Thing Four - Flickr

Yo,

Now I have to admit, Flickr is something I've never really dealt with. I have had a very basic idea of what it is, but have never sought out to learn more... until now!

One of the first questions I had regarding Flickr, is why didn't they put an E in the word? Anyway, one of the first things I learned about Flickr is the ability to tag images with keywords to search for photos. This is a really smart idea, especially for people with a lot of pictures to look through.

I decided to create a free Flickr account myself just to see how easy to use it was to setup and upload any images I have. I was able to sign up with just my Yahoo ID which I've had for years, so that part was easy enough. Logging into my account, it was easy and pretty obvious as to how to upload images from either my computer or a digital camera or another device. I put about 40 pictures or so into my free Flickr account, which has a 100mb limit of photos, so I had plenty of space to spare, though for people with a digital camera that take many more then my 40 pictures, 100mb may not be enough. Here's an image from my Flickr account I setup http://www.flickr.com/photos/23383940@N03/2240480937/



This was taken right before my graduation, with my grandma. As you can see, I have an enormous head, so big that apparently they don't make graduation caps in that size, which is why it's perched on my head. Suffice to say, it's probably the least cool I could have looked. Also at the top of the blog I put a hand drawn picture of Cosmo from "Fairly Oddparents". As well as a picture of my wearing a suit standing next to my dad, in the darkest building of all time.

One thing, not related to Flickr, but about Blogger instead. Putting images in this blog, they go to the top of the post by default, with no way (that i've seen) inside of blogger to move the image to wherever your cursor is. Instead, I had to place it at top, select the image, cut and then paste it to where I wanted it. While I have no problem using this work around, there are those not as familiar computers in general that wouldn't necessarily know how to do that.

I thought that Clemens and Alcuin libraries of the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University's Flickr page was a really cool example of what you're able to do. They used a photo of a bookshelf with books on it, and each book was it's own link that you could click on to get it's link to Amazon and it's availability at the library.

This could be a great way for our Library to share photos that aren't always easy to find and view from our site. There are many events that the library is involved in, with many pictures being taken. I'm sure there people that would be interested in viewing those pictures, and having a Flickr account would be a way to share them quickly and easily.

Thing Three - RSS

RSS Feeds!

Such a great idea, and implementation into so many popular websites. I just can't say enough about it, it's fantastic. It takes so many of my own shortcomings, and compensates for them. A usually terrible short term memory, procrastination and bouts of laziness. With RSS feeds, I subscribe one time and all my problems are solved. I listen to and watch a lot of podcasts and video podcasts, that come out on a weekly basis and some on a multi weekly basis. It's difficult to remember everything that I"m into on the best of days, what with going to every single website every single day looking for updates. Having RSS feeds bringing all the information that you want, into one place automatically is so convenient. I no longer have to remember every site and podcast and it cuts down a lot of time. I know I sound like an infomercial, and maybe rightfully so, because when it works it works great.

A funny story regarding RSS feeds happened last year, to a video podcast I watch called DLTV (Digital Life Television) about current technology stories and such (I put a link to it in my "Fav Sites" section). I believe they've offered an RSS feed for the show since it's inception, which is great. I have to also say, that in addition to RSS feeds bringing you the news all to one place, there are programs that also allow automatic downloading as well. So it not only informs you of the new information, it downloads it to your computer for you, taking away any manual downloading. Now DLTV screwed something up one time, where instead of sending you the single episode of the show, it sent every single episode the show has ever made. A single video for this show could range anywhere from 50mb all the way to 200mb+, needless to say they unintentionally filled up people's hard drives to the max. It only happened 1 time to my knowledge, and they apologized for it, and everyone had a good laugh. Anyway, I thought that was a funny story when it happened, and I wanted to share it since it ties into RSS feeds.

I chose to use Google RSS reader for this portion of the program. It was pretty easy to setup, and it's convenient having this Blog, RSS reader and my favorite search engine all connected. Seeing how Google is my home page on my home PC, I setup the "iGoogle" feature available from google. It places your RSS feeds on the home page, as well as other widgets like local weather, the time and date, movie listings among other things. Now on my blog, I've added a few feeds from the Duluth Public Library's blogs as well as gaming website I frequent. I didn't add any news feeds regarding non library related news, but I may in the future.

In all, RSS feeds are really convenient and save me a lot of time. Perhaps if our library ever decides to make our website "Web 2.0" compatible, people could customize the site not just for library news, but any other information they might be seeking through RSS feeds and other widgets. We're not there yet, but there's always the future to look forward to.

Thing Eighteen - Awwwww

Adorable Baby Kitten - Awwww so cute

Well, well, well, we've finally made it to youtube. An incredibly popular site on the internets, made even more apparent by how often my Dad uses it, which is more then myself. I posted a video of an adorable baby kitten drinking a dry milk formula from out of a bottle, just like nature intended. I found it pretty easy to get the video up and working in the site, without using the provided instructions, mostly because I figured I could do it without. Though I can understand if people have difficulty, especially those that aren't as familiar with technology and the web. I chose this particular video, because more then anything, library employees have hearts, and anyone with a heart can't resist a cute baby animal. I'm not exactly sure how our library would be able to use a video site like youtube. Maybe to promote itself, or possible to have video instructions for common questions people have.

Thing Two - Point O

Hey,

First of all I have to agree with Stephen Abram regarding one of his favorite web tools, instant messaging, better known as "IM'ing". As someone that's kinda grown up with technology, IM'ing isn't as much of a tool for me as it is a way of life. I have a hard time thinking about what life would be like without this technology, the ability to instantly send messages to people throughout the world, it's remarkable. It's something I literally use on an almost daily basis for regular communication with friends and other people I know. As soon as my family was connected to the internet at age 14 or 15, I immediately was drawn into instant messaging. I've used just about every client at one point or another, from ICQ, Yahoo, MSN, AIM and now currently use a client called Trillian that incorporates all of those IM clients into 1, that allows me to communicate with everyone I know regardless of the client they're using. And while the change in language people use to communicate though IMs may leave something to be desired, LOL, the technology itself I believe is moving in the right direction.

Personally I'm glad to see the Library 2.0 revolution coming to fruition at my library. The quote in John Blyberg's blog

“Library 2.0 simply means making your library’s space (virtual and physical) more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the library a destination and not an afterthought.”

is appropriate and seems to hit the nail in the head. At our library we've been driven by our community needs, by having internet computers people could access for years now and in recent years adding word processing software among others to the computers. Actually, the first time I used a chatroom was at the public library where I now work. Upgrading from VHS to DVD's was a big thing for us, and is one of the more popular reasons people visit the library that ordinarily might not have. The recent addition of Sound Media Players which function like a stand alone mp3 player with a single audio book are gaining notice and popularity. The newest addition of downloading audio books for free directly to the patron's PC or MP3 player is sure to an interesting feature to keep an eye on as well. We've recently also started using blogs on our website to recommend staff favorites among other things. And most exciting, for myself anyway, recently developments of possibly setting up a gaming night for teens of our own, using the Nintendo Wii.

Thing One - One Thing to rule them all!

Hello all,

So this is my first relevant post regarding 23 things on a stick. And boy have the times changed, back in my day we didn't have color pictures, let alone the internet and blog s to keep people updated with our daily thoughts and opinions. All kidding aside, interestingly enough, this is my first time personally dealing with a web log, or "blog" as the kids call it these days. As "tech savvy" as I like to consider myself, there are some holes that needed to be filled.

Now, I've known about blogs and what they were for years, but up until now I've just never gotten around to doing anything with it. I knew that they've gotten easier and easier to create and manage over the years, yet still I stayed away. I guess I figured, who and why would anyone want to read what I've got to say, and after this project is over I may well have proved myself right, but until then I'm sticking with it.

As easy as it was to actually create this blog and get to posting, I still found myself taking a lot of time in the customization aspect of the blog. Ultimately I ended up sticking with a pretty regular template, nothing fancy, but playing around with all the aspects of what you can edit and put on your blog still ate up a bigger portion of time then I imagined it would. I put up a couple pictures and edited my personal profile as well as tried changing some color schemes and placement of sections of the blog.

Our library has semi-recently started using blogs on our website http://www.duluth.lib.mn.us/Blogs.html I can see using blogs as a way for staff to quickly get their thoughts out to the public with immediate responses. It's also a way to personalize the library with our patrons, a side they're not necessarily used to seeing.

All in all, blogs are here to stay and I think we're the better for it.

First of many

Welcome all to the first blogpost for "23 Things On a Stick Blog Of Eternity". Nothing new to report. Over.