After the holidays 2009

This is at Queenstown NZ




We didn't do anything rash, but we saw some great experiences happening.

Heatherhill

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I have added my blog to the Favorite Blogs, and made entries into the Favourite Movie section with a photo of my all-time favourite movie, Princess Bride, 1987, with Cary Elwes. I also had to add Fifth Element, and Green Card which were very entertaining and which have great lines or special moments.

I have checked out the WikiStyle webpage which tells me all I need to know about adding to the PBwikis with the style of formatting used.

I also watched a great video on YouTube put out by PBWiki (PeanutButterWiki).

#16 So what’s in a wiki?

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Great definition.

What can my library do with a wiki? How about making subject guides..

Librarians have been creating subject guides on the Internet since before there was a World Wide Web. With the many “hats” that most librarians have to wear in any given day, updating the subject guides may not be a priority. Subject guides can languish online with dead links to long-gone websites and without links to newer, more useful sites. This may be because the librarian doesn’t have the time to update them or because the librarian must give the updates to someone else who actually puts them on the Web.



A wiki is a great format for a subject guide. Because it can be edited by anyone, patrons can add to the collection of useful resources and can prune away the dead links. The librarian can moderate the wiki and decide what websites can stay in the guide, or he or she can let everyone contribute freely. It’s a great way to develop a subject guide that really represents the interests of its users and doesn’t put the entire burden of finding websites on the librarian.



The librarian at Ohio University has set up a Biz Wiki in order to keep an up to date research guide for the staff, students and other librarians.

The Golden Compass

Reading my youth literature blog - Read Alert - Alice Pung was praised for her new book Unpolished Gem. I have to read this book in the holidays.

Also on the Blog was a reference to the Golden Compass - and a website reviewing Philip Pulman's response to the charges laid by the Catholic Church in America about the book and the film.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Having a rest every now and then - this technical stuff gets very complicated at times.

Looking at Technorati I don't feel I need to claim my blog at this point.

But this explains why you should..http://technorati.com/blogs/

This is the Technorati blog directory. So I've done the Technorati tour, and looked at the popular feature with Boing Boing being at the top of the list. This blog is about curiosities and gadgets.

I searched for my own blog and found that the link to Graduate Librarian came up. Perhaps she has claimed her blog. My blog's authority was 1, which must mean that only one person has my blog linked to theirs.

Looking at Yarra Plenty Online Learning

http://yarraplentyonlinelearning.blogspot.com/

The OCLC Newsletter

From the eOCLC Next Space Newsletter :an article by George Bishop, the Information Centre Manager, entitled "A Ripple Effect" I copied this passage:

• "In 1995 we passed a local bond proposal to build a new middle school and a new “information center.” Our service-oriented reputation [involving InterLibraryLoans (ILL)] allowed us to make significant gains in both the budget process and have a voice in the“infrastructure” of the new facility. We used some of our bond money to acquire a new library automation system (Innovative Interfaces) with greatly expanded capabilities, a security system and a self-checkout system. Today, over 90 percent of all library checkouts are done through selfcheckout, and our students love it.
  
• Quality customer service is another key to success for our library. Our goal is to make the total customer experience satisfying, pleasurable and resulting in an end-product that meets or exceeds their expectations. Students should always feel welcome.
  More..

Most notable services were:

• MP3 players available for patron checkout with a new downloadable audiobook program in place
• 52 computers on the technology island
• 30 wireless laptop computers
• Digital motion and still cameras for student checkout
• Laptops for student checkout

In order for small libraries to succeed, they need to think big. Here are some suggestions:

• Develop an innovative strategic and tactical plan. Work on one tactic at a time, and eventually, you will accomplish your goals.
  
• Network with other libraries, especially other library types (i.e., academic and public). School libraries can learn from other library successes.
  
• Make the most of your ILL capabilities.
  
• Purchase more electronic content and use local and state consortia, including your OCLC network.
  
• Consider adopting the customer service motto, “we want to serve you,” and mean it.
  
• Be more visible to your patrons by applying for library awards and grants.
  
• Ingrain your services into your patrons’ world so that they cannot live without you.
  
• Finally, promote your services. This seems simple, but otherwise students and faculty will not be aware of your expanded services."

These are really good ideas.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Exploring Technorati I found one blog which takes all my attention and then 15 mins later I find I don't know anything else but I have navigated around a complicated and fullsome blog complete with pictures, quotes, ads, appeals, other webpages links, petitions, polls, tag clouds, and multiple menus lists and options. I read the blogger profile and find that though some things interest me others disappoint. But that is life.





Us.ef.ul is a beginners guide to del.icio.us, but at this hour of night I can't act on the information but hope to later in the week.





This website YouTube Social Bookmarking in Plain English:by CommonCraft was excellent and easier to understand. I will do some bookmarking another day.

Good night

Keeping up with my blog links

I was searching through Read Alert, Insideadog, and Misrule and discovered a great website on names in the last blog. Think baby names is a great resource for new parents and even children to find what their name means.

It will be my birthday soon so I looked up my name and found that this website considers my name VERY popular! Otherwise nothing really unusual to report.

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

I have managed to make my own search engine using Rollyo and the instructions on the library webpage. I was able to search for a quote using Kizuki-sama's Quick Quotes Search. I searched for the quote 'pull up your socks' and found a page on socks quotes in AskOxford.com.

Everything else seems to be set up for sales of one kind or another.

Earlier this year we finally sold our old Cressida to the wreckers. It was a sad day, when 'Charles' was winched up on the tray and carried away to his last resting place.

#11 All about LibraryThing

I have made a start on my library cataloguing. I have pasted the info from Library Thing into my blog as a link, and hopefully there will be something there.

This Calistemon is growing in our nature strip and is called Kings Park. It is very vibrant and brings the native birds.

More fun with image generators

I couldn't resist putting these up to remind me of the great opportunities there are on the web for sending messages or making posters, etc.

E-cards and calendars are also other options.

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php

#10 Play around with Image Generators

Regarding this book "Spell book of Listen Taylor" -

the Read Alert blog at the State Library, reports that Roger Sutton from New York Times commented “Young adult literature has been doing some growing up. It’s not that it is getting better (although in a lot of ways it is) but rather that more and more of it is being aimed at older teenagers. “Twelve and up” used to be the standard reading-level designation for young adult novels; now “14 and up” or even “16 and up” have become common.” When we looked at this book for our library we were in two minds as to who the audience is meant to be. One reviewer says "Despite the wonderful cover, this is NOT a fantasy--it's contemporary realism with hints of whimsy and magical realism" More here.

Then I had a sneak look at my Wendymerle feed to find the latest delightful photo. I couldn't resist including this crocus on my page...

Now to get onto the real task - image generators:

See what your brainscanner results produce at this URL.

Veith Starship was generated at this URL Have fun with your own version.

And finally

At the RedKid.Net website Will's Show Band:

Still finding feeds

I found this monkey clone on my science and technology news today.

I also spent some time looking at church feeds and found a good blog on Old School Presbyterianism. The comments were extensive and informative and the blog was produced by Andrew Webb, and called Building Old School Churches. He writes from Providence PCA in Fayetteville, Nth Carolina. I think I will revisit this blog in future days.

#9 Finding Feeds

Finally getting the hang of this numbering system.

Questions: Which method of finding feeds did you find easiest to use?

Feedster is changing and will be back soon!!!!

Topix.net is confusing,Google blog search looks intuitive but does not produce sensible results, Technorati seems a waste of time.

Which Search tool was the easiest for you?

I don't know what I'm searching for.

Which was more confusing?

What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels?

None I am satisfied with what I've got already thankyou.

Or what kind of unusual ones did you find?

Too many to mention

What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?I have to go.

Bloglines and newsfeeds exercises

The following items of news :

Irwin honoured for science contribution came from the ABCNews : Science and Technology and

Time to rejoin space race: scientists from the same page of Bloglines newsfeeds is presented slightly differently from the RSS feeds I have already subscribed to. I fear that there may be many cookies created by these processes and may even slow up my computer. I hope not.

My bloglines page looks quite busy now.

The News Radio feeds are podcasts, while the other hyperlinks connect to the webpages of the original story or blog.

ABC News: Science and Technology (0) (0)
ABC NewsRadio Education News Links (10) (0)
ABC NewsRadio Environment News Links (10) (0)
ABC NewsRadio Religion News Links (8) (0)
Bloglines News (0) (0)
Graduate Librarian (3) (0)
LibraryBytes (10) (0)
Unshelved (0) (0) [!]

RSS & Newsreaders

I have subscribed to State Library Victoria Read Alert RSS feed and the ABC Science RSS feed today. There is so much to read I dare not subscribe to anything else.
Watched the Feed Me - a gentle introduction to internet feeds - from Palinet. It tells me that Bloglines is at www.bloglines.com/ and is web-based whereas some feedreaders are from a client program installed on my computer. Feeds are headlines with a summary and an option to read more... Also CompleteRSS is a feed directory. Otherwise an orange box with RSS, XML or ATOM on webpages will connect the feed to my feedreader.

My Library Trading Card

I forgot that I made a great library Trading Card the other day with my flower as a key to my personality. I decided not to make it public via the Trading Card Design site as it makes your computer traceable according to the Flickr site. Anyway I saw many other librarian cards and thought some were very strange. Maybe they are trying to present unusual images to be remembered like this one.

Flower photos/Japanese boys

What a crazy week, with wind, rain and Japanese boys learning English and finding their way around. They liked my meals and slept well, laughed and played drums and table tennis, taking pictures and being enthusiastic about everything except maybe Vegemite.

No RSS feed info apart from Wendymerle's pics which are astonishing.