Thing 11

LibraryThing is an interesting and potentially useful site. I used the "take the tour" link to learn about www.librarything.com and also used the "a very short introduction to LibraryThing" link.

Today one of our library customers requested a book about recipes from all the U.S. presidents. She thought it had the word "wives" in the title. I entered "presidents wives cooking" in LibraryThing's search box and the result was the exact book she was looking for.

Thing 10

I listened to the online image generator podcast at http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com/2006/09/10-play-around-with-image-generators.html. Then, from the http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/ link, I chose to play with http://www.signgenerator.org/danger/signs.asp?page=1 and created this sign















I think this could be useful in making eye-grabbing signs to alert customers about special events or special displays in our library.

Thing 9

I signed up for a Twitter account and entered my activities for a few days. Although I'm far from being a Twitter expert after such a short time, my impression is that this is not for me, and I can't think of any way this resource would be useful in my library.

Some of my observations:

• The number of characters allowed in the entry box is quite limited.
• This might be fun for kids or teenagers who need to be connected to all their friends 24/7.
• I'd rather call or email people.
  

Thing 7 and Thing 8

I read the description of RSS feeds and used the Bloglines newsreader account we set up in our workshop a few weeks ago.

In the workshop I subscribed to the following feeds:

• LibWorm: Humor
• SDCL Updates

Today I added these feeds:

• news from nctimes.com
• California State Library blog
• Encinitas weather

Thing 6

I looked at the site of PLCMC. Two of the features I think would be useful in my library are:

• calendar of programs and events
• RSS Feeds (and explanation)
• by category
• by location

I also looked at Ann Arbor District Library's site. I liked:

• time stamps on entries
• announcing new blogs for special interests (local history)
• events

I did not like that I had to scroll horizontally to see AADL's whole page.

Thing 5.1

I uploaded pictures to Flickr and it worked! (I made them private, though.)

Here is one of them.

Thing 5

Although I've heard the term "mashups" I wasn't sure what it meant. But now that I've explored Flickr it makes more sense to me.

I especially enjoyed playing with the mashup "Spell with Flickr" http://metaatem.net/words/ to see words spelled out in pictures. I couldn't read most of the page, though, because the text is dark blue on a black background. Why do people do that?

Thing 4

I visited Flickr, clicked on the "Take the Tour" tab to learn more about the site, then used the "Start the Magical Feature Tour" link to see some great things that can be produced using Flickr.

Then I joined a Flickr group but haven't contributed anything yet.

Thing 3

Today I registered my blog with Infopeople. I was happily surprised to see it worked and my blog is listed on their blogroll.

Thing 2

I set up my blog and added my first post last week.

Other people are posting long narratives, but I'm still trying to figure out the mechanics of all this. So for now I'm just posting the basics of what I've done or tried to do.

Thing 1

Hi, readers

This is my first post on my first blog. Watch this space for very exciting things to come.

See you next time.

Jan