Saturday, March 29, 2008

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Thing 17

Ok.
I started the first part of this thing quite well. ELM is a very cool resource. I went to the Student Infotrac page from the databases listed alphabetically and used a keyword search to look up 'youth smoking'. Then I went to the RSS feed icon, copied and pasted the URL into my blog. And for some reason, with all the new talent of RSS feeds I have acquired over this little project, it said it was invalid. Of course alot of other people are complaining of this same thing so I am not alone, it must be something with the Google blogger. But I do know how to set it up.
Part 2
I went to Academic Search Premier and set up an account and started my folder. I started my web page with the Page Composer. So "Kierstin's Corner" is now set up and I am ready to start adding any search pages that I find interesting, same with pictures and videos. I was wondering what a better webpage than my own would look like and found others to be really interesting. This could have lots of possibilities!
Part 3-Proquest
I went to Proquest from the databases on ELM, followed each step required. Searched first, then slowly set the parameters wanted. I found two really interesting articles about Facebook that fell under the 2007, full text, Washington Post parameters. I put them under my "My Research" tab and created a web page. Emailed myself and saved it to my H drive.
*Whew*!
Part 4- NetLibrary
At first was very confused. Partially because I didn't read the instructions so that I fumbled around, made my account thinking that maybe i would figure things out, and then finally read the instructions. So...I did a keyword search, viewed the eBook, made my note! And thought, ooh, this is keen! My thoughts were more on academic things such as reports, where hey, I could mark notes in books I'm using and find them easily. Very cool.

So I liked my tour of this. I think its important to understand the databases that Libraries have access to, and in case patrons ask I can inform them on the basics.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Thing 16

Awesome, awesome! I think this thing is the best!
As a student I fully appreciate these two handy tools.
I checked out both the University of Minnesota Project Tool and the Research Project Calculator.
I actually paged out one of my future assignments (bonus!). I would totally encourage students to use this and found tons of resources on my assigned topic.
I think these would be really beneficial to students and libraries for their own projects. Being that I am a library assistant we don't really have overarcing projects that often that would merit being mapped out, but you never know!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Thing 15

Second Life...
It reminds me of The Otherland books by Tad Williams. A world within a world. I am so disjointed by it, that I wonder if it is just another escape for people. The classrooms and libraries are cool. But I really don't know...
I don't know if there is a role for Second Life in libraries. Unless you could use that as a virtual Library as talked about in Thing 2.
I really just don't know...

Thing 14- Library Thing

I signed up for Library Thing after taking the small tour. Thought the site was rather fascinating and made me start ruminating about what exactly I have stuffed in my bookshelves (usually double packed). What a great invention, not only could you catalog your whole book collection and catalog it, thus creating a 'library', you can share with others what you own.
For some reason the "book police" from 1984 comes to mind, I think we'd all be very easy targets. "Please don't burn my books, think of how my Library Thing rating will suffer!"
Woah. Ok, off strange trippy ideas.
So I added about 10 books to the catalog, and used both Amazon and the Library of Congress to search for them. Tip of the iceberg, I realize. Then easily enough they show up with their cataloging and also how many people have the same book. Ooh lala! I could join a group that is interested in the same book or join a bookclub to chat about the books. As they say on the main page, its 'eery' how many people may have the same interests and books!
Plus, I can set up my profile to display as much as I want to be shown and tell others about myself. I will set up my link so that all the people who read my blog can access my amazing collection of books. (Note: last sentence was very sarcastic). Anyway, I think this will stay in my mind as used thing. I like it almost better than Shelfari!
I think that's about it.
I think libraries could use this.

Thing 13

OKay!
I found these tools intriguing and very functional for any business or service that allows the employees access to computers or expects them to be on the internet. Personally, I hate start pages. I know, I know, you can make them all special with different colors or setups, have your favorite interests up on them, tell you the weather of your home town etc. etc. But as soon as I had made my igoogle, I was frantically trying to get it off my main page.
I have igoogle on my laptop.
I think the yahoo! calendar or Remember the Milk was awesome! I thought I might just like to use it, since I am a very forgetful person and really need a palm pilot or some electronic calendar device to keep me on top of everything I'm supposed to do. Apparently, and I am not quite savvy to figure it out yet, one can have their notices for meeting and whatnot sent to their phone! Woohoo! I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
The to-do lists were cool, although I am so lazy that I would procrastinate by making to-do lists instead of actually doing anything on the to-do list! I do that non-electronically all the time. :)
Anyway, for a procrastinating, forgetful, always on the run person, this "Thing" was the best and very informative.
Yes, I did try out Backpack.
Now...I will just have to make sure I don't lose my internet connection!

trading card

I just had to try the trading card, because it was one of the details in the most recent 23 things email. Although I didn't like how it came out, I couldn't find the delete button to get rid of it. I am technically on thing 13 and have tried lots of different calendars out and such things like Backpack, but haven't looked at the Blog prompts yet. So I will tell of my travails once I do so, like right about now.

A patron just told me i was typing at 80 words per minute. I told him that was impossible, the fastest I ever typed was 45 words per minute. I guess my typing just sounds fast.
And important.
I didn't have the heart to tell him i was working on a Library 2.0 blog. Wouldn't that open a can of worms!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Thing 12

I looked at all these interesting news factories. Definitely different than typical news media. I actually was prompted to read at least one or more of the articles that seemed to be most popular, just because I was intrigued by them. But the world is a nasty and scary place, so most of the articles made me just sick at heart.
I think they definitely would be worth looking at for a student who needs a paper on a controversial item or something different and deeper than the tripe that shows up on major newspaper websites or journal sites.
I think that these sites could work in ways both positive and negative. I do think though they are a very interesting and worthwhile tool.

Thing 11. Tags. Deliciously.

Ok!
Well...I know tagging through the blogs I write. And I do like tags. I also use them alot when I am on my fav authors blogs and they tag something. I can easily look up things they have written by using their tags.
A recent example of a "tagging":
Livejournal also has tags that can represent your interests and site. These are potential social introductions, as one of my good friends found out when an editor of her favorite magazine saw her tag about publishing, writing and his horror magazine and friended her.
I am not interested in del.icio.us. I did however watch said tutorial and browsed the page through 23 Things membership.
I could see this have potential for research, but would take a good webmaster and supervision so that erroneous information would not surface and that it would not take a plethora of searching to find the right tag.
I think its ugly looking personally. Yuck.
And although I do have favorite sites, I'd rather link them in my page or whatever, than have to access them through a site. Sorry del.icio.us.

If we ever do get a del.icio.us site, it would be fun, but alot of work. Useful? I'm not sure. I suppose it would depend on what it was used for.

Although I just checked out Furl. They totally have good advertising! I would maybe take the option of saving pages that might be deleted in the future! Awesome! So that perfect site that described how to make Queen Amidala's headdress, or maybe a favorite friends blog that might be cancelled later would be saved forever. Rock on! Furling sounds fun!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Setting into Clouds


Setting into Clouds, originally uploaded by Wonder Sighter.

Flickr beauty....n'est-ce pas?