Thing 7: Online Image Generators

This is just plain fun.

I love the Generator Blog. It's one of my feeds and it just entertains me. Most of the stuff I can't imagine using but obviously people are...

It's turning into a bust tonight. The first two I tried didn't work. The word heart doesn't have the capability to export the code so I made a cool heart and had to do a screen capture and then fuss with it but couldn't get it to work. Then I tried the Bus Slogan Generator and it just didn't work. Could very well have been me. Who knows...



Created using Newspaper Headline on ImageChef.com

Got this to work so now I'm happy. I could spend hours playing with this stuff. I can really see libraries using these. And for my personal life. Again, have to figure out if these work with the drupal blog (and then get permission to post something).

Catching up

I going to try to get a little more caught up now that my apartment is a bit more settled. Jill's inspiring me to at least catch her so I know what she's talking about. And yesterday's WebJunction 23 Things Summit session was great motivation. It's amazing how well they handled 250+ people in an online classroom.

Lots of conversations at work that include 2.0 words. Got to create a wiki as a test for something today. That was fun. Except that it's probably not going be nearly as free as I would like it to be if we use pbwiki. Something else to be thinking about... off to really go do some Things....

Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

created with Spell with Flickr

Thinks this is the most fun.... but I know image generators are coming and they're way fun too.

Uploading the code to blogger is easy. I wonder how it will work with the drupal blog we're using at work? Something to check on... It must work though because I saw it on St. John's page.

Thing 5: flickr

Now that I'm at the State Library I'm trying to come up with ways we might use flickr. It would be fun to load photos of all Florida's libraries, from events the Library hosts, of stuff going on.

The Florida Memory Project has loaded quite a collection of historic photos for public viewing and comment on Flickr: The Commons. So now there's precedent for putting photos up.

I'm not using Flickr but I have loaded photos on the Kodak Photo Gallery and Snapfish. They make it easy to share sets with friends but aren't so public. And I occasionally put photos up on my Facebook page. I think part of that is that might have to do with I don't take a lot of photos.

I love the libraries that have done photos of book shelves and tagged them to their collection/catalog. That is very cool. And it's fun to search flickr after a conference and see what people have loaded.

Thing 4: RSS and Newsreaders

I love my bloglines account!!! I've currently got 44 feeds and it's a wonderfully easy way for me to stay current on all the things I would previously have gotten from a listserv.

I've primarily been using it for blog feeds but last week I added the St. Johns County Public Library feed for their website. This is cool because now I know if they update their website (they're using Drupal and it's really nice).

• What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
• that I don't have to go out and check everything. It all comes to me. That I can read them from wherever I am, not just on the computer where they are bookmarked. (One of the reasons I love delicious.com)
  


• How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your library or personal life?
• I think for the State Library I could envision their being an RSS feed for the blog I hope to create soon and if they update the website using drupal, perhaps people could also subscribe to get updates for the sites of use to them.
  


• What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
• I tend to read the news I want to read so didn't find this useful for me.
  


• Find any great sources we should all add to our feed reader?
• I think the blogs I read are pretty standard ones that most folks are reading. I like iLibrarian. I think I have a new favorite everyweek. I'm really fond of the ones my friends with kids write - it lets me watch them grow up even though we aren't anywhere near each other.
  

Thing 3: Blog Search Tools

I'm not sure about this one. I tried several of the search engines and just can't figure how I would use them in my normal life. I see how they work and it's good to know about them and the differences in features but hmmmm.....

Why would I want to search for a blog post? Maybe this is because I'm reading a billion blogs already (so that might be a slight exaggeration). I did try the google blog search and the bloglines search. I searched for apron collecting and came up with mostly junk in both of them. Probably not a really hot topic ;-)

I did however find the Apron Goddesses blog. As an avid apron collector I think I might actually add this to my bloglines so I can follow regularly. And she stumbled upon the Apron Book which I own (and was fortunate to meet the author of).

I'm being pretty excited I'm still caught up (though we're only on Thing 3). We'll see what happens after the first of February. Off to go read some other folks posts to see what I missed since I couldn't get my head into this.

Thing 2 - What is Web 2.0?

Time... I think this will be a concern of everyone. Most Things don't seem to be taking too long (an hour at the most). I anticipate some things turning into time suckers if I get really interested (the image stuff).

Why am I doing this? I want to catch up with the rest of the world. Jae keeps telling me about stuff and I want to know what she's talking about. And I want to be able to provide our members with ideas about how they can integrate some of these things to update their current services.

How does this affect my time at work and/or home? Home is easy. I've opted not to have internet access because I'm concerned I'll become addicted. Work - I find myself forgetting where I started sometimes because I'm so tangential. I think the deciding what's important is something I'll have to work harder on as I learn new things.

Where are you in your knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools? I'm further along then I thought I was. I just don't actually use things every day. And I find that I need there to be a reason to use something. Technology for technologies sake doesn't do anything for me (and seems like a waste of time and effort.)

What are you looking forward to in 23 Things @ NEFLIN? Gaining a better understanding of how libraries are using some of the tools. Learning more about what our NEFLIN libraries are already doing and watching the growth in comfort among members.

I like the prompts to give me an idea what to write about. Gets me started and then I can ramble. I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about some things and not so much about others.