Box o' Rocks
found beside book drop
Monday, October 29, 2007
Thing #12 Rollyo
Ok, I tried it. I'm not sure of its usefulness. Probably the Thing I was least excited about.
Thing #10 Image Generators
This just didn't catch me at all. The avatars all look a little creepy to me...Yahoo wanted too much information from me for something to just play with.
I liked the kitten generator ok.
My favorite here was a Blues Name Generator. "Steel-Eye" Lizzie Coolige will be the name I will use whenever I have the blues...
This reminds me of way back in the early 80's when someone I knew was experimenting with internet before it really was internet, before the web, back in the dark ages of telnet and gophers. He had a random poetry thing that would generate words on the screen. Sometimes they went together very beautifully, poetically. Sometimes they were just random words.
I liked the kitten generator ok.
My favorite here was a Blues Name Generator. "Steel-Eye" Lizzie Coolige will be the name I will use whenever I have the blues...
This reminds me of way back in the early 80's when someone I knew was experimenting with internet before it really was internet, before the web, back in the dark ages of telnet and gophers. He had a random poetry thing that would generate words on the screen. Sometimes they went together very beautifully, poetically. Sometimes they were just random words.
Thing #9 Library Related Blogs/Feeds
I wrote before that I'd been reading way too many library blogs. Here's a partial list of some I get feeds from:
Librarian Avengers, LISnews.org, rambleonsylvie, SirsiDynix Press Releases, tinfoil + raccoon, Unshelved, What I Learned Today,
Dilbert, Information Wants to be Free, Library Journal News, Library Bytes, The Shifted Librarian, BBC News, Boing Boing.
My favorites are posted on the side. Unshelved is perhaps my favorite and the one I find myself checking up on the most frequently.
Librarian Avengers, LISnews.org, rambleonsylvie, SirsiDynix Press Releases, tinfoil + raccoon, Unshelved, What I Learned Today,
Dilbert, Information Wants to be Free, Library Journal News, Library Bytes, The Shifted Librarian, BBC News, Boing Boing.
My favorites are posted on the side. Unshelved is perhaps my favorite and the one I find myself checking up on the most frequently.
Catching up: Thing #5
The hardest thing I have found is time to explore the Things and then finding time to blog about them. As we get down to the last week and I look over the tracking log, I've explored a lot of the Things, but nothing is written about them. So here goes...
Thing #5 Flikr
I visited Flikr many times and will be exploring more after 23 Things is done.
One of the questions I had-how do you use a image posted by someone else and not infringe on copyright? How do I know an image I have on Flikr won't be taken by someone and used as their own? When I asked a professional photographer I know, he bristled. He maintains that theft is rampant, you are taking a risk to put your work out there and yet if you don't have your work on these sites you don't get the exposure you need(no pun intended).
I looked into Creative Commons and I'll be reading more and learning how to use it.
Thing #5 Flikr
I visited Flikr many times and will be exploring more after 23 Things is done.
One of the questions I had-how do you use a image posted by someone else and not infringe on copyright? How do I know an image I have on Flikr won't be taken by someone and used as their own? When I asked a professional photographer I know, he bristled. He maintains that theft is rampant, you are taking a risk to put your work out there and yet if you don't have your work on these sites you don't get the exposure you need(no pun intended).
I looked into Creative Commons and I'll be reading more and learning how to use it.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Un-technology Moments
A problem with suspending customer holds came up. What we view on the Circulation Screen in Horizon is a little different from what the customer sees from My Account on our website. I had placed Help Desk requests on the subject, some time ago. I tried to find the info by looking through the Help Desk archives, different searches, to no avail.
I remembered printing out something...it would be in a file...we got new desks this summer, and I no longer have file drawers..they're still in a bag in the trunk of my car. I went to my car, looked around in the bag, pulled out a "Horizon" folder, opened it and found the piece of paper I was looking for. It turns out the Help Desk request was made last September. Why was I able to remember that piece of paper and find it more easily than looking it up in the computerized archive?
My husband, Harold and I were talking about his day with a new helper (he's an electrician) and teaching the 18 yr. old how to read a map. This young guy expressed amazement when Harold could lean over while driving and say something like "it's going to be east of York Road right there" and make a stab at the map without being able to read it clearly. "How did you do that?" the young guy asked. Harold asked him how he got somewhere he didn't already know how to get to? Mapquest or friends whose parents had a GPS system in the car. He had no idea how to picture Baltimore as a whole and where he was going in it.
A friend who teaches music to 4th and 5th graders says her beginning students come in expecting to pick up an instrument and be able to play a song their first lesson. They are frustrated by learning how to put together and take care of the instrument first and learning about reading music. She attributes it to having things happen instantly like they do on the internet.
Coming from the "slow" world before computers, even before electric typewriters too, I have to wonder where all the technology is taking us? If nobody will be learning how to read maps and play musical instruments that don't involve plugging in or logging on what will the world be like? What happens when the electricity goes out?
I remembered printing out something...it would be in a file...we got new desks this summer, and I no longer have file drawers..they're still in a bag in the trunk of my car. I went to my car, looked around in the bag, pulled out a "Horizon" folder, opened it and found the piece of paper I was looking for. It turns out the Help Desk request was made last September. Why was I able to remember that piece of paper and find it more easily than looking it up in the computerized archive?
My husband, Harold and I were talking about his day with a new helper (he's an electrician) and teaching the 18 yr. old how to read a map. This young guy expressed amazement when Harold could lean over while driving and say something like "it's going to be east of York Road right there" and make a stab at the map without being able to read it clearly. "How did you do that?" the young guy asked. Harold asked him how he got somewhere he didn't already know how to get to? Mapquest or friends whose parents had a GPS system in the car. He had no idea how to picture Baltimore as a whole and where he was going in it.
A friend who teaches music to 4th and 5th graders says her beginning students come in expecting to pick up an instrument and be able to play a song their first lesson. They are frustrated by learning how to put together and take care of the instrument first and learning about reading music. She attributes it to having things happen instantly like they do on the internet.
Coming from the "slow" world before computers, even before electric typewriters too, I have to wonder where all the technology is taking us? If nobody will be learning how to read maps and play musical instruments that don't involve plugging in or logging on what will the world be like? What happens when the electricity goes out?
Friday, October 5, 2007
What I Have Been Learning
I've learned how to connect my digital camera to my laptop and download (or is it upload?) pictures and post some on the blog.
I've learned how to take some music from my laptop and put it on the MP3 player and listen to it. I haven't learned how to control the player very well, resulting in playing the same thing over and over.
I skipped ahead and did Del.icio.us. I use so many different computers and being able to call up a bookmark list from anywhere is wonderful. The social networking thing...ehhh...who has time?
I also tried LibraryThing. As we are working on home projects and moving stuff around it was a good opportunity to grab a box of books and catalog them. Boy do I have old, strange stuff. Heavy in a few categories: ceramics/pottery, gardening/horticulture, cookbooks. It took a while, but I learned how to post one of those cool "Books from My Library" things on the blog. This is the most fun I've had yet!!
I also learned that it's way fun to take pictures of the strange stuff I see here at our branch and post them. Who in the world left us a box of rocks?
I've learned how to take some music from my laptop and put it on the MP3 player and listen to it. I haven't learned how to control the player very well, resulting in playing the same thing over and over.
I skipped ahead and did Del.icio.us. I use so many different computers and being able to call up a bookmark list from anywhere is wonderful. The social networking thing...ehhh...who has time?
I also tried LibraryThing. As we are working on home projects and moving stuff around it was a good opportunity to grab a box of books and catalog them. Boy do I have old, strange stuff. Heavy in a few categories: ceramics/pottery, gardening/horticulture, cookbooks. It took a while, but I learned how to post one of those cool "Books from My Library" things on the blog. This is the most fun I've had yet!!
I also learned that it's way fun to take pictures of the strange stuff I see here at our branch and post them. Who in the world left us a box of rocks?
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