Like RSS feeds podcasts are awesome! I really like the idea of having the information I’m interested in automatically downloaded to my computer so I don’t have to go out looking for it. Also like the RSS feeds I can see how easy it is to get information overload with podcasts. There is just way too many interesting things to learn out there and just not enough time.
I checked out a couple of podcast aggregators but didn’t download any. I chose to just use iTunes since it was already on my computer.
I did some searching through iTunes and Podcastalley and found all sorts of interesting things out there. There are a ton of different podcasts out there for learning a variety of languages. I thought I might have to try that sometime in the future. I found a podcast for the discovery channel and got all excited since that’s the channel I miss the most when we canceled our satellite service. Unfortunately the programs where just short trailers and introductions to the episodes so that just left me wanting more. The good thing about that is I now know how to unsubscribe from a podcast too. I found a podcast about dog training that I couldn’t resist subscribing to and then since I’m doing this on my work computer I thought I should find some library related podcasts to try. One that might be of particular interest to the participants in this class is “Cool Tools for Library 2.0″. The other ones I subscribed to are “The Library Channel” ; “Library Geeks“; “Library Luminary Lectures“; and “Uncontrolled Vocabulary“.
This morning I was catching up on reading my RSS feeds and I read an interesting post post by Jeremiah Owyang about using social media (The article was referenced on Stephen Abram’s blog Stephen’s Lighthouse ) That combined with the recent post of 2 Point Oh Yeah! about what’s so special about 2.0 got me thinking. What is so special about all of this? Many times throughout this class I have thought wow this is fun technology and isn’t it cool that I can turn a picture into a puzzle, or create a sign, or chat with a Facebook contact etc. But I also wonder just how much of it could be used to promote the library and the services we offer. Some things are obvious create RSS feeds that will keep your patrons notified of new materials or activities happening in the library, plunk a Worldcat (or better yet a library specific) search widget on the library’s Facebook page so people can search for materials right from there. We are just catching up on how to use much of this; but for many many people 2.0 isn’t special it’s just the way things work. They expect to be able to do all these things and they expect the rest of the world to be up to speed and offering similar services. If nothing else having library related services out there actively using 2.0 can be a great way of marketing ourselves. Yes we are up to date and trendy and look what we can do for you. Better yet with so much emphasis on the social aspect of 2.0 we can be gaining timely feedback from our patrons about how we can improve our services.
I’ve been enjoying this lesson. Not having used an image generator before, I spent a fair amount of time playing around with some of these.
I love puzzles so I created a jigsaw puzzle out of a picture of my best friends from library school . If you like puzzles too you can actually put this one together online. If the embeded puzzle doesn’t work you can go directly to the site to play with it.
I also discovered that Flikr has a puzzle generator that you can use to create puzzles which can be saved or you can even order a real physical puzzle made from your pictures.
I also just loved playing around with Wordle. Thanks to the person who found this. Someone had already created a word cloud for FRBR so I did one on Metadata.
Last night we spent the evening watching firefighters attack the Evaro Fire from the air and the ground. We did this from our front yard. The wind was cooperative and blew the fire away from our neighborhood. However it was a strong reminder that fire season is hear and we all need to be prepared. It is time to pack an emergency bag with cloths and dog food etc. And have the van prepared for a quick trip in the even that an evacuation is necessary.
This fire was started by a passing train, and was quickly under control. As I sit here fire crews are still on the scene keeping things under control. Even so it was all just a bit too close for comfort.
I have been enjoying this lesson on Flickr and used the 4th of July holiday to practice improving my 71/2 habits by spending some time playing. WHile doing that I discovered this snazzy browser extension called PicLens. Here’s what Duncan Riley has to say about it on his blog (He explains it much better than I could):
“Firefox plugin PicLens from Cooliris provides full screen immersive picture browsing of Flickr and other web sites that support Media RSS.
To use PicLens, a user clicks a small translucent icon that appears atop the image of interest once the plugin is installed. The PicLens slideshow interface appears and the user can move from one photo to the next or press play and enjoy the show. A user can intuitively browse images within search results, photo albums, and Media RSS enabled websites.
Support is currently provided for Flickr, Facebook, Friendster, Picasa Web Album and image search results from Google and Yahoo. Site owners can add support to any site with photos by including Media RSS support.
The best way to describe PicLens is that it’s a like the slideshow feature in Picasa or a similar photo viewing tool, but applied to web pages. The full screen rendering does require a decent internet speed when displaying large photographs, but visually the results are stunning. This Firefox plugin is going to find a lot of fans very, very quickly.”
I’m not sure if it makes anything more efficient or not and I don’t know how easy it would be to integrate into a library catalog. But it sure is pretty and I could see how it might be fun to browse book jackets (You can do this on Amazon.com) this way if you’re not searching for anything particular.
After spending way too much time exploring Flickr by clicking on a variety of tags (It’s amazing where you end up when you just start clicking related tags!) I found this cool picture of the stairwell in our library. I actually thought of taking a similar picture when I was playing with my new camera; but now I’m glad I didn’t because jen-the-librarian already did. Anyway since I walk up and down these steps every day and it’s a really cool picture I thought I’d use it for this exercise.
And since I couldn’t resist a chance to play with my new camera I took the picture below of one of the toys on my desk and added it to my Flickr account.
For this exercise I’ve signed up for the following feeds: CNET News Digital Library Sphere Planet Cataloging What’s New Weblog (for the Mansfield Library)
Quala’s Quandry (a friend from high school who I found again online)
And a few of my fellow participants in this 2.0 challenge
I have decided that I have a love/hate relationship with RSS feeds. I love how I can easily drag the feed subscription into the feed sidebar and bingo I’m automatically getting all kinds of interesting news about all sorts of things. I love how I don’t have to remember to go out searching for what’s new on a page!
I hate how easily I am distracted from my other responsibilities by all the fun and new interesting things to read. I’m pretty good at procrastinating anyway and RSS just makes it easier . Sigh…
RSS feeds would be a great way for libraries to push information to their users about the newest arrivals, or information on local events etc.
I thought I’d try to add a comments to a fellow 2.0 blogger and I ran into some troubles. Perhaps someone more familiar with this technology can help me out.
In order to leave a comment I had to “choose an identity” I have a different identity on Google but didn’t want to use that one because I’d prefer to use the same identity I’m using for my blog for this 2.0 challenge. So I tried clicking next to Open ID I created my blog through Word Press but host it on my own site instead of the (username).wordpress.com. When I type in my username and password I just get a message saying I need to log into word press. When I try to log into wordpress from their home page it doesn’t recognize me, when I log into it from my blog the log in works perfectly But still doesn’t end up leaving the comment.
How can a person leave a comment on another’s blog without specifying another blog identity? Or by specifying one that isn’t in the available choices?
After watching the presentation on lifelong learning I actually had a hard time pinning down the one habit which I find hardest and which one I find easiest. I think I do all them some of the time but none of them all of the time. Which ones are easier or harder often depends on the current situation.
That being said I think that most often the easiest habit is teaching/mentoring others - I love to share new things that I’ve learned and I find it very rewarding to be able to pass on that information to someone else.
The hardest habit for me to consistently do is play. While I love playing and quite often spend many more hours exploring and playing that I ought to it is difficult for me to consistently make the time to play. Most of the time I feel guilty for playing and feel like I ought to be working on something that feels more constructive.
I am however working on improving my play habits as I write this blog post. Not only am I experimenting with blogging but I am playing with Flock and posting this message straight from my new web browser.
This fire was started by a passing train, and was quickly under control. As I sit here fire crews are still on the scene keeping things under control. Even so it was all just a bit too close for comfort.
