Blog post order

I just learned that posts appear in order of when you started them and not when you "published" them. Does anyone know how to change that order? My Happy Trails post should be listed after my Ebooks comments since I finished and published it last.

Happy Trails to You.....

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I liked exploring YouTube, Bloglines, and Blog search engines.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It has given me a short term goal to pursue.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Yes, I definitely would participate.

How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
I found this program to be very beneficial. It gave me the push to try new technologies that I might not have tried otherwise. For example, I am not a fan of audiobooks. I now feel more equipped to assist patrons with their OverDrive and NetLibrary queries.

Finally, while I may have officially completed The 23 Things, there are a few applications/technologies which I want to explore further. Hopefully, I will be able to put them to use in the future.

Ebooks

Project Gutenberg - This site provides a variety of ways to locate materials. One can search by author, title, subject, etc. Also, one can also browse by genre, author, title, etc. Project Gutenberg also allows one to view the "Top 100" and "Editor's Choice."

World ebook Fair - This site has 125 collections that one is able to browse. There is free access to the site for the month of July. So, I was able to view a .pdf version of the children's book A Visit from Santa Claus.

OverDrive and NetLibrary - I prefer OverDrive to NetLibrary. Finding material on OverDrive is easier than on NetLibrary in my opinion. With OverDrive, one is able to browse as well as search. In NetLibrary, browsing doesn't appear to be an option. Also, OverDrive also seems to have more of a selection from which to choose. I gave up trying to use NetLibrary as I couldn't find any of the authors or titles for which I was searching. Although one can check out more at one time on NetLibrary, I would still rather use OverDrive. I doubt that I'll ever want to exceed the checkout limit on OverDrive. Most of the books that I wanted to checkout in OverDrive were already checked out and my only option was to place a hold on them. Finally, I was able to download Anne of Green Gables. I had no problems with the download. I have not tried burning it to a CD or transferring it to an MP3 player.

Podcasting

Phew, I have finally finished with Podcasting. There are a lot of interesting broadcasts out there. Listening to them on Podcast.net and Podcastalley.com was easy. However, I ran into problems when I tried to add the RSS feed from one of the book review podcasts to Bloglines. I tried first adding it from Podcastalley.com. I didn't realize at first that I wasn't the problem. It was only when I went back to Podcast.net, which is where I started, that I discovered it wasn't me causing the problem. The feed added without difficulty from Podcast.net. I am still not sure what the issue was when I tried from Podcastalley.com.

YouTube Pt 2

In a library setting, embedded YouTube videos could be used as training or promotional tools. Library staff could create videos of how to use the catalog, etc. and upload them to YouTube. The videos could then be embedded on the Library Web site. The same thing could be done for program promotion videos.

I wonder if story time videos would be popular?

YouTube

YouTube can be a lot of fun. However, you do have to be careful because you never know what you might find while browsing. Quality of videos varied greatly as did blogs on Technorati. If you are just browsing, this site can be overwhelming. I had more luck with the search term "Scarecrow and Mrs King" than with "Westie" or "West Highland White Terriers." Results were returned for each of my searches but I found the SMK videos to be the most entertaining. Below is an example of one.

Web 2.0 Awards

Oh me, Oh my!!! It was a bit overwhelming looking at the Web 2.0 Awards list. There were so many things that I wanted to try (and I was looking at the "short" list). I took a very quick peek at a few different things (such as Yelp!, Meebo, and ThinkFree) before settling on Pandora.

Pandora allows you to create your own music station. You can select different artists, songs, etc and then it chooses others that you might like to add to the station that you have created. You can add, delete, edit, rename, etc. your station. You can also give a thumbs up or down to the songs that it chooses. If you give it a thumbs down, it stops playing the song immediately. According to the site FAQ, if an artist receives two thumbs down from you, he or she is permanently removed from playing on your station. I really like this premise of this site. The only "problem" that I had was that the songs kept cutting out at times....guess bandwith was an issue. The site let me listen for a while before I had to register.

Hot Banana Topping

Below is a recipe that I had when I was at my parent's house. I am not sure where my mother found the recipe....All I know is that it is delicious over vanilla ice cream. I typed the recipe into the recipe template in Zoho Writer and imported it to my blog from there. Creating Recipe

Name of the Dish: Hot Banana Topping

Type: Dessert
Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 Tbsp butter 3 Tbsp dark brown sugar 4 large ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2” rounds Juice of 1 lemon

Directions

In a large sauté pan, melt butter. Add dark brown sugar and heat until sugar is melted. Add sliced bananas and coat with butter/sugar mixture. Squeeze lemon juice over mixture. Cook until heated through.

Zoho Writer and Google Docs

I created an account with Zoho Writer and played with Google Docs. I found something that I liked about each of them. With Zoho Writer, I liked the interface and templates. Although, when importing a MS Word document containing a table, I found Google Docs more friendly. Zoho Writer appeared to import just the text and I was unable to see how I could adjust the table parameters.

Also, I am not sure what type of documents for which I will use these applications due to security concerns. I feel safer with Google Docs when it comes to document security after browsing each application's Help section. However, it may be a false sense of security.

PBWiki Sandbox

It took me a little while to add my blog to the "Favorite Blog" page as they have been having problems with the URL linking feature. I would have been finished sooner if I had read a little further ahead and seen the warning rather than taking it step by step. :)

Adding a new page or editing an existing one seems to be easy to me although I have not created a Wiki from scratch. Maybe I'll have to give that a try and see if it presents more of a challenge.

Wikis

I have learned that there are a lot of different ways that a Wiki can be used. Being a control freak, I think that I am more comfortable with the idea of using them in a "private" setting such as within in an organization for training and other collaborative efforts. Librarians conducting Outreach events/activities (ie a database class) could post their handouts and presentation materials to a wiki. Attendees (ie teachers) would then have access to current resources and information. Also, an area could be created for the teachers to share ideas of how they used the database to teach their students.

I am leery of using it in the general public realm because of spammers, etc. I know that the poster needs to know the log in information but, with so many people knowing that information, the potential for abuse is great.

If the library decides to have a public wiki, then an "AV Zone" would be a great idea. The AV Wiki could list new releases and be a forum for patrons to post their reviews of the movies.

Web 2.0/Library 2.0

While I agree that we need to embrace the Web 2.0 technologies, I don't think that we should be using them to completely replace our "just in case" collections as the article "Away from the Icebergs" seems to suggest. In doing so, we would be driving away certain groups of patrons ie the poor and seniors. Some people are unable to afford Internet access at home and are unable to spend the time that they need at the library in order to discover the information that they want or require electronically. A book is much more portable. There are also seniors who don't feel comfortable with technology and don't want to learn. If we are aiming to be inclusive, we don't want to alienate our Seniors by pressuring them to learn a new technology and removing everything with which they are familiar.

Also, in my experience, patrons still want books. If they are traveling, as said before, a book is much more portable. Do-It-Yourself car mechanics want a book by their side as they peer into the engine in front of them. Recreational readers want a book in their hand as they lay curled up on the couch. It's hard to get comfortable with a laptop on your lap when you have to keep scrolling and adjusting the screen to read what's next. The kids coming into the library this summer may be interested in computers but they are also looking for books.....Why else would some our shelves be completely devoid of books by a particular author? These shelves are normally full.

I don't mean to sound anti-technology. I just believe that we can't REPLACE our "just in case" collections COMPLETELY with it.

One last thought....I agree with Michael Stephens, author of "Into a New World of Librarianship," that we need to make "good, yet fast decisions." If we don't, we won't be able to keep up. By the time we are getting the newest technological advance, it will be passe.

Technorati

I conducted a search on the term "library 2.0" using the "Exact Phrase" feature under the heading "Advanced Search." It yielded 7,091 hits. When I searched for the same phrase using "Tags," the first thing to come up was a "Quick View." Looking under each of the tabs shown in "Quick View," I saw that it had returned 22,555 posts and 333 blogs. It also yielded videos and pictures but did not provide a count of how many were returned under these categories. For the most part a lot of hits were relevant.

Next, I searched for blogs on Westies. I found information that I had not seen when I had used other blog search engines as a part of the Library 2.0 project. However, I had to sift through a lot of extraneous sites to do so and even some of the "relevant" hits returned did not impress me.

I guess that the topic of your search plays a role in the results. Maybe technology bloggers are more serious (Is that the word I want?) about their topic as I found a lot less junk with the Library 2.0 search than the Westie one.

An interesting side note....I searched for Technorati on Wikipedia and found that Technorati does not search My Space blogs. Also, according to the entry, it appears that Techornati concentrates on images rather than blogs. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technorati)

Del.icio.us

I have mixed feelings about the usefulness of this site. On the one hand, I like that one has access from anywhere to their "favorite" Web sites and that one can see the "favorites" of others. However, I think that the folksonomy of Del.icio.us is problematic. If one wants to find all of the sites that have the tag "Readers Advisory," then one will have to think of all of its variations in order to obtain a more comprehensive result. If Del.icio.us used a classification system, I would feel more confident in discovering more of the sites in which I might be interested.

I like the subscription feature. I have already found more helpful sites.

One last thought....is it just me that has a hard time seeing how many others have saved a site? I have a hard time reading the light blue/pink combo.

Rollyo

I discovered creating and maintaining a Searchroll on Rollyo to be simple. However, in my experience, I don't see much of a use for this site. It might have been the topic, Westies, which I used for practice or, maybe, I didn't include enough sites to make the Searchroll useful. I also found myself putting sites on my Westie Galore Searchroll with which I am very familiar. Thus, I already knew whether or not I was going to find the required information. Finally, when I conducted a search using my own creation, hits from sites that I had not included in my search were returned. How did that happen?

I performed a search for "replacement windows" using the Home Repair Searchroll that is already provided. Some valuable information was yielded indicating that Rollyo might be of limited use.

Next, I conducted a search using the "Web" option. In doing so, I basically searched Yahoo! as Rollyo is powered by it. I would rather just go straight to Google if I am going to do a general Web search.

Library Thing

I think this site is great. I found it very easy to use and love the reader's advisor aspect of it. The one thing for which I didn't care is having to choose from all of the editions of a particular title. If I was a collector that wanted an exact representation of my collection, then I guess that feature would be useful.

Meez, etc.

The avatar that I created at Meez.com is displayed above. Meez. com is a lot more sophisticated than Yahoo. Yahoo only allows you to display your creation on its products; whereas, Meez permits you to export your avatar to numerous places. Also, with Meez, you can let your imagination run wild in terms of hair, face, dress, backgrounds, etc. I had fun and could have spent a lot more time playing.

I also googled the term "online image generator." There are a lot of free generators available and you can create a variety of things (avatars, buttons, barcodes, logos, etc.) Below is a logo that I created for my blog.

RSS Pt. 2

I explored several other RSS feed search tools (Topix.net, Feedster, Syndic8.com, and Technorati) today. I found Topix.net to be the least useful to me. The site covers local news and, since the place where I live is small, there isn't much news to report. Feedster returned more hits on my search for Westies and West Highland White (terriers) than Syndic8.com, however, most of them were not relevant. All of the hits on Syndic8.com were on my topic. Finally, Technorati provided the most returns of all although it also had the highest amount of irrelevant links. A couple of potential advantages of Technorati is that it allows you to do an advanced search and to limit your results by language and "authority." In the case of my search, limiting to the highest authority didn't help.

Bloglines

I found this exercise to be relatively painless. I added 19 or 20 feeds and organized them into various folders. It is easy to become engrossed in finding sites/blogs/etc. to add.

The task that I found the most difficult is sharing your Blogline. I know that part is optional, but, I wanted to give it a try. I succeeded even though I am still not sure what they mean by a "link target." Look to the bottom left of the screen and you should see my libraries folder from Bloglines.

I like that I can now go to one place to retrieve all the latest updates to some of my favorites sites.

Internet Musings

Technology can't live with it and can't live without it. As much as we sometimes want to throw this or that technical device out a window, it seems we can't live without them.

Recently, I had my mother staying with me for a while. During her visit, she checked her email a couple of times a day. Considering that we had to drag her into the land of email, I found it somewhat surprising to see how attached she had become to her email account. Also, since I don't have cable, a day didn't go by without her checking the various news site to keep up to date with International news.

As for myself, I go through withdrawal if I can't access the Internet. I don't necessarily surf the Web every day; however, I feel lost if the possibility of being able to do so is removed. Back in the eighties, when I first accessed the Internet, I never imagined how pervasive it would become in my life and that of others....communication, information, and entertainment tool.

Mashups

I tried a few of the different mashup applications today. I used the picture above to create a wallpaper calendar, which is now the desktop background on my computer. Also, after playing for a while with a site that creates animated gifs, it seemed to me that I would need to use a series of sequential pictures in order to be successful (ie when you design a cartoon). I had been trying to do it with only one. Finally, I created a billboard using the picture above. Both the wallpaper calendar and the billboard were VERY easy to make.

Brodie in the garden

I can't leave my other cutie out.

Angus in garden

Isn't he cute?

After considerable play time, I have finally managed to import a picture from my Flickr account. I am not sure why it took me so long to accomplish the task. It seems so easy now that I have done it. In the future, it should only take a minute or two to post a picture here as all the set up work has been done.

I had to tweak the picture's placement in the post once I transferred it from Flickr. It was simple to move the picture; but, I couldn't get the credit or attribute where I wanted it.

Week 1 Thing #2 - 7 1/2 Habits

For me, the second habit of a highly successful learner is the easiest. As a naturally curious person, I have always accepted responsibility for my own learning. There have been times, when working with a library patron, that I have wanted to continue to locate information on a requested subject long after the inquirer has indicated they have had enough. Also, I ask a lot of questions.....some may think too many....is there any such thing?

The hardest of the habits for me is the third one - View Problems as Challenges. Sometimes I am able to view problems as challenges but, at other times, emotions or other things get in the way. Overcoming these barriers then becomes the challenge for me.

Week 1 - The Beginning

Testing, testing.....Looks like I was successful in creating my blog if you can see this post. :)

More later.