Solo Librarian

Week 10, Thing 20

2008-04-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Phew. There were some massive technical problems with the computer not wanting to stay connected to the Internet- but now I am up and running. I explored the Visual Arts winners on the Awards List. Color Palette would be of use for a graphic designer or someone who did a lot of virtual color mixing. Swivel is a great site for getting visuals of the news in graph and chart form. There is an option to upload your own chart, but alas, my computer was having technical problems whenever I tried to enter one of the Award sites, so I was not able to create an online chart. TheBroth.com is a great site for virtual artists. There are some great (and not so great) images in the gallery. There are also graphic deign contests to enter. All in all these sites may be useful for graphics for library programs, but I don't see myself using them as much as tools like Flickr and MashUps.

Week 10, Thing 19

2008-04-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

Google Docs are pretty much the same as any word document, with the Google Docs exception being that it can be shared online automatically without having to be e-mailed as an attachment. It's very convenient. I was not able to find a column feature though with the Google Docs, it would have been helpful to have it. Google Docs would be a great way for the board of trustees and myself to work on agendas before meetings, so we know what we will be focusing on and come prepared.

The slide show feature is also very similar to power point. I put together a very short presentation of Jamaica Memorial Library. Click the link below to see it.

Week 9, Thing 18

2008-03-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Wikis are so convenient and easy to update- I love the edit feature. I recently just finished a web design class, and the process for correcting typos was so much more complicated that correcting typos and rewriting in wikis. My favorite wiki format was the wet paint design. it seemed much clearer in layout. The Mediawiki format drove me a little crazy because the "Save Page" option was at the bottom of the page and not at the top with the other tools.

Week 9, Thing 17

2008-03-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Wikis are not technology that I was not very familiar with beofre this week. Although I had used Wikipedia before, so many of the instructors I have had demand that Wikipedia not be used at all, I really have not made use of these resources. Individual or group wikis allow people to create online pages without having to know web design- which is helpful. The library related wikis I looked at were all interesting, and definitely more convenient to update than a web page. I also like the option to have editing options blocked to non registered users.
I think a wiki lends itself especially well to topics such as book reviews and recommended reading, as well as being able to plan and organize library events. These information pieces are suited to personal opinion. The drawbacks to wikis are the potential for errors in information. As the New York Times article pointed out, false information is often posted either through error or intentionally. Wikis may be a helpful starting place in learning more about a topic, however everyone, librarians and patrons alike, need to understand that the information on a wiki is not necessarily from an expert and may be subject to errors. Thus, follow-up reading is necessary to determine if the wiki information is accurate.

Week 8, Thing 16

2008-03-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

It was interesting to read through the Five Perspectives on Library 2.0. Rick Anderson's Away from the "Icebergs" discussion of library's "just in case collections" resonated with me. Trying to determine what resources patrons need is difficult especially when factoring what resources can be found on the web. Anderson also pointed out that libraries need to move from a "come to us" model of service to one where resources are brought to the patrons. I think it is also important to recognize if the library service population is prepared for this. In the area of Jamaica most residents still do not have access to high speed Internet service, so if they want anything other than dial-up they still do have to come to the library (or the Wi-Fi coffee shop).
I also thought Wendy Schultz's To a Temporary Place In Time . . . made some interesting points about how library service will continue to evolve and old models will be "absorbed" into the new models. One of the concerns I have with technology being used exclusively in a library collection is the problems it can encounter. Maybe this is because I have seen more than my share of power outages, but I also am concerned with the escalating cost of electronic information services. Not only the cost to purchase the service but in upgrades, and additional costs to access back issues and send articles as interlibrary loan materials as well as costs for allowing more than one concurrent users at a time. Corporations are controlling more and more of what libraries can afford to access. So I would add my own perspective to Ms. Schultz's, by stating that libraries need to not only implement online resources but also play a major role in influencing corporations to make that information affordable and accessible.

Week 8, Thing 15

2008-03-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

Technorati has such a huge amount of information. It's amazing how many blogs are out there. I enjoyed the options of images, videos, blogs and posts tabs in the search options. There are some great garden photos and community garden information.
When I did the same search for community gardens in Google, I did find more nationally recognized organizations- maybe they just have not caught on to how useful blogs are. I had no idea the Google also had a separate blog search engine. When I searched for community gardens in the Google Blog Search, the results were very similar to the Technorati search.
With the Technorati advanced search feature I was able to search for my blog and search in my posts- although it seems the post searches only seem to search the post titles and not the entire post.

Week 8, Thing 14

2008-03-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

Del.icio.us is a great tool. I tend to be a bookmarker anyway, so it's great to have a way to organize what I have bookmarked by notes and tags. It is very interesting to see how many other users have used De.icio.us to bookmark the same sites I have. For example, 121 other people have bookmarked the Internet Public Library while 3,600 have bookmarked the National Geographic website.

Week 7, Thing 12

2008-03-11T12:52:00.002-07:00

Too many cool image generators! I enjoyed browsing through the Generator Blog (http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/). The list on the right side of the screen has some interesting generators. I enjoyed the Egyptian word generator. The alphabet soup word generator was fun too.

For me though, my favorite was creating a Simpsons Avitar. Below. Almost just like me :)

Week 7, Thing 12

2008-03-11T12:52:00.001-07:00

Too many cool image generators!

Week 7, Thing 13

2008-03-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Library Thing is a fantastic tool! I have been looking for something like this for a few months. It is is so great to have a resource to allow patrons access to our library's book catalog online. Library Thing provides a much needed program for personal and small library's- and at $10 per year or $25 for a life time it is very affordable for an organization.

MySpace Account

2008-03-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

Setting up the MySpace account was relatively easy. I liked the privacy options that allow the user to set the account to private so that only friends that have been added by me can see my profile. The option to create a personal MySPace URL was very neat. Mine is: http://www.myspace.com/jmcvt
Having never used MySpace before I am still learning all the ways to create a profile and add friends. I am glad next week is "Catch up" week. I'll spend some more time working on MySpace.

Week 5, Thing 10

2008-03-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

After reading through the materials for Thing 10 I have a new appreciation for social networking sites. From my own experience, sites like MySpace and Facebook, have been very popular with teens and young adults for "friending" purposes. I had not considered these social networking pages as options for getting news and information about the library out on the web before. I think as long as there is staff with available time and commitment to to regularly updating the account, that social networking sites could be very beneficial to libraries. It not only allows patrons to stay in touch with their library, but it also allows networking between libraries.

Week 4, Things 8 & 9

2008-02-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

This was not as intimidating as I thought it might be. I tried first, going it alone, with little success. Then I watched the RSS in Plain English video, which was great! It answered a lot of my questions. My first attempt was with Sage, and I just couldn't get it to work the way I wanted so I tried the Google Reader. This was much more straightforward. For some reason the feeds I was adding in Sage were not coming through, but they worked fine in Google Reader. I have uploaded some news feeds and a few library blog feeds. This could be very addicting.

Week 3; Things 6 & 7

2008-02-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed learning about the mashup tools. The movie poster was a favorite. I also liked Captioner, but could not figure out how to transfer the captioned image to another file, or upload it to the blog. I had the same trouble with the flickr spelling tool as well. The trading cards are great- I had a lot of fun with that mashup tool.

Week 3, Thing 5 part 2

2008-02-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a try at uploading one of my own photos. This is the part of the children's room at Jamaica Memorial Library. We seem to have a dragon theme going on. This photo was taken about 1 year ago (we have a new rug now!).
I am amazed at how easy it is to upload an image to a blog. I have recently started a web design course and including an image on a blog is much easier than including one on a website.

Ohhh. Now I have discovered that by dragging a photo I can place it wherever I want on the page. At first when i tried to upload this image, I had checked the right hand layout, but it came up at the very top of the post. By dragging the image down I was able to put the photos at diagonals. This is a photo of the Jamaica Memorial Library's adult's room.

Week 3, Thing 5:Flickr

2008-02-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Flickr is an amazing site. I had not heard about it before now. I am a little envious of the amazing photography skills of many contributors. There were so many great photos of libraries, books and animals. I searched for garden photos and found an amazing selection. This particulr one captured my attention.

Week 2: Things 3 &4

2008-02-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

I have always been a little intimidated about setting up a blog- but its as easy as setting up an e-mail account!

Post 1

2008-02-05T12:10:00.000-08:00

First post to a blog ever!