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.

Thing 4

Wow-what an experience. Loved Lee LeFever's video...it was awesome. Then came the work of actually setting up an aggregator account. I tried the Comcast, my assistant connection, and they were not ready yet, so I am using the Yahoo account. This took some explaining. Thank goodness for patient people like my husband and Oliver. Oliver showed me what she could do, but my husband guided me through the steps after we watched Mr. LeFever's video.
Find a RSS link you are interested in. Right click on the icon, then choose copy. Open your My Yahoo account, then click on the add content, click on RSS feed, paste the RSS link in. Then it appears on your Yahoo page. :)Good luck. (Enjoying Feedzilla-a little too much)

Friday, January 23, 2009

Thing 3

It's a BIG world out there and learning about search engines and directories just extended this point. I did not like Technorati because for this first timer it was intimidating. I began on the day of the inauguration of our 44th president. Everybody is a writer. I wanted to learn more of what a Search Engine means, and came to http://websearch.about.com which broke it down in terms of a technology's standpoint. About.com Internet for Beginners (http://netforbeginners.about.com ) provided What Are The Good Search Engines?, since this is very important for employees of the libraries to be informed. They listed five major "search engines" for their massive catalogs of information. (Sorry Technorati was not there, yet.) Yahoo's Directory, DMOZ.org and About.com are three major "search directories that stood our for their voluminouse catalogs". The above information was founded 1/20-21/09.
It's all a matter of comfort and this is outside my comfort zone. I agree with the question of "which search tool is the best?" should be "which search tool do you prefer to use?"
I like the ones with the least advertisements, and of course, I need to adapt to changes.
I'm finding this time consuming, but perhaps it will become second-nature.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

thing 2

This is a lot of information to take in at once. I felt obligated to learn 23 things as part of my job, but it was all a foreign concept. (Children is grade school would have a better idea of what's going on these days.) However, this is the 21st century and technology is forever improving to extravagant possibilities.
In reading John Blyberg's 11 Reasons why L2 exists and matters presents the challenges librarians could expect from patrons. I was stumped with the'blog' until my husband explained it simply as a soapbox online. This is quite a learning experience.
Looking up online via wikipedia to get some sort of definition of the tools we will be learning has also been overwhelming. I didnot realize that Blogs have been around since 1992 and that there were different types which confirms what my husband was trying to explain to me. Personal, Corporate, Questions, By Media Type, By Device and By Genre. There was also a definition for the Community and Cataloging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Types
Well, curiosity got the better of me, so I looked up Flickr-that's been around since 2004 and is known as one of the earliest Web 2.0 for web services suite & online community with image and video hosting website.
YouTube was created in February of 2005 by three former PayPal employees. YouTube is videosharing website where useers can upload, view and share videoclips. I've always heard bad things about YouTube and have never bother to visit the site.
PBWiki or PeanutButter Wiki operates on a freemium basis and this will be another site that I will need to learn more about. http://blog.pbwiki.com
As for now, I'm hoping that this is not as scary or intimidating as when I started. There is so much technology out in the world, it doesn't surprise me when someone has a neat techno toy. I never imagined being able to take pictures with my phone, let alone go outside and use a phone in the car. I guess this is what the 21st century is all about...changes.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Ugh....changes....

Hi there,
This is pretty intense for someone from the old school. The step by step is ... great, but I think I may have created two accounts...whoops that's what happens when you jump2it. I think I'm on step 2 of 23things. Can someone set me straight? Thanks