My creation

My creation
Originally uploaded by hevs59

For Claire

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

#23 The last Post

Yep, it's the end of the trail for Web 2.0. I started off with a hiss and a roar, although I was uncertain about the reasoning behind the exercises and the application of many of them. By the end in 85% of the exercises, I had sorted out the rationale of me doing it and could see where it fitted in with regards to my job. The other 15% must be good for me - like eating vegetables perhaps! I hated the Technorati exercise (continuing the vegetable analogy, they are the peas of the programme!)
The programme got easier as I went through it which was good and was probably an indication of increased confidence, rather than increased ability.
Over and Out,
Hevs

#9 Locate a few useful Library related blogs and /or news feeds

http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

I actually did this weeks ago but hadn't blogged it so I had to revisit it. In truth, I prefer adding rss feeds directly from specific publications etc for specific things like books reviews rather than use the search tools as I found them on the whole clumsy. I could not access Feedster today so looked at Syndic8 which I thought was easy to use, though not very pretty! It had a comment bit so discussions were going on - a chance to put your tuppence worth in - which is a plus really as it gets the brain working. It also had a new feed section and I found Marin County Free Library there and had a look at that. I looked at Topix which is for news I thought was the easiest to access. I put in Emma Agnew and got 2,217 hits which was brilliant really (heavens knows what I'd get if I put in Madelaine McCann). I remain unimpressed with Technorati which I think is cumbersome to use.

E- books

Confession: I have never looked at e-books on the basis that I like reading hard copies. After I signed in and got myself an account, I went exploring and found a wide range of subjects. I added some to my favourites . The book I would like to read is 'Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 1919-1939' . My impressions of NetLibrary were postive: its easy to use, and easy to subscribe to. I now will use it to find suitable material for the public.

Podcast

An interesting exercise - the explanation was good regarding what it was. I looked at the three links and typed in the search term 'library' in each. The Podcastalley,com had "The library survival guide' and I managed to get it going and listen to it. I then subscribed to it and added it to my Bloglines Account as an rss feed http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs - and it works!!

U-tube

Played with this - did a Andy Griffith search and played a couple of the scenes - in fact played a lot of the scenes, because I got into it. I liked all of them but the opening theme with the signature tune was pure nostalgia. Also put in a keyword search for museum and got a brilliant takeoff of the Creationist museum and dinosaurs with some American rednecks starring in it. U-tube is a good resource for searching for specific footage. There didn't seem to be any problem with copyright re uploading the videos and putting them somewhere else.

Discovering Web 2.0 tools

Another easy peasy site to use - enlisted and logged onto seomoz.org and then choose kayak.com for my site to explore (why: well we used to have a business designing and making sea kayaks). Anyway it is a travel search engine site and a very good one at that - it is not affiliated to anyone and is not a retail site. It has links to over a 1000 travel sites and is used for comparing air fares, hotels, cars and cruises. Once you've selected what you want, it links you through to the online retailer. I'll use it again and have added it to my favourites. I would mention it to borrowers if applicable, but can't see any more formal use for the library world.

Zoho Writer/Google Docs

Tried Zoho and it failed to send me an authentication email though it told me it had - maybe hotmail problem, so here I am on Option B Google Docs! Great to use. Easy to play with. And has the distinct advantage of being available free via the internet so anyone can access it. Inserted an image just for the fun of it. Now I'll try exporting the whole lot to my blog...here goes...t

Sandbox

User friendly and very easy to do which means it is easy for everyone, me not being Ms Techno-bunny. Interestingly, for some reason my movie recommendation turned out to be in green text - ...not sure at all about that although it could have been the influence of Martians, but I like it as it is different.