Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thing 8 IM

First of all, I just want to thank whoever for the "catch-up week". As BM said, we needed it! Could you feel the frustrations and anxieties of learning something new?
OK, so here I am catching up...
Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?
Our email at work allows us to keep informed with what is happening. I just learned today from our wonderful Information Systems staff that we have IM. I also learned that it has cause some problems in the past. For the work that I am involved with, I really do not see the need for IM. My email gives me the info I need to keep me up to speed and ask the questions when confusion hits. (However things have been known to change.

Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools?
I never thought I would be a text messager...it took me a while to stop saying to my kids "Did you get my email?" meaning my texting. I love text messaging now that I understand it as a way to keep the family informed with out the hassle of interrupting with a phone call. As I said earlier, we have microsoft outlook with windows messanger at work. New technology...a wonderful thing...sometimes...incredible when it makes life less complicated.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Thing 7 - fun times




Finally, something fun and not so intimidating. It was love at first sight- Big Huge Lab - was fun. Using photos I didn't mind sharing, I made some trading cards. Will need more time to really come up with something special. If I had more time, I would definitely explore the endless possibilities Big Huge Lab has to offer, but for now...enjoy. However, the question was to consider how you can use these tools in your library or media center. I have heard that teachers would use trading cards for incentives, so perhaps the library could produce some "Quick tips" trading cards. Not sure what is involved as far as the processing goes...but it might be fun and a great way to get kids to read.

Thing 6...one more time

You know when you think you're doing the right thing, but you're too stubborn to ask for help, and then finally you just gotta know because the results are just not working...well, while I've done this more than three times my way I finally hadto have BM point out the obvious.




I'm giving my age away when I thought electric typewriters were cool. Give me some time for all these changes. Glad to know there are people around us that can explain this stuff, other wise, 'catch up week' will have to be change to 'catch up month'.


concrete t H I n13 g-spo lift 6

Thing 6

Monday, February 2, 2009

Thing 6...still exploring

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

Not sure. I visited Clockr, Flickr Color Pickr, and Spell with Flickr. These were interesting. Big Huge Labs blocked me with access restricted. As I'm typing this, Thing 8 has just been posted and the only source of encouragement came from Defang Scary Technology from 2.0 hints. I attempted to Spell with Flickr, but need more time to process. Also, it being Groundhog Day has revealed more chilly days ahead. Brrrr!

What do you think of sharing photos online? I enjoy looking at photos, and sharing photos is a touchy subject these days. Just this past weekend we had a patron wanting to copy a picture of a building from the Flickr website for a school project. I had to go to copy from Google image to get the photo, so Flickr is great for browsing...it was great to 'participate in the Groundhog Day celebration', but I'm not sure I'm ready for the world to meet me.
Still working on Thing 6 and I'm out of time...

Friday, January 30, 2009

Thing 5-Flickr-ing thought ...or not






How might I use Flickr in the library or media center?

Well, promoting programs that are coming up, community involvement or creating a past events album might be great. Just not sure if this is allowed. I like how the Clemns and Alcuin libraries displayed their edible bookfest. Doing the best I can in the timeframe. But, this is time consuming for me as a newcomer. The Lee Lefever video "Online Photosharing in Plain English" was once again superb. However, it's 'the more I do it, the better I'll be." Thanks to AAF for taking a better shot of the bee that kept buzzing, not to mention after pulling my hair, sighing, trying to do some flickring...the hero prevails, with his mighty knowledge of 'how to'.
Do I use Flickr or another photo hosting service?
I have an account with YaHoo, but I guess I don't need to use it. Since this is pertaining to work, I'm not sure if this is a violation of our computer contract. I'm trying to do my job...what are the guidelines?
How do I feel about having my photos public...well I'm not sure yet. We had some photos of an event that I thought would be great on the blog, but after checking with one of our staff members...it would have been a mistake on many levels...so there's concern regarding what can be public.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Thing 4 part 2...oh bother...

There's no end to this madness and I'm really feeling like 'duh' since a worker pointed out that "Google Reader" is on the dashboard. Well, I got to spend some quality time with my husband setting up the Yahoo space. (I owe Olivia a sincere apology for calling her Oliver-my bad-but thanks for the help.) Besides, part of learning is doing.
After doing some scrolling on my dashboard... I located it after the reading list, under other stuff in the box of Tools and Resources. Ta-da! Google Reader. Below Thing 4's assignment is a list of resources: click on Feed Me: A Gentle Introduction into Internet Feeds for an awesome demonstration. Using Blogline Tutorial with steps is a sure thing if you need those step by step.
I've been playing with the buttons adjusting my site. Things are looking better, but that's just me. (I wondered why some pages looked so professional.)
I thought it was great that all the feeds came to you-yes, saving time IS good, but honestly I got caught in the web of technology and missed out on the warm weather today. Guess I'm gonna need a timer. (Good thing I'm doing this at home...decisions, decisions, decisions.)
Using the RSS would be a great aid to helping patrons find/identify what they want to investigate. The usage on library computers is generally limited to 30 minutes. This will be great for kids who have homework assignments/questions as long as it's a legitimate site and if I understood it correctly, it's a wonderful tool for teachers to experiment using Flickr and other photo uploading websites to share their lessons.
This is all new to me, but I'm sticking with it. I just need to walk away.