Thing #9: Library Related Blogs and News Feeds

In exploring other options to find and subscribe to feeds, Syndic8.com has the easiest search box to use. I simply typed in the search box what I was looking for (Harry Potter, book reviews, etc) and found many relevant hits that I could scroll through. I did not like the other two as much and cannot comment on Feedster because everytime I tried to go to the webpage I couldn't get it to open. I also like Syndic8.com for their browseable categories. Topix was confusing because while I could find plenty of news, I did not see how one would locate a specific feed topic to subscribe to. I found the World Wide World Newsletter feed to be one of the unuseful feeds, unless a person was specifically interested in etymology. I would think, for the average user, a web site, and not a feed, would be more useful. An unusual feed is one called Smurfs' Garden (as in the blue cartoon characters!). Other tools to find news feeds would be to go to news web sites themselves ie television stations or newspaper web sites. There a person could add their RSS feed if the website has one one. Also a person could use Google News to find a web site they would like to add as a feed if available.

Thing #8: RSS

I really enjoyed and learned a lot from this exercise. Setting up the Bloglines account I can really see the appeal of saving time and the convenience of having all the news you want to keep up with in once space on the Internet. Keeping current on news and libraries can be overwhelming task and this is a great help to librarians, and to anyone, to help them keep current. I like the saving time aspects, the help to keep current on news, that it is user friendly, and the fact that you can pull a lot of other news items into the account as well to keep track of things (ie blogs, flickr, groups etc). For personal use it is great to keep up with fun things that interest a person. For example, news on Harry Potter. For work use, it helps a librarian (or any profession) keep up to date on world news as well as news in their field of choice. Libraries can use RSS feeds to keep patrons up to date on library events, library news (ie library under renovation, etc). For example, if a patron was intersted in baby programs they could sign up for an RSS feed.

Thing #7: New Technology-Digital Cameras

I got a digital camera about two years ago and I love it so much! I love having the ability to take pictures and discard them if I don't like them. You don't waste money with unwanted pictures. It's wonderful to be able to manuipulate the pictures (change the lightining, get rid of red eye, etc). Being able to download them to my computer and e-mail them to family and friends is wonderful. If I want to have a print out, or give a copy to friends, I can burn them to a CD. Recently, I wanted to give some pictures as a present so I set up an online account at Penn Camera. I set up an album and e-mailed the pictures to them. They e-mailed me to say when they were ready to be picked up. What a wonderful time saver! I really love having the camera and all the things I can do with it :)

Thing #5: Flickr Image

I had fun surfing the Flickr site and found a fun picture to discuss :) I have a dog named Ralphie. He's an Australian Shepherd mix so for one of my searches I typed that in. To my surprise I got actual Australian Shepherds-as in people shepherding!!! *Laugh Out Loud* I added the word "dog" to my search terms and finally found what I was looking for :) I searched through the pictures and found this absolutely adorable one of a puppy named Pepper called "Nose lickin' good." Besides being such a cute picture of a puppy licking water off her nose as it is dripping, I just thought it was a neat photo. The water dripping seems somewhat misty as it's falling which contrasts with the sharpness of the rest of the image.

Please check it out by following the link :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/norby/38816549/

Thing #6: Flickr Mashups

Today I learned about Flickr Mashups and tried to make one myself. I created a movie poster which I found to be quite fun:) I found a picture of space from Google Images that I saved to my desktop. I uploaded it to the site, added a title tag line, and then added a rating. Of course I was directing and starring in my own movie as well *laugh out loud* :) It was really quite fun and I can see the appeal in allowing anyone to be creative on this very user friendly site :)

Thing #3: 7 1/2 Habits of a Life Long Learner

The easiest of the two habits is to begin with the end in mind, because I normally have an idea of what my learning goal is, and to accept responsibility for my own learning, because I am good at focusing myself on completing the goal I have in mind. I think the hardest one is to view problems as challenges. Sometimes it's hard not to just get frustrated and give up, but normally I will just take a break and then come back to the problem with a fresh outlook or ask for help. A lot of times this is effective and I am able to work past the problem and I have learned from the experience.