Week 9, Thing 21

First of all, I didn't create a Bloglines account, I just used Google Reader. I searched for podcasts using PodcastDirectory.com and decided to search for Alaska. I found an Iditarod Podcast, and I added the subscription to Google Reader--here's the website: http://www.digitalpodcast.com/podcastnews/, which is actually not about the Iditarod at all. Thus, there's not really an Iditarod Podcast website even though the directory website said so. The website I was sent to originally was actually just another directory site. Therefore, I'm not sure I would endorse PodcastDirectory.com as very reliable. So, I then went to podcastalley.com and searched for Jane Eyre, where I didn't find a lot of related materials, but I found one of interest. "The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Geek" podcast is now in my subscriptions. (http://recordings.talkshoe.com/rss22770.xml)

In conclusion, I didn't have a lot of luck finding library-related literary podcasts, but maybe you just need to know the right kind of thing to search for.

Week 9, Thing 20

Being given free license to explore YouTube is a pretty wonderful thing haha. I, like most people, could get lost for days searching and viewing videos on the site. There's truly something for everyone and even though I know people who are not technologically saavy, I bet they still have seen a YouTube video through emails or other family members showing them the latest YouTube fad video. And the amazing this is that while there are plenty of funny, fan-related, or outrageous videos, there are still serious videos--like religious-themed, politically-inspired, or philosophical in nature.

On that note...the video I am choosing to upload is a beagle howling video because we have a beagle at home and I am partial to their wonderful bugle barking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeYnX9NwB1k

What I like about the site is the accessibility to all types of videos, and when you're searching a search history box comes up that helps with things you are unsure of the titles for.

As far as library use, book club discussions or author interview videos to me seem to be the most applicable, and something that libraries could utilize to introduce media into their resources. Also, book recommendations would have a greater personal appeal if librarians were in person recommending a book on a YouTube that could be linked to the library's website. Or, librarians could have personal staff pages on each library's website where their own linked YouTube recommendations are found.

Week 8, Thing 19

I chose to search the Recipe for Success site, which seemed mainly including blogging or other library/technology websites. One caught my attention, however, called "Literature-Map." It is a website where you enter the author's name and a conglomerate of related authors come up. Obviously, this has great applications to the library for people who are seeking similar authors. I searched Charlotte Bronte, and then clicked on Wilkie Collins from there since I am writing a paper incorporating his work. I then searched for a relatively unknown fantasy author that I like, Kristen Britain, and yet there were still relevant authors attributed to her ilk of writing. It would be difficult to do a search like this for book titles, as the floating nature of the results would be obscured with long titles. I suppose that is why the creators of this website chose to do author searches instead of book searches. Here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.literature-map.com/

Week 8, Thing 18

So this week I became familiar with Google Docs (since I have other google accounts it was simple to set-up). At first I was skeptical, but I became a believer with the ease of publishing and sharing documents/presentations/forms, etc. As you can see, I published both a test document and a test presentation in posts previous to this one. The presentation I had to manually enter the code in the "Edit Html" section of posting--but since the code was provided for me by Google, it was pretty easy. I can see where this would eliminate the different formatting errors that occur with differing editions of Word, Powerpoint, etc. But, I did notice that the document application didn't allow me to use accents which are often the cause of formatting errors, so that should be resolved for it to be truly internationally relevant.

This is a test document in Google Doc...

This is a test document in Google Docs as part of Week 18, Thing 18.

 

Blach dkljfeiold, slkfdmawoiefpawo,f sdf;las,fd;asl,df;sl,df;,s;fl,s

 

f

dfasdfmopsmf eesldkfsj;kfd

 

faslkdjf;slkdjf;lskmfdl;akmsf

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L;W;FML;WMLEF;WMWE

Week 7, Thing 17

Well, once I got set up in a wiki and signed up I was able to attempt to log in to plcmclearning, but they required a password or invite code. Luckily, the password is at the bottom of the screen which was a little puzzling and funny to me... Anyway, I added my blog to the list of general blogs and I also added my thoughts to "Favorite Sports Stars" and "Favorite TV Shows." To fully read all the entries would take a good amount of time, and I'm not sure I would have the patience to do so. Also, it is apparent that people just add one after the other instead of reading what has gone on before. If they would read, it would eliminate a lot of repetition and unnecessary entries that could instead be responses to previous entries.

Week 7, Thing 16

This week we were to learn about wikis--which allow groups of people to set up webpages without the knowledge to do so. Thus, it sounds like a short-cut to get people not technologically saavy at least participating in the internet. After surveying the linked wikis, I found the following to be the most interesting: http://bullrunlibrary.pbwiki.com/ and http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/. The Bull Run Library wiki had a lot of information for the library itself as well as the library's greater community. In addition, the site also had supplementary information on things of interest like the DTV transition and genealogy. Overall, this site is convenient for both users and creators. As far as the book lovers site, book lovers are known typically not to be the best techno wizards so it's nice this site plays to this stereotype a little (since they are using wiki to create the site). On the site are reviews and links to other libraries, so it is useful on a more specific, minimized level. Another site that provided good information on wikis is: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Wikis#Examples_and_Information, where I learned that wikis are also used for conference sites, community info, and subject guides.

Week 6, Thing 15

I understand the philosophy of Library 2.0--how do we keep libraries (as information providers) relevant in an age when so many people have access to the internet and the resources related to technology? It's so much more convenient to research/find information at home--in a comfortable, private setting. Libraries, in order to combat this, must somehow incorporate the technology that is partly responsible for creating its irrelevancy. In other words, libraries almost need to go above and beyond other resource outlets on the internet in order to provide a better, faster, or more efficient way to find and sort through information. This seems to be the point of Library 2.0--to incorporate all types of web information in easy-to-use multi-sourced databases by using tags, bookmarks, etc. While for these reasons I find Library 2.0 to be necessary, there is a great inherent risk involved in that in the library's attempt to remain relevant, the out-dated reading form (books) will be ignored and abandoned in favor of things like e-books and audiobooks. Books, therefore, must somehow remain viable in a time when everything else is telling people material, physical books are a way of the past.

Week 6, Thing 14

This Technorati activity was not my favorite. First of all, when attempting to search for certain keywords of interest, most of the blogs that came up in the search results barely mentioned the phrase or word I was looking for. It was more interesting to see the different blogs people were interested in in addtion to their own, which gave a better perspective of their interests and philosophies. However, I find the idea of a "watchlist" and tagging my blog so that it purposely brings more people to my personal site a little sketchy. My own use of a blog, if I choose to keep one, will be intended for friends and family only, but obviously this is all personal preference and some people only blog in order that other people can read and see their thoughts. The only real surprising things that I found in the popular blogs/searches is that some of the things people were searching for seemed to be old news--but, without TV or cable, I may myself be behind in the times as far as knowing what interests are coming back in vogue again.

Week 6, Thing 13

I chose to explore the bookmark titled "Eazy Cheezy 20+ Sites to Watch Movies & TV Online." This is relevant to me because I've recently moved and do not yet have cable. Researching cable prices makes this website even more appealing. Many of the comments are very appreciative and grateful for the work the manager of the site is doing to help others find viable resources for online entertainment. Also, Brian, the manager, comments to the comments and thus makes it a user-friendly site where you can be assured you will receive an answer to questions and queries. Some of the tags used are "online," "free," and "movies." It seems that the main challenge for this resource is finding the right tags/keywords you're looking for. What you're looking for may not be the best concept to be reduced to one word--so exploring with a variety of tags may be required.

Bookmarked site I chose: http://www.eazycheezy.net/2008/09/watch-tv-and-movies-online.html .

Week 5, Thing 12

This assignment is helpful in a similar manner to RSS feeds in that you can search/obtain information quickly in a convenient manner that doesn't require a lot of personal searching work. The biggest thing is to make sure you have different Rollyo-titled searches for specific things (you don't want your entertainment sites mixed in with research sites because the information you receive will not be appropriate for what you're looking for.)

Here's the link to my Rollyo search page: http://rollyo.com/rollyoacc/reference_rollyo/

Week 5, Thing 11

When I read this assignment I knew it would be fun!--can't work at a library without loving books! I added a little more than the required 5 because it was hard to stop when you're trying to consider all of your favorite books :) Here's a link to my catalog: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/engmaj .

Week 5, Thing 10

This has been my favorite thing to do thus far--I went specifically to The Generator Blog and there were so many interesting and creative generators to choose from! The one that I chose was a site where you can make a (family) coat of arms: http://www.makeyourcoatofarms.com/app.asp. Unfortunately, I got all the way through and then to print it out I had to give them my email address which I didn't want to do. So, I have no finished product, but learning about generators was definitely a fun thing!