Week 8: #18 Social Networking

I looked around several of the social networking sites and my notes of likes and dislikes are as follows:

MySpace -I like the premise of this website but it has gotten a LOT of bad press and rightfully so. The person you could be talking to is probably not the person you think you're talking to. There has been a lot of trouble for a lot of people resulting from using this website. I encouraged my children not to use this website, if they were going to take it seriously and use it seriously.

Facebook -This website seems to be popular with the college-aged group. I have seen this site and it looked very interesting.

Rate My Space -I love to watch HGTV and I have heard of this site from the program. I'm not sure I would use this site, but I might.

Infield Parking -This would be a fun site if I were still interested in NASCAR.

Dogster -This would also be a fun site to show off the cute things your dog does and get information from other dog owners about a particular breed or habit.

My interests in this trivial stuff has been replaced by my granddaughter. She is the cutest and the most entertainment I have seen in a very long time anywhere.

My thoughts about online social networking are this is a good way to connect with people that share the same interests. The sites that appealed to me would be Rate My Space by HGTV and Dogster if I had time to socialize online. It is more important to me to socialize with family and neighbors and friends in person and be entertained by my granddaughter.

Have a great day...it is beautiful today.

Week 7: #17 Blog About Technology

I can remember when I first used a computer in the eighties. I didn't want to give up my electric typewriter. Now I have problems using a typewriter. I have a MP3 player, although I haven't taken it out of the package. I bought it almost a year ago but don't know how to load music yet. I have finally mastered working our DVD player and I know almost all the functions of my cell phone. Technology, what would we do without it?

I commented on other's blogs. That was, by far, a no brainer.

Another beautiful day in Houston.

Week 7: #16 So what's in a wiki?

I looked at some library wikis and here's what I discovered:

In the iHCPL Sandbox wiki -I added my blog to the popular blogs (Thanks Grace) although mine is pretty bland. When I get used to all this new info I may be able to make things more interesting.

In SJCPL Subject Guides - all the info seems to apply mostly to Indiana (IN)

Library Success: a best practices wiki, has a gad of information but I would never have time to read much of it.

I accessed the iHCPL wiki and created a login account for myself. I added my blog to the favorite blogs page on the iHCPL wiki . It was kind of fun and interesting to try to edit the page, to add my blog, and steal editing minutes after someone else would steal my editing time. "Favorite" is an understatement.

Wikis may be useful in researching but I'm not sure I would trust the content.

Isn't it a beautiful day outside today? WOW

Week 6: #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read some of all of the five perspectives but "Away from Icebergs" perspective kept my attention. Web 2.0 or Library 2.0 is very important to the way we access and collect information today. Some of the "icebergs" may not be necessary in university libraries but our circulation numbers continue to rise, not fall. Maybe the “just in case” collection is just the cost of doing business.
Our community continues to grow and mostly with families with preschool and school age children. Quick and easy access to information is important for research and education but parents reading books to their small children and older children reading books is invaluable to their growth and development. Visiting physical libraries is a special part of a child's rearing. Not only the education aspect but the emotional and social aspect as well. I hope no physical libraries are ever completely phased out. I guess the The “just in case” collection is just the cost of doing business.

Week 6: #14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I took a look at Technorati and did an advanced search by typing "Learning 2.0" as a keyword search in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. The results different were very different.
I explored popular blogs and discovered that the Tag search in the advanced search netted the same results as popular blogs. Pretty cool.

Week 6: #13 Tagging makes the web 2.0 world go round

I watched the 8 minute tutorial which was very helpful in understanding Del.icio.us. Del.icio.us was very easy to sign up for and use. This is a wonderful way to bookmark interested sites at one location and view it at any other location, such as work, school, and home. This tool could be a great potential for research assistance.

Week 5: #12 The "Library" Elf will remind you!

I registered with Library Elf to receive emails about my books that are due. I wasn't thrilled about giving out my Library card # and PIN # to an outside party but did it anyway to accomplish this exercise. What's another couple hundred people knowing going to hurt? This is a good service but since HCPL already sends reminders, I would prefer* to only be notified by HCPL. This would be great if HCPL didn't notify their customers. We already do a terrific job!

*I'd also prefer to be scheduled to do these tasks instead of having to keep trying to squeeze it in during other times but oh well, what are you going to do...keep hoping. Have a great day.

Me in Meez

Week 5: #11 A Thing about Library Thing

I created an account in LibraryThing and added the following books to my catalog:


The Elements of Organic Gardening by HRH The Prince of Wales
1,147 forbidden health secrets : safer, gentler home remedies doctors and drug companies hide from you
Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
1,001 smart self-care strategies for women : natural
Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling,No Weeding, No Kidding! by Patricia Lanza



Have a great day!

Week 5: #10 Play around with Image Generators

Well this took some doing but I finally did it. This is berryberry kool.

http://www.meez.com/

Week 5: #10 Play around with Image Generators

Hey, what do you know. I did it again. Maybe I do get it after all. This is fun.

http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

Week 5: #10 Play around with Image Generators

Well, I went to Gravatar and created an account but couldn't get anything to save yet.

So I went to SignGenerator and got this. As always, this is a work in progress.

Week 4: #9 Finding Feeds

Right now I like to use Bloglines search tool to locate RSS feeds I found interesting. It covers a wide variety of subjects that include nearly all of my favorite interests. This is truly amazing to have all this info collected in one spot. I really like it. I couldn't navigate Feedster and Syndic8 didn't catch my interest.

Week 4: #8 Make life really simple with RSS feeds

Okay, this was easy after all. The YouTube video from Helene Blowers on adding RSS feeds put everything into perspective. I felt in control and successfully subscribed to ten newsfeeds. Some of my selections are:
Gardening Question of the Day for Monday, October 1, 2007

distrait: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Quotes of the Day Robert Frost: "Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length."

The Shifted Librarian

and

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

Week 4: #8 RSS feeds

I hope this satisfies this weeks' 1st Discovery Exercise. I created a free online Bloglines account for myself. The links below are from some of my feeds, I think. I'm not exactly sure where they came from. I don't understand yet how to do this exercise. I copied and pasted these links in a new post. Is that right? I wish there was more detailed instruction on how to do each exercise.
RSS: "Really Simple Syndication". Simple for whom??? I was hoping this would be simple but I did not find it so. I guess if it was simple, we wouldn't be learning something new. Right?


URL: Dog Food: 5 Types Of Commercial Dog Food You Might Want To Consider

URL: Dog Cologne

URL: Pet Insurance – Lower The Cost Of Veterinarian Visits With Pet Insurance