#13 Week 6 Delicious sites

I was already familiar with del.icio.us, but I found Netvibes doing this assignment and now it is my new start-up page. I added a guest book, the network badge for delicious, and a better template. My blog never looked better! In terms of delicious as a search tool, I think I'll tell students to search google book search first, then delicious, then a regular google search in the order of reliable sources. You may not get as many hits using delicious but you certainly get quality.

#12 Week 5 Rollyo

I can see this as a good way to narrow searches for research projects. I created a search engine of the websites of libraries from competing schools.

Here's a sample search box:

Select Search Engine...ReferenceSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

I don't like the sponsored links in the search results.

#11 Week 5

Since I have already looked at Technorati and Bloglines I explored Findory. Rather than clicking on one of the stories I went directly for the search bar and typed in "librarianship" (what can I say, I'm impatient). After just a little digging I came across The Library Instruction Wiki which should be very useful. In fact next week I'll be introducing a small summer school class to the library so I may be able to find some useful handouts and lessons.



Above is a picture of an entry for the ALA conference in the Library Instruction Wiki. As near as I can figure it had been spammed by someone who wanted to sell ringtones. So I made my first ever edit to a Wiki; I deleted the spam. But since this was my first edit and I was not 100% sure that it was spam I also started a discussion about the page noting what I deleted and asking for an explanation if it was not spam. If you have seen this kind of thing before please let me know. Here is a picture of the page after the edit:



Just as a side note, in order to make this entry and place the photos where I wanted them I had to cut and paste the html for the photo in the correct place since the only web options are to post the photos at the top. This is easy but if there are users who are intimidated by html then it is a limitation.

I've created a project blog.

I'm starting to see more possibilities for blogging now. I just started a project blog to record the process of cleaning up and organizing the library I have just "inherited." I also used Slide.com for a slide show of the "before" pictures of the library (Very cool! Thanks learning 2.0 team!). We have an independent study program that is now evaluated from an essay, but a project blog would be much more ideal for this. I also think reading journals are now obsolete. Students blogging and the teacher reading with an rss feed would be so much simpler.

The beginning of YouTube

#10 Week 4

I know some students who would enjoy doing the real thing.



These are fun to play with, but I need some convincing that they have educational uses.

#9 Week 4

I couldn't blog my feelings any better. OHH! Bonus! Check out all the videos you can watch after this one is over. BTW I found this on Technorati. I am starting to feel information fatigue from information overload . . . and I'm an internet person. Here's another blogger feeling it much worse than I am that I found on BlogPulse.

#8 Week 4

So I'm using Google Reader. I already have way too many websites. I think I'm going to have unsubscribe from del.ico.us; I can't keep up with the updates. RSS feeds are supposed to save time, but for me it has just made it more tempting for me to spend time reading websites.

#7 Week 3 Technology Post

I know that the goal for this post is just to riff on new apps or electronics that will help librarians, and in that vain I'm looking at buying an iRecord and a TIVO as a means of bringing educational tv into the classroom, but I'm really interested in taking a more generalized view of the library and technology.

This is an interesting paper by Robin Murray: Library Systems: Synthesise, Specialise, Mobilise

I agree with a lot of what he says, but I don't think that our role as librarians is just to know our local client's needs: "Applying local knowledge of the user population to the service - understanding holistic user profiles and requirements allows the service to be tailored to specific user groups and individuals. The library has greater access to specific profiling information than is available to generic network service providers." I think we also contribute to the network, internet, world knowledge, whatever you want to call it, the information that we have locally that no one else has. The easiest example, and it is just the tip of the iceburg, is writing a detailed Wikipedia entry for your elementary school, high school, or college.

#6 Week 3 Playing with Flickr Fun

Ok, I'm starting to like Flickr a lot more. I'll admit that before doing this exercise, I really only thought of it as a place to store photos and a way to let out of state family see those photos. But after checking fd's flickr toys and 1001 uploading app, I've seen some of the possibilities. One of the features of 1001 is that it will stream pictures that people are posting at the moment they are posting. This may not be interesting to everyone, but I find it fastinating, like having my finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist.

Curriculum Connection:
Idea 1: Collaborate with English teachers to create movie posters of the books they are reading. Students have to first identify passages that give physical discriptions of main characters. Then they pick an important scene and reconstruct that scene as a digital photo. (I can see them having a lot of fun working together in costumes, wigs, etc. for this) then create the movie poster of the book. The best posters could even be put up in the library!

The chipmunk is my daughter. Yep, she's a star.

Maker Faire Flickr Portrait #5 (week 3)

Maker Faire Flickr Portrait, originally uploaded by andrewjthomas.

So this is my brother and I at Maker Faire. I'm the one holding the pink flamingo; yes I'm that much of a dork. I went because I wanted to pick up the Ybox, but I haven't put it together yet. If you haven't been, the Maker Faire is like a Lalapalooza for DIY'rs. Searching flickr for Maker Faire will give you an idea of the zany inventiveness of the place. So this is my response to #5 on the 23 Things, but I'm also using it as a way to brush up on my html. It's been about 12 years but I can still make a link at least.

Really Enjoying the Luminary Lectures at the Library of Congress

There are some fantastic speakers at the Library of Congress Luminary Lectures. Reading a blog I came across this gem on copyright and fair use:

Farytale Use