Thursday, June 5, 2008

WEEK 5: CREATE A WHO



I am hoping this works. Have you ever thought about creating your own WHO? Got some time on your hands? If you are a Dr. Seus lover, you're going to enjoy this. My 27 year old daughter saw me playing around on the generator site and decided to create her own WHO.
http://www.hortonmovie.com/adoptawho/site/index.php

http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/

You want to know my experience with image generators. Well, after about 6 hours of more, at home, I finally got to copy an image into my blog. It was a lot of wasted time, as I don't care about image generating, but because I am determined to finish the 23 Things lessons, this is time I must waste. Anyway, have a happy 4th of July.

Library Thing is pretty cool. I can see a lot of people being interested in it. I can see that it could be very useful for libraries and librarians to share info about books, authors, and selections for book clubs. I think that patrons would react very positively about such sites created to inform them about reading choices.

RSS FEEDS

Hi y'all,
RSS feeds, at this time, I'm not particularily interested in. As you all know, I am not one who spends a lot of time of the internet. I do think that this would be a good way to save updated web sites on a topic I am interest in. Of course, I can just add something to my favorites list and create a folder for all the web sites. Am I missing the point of this exercise? As I said, I don't spend a lot of time on the internet. I occassionally look up topics I am interested in or want to know more about and that's about it. As far as using this in my job, I can't seem to see a connection. Let me know if you have any suggestions for how it can be used in circulation.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Simplify

Sunset at Watercolor, Florida by Laura Travels

7th THING in 23 Things is to comment on what interests me in new technology. I've made it a goal to simplify my life. Not an easy thing to do. I will learn the technology that is necessary to simplify my job and simplify my home life and bless the inventor of such technology. Above and beyond that I am not interested. I'd rather read a good book. I do not want to spend hours on the internet creating this and creating that. I do not want to spend all my free time on a computer. Each to his own. There are people who love new things like Flickr. Let them create and I'll enjoy the fruits of their labor. From the journals of Miz Vortex.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

How can blogging be helpful in the library?

Beats me. This is the first experience I've had with blogging. As far as communicating with staff, we use Email or notes in mail boxes. In communicating with the public, I am at a loss since not much was explained in the lesson about blogging, I don't know how you access different peoples blogs, how do you know what topics they "blogged" on, nor do I know how to access the blogs written for the "23 Things lessons."I need help. Anyone have any information? I seem to missing the point of this. So my question is, how would I know how it can be helpful in a library setting since the lesson on blogging is not complete?
I suppose that a blog site could be set up so that patrons of the library can review books so that other patrons may read the blogs and add their thoughts. People may want to read the blogs to see what is good to read and once reading the books, they also can ad their thoughts to the blog. This is kind of an interactive process which would encourage people to read what everyone is blogging about.
I feel that going between the steps of the lesson and Blogger.com is confusing. In Blogger.com there is too much information to choose from to get questions answered. This is difficult for a beginner to sort through. I'm hoping that the rest of the lessons will get more into this blogging thing so I can get some of my questions answered. Perhaps I am jumping ahead too much and the answers will come?
When I wrote my first blog, I was just following the steps in Blogspot.com so I explained some of my feelings on all the current technology. I was referring to technology meant simply for entertainment.
When I went back to the lesson, I found out I was supposed to comment on the first lesson of 23 things. This is what I meant that it is confusing going between the two. I addressed the 23 things in my second blog. Signing out. Miz Vortex.

My blog on 23 things

So far the lesson went well. Don't think too many library folk need to be told about the importance of life long learning and how to go about it. I'm assuming that the creators chose this as a starting point. I liked the template for "My learning contract." For a project or studying something new, it is a helpful format to get things organized and to check on one's progress.
So far this has been a good experience, but I was kind of insulted by the intro. about life long learning. Give us some credit.

toomuchtechnology

As you can tell, I think we are running amok. Being a Baby Boomer, I have seen a lot of change in south Florida, not as much as my grandmother who went from horse and buggy days to the atomic bomb and NASA.
What I have seen is that you can hardly buy any electronic gadgets without having to program them, and with each gadget, memorize a new system of operation. Things are getting too complicated. Perhaps it's my age or perhaps I would just like to see things slow down. Young people do not know how to stop and smell the roses. All they seem to care about is what is the latest MP3 player, newest computer game, how many chat rooms they can be signed into at the same time. Rudeness in chat rooms is running rampant. There are so many beautiful things in life that I feel not only young people, but adults are missing out on them. Simple meditation, sitting and looking at the ocean, enjoying puttering around in the yard, listening to good music, playing with a dog who adores you. Where are we going with all this technology? Sometimes I think it is more work than it is worth.