I've had a great time learning about Flickr. I can certainly see the benefits of it for my private life--storage of photos, sharing them with family and friends, seeing other people's great photos, and learning to see things through other people's eyes in order to improve my own photo taking ability. I'm having a harder time seeing the applications for the library--perhaps photo sharing about programs at the library, events, or the library staff??? Book jacket competitions?? Links from our website to a cool "photo of the day" from library patrons? Don't know if any of that is actually feasible, but then, I'm just trying to brainstorm.
The photo I chose from Flickr to blog about is from Yuma, AZ, where I grew up. We have the most amazing sunsets there; sunsets that fill the entire sky like fire and water; breathtaking sunsets that make you pull off the side of the road and sit on the hood of your car and forget to breathe. I miss them. I learned how to hand-dye fabric in order to get just the right shades of color to create a quilt about the Arizona skies for when I get homesick (I'll try to post a picture of the quilt later). So anyway, I did a search for "Yuma" and got typical vacation-ey photos of the Territorial Prison (made famous in movies like 3:10 to Yuma), an amazing sunrise photo, and then this one of the sunset: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photophool/3307798091/in/set-72157612867760314/. I tried to download it to my blog twice before realizing that it's copyrighted, so I can't. Makes me homesick just looking at it. Behind the semi in the picture, off to the left, on the other side of an orange orchard is my parent's home. I can feel the heat on my face even now...
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Podcasting
I can definitely see potential for this application. I've already used this sort of thing with a teacher whose work I enjoy. I'll have to check and see if it's possible to receive it in an RSS feed. I browsed through the Library of Congress website and was a bit disappointed. When I started to watch the podcast, it kept stopping to download more, restart and run for a few moments, and then stop again--quite frustrating. I'm sure it would be a whole 'nother ball game if you had it set up to download automatically.
Commoncraft suggested that you could use this for television programs. There are some programs that I would love to use this for, that come on later in the evening, after I'm snoozing away. I'll have to investigate the possibility of using podcasts instead of trying to download from the internet, which I've found frustrating.
I think this would be a great tool for libraries; recording programs (like Ben Franklin coming this month to discuss the magic of reading), or even book discussion groups. In the first instance, it would be available for someone who had missed the program, and in the second, it would make it easy for someone to learn what a discussion group was all about before coming to one, or make the discussion available for someone who had read the book but been unable to attend the group for whatever reason. It would even be great to use for explaining how to use the library to do things like geneology research, or simple "how to use the library" for teachers to use in their classes (since field trips are on the budget cutting floor).
Since I don't have a designated computer here at work, I'll wait to set up the Netvibes until I get home and don't feel rushed about it. I'll have to post about that later.
I want to thank the Web 2.0 people who have been doing such a fantastic job of finding the most easily used tools for us to get our feet wet with. You guys have been great.
Commoncraft suggested that you could use this for television programs. There are some programs that I would love to use this for, that come on later in the evening, after I'm snoozing away. I'll have to investigate the possibility of using podcasts instead of trying to download from the internet, which I've found frustrating.
I think this would be a great tool for libraries; recording programs (like Ben Franklin coming this month to discuss the magic of reading), or even book discussion groups. In the first instance, it would be available for someone who had missed the program, and in the second, it would make it easy for someone to learn what a discussion group was all about before coming to one, or make the discussion available for someone who had read the book but been unable to attend the group for whatever reason. It would even be great to use for explaining how to use the library to do things like geneology research, or simple "how to use the library" for teachers to use in their classes (since field trips are on the budget cutting floor).
Since I don't have a designated computer here at work, I'll wait to set up the Netvibes until I get home and don't feel rushed about it. I'll have to post about that later.
I want to thank the Web 2.0 people who have been doing such a fantastic job of finding the most easily used tools for us to get our feet wet with. You guys have been great.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
More on Twitter
So, I sat my husband down and made him watch the commoncraft show on twitter. He saw the potential right away, and immediately set up an account. I tried to explain it to my 20 year old daughter, but she looked like Mommy had lost her mind. I think I may sign up, just to see what my husband is doing all day. It makes sense for him to do it, since he spends large chunks of his day sitting behind a desk (most days, anyway.) I'm actually more interested in what my away-from-home college daughter is doing, since I don't talk to her every day. I may force her to watch commoncraft....
Monday, March 9, 2009
Twitter seems slightly bird-brained
Okay, I confess. I don't really get it.
I saw the video, I read the LJ article, and I do see some applications for microblogging. The way the young adult librarians are using the system, the way the libraries are announcing new materials--that seems pretty cool. I can even see how my husband, the youth minister, could use it to remain connected to his youth, and even create excitement about upcoming events if he twittered about the preparations that he's doing.
For me, though? Not sold. It seems to me that all of those little bits of time that are used to update people on what you're doing to be more profitably spent in actually doing (working, anyone?). Call me old fashioned, but I'm a big believer that little bits of time add up. For instance, I may have a minute or two that I use to run a few patches through the sewing machine before I leave for work. Before very long, I have enough put together for a quilt. When you see something that major come together out of little bits of time used wisely, it's pretty impressive.
But all those little bits of time spent informing people about things they don't really need to know?
Okay. So we want to remain connected. If I followed my husband's twitter all day long, I'd already know what his day was like, right? So what would we have to talk about when we sit down to dinner?
Maybe I'm just a privacy junkie. I don't think people need to be constantly connected to me, and I don't think that stopping to tweet about taking out the laundry, putting dishes away, shelving books, or taking a break is a good use of my time. Instead of a smooth flow, a focus on the next task at hand, I'd be thinking "What do I say? Oh, don't forget to tweet about this."
Waste of time.
I saw the video, I read the LJ article, and I do see some applications for microblogging. The way the young adult librarians are using the system, the way the libraries are announcing new materials--that seems pretty cool. I can even see how my husband, the youth minister, could use it to remain connected to his youth, and even create excitement about upcoming events if he twittered about the preparations that he's doing.
For me, though? Not sold. It seems to me that all of those little bits of time that are used to update people on what you're doing to be more profitably spent in actually doing (working, anyone?). Call me old fashioned, but I'm a big believer that little bits of time add up. For instance, I may have a minute or two that I use to run a few patches through the sewing machine before I leave for work. Before very long, I have enough put together for a quilt. When you see something that major come together out of little bits of time used wisely, it's pretty impressive.
But all those little bits of time spent informing people about things they don't really need to know?
Okay. So we want to remain connected. If I followed my husband's twitter all day long, I'd already know what his day was like, right? So what would we have to talk about when we sit down to dinner?
Maybe I'm just a privacy junkie. I don't think people need to be constantly connected to me, and I don't think that stopping to tweet about taking out the laundry, putting dishes away, shelving books, or taking a break is a good use of my time. Instead of a smooth flow, a focus on the next task at hand, I'd be thinking "What do I say? Oh, don't forget to tweet about this."
Waste of time.
Friday, March 6, 2009
RSS Feeds--totally cool!
I had heard about RSS feeds before, mostly from just seeing the icon, I think. It didn't seem to mean anything to my life, just some techno savvy stuff that had nothing to do with me. This was totally cool, though. Instead of spending time going to all the different websites that interest me, I can put everything in one place and just go there, scroll through to find whatever I'm interested in, and ignore the rest. No hopping from one site to another, scrolling through to find what I want, running out of time and feeling frustrated.
Can you tell I liked this one???
I'm going to have to share this with my husband. As a youth minister, he tries to stay current with teens and ministry stuff. With this he can do it so much more easily. (With a few sports thrown in for fun, I'm sure...)
I think I'll investigate this more on my own time.
Can you tell I liked this one???
I'm going to have to share this with my husband. As a youth minister, he tries to stay current with teens and ministry stuff. With this he can do it so much more easily. (With a few sports thrown in for fun, I'm sure...)
I think I'll investigate this more on my own time.
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