Wednesday, September 3, 2008

all lily could say was wow

Wellington, it wasn't meant to be.

Now if only I could figure how to transfer this blog to gina477@gmail.com... I like to finish the things I start.

This is no longer a work blog, but maybe I'll have something new to crow about soon.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Zoho Writer

My name is Gina and I am a librarian. As such I am often very busy.

I like to read alot, and not just all the kid's books that I have to read for work. I just started reading a new book titled "Chaos" - because I have always been interested in science.

This is all part of why I never tuly explored ZohoWriter, and why I am so late to finally post about ZohoWriter. ZohoWriter, in case you 2 were 2 busy to notice, well, let me tell you, ZohoWriter has lots of toys.

In fact, I will go as far as to confess that it is not all that like Google Docs. I figured since I already use Google Docs for online word processing, what do I need this Zoho account for? Just one more password that I'll never remember.

However. ZohoWriter has word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and other tools. It even has a tool for one such as yourself to create more tools. Specific applications that fit your library's lifestyle. There's a spot to start up an online wiki, there's databases, and more.

I humbly regret my error and the constant lack of time.

Hey Florida

August is here.

have I mentioned yet how hot it is?

Monday, July 21, 2008

what i like about web 2.0 tools

I like craigslist because it's plain. It's efficient. But you know, another thing I like about all these web 2.0 tools is that each one has its own aesthetic. Each one is a little different.

A tool is only useful if you know how to use it. That is my comment regarding how all this affects library life.

Regarding the PBCLS Wiki

It's fun! It's tempting! It's favorites.

I really miss Douglas Adams. (I was the poster who said still h2g2)

And now I've updated myself on the list of bloggers.

mo' gifts

Meanwhile, back at the ranch -
I said "to be continued..." so Let's continue.

The word wiki is Hawaian for 'quick'

I've never been to Hawaii. It's one of the places I've always wanted to go. My mom and I always talk about going to Hawaii someday. So Hawaii is both a nice place to visit and a good place to learn new names for everyday things.

A wiki is a technology which is new. The only thing new about it is that it's now technological in nature. Other than that, it's the same thing librarians have always done. Share information. Check the information. Make information accessible.

The intriquing part is the technological speed and ease of use.
A collaborative wiki is essential for any library, just like a catalog.

where are my weeks 7 and 8?

another week begins in paradise

Saturday, July 5, 2008

23 Things! Summary

My Many Adventures!
a summary of 23 things
I have thoroughly enjoyed this project. I don't generally 'blog' but learning how has been fun. I think there is a lot of potential to use emerging technologies as the information landscape changes. An important consideration in any search is the value or authority of the information presented.
It's great to have a space that allows for many points of view. The web is very cluttered, though. So don't believe the hype. Another difficulty is not giving in to techo-lust. Just because it's new and has a widget, it may still not be actually "the real thing."

Implementing these techologies in the day to day operation of the library system is a seperate project that would take more time. This program has been a helpful beginning. Thanks!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

podcasting

If the library had a blog/wiki type site for general news and announcements, I would think that a podcast spot would also be necessary, as it is more inclusive for those with sight problems.

I cast around for interesting podcasts. Started listening to Charles Simic reading poetry from the LOC website, and then got totally lost because I was trying to find one specific poem... Which I still haven't found - which is going to bother me all day. Podcasts don't seem to be my thing. The best use I can think of is listening to NPR online.

OverDrive AudioBooks

It took a little while, but I managed to download the player for AudioMedia OverDrive e-books. I wanted to to take this 22nd step to discover the difficulty level of using this service from the Palm Beach County website. I put myself in the place of the patron to see how it works and if it is something I can recommend.

This service could certainly come in handy for Youth Services. Many schools assign summer reading... and patrons end up waiting for weeks for a reserve to come back in. Granted, listening is not quite the same as reading, but with the more poular classic titles, this could be a good resource for the parents and kids who can't wait.

It is not difficult to use. It is nice to be able to burn to cd. But of course, as an ipod user, I can't directly transfer these for portable listening. But that's licensing in the digital millenium.

?

In the Library

31 kbps0.20 / 1.13

last week of 23 things

That was fun! Just like with many of these exercises, I sat here for about 15 minutes thinking ok, what do I do? Oh, 'embed' a video on to the blog. Ok, how do I do that? And after looking around for another few minutes, I finally realize. Oh. It's really simple. Paste the code.

And it's a very nice feeling. A small step, but one one that akes me feel even more comfortable and net-literate. Now if I wanted to, I could be like Perez Hilton. On second thought, I'm not that stylish. But anyway. I now know how to blog and add widgets and videos, etc. I like it. Thanks, 23 things!

Embedding a Youtube Video



Here is a commercial for apartments in Wellington.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

it's so obvious

This is probably too obvious to even mention, but why are craigslist and google the hot ones? Well, with google the strength of their search is a whole nother matter for people who understand complicated algorithms to talk about,

but as a humble user with a fine appreciation for the obvious, well... The design is eerily simple, no?

It's a white page. With a list of blue links.

Any idiot could use it...and therein lies a whole nother set of problems. (That's where my job gets harder. But Google Scholar is a nice touch.)

web 2.0

This is from the best of craigslist.

(Got to talk about craigslist. It's too crazy. I'm such a fan. And this one below is perhaps the best yet.)

email this posting to a friend best of craigslist > s.f. bayarea >
From the Craigslist Archives: 100 Years Ago.

Originally Posted: Sat, 30 Dec 02:09 PST

From the Craigslist Archives: 100 Years Ago.



Damnation! Cable Car Bells. Day and Evening - Clang! Clang! Clang!

I Paid $2 for a Lady of the Evening in the Barbary Coast. Was I Taken Advantage of?

W4M: Skinny Ladies - Abandon all Hope of Finding a Gentleman. Society Would Think We cannot Afford to Feed You.

RE: Cherokee, etc. ... You had no Less than Seven Spelling Errors in Your Missive.

Re: Damn Ferries! ... Bridges Traversing the Bay? That's a good one! You, Sir, are a Loon!


Progeny Persist in Playing Ragtime so Loudly on the Pianoforte that I cannot Concentrate on Reading Ovid.

Was Saturday Night Live as Funny Last Night as it was in 1871? I Think NOT.

RE: Stop Tapping Your Key so Hard ... I Shall TAP My Key as Hard as I Please.

To the Clerk at Trader Josephs Secondhand Rum Fumes Kill Innocent Babies.

Re: Opium Den ... We Call it 530 here. The Coppers do not Know what that Means.

I Predict that in 100 Years We Shall all Respect & Love One Another & Stop this Petty Bickering


Youngsters Bundling without Chaperones! Do They Really do this??? Can it be Stopped???

Cherokee Savages Have the Smallest Male Members

Benjamin & Gerald Name Iced-Cream in Honor of John Philip Sousa

RE: My Electric is Off Again ... Cheapskate. Switch to Westinghouse. Expensive but Reliable.

Where Might a Visitor Find a Good 13 Course Dinner in the City?

Damn Ferries! In the Future We Shall Cross the Bay on Bridges and be Done with Them.

All Who Invested Their Savings in the Kinetescope Business are Fools

French Maids!!! Stereo-Opticon Cards. Twelve for $1.

Christopher Pennington, Esq., Invites All to His Home on Nob Hill for Coffee & Cakes on New Year's Day.

To the "Gentlemen" on Polk Street Who Scared My Horses.

Pull Up Your Pants!!!

RE: Re: Krauts, etc., etc., ... and the Pollacks!

Next Summer's Bathing Costumes are Scandalous.

Would a Kind Member of the CL Community Please Direct Me to a Respectable Opium Den?

Anarchist Rally this Weekend. Time & Place Unknown. BYOB.

Re: Krauts, etc. ... You Forgot the Chinks, Spics and Jews.

A Teaspoon or Two of Laudanum Helps Children Sleep.

I Wish to Punch a Drinker of Demon Rum Right in the Face.

Gain 50 Pounds in 50 Days. You Need not Look Like a Starving Peasant. All New - Pure Lard Diet!

Re: For the Boys - Ankle Flash ... YOU WILL BURN IN HELLFIRE ETERNAL FOR POSTING THAT!!

English Building Unsinkable Ship. USA Lags in Technology.

My Electric is Off Again. Edison Will Not Answer His Telephone.

Stop Tapping Your Key so Hard. It is the Equivalent of Shouting.

M4W: Honest Farmer 65 Seeks Healthy Wife 18 to Bear Children, Pull Plow, Cook

To the Surrey (with the fringe on top) that Splashed Me with Mud on Third Street

Rapscallions, Pull Up You Pants!

KKK Cross Burning Tonight. Good Family Fun.

Roosevelt More Evil than the Kaiser.

I am Ashamed of My Country.

For the Boys - Ankle Flash Krauts, Micks, Wops: the downfall of America.


What else can be predicted for 100 years from now for the craigslist community?

blogging from google docs doesnt add title

I am blogging from Google Docs. I am skipping Zoho Writer, because it is extremely similar to what I am doing here in Google Docs. In fact, I could third part log-in and create an account with Zoho just by typing in my Google 23things address info.

But I can already post to blog or share right here in Docs.

I am well aware that Google could potentially take over the world with their insane abilities to store and retrieve info. Not that Google can be the only search/app space, but they are the leaders at this point.

This is one of those times where I might as well join'em. I love for the most part the many books they already have online. The digitized covers are so nice. And while I am feeling the techno-lust, I just don't need 47 widgets that essentially do the same thing.

So I'm all Google today. Until it's time for good old fashioned story time.

Blogging from GOOGLE docs

Monday, June 23, 2008

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

wiki's at lunch-time

I think that the best thing about Wiki's is the collaborative nature. For example, if the system did have a wiki-style calendar of events, the potential for mistakes is much smaller, because many people would be reviewing/checking over the same site. I have more to say on this topic, but I also have to go to lunch. To be continued

Friday, June 13, 2008

2 to 4

I can't wait for Library 4.0! If we thought 2.0 was weird, 3d librarians sounds even weirder... Do I really need an avatar? I guess I could try it :)
I read the future ideas by Wendy Schultz. Very interesting!

Technorati!

Not suprisingly I was also not too impressed by Technorati. I tried a bunch of different searches to see what would happen, including my hometown, bands that I like, topics like crafting, etc, and while it's nice that there is a way to search the "blogosphere" I didn't find any new interesting blogs. I've had more luck with just randomly clicking thru blogger. It seems to me that blogs function better as a catch-all type journal rather than being restricted to a certain topic.

Delicious!!

Delicious is not something I would use. I use Facebook, and Visual Bookshelf, which is like Library Thing. And if I had any talent for photography I'm sure I would use Flickr more. As it is now, I do visit Flickr mainly to look at photos at random, usually travel pictures of London.

In my opinion, it's not expedient or helpful to organize bookmarks. It seems to me that the point of tagging is more for others who may find your list by the tags you choose. Because tagging bookmarks for me is already done in my head, I already know what categories I am looking for, etc. This is probably because I am a selfish person :) and not yet thinking 2.0, but honestly, I can't think of a good reason why I would need to categorize bookmarks in such a formal manner.
Except for the fun of it!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

i think it's right?

I have added a link to the Google blog. I'm getting more familiar with blogger as well. I think this is a good project. It's listed as a blogroll, though... Seems like I need to do more research to really make rss work for me!

Gina

RSS technologies

Hello fellow 23-thingers...

For this week's exercise, I did create a bloglines account and set up a few feeds which looked interesting. But somewhere in this week the bloglines confused me. I decided to do some more research and looked up more library science blogs from all over. There is certainly a lot of funny people out there in library land having a lot of fun with their cool jobs! I also checked out the links/blogs/feeds available from ALA.

I think I still have another step for this week - to actually set the bloglines readers feeds to display on this blog. So I'm going to see if I can complete that step and spruce up this blog a bit!

Also, in terms of making use of RSS technologies for libraries - it could be useful to have a class for the public, or even a library RSS itself!!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

technology-related post

As an experiment, Today's post was intended to be a bit of the bard, courtesy of www.poemhunter.com -

Ah, Poetry.

Sonnet 103: Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth

Alack, what poverty my Muse brings forth,
That having such a scope to show her pride,
The argument all bare is of more worth
Than when it hath my added praise beside.

O, blame me not if I no more can write!

Look in your glass, and there appears a face
That overgoes my blunt invention quite,
Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace.
Were it not sinful then striving to mend,
To mar the subject that before was well?
For to no other pass my verses tend
Than of your graces and your gifts to tell;
And more, much more than in my verse can sit,
Your own glass shows you when you look in it.

William Shakespeare Read poems about / on: poverty, pride, sonnet

So there's the poem. And don't you know what? When I punched up poemhunter to help me with expressing myself in this blog/23things/online life stuff, I found something else new - something else that can be the subject of a "technology-related" post.

(because otherwise the technology that I find most intriquing is really simple syndication - when one has the web do the work for them, ie, rss feeds which can deliver up-to-date news on selected topics) ((but that's next week))

I was redirected off poemhunter to MOLI - www.moli.com Which seems to me to be another new and fun "social networking" site ala 46 things I'd like to do one day etc. It's got music, it's got friends spaces and there's a commerce area wherein the tagline is "Control Your Privacy" - so it's a social site for small businesses to create like personalized ebay store pages as well as network. Wow, where have I heard this idea before? It's got a cool graphic look and might be worth checking out...

Monday, May 19, 2008

A New Week

Another week has gone by in Florida. There is a lot to still learn and get used to. I am keenly awaiting summer to see just how hot it will get, as this is my first year living on land in the tropics!
There is so much going on at the Wellington Library. My first few months here have been a whirlwind. There is much that library science school can't prepare you for! I am very glad that the system is encouraging technology-enabled learning like blogging.
I appreciated watching the 71/2 habits video as it gave me a lot to think about. There is always alot to learn and always a reference question that you think about days later wondering if there was some other way to answer the question. Having the possibility of a new forum for reference, reader's advisory and publicity is helpful.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Learning to Blog

This is a new form of information overload. My name is Gina and I am a recent arrival to Florida. The libraries here are awesome.

Kaboose Craft Finder