MJ's Blog

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-20T18:41:00.000-08:00

# 23: The Beginning, Not the End

2008-12-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

I want to thank CTLS for offering this course. I've enjoyed it and learned so much.
I've enjoyed traveling through the course with co-workers, who are so helpful. I learned things that I will use personally and in assisting patrons. There is so much on the Internet, I'm continually amazed.
What and how to do a blog, Flickr, RSS, and an avatar etc. are some of the things I learned about. I think my favorite discovery was Yahoo Music.
The course was organized well and directions and links were very helpful. I realize I could go back through the course and learn even more. But, in the mean time I feel so much more knowledgeable about new technology.
I would participate in another program.

#22: Audiobooks

2008-12-20T17:54:00.000-08:00

As I write this blog, I'm listening to Peace on Earth, Good-Will to Dogs, read by Allyson Hester. I just went to the web and easily picked a title from the list. I didn't know if I could listen to it, it sounded like I might have to download something first. But, I just went to How to Listen and clicked, and followed these directions:

“right-click/save as” the “zip file of the entire book” onto your hard drive

It only took a few minutes and I was listening to the story, using Windows Media Player, already on my computer. After all the video and images, we have seen, I was surprised to find the audio reading so interesting.

I think having the audiobooks on line is even more convenient than the Talking Book Program. My father used it when his vision failed. Living by himself, even though the program made it as easy as they could, it was some what hard for him to send and receive requests.

Podcast= pod + cast

2008-12-19T17:25:00.000-08:00

I learned that podcast can be audio or video. Some of the podcast couldn't be viewed until something was installed, but some came up fine. At podcast.com, under library, some good audio was available. They talked about oral histories, that's a great idea for libraries, and the author interviews. I remember just a few years ago, local history classes making oral histories on VHS tapes, to store in the archives room, what a change in audience size.
I looked at Just One More Book, a podcast recommended by Julia, it did look good. I'm sure some searching would bring about a lot of useful ones, that would be good to subscribe to.

“podcast” comes from the combination of iPod + broadcast

YouTube: Positive Thoughts

2008-12-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

I visited You Tube. It's so easy, any subject in the search brings up videos. This one I picked is very pretty. It contains positive thoughts.
"If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost". ZigZiglar

For the library, I think it would be fun to video summer programs and activities. I don't know about legal issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIpQCkfORgc

Avatar Designer

2008-12-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

Veronica designed this avatar for me!

MJ's Meez

2008-12-18T16:11:00.001-08:00

# 19: 2.0 Awards

2008-12-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

I went to the awards list, and chose Travel, and came to Metacafe Music. I found a cute video of animals with Beatles music playing. I know there are a lot of videos out there, but I never had heard of this. I usually just think of utube having lots of videos. It surprises me that so many people publish videos.
To watch this video or other ones visit Metacafe!

Zoho Writer: Word processor

2008-12-16T15:03:00.001-08:00

What a coincidence. Several months ago, I asked someone if there was a program like this, and they said yes, but didn't know exactly how to get here.

My son is a college student that lives in a different town. He has a computer with Microsoft Office, etc., but my home computer didn't have Word. His left arm is paralyzed, and he has a hard time typing long reports. He could send me the scanned hand printed documents via e-mail, but I couldn't type them for him, because I didn't have Word. With this program, the problem of not having the soft ware is solved.

This document easily posted to the blog.

# 17 Playing Around With PB Wiki

2008-12-11T16:14:00.000-08:00

I went to the wiki, and got an account. It was easy, and I added a favorite book and favorite music to the list. I wanted to add a picture to the comment on favorite music, and accidently added the image to the main page, oops. I didn't know about wikis before or about the programs like PBWiki that set them up. Since, I already found this country singer, I'm adding the pic here.

Wikis 101

2008-12-11T11:37:00.000-08:00

The video in the lesson did a good job of explaining what a wiki is.
This was interesting. I remember when I first heard about Wikipedia. Some people thought it didn't contain accurate information, and I didn't really understand why they thought that. I don't know if registration was required initially, but obviously some people thought anyone could edit the articles.
I looked at several of the wikis listed and found that on most of them registration was required to edit, but there was a lot of information and other links available without being a member. I enjoyed the ALA Chapter Wiki, where I went to Texas Library Association.
I see how wikis could be very helpful to a library, I thought about a Friends organization having one to help plan programs and fund raisers, etc.

# 15

2008-12-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

Transparency Tyranny: the article in Academic Search Complete points out how cameras and video phones are widely used, and how library happenings will probably end up on social sites, more and more in the future.
There will be more blogs on libraries and library systems.

Here's the thing: 156 miiiion Americans use highspeed
cell phone networks that allow them to take
pictures like this and post them immediately to a
blog where, naturally, they can spread.
Ben McConnell, "Not-So-Secret Shopper," Church ofthe
Customer Blog, Jan, 12, 2007, www,churchofthecustomer.
com/blog/2007/01/notsosecret_sho,html

Technorati Exercise

2008-12-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

What I learned about: http://www.technorati.com/

It was surprising to me at what the most popular searches were. More high tech.
I found a little bit of difference in the number of hits between posts, tags, and the directory. The directory had the most number of results. The tags should have more information, specific to the search.

delicious.com

2008-12-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Posting about: http://delicious.com/kamcevoy

This was interesting. I saw a lot of good information, just from looking at Kam's bookmarks. It's amazing that it can keep track of how many people have visited. I do get a sense of how useful this tool is, especially for academics and research, more than socializing, but I guess people use it for that too, if they have the time.

Online Bookworm Game

2008-12-06T15:36:00.001-08:00

I checked out some really simple online games: they were fun. I guess if people have free time, they could spend a lot of time playing. Bookworm Adventure: I actually won. I also tried solitaire, chess, and defend the castle.
http://popcap.com/games/bookwormadventures?icid=bwa_HP_TOP10_2_A_07_01_08

Norman Rockwell 'The Book Worm', Kansas City Missouri
Originally uploaded by hanneorla

2008-12-05T13:05:00.001-08:00

I visited My Space Music. I did not know about that feature of My Space. It was very easy. It came right up, I typed in Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a biography came up, and 4 of his songs played. He has a My Space page! It was fun.

picture courtesy of Google Images!

Chat and IM

2008-12-04T13:35:00.001-08:00

I went back to Flickr to search for a picture to go with IM.

We were told it's safest, for copy right purposes, to download from there.

instant messaging sites
Originally uploaded by Will Lion

Google IM

2008-12-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

Blogging about the IM exercise: I don't think this is something I would use very much. Especially not at work, but socially I see why it is used a lot. If several people are on line at the same, they could "talk" and share videos etc. I think regular e-mail is more useful, and I would probably just call someone instead of IM.

More on RSS

2008-12-02T06:27:00.000-08:00

My thoughts on RSS: I picked feeds from places I already read regularly, which was easy, and I 've begun noticing the subscribe feature on different sites. I also came across the Utube feed, which sends the 10 most popular videos out to subscribers. That is fun. I will continue to read these feeds.

Really Simple Syn.

2008-11-28T17:13:00.000-08:00

I never heard of RSS. It is a time saver. I like to check these sites, and using the Google Reader, makes for one stop looking.

These are the links I picked:

cnn.com

statesman.com

lib.asu.edu/librarychannel

Live, Laugh, Love!!!

2008-11-26T18:18:00.001-08:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by mjrichter01

I found this poster-maker in fd's Flickr Toys. What possibilities. I've always thought this was a pretty picture, and I think it's really neat that my son got to go to Brazil and visit this place. He lives life to the fullest and doesn't let anything stop him.

You can go to:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

My Library Trading Card

2008-11-25T14:26:00.001-08:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by mjrichter01

How cool, Library Trading Cards! I looked at the Mappr, FlickrColor Pickr, and Montagr. Pretty neat, but I don't think I would use them very often. But, it's good to know what's out there.

You can do this at:

bighugelabs.com

Flickr vs Picasa

2008-11-25T12:40:00.000-08:00

I did not see much difference. They look very similar. I'm sure that people that have used both for a while could tell more about them. I did notice Picasa had a game on it that was fun.

Children's Area

2008-11-25T12:21:00.001-08:00

Children's Area
Originally uploaded by mjrichter01

This is a picture of our mouse enjoying the sunny children's area at the Taylor Public Library.

Bulletin Board

2008-11-25T12:04:00.001-08:00

Bulletin Board
Originally uploaded by mjrichter01

This a bulletin board in our library. We had some trouble getting it to post from flickr, but now we've got it! MJ

Jake, you made it! Congratulations!

2008-11-25T10:11:00.000-08:00

2008-11-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

I am posting about what I learned about Google. One thing I learned is that a lot of people don't know what all Google has to offer, more than it's a search engine. I've used the images feature a lot, but I think now I will use some of the other features as well.

2008-11-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

This is a post about the 71/2 habits of Learning. I love the 1/2, it's PLAY! I need to remember that, just play and try new things with technology, not be afraid of the new. It's easy for me to accomplish # 7, to teach/mentor others. Once I know how to do something, I enjoy sharing info.
MJ