Discovery exercise #14 Library Thing

Library Thing is not new to me. I had read and heard about it before trying SPPL 2.0. But, I never set up an account or added any books to Library Thing. (It was one of those things I'll get a round to someday.)
Well, today is the day. Here is the link to five books I added. When I have time (ha-ha), I'll add the rest of my personal library.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/librarian2005

Discovery Exercise #13

As a creature of habit, I went back to fd's trading cards website to play around with an online image generator. These online image generators are way cool! I created a calendar and a magazine cover (again using images upload from photo discs). (Flickr is way cool, too!) Both activities were fun, but sometimes frustraing and time-consuming. The magazine cover (below) is not as good as I would like because the text on the middle left and the text on the the lower right blends into the photo. I tried white text, black text and different colored text. The text that looked best was black. When making the calendar, some of the photo images would also get cut off (or people would have text scrawling across their forehead.) I had to keep editing the pages and repositioning the photos so the calendar would like nice.

But, when everything was done, the magazine cover and the calendar came out so well, that I'm printing them out and giving them away as Christmas gifts. (My not-so-techy family will be really impressed and think I spent hours working on these things!)

Discovery Exercise #11 RSS Feeds

When I first heard about RSS Feeds I decided I didn't like them and would never use them. They look so complicated. (Although I suspect that I may have been because I was viewing one in html.) But, after learning more about RSS feeds, I've decided they are not so bad. I even managed to set up a Bloglines account and add some good library related feeds. It took a bit of an effort to figure out. But, like anything new, once you practice a few times, it becomes easier.

I am hoping the feeds I added will help me to better monitor the library blogs I read. Previously, the blogs were all listed in a Word document and whenever I had the time, I would open the Word document, click on the link and read the blog or blogs on the Internet. Sometimes, I read new entries and sometimes, I reread old entries (not realizing they were old entries until after I had read them!).

How could SPPL take better advantage of RSS feeds? Take a look at Arbor District Library and Hennepin County Libraries for some ideas. Here are their links: http://www.aadl.org/ and
http://www.hclib.org/. And while you are at it, check out this blog posting I stumbled across: http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-librarian-bloggers-by-the-numbers . It lists the Top 25 Librarian bloggers. Is your blog on the list?

#10 Audiobooks

Downloading audiobooks is ok-- if you don't mind the limited selection of titles or the horribly long download times. The one--and only--self help book I looked at in the Netlibrary had a download time of 3 hours and 57 minutes. (A colleague said, "I could probably read the book in that amount of time!")

I chose a much shorter book to practice with: The Cat in the Hat. It downloaded quite well to my computer, but I couldn't get the e-audiobook to transfer to the flash drive or the MP3 player. Tried another short book. Had the same problem.

It is much easier for me to use Books on Cd. I can take the discs wherever I need them and play them in a cd player. If necessary, I can also download them to my pre-Millenium computer via Music Match Jukebox or Windows Media Player. It is cumbersome (and probably a copyright violation), but it takes a lot less time than downloading from NetLibrary!

Discovery exercise #9--Podcasts!!!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I didn't get the relevance or usefulness of some of the Learning 2.0 features. But, podcasts I understand and have used! My favorite sites are SirsiDynix Institute and OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries). These two sites offer a wide variety of library-related learning podcasts.

Check them out at this links:
http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/
http://www.opal-online.org/

I tried the four podcast directories listed in the Learning 2.0 exercise, too, and didn't like any of them. There were waaayyy too many sex-related podcasts in their listings, and I found the listings long and cumbersome to sort through (even when I did searches). For me, Google and Yahoo seemed to produce the best and most useful listings for "podcasts for librarians".

Here are a few links to check out:
http://www.jenkinslaw.org/researchlinks/index.php?rl=307
http://www.libraryspot.com/podcast/othercasts.htm
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/ (click on the Podcast tab or enter podcasts in the search box)

Week 4, Exercise 8--You Tube!!!

There are so many YouTube videos I could discuss here! Should I discuss the Angry Librarian by tv12673 and how not to answer a reference question? Should I chose the Adventures of Super Librarian by the Western Kentucky Libraries and compare that with New Jersey Public Libraries Super Librarian video? Or, what about Conan the Librarian or the Ninja Libraian (who, by the way, are both just little too violent for the Library Slayer)? Or, should I discuss Moebius Transformations by local U of M profs and newsmakers Douglas Arnold and Jonathan Rogness? But, then again, the Oscar Mayer bologna and the Oscar Mayer wiener commercials, along with Mikey and the Life cereal commercial, have been longtime favorites.

Perhaps I should just let you see for yourself which YouTube video I chose...