Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Week 4, Thing 11, Take a look at Library Thing



I exported the html for the above posting from Library Thing

I also did a review for Savage Garden on my reader's advisory blog, BlogaBook, and so in Library Thing, when I did a review I pasted in the URL to that blog posting. My reader's advisory blog might get some exposure that way!

I am also putting a link to my Library Thing account on both my blogs so that people can search my library.

Here is the link: Library Thing Catalog
I have to work later on changing my template so that the link displays permanently in a sidebar

Friday, June 22, 2007

Week 3, Thing 10, Create an avatar and export it to your blog


This is Liz, the world traveler with the British accent.



Week 4, Thing 10, Play around with an online image generator

This is a sketch I made from my staff directory picture using The Generator Blog.


















This is a picture I recaptioned. I did this using an image generator: http://www.imagegenerator.net/browse/dumbledore/date/60010/


I discovered that not all of it worked with Windows Explorer. I also discovered that most of it is not tasteful!

Week 3, Thing # 9, Exploring MERLIN and then locate a few other useful library-related blogs and/or news feeds

Well, I explored MERLIN and I found it to be needlessly complicated. The sign-up process was clunky and did not work as it was supposed to according to the confirmation e-mail I got - when I logged on using the user-name and password they gave me it did not take me to another place to change my password. I did not bother to follow up, because by then I was really irritated with the site: while I was waiting for the confirming e-mail I started to browse the site without signing on - turns out you don't need to - I found a note buried somewhere that said you don't. I was not too thrilled with the content, either, though more will no doubt be added. A lot is duplication of stuff already done elsewhere or links to stuff. I am tired of duplication! I am also tired of having to sign up and then remember user names etc. for endless accounts. How do people manage? I suppose they write them down on bits of paper!!!!!

Apologies to any reader for my foul mood! However (also apologies to the grammar purists who might read this blog for starting a sentence with a conjunction), some of my doubts about the value of some of the things we have been exploring seem to have validity even when I am in a good mood. I have just read an article from PC Magazine saying MySpace, Second Life and Twitter are doomed by their own futility. I have also just read an article in today's Aegis by a twenty-four year old regretting the fact if all your news is online you no longer have the pleasure of saving as mementos newspaper clippings of important things in your life.

Anyway, to get back to the discovery exercises. I looked at Feedster and Topix and Syndic8. I think none of them have very good search engines: I had enormous hit lists and even when I ordered them by relevance they did not seem to be at all relevant. The trouble with all of them except Syndic8 is even if you put in the name of a feed you get a list of articles rather than a feed you can subsribe to. Syndic8 was the only one that showed the feed link for the arts section of the Telegraph when I asked for it. I think the organization of top blogs by topic in Bloglines is most helpful for the beginner, though limiting. Topix is probably best if you want everything on a subject. Good luck matching your search to their tags!

Despite all my reservations about RSS feeds I find I have signed up for a lot! I have to keep up with my husband who keeps confounding me with improbable stories from the Daily Telegraph (it must be true because it's in print!). He has lots of time to check his feeds because he is retired. Now I can check his veracity and maybe cap his stories!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Week 3, Thing 8, Make Life Really Simple with RSS and a News Reader

Hi!

Here is the URL to my public Bloglines account:

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

What did I think about RSS? I think if you do indeed find you need to check multiple news sources etc., then it is an excellent tool and should save a lot of time and angst. Beware of being sucked in by it and finding a need where there was not one before! I do know from conversations I have had and things that I have read that checking these news feeds can become addictive and eat up your time, even with Bloglines, etc.

Used judiciously, feed readers could help you be very selective about what you view. I note, for instance, that Library Journal has different feeds for different topics in the Journal (though some overlap).

RSS might save me from having to check multiple e-mails about book news, etc. I will have to test it and see! Having stuff e-mailed to one might be just as convenient. Ironically, I have already signed up for several things I don't get e-mailed and have been ignoring with little or no consequence for 2 years at least! So already with RSS I have one more place to click (refer to para 1)!

It would be nice if our new books on order list on ReadersPlace could have and RSS feed link on it so people could have it sent to their computers when it was updated. I am now also updating the Recommended Booklists page at least once a week, so it might be nice if an alert went out when new booklists appeared there.

Some tips for people coming after me with the discovery exercises:
1. The screens in Blogline.com now appear slightly different from how they are shown in the tutorial. Do not worry, it is soon easy to see what to do.
2. Adding feeds is easy; however, not all sites call the feed link the same thing. It is not always easy to see where to click - persevere and look round the whole screen.
3. When viewing a public Bloglines account, one can see and copy if you wish the Blogroll of the person whose account it is. This is extremely easy - you click on the feed you want in the roll and another Bloglines window in your own account opens up and you follow the instructions to add. It's just a couple of clicks, no cutting and pasting.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Week 3, Thing # 7, Create a blog post about anything technology-related - Uses for Wikis

I am overjoyed because already after out Technology Fair I can see some possible uses for Wikis which I can use to my advantage as the current state President of the Daughters of the British Empire in Maryland, Inc.

DBE in Maryland is a nonprofit, charitable organization of women of British or Commonwealth descent who since 1909 have been supporting retirement homes throughout the United States and also local philanthropy. We need to keep renewing our chapters by recruiting new young women. In the last few years we have had some success from our National website. Individual states who can afford it have their own websites which are linked from National. Maryland has investigated having their own site, but for various reasons has decided not to right now. One reason is we cannot afford even the small costs some hosts would charge and we cannot afford a designer and have not been able to persuade a volunteer.

I have been looking into designing a site myself. Now I think we might jump right over website technology and go to a wiki as some libraries have. I am very interested in PB Wiki. Will have to look into all the pros and cons.

Week 3, Thing #6, Mash-Ups and 3rd party sites

I particularly like Montagr which creates photo mosaics from photos found on Flickr. Flickr Montagr was created by Billy Fowks and makes use of the Flikr API and Macromedia Flash.

I would love to investigate making posters out of these montages. For the time being I have discovered that it is a grand way to scan a lot of pictures on a theme very quickly without too many clicks: you just run your mouse across. You can select individual images in the mosaic. You can e-mail individual images.

I notice that at the bottom of the page you can find links to commercial sites who will do montages or posters for you out of your own pictures.

Week 3, Thing 5, Explore Flickr

Diferente
Diferente,
originally uploaded by Insulares.
I first of all had one of my own photos of my parents in this blog, but I removed it after reading the notes about asking permission before publishing people's pictures. I am sure the risk is very low, but I would hate to see my parents' faces attached to apes' bodies, for instance, and published all over the internet!

Having a Flickr account goes a long way to solve one of my few objections to digital cameras - that you can't easily share the pictures with friends and family.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Week 2 Thing #4 Register your blog and track your progress

The moral for this week is stay with the program! I registered my blog last week from the participants' page link and did not have a blog address to put in because I had not done the tutorial. Thus my blog did not get put up on the wall and I had to backtrack and then e-mail my address to Maurice. Must learn to have patience and trust. Am slowly learning to have confidence in my ability to do the training in the allotted time.

I have not yet done my learning contract. Here it is:

Goal: to become generally familiar with the 23 things. To use this training experience and knowledge as a springboard to embracing future technologies as they come along.

Obstacles: Fear, lack of time, unfamiliarity with vocabulary, preferred personal lifestyle, need for perfection, reluctance to play when it is important stuff, fear of being labelled as past it.

Toolbox: I am going to need IPod, or MP3player or both, for work I need a personal planner of some sort. For my work PC I need a pair of headphones - I am using my own. I may need more software on my work PC. I need a binder for the paper memos I am keeping!

Resources: Liaisons: Maurice and Irmgarde and Annette. Note to self: ask one of the liaisons if they can post their names and e-mails somewhere a bit more prominent on the participants' page, or ask them where to find the list - I am probably missing it. More may be revealed at the Tech Fair on 13th.

Path to Goal: 15-30 mins a week until October.

Check-in frequency: Weekly updates of log. Weekly scan of other blogs and Tips link. Continue to keep aware afterwards.

Signed: Elizabeth

Friday, June 8, 2007

Week 1, Thing #2 - 71/2 Hbits of Lifelong Learning

Well, the Easiest Habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. I have always wanted to participate actively in any class I have taken. The best way to remember anything you learn is to find ways to make it your own as you go along.

The hardest for me is Habit 4, having confidence in my own ability as an effective learner. This is not entirely due to my own diffidence. It seems to me that with distance learning the effectiveness of technology or the ability of the user to use the interface can sometimes put an added strain on the ability of the learner to learn.

Week 1, Thing #1

I read the blog and found out about the program. I was quite excited to think that I could take advantage of this opportunity to lay the specter of being left behind in the technology rush. I saw that the 23 things were things I would enjoy learning about, but I was calmed by the realisation that I already am at least aware of the existence of these various technologies!

Week 2, Thing #3 Creating Blog

Welcome to my new blog, created after several false starts. I found the invitation to register a blog that I found when doing the first "thing" to be confusing. I have already partially registered a blog - will have to make sure I do all the right steps and don't confuse everyone by registering 2 blogs! I see now that registering is Thing 4 - should have done it in the right order. To begin with I found the plethora of links to click confusing, but am calming down now.

This leads me to giving a heartfelt "thankyou" to the person who left a Tip for participants in Web 2.0 training recommending keeping some sort of binder with a record of all your passwords, user names, URLs, etc. Mine will be on paper. No doubt others will keep electronic address books, just remeber to keep one somewhere!