Thing 44

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

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

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

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

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

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

My ToonDoo Comic

Thing 38

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

Thing 37

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

fancygens.com

Thing 36

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

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

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.