Free and Easy

Facebook

2007-12-27T19:49:00.000-08:00

Creating this account was pretty simple and fun to do, and I am glad it was kept for the last exercise. I now see faces to the names of students at USF who will be graduating when I will. The profile was easy to fill out too, and I plan on revising it at some point. Who knows, I just might get lucky and find someone from my high school graduating class in Brooklyn, NY. It's easy to see why Facebook is popular with many people. You can get as personal as you choose.

Overdrive & Media Player

2007-12-27T19:05:00.000-08:00

Installing the OverDrive Media Console to my home computer was easy. The part I found the most difficult was trying to download the Windows Media Player Security upgrade. Since I am not computer savvy and use my home computer mostly for school and homework assignments, I was not familiar with what version of Windows Media Player was installed on my computer, if any was installed at all. Through a lot of trial and error, I finally downloaded the upgrade.

I like the variety of selections in Broward County's e-books and audio books, and how easy it's to search in a variety of ways for wanted material. There's also a good selection of audiobooks to choose from. I put a hold on an overdrive audiobook. Now that I have my computer in order, I can listen to my well-deserved audiobook, and I now know how to open my overdrive media console.

Searching for Podcasts

2007-12-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

I went into the Podcast.net directory and typed in for title and description, library news. I scrolled down to the bottom of the page and found SermonAudio.com. I copied the RSS feed, SermonAudio.com: NEWS to my bloglines account. One interesting podcast article at the bottom of the page in the latest breaking news is, "US braces for baby boom retirement wave" which begins in January 2008. Another podcast article that's appropriate for the Christmas season is, "Survey: More than 8 out of 10 Americans identify with a Christian faith".
I like the fact that in Podcast.net, there's an easy subject search, or you can search for your own area of interest either by title and description, keyword, episode, host or location.

You Tube - 7 Wonders of Broward County

2007-12-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

What are the 7 Wonders of Broward County? Watch the video and find out. Each site displayed will also show a prominent building from many years ago as a comparison with the Broward buildings. I also enjoyed the music that went along with each picture. In a library website, I believe this site is very useful for newcomers to the area, as well as those of us who have been living here for some time. It's a great way to "see some of the sites".

You Tube

2007-12-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

2.0 Awards List

2007-12-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

For many of us who sit alot during our jobs, I found several very useful links from the short list of awards in the health category section under Medstory. One exesrcise is called ergonomic solutions, exercises that can be done at our desks. Another important area that's usually not paid too much attention to is the importance of stretching especially before exercising. There are links that show how to stretch properly and for how long, and why it's so important to stretch. They also give a link that mentions exericses that can harm us if not done properly.
I also found lower back stretching exercises that specifically address the area of concern for myself. The health site is very specific to any health issues any of us might have.

Zoho Writer

2007-12-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

I like the feature of using tags as folders. This makes managing and finding items easily. Since many of my graduate classes are online, how convenient it's to be able to access my school reports away from home on my laptop without having to use my flash drive, and the toolbar has a wide variety of selections.

Wikis

2007-12-12T13:50:00.001-08:00

The two Wikis that I find to be the most interesting are the Booklover's Wiki, especially the section on the Index to the Reviews. It reminds me of Amazon's setup where people write their comments about the book. This is a fairly simple and straightforward expression of opinion that can't be wrong. I find it's good to get various opinions about a book.

The second Wiki that I found very interesting is found under the last wiki in the Discovery Exercises click library wiki examples, and under examples and information, click the Library Instruction Wiki (6th item down). Under Sharing Resources, click on Library 2.0 in 15 minutes a day (12th item down). Everything you want to know about Lib. 2.0 & how to navigate through the course is there. The tags are there for all the key topics that are covered. I believe that incorporating a similar wiki like this at the beginning of the course would really help all of us find explanations and/or help with problem areas.

Wiki

2007-12-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

Del.ici.ous

2007-12-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

There were a few bookmarks that I put into my account including: sunsets, flickr color fields where the colors changed with each new click. There are several humorous pet photos, as well as spiritual and nature scenes. An up-to-date bookmark was included in my list, "Dancing with the Stars". This was a fun exercise, allowing for easy access and clicking to my del.idi.ous account

Search Roll

2007-12-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

Image Generator

2007-12-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

A fun exercise playing around with the selections from the Generator Blog. I chose the Birthday Cake and the Ice Cream Generator where I personalized my cake and and made a sundae my way. The Glitter Text Generator allows me to make my own text with different colors and text sizes all in glitter. The Brain Scan Imager showed that I have a fondness for chocolate.

Library 2.0

2007-11-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

In the section on "Away from Icebergs", I don't agree with the section on the "Just in Case" collection that we should rely on digital collections and learn to let go of books. I know some librarians who really know their collections, and there are just certain books they will not part with because they say they have been able to find answers in print form that were not available digitally. I do believe that there is much that can be accessed online, but can it be relied upon to answer all questions and be there when you go to look for it the next time? One librarian said at least he would have the book if a publisher went out of business.

While the ideas and concepts for making Library 2.0 work internally can be done, there's concern over whether the external factors will work; if online communities can be counted on to provide feedback and direction for input into user's wants and suggestions. This remains to be seen, and is part of the concern called, Radical Trust.

Blog about Technology

2007-11-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

I am looking forward to the section on tagging and folksonomies because I have to do a research paper for school about labeling and ethics in the field of information architecture (technology).

I like to read people's personal postings to find out new bits of information about them.

Flickr Mashups

2007-11-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

I went into the Trip Planner and found it to be very interesting. Since I had already taken my trip, I wanted to see just how many recommended sites came up that I had actually visited. I was also able to pull up some beautiful pictures of the Grand Canyon and Sedona, Arizona.

One of the areas I am finding challenging is learning how to "save pictures as" and transfer to a folder of all my favorite pictures. I am getting a lot of practice doing this, especially since I have accidentally removed some pictures that I wanted to keep.

I also enjoyed playing around with retrievr because I like colors and I got to see some very beautiful and colorful pictures just by "doodling".

Flickr

2007-11-10T13:48:00.000-08:00

Flickr was fun, especially using the tags to find pictures. Also, in Flickr Color Pickr, if you scroll down this site to other fun stuff from Jim, and click on Whitney Music Box, there is music along with the motion graphics. Turn up the sound for some wild and mesmerizing animation!!

Blogline Account & Feeds

2007-11-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

This lesson on setting up a blogline account and adding feeds was very challenging. Thanks to my co-worker, Robbie Allen, I am slowly navigating around the site and I found several useful feeds. I enjoyed the Bloglines selection of sites to be the easiest way to search. I also picked the Librarian's Internet Index for school work, plus the ALA TechSource Blog. Sometimes I had trouble copying and pasting the URL into the right section to add to my feeds. Only with time and training by doing, will I get it.

2007-10-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone:

This is my first posting. Everything's new!! I had a challenging time just trying to establish my account. The username I started out using was not acceptable because I did not use my full e-mail address. With several attempts, and with David Jess's help, I am finally able to post!! Thanks, David.

Probably, the easiest of the 7 habits for me to follow would be that I make an effort and am motivated to learn what I need to in order to accomplish what I want. The hardest habit for me to follow would be to have confidence in myself. This is especially true when I am trying something new, especially in the area of technology. It takes me awhile, but once I learn it, I never forget it. This should be a challenging and worthwhile experience!!