Took a while to work out RSS because if I wanted to add a blog feed while I was working at home, it automatically added it to my Favourites on Internet Explorer because it has a feed reader built in, rather than using Bloglines which is what we are meant to do.
Now I know that if I click on the RSS icon, then copy the resulting url address, I can enter that in the box in the Bloglines subscribe page.
Not sure how useful these will be for work. I find that I have plenty to read daily without more!
However, it will be good for the Any Questions operator blog, The Fitch, and the NSLWeb 2.0 programme.
This technology would be a great service to send patrons new book reviews like PLCMC library system does (when somebody writes them on a regular basis!!) or events as they are announced.
I found that I was looking out for the RSS logo on blogs I visit regularly and subscribed to a couple this way.
Of the sites to search for blogs, I found technorati quite interesting, but with a very US bias. Syndic8.com looked less sophisticated but I quite liked that as there was a lot less to read through. I clicked on a country flag to see feeds from a particular country, but there were only 7 and it took ages to load, so not that successful.
I used Bloglines itself to search for blogs - I clicked what interested me and it added blogs to my list. I only thought one was useful though and unsubscribed from the rest.
This is one of those things that I will use more as I become more familiar with how it works and the advantages there are.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
#6 Technology thoughts
Trying to catch up already - this technology that gives us so much, also takes away time!
Technology that has made the most difference to me is communicating with friends and family. Instant messaging allowed me to chat every few days with my friend when she was living in Seattle. I can see travel photos from my sister in London and have renewed contact with friends in Melbourne through Facebook. I love that I can tell my mother in BOP about something on the phone, and then email her a photo of what we talked about .
I resisted using a digital camera but now couldn't do without it - the facility to see what you have taken before printing a photo is great, share them with friends, print individual pictures as you need them and being able to resize and crop. I even use it to remind me of things like a layout for a quilt or scrapbook page while I'm working on them.
Email is great for the immediacy it brings, although I do sometimes feel I waste time managing my email accounts. (Then again, it is the best when I'm notified about concert ticket sales or cheap flights.)
Study is much easier when you can get information over the net and support from tutors and fellow students.
Technology in the form of internet shopping does save me time in the long run as I'm a convert to online supermarket shopping. No more queues or lugging shopping to the car, and I spend less as I'm not tempted by special offers!
That is probably the only time saver though - I am very good at getting sidetracked once I am able to get on the home computer - just as well I have to share it with the rest of the family otherwise I would be there all day.
I look forward to finding out what other applications there are on the Web, and ways I can use them to suit me.
Technology that has made the most difference to me is communicating with friends and family. Instant messaging allowed me to chat every few days with my friend when she was living in Seattle. I can see travel photos from my sister in London and have renewed contact with friends in Melbourne through Facebook. I love that I can tell my mother in BOP about something on the phone, and then email her a photo of what we talked about .
I resisted using a digital camera but now couldn't do without it - the facility to see what you have taken before printing a photo is great, share them with friends, print individual pictures as you need them and being able to resize and crop. I even use it to remind me of things like a layout for a quilt or scrapbook page while I'm working on them.
Email is great for the immediacy it brings, although I do sometimes feel I waste time managing my email accounts. (Then again, it is the best when I'm notified about concert ticket sales or cheap flights.)
Study is much easier when you can get information over the net and support from tutors and fellow students.
Technology in the form of internet shopping does save me time in the long run as I'm a convert to online supermarket shopping. No more queues or lugging shopping to the car, and I spend less as I'm not tempted by special offers!
That is probably the only time saver though - I am very good at getting sidetracked once I am able to get on the home computer - just as well I have to share it with the rest of the family otherwise I would be there all day.
I look forward to finding out what other applications there are on the Web, and ways I can use them to suit me.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
#5 Flickr fun
Explore
Originally uploaded by craftykatnz
I enjoyed using Big Huge Labs to play with my images. There is a good choice of things to do which are easy to follow and don't take too long to upload.
I had a look at at retrievr, where you draw a picture and it matches it to Flickr images - couldn't see the resemblances myself, but then again I'm not too good with drawing with a mouse!
Montagr was interesting, but took a long time to load.
Plenty to keep one occupied!
It's just not true!
It's just not true!
Originally uploaded by craftykatnz
I love looking at all the great photos in Flickr, there are some really talented people out there.
My photos are of around the library....guess which one?
I think Flickr could be used to show what things go on in our library. Just looking at other library sites gives me inspiration for events. They also portray libraries as really cool places to be and somewhere where there is a lot going on. Hopefully this will attact a whole new group of people through our doors.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Blogging
Found out that when I add things to my profile like movies etc., when you click on the link it goes through to all the people on Blogger that have chosen the same as you. A bit scary!
Have been reading a few blogs. I like Beattie's Book Blog - good reviews, lots of book news and interesting snippets. I might even attend a Peta Mathias event in our area that I saw on the blog.
I have found a blog for my favourite scrapbooking shop, NZ Scrapbook and also the blog of Luana Rubin, the owner of the US online quilting store e-Quilter I spend too much money and browsing time on.
Couldn't really find anything interesting on Technorati's Top 100, although Boing Boing was listed as number 5 and I quite liked some of the things on there, especially a neat customised kid's toy car.
One blog I look at occasionally is Librarians Matter by Kathryn Greenhill. There are posts going back a couple of years about emerging technologies -Web 2.0 etc. I saw Kathryn's name in the 'maybe attending' section on the LIANZA 2008 Conference Facebook page so maybe she'll visit our shores to share her wisdom.
Now, the blog to comment on...took the easy option and wrote on the eLGAR programme office blog. Had to wait a couple of days before the post was published, as they must check them first.
Have been reading a few blogs. I like Beattie's Book Blog - good reviews, lots of book news and interesting snippets. I might even attend a Peta Mathias event in our area that I saw on the blog.
I have found a blog for my favourite scrapbooking shop, NZ Scrapbook and also the blog of Luana Rubin, the owner of the US online quilting store e-Quilter I spend too much money and browsing time on.
Couldn't really find anything interesting on Technorati's Top 100, although Boing Boing was listed as number 5 and I quite liked some of the things on there, especially a neat customised kid's toy car.
One blog I look at occasionally is Librarians Matter by Kathryn Greenhill. There are posts going back a couple of years about emerging technologies -Web 2.0 etc. I saw Kathryn's name in the 'maybe attending' section on the LIANZA 2008 Conference Facebook page so maybe she'll visit our shores to share her wisdom.
Now, the blog to comment on...took the easy option and wrote on the eLGAR programme office blog. Had to wait a couple of days before the post was published, as they must check them first.
Well, this is the first post on my blog!
The most frustrating part is finding time but I guess I will have to stop getting sidetracked on shopping websites and stop watching rubbish TV!
I am getting better at this with trial and error and have found deleting and trying again works well for most things :)
Have to remember to open a new window (or tab on my home computer) so I don't lose the NSL Programme exercises. Hardest part has been finding a user name as the ones I wanted were already taken.
Looking forward to learning more and getting creative with my blog.
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