Thing 17

Ok, I am totally and completely lost. Is a wiki the same as a login account? And I didn't particularly like the directions for adding my blog to the list of favorites. It took me a while to figure that out as well.

Thing 16

Ok, this was a useful exercise. Despite my reservations about using Wikipedia (simply for the fact that it is a wiki, and therefor can be edited by anyone), some of these wikis are really cool. Right after I graduated from library school, I volunteered at a school for autistic children that couldn't afford a paid librarian. They had a room and some books, and that was about it. I could have used some of these websites then, particularly the ones that provide cataloging info!

Thing 13

Ok, I might be back on track here; I've finally sat down to do Thing 13...

I don't think I like del.icio.us. I can see where it might be useful for doing research, but I don't know that I want other people to know what all I've tagged. If I want other people to know what I'm interested in, I'll tell them. I don't feel comfortable having the entire world seeing everything that I've tagged. I don't believe I'll be creating an account here.

Thing 15

A friend of mine from grad school recently sent me a goofy forward that shows a little video clip of a monk discovering the book for the first time. Apparently, he was used to reading from a scroll, and could not figure out how to read a book. This "fuss" about library 2.0 reminds me of that e-mail. Technology is always growing and changing. If we, as librarians, human beings, and members of society, wish to survive, we have to change with it. That change can be as simple as going from a scroll to a book, or it can be the more complex changes that we're seeing today. Either way, librarians have to change with the times and with the technologies, regardless of what those changes bring about. Library 2.0 is not a new. It's just a new way to describe an old idea.

Thing 14

Ok, I know I'm a little out of order here, but I haven't had much luck getting some time where I can do Thing 13, so I'm going to skip it for the time....

That aside, Thing 14. I don't see the point of this step. OF COURSE your results are going to be different if you search by different ways! If I rank ten of my copious books by author, the list is going to be completely different if I rank them by title, or if I rank them by how many times I've read them. So, it seems to me to be fairly obvious that if I look for a specific word in blog posts, the results are going to be different than if I look for that word in tags or blog directory.

And I'm getting pretty tired of reading about Anna Nicole Smith (she's making more waves now that she's dead than she ever did when she was alive) and Brittany Spears (can't we talk about Nationwide's Super Bowl commercials instead?).

Thing 12

This is interesting, and another definite procrastination tool. I had a lot of fun looking up links for my searchroll, and I could go at this for quite some time. I've included the link below. Knitting is a passion for me, so it only made sense to make a roll for patterns.

http://rollyo.com/alerra/purls_of_wisdom/

Thing 11

Ahh, Library Thing.... I actually discovered this amazing resource some time ago when another student in grad school got me hooked on it. It is an amazing procrastination tool, and I go back to it on a regular basis. Unfortunately, I have yet to post very many of my books on it, so here is the link to my library, and in my coming spare time ;-), I will get around to putting in more titles

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Alerra

My Feeds

Wahoo! It only took me half the day, but I have finally figured out how to get my Feeds listed the way I wanted!

Thing 10

I had a lot of fun playing around with this step. I particularly enjoyed looking through all the different generators and seeing what I can do with them. I must admit I have absolutely no idea if the recipe I have here makes anything at all, but people are welcome to try it if they wish :-). It probably makes something similar to a popover; I just had fun coming up with something to put on the sign.

Thing 9

Ok, now that I have moved my feeds, I must now say that I am totally and completely lost. How do I embed the feeds of other blogs? Every time I've tried to add the feed of someone's blog onto my page, it always comes up "invalid URL". I'm confused.

That aside, after doing part of Thing 9 during Thing 8, I think I liked using Blogline's feed directory the best. It was orderly, neat, and to the point; and I didn't have to go through numerous hoops and windows to find the right feeds. I originally liked Syndic8, but I couldn't really find very many feeds that interested me.

Is anyone else as befuffled as I am?

Thing 8

Ok, I'm a little behind here, but here is the URL for my bloglines account.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Raindrop

And I wasn't able to get all my feeds into my blog, but the ones that are there, check at the bottom of the page. They should be there.

I don't think I particularly enjoyed this step....

Thing 7

Ok, a post about technology, any technology. (Does that mean I can write about the wheel?)

Last spring, I was visiting my family over Easter, and my brother, who is a self-proclaimed computer nerd, said to me, "Librarians will always need computers, but computer people will not always need librarians."

I took this to mean that he was of the growing percentage of people who believe that everything is online nowadays, and if you can't find it there, then it really isn't worth finding. I refrained from getting into the inevitable debate that NOT EVERYTHING IS ON GOOGLE! (only about 10%, actually, according to a study done by OCLC). Instead, I patiently pointed out his error in a different manner: that a good librarian should be knowledgeable enough with his/her collections that he/she can still provide the best of service, even when there are no computers around. He was impressed, but I think he still believes that everything worth finding is online.

So, are we good librarians whose level of service is dependent on our knowledge of our collection rather than our computer-saavyness, or have we, like the rest of the developed world, become too dependent on technology?

Slow Down!

Could I just say that I think we're moving way too fast here? I like to think that, belonging to the generation that grew up with computers, I'm relatively up-to-speed with them; but I'm having trouble keeping up. And I know that if I'm having trouble, most of the people doing Learning 2.0 are as well. I think we need to have a better system regarding this, and we definitely need to slow down the postings.

Thing Six

I have played around with Flickr now for a couple of days, and I have come to the following conclusion: I don't see the point of it. Sure, there are a lot of pictures on this site, and it's great that people can share for free, but I have a digital camera. Why should I have to go through the hassle of registering and setting up a Flickr account when I can just upload my own photos from my own camera?

Ok, that aside, Thing 6: One of the tools I found interesting was TripperMap, or Flickr World Map (http://www.trippermap.com/) It allows you to put a Flash-based map on your website or blog, then goes through Flickr to find information on the photos you have taken so it can plot them on the map. Another tool I really liked was ColrPickr (http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/). I had a lot of fun browsing through the different colors and looking at the different pictures I found. *This is a marvelous procrastination tool, not to be taken lightly ;) *.

Thing 5

I tried uploading this photo from Flickr, and I couldn't get it to work right, so I've decided just to include the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/imipolexg/351709012/ If anyone figures out how to upload directly from the Internet, let me know.

This picture reminds me of some of my undergrad days of yore. I majored in English literature, and in my classes on Restoration literature and drama, we learned that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the theatre was THE place to go for gossip and entertainment. People went there not just to watch the show, but also to watch each other. In fact, Pepys includes in his journal a scene from when he went to the theatre and observed the conversation between two people nearby him. He doesn't mention the play much at all, but focuses on the people around him. Although you can't really see it in this view, this picture is of the seats across the theatre from the photographer (if you look closely at the left side of the picture, you can see a small glimpse of the stage). I don't know what was the reasoning behind the person taking this particular picture, but I have always believed that it's just as fun to watch people watching a show as it is to watch the show itself. Think about it: when we go to see live entertainment, don't we go just as much for the social aspect (getting out of the house, seeing other people) as we do for the entertainment aspect of the show itself?

Things

Is Thing 5 up yet? I've noticed a couple of people have made comments about it, but I haven't seen any links to it....

More about 2.0

After about three days of puttering about, trying to find the database where we record our progress, I have finally figured it out. As several of my coworkers have already announced, it's a really clunky way of doing it. And then, once I actually got the DB up, and found my name, I accidently closed myself out, because I didn't realize how many windows were open. *sigh*

I hate MS Access

My Monthly Rant

I have come to the conclusion that the fashion trends have changed, and not necessarily for the better. Last week, I decided that I needed a few pick-me-ups in my wardrobe for me to wear in to work, and went out shopping. I went in at least ten different stores and only found two items to wear. Everything else I found was either hideously expensive, or for the corporate setting. There was practically nothing for people who work with the public (i.e. kids). I ended up going to a fabric store and buying several yards of material for me to sew my own clothes.

Maybe there is some hidden meaning in all of this. I mean, I know I'm one of those weird people who are short and curvy, but it's not like my body is so unusual that they simply don't make things in my size. Many of the business suits I saw would have fit me perfectly, so I know it isn't me. Maybe the message is trying to be that if people actually took the time to figure out exactly how much time, money, and effort went into making an article of clothing, we wouldn't be so materialistic about it all. I'm one of those few people in the world who actually can make her own clothing. I have recently come to the conclusion that since I'm perfectly capable of knitting, I shouldn't have to spend money on buying sweaters. Maybe this is the message I'm supposed to get out of my shopping experience. There are many women out there who have sewing machines and who sew, myself included. What's stopping us from making our own clothing, as opposed to getting other people to make them for us?

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2007

Learning 2.0

Been a while since I've posted here...

A little confused by the Learning 2.0 thing here, but here goes. Probably the step that is most difficult for me is #2, especially when I'm learning independently. I need deadlines and schedules to be really productive, and when I don't have them, I tend to drag (So this program should be good for me). Step 7 is also hard. I'm not too great at teaching others. I tend to over-simplify and patronize (this may be an occupational hazard of being a children's librarian -- my brother says that I sound like I'm talking to little kids when I try to explain things)

On the other hand, I'm good at playing :), and am usually pretty good at setting goals (most of them don't involve timelines). I know what it is I want to achieve, I just tend to be rather lackadaizical (sp?) about achieving them.