Hello again

Just signing in again after several years!
Will try to add posts a little more regularly now.

Thing #35 Micro or mini blogging

Started looking at Twitter but think I must be missing something. 

Couldn't find the COB library Twitter account to look at. And what's it all got to do with my mobile phone?

Will have to try again later!

Thing #34 Using the Web for better health

Found Fitday a very interesting site. The only problem is that to really get anything out of it you need to be honest in what information you put in!

Also some of the choices of foods etc. are not exactly the right type - very hard to be really specific.

I thought the report on whether you are getting the right nutrients etc. could be quite useful.

Thing #33 Express yourself through online art

Found Mr Picassohead quite fun but now can't find my picture again to try and put it into my blog. Sent it to myself at work so I will try again from there.

Thing #32 Online file storage

Tried to use esnips but was doing this at home and could not upload any files as it needed Adobe flashplayer 9 and I could not get this to download (or do anything in fact)

Then tried box.net and was able to upload some photos and send them to myself at work, as I       didn't know anyone elses's email!

Tried to upload a recipe as well but am unable to view the actual text so may need furthet work on this.

Thing # 31 - Get organized with Plaxo

Found home page quite complicated, but using the calendar and task list was quite fun.
Could see various uses of sharing calendars among staff eg. between teams or job share partners so each knows where the others are up to in their various tasks, projects etc

Thing # 30 I'm in ur library

bunneh

Not really a cat but couldn't resist this gorgeous photo from Flickr's Lolcats.

I agree some Lolcats are quite funny, but on the whole really can't see a lot of use for them in the library. Also I find the 'baby' language quite irritating in many cases. Maybe I just had too much grounding in 'good' grammar!

My lolcat below

Thing #29 Scrapblog

Having tried at least 8 times to publish a page, and once found that even the copy I had saved had lost a lot of it's background detail so had to redo the whole thing, no I do not love this site!
After about 3 hours waiting endlessly for things to happen and still not having managed to publish anything I am giving up!!!

Thing #28 Well we're big rock singers

getCoverPage.aspx,
originally uploaded by robynsmith23.

Very impressed with this cover - we thought the building was fairly impressive too!

Thing #27. Photobucket

Found this an extremely confusing and irritating site, made worse by the continually flashing pop-up windows that will not go away!
Managed to save a few images to an album, but they did not end up in the album I created for them.

Altogether very frustrating!

Thing #26 Yourminis

Found this quite fun but a bit overwhelming - where to start and stop.
Liked the idea of creating your own links to the Internet eg. chose "cover art' as a widget and then book covers, and was then able to open up the link from each book cover into the Amazon page with all the book's details.
Not totally sure when I would use this. Seems like creating a visual "Favourites' tab.

Thing #25 Letterpop

Quite fun creating a "newsletter" in letterpop, although mine is more like a tourist advertisement. Could be useful for all sorts of publicity on the library webpage, and I presume you could create and print off small posters for use in the library.

But did not find the editing screen easy to follow and the background colour I chose does not seem to have happened at all.

Now, though, cannot find how to link it to my blog. Any suggestions?

Thing #24

Managed to change a file type and the process seems very quick and easy. Unfortunately I really don't have much idea about different file types and all their uses, so at this point I am not sure what applications this would have in the library.
Obviously I need to find out more! Any suggestions?

Winery, South Australia

Winery, South Australia,
originally uploaded by robynsmith23.

From a marvelous holiday in September 2007.

#23 End or beginning

Has been a very interesting exercise for someone who was 'internet illiterate', and I have certainly dicovered a whole new world. I particularly enjoyed working with flickr and would like to follow this up, as well as wikis.

However unfortunately my enjoyment has been rather tempered by the fact that as a part-timer I simply did not have enough time to explore each area properly, and because of the pressure of finishing on a deadline I know there is an awful lot I have not taken in.

For future reference I would suggest this programme needs a good 6 months, for people (both full and part-time workers) to explore each area thoroughly and not just skip over the surface.

# 21 Podcasts

Have had a look at podcast alley, but found it all quite confusing and had no luck in getting an RSS feed onto my blog. Nonee of the screens I am looking at seem to bear any resemblance to any of the instructions!

#22 Audiobooks

This is an amazing site for the volume of titles available.

Found Kipling's 'The man who would be king' and got the full text on the screen, although was unable to hear it on my Mac computer.

Obviously there are library uses here for borrowers to download ebooks, particularly in the case of out of print books, or books hard to source, obviously those that have no copyright restrictions, but I'm not sure how satisfactory the audio component would be. Are they read by actors, like books on tape.CD?

# 20 YouTube

A fascinating site which is a whole new world for short film and video lovers, and people wanting to share their own movies.

I looked at some spectacular short films on the northern lights (aurora borealis) and was particularly impressed with one called "Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) by someone called Ramirashko. Although it is really a more like a slide show rather than a movie, the colours and music are stunning!

I think a video component could be added to a library webpage, perhaps to give a guided tour of the library, or to show some of the events we held.

# 19 Discovering web 2.0 tools

Had a look at the book creating site "Lulu".
Found this quite fascinating with the ability to create your own publications of all sorts and have them bound at what seems to be a very cheap rate and then distributed for sale if you wish - with the added claim that because of the site's 'no. 1 rating among self publishing websites' your work will appear at the top of searches in google etc.
I loved particularly the photo books you can create with full binding etc. (I have seen this done professionally and it is very expensive.)
I think there would be many uses in libraries for this sort of technology, such as annual reports, brochures. poster etc.

I like the idea of a library produced calendar with the year's main events printed in it as well as all sorts of promotions and information included. The run would probably have to be restricted though or the cost could still be prohibitative.

A great idea (and more economic!)I think would be to have a children's book writing and illustrating competion, with the winner receiving a bound copy of their book.

# 18 web-based apps

Have looked around this site and attempted to create document with image, but it was extremely slow and often not responding.
Looking at the list of 'bugs' in the 'forums' I think there may be some technical problems with this site.

The idea of this free service is good but I don't find it very user friendly.