Revisiting some old favorites

Just trying to get back in the groove. It's been a while since I got out with my camera.

Thing #28 The end and the beginning!

Finished! This was a lot of fun. I learned new technologies and was able to go more in depth on others that I was already familiar with. This has been my favorite library training course - I would love to see more like this.

Rollyo (#12)

At first I created a search engine called "free ebooks", but it wouldn't let me link it (told me it was spam). I created it again and called it "ebooks" and it will let me link it. It's not just public domain books because I included the Baen free library.

Ebook search

Thing #27 Google Maps and mashups

This is something I had never done before! I had a lot of fun and a nostalgic moment creating a map of my daily walk to school as a teenager.


View My Walk to School in a larger map

There were many interesting and useful mashups on the linked lists, like the one for finding a US mailbox and the one for mapping zip code boundaries.

Thing #26 Streaming Media

I'm already registered with Pandora, have created several stations and I love the Pandora app, which I have on my Iphone. I knew of Last.fm but had never used it, so for this exercise I conducted an experiment. I brought up both sites but did not sign into Pandora nor register with Last.fm. Then I tried to create a Blackmore's Night radio station on both. It worked immediately with Pandora (again, without my signing in) but, though Last.fm brought up a Blackmore's Night media window, it never played anything. I do like how Last.fm shows me similar artists (but I like the Genius feature on Itunes better). As for Pandora, I love how it tells me *why* it has chosen music for me, as in: "we're playing this track because it features folk roots, a subtle use of vocal harmony, acoustic sonority, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified in the Music Genome Project." That is soooo cool!

For a long time (an excruciatingly long time) we weren't able to take advantage of Hulu because our so-called broadband wasn't sufficiently broad. However, 6 months ago dsl became available in our area (I am still dancing my happy dance!), so we've been able to use it. Great for when you miss a show! But no Criminal Minds??? What's up with that? :-)

Thing #25 Screencasting

I think the most obvious use of this in the library as well as other settings is  for teaching software. It is a most effective tool for that.  For 2 years I had a paid subscription to Scrapper's Guide , a site that specializes in teaching digital scrapbooking.  Linda Sattgast, the site owner, uses screencasting for her fabulous Photoshop and Photoshop Elements tutorials.

Thing #24 Facebook

As with Twitter, I've been on Facebook for a while, though I use it more. I'm also already a fan of the Tulsa City County Library.

Facebook is a great way to connect and keep in touch with friends and family. I'll have to say, however, that there are ways that Facebook makes me anxious. Privacy is a concern, so I found the video that is part of this exercise very useful. I intend to review my privacy settings in the near future. I also worry because I don't check my Facebook page every day, so I'm afraid of being thought rude because I don't answer a message or a comment immediately.

I have the app on my Iphone and find that I'm more likely to do a quick check that way than to access it on my computer.