LibraryWhat-cha-ma-call-it (#14)

Now, this LibraryThing is pretty neat. I like seeing what other people like. It's also cool to see the covers of your favorite books displayed on your blog. The only thing I didn't like was the actual search function on the LibraryThing site. I couldn't find a way to narrow my search to find a specific title by a specific author, which seems like a pretty basic option to have when searching for books. In any case, I was able to find quite a few titles I have on my bookshelf at home...and now the whole world (or the 2 people that read my blog) can see them too!

Del.icio.us i.s. O.K. I. gu.ess. (#12)

I suppose I can see the value of having bookmarks compiled by library personnel for use as a weblink database. I think the only problem might result from an inconsistency of tag terminology which might keep people from finding links because they are not using the same descriptor as those who key worded it. If there were a set range of key words one could use to label and search links, it might make it easier to find things you're looking for. But I guess it's a relatively minor complaint. But yeah, having bookmarks be accessible from any computer would be nice...it's murder trying to memorize URLs and it's a pain looking things up.

Get your Face out of My Space...and get a First Life! (#9)

MySpace: Okay, a lot of people use it...a lot of young people. I can see the value in familiarizing staff with the mechanics of the site, and I suppose it doesn't hurt to have the Library have a "space" for the kiddies to visit (although I'm still not convinced someone looking for library resources would use MySpace to find them).

FaceBook: Same as above.

Second Life: This is a GAME. I don't get why people think it's more than that. The only thing that sets it apart from other MMOs is that it's a really bad game. Calling it a "social networking entity" is pure spin. It boasts millions of "registered" users, but what they gloss over is that only a handful of people actually consistently "play". Of course they'd be able to claim an outlandish number of users since it's free to register and download the client. But if one actually wanted to do anything substantial in the game world, the user would have to fork over real money. So, no...I don't see any value in exploring Second Life as an avenue to expose new people to the library...especially given that only a few people actaully play the game. If the library really wanted to tap the deep waters of MMO subscribers, they'd be better off building "Library Island" in WoW.

Feed me some more! (#8)

So, now I'm subscribed to about 20 RSS feeds, but that's okay because now I have all the 411 I could ever use. I was not too impressed with any of the RSS search engines I used. Feedster didn't seem to yield relevant results to any of my searches, the Bloglines search engine didn't fair too much better. I finally found some decent feeds using the Google Blog Search, but then I was limiting myself to blogs only. I suppose the best way to find feeds is to just go to the sites you like already and look for the RSS icon. In any case, I found muchas feeds and now I'm swimming (drowning, rather) in a sea of virtual information. Viva La Intraweb!

RSS, you magnificent bastard!

RSS...feed me! (#7)

So, I just finished subscribing to 6 different feeds! I don't think I'll ever check all these things for up to date info...but at least I know I can! Now, what would really be helpful in my mind is if I could somehow link these feeds to my blog so I can see when all of my "favorite" websites have new content.

I think there will be some complaints about having to subscribe to yet ANOTHER website to do this week's exercise though. It's going to get tough keeping all of these URLs, user names and passwords straight! Especially when working on more than one computer to complete these things each week. Oh, the plight of the clustered LA....

Mash Me Up Flickr! (#6)

Stanley Trading Card
Originally uploaded by nathan_b_baker.

So, once again Stanley is featured in another "27things" exercise. But really, isn't he cute?!

Yes, it is a trading card...probably much like everyone else’s. It was pretty easy to use once all the websites had permission to use one another. That part was a little confusing at first.

I also played with the Speller mashup, which at first seemed like a neat tool to write ransom notes, etc...but once I wrote something and saw the results there didn't seem to be much else to do with it. I didn't see an option to import or upload the letters into anything and when I tried copying and pasting them into Word they looked awful and were arranged vertically - which didn't make for a very convincing ransom note. It was a novel little diversion if nothing else.

Hey, that guy just Flickred me off! (#5)

Stanley Playing in Box
Originally uploaded by nathan_b_baker.

So, here it is..."Stanely Playing in Box". Now, isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

So, setting up a Flickr account, uploading photos to the account and using tags: all very easy. Linking a photo to my blog: a little confusing at first. I first tried to just create a new blog entry via blogspot, not realizing that Flickr and Blogspot need to be linked and the post actually needs to be made through Flickr. Now that was not very intuitive and I imagine many people are going to get confused. But, I suppose that's what the "advocates" are for!

In any case, it was still fun playing with this stuff and I'm enjoying posting pictures to Flickr.