Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Challenge Conclusions





When I began this, I did not think I would get all the way through the challenge but here I am!


I am still mulling what tools I think will be useful to me in the future. I know that wikis serve a purpose as referred to in my previous posting, and possibly a blog. Flickr will be a good source for pictures and tagging can be useful in narrowing a search and tracking my sites of interest, especially if I do any work from home.


Personally, who knows yet what I will use. The best part however, is that I believe I may have learned about some tech tools that my kids may not know about yet! Guess I shouldn't count on that one. At least I am acquainted with the concepts so we can converse in a somewhat reasonable fashion. And, like any new knowledge, I now have a good framework for building from because I know of options.


My biggest frustration is the fact that not all sites are intuitive/user friendly for those with limited experience. Our staff now need to sit down together and explore options and share how-to's. Some were more frustrated than others, I guess depending upon how tech savy each is. Terminology even in the area of instruction does not always make sense. The longer we use stuff, the more we forget what our own learning curve was like and of course, that learning curve may be much steeper for some. I still remember the first time I had to use a mouse--I did not have a clue--and I often forget when working with the public that for some, they are still back there--do not have a clue--about whatever.


Thank you for making this course available. Since it was not linked to a particular time of the day, i.e. no chat or phone, it was a little easier to squeeze into my schedule. There were some days when the only way to do any of it was from home.

To Wiki or Not to Wiki...

Wikis are an interesting phonomena, from huge, like Wikipedia, to very small, collaborative or private. So, how do I think I'll use one?

Well, one library seemed to use theirs for posting all sorts of library info: articles, calendar, etc. A blog could do the same thing but the wiki has the advantage of using multiple pages that are searchable whereas the blog just continues on and on.....

I also liked the subject library wiki that brought together library info and public info by topic. This type should definitely be open to the public as then related activities can be easily added. Definitely, more than one librarian would need to be involved with the maintainance of this type of wiki.

Editing of a wiki is much easier than many web pages and since my library website is not very user friendly, a wiki could be an ideal way to easily add stuff to the web page, via a link, without all the fuss and bother of using a tech. Since it is possible to limit who as access to the editing, this seems like a very useful tool for me.

Actually, I used a wiki last summer to put our summer reading program info on the web. lplsummerreading.pbwiki.com. I have not changed it yet for this year but plan to do so. Since I am generally responsible for the library news articles, I'm still considering which format I would prefer for them, wiki or blog. I think I am leaning towards the wiki--just not making it available for public editing.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Tag, Your It

Wow! It's been awhile since I've been able to work on this.

Looking around del.icio.us is both good and bad. The video makes it seem so simple, and the concepts for pulling together related stuff are great. But when I enter del.icio.us itself (not subscribed, of course) I am overwhelmed. There just seems to be too much stuff.


I can see how tagging my own stuff is helpful. The social part seems more cumbersome but I guess if it is used as a means to expand upon my own tag terms and find similar sites then that is ok. I think being subscribed would help my exploration more too.

I did find it interesting to put in a desired search term--it would be worth experimenting with results that way as compared to google.

I am looking forward to wikki's as I as a little familiar with them so may have a little more foundation to build from.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

uTube

Well, I've watched kids looking at stuff and certainly heard the term but this is the first time I have looked at the uTube site. What a hoot parts can be. The library dominoes were great--wonder how much time it took to set up. I also found "No Cookies in the Library", an old Sesame blip which could be fun to add for kids looking at the library website. However, I'm not ready to try adding the url here--guess I'm tired of fussing with the methods. Like anything on the web, deciding what topic you are interested in and then what search terms to use is just as important to sucess on uTube as in any other type of search.

About Podcasts

I can see how my husband might use podcasts in-order-to listen to some of his favorite radio programs when it is more convenient. I did find one feed that I will use. However, getting it into my bloglines account was a trip and now that I see Explorer has a feeds folder, why do I need bloglines as well? Maybe for the convenience of it telling me how recent stuff is? Since I have not used the Explorer feeds before, I may not recognize the convenience of bloglines.

I can see how a podcast might be useful on the library website if it is tracking a particular author, i.e. Harry Potter stuff would have been good during all the furor while the series was being written. And if a patron has concerns now, being able to refer them to this type of discussion might be helpful but unless it is a blog, how long do the podcasts remain available?

Except for special situations, it seems like a lot of fuss and bother to research, mark and consistently check some of this stuff. I guess I'm not interested in spending all of my life on a computer.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Post experiment

Well, I see that my HTML paste worked in my last post. Now I know that it does not show in the preview screen as it does in the post. Hurray for it working. Looks kind of neat too.

LIbrary Thing experiment

I have just looked at Library Thing, created a small library and want to post it here. Not sure how to go about it though. Do I just copy and paste the HTML? Guess I'll try it.




The copied HTML data from Library Thing has been pasted into the space above.
Somehow, I don't think that is where it should go. Guess I need to learn more.

Several of the titles I listed from Library Thing are by an author (Cameron Dokey)I have not yet read. I just learned that her husband was a high school friend of mine. (He died last July). Naturally, my curiosity has been peaked since I had not been in touch with Jim since high school (actually, we were boyfriend and girlfriend in the 6th grade). So, I am looking forward to reading her work since much of it is a favorite genre of mine.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008



This is my name in Chinese characters, created by Chinesetools.eu. The program is easy to use but is limited in what is in it's data base.

I have not found anything else I wanted to play with at this time so will post this as is.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Flickr toys

Now this is fun. However, the quality of the product is lacking--enlarging kind of breaks up the picture. Keeping it smaller makes the bubble comments too small.


Ok, I think I am figuring this out. We adult kids don't have the same freedom as our children do about just clicking around on a website or program, understanding what we see, and then maing it work. Too often, terms are not intuitive for me unless they remind me of something else I have already learned.


Anyway, on the left is the picture that I referred to in my last post. It is from flickr--not sure how to credit it. When I was at the Wall, it was covered insnow--some of it iced enough to slide down. The most amazing part is what the picture does not show--going on and on and on over these many mountain peaks. We were only on a very small portion of miles and miles of wall.


I used the add image button to put this picture in, after I found the url in the picture's properties. I still do not know how to imbed links which I know is possible. ( I have found the link button but have not tried working with it yet.)

The image on the right was uploaded from my computer files--that I know how to do. I had to play with it a little to figure out how to move it around once I got it here. My preference would have been for it to appear below the text, where my curser was but that does not seem to be how this works.
This image is how I often feel about working with new stuff--I have learned that the edit mode of this program is not very good--once you are there, you can't get back to the preview window and once something is deleted, i.e a picture, you have to start over , as there does not seem to be a forward, back option like microsoft has.
Well, enough for today.

Monday, January 28, 2008

flickr picture

Since I am not sure how to create a link, I cut and pasted the address for a very nice picture of the Great Wall of China. I would have liked a winter scene since that is the time of year when my family saw the Wall, but at any time of the year, it is amazing to see. It snakes over the surrounding hill/mountain tops and is wide enough for 7 horses, at least, to ride abreast.

Flickr is an amazing site, but since I am not interested in creating yet another email account, I will not be subscribing at this time. So, here goes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13211556@N00/2223943987/

RSS

The concept of having a place to view multiple feeds is great. However, 10 feeds is way too many for me. I barely have the time to review my email/listservs, much less multiple feeds. However, it is fun to very occasionally check the feeds for something interesting. For example, I subscribed to urban legends and this could be a really interesting thing to view, especially since I won't feel any compulsion to view it every day. I guess for my daily quick looks, I like the mishmash of stuff that MSN brings together, which I can easily scan when I do my personal email. For me, I think under 5 feeds will be about right, especially as I find those that are particularly meaningful/helpful to me.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Life Long Learner

I believe that everyone is a life long learner but some of us are more focused and committed to the process. Others, like myself, struggle with an "I can't" complex. Although I know this is not healthy, I still have to fight the natural tendancy to see huge roadblocks to any new idea or project. Once I get started, however, I do fine. Sometimes, I suprise myself and others by being the intiator rather than the resistant follower. Usually, I am a combination of both. This class is a good example. My first response was, "I don't have time, I don't really need this, etc." The more I resisted, the more I realized some of my resistance was related to the limitations of our library web page and how frustrating it is to try anything new that might be related to that. So then, I switch boats and try to explain to other staff members why we need a new web page so we can use stuff like blogs and wikiis. Go figure. So, here I am, scrambling to get caught up with the rest of the class.