Thing 7 - Online Image Generators

Online image generators have been around forever it seems, each with their own spin. I played around with Big Huge Labs and finally settled on making a motivational poster for this Thing. The only down side is that the size manipulation for posting here didn't seem to work for me, but otherwise making the image at Big Huge Labs was painless. Of course it was another account to set up, but eh, not a Huge Big Deal.

I think sites like this offer up a lot of creative potential for Libraries. Images can spice up presentations, make for easy display signs, etc. Libraries could even host contests for patrons to create tie ins for book discussions or upcoming events. Supervisors could make trading cards of each of their staff with something positive about each employee as a motivational tool. I think you are only limited by your own creativity.

Thing 6 Flickr Mashups

Well there ya go.

It is interesting... Spell with Flickr is a pretty nifty tool. Nice for making impromptu banners and such or just through a splash of graphics into your blog or website.

Nothing much more to say. I don't think it will replace any of my existing hobbies such as RC Cars or MMOs.

Thing 5 - Flickr

Wow, okay, so I failed at displaying picture from Flickr. It only took a bit of searching to find out that the poster of the picture can determine if you can cross post, link, etc. I finally found a section of Flickr called, Creative Commons, that allowed me to link pictures. A bit of hassle, but I also understand the copy right and privacy issues.



So... here goes:

Linked from : http://www.flickr.com/photos/superfem/3060950790/

I liked Flickr more before they joined with Yahoo. I understand what Yahoo brought to the table for them, but I just liked their service more before they were bought out. Still, Flickr is a great tool for share photos around the web, but there are other sites such as smugmug, photobucket, etc.

As to use in a library... well it is a nice tool for sharing updates on projects, arts shows, and events. A plus is that it get is off your servers and onto someone else there by freeing up space at home. It is a great way to show the community what you are working on and projects you have lined up for the future. Plus, you can tie it to a RSS feed to update subscribers when you have posted new photos :-)

Anyways... on to Thing 6 and 7. I've fallen a bit behind due to illness. :-(

Thing 4 - RSS and Newsreaders

I absolutely love RSS and new readers. I’ve been online long enough to remember when the only way to make any coherent sense out of USENET was to use a news reader. Now it has come full circle again with RSS feeds. RSS feeds allow people to get the information they want from websites without having to travel to the various websites on a regular basis. It is a huge timesaver in my opinion.

I use Feed Deamon which is a pretty basic reader, but it handles every part of managing feeds that I need. It even has a built in web browser that will open up the feeds website if I want more information. It interacts with News Gator so that no matter where I open up a Feed Deamon client, it has all my information and feeds handy just by logging in.

Overall, RSS feeds are a fantastic way to communicate site updates to subscribers in a quick, easy format. I saves clogging up your email with useless spam by reducing the amount of times you have to give our your email address. To me this is fantastic.

Thing 3 - Blog Search Tools

Well, to be honest, I found the web search tools to be about as useful as Google or Yahoo. That is to say, unless you really know what you are looking for or are familiar with the ins and outs of the engine, finding what you really want can be a chore.

For example, I typed in RC Cars in Technorati and found a lot of sites... unfortunately most were not about RC Carts. This is typically of most search engines due to false indexing and tagging. Unscrupulous website owners and bloggers often use fake tags or indexing to attract visitors or to increase where the fall in search engine listings. In order to circumvent this you have to be very specific in what you are looking for.

Of course on the upside, sometimes generic search yield little gems that you might never of otherwise found. For folks really into blogging or reading other's blogs this can be fantastic. I tend to not read too many "personal" blogs. I really don't care about the minutia of other people's daily lives; it's too mundane. When ever I stumble on to something like that or get sucked in to reading one, I tend to leave Dr Phil comments along the lines of, "So I see that you hate your job... well get a new job!" or "Well I see that your wife if cheating on you... well get a new wife!". I just don't have tolerance for people complaining about things in their life they have the power to change. I tend to gravitate toward blogs such as the Consumerist or Failblog. I want bits of useful insight or just plan humor.

Part of the problem with search engines in general is the sheer nature of the work they have to do. Growth on the Internet is exponential. Indexing and categorizing has to be a nightmare. I don't envy the people that develop tools to do this as it seems a loosing battle to me. At the same time I admire the effort they put in this so that people like me can search for things as mundane as RC Cars and find the info we need... eventually at least.

Thing 2 - What is Web 2.0

So I am perplexed. I have always been of the mind set that libraries are 2.0, i.e., being relevant to your patron's needs. The problem is (or has been) that libraries are slow to adopt technologies appropriately. Conversely, I think that Web 2.0 has caught libraries in a fire storm of trying to be everything to everyone to demonstrate their relevance. We have to have a Facebook, Twitter, Youtube broadcasts, book discussion podcasts, and Myspace. About the only place you don't see libraries are on Match.com and OKCupid; that's probably just a matter of time. I mean really when it comes to finding the perfect Library customer, shouldn't we trust Match.com to find our soulmate?

Libraries (at least within their fiscal ability) have attempted to be relevant to their patron's needs. New technologies such as Facebook, Survey Monkey, and Blogger open up new avenues to communicate with people. But, I don't feel that it should be the only way, or even the primary way. Not everyone is connected via the great Intertube. Some people are just now getting their first DVD player; ask those same people if they have an email address and they are likely to say, E-Wut? Library and Web 2.0 need to accentuate existing communication and advertising channels, not replace it.

I worry that some Libraries wear Library 2.o as a fashion statement. It's hip to be one of the cool kids and no one wants to be the kid locked over night in the school locker. Are we spending more time worrying about our "presence" on social networking sites when we should be worrying about literacy in our community? Are we spending more money investigating technologies (free tech is not free when staff have to form committees to investigate it) than say in developing programing? There has to be a balance and Web 2.o tools need to be used to supplement, not dominate.

Thing 1 - Setting up the blog

So this is my blog about the 23 Things program offered via NEFLIN. Setting up the blog was not difficult. Choosing the name probably took more time than entering all the registration information. I imagine it might have taken a bit longer if I did not already have a GMail account.

Not much more to say about that. Lets see what Thing 2 brings to the table.