Pics from ski trip to Steamboat Springs, CO.

Steamboat Springs CO, 2008

Thing 30: la fin

So we were asked:

• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? answer: yes. just the sheer number of online collaboration tools was surprising to me. proves the old adage: if you build it, they will come. some seem pretty silly to me, but obviously someone is finding a use for these things. others, on the other hand, are becoming second-nature to how we use the net. i was also surprised how much time passed while i was exploring these tools.
  
  
• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? answer: well..hmmm. by thing 10 or so i got into the rhythm. i must say, however, that the order of the first 8 things had me confused. maybe if there was an overview explaining how the first "things" are to be done on our own w/o jumping right into creating anything - that might have helped. and i found it was much easier to work on the "things" at home given a better internet connection and no websense blocks!



• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? answer: in a heartbeat! this was a great program that will behoove all staff who undertook it. even if they didn't finish all 30, any of those who started the program hopefully learned something. and if we're going to be useful to our public, we need to have a clue of what's out there for their benefit!
  so bravo vbpl!

and now i'm off to find me some powder...that would be snow, thank you...

Thing 29: sharing

well, i guess this is the cool down after the big effort...

so there were some really neat things i learned thru this program. some of the things weren't too new or frankly interesting/useful, but others opened my eyes. i was really amazed at the plethora of image generators out there and the variety of things you can create with them. of course if i would take the time to learn something like photoshop this might not be as big a deal, but i like the ease of creating things online. but i don't like having to deal with the trademarks, etc.

i also really liked rollyo. who knew we could create our own search engines?

one thing surprised me. i really thought i'd love delicious or technorati. just for the usefulness of them. surprisingly, though, i find i haven't incorporated them into my daily routine. (not like i did the google rss reader, that is.)

i think my favoritist thing overall is rss. they're simple yet elegant. and have o so many more flavors than 31!

it's also fun to look at other people's blogs and see what they're up to. we're such a creative bunch!

thank you, cindy, for making it all happen!

Thing 28: Rollyo

Well, I must say this is a very interesting idea. And simple to implement! In just about 5 minutes, I had created my very own search engine...one called Soccer Freak. Try it out somewhere down on the right of my blog. I'm amazed that I didn't even need to create an account on Rollyo It just put it under some generic account that was obviously used by other slackers that didn't want to register. Hmm, wonder if you don't own it - will they remove it after awhile? we'll have to wait and see!

anyway, I decided on something frivolous like soccer - or football to those non-american fans of the black and white pigskin. I called it Soccer Freak and added some obvious soccer sites, both national and international. I'm quite proud of it if I say so myself.

One thing I didn't expect (but should have) was that when the search engine is used, some ad sites magically insert themselves into the list. For example, even though I didn't include amazon.com in my list of sites to search, they independently inserted themselves in there. Just proves the old adage - there ain't no such thing as a free lunch! creating the engine is free, but there's a hidden cost to use it...

but overall, i think it's convenient and could come in handy given the right need.

Library of Congress photos on Flickr

Hey, I just saw this and found it interesting. LC has launched a pilot project with Flickr - with more than 3,000 photographs from their most popular collections. They want to be able to share the photos with those not normally visiting the LC (physically or virtually.) They are also trying an experiment to see how tagging and social collaboration impacts their collection and how they manage it. Cool stuff! See for yourself!

Thing 27: LibraryThing

I've heard Tim Spalding speak at conferences various times now and his product LibraryThing always sounded interesting. and he's easy to listen to, informal, knowledgable, forward-thinking..everything i look for in a conference speaker. at any rate, i must say that I never rushed home to create my own LT account, however....

Now that I've played with it for this exercise, I can see the appeal. It is SO EASY to add a title from your collection. I love that you can then add your own customizations, like tags, and select from a multitude of book covers. and then of course you can follow tag clouds to find other items of similar interest. what a great overall idea!

this is definitely for booklovers. one doesn't need to know the first thing about cataloging, which is the real genius behind it.

My mind wanders not to how can I use this for my personal collection, but rather how can we use this as a library system? I looked over LTFL (for libs) and am curious. More so, I looked at their list of libraries using LT and am amazed at how FEW are running the same ILS we are. that didn't bode well, i must say. anyway, i'll continue my investigation.

Thing 26: Image generators

wow - i had no idea there were so many image generators out there! and here's a site that lists alot of them...http://www.customsigngenerator.com/ in addition to the resource given: http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/. it's really amazing. everything from "dummies" book covers to license plates, to tarot cards, flags, watermarks, and road signs.

i had a good time creating my blog header at http://www.headerbar.com/.

then i fooled around with: comicstripgenerator.com with my little alien egg pic. i saw alot of similarities in how the 2 sites work. also saw alot of similarities in the ads thrown at you while you're trying to be creative.

i looked at letterjames.com and love the idea of making my own calendar. unfortunately, it seems to be a site sponsored in germany and i'm fresh out of euros at the moment. (and am not excited about the unfavorable to USD exchange rate, either.) schade. guess i'll stick to flickr's utility for building calendars.

well, gee, some amount of time has flown and i have had fun with george, elvis, and a host of other characters and creatures. but alas, all fun must come to an end. there are other things to learn, after all!

my overall impression of this thing: i just had no idea what all was out there! good to know there's help for those of us that are graphically challenged!