Books and dogs (& cat)

2008-12-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

Want to insert a live link here. Is this the way?
www.snowflakebentley.com

Thing 23 CML Learn and play

2008-11-26T12:42:00.001-08:00

Right now I am so overwhelmed by doing so many "things" today that I can hardly think straight. Today we had no materials come in to Technical Services so I used the time to work on Learn n Play. I had given up on having the time to finish it all. Fall publishing season was not the time for me to try this!

Anyway, I did learn a lot, especially about what "Web 2.0" means. The "things" have given me a good introduction to what I can do out there on the web. I was confused and petrified about trying anything new. Now I'm just confused! But willing to get out there now and learn more about all these discoveries.

I especially liked flickr, youtube, Geni (the genealogical site), and del.icio.us. I didn't see much use to me for Twitter. I think the RSS feeds on Google Reader could be useful if I had the time to go look at them. This does not happen at work. Perhaps at home, but I don't spend a lot of time on the computer.

I feel a generation gap yawning in front of me. My children accomplish so much and are so familiar with the web. I grew up reading, playing card and board games, doing crafts, watching tv. I still like doing those things and although the computer is fascinating and useful, I just don't have it at the top of my list. Maybe when I retire! Looking forward to that-- and who knows what the internet will have to offer in 13 years!

Thing 22 MOLDI

2008-11-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

I was happy to see that some titles could be burned to CD, as I don't really fancy listening to a book at my computer table. I don't have an MP3 player either. Quite a variety of titles available.

I tried to check a couple one out and got to the point of downloading, where I kept getting an error message telling me "A problem has occured in retrieving the Digital Rights Management machine identification." A co-worker said she had to call IT to get that straightened out. So for now, I will simply say I looked around the MOLDI site and tried to check out some titles.

2008-11-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

I found the podcast directories hard to learn how to use in the limited amount of time I have to allocate. I ended up using podcastpickle and looked at some random podcasts. Having trouble finding a podcast relating to libraries. Next I went to podcaastalley.com and had better luck at find library podcasts. There was one where teens had a book, movie discussion and talked about programs at the library.

I did find a podcast of interest to me personally, a weekly program, called Pet Talk Naturally. I can't figure out how to add an RSS feed. Not even sure this one has an RSS feed. Oops, the RSS feed is to be added to Google Reader. OK.

AH HA! I did it. Found the RSS feed for this podcast and added to Google Reader. This is not easy for me!

2008-11-26T09:51:00.000-08:00

I found this on Youtube while looking for the music video Ordinary Day by Great Big Sea. This is a cover of the song and IT IS GREAT!

Thing 19

2008-11-26T09:37:00.000-08:00

I added a comment in Tooling around (Firefox post). Looked in the Tool Box and visited Boing Boing. A little too much info there!! I saw a youtube video of a dog saying "Obama". Hmmm.

Looked at StumbleUpon. Stumbled upon a picture of a Corgi with his tongue in the peanut butter jar. HA HA!!!

Thing #5

2008-11-26T09:24:00.001-08:00

Just realized I never did a blogpost about this thing. I had put in the url for a picture on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackieinmi/2363231199/

I used to live in Ironwood Michigan (Da UP) and was very pleased to find such a nice photo of the Ironwood Theatre sign.

Thing 16 wiki sandbox

2008-11-26T09:13:00.001-08:00

Got my access and added some text about my favorite vacation place (Cape Cod) and the BODs I've been listening to (Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath). Also a link to this blog.

A new member of the family

2008-11-26T07:51:00.000-08:00

Had to change the name of this blog as I recently acquired a little black feline tornado named Finn. There were cats & kittens in my home growing up but I guess I was too busy with teenage things to pay much attention. I didn't remember kittens as being such little devils!

He is very loving though and likes to sleep in my lap or next to Lucy. He tries to sleep by Abbie but she doesn't like him much. He plays with her constantly wagging tail and back feet and this makes her very nervous. She won't tell him "no" however, just runs away.

When Finn plays with Lucy, she participates by putting her mouth around him, letting him hang by his little legs from her muzzle, bat her ears all around, wrestle vigorously with her tail and walk all over her. She is an amazingly tolerant dog except while eating. If Finn comes near her bowl, he gets a growl. He does pay attention to her growling and waits patiently a few feet away while she gobbles up the food.

He spent two weeks recently at Cathy Mason's home (instead of the kennel). Must have been very exciting for him with two kids, two dogs, a cat, and Cathy and her husband to play with. MANY THANKS to them for taking such good care of him in his formative weeks!

Thing 18 Web 2.0 awards

2008-11-26T07:13:00.000-08:00

I chose a genealogy site: Geni. IT IS AMAZING!!! It's easy to use, has room for so much info. It calculates the age you were when you started school, got married, divorced, gave birth and so on. You can open it to friends and family members. It has different views for family tree, ancestors, descendents. There's a lot to explore. I have software at home for family tree stuff, but this one is so much easier to use and can be viewed by my daughters, brothers, cousins, and so on. I am excited about having time to sit down and play with it at home. (also accessible anywhere I am with an internet connection).

Things 16 and 17

2008-11-26T06:10:00.000-08:00

Requested access to CML learn and play wiki sandbox. Waiting to get in, so maybe I'll have more to say later.

Tried using Google Docs, but ran into problems with extreme slowness. I created a word processor document, but got hung up creating a spreadsheet. Finally had to shut down and try again, with no success. Was successful at uploading a spreadsheet from my computer but got hung up trying to edit it. Something was wonky with the display of the sheet, not showing contents of the cell when highlighted and missing icons for buttons. Have to try again later.

I like the idea of a centralized document site, especially for people who are not on the same network. What a great way to eliminate proliferation of email attachments and allow multiple users to have in put to one document.

Thing 15 Wikis

2008-11-26T05:22:00.000-08:00

I was introduced to Wikipedia several years ago by my daughter, who told me about some wikis for the television program Lost, where I could read about plots, opinions, speculations and so on. Since then, I frequently start a search for info in Wikipedia, keeping in mind that accuracy is not necessarily guaranteed. Almost anything I've looked for has been in there, with links to other sites for more info (birthdates of famous people, capital cities, what county a town is in, info about tv programs I watched as a child, and so on.) The wiki organizes a ton of info and lets me search easily for what I need.

I looked at the SJCPL Subject guide wiki and was impressed by the Family History (Genealgoy) guide. Instead of a scary jumbled list of sites as presented in a Google search, I could click on these organized links and find all kinds of helpful information. A great service for libraries to offer.

Thing #14 Web 2.0, Library 2.0

2008-11-26T04:58:00.000-08:00

I have never been very good at quick changes, needing time to mull things over, get used to new ways of thinking and become comfortable with new methods. So it has been pretty scary lately to see all the changes happening in libraries today. Well, maybe not scary, but difficult. I remember the library of my childhood with all the wonderful fiction books, book reports for summer reading program, looking through the stacks for information on my favorite topics, horses, polo, World War II airplanes, and the quiet atmosphere. The information available was structured and finite.

Now I am sometimes overwhelmed when I think about research on the internet, too much information, too many choices, not being able to structure what I find or even to find it again. This is where I reluctantly have to admit I see the need for libraries to change their focus from providing resources to teaching how to use and organize the huge muddle of info now available on the web.

I read several articles in OCLC NextSpace newsletter. Michael Stevens ("Into a new world of libraianship") talked about the user-centered library, where all planning and proposals for services, materials and outreach are based on user needs and wants. This would require the library to know their users, what they already know how to do, what they need, how to help them find what they want and organize it. I see that our library has been doing this for some time. Doing the "learn n play" exercises is helping me in my quest to get used to new ways of thinking and using new methods.

As a cataloger, it has been especially hard to see "the way we always did it" beginning to melt away. I can now feel my mind stretching to encompass a new "big picture" which includes the concept of metadata and sharing info beyond the boundaries of the library world. I like this paragraph from another NExtSpace newsletter by John J. Riemer ("To better bibliographic services"):
"Libraries have a long history of collaborating on cataloging. This should be extended to coordinated multi-institutional activity, perhaps even beyond the library sector. The systematic sharing of bibliographic data across institutions can lead to the automatic sharing of enhancements and freeing up of resources to put more material under bibliographic control. If there is similarity in the uses made of bibliographic descriptions by publishers, vendors, and libraries for their inventories, and if there is significant overlap among needed data elements, then it makes a lot of sense to pursue a single metadata creation effort whose results we all can use."

Kind of exciting!

2008-11-25T13:13:00.000-08:00

Thing 13. Del.icio.us. Don't have time today to sign up for this, but had time to look around, see people's notes, try some different tags. I can't wait to spend more time with this. On a personal level, I can move all my zillions of bookmarks on my home computer to delicious and tag them. I have a lot of photographer's websites bookmarked for various subjects and this will be a great way to organize them.

2008-11-25T12:28:00.000-08:00

Thing 12. As you can see to the right of this post, I have a Twitter site. While setting it up, I discovered my daughter has one too! However, she hasn't used it since mid-summer. Have to look into this. I used a widget thing to post the Twitter updates and allow people to follow.
My twitter username: sally_a_brenner

I followed Daily Coyote twitters, which were interesting to me. I receive a daily picture from Wyoming of Charley the coyote or his friends, Eli the cat, Chloe the hound. His human, Shreve Stockton, twitters about things she's doing. I feel like I know her a little from the daily pictures contacts. Now I can get to know her a little more.

Did I like twitter? Frankly, not really. I am not on my computer (on personal time anyway) that often and just don't want to be in contact with the world to such an intimate extent. I can see how it would be useful, especially if I used a cell phone, to keep in touch with special people, or follow a favorite celebrity or author. Or keep family updated as to what you were seeing while on vacation in England!

2008-11-25T11:39:00.000-08:00

I finally have gotten back to Learn n play, after being busy to my ears with cataloging and then off for two weeks to Philadelphia to stay with my daughter who had foot surgery.

I made a short list of some of my favorite books on LibraryThing. I look forward to having more time to spend playing around on this website and perhaps interacting with others who like the same authors I do. At home I have a list of all the books I've read since 1980, in the process of being put in an excel document. I could do something similar on LibraryThing. Perhaps when I retire!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php

Image generators

2008-09-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

In the 20 minutes I alloted for thing 10, I visited cryptogram.com on The generator blog, creating this simple candy heart for Lucy and our neighbor dog, a pomeranian mix.

I tried to find the ALA Read mini poster generator, but was unable to locate it. Maybe it's been taken down.

2008-09-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Read a little further about Thing #8 and will try to comment more.

Looked at the OCLC RSS feeds--all kinds of interesting articles and info. Useful to see what's happening in the business, new products, services, changes.

I don't get a newspaper so it's hard for me to keep up on what's happening around Columbus or the nation. Having the Dispatch feeds will help me with that and I can just bypass the ones that don't interest me.

I used to subscribe to the daily Dilbert comic strip, but managing all that email got to be too much. Now I can subscribe through RSS and look at the new one daily and it will go away on its own!

Why did I subscribe to Google Reader instead of Bloglines? I'm not sure except all these different places are getting me confused and I thought it would be less confusing to have my blog and RSS reader in the same place, so to speak. I haven't figured out how to make Google Reader public yet. Perhaps some day.

2008-09-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to add some RSS feeds to my Google reader. One that I do check often is the Daily Coyote and weather forecast. Now I can go to one place and see what's new. Also set up some for the two presidential candidates as I am woefully in need of news on that topic. My daughter is an avid Phillies baseball fan, so I set up one for them to see how they are doing. Hope they get into the World series playoffs. Used up all my spare time today with this so better get back to work.

2008-09-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

Having grown up with most long-distance family communication by telephone (infrequent) and handwritten letters, I am still amazed by the miracle of "talking" with my Philadelphia daughter every day via email (we decided instant messaging while at work was too distracting). I can see pictures of her cats minutes after she took them. We can make travel arrangements in a few minutes without time spent over several days calling back and forth. Money can be transferred in a day or two without anyone having to go to the bank. Pictures of vacations can be shared quickly, even with perfect strangers on facebook or flickr!
The digital camera is another fascinating new technology for me. I only tried one two years ago and have never even gone back to my film SLR once! (I keep meaning to, but the new camera is so easy and versatile). Having this camera has freed my old carefulness about only taking a picture when it's perfect. I can take as many as I want of whatever I want, no matter how trivial, and then get rid of the bad ones later, with no monetary cost. It has been very liberating!

2008-09-08T18:33:00.000-07:00

AT LAST I DID IT! I probably took the super long way around but I got these pictures to my blog, made with spell with flickr. Funny, I couldn't get that site at work, but it opened right up on my home computer. I am exhausted from all the mousing, wish I had a touch screen. Good night.

2008-09-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

With some trial and much error, I was finally able to get my three pictures in Flickr on to the map. Everytime I tried, Internet Explorer would shut down from some error before I could actually get the pictures linked on the map. Today, success prevailed. I put a url in the box for Thing 6, but when you get there you have to click on "map" for the picture. I'd like to explore this feature a little more when I have time, which so far has been nearly impossible due to workload. Well, I'm behind but still trying.
Also could not find the spell with flickr mashup site. The provided link only takes me to an error page. Too bad, that one really looked like fun. I wasted a lot oftime trying to find it.

2008-08-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

After viewing the 7 1/2 habits, I realize that I have more or less fallen out of lifelong learning without even realizing it. It's easy for me to set goals for new experiences, but I don't seem to get any farther than that. I think I view obstacles as problems without clear solutions and I balk at the problems (not enough time, not enough money, shyness).

This is not exactly a learning experience, but something I've always wanted to do: take a trip to England. How am I doing on the habits? Well, some of the habits. More on this later.

*the goal: plan and execute a trip of at least 2 weeks to England/Wales/Scotland
*challenges: Money-- have a regular deduction from paycheck set aside
time-- vacation time is set aside and ready
lack of confidence in traveling abroad-- choose an organized trip with tour guide
*build self-confidence by initiating and completing above tactics
*learning toolbox: travel guides to England/Wales/Scotland;
*use technology: study up on various tour groups on the internet. Elderhostel?
*play--that will begin when I actually set foot on British soil!

2008-08-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Two of my favorite things in the world, reading and dogs. So now begins the new endeavor to learn more about what the Internet has to offer and how to use it. And also how to integrate dogs and reading into this blog. More to follow.