A brief respite #12

This was fun , and a nice break. I had a good time making newspaper headlines, creating cartoon captions, and just exploring. I also did some customizing on my myspace account. In addition I went to my RSS feeds to read some of the blogs. Several wouldn't load in a reasonable time, and the others were, well shall we say, not exactly earth shattering---good for a few laughs though.
Anyway it was fun to get to learning principal 7 1/2---play.

Happycamper

Social networking for libraries

There is nothing I can say that is not covered in the links to this section. It is important that we in library land keep up with what the rest of the world is doing, but that does not mean we have to join in. I do think it is important to keep an open mind and have the courage to make a mistake occasionally, but when I was young, Old People (anyone over 25 or so) who tried to be cool, just ended up looking ridiculous to our young selves who thought we knew it all. Nothing has changed. If we think we are going to join their world, forget it. If we think we can use the technology to promote ourselves, go for it! They are not the same thing.

Happycamper

IM for the masses

OK, I finally established my Meebo account complete with a widget on this blog site. How can IM be used in the library for reference? HUmmm.... that is a good question. I personally don't see much change from a phone call especially since most people have a cell now and can call from anywhere anytime. If we are using IM as a way to attract the younger set, I am not sure this is the way. Quite frankly, they don't want to IM us in my opinion. They want to IM their friends. It would be different in a college library, but I do not believe that even their IM stats for reference are anything to brag about. I could be wrong here since this a hazy recollection from a talk at Online NW last year. Also things could have picked up in the meantime, but I would be surprised. I believe IM is of most value for the younger set in social settings----you know, What are you doing? Nothing. What are you thinking about? Nothing, and so it goes.

Happycamper

Adding even more RSS

The links here in #8 lead to plenty of blogs and I'm sure there are lots of valuable gems among the sparkling flash and trash.

However, I plan on using news sites, legal sites, and finance sites to keep me up with the important happenings. I'm betting that the headlines may be cnough to keep me in the know in some instances. Time will tell.

I figure we will pass along the best feeds amoung ourselves. I prefer to enter them in my bloglines manually with cut and paste.

Happycamper

RSS feeds

This is very interesting and not difficult to sign up for. In fact, any problem as I see it is that it is too easy and there are far too many choices. I feel like the proverbial kid in the candy store.
On the other hand, this could be easily addictive and could be an answer to a prayer. For example, I go to great effort to avoid housework. At the present time I do that by spending time with my kids, getting to know the two new babies in our lives, volunteering, dancing, movies, walks, camping, time with friends, riding my bike, reading, etc. (Did I mention work?) I am just beginning to realize how much energy and effort I could save by subscribing to a few hundred blogs and compusively reading every entry instead----wow, a real stress reducer!

In reality I will find a handful of pertinent sites that interest me and follow them. I will pay attention and see if it saves me any time and if I have more interesting "tidbits" to share with friends and family, and most important, if the feeds alert me to important information I would have missed otherwise.

Happycamper

Flickr Internet Inferno

Here's a fun bit of whimsey. This application has taken flickr photos with tags that correspond to Dante's levels of hell and posted them in the the circles of hell order. Occasionally a photo even hits the mark, but you can't count on it since selection is random. Also, there is no accounting for some of the tags! My personal "favorite" has to be the sin of simony, which I had to look up since I didn't have clue. Apparantly no one else did either.

http://www.theinternetinferno.com/

Happycamper

Flickr

I'm not much of a photographer, so one thing I like about Flickr is that I can view travel photos of places I've been or places I want to visit. Here is a link to a place I want to visit someday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/echo_29/37662119/

My maternal grandmother immigrated from this Island about 1910.

Happycamper

Lifelong learning habits

The most difficult lifelong learning habit for me is beginning with the end in sight. Sometimes I don't know what the end is; the learning is a process in itself. All these habits are second nature to me. I wouldn't be working in a library if I weren't wired for learning! That said, the easiest is #7 1/2--play. Who says what we learn has to come with pain and gain. Sometimes it's just plain fun.

Happycamper