I am not expecting to be able to add a new post to my blog for the next several days due to Christmas obligations. Here is another wonderful image from flickr to decorate my blog for the holidays.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Podcasts - Become Your Own Television Station! Thing # 21
Here is a podcast feed from Arizona State University entitled "The Library Channel" that I found on Podcastalley.com. I obviously couldn't resist adding this to my post today!
This is yet another thing that could work in our library system. Just think; we could make podcasts available of the many authors and speakers that we have visiting us here in the library. Not to mention the many other programs that people may be interested in attending but don't always have the time to. Instead they could download the podcast and listen/watch it at a time of their own convenience.
This is another one of those sites that could eat up hours of your time!
This is yet another thing that could work in our library system. Just think; we could make podcasts available of the many authors and speakers that we have visiting us here in the library. Not to mention the many other programs that people may be interested in attending but don't always have the time to. Instead they could download the podcast and listen/watch it at a time of their own convenience.
This is another one of those sites that could eat up hours of your time!
Monday, December 15, 2008
Having fun with YouTube Thing # 20
I found this site to be addictive! You could stay here for hours and peruse video clips for almost anything you could think of.
Here is an interesting (and short) clip from someone who gives advice on how to find mystery books to read online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AE7XG2pAls
I enjoyed watching the library services video clips from Coatesville Library. Having never had the chance to visit this library it was interesting to see what they had to offer. I think all libraries in the Chester County Library System would benefit from having similar postings on YouTube. After all, we all offer our own unique services to our different communities. For instance, we have a wonderful children's library complete with it's own story time room, aquarium and a bank of computers especially set up for children.
One of the most unique programs we offer here is "Reading with Animals" that involves having real live animals in the library! This would make a really fun and interesting posting for YouTube.
Here is an interesting (and short) clip from someone who gives advice on how to find mystery books to read online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AE7XG2pAls
I enjoyed watching the library services video clips from Coatesville Library. Having never had the chance to visit this library it was interesting to see what they had to offer. I think all libraries in the Chester County Library System would benefit from having similar postings on YouTube. After all, we all offer our own unique services to our different communities. For instance, we have a wonderful children's library complete with it's own story time room, aquarium and a bank of computers especially set up for children.
One of the most unique programs we offer here is "Reading with Animals" that involves having real live animals in the library! This would make a really fun and interesting posting for YouTube.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Rainbow Books
Another wonderful photograph from Flickr. Not sure I would have the patience to do this with my own collection of books.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Winter Scene
Couldn't resist "decorating" my blog with some more images from flickr! These photos are so much better than my own attempts at photography.
Thing #19 Do we really need to Twitter?
About social networking sites and libraries: As all of our patrons (especially the younger ones) are using technology more and more on a daily basis, libraries must offer them what they are looking for. After all, we offer audiobooks, movies, softwear etc. in an effort to appeal to a wide group of users.
To encourage more teen library users we must appeal to them at their own level. We would all like to see more teens actually checking out a book now and then but actually getting them into the library in the first place is a good start. Having teens in the library, within arms length of interesting books can be nothing but a good thing.
The WCPL MySpace page was impressive. The fact that someone can access their library record, link to their school web site, receive homework help and network with their friends all in the same place is amazing.
This brings me to Twitter. OK I have to admit that I just do not "get it". Do my friends/family really have a need to know that I just had a cup of tea while watching the evening news? Must we be "connected" at all times? If I am going to take the time to write to someone I think I would have something a little deeper to say which would probably take up more than 140 characters. However, judging by the popularity of this site I am obviously missing the appeal; maybe it is just my age!
To encourage more teen library users we must appeal to them at their own level. We would all like to see more teens actually checking out a book now and then but actually getting them into the library in the first place is a good start. Having teens in the library, within arms length of interesting books can be nothing but a good thing.
The WCPL MySpace page was impressive. The fact that someone can access their library record, link to their school web site, receive homework help and network with their friends all in the same place is amazing.
This brings me to Twitter. OK I have to admit that I just do not "get it". Do my friends/family really have a need to know that I just had a cup of tea while watching the evening news? Must we be "connected" at all times? If I am going to take the time to write to someone I think I would have something a little deeper to say which would probably take up more than 140 characters. However, judging by the popularity of this site I am obviously missing the appeal; maybe it is just my age!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thing # 18 Discovery!
Just spent some time learning about an organizational site called Backpack. Here is the link if you want to peruse it:http://www.backpackit.com/tour
I watched all the video tour clips and found them very impressive. It seems like having a Backpack account is almost like having a very technologically advanced kind of day-planner! You can create pages, add photos and maps, upload existing files, create a company or individual calender ( we all need this one!) and even have an online message board for your employees.
I think this is a great tool for businessess that have many employees and companies that need to continually keep in touch with their employees and customers.
This may be useful for larger libraries that employ a lot of staff who are not always at the library at the same time due to part-time hours and/or travel schedules.
The message board seemed like a valuable option for sending and exchanging information with others. Instead of sending individual emails out to everyone, people just check in to the message board and can read and respond to news and comments at their convenience.
This site seems to encompass a lot of what we have been learning about so far on our discovery of the 23 things. It takes information from varied sites such as Google Maps and incorporates it into it's own format. The only thing that worries me is what happens if the system crashes? Will we all remember what we are supposed to be doing that day?
I watched all the video tour clips and found them very impressive. It seems like having a Backpack account is almost like having a very technologically advanced kind of day-planner! You can create pages, add photos and maps, upload existing files, create a company or individual calender ( we all need this one!) and even have an online message board for your employees.
I think this is a great tool for businessess that have many employees and companies that need to continually keep in touch with their employees and customers.
This may be useful for larger libraries that employ a lot of staff who are not always at the library at the same time due to part-time hours and/or travel schedules.
The message board seemed like a valuable option for sending and exchanging information with others. Instead of sending individual emails out to everyone, people just check in to the message board and can read and respond to news and comments at their convenience.
This site seems to encompass a lot of what we have been learning about so far on our discovery of the 23 things. It takes information from varied sites such as Google Maps and incorporates it into it's own format. The only thing that worries me is what happens if the system crashes? Will we all remember what we are supposed to be doing that day?
Monday, December 8, 2008
OK - Here we are at Google Docs.
OK, here we are at Google Docs. As with Zoho Writer the formatting bar seems to be simplified as compared to the one on the new Word program. I also see the 'share' button prominently displayed in the upper right hand corner. I believe this is what I need to click on to publish this document to my blog. I can see how this type of word processing application would be useful for work purposes and for bloggers. However, I need to explore further to find how this application will work for those people such as college students who need to insert headers and footers, page numbers etc.
OK, I see this kind of information is available under the 'insert' tab; this took me about 30 seconds to discover. As a new user of both Zoho Writer and Google Docs. I am pleasantly surprised by their simplicity and ease of use.
Follow-up Post: Publishing this document to my blog was not quite as easy to accomplish as it was on Zoho Writer. I had to click on the 'help' button to find out how to do it but after that it was relatively simple.
OK, I see this kind of information is available under the 'insert' tab; this took me about 30 seconds to discover. As a new user of both Zoho Writer and Google Docs. I am pleasantly surprised by their simplicity and ease of use.
Follow-up Post: Publishing this document to my blog was not quite as easy to accomplish as it was on Zoho Writer. I had to click on the 'help' button to find out how to do it but after that it was relatively simple.
Thing #17 Zoho Writer
So far I am loving Zoho Writer! It was so easy to use and surprisingly simple to add the document to my blog. I think having an existing gmail account made things easier because once I entered my email address and password they just knew this blog existed somehow. I intend to explore the Google word processing program next.
Zoho Writer Thing # 17
This is my first attempt at using Zoho Writer so please excuse any errors! I am really interested in learning about this new word processing application as we have just switched to the new Word 2007 program at home and at work and I am having some problems working with it. I don't think it is as 'user friendly' as the old program; especially for someone like myself who just wants to create a simple document without necessarily needing all the bells and whistles that seem to appear at the top of my screen on Word.
I am also excited about seeing if I can really manage to send this document directly to my blog. We shall see!
Friday, December 5, 2008
New RSS Feed Added
Today I decided to add another RSS feed to my Blog. This time it is from the New York Times website. I must admit it was a lot easier to accomplish the second time around.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
#16 Playing with wiki's
Today I had some fun with the CCLS23things Wiki page. The instructions were pretty simple to follow but I had a problem with trying to figure out exactly where my favorite book comments needed to go. Eventually I just added a comment to the bottom of the page. Hopefully someone will let me know if that is not the place for them! I intend to visit this wiki again to check on the new posts/edits.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thing #15 Wiki Mania!
It was fun to find out the true meaning of Wiki (quick in Hawaiian). I had always wondered where this word originated from!
I particularly enjoyed reading some of the entries on the Library Success wiki. There seemed to be some helpful sharing of information that would be of use in many libraries. It is almost as if you have hundreds of librarian friends instead of just a few!
It was interesting to note that the Library Success wiki had obviously been having some difficulty with vandalism because they now require you to give an email address in order to submit/edit an entry. This would be my major concern about obtaining information from wiki's; can the source be trusted? In fact one of my son's college professors prohibits his students from using Wikipedia due to this very concern.
It seems as if wiki's need to have some kind of permanent overseer in order to safeguard the site in some way. Obviously a full-time job for someone!
I also found the Bull Run Library wiki interesting although it obviously revolved around that particular library and the events/news going on there.
I see this particular wiki concept as something that could be useful to the libraries here in Chester County. At the moment most of us have our own web-sites which give our patrons library information. However, it might be really interesting to allow our patrons to post their own thoughts and responses to programs and events rather than having them send us an individual email.
This would also encourage patrons to interact with one another. For example, the children's library could have its own wiki which allows parents to share information about books that their children have particularly enjoyed and which ones to avoid etc. To deal with the concern of wiki vandalism we could allow access to the site only to those who have a Chester County library card such as we do now with PowerLibrary home access.
I particularly enjoyed reading some of the entries on the Library Success wiki. There seemed to be some helpful sharing of information that would be of use in many libraries. It is almost as if you have hundreds of librarian friends instead of just a few!
It was interesting to note that the Library Success wiki had obviously been having some difficulty with vandalism because they now require you to give an email address in order to submit/edit an entry. This would be my major concern about obtaining information from wiki's; can the source be trusted? In fact one of my son's college professors prohibits his students from using Wikipedia due to this very concern.
It seems as if wiki's need to have some kind of permanent overseer in order to safeguard the site in some way. Obviously a full-time job for someone!
I also found the Bull Run Library wiki interesting although it obviously revolved around that particular library and the events/news going on there.
I see this particular wiki concept as something that could be useful to the libraries here in Chester County. At the moment most of us have our own web-sites which give our patrons library information. However, it might be really interesting to allow our patrons to post their own thoughts and responses to programs and events rather than having them send us an individual email.
This would also encourage patrons to interact with one another. For example, the children's library could have its own wiki which allows parents to share information about books that their children have particularly enjoyed and which ones to avoid etc. To deal with the concern of wiki vandalism we could allow access to the site only to those who have a Chester County library card such as we do now with PowerLibrary home access.
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