this challenge--free to all staff that complete the 23 things for PLYMC Discovering Library 2.0. Yippey!!! My favorite way to receive new tech.

I have chatted over the years, but really don't enjoy all the abbreviated words--brb wb l8tr. In some ways, it's easier just to write the word out rather than think of the shorthand version. Plus, reading someone else's can take a lot of time to puzzle out. I must admit that I've never text messaged--what I've read about it, though, looks like the same abbreviations as IM Chatting.

I'm very uninterested in e-books for my own personal use. I find scrolling through a great deal of text or just reading a few paragraphs on the monitor gets very hard on my eyes. Besides, scrolling text can give me motion sickness--just like scrolling through microfiche. I really prefer to print out and read the hard copy. I can see where it is really useful, though, as it gives greater access to some books for people. They can pull up an e-book at work or at home or on the road, for education or pleasure. Plus, scanned documents available through the web have been a plus for many people, particularly for genealogy.

The amount of programs available over the internet is just mind-boggling. I spent a lot of time trying to be really thorough with Flickr and its 3rd party mashups. I tried a lot, but I think I could probably spend weeks if I actually used every single one. And I would never really be done, as new ones are created constantly.

When you think about it, you really can't ever learn all technology because technology is constantly changing. Sometimes improving--sometimes not. New programs and devices come and go. You buy something all up to date, a minute later its old news and outdated. Still, the learning process is fun and great brain stimulation.

Thing 6

2007-07-13T03:10:00.000+10:00

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

The theme of this slideshow is Escher. His art just fits with the fantasy theme of my blog. This third party Flickr tool is found at:
http://flickrslidr.com/index.php
I did need to change the size of the slideshow from 500 px X 500 px to 250 px X 250 px. The original size (default of the site) was too big for my post.

I actually looked at more than just this tool. I also made a Library Trading Card, which you can make, too, at:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

For more information about Flickr Mashups & Third Party Tools click here. There are many, many, many to try.

Thing 5 Flickr Badge Generator

2007-07-13T02:58:00.000+10:00

I played with the Flickr Badge Generator. I found it under the FAQ Blogging section:
http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne
I created a Flash badge, and then spent much time trying to figure out how to make if part of my Blog page. Finally, with the help of Cindy--I kept missing seeing the Page Element HTML/Javascript choice--I added the badge to my blog page.

Thing 5 continued

2007-07-13T02:22:00.000+10:00

Flickr certainly has a lot of features to look at. I've posted pictures to its web site as well--search People for Fantasy Book Lover or just click this link--to see all my digital photos I've added to Flickr's site. Many of the photos are even geotagged. There is just so much fun you can have with Flickr and so much to learn here which PLCMC's post shows.

One thing I noted, Flickr's Blogging tool worked better at putting a picture from Flickr into my blog and Blogger's Add Image Tool. Also, in the process of creating my Flickr account, I now have a yahoo account under my blog name.

Thing 5

2007-07-13T02:10:00.002+10:00

Using Blogger's upload tool, I grabbed this picture from Flickr.

Click the red x to see a neat fantasy art picture from Flickr. I love fantastical art like this.

I hope you enjoy it, too.