The Underground Railroad used quilts that contained messages for refugee slaves.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Downloading an eAudiobook to my new MP3 Player
Well, after some trail and error I have successfully managed to download a book to my new MP3 Player. Registering and charging up the device was pretty straightforward. However, I ran into some problems trying to use the instructions that came with the Player in order to download my book.
In the end, I found it much easier just to link to the Overdrive Media icon that I had already installed on my computer. From there it was simple to just click on the "transfer" button to transfer the book I had already downloaded from the CCLS ecatalog.
Then I just had to figure out how to turn the Player on! After re-reading the instructions I realised that I had to hold down the play button until the unit lit up.
I am pleasantly surprised by the audio quality on my new Micro-Clip MP3 player; this is my first experience in owing such a device. I was also surprised by the tiny size of the device. It will obviously be very easy to use this when traveling etc.
Now I just have to figure out how to download some of my favorite music to my Player.
In the end, I found it much easier just to link to the Overdrive Media icon that I had already installed on my computer. From there it was simple to just click on the "transfer" button to transfer the book I had already downloaded from the CCLS ecatalog.
Then I just had to figure out how to turn the Player on! After re-reading the instructions I realised that I had to hold down the play button until the unit lit up.
I am pleasantly surprised by the audio quality on my new Micro-Clip MP3 player; this is my first experience in owing such a device. I was also surprised by the tiny size of the device. It will obviously be very easy to use this when traveling etc.
Now I just have to figure out how to download some of my favorite music to my Player.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Thing #23 !
Well, it looks like I finally made it to the end of this journey. I was more than a little dubious of my success at the start of this adventure due to my relatively little experience with technology. Sure, I knew how to access various web sites and send and receive emails and I was an expert at online shopping! However, RSS feeds, social networking sites, mashups,wikis and the like were all new to me.
Getting a late start on the project was also a little daunting but I was determined to see it through and just took the "one step at a time" approach to it. Valuable help was offered by another staff member, Sue V., who helped me through the stages of "adding a gadget" to my blog. Once I had mastered this aspect of blogging there was no stopping me. Why did I find this so difficult in the first place? I guess it was just the number of steps that I needed to take in order to successfully save and add a particular gadget. It all seems so simple now!
This is the most valuable lesson that I have learned from this exercise; ask for help if you are having trouble understanding new technology; we cannot be expected to just pick this all up at the drop of a hat; especially if we were not lucky enough to be part of the generation of people that seem to be born knowing how to program a computer!
One of my favorite discoveries on this journey was the flickr web site. As you can see I had great fun using the wonderful images on this site to decorate my blog. Another surprising thing was the RSS newsfeeds that I added to my blog. It continues to amaze me that the news headlines are magically updated for me on a regular basis; I am connected to the "outside" world even though I may be working away on my blog.
One of the most surprising outcomes of blogging was the realisation that others were actually reading my blog. I had not expected to receive comments from anyone other than family or staff members. This had led me to realise that blogging is probably not for me. I prefer to actually know who it is I am communicating with rather than corresponding with an anonymous person known only by a screen name.
Over all this was a great experience for me although time consuming at some points. I now have a much greater level of confidence in my technological capabilities and feel that I am much more equipped to help my library patrons with this new aspect of our lives.
Getting a late start on the project was also a little daunting but I was determined to see it through and just took the "one step at a time" approach to it. Valuable help was offered by another staff member, Sue V., who helped me through the stages of "adding a gadget" to my blog. Once I had mastered this aspect of blogging there was no stopping me. Why did I find this so difficult in the first place? I guess it was just the number of steps that I needed to take in order to successfully save and add a particular gadget. It all seems so simple now!
This is the most valuable lesson that I have learned from this exercise; ask for help if you are having trouble understanding new technology; we cannot be expected to just pick this all up at the drop of a hat; especially if we were not lucky enough to be part of the generation of people that seem to be born knowing how to program a computer!
One of my favorite discoveries on this journey was the flickr web site. As you can see I had great fun using the wonderful images on this site to decorate my blog. Another surprising thing was the RSS newsfeeds that I added to my blog. It continues to amaze me that the news headlines are magically updated for me on a regular basis; I am connected to the "outside" world even though I may be working away on my blog.
One of the most surprising outcomes of blogging was the realisation that others were actually reading my blog. I had not expected to receive comments from anyone other than family or staff members. This had led me to realise that blogging is probably not for me. I prefer to actually know who it is I am communicating with rather than corresponding with an anonymous person known only by a screen name.
Over all this was a great experience for me although time consuming at some points. I now have a much greater level of confidence in my technological capabilities and feel that I am much more equipped to help my library patrons with this new aspect of our lives.
Thing #22 Downloading an Audiobook
Downloading an audiobook proved to be a lot easier than I had previously thought; although this may be due to my increased confidence in dealing with technology! I must make a confession here and say that I was completely unfamiliar with the emedia catalog of the CCLS. The introduction to emedia was very helpful and easy to follow. I ran into a small glitch when trying to install the required softwear; it seemed that I needed to upgrade Windows MediaPlayer security, however, this was quickly rectified after following the instructions that appeared on screen.
When browsing the emedia catalog I was a little confused because I could not see how to place an item in my cart. I finally realised that this was because the item I was attempting to check out was already "circulating". A due date does not seem appear in the emedia catalog; we are simply instructed to place a hold on an item that is currently "out".
I really liked the option of listening to a brief excerpt of an item that I may be interested in on the emedia catalog. This helped me to make a selection of an item. I think we probably would all agree that the narrator of a book plays a huge part in maintaining our interest in listening to it. I finally found an interesting book that was available to check out;" Absolute Fear "by Lisa Jackson. Ironically the title of this book could be used to describe my state of mind when first perusing the exercises that I was expected to perform to successfully complete these 23 Things!
I was also surprised to note that this book will take over 14 hours to listen to. I wonder how long it would actually take me to read the paper version? It is not something I have thought about before. At the moment I do not have a device on which I can download an audiobook (something that I hope to obtain soon!) so I think that it is probably unrealistic to believe that I will have the time or inclination to sit in front on my computer for a total of 14 hours listening to this book. Even so, it is fun to know that I now have a book on my computer that I can browse at any time.
When browsing the emedia catalog I was a little confused because I could not see how to place an item in my cart. I finally realised that this was because the item I was attempting to check out was already "circulating". A due date does not seem appear in the emedia catalog; we are simply instructed to place a hold on an item that is currently "out".
I really liked the option of listening to a brief excerpt of an item that I may be interested in on the emedia catalog. This helped me to make a selection of an item. I think we probably would all agree that the narrator of a book plays a huge part in maintaining our interest in listening to it. I finally found an interesting book that was available to check out;" Absolute Fear "by Lisa Jackson. Ironically the title of this book could be used to describe my state of mind when first perusing the exercises that I was expected to perform to successfully complete these 23 Things!
I was also surprised to note that this book will take over 14 hours to listen to. I wonder how long it would actually take me to read the paper version? It is not something I have thought about before. At the moment I do not have a device on which I can download an audiobook (something that I hope to obtain soon!) so I think that it is probably unrealistic to believe that I will have the time or inclination to sit in front on my computer for a total of 14 hours listening to this book. Even so, it is fun to know that I now have a book on my computer that I can browse at any time.
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