Monday, July 30, 2007

Week 6, Thing 15

These articles for Thing 15 need to be carefully considered and constantly reviewed, in my opinion. There is no doubt that in the 10 years that I have been in the library things have changed dramatically. Gone are the days when we constantly flew to the stacks to find material for reports. It happens now, but much less often. Many of our customers have computers at home and only come to the library if the teacher says they must have a book source. Non-fiction circulation has dropped because of this, but at the same time, customers don't believe that a magazine on-line is actually that magazine. They think it is an internet source.

Many customers will do the work at home with our online catalog and then come in for what they want. We seem to be often improving our online catalog so that doing the work at home is easy and user-friendly. I don't think that you can underestimate the need for a living-breathing technology plan.

We received a teen grant at our library to be able to give to teens the technology that they want. This population is ahead of the game were technology is concerned. Some of these kids don't read or spell well, but they have a My Space site.

We are no longer the information marketplace-----we must adapt and live on the cutting edge of technology because if our customers can pass us by with all things technological, then there is no longer a need to come to the library. It's not just staying current for the heck of it-----it's called 'survival.'

Friday, July 20, 2007

Week 6, Thing 14

Wow! You just don't know all the stuff that is out there on the web until you spend a little time with something like 23 Things. That being said, I find that Technorati leads me to a million places at once and then I forget what I'm doing there. I'm a little dazed and confused---or maybe I'm just not the most fervent of bloggers.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Week 5 Thing 12

I spent some time playing with Rollyo. It is an effective tool to quickly bring you to the sites that are your favorites or the sites that you use the most. Unfortunately, I want to link to sites that include the boutiques and my credit card limit just isn't high enough. So, I just think I'll stick to recipes and news http://www.rollyo.com/index.html.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Week 5, Thing 11

Here is the link to my LibraryThing which I found to be a useful and fun tool. How many times have you gone to look for a title to something that you wanted to read and just could not remember what that title was??? So now just catalog everything on the LibraryThing and there it is. So many books, so little time. Here is my link to my catalog:http://http://www.librarything.com/catalog/beegraham

Week 5, Thing 10

Here is my posted picture from Wacker Drive, courtesy of LetterJames. These are fun things to play around with. I just need more time to play.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Week 4, Thing 9

After setting up my Bloglines newsreader account, I found a few library-related links that will come in handy. Among these are the New York Times book reviews, the USAToday book reviews and New Urban Legends. You'd be surprised how many times we get asked about urban legends. I'm looking forward to checking in with these.

I was not familiar with Merlin (had heard of it but had not used it) so it was nice to be introduced to that.

Week 4, Thing 8

I set up my RSS feed in Google Reader and now I'm certain that you have created a monster. I have listed several news sources and other websites that I'm interested in. The problem is going to be not sitting at the computer for hours to review all my favorite stuff. I can definitely see how this could become addicting.

Actually, I think it will be fun to pop in ever so often and check in on the latest. I found the video on setting up RSS feeds to be cute but very easy to follow.

Week 3, Thing 7

What amazes me most about technology is the speed at which everything changes. What is cool today is obsolete tomorrow. Take for instance the example of cell phones. A cell phone can do an amazing amount of techno things. Each time I upgrade my phone I need to relearn the new one which has the ability to do even crazier things. I need to take the time to learn of all its capabilities. For instance my new razor will take a video and it will be showing as my son is calling. I'm watching a video of him as the phone rings. It's very Harry Potter-ish.

I guess the key is to always try new things and keep learning. One of my favorite tools to use now is Instant Messinger. Who would have thought? Because of IM my house phone never rings any more.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Week 3, Thing 6

OK...woo-hoo...I successfully posted a picture from Flickr onto my blog. With a little bit of help form my friends (Katie to be exact) it worked.

Week 3, Thing 5

I explored Flickr, messed around with it and actually posted a picture. This is a big deal for me as I'm still trying to find someone to show me how to post a picture to the web. I often go on the message boards at HGTV where people post pictures and ask for ideas with paint colors, etc, for decorating their rooms or renovating their home.....one of these days I'll actually be able to post a picture!

Week 2, Thing 3

As noted earlier, I set up my own blog and added my first post. I was thinking about this after the fact, but blogging could have been of a handy use when my husband was going through chemo for lymphoma. There are so many friends and relatives who were concerned and wanted to know what was going on while at the same time we were exhausted (physically and mentally) by the whole process. What a nice way to keep everyone informed and receive the well wishes and prayers that they wanted to send. Blooging is great way to stay in touch.