Summary

While I am glad to have learned about some opportunities on the web, this was just not a productive activity for me. I feel like the kids in high school who hated class because it meant nothing to them and the process didn't teach them anything. (they would probably do quite well on this exercise!!) "Exploring" is not my best way of learning. I like specific instructions before I start to experiment. And as I mentioned a few times in my blog, I had some philosophical differences with the purpose of these tools. I treasure my privacy, and don't care to share with the world. So cluttering up the virtual universe with pointless data just isn't my cup of tea. But at least now I have a better idea of what all those people are doing on the internet upstairs!

image generator

Mashups

Okay, I understand that it is possible to take pictures from various sources and post them somewhere on the web for everyone to see. It just seems like a lot of work to do something there are easier ways to accomplish. And I would need a lot more instruction on how to do it.

Week 9 - Downloadable Audiobooks

Finally, something I'm reasonably familiar with! In fact, my staff and I have to handle the catalog record of every title we get, adding a generic call number, etc. I am mildly surprised that 23 Things didn't seem to cover e-books that are not audio. We have a subscription to childrens picture books and a number of reference sources in addition to the e-audiobooks. But I suppose that is old technology, and not cool enough to be included.

I was somewhat surprised to realize that Gutenberg doesn't have a subject index. ONe has to have a specific title in mind, and the record certainly doesn't tell the much about the book. There were also LOTS of ways to download it -- some I've certainly never heard of!

This is one of those areas where patrons are usually way ahead of us, and are perfectly comfortable finding a way to download what they want. I do find that the product descriptions on our own website are very helpful for grasping the usefulness of each product.

Week 9 - Podcasting

I sure wish the instructions on these activities were better. I have spent over an hour trying to get an RSS feed into my Bloglines account. It turns out that if you use Yahoo podcast, you subscribe THERE, you don't pull them into your home account. I finally went to NPR, brought up their podcasts, and found a way to pull the link in.

The array of potential pods (?) is a bit overwhelming, and to a certain point rather offensive. In my normal routines on the web, I really don't run into pornography. But there were numerous blatent porn blogs. Thank heaven for NPR!

Podcast.net didn't seem to work. POssibly a block on our network? The MERLIN site was rather pitiful. Couldn't find the so-called training podcasts Nini Beegen described.

I'm going out in my garden and eat worms.

Week 9 -- Fun at last!!!

I have loved YouTube for a long time. This gave me a legitimate excuse to watch the Phillipine cpdrc prisoners in orange jumpsuits doing their version of Thriller and the algorhythm march. The ultimate in line dances, with almost 1000 participants! I actually have some YouTube entries bookmarked on my pc so I can keep going back to them. See? I'm not totally out of the 21st century!

Week 8 - Web 2.0 awards

There surely is a lot of STUFF out there! The winners seem to include the usual Google,You Tube, etc. Some extraneous others tempted me, but either didn't seem to work or require too much effort to access. The retail division had lots of sites for buying stuff, one of my primary uses of the web. Some beautiful quilts, and some pretty awful ceramics. Not well organized, IMHO.

Week 8 - Productivity tools

Feeling very uncreative, I just copied some of my own documents into Zoho Writer. Then I added the e-mail of someone who could "share" them. Now I need to find out if they got an e-mail and can access the docs. I can see where this might be useful for a committee assignment. But I found the site to have absolutely NO instructions on it. Guess I'm not intuitive.

Week 7 - Wikis

At last! A topic I can understand! Having Wikipedia out there made this all fairly easy to comprehend -- and thus think a bit creatively. I want to talk to Derek Buker about how wikis compare with our intranet. I'd like to have something like a wiki on which our guidelines and policies were posted for easy access. We have tried to do that on the intranet, but it always seems crowded or limited.

Now, I have to admit that if I posted instructions for adding gift copies to the catalog, or correcting data in a record, I would want it to be a closed entry -- not something other people could add to or edit. But wouldn't it be nice to have one place to turn for answers?

Del.icio.us

This is all so far beyond the way I handle my life. Don't people have anything to do but play on the computer?! I can understand the interest in having my bookmarks in a place where I could access them at any time, like at a conference or on vacation. But I really don't have many bookmarks. And the ones I use, I need logons and passwords for, and where would I keep those? Carrying a little pad of paper with me is so much easier.

Just a commetary on the exercise: I found the most helpful site to be the one called Us.ef.ul. The writer really gave good instructions, although he got kind of carried away in the end. But I appreciated the linear explanation of what to do and why.

I tried using LibraryThing last night, and found I was having a real philosophical battle in the process. I have been explaining to patrons for years that the library protects their reading habits. It is so ingrained in my brain that no one has any business to know what I've read.

And here is a huge program that let's everyone in the world see your list!! I found myself making up titles to put on there because I felt it was none of their business!

Not to mention that I sort of wondered about the accuracy of recommendations. I had put two mysteries and a romance on my list. And almost every "similar" list I looked at was recommending Terry Pratchett, a fantasy writer. What gives? I probably needed to put more tags and more titles on there.

Lesson learned

Today I learned that apparently one can't delete a posting.

RSS - update

Okay, I think I figured out the FNP feed. Instead of following their on-screen instructions, I copied the URL into my Bloglines list. AND I bookmarked the Bloglines site so I can go to it directly, rather than looping through these assignments. I'll catch on one day!

RSS homework

While I enjoyed the animal-related feeds offered through Bloglines, it seemed more useful to get a newsfeed that was local. So I tried the FNP. They do have a RSS link, but it seems to be programmed to go to one's "Favorites" list on a specific computer -- not to a Bloglines account. Did I miss something?

I would also have liked to get current postings on Kai Hagen's forum, on which all the local pols discuss current issues. But his forum does not seem to offer RSS feeds. Does anyone else subscribe to this, and can you clarify?

Based on the advice of my techno-buddy Jane Spear I recently purchased my first digital camera. It has taken me 3 weeks to get the nerve to try it out, but this weekend I actually connected the camera to my computer and looked at the pictures there. I tried e-mailing them, but that didn't work. I don't have grandchildren, so I had to take pictures of my new rock. I have such an exciting life!

Flickr

Well, I read through a whole bunch of pages about what Flickr can do, but it seemed way over my head. However, I did post a picture on my blog using the Blogger instructions. Why go to Flickr if we can do it here?

(p.s. the picture represents my current state of mind about this project!!!)

7.5 habits

Biggest problem is seeing problems as challenges. This exercise is an example. Setting up blog was easy, but accessing it was confusing. And who else will see this? I don't care for the blogs I've read, and am not really interested in having one of my own. Attitude, attitude.

Things

Thing 2. Created a blog. Wonder if I'll ever use it.