Online Databases—Web 2.0: Our Cultural Downfall?

From Library Journal
Andrew Keen, former internet entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, has become an articulate contrarian regarding all of the Web 2.0 excitement.
I think he might be on to something here:
"The underlying message from Keen is buyer (or reader) beware. When anyone can add unfiltered, unvetted, and unattributed information to a growing array of social networking sites—sites some people rely on for their news or research—we have a dangerous dumbing-down of culture and a world where truth is hard to differentiate from falsehood."

Wanted a Puppy for Christmas and didn't get one?

Try this one out: I Do Dog Tricks. Type in as many commands as you can think of. MAke sure you try “kiss”.

Joyeux Noel

Nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year and winner of Leeds International Film Festival for Best Feature in 2006
Joyeux Noel
In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man's Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, British and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence.

Like GuitarHero? Well try the holiday version!

Play Handbell Hero

It takes just 4 seconds!

Your Christmas List?

Is this on your Christmas list?

It can be yours for $119.99 at j crew

Striking Golden

Striking Golden: "

Some people never learn: Entertainment Weekly reports that the Catholic League and other pro-Christian groups are organizing a boycott of the ...

"

Wikipedia Founder Librarian at Heart?

Wikipedia Founder Librarian at Heart?: "

A piece in yesterday's New York Times Magazine revealed an unexpected aspect to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales's personal book collection in ...

"

Pray for Coy Christopher Kolkhorst

A friend of mine, Kathy Kolkhorst, became a grandmother in November. Her daughter had a bonucing baby boy named Ryder. She was expecting another grandson in late March 08. However, on December 3rd, little Coy came unexpectedly. I would ask that everyone add this family; Coy, his mother, Ann Marie, his father, Chris, and his whole network of family members, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to their prayer list. You can view his progress on his blog. Borrowing the words from the song..."May God's love be with you"

"The Big Questions" by Lama Das

Would love to hear what everyone thinks of this quote! Post your comment!
"The Big Questions" by Lama Das
"Research in the emerging field of positive psychology--focusing on one's inner strengths and potential rather than on one's outer failures and problems -- has shown that learned optimism and flexibility contribute a great deal to resetting happiness levels that have been compromised by genetic inheritance, personal biochemistry, social conditioning, and individual life experiences...This finding conflicts with what many scientists previously thought and confirms what yogies and other serious meditators have always known: WE HAVE AN INNATE CAPACITY TO BE HAPPY THAT IS INDEPENDENT FROM WHAT HAPPENS TO US."

Dear Miss Breed

"Dear Miss Breed..." the letters begin. Clara Estelle Breed was the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library from 1929 to 1945. When her young Japanese American patrons and their families were forced into relocation camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942, Miss Breed became their penpal and their lifeline, sending them books and supplies, assisting with various requests, and "serving as a reminder of the possibility for decency and justice in a troubled world."
Fifty years later, Miss Breed passed on her collection of letters to Elizabeth Kikuchi Yamada, one of her original correspondents. Ms. Yamada donated them to the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. The online collection includes digital facsimiles of the correspondence, full transcriptions of the letters, and brief biographies of most of the correspondents. The site also includes home movies and oral histories.

Check out this charitable but fun site...

Even if you are way past taking the SAT this is pretty fun (ok I know my idea of fun and your idea of fun may not be the same thing but check it out and you decide)

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

My Dæmon

Check out my Dæmon as created by The Golden Compass' official movie website.

Week 10: #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

I have enjoyed learning about all the Web 2.0 tools that we have checked out the past few weeks.

Week 1 #1 - I enjoyed the iHCPL blog and I appreciate all the effort that went in to creating it!
Week 1 #2 - the motivational slide show which we used to discover some pointers on nurturing your own learning process again was some helpful stuff.
Week 2 #3 - Setting up my blog - though I have blogged before I am glad I had an excuse to do it again and this time I think I'll keep up with it though I don't have the readership of The Shifted Librarian but one can hope.
Week 2 #4 - Internet Safety - I still have nightmares about Sarah being my daughter!
Week 3 #5 - Flickr - the best place to obtain photos though I will not continue to post my own to Flickr but will continue to use Kodak Gallery.
Week 3 #6 - Unless of course I want to do something fun with my photos and a mashup.
Week 3 #7 - Going to use Picnik to create our Christmas cards this year.
Week 4 #8 - I am addicted to keeping my Bloglines account current even if it's the mystery bold entry for no reason? Does anyone have any idea why this happens? A feed in bloglines will appear bold and any number from (1) to (2oo) as new items when in fact there are no new entries?
Week 4 #9 - I currently have 45 feeds in my Bloglines account. I have only met the Bloglines Plumber twice! Have you met him?
Week 5 #10 - Online image generators - I was crushed when my own mother told me the only one that looked even remotely like me was the weeble version :(
Week 5 #11 - Library Thing - though I have more entered in my catalog I am still a long way from having all my books entered. I would still like to one day get every book I owe entered so I know what I have.
Week 5 #12 - Library Elf - A pleasant surprise - I thought this would be redunant and unnecessary however I have really grown to like receiving my emails from Library Elf. They are so much easier to read and see my entire account at a glance rather than just what's due.
Week 6 #13 - I absolutly love my Del.icio.us account and can leave home without it because I can call it up from any computer!
Week 6 #14 - Technorati - I think I've learned enough about how to use it to be able to help a patron use it to search for blogs they may be interested in but I won't be searching for new blogs to read. It is all I can do to keep up with the ones I read now.
Week 6 #15 - Web 2.0, Library 2.0 - I will continue to educate myself about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 via NextSpace, OCLC's magazine.
Week 7 #16 - a great place to start when you Don't Know Much About Anything
Week 7 #17 - What timing! Ironic that we were to blog about technology the week the system crashes!
Week 8 #18 - I've had a MySpace and now a Facebook - I personnaly have no use for it but would definetly like to develop a MySpace and Facebook for our library just to see what impact it might have with our patrons.
Week 8 #19 - Again something if given a chance I would love to show any patron who might need such a tool or if I am ever colaberating with others on a document (a family history situation comes to mind) I would use this service otherwise as much as I'd like to free myself from Bill Gates I'll stick with my Microsoft software.
Week 9 #20 - YouTube - somewhat a viewer veteran to YouTube though I have never posted a video to the site but I realize it is new for many who probably don't have resident teenagers in their household. On Tuesday, November 6, YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen appeaered on The Oprah Winfrey Show so the word is spreading.
Week 9 #21 - Podcasts are for those days when it is really slow as I usually don't have time for all this but now that I've added StoryCorps to my Bloglinges account and I'm obsessed with keeping it current my days are getting longer and longer (it's almost midnight now...)
Week 9 #22 - Overdrive is probably my favorite Library 2.0 tool (del.icio.us my favorite web 2.0 tool) I look forward to the opportunity to turn as many people as possible on it. Aren't you tired of wasting your commute? Might as well be listening to a audiobook on your mp3 player.
Week 10 #23 - There you have it My Summary!

Elf Yourself! I did!

check it out!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9576744164

Amazon Hopes To 'Kindle' Revolution

As seen on Good Morning America this morning. Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device holds 200 books, an internet connection is not necessary, enables you to read the New York Times and many other papers, magazines and your favorite blogs. Robin said "but you can't dogear a page" and Diane said "well you can use the item for traveling and read the paper book at the fireplace" Another feature worth mentioning is that you can change the font size! Buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute. I think some of our patrons already think we can do this for them :) Don't want to take my word for what a great thing this could be try checking out what Neil Gaiman has to say about it.

King Corn as seen on CBS Sunday Morning

Corn, that symbol of Thanksgiving bounty, has come to dominate the American diet in a way the Pilgrims never could have imagined. We use it for corn oil, feed grain for beef and chicken, and especially high fructose corn syrup. While corn overproduction and government subsidies have kept our food cheap, they’ve also led to dramatic increases in obesity and diabetes. In this piece, Correspondent John Blackstone introduced us to Curt Ellis, one of the young filmmakers who made "King Corn," a new documentary that examines the impact of corn on our bodies and our economy. This month, he’s trying to live on a diet free of corn and corn products, and he’s pretty hungry. He also talks with Chef Ann Cooper, the one-time celebrity chef who now calls herself a "renegade lunch lady" as she tries to wean young people in the Berkeley, Calif. school system off junk food and onto healthy diets.
Check out the King Corn website and Chef Ann's website Lunch Lessons. It is time well spent educating yourself on this issue.
For more information on this mornings' edition of The CBS Sunday Morning show visit their website.

Week 9: #22 Downloadable Media

I love OverDrive Media. I attended a training workshop at Cy-Fair College Library presented by L.I.F.E. on using OverDrive. I had used OverDrive a little before this training but since the training I went out and bought an MP3 player and have enjoyed listening to music and audiobooks regularly. See my earlier posts about OverDrive Media.
OverDrive Signs Pop Music Label for Downloads
and
Week 6: #13 Tagging Makes the Web 2.0 world go round

Week 9: #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

Explored with all three of the podcast directories and PodcastAlley was my favorite of the three but the way I've found all of the podcasts I subscribed to already, before this exercise, was through the organization's website. For example, National Public Radio was where I went to subscribe to StoryCorps. At recording booths across America, everyday people interview one another about their lives. StoryCorps creator Dave Isay showcases these first-person stories in this weekly podcast. StoryCorps airs Fridays on NPR's Morning Edition. They are a quick listen. I found some library podcasts but none of them posted on what I would consider a regular enough basis to consider subscribing to them. I looked at the list of the top 50 podcasts on PodcastAlley and didn't find much of anything worth listening to. I found some neat podcasts in German which my daughter and her German teacher might be interested in so I created a list of about 6 or 7 of them and emailed the web addresses to them. For now though I am off to go read my book club book, Love in the Time of Cholera.

Found New Reference Tool

GPO Creates Its First Ever On-Line Guide To Members Of Congress
This website has easy to search information on all Members of Congress. A simple click will bring the user to a picture and biography of any current member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. This information previously was available in separate databases, but now can be accessed from one central point.

Call Me Ishmael

Michael Rogers' article “To the Last I Grapple with Thee" brings to our attention that "today marks the 156th anniversary of Moby Dick’s publication." Check out his article for some interesting information about Herman Melville.

Ken Burns at the Wortham Center in Houston

Went to see Ken Burns speak tonight at the Wortham Center. We had a lovely dinner at Birraporetti's (alittle on the pricy side for food that was just ok. The service was good and very friendly). It was still a nice evening to walk around downtown, have dinner with just my husband and then go to hear Ken Burns speak.
The Huntsville Men's Choir opened the evening with some wonderful music which was capped off with a tear jerking playing of Taps on the trumpet. Everything Mr. Burns had to say was exactly what I think we as Americans need to hear today. The two things that resonated with me the most were:
He mentioned something Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once said. He said, "There's too much pluribus and not enough unum." And he believes that embedded in the endlessly fascinating stories of the Second World War is a sense of what unum means. He also quoted Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address as the most perfect sentence ever:
"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Make sure you catch The War the next time it airs on PBS.

Week 9: #20 Discover YouTube and other video sharing sites

Again my daughters have shown me many videos from YouTube - a particularly fun one was the Cupid Shuffle. We were doing the cupid shuffle everywhere for days. Another one of our favorites was part of our book club discussion one night, yes as you can see our topics of conversation sometimes really get away from our book! This one is called Vietnamese Beauty Salon Lady.
One of my favorite things to share is Stupid in America which you can find on YouTube but I have found a better quality version on viddler.com. I think everyone should know about the things they discuss in this episode of 20/20 about the educational system today. I'll warn you now, some of the things that go on today in our schools will make you hot.
And lastly I was particularly intrigued by the place the internet in general is playing in the 2008 election. There is an incredible document called The 51st State: The State of Online By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor, from the November/December 2007 edition of Searcher, The Magazine for Database Professionals. This is a pdf document with LIVE Links which means it offers a click-through page containing all the live links mentioned, there is no need to retype URLs. You’ll find information about online fundraising, political blogs and discussion forums, how candidates are making of use of social networking tools, and how the mainstream media is using the Web to cover the 2008 election. A detailed chart compares the features of major candidates’ websites, and includes links to candidates’ pages on social networking sites like FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr and YouTube. Steve Grove, head of YouTube's news and politics section, says this: "These YouTube questions -- a lot of them, anyway -- are intimate, emotional, personal. That person is in his/her surrounding, and that person is bringing you into their world, their reality. That makes it a very powerful experience." I think this could possibly give the candidates a whole new perspective on who they are representing.
Stupid in America as seen on YouTube:

Just in time for the Holidays!

I was at Kroger the other afternoon getting groceries for that evenings dinner on my way home from work when I found myself absently tapping my heels to the music when a fellow shopper pointed out I was doing so to Christmas music and how she couldn't believe they were playing Christmas music already.

Because I am having trouble sleeping (for which I know I'll be sorry tomorrow) I found a searchable database of lyrics for more than 120 Christmas Carols. AskSam has created a database to search the full text of some of the most popular Christmas carol lyrics. You can search and view both online and offline(via a free download).

So if you are like me and can't sleep download those lyrics and make your own songbooks for your Christmas caroling this season. Do you do that (Christmas carol) in Texas? It just doesn't seem right without the winter coats, mittens and SNOW!

My Video

Week 8: #19 Take Two

And this is my blog entry using Zoho Writer:

Discovery Exercise:

1. Create a free account for yourself in Zoho Writer. Account Created
2. Explore the site and create a few test documents. Created several test documents and this blog posting too!
3. Try out Zoho Writer's features and create a blog post about your discoveries.

This was very easy to figure out - if you can use Microsoft Word you can use Zoho Writer.

I can also still imbed web links in my blog posting just like I do when I type my posting from my blog.

Week 8: #19 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

I tried Google Docs to make a blog entry using their document creator.

I found this webpage http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour5.html in the tour of google docs and read about some of the ways that people are using online applications and only then did I truly understand the value as it applied to my life. In particular I liked the following:

From Frank, ardent member of Red Sox Nation I am a Red Sox season ticket holder who moved to St. Louis. Although I can't make it to Fenway more than a few times per year any more, I've kept my season tickets and let my family and friends buy them. Historically I created an Excel spreadsheet and e-mailed it to one person at a time, but it was always a hassle waiting for someone to pick their games before being able to send it on to the next person. I'd get calls from people demanding the spreadsheet, and I'd have to say "you're third in line, be patient". Or people would be miffed that they didn't get the spreadsheet earlier (where are all the Yankee games? Why are all the Saturday games taken? How come you sent it to him before me?). With [Google Docs] the logistics are far simpler, now I can just e-mail everyone and let them pick whatever games are available. And instead of the process dragging out for months, I wouldn't be surprised if this year it takes a week.

From Ken Leebow, Author: 300 Incredible Things to Do on the Internet book series Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy using [Google Docs]. I'm looking forward to the day when all my applications are online. As an author who does a tremendous amount of research on the Internet, during the day, I am at several different computers. By using [Google Docs], no matter where I am, I have a current copy of my books in process. It has increased my productivity because whenever I have an idea or information to place in the book, I just go to the nearest computer. In addition to always having a current copy online, I can share the book with my editor. Thus we are always working on one copy and it is always current. Thanks for providing this service.

I also just purchased each of my girls a flash drive for school as they are no longer allowed to use discs. How easy would this be to create a document at school using one of these online services and save it and then be able to access it from the library, from home or a friends' house. I think the school would even benefit from this situation but then I am wondering if the filters at the schools would block these services?

I think this would also be beneficial for our patrons because I have many who have difficulty creating a word document on one of the public computers and then being able to save the document to a disc (and these users don't even know what a flash drive is yet) and before you know it their time on the computer is up as they have waited to long trying to decide wether or not to ask for assistance. These services would be great because their document would be on the internet accessible without any additional hardware (flash drive, disc, etc.) even if the hour flew by without them noticing and they didn't get a chance to print it before their time was up. They don't even have to remember to click save as I see your document is automatically saved periodically while creating it. I look forward to the opportunity to show the right patron one of these services soon.

Week 8: #18 Social Networking: Making friends in the comfort of your own home

Social Networking is nothing new in our house since I have two teenage daughters I am a routine visitor to my daughters' MySpace pages and one of them has a Facebook page as well. I also created a Xanga page while in school pursuing my Masters' degree. I liked Xanga but I didn't keep up with the page after graduation. Alittle like this blog, I am wondering if I will keep it up after the exercises are completed. Maybe there could be some sort of exercises post Dec 21st that would be just for fun that might keep everyone blogging? I know I will miss reading the blogs of some of my talented co-workers.

I looked at Rate My Space on the HGTV site and enjoyed looking around there for a few minutes turned into hours and I loved Dogter: the dog lovers community.

I liked the Social Networking in Plain English Youtube video however I just don't think I am that interesting of a person to attract all those "people" to my network.

I took the tour of Facebook as well because I am not as familiar with Facebook as I am with MySpace and Xanga.

I was unable to acces the Newsweek article on the growth of Facebook but in my search for it I did find a rather interesting article on the 25 Hottest Schools which was of interest to me as a parent of a high school junior.

Not really sure why I would want a social networking site and a blog? so I didn't sign up for a social networking site.

Took a break from technology for the day

“There’s no secret to balance. You just have to feel the waves” - Frank Herbert American science fiction Author and Writer 1920-1986

One must have balance in life. Today we went to Matagorda Bay for my daughter's birthday. It was a lovely day.

Checking Out Tomorrow's Library

The World Digital Library is being developed by the Library of Congress in partnership with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Librarian of Congress, James H. Billinfgton says, "The site 'has an enormous educational potential'... noting that its content is being designed particularly with children in mind. 'It has the capacity both to inspire respect for other cultures and their histories and stories, but at the same time to establish critical thinking.' Go to the complete article as published in the Washington Post and the World Digital Library website for complete information. Until WDL is ready remember the American Memory Web site which is the general model for the WDL is the Library of Congress's National Digital Library Program, launched in the mid-1990s and offers 11 million digital files culled from U.S. historical records -- from the Declaration of Independence and Civil War photographs to early Thomas Edison movies and recordings of interviews with former slaves.

Parents, Teens and Technology

As a parent of two teenagers and a iHCPL learner I found this research interesting.

You can check out the entire article at PewResearchCenter Publications.

I need one (or more) of these today

Thanks to technology or should I say lack of technology I feel pretty useless. I was able to find some books for some people but for me, when there is even one for whom I am unable to help it gets under my skin. I think most people are understanding.

Voice Thread

The idea is that you build a conversation around an image or group of images. The audience can chime in with voice comments or with text messages. The picture, which is the centerpiece, will be in the middle, with everyone's avatars and comments clustered around it. There's a demo if you go to the site. Take a look!

Week 7 - #17 Blog about Technology

I hope this isn't cheating by not writing myself but posting a link to this awesome YouTube Video Information R/evolution. It is worth taking the time to watch.

Week 7: #16 So what's in a wiki?

"Wikis can essentially be used for anything where collaboratively developed content or easy Web editing is desirable." This definition from Using Wikis to Create Online Communities By Meredith Farkas says it all. Of the discovery resources, I think this one and Wiki, wiki, wiki! were the most helpful. Wiki, wiki, wiki especially, mentions the disadvantages as well as the advantages of wikis. For the exercises I checked out all the examples and I added two of my favorite restaurants and my favorite animal to the iHCPL sandbox wiki.

Ball in the House

Saturday night my family and I went to The Centrum to see Cypress Creek F.A.C.E's (Foundation for the Arts and Community Enrichment) presentation of Ball in the House. We thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Ball in the House is a 5 man band from Boston, Mass. You have to see them to understand what they do. You can check them out on Youtube. For a listing of all F.A.C.E events held at The Centrum check out their website.

Week 6: #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I do not agree with much of anything that Rick Anderson had to say in his article Away from the “Icebergs” He says "As a Web 2.0 reality continues to emerge and develop, our patrons will expect access to everything – digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts, etc." In my, allbeit brief experience, our patrons think though digital is nice and sometimes convenient, print information and information not retrieved from the internet is requested first and foremost. With regards to Reliance on user education I would just like to once again point to a previous post of mine about a workshop at the Cy-Fair College library branch which was all about how wonderfuly equipped and expertly staffed we are when it comes to servicing our patrons. And finally his third iceberg, the “come to us” model of library service, which he says means placing library services and content in the user’s preferred environment (i.e., the Web). Who says this is the user's preferred environment? It is an environment that is used more and more by more and more people but it is by no means in my opinion the preferred environment for everyone all the time. I promise you I will never read a book for entertainment on a computer screen.

In "Into a new world of librarianship" I am reminded of my days in library school. In theory "Librarians 2.0 plans for their users , Librarian 2.0 embraces Web 2.0 tools, Librarian 2.0 controls technolust , Librarian 2.0 makes good, yet fast decisions , Librarian 2.0 is a trendspotter , Librarian 2.0 gets content, however, in the real world we: don't involve "users from the get go in planning and launching services based on their needs", we have managers come in and tell us we are moving our reference desk to the circulation desk; we don't have to worry about buying technology for the sake of technology, we don't have a budget for that; we are certainly embracing Web 2.0 tools, iHCPL is an example of that, but the majority of my patrons don't understand me when I say "right click", so I don't think they are living in the thriving online communities of Weblogs, wikis and MySpace. I am however ready, willing and able to use Instant Messaging to meet users online should they decide to come.

All this said I do however agree with Chip Nigles in his statement that "the principles of Web 2.0 can help libraries collaborate in new and powerful ways". It is just not as imminent as some would have us think it is.

John Riemer says, "Expanding and enriching metadata will give libraries a competitive advantage and will support the bibliographic services of the future. " Agreed, the future and yes we should start now so when our users get "there" we will be ready.

Dr. Wendy Schultz says it best when she says, "But let’s be clear: Library 4.0 will not replace Libraries 1.0 through 3.0; it will absorb them."

Finally, adopting A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto as a personal strategy is a good way to make sure we are ready for the transition from Libraries 1.0 forward.

Week 6: #14 iStar Challenge

The Kaiser Family Foundation has created an interactive online tool to compare the health care proposals of presidential candidates. The tool summarizes positions in four overall categories including access to health care coverage, cost containment, improving the quality of care, and financing. Users can customize side-by-side comparisons by selecting as many as four candidates for comparison that can then be formatted into a printer-friendly format. Documents comparing all the Democratic candidates and all the Republican candidates are also available. Information will be updated regularly as the campaign unfolds. The new tool is part of the health08.org, a website operated by Kaiser providing analysis of health policy issues, regular public opinion surveys, and news and video coverage from the campaign trail.

health care presidential election

Week 6: #14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Subscribed to three mores blogs as a result of this exercise: LibraryBytes, eLearning Technology, and 2 cents Worth. For me Technorati is just leading to information overload. I've added more feeds to my Bloglines, more sites to my del.icio.us and now keeping up with all these exercises as well as the additional reading with all the blogs I am subscribed to, my head is spinning!

Week 6: #13 Tagging makes the web 2.0 world go round

I went to the Harris County Library's Cy-Fair College branch this morning for a great training on using Overdrive to checkout eAudio, Music and Video materials and listen to them on your computer or portable device. The workshop was presented as part of the LIFE: Learning, Inspiration, Fellowship, and Enrichment Program. You can check out their blog for more information. Claire, Tracy and Melissa were wonderful at explaining all the ins and outs of the entire process. It should be noted that they were truly grace under pressure as the technology was working only in so far as they could only show us rather than, as they had intended, letting each workshop participant do it for themselves. They were also able to effectively help those with a very beginning knowledge as well as those users who were more technologically savy. Afterwards I took advantage of their tech knowledge and asked additional questions about mp3 players and a fellow participant (a HCPL employee too, I believe) showed me how to add a site to my del.icio.us account from the library computer which was different than my home computer which has a del.icio.us icon in my toolbar. I was also able to get her opinion on tagging as well. I can't wait to get home and plug in my mp3 player (always love a reason to purchase new technology) and transfer the eAudio books I have checked out. I have had a del.icio.us account for awhile now and can say it has been great because I have access to my favorite websites no matter what computer I am on. My kids can also access my favorites no matter where they are instead of calling me and asking for the web address of that great history homework website.

Imagination Celebration October 20, 2007

Clear Creek will be holding their Imagination Celebration at Clear Springs High School from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on October 20, 2007. This year theye're teaming up with the Let's Get Literate Campaign to make the day extra fun. The event is free to the public.
Featured Authors:
Walter Mayes whose children’s titles include: Walter the Giant Storyteller's Giant Book of Giant Stories and professional title Valerie & Walter's Best Books for Children 2nd Ed: A Lively, Opinionated Guide
Gail Giles whose titles include: Right Behind You (released 8/2007), Shattering Glass, What Happened to Cassie McBride, Playing in Traffic, Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, The Breath of the Dragon
David Clement-Davies whose young adult/adult titles include: Fell (release 9/2007 launching US tour at festival to promote sequel to The Sight), The Sight, Fire-Bringer, The Alchemist of Barbal, The Telling Pool, Children's titles - DK Readers: Trojan Horse, Zo-zo Leaves His Hole, Spirit: Stallion on the Cimarron
Meghan McCarthy whose titles include: City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male (release 9/2007), Strong Man: The Story of Charles Atlas, Aliens Are Coming!: The True Account of the 1938 War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast, Adventures of Patty and the Big Red Bus, George Upside Down, Steal Back Mona Lisa!, Show Dog
Jackie Hopkins whose titles include: Goldie Socks and the Three Librarians, The Shelf Elf, The Shelf Elf Helps Out, The Horne Toad Prince, The Goldminer’s Daughter: A Melodramatic Fairy Tale, The Three Armadillies Tuff, Tumbleweed Tom on the Texas Trail

Week 5: #12 The "Library" Elf will remind you!

I tried to complete this exercise Wednesday evening and most of the day on Thursday however Library Elf was down. So initially like much technology my first experience was frustrating because I couldn't do what I wanted/needed to do when I needed to do it. I had a similar experience on Thursday trying to make a dr's appt and every time I called on Thursday I got the voice mail asking me to leave a message or when I finally did reach a human voice she told me the system was down and I would have to call back later. Thursday afternoon I left the city to work a retreat in Hill country. I was without a cell phone or a computer for the remainder of Thursday, all of Friday and Saturday and much of Sunday. So it was a nice refreshing break from technology. I could just do labor the good old fashioned way, by hand with lots of elbow grease. I even pulled into camp and parked my car for the entire weekend choosing to walk (or run sometimes) all around the campus instead of driving. It was a great weekend though I came home tired. Sunday evening was spent celebrating my daughter's 15th birthday who is very "plugged in" as she got a 1 gig flash drive, several DVD's and a itunes gift card for her ipod. And sadly she was still disappointed as her gifts did not include the newest video game player that she was asking for. The rest of the evening was spent watching one of her DVD's Evan Almighty, a cute movie with many laughs for all three generations in the room.

Then it was up this morning to rejoin the technological world by calling to make yet another dr's appointment for the other daughter who reported to me she has a stye in each eye. Only to call and get the voice mail for almost 2 hours. When I finally reached a human voice I was able to make an appointment. I also called the same dr's office I had tried on Thursday and successfully made that appointment as well. Since I felt that I was on such a technological roll, I'd try and complete my final exercise for week 5 before having to get ready for work. I am signed up for Library Elf and have my HCPL card, both girls HCPL cards and my mother's HCPL card register with Library Elf. I tried our Houston PL cards but they must be expired since that didn't work. I would be nice if Library Elf could tell me if they were in fact expired. But seeing as how I went to the HPL site and tried the card numbers and it wouldn't even tell me if they were expired then I think that's asking a bit much from Library Elf. Once again it will take some time for me to form an opinion but I really like the Check My Cards screen. The format is pleasing to look at and conveniently all on one screen.

Week 5: #11 A Thing about Library Thing

I have had a LibraryThing account since July 2006 and my goal was always to get all the books I own cataloged however this has never happened but I have been able to get almost 100 books entered. Entering books has become a great deal easier since July 2006. I also have a software program that catalogs your personal library installed on my computer at home (yes, Secret Asian Girl, my cd's and dvd's are alphabetized and the shoeboxes in my closets are labeled) but this is much more convenient. I am installing the search widget for my LibraryThing exercise.

My WeeWorld Avatar

I created my WeeWorld Avatar:

PA Book Sale Volunteers Find Abolitionist Text and Slave Memoir

From the Library Journal Print Page:

Volunteers sorting through books for a public library book sale came across a rare find: a single, leatherbound volume containing a first edition of Lydia Maria Child's 1833 book, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called African, and an 1840 second edition of The Slave: Memoirs of Archy Moore. Liza Holzinger, coordinator of the Bethlehem (PA) Area Public Library book sale, told reporters she couldn't believe what landed on her desk. "I was pretty impressed by it, especially after I started doing research on the topic," she said.

OverDrive Signs Pop Music Label for Downloads

Found this interesting article in my newsfeeds this afternoon and wanted to share it with everyone especially those that will be attending the training at Cy-Fair Library on October 17th:
OverDrive Signs Pop Music Label for Downloads

OverDrive has just struck a deal with a forward-looking pop label to make music from chart-
topping acts like Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, and The Cardigans, available for
download

My Yahoo Avatar

Week 5: #10 Play around with Image Generators

Stayed up till the wee hours of the morning last night playing with image generators. I had already made my avatar at meez.com which was tons of fun. I subscribed to the Generator blog and spent lots of time checking out many generators from there. I created the Monopoly Card below using the Monopoly Card Generator. My family and I are big Monopoly fans and I am always the shoe. Another fun thing I found using the Generator blog was a music video generator called ANIMOTO. I made a 30 second music video of my daughter riding horseback - it only took about 10 minutes. Cool and she liked it too! The Text Collage Generator looked cool at first because I was thinking you could type in the words you wanted in the collage but unfortunatly it turns out the words are generated for you based on emotions. I was hoping to make one of German vocabulary words for daughter. I created a Yahoo Avatar and will post it though I think I like Meez more. I also liked the Comic Strip Creator and made a Snoopy comic. So that only leaves FD Toys which I used in a previous exercise but I will definetly be back to this site to use the calendar creator. My kids will really like that.

Monopoly Card Generator 2007

Thought this was cute and I could print these out and give to my daughters for chores well done...

From CBS Sunday Morning Show

As seen on CBS Sunday Morning show this past Sunday: Check out this story, it just might renew your faith in today's youth.

Chad's nonprofit organization, Living Lands and Waters has a website: http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org/

He has also written a book called From the Bottom Up:One Man's Crusade to Clean America's Rivers (National Geographic Books)By Chad Pregracke, with Jeff Barrow

Week 4 #9 Finding Feeds

Ok well I have spent a great deal of time on this exercise but I am not sure why? I guess because I didn't feel I had something specific to search for? I checked out all for search tools and although I found something interesting/unusual using each site I am not sure that I would necessarily be able to find exactly what I was looking for using any of them. In exploring these tools I merely browsed through what was out there. If I had something specific for which I was looking I don't know that any particular one over the other would help me locate the desired outcome.

Feedster was "pretty" but green and as Kermit will tell you, "It's not easy being green." But I did find 31 Flavorite Authors! (see previous post for more information) while exploring Feedster.

Topix had a decent appearance and the ability to feed very locale specific information was interesting. I typed in the zip code for where some of my extended family lives in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania and found out all about what is going on in their neck of the woods.

Syndic8 was the "public broadcasting" of the four search tools. The graphics were definetly low tech but the search capabilities are there except when Syndic8 is offline -- database backup in process which I received both tonight and last night at about 11:10 CST so there you have it on Syndic8.

And finally Technorati, which was also easy to use but I have to ask what is it with green? I got to see and hear about all the good times people are having in Munich where the Oktoberfest is taking place but the most intriguing of things I found using Technorati was Google Blackout? - talk about a search geek with a computer. It's ok I am not insulting him, just repeating what he says on his blog. At first, he determines the site to be a countdown to 1/1/08. But wait "just for kicks," he turnes off the javascript to see what that would reveal about the page and with a Davinci Code like twist now it appears to be GPS coordinates that point to Google's Mountain View office. And wait! "What’s more, the source code now includes a link in the header to a Technorati search for Google Monopoly.

YIKES! I am going to bed!

31 Flavorite Authors!

31 Flavorite Authors!

From Reader Girlz: YALSA and readergirlz have teamed up to present an amazing month long experience to celebrate YALSA’s Teen Read Week. The readergirlz divas will be hosting 31 authors for 31 days! Readers across the world will be able to chat nightly at a group forum with a different YA author each evening in October at 5 PM PST/7 PM CST. Here’s the full schedule:
October 1st: Meg Cabot
October 2nd: Tiffany Trent
October 3rd: Brent Hartinger
October 4th: Lorie Ann Grover
October 5th: K.L. Going
October 6th: Nikki Grimes
October 7th: Ellen Hopkins
October 8th: Justina Chen Headley
October 9th: Chris Crutcher
October 10th: Ann Brashares
October 11th: Sarah Mlynowski
October 12th: Cecil Castellucci
October 13th: Kirby Larson
October 14th: Tanya Lee Stone
October 15th: John Green
October 16th: Sara Zarr
October 17th: Deb Caletti
October 18th: Rachel Cohn
October 19th: Kirsten Miller
October 20th: Mitali Perkins
October 21st: Sonya Sones
October 22nd: Lisa Yee
October 23rd: Carolyn Mackler
October 24th: E. Lockhart
October 25th: Janet Lee Carey
October 26th: Gaby Triana
October 27th: Lauren Myracle
October 28th: Holly Black
October 29th: Cynthia Leitich Smith
October 30th: Dia Calhoun
October 31st: Stephenie Meyer

1. Join the readergirlz group forum on MySpace NOW. You must be a member of the forum to participate in the 31 Flavorite Author chats.

2. Friend readergirlz at MySpace

3. Chat every night throughout October (5 pm PDT, 8 pm EDT) with your 31 Flavorite Authors.

4. Win FREE books! The thirty-first person each night to comment on the Flavorite Author chat will win a FREE book.“What could be more perfect than YALSA’s Teen Read Week for the darkening days of October? Teens can turn up the lights, ignore the gloom outside, and curl up with a stack of books by authors who write just for them.” - Dia Calhoun, readergirlz diva, Avielle of Rhia.

Week 4 #8 RSS

Ok, I have checked out the discovery resources for the week abour RSS and newsreaders and I am ready to weigh in. The Bloglines account was easy enough to set up and subscribing to the feeds was also, once I decided which ones to subscribe to. The Using Bloglines tutorial from the discovery resources was somewhat long but worth getting to steps 7-10 for using Bloglines for more than just subscribing to blogs. I particularly like the podcasts and thanks to the the link provided to podcastalley, I was able to find I podcast I used to listen to on a previous computer and lost when I changed to a new computer. The feeds I subscribed to include the iHCPL blogs created by my fellow workers at the Fairbanks branch, a Flickr photo feed for my favorite city in Germany, HCPL Newsletters; Books on the Air, Teen Scene, Teen, HCPL at the movies, Best Sellers Nonfiction, and Children's Picure Books, my three favorite blogs; The Goddess of YA Literature, The Shifted Librarian, and MA Bell's Blog, and my podcast.

That being said now, I have to say I have all this capability on my internet homepage so I'm left to wonder what Bloglines has over what I am already using. I am very happy with what I am already using and I don't think I would change my homepage to Bloglines however I will stick with it and try it out for the duration of the learning experience in order to have a more informed opinion. I suppose if all this was new to someone, Bloglines would be a easy way to get started though. It is always nice to get to know other services in case a patron would have a question about a particular service. You can't exactly say "I don't know I use Yahoo."

Week 3: #7 Photo Editing Tools

Well Pixer and Snipshot are ok but not much more than what typical computer photo editing can do but Picnik is cool!
I made this photo with Picnik in less than 5 minutes!

Flickr Mashups - Week 3 #6

I used FD Toys to create these trading cards of my favorite libraries!

My New Flickr Badge - Week 3 #5(a)

A Flash Flickr badge - pretty neat!

Late Night Reference Questions? They have answers!

Flickr Photo - Week 3 #5

My Flickr photo album! I've created my Flickr account and uploaded my first photo.

Hey Sara!

The internet safety video was a mother's worst nightmare and something I worry about with two daughters who are, like most teens their age, very computer/internet savy. I am concerned about what gets posted however I am most concerned about what gets posted unbeknowst to me rather than what I post myself. A great deal of information is already public and accessible via the internet, more than I think most people realize. For an eye opening lesson on cyber safety check out:
Forensic Problem Solving and Einstein - This lesson addresses a wide range of U.S. core curriculum standards as well as the International Society of Technology Education's National Educational Technology Standards and the American Library Association's Information Literacy Standards. Students will use fifteen seemingly meaningless clues to track down a hacker who has broken into a movie studio computer and stolen three unreleased movies. Based on a puzzle created by Einstein, students will get a clear understanding of the the term "proof" and how to organize and synthesize information. Students will use three different problem solving techniques and solve a puzzle that Einstein predicted could only be solved by 2% of the world's population. This lesson has been used successfully with grades three through college. The powerful cyber safety message of this lesson is delivered to students through the realization that they created complex profiles of all the suspects with seemingly useless fragments of information, and that Internet predators can do exactly the same thing with useless bits of information that children supply.

Stranger Than Fiction

Last night tried to wind down from a busy weekend by watching Stranger Than Fiction. It was an entertaining two hours. Amazon has this to say about the movie: "IRS auditor, Harold Crick, begins hearing a voice narrating his life. Ferrell --like Jim Carrey before him in The Truman Show-- handles a toned-down character with genuineness and affection. Crick leads a lonely life filled with numbers and routines. While at first he considers the voice a nuisance, Crick decides more action is needed when it speaks of 'his demise.' Enter Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who takes on the absurd notion with revelry, trying to find out what kind of book Crick's life is leading. It turns out that the voice Crick is hearing belongs to Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a very real--and troubled--author who is writing a book in which Crick is a fictional character. As usual with these things, the stuffed shirt learns to live a better life--Crick even falls for one of his audits, a brash baker named Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Marc Foster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) has the right tone for the film, using great urban scenes (the unnamed city is Chicago) with interesting visualizations of Crick's world of numbers. He also directs Ferrell, Hoffman, and Gyllenhaal to their most charming performances (plus Linda Hunt and Tom Hulce pop up in two funny scenes). Ferrell succeeds in being a romantic lead you can root for; a scene where he eats Ana's freshly baked cookies is totally delightful without a hint of sarcasm. Screenwriter Zach Helm has two personal traits with his story: like Crick he followed his heart (he stopped rewriting scripts and only worked on his own) and like Eiffel, the final results are not a masterpiece, but good, and entertaining enough. Britt Daniel of the band Spoon worked on the dynamite soundtrack.--Doug Thomas

Bravo Tavo

Just read a picture book called Bravo Tavo

"Tavo, named for his father Gustavo, plays basketball so much that his sneakers are worn out. His father is too worried about the drought afflicting their small village to focus on replacing them. Gustavo thinks he can solve the water shortage, but the other villagers say he’s crazy. Tavo puts aside basketball to help prove his father right. In return, something miraculous happens to his sneakers, and he’s the hero of the next game. Did the magic come from his shoes, or was it in his heart all along? Brian Meunier’s outstanding storytelling makes this a captivating read-aloud, while Perky Edgerton’s extraordinary paintings make it a visual treat"

School Libraries Count Survey

The Bookinist

The Bookinist is a mobile reading chair, created by Bavarian designer Nils Holger Moormann, that you can wheel to your favorite study spots—even dark ones, since it has its own reading lamp. Some 80 paperbacks can be stowed in the arms, back, and sides, and the arms also contain compartments for your magnifying glass, writing notebook, pencils, pencil sharpener, and bookmarks. As Moormann says, “The Bookinist is equipped for both light and heavy reading.” Check out the website at Big Cozy Books As seen in American Libraries Direct 9/12/2007

Ron says of Hermione from JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Because that's what Hermione does, said Ron, shrugging. When in doubt go to the library."

Lifelong Learning

Today was the first day of the iHCPL Learning Experience and today's exercise was to view the tutorial and note which learning habits are easiest and which are hardest in your personal experience. Easiest: Motivating myself, setting goals and organizing Hardest: Thinking positive and giving myself credit. Added Go Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham and Getting Things Done by David Allen to my list of things to read as well as checking out Google's online calendar and Webmail's calendar on my list of things to do. I like to learn new things so I can help others. Better relationships both increased number of and increase the quality of existing relationships is what I hope to achieve through learning. I am a very goal oriented person so setting goals is something I do for myself often and in the past they have included small goals like reading an entire years Bluebonnet book list to bigger goals like getting my master's degree. Left to do yet from today's exercise is to view the tutorial again on Harriet as I'd like to hear sound and see animation and print out and sign learning habits contract which will have to be done from the library since it is on the intranet.

Monday morning

Our rabbits survived the Texas heat to live another day Yeah! After church yesterday we went to Lowes, Home Depot, Petco and Ace Hardware in search of the answers to a roofing solution and air circulation improvements. We ended up just using a tarp and laying it on top of the pens to create shade and getting 2 fans. Also we have implemented a system of frozen water bottles that we add to each of their pens and switch them out periodically throughout the day. Of course yesterday was easy as after church and running around everywhere we were home the rest of the day. Today I am home till noon and the girls will get home around 3:00 so it won't be long that they are alone but T, W and Thursday will be the long days for them. We are praying for a cold front soon!

Tracy is off to Lajitas in West Texas today for a Leadership Workshop for the next few days and we will miss him. Gran comes home today from Columbus, Ohio but only for a day before she's off again to Pennsylvania.

Almost 1/2ed the size of the herd in less than 24 hours

A very sad beginning to rabbit raising.... I got off of work today at 5:00 and called home to say I was on my way home to find out one of our Champagne D'Argent's died. Shelby wasn't home and Danielle and Tracy didn't really know what had happened to the poor bunny. When I got home to check on the others I didn't think the remaining Champagne looked ok so I took her inside and checked my library books for instructions on handling heatstroke as well as calling a vet and Mr. Alexander. We worked at cooling her down and thought things were going to be ok and sent Shelby and Danielle after a cage we could use indoors. Shortly after the girls left she died also. So our 5 rabbits are down to 3. The 3 Californians seem to be fine but possibly because they are white the heat didn't have as pronounced an effect as it did on the Champagne's. Off to have a drink in their memory....

Doubled the size of our family in 3 hours!

After spending hours on the phone with rabbit breeders Shelby and I finally went to look at our first rabbits. Three hours later we were pulling in the driveway with a 5 pen rabbit hutch and 5 rabbits thanks to Mr. Ray Alexander. Shelby worked in the pouring rain setting up the new rabbits homes complete with automatic watering system. We checked our library books concerning the proper amount of food to be given as you feed in the evening/night. Mr. Alexander also gave us a supply of food to get us started. We then photographed each one of the new rabbits. Shortly afterwards Shelby was found asleep on the sofa....