Golden Egg Summary #30

Thank you, I made it! I want to thank the academy, my mom, my friends who supported me through the maze of RSS, and MySpace, and most of all Cindy who gave mucho encouragement throughout! Yes, I would do it again. The exercises were sometimes time intensive, but always, informative and fun. I like playing with the technnology, but it for other minds than mind to figure how to implement them. If someone asks me a question at least I have some understanding and can help them.
I'm ready for my close-up...

At the Home Stretch #29

Slow going at first with RSS and the ideologies behind Web 2.0. So much reading, when I wanted to be doing! But what fun it all turned out to be! I agree wholeheartedly that we should vigilantly seek new ways to market our libraries to our communities. And we should always be interested in any new technologies, if possible find ways to incorporate them such as Blogs, MySpace, FaceBook or Flickr, into our repetoire so they can communicate with us. I especially loved LibraryThing! I had lots of fun with the mashups making cartoons, posters, adding video and music to my blog.

Rolling your own...28

Wow, I created my own and didn't get arrested, won't be tested.
I made a search engine for my research in early childhood development.
I never realized it was possible. this helps anyone who has special interests and wishes to keep on top of them, as long as they are trusted resources.

Librarything 27

I went back to my librarything account, and lo and behold all of my books were gone. I don't know what happened, but I added five more, per the discore instructions. I will check again tomorrow to see if they're still there. Maybe I didn't save it right? I still think this is very helpful for our patrons.
It's a chance to talk about books we have in common, and share our thoughts.

Generators.....

Generating a smiley Valentine was fun, and easy.
The generator does all the work, all I had to do was choose the features.
There were a few, such as poster generator, that didn't work on this site.
Postermaker worked on Flickr where I commemorated my son's birthday with a poster.
I enjoy playing with the technology, and I think it will be useful when someone in the lab has questions on how to add color and verve to their projects, and when they need to find picutes.

Podcasting 101

I love NPR on WHRO, and so naturally, I used the discovery exercise to add it to my blog. It especially helpful when I have missed programs that I wanted to hear. I used to love being read to by Dick Estelle every morning. And I enjoyed jazz with Jay.

I wish I had the nerve to create a podcast of my own! I fear I would come off as very egocentric and not as talented as I think, much like most of the videos on YouTube.

There is potential for libraries to use podcasting for storytime, and to publicize events while they are happening and certainly to entice people to join in the next ones.

I love music especially Al Jarreau

I took the liberty of adding one of my favorite singers to my blog, the multi-talented Al Jarreau.


It was easy, and fun. If I don't stop this soon, I will probably run out of space.


I also decided to change my template. I think it looks glamourous, sleek and lethal.

Useful Tagging

There are lots of reasons why we want tags. It is empowering. It lets us in on the action. We get to put our spin on it.
Libraries can definitely benefit from the collaborative effort of their patrons. They can share their photos of events and open them up to memebers.
We post a lot of pix on our W and X drives. But our patrons don't see them.
With all the many events we have, this would be a great tool to market them for future years, and entice people to join up.

Mashups are great...

I am bedazzled by all the things we can create with photos, with 6 children and 3 grandchildren, there are a lot of photo opps…
I can see my budget going out the window.
I played with flickr color picker, and montage and would love to make puzzles from my pictures. I did upload a picture of my youngest grand baby.
Mashups are great, but it seems like you need to know some HMTL, and some programming. I checked out the color picker, and liked the pix, but I could not see how I could use it.
So much to explore...so little time.
I also viewed trading card and mosaic maker, and would like to try the movie poster! Delusions of grandeur. I have two sons who fancy themselves as actors. this would make their day!

Just posin'

A picture is worth a thousand words. I enjoy Flickr because as my family is located all over the place. This site allows us to share pictures without costly printing. Also if anything were to happen to the originals, we have the sets uploaded.

LibraryThing...I think I love you

What fun. I reviewed several of the free sites, Pandora: Radio form the Music Genome Project is a free music service. You can create your radio station, by selecting the type of format you like, ie, gospel, jazz, rock, country. You can have up to 100 stations. The drawback is there are musicians they cannot play, but they will play someone whose style is similar. It is a great way to broaden your horizons by listening to some new people.

I also checked out Odeo, which is similar to Youtube, only more suited for MP3/ Folks upload their videos, (a lot of new bands)- which looked a bit more professionally put together than most of what I’ve seen on YouTube.

JuiceCaster is a cool tech toy, that allows you to upload video from your phone’s camera to your blog or MySpace, FaceBook. But Podshow takes the cake! You can get lost on that site.

My absolute favorite is LibraryThing. I am a bookaholic. I could run up the steps to the Washington Monument before I would be cured. I’ve always wanted a way to categorize the books I read, and somehow have a brief summary. If I were to refer a title to someone else, this makes it so easy.

in the know...technorati

Technorati seemed a bit more complicated an awful lot of blogs, but not a lot of useful information. I was not as comfortable using it, as I am del.icio.us or google and could not get any really authentic information. Usually I am researching topics for school assignments, so I need authentic information. Although every source was cited as authentic--right. I searched “early childhood education”, daycare, but only got parents’ responses how it saved them when they were ill, but no organization or teacher’s response. Maybe with more practice, I’ll be able to navigate better. I am sure they’re out there…Maybe I need help!

a strawberry smoothie--it's del.icio.us

I think tagging is a super idea. I signed up with del.icio.us and have been using it for research. I can readily find and re-access information, and I can see what others are collecting in my area.

MySpace is personal

I checked out MySpace, and did the tour, but it did not change my mind about joining up. I have nothing to share with a bunch of strangers that I have not put on the blog.
I think the most exciting part is designing the home page. You can have a really cool site, with color, graphics, pix, and music. I tend to go off on small details and forget the larger picture, like there are another fourteen items to go. Who but a teen has the time?

The 411 On OSN

The Parent’s Guide to MySpace was very informative. Most of my children have/had accounts. We had a problem with my youngest son’s desire to impress by boasting. If I had known to look into his profile earlier….we may have been saved from trouble and embarrassment.

My biggest fear is the fact that no one knows who they are talking with. Anyone can upload a picture of an attractive person and impersonate them.

There was a recent case of an adult woman who believed a teenage girl down the street was maligning her daughter on the internet. The woman impersonated a boy online to get in to her good graces. After she gained the girl’s trust and affection, he/she broke the girls’ heart and wrote malicious things about her. The girl subsequently killed herself in her closet. The police have not charged the adult with any crime.

Bring back the skating rinks, burger joints, bowling alleys and places for people young and old to get together face to face. Are we too afraid to leave our houses and go out and play? Why are we so afraid to meet people, but so willing to bare our soul to strangers? Is this why I’m blogging?

I can see people getting together to play online games, or to form different clubs founded on a common interest like a family webpage, mystery lovers, or jazz aficionados.
As for 50% of teenagers discussing homework, college preparation on OSL’s, sure...
Whatever! It’s not so much what they’re doing that’s scary.
It’s the predators that are frightening.

Also, it is not so easy to remove content. Young people believe nothing can hurt them. What they write today can dash their dreams tomorrow. They are not aware that companies are data mining. Then later HR can google and read all about them.
I was glad to read that there is a way to delete content if necessary, even if it is arduous and you have to give up a foot.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand

I chose Stephen King’s The Stand to add to Staff Picks. I have read it at least three times. The first time I was pregnant and it frightened me so badly I had to put it down until my son was born.

The process was so much easier than I thought. I tried to complicate it and spent 5 minutes looking for a way to add my choice. Finally, I just clicked on update this page and Voila!
I enjoyed reading my co-workers selections as well.

Here's what I wrote...
King, Stephen. The Stand. A plague wipes out most of the population, leaving the few who are immune without the safe havens of society. It is ultimate Armageddon. It is always timely because who knows what diseases are being conjured in labs unwittingly or in the name of biological warfare. King is dead on about how people respond to tragedy. Some will seek the darkside and follow the evil Flagg, and some will follow Abigail and seek the light. Tags: Horror, biological warfare, plague, Armageddon

Aloha Wicked Wikis...

Fast quick and in a hurry, wikis are collaborative and very user-friendly.
The users are the creators. Which is why teachers will not accept a citation from Wikipedia on a paper. BTW: There is "Webopedia" for anything you need to know about computers.

Libraries can explore wikis as subject guide, community guide (similar to Beacon in the Virginian-Pilot) online communities—book clubs, intra-wikis for group work.

I added the Book lovers wiki to my favorites. Although one of the books I just finished The Madman’s Tale, was not included. Gives me pause…

The subject guide listed looked good on the surface, but when I tried some of the links they were dead ends. The page had not been updated since 2006.

Signing off…

IM: Let your fingers do the talking...2

This will become essential to Library reference, students and lifelong learners everywhere. We can scan info, send PDF files, or copy links and send them. I love the name “AskAway”.
If we want to expand the library as community, IM knows no geographical boundaries.

I IMed us and asked how many questions they receive an hour. They responded mine was the second of the hour. Usually time spent is between 5-10 minutes per customer.

I am sure it will spread like wildfire, especially for students writing term papers and exams!
Right now 53 million people are using IM, mostly young , for them it is become as easy as breathing.


Signing off….

IM: All Thumbs...

I have arrived at Thing 11 and think that I am not too good at texting, that’s what we call it on the phone.

I think it is an essential resource for libraries and telephone reference. I IMed us and asked how many questions they receive an hour. They responded mine was the second of the hour. Usually time spent is between 5-10 minutes per customer.

Of course the younger you are, the more likely you are to be familiar with the technology, since they spend hours texting their friends, they are phenomenally fast. My daughter sent a voicemail from her cell phone to my computer of my granddaughter singing along with Alicia Keys! She sends me pictures of her from her cell all the time. I rather like email, which is losing ground with the younger set. I agree with them that I do not like paying for the service. I like the time to compose my thoughts. But now we are sighing and tapping our foot in front of the microwave because two minutes to cook a bag of popcorn is so long....

Knowing you do not have to use a computer keyboard to IM is certainly going to open the floodgates especially for students writing term papers and exams! The challenge is marketing to the 25 and beyond crowd. Which is most of us.....

I certainly agree with the idea of IM etiquette; use away messages and especially, accept typos and abbreviations.

Signing off….

I joined technorati

Technorati Profile
looking for jazz links and found Cassandra Wilson and Rachelle Farrell!

Weak 4 Blog or really simple synd is becoming a @#$&

It's the strangest thing. I cannot get an email verification to activate my account with bloglines. It's been a couple of days and I am getting frustrated, and falling further behind. I empathize with patrons who experience technical challenges. I am certainly challenged here.

I switched to Google reader, and I am now bombarded with tons of info, more than I thought I was signing up for. Who has the time?

If I can just tag the news items I want to know about, and not be inundated, I think it will be useful. If ever I am advising a patron on how to get and keep the most up-to-date info on a topic, this is a fantastic tool.

Bleary-eyed in PACL,
Jeanne