Saturday, October 20, 2007
Christmas Shopping in October?
Got up at 5:30 this morning, on the road at 6, to where you might ask. Toyland opened this morning at Farm and Fleet. My daughter and I stood in line to start getting those bargains for Christmas. We did really well, and are done buying toys for the little ones. And the weather was good for standing in line. I remember going to Best Buy a couple of years ago after Thanksgiving and it was freezing and I thought those people at the beginning of the line better get what they wanted. And yes, I live in a Farm and Fleet area. They only have toys for the holidays and it's a big deal around here. You can buy clothes and tractors at the same time. I actually started Christmas shopping a couple of months ago, got a few things and have had them tucked away. This year we have little ones in the family and it will be fun. We'll see if the Christmas tree gets pulled down or if everyones present gets opened by one little one having fun ripping paper. Now my problem is where to put the stuff once I wrap it. I'm running out of hidiing spaces plus one of the little ones has a birthday in November and I have those presents around too. Oh well, tis the season. I looked at a few blogs yesterday, started at the bottom and am working my way up. It would be nice if I could tell which ones were newly created instead of clicking each one to see if I've read it. Gotta go, picked up tape and wrapping paper and If I want to sleep in my bed I have to clear it of stuff.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Done but still tweaking
Well, I'm done. I just finished tweaking some things. I couldn't get to the 10things flick'r page b/c my computer at home knew my acct and would keep putting it in for me without letting me switch to the 10things login. So today I did it from my kids computer and I was able to post there. Yeah!! I started reading staff blogs today. Some interesting stuff there, can't wait for more to be listed. Talk to you later.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
eBooks
My family tried to do this the first time they came out but we couldn't get it to work. I couldn't believe it worked today. I just tried a simple little book Berenstain Bears and Baby makes 5. My computer hasn't been working well and I was surprised that it actually downloaded and had room for the software. It was very cool. Nice to see the collections have gotten bigger, when I tried before there weren't many titles. On our website, I like the Skokie History and digital collections. It's like having a museum in your own home. I'd like more of that, things in museums that you may not be able to get to, artwork too. Later I tried to download an Italian course for my daughter that you could burn to a CD, had trouble getting it to see all the individual sets for that book. Only 4 of the courses showed up to burn.
Microsoft Look Out!!
Google Products! I went and played with their version of word and powerpoint. They were the same. As easy to use as the other version. But are they compatible with everyone else's system? I played with the demo of Google Mobile (I don't have text messaging) That was pretty cool. I like Google Earth, my son already had that on his computer. I found some catalogs online that I want to use for Christmas gifts. That's always useful. I've used YouTube a few times. That can be entertaining. I normally use google for things, translating web pages, finding my way, etc. I was already sold on them. That's all I have to say.
Wiki's
Radical Trust, I think that is just reality. It's what you do with your kids. You teach them over and over and eventually you have to let them on their own. You hope for the best but know that you may not get perfection because the world isn't perfect. I use Wikipedia often, but when I do use it, I understand that everything may not be accurate. Sometimes I just use it as a jump off point to research more. Soemtimes it gives me the ideas about where to go next. I understand that we have to relate these jobs to the library but it's just hard to think out of the box. That is why we have tech savy people to do that. I can't figure how it would be useful for us. Why would we want to re-invent something that is already out there. Looking forward to see how others answer this.
Podcasting
I used Library Sucess Wiki to look up a few libraries. I thought they should tell you a little more about what each library actually had on their webpages. So I picked by places. My husband has an 2nd cousin who used to work as a librarian at the Denver Library so I watched that one and added it to my reader. I didn't see many listed for IL except Kankakee so I grabbed that one. They seem to be very busy in Kankakee. For personal taste, I chose a Let's learn Italian. I'm 1/2 and my mom didn't learn Italian b/c her mom and dad didn't teach any of the kids. They liked to keep it as their little secret when their kids were growing up. My daughter spent a little time in Italy and knew enough Italian that she could understand what people said. I would love to visit Italy and would really like to know how to speak the language. I can see the libraries doing VOYA booktalks for areas that don't offer that service. I like the links they have for teens with their book reveiws and their blogs listed. I can see a video podcast showing what is being offered at the library for the month. I think it would be nice to show a video podcast of a program, maybe for kids that we hold, kind of like the mass for shut-ins. It wouldn't help with circulation but it would get information out and that is what the library is for.
Social Networking
I looked at del.icio.us . It was just another search engine. To me one is the same as any other. What one person tags something may not be how I would be looking for it. I thought the ones on the del.icio.us page weren't very interesting. I still prefer a plain old google or yahoo search. I guess the library would use all the separate genres as tags, crafts, storytimes, books, fun, familys, as possible tags.
I added a link to the national Barbie Collector's Club that was here a few years ago. It was a highlight of the year for me, I was lucky that I was able to get in and I didn't have to get a hotel room. Room shopping was great fun, got a lot of bargains plus it was fun to meet Bob Mackie. It's fun for me to look back at the pictures and relive it. It may make someone else want to attend a convention too.
I added a link to the national Barbie Collector's Club that was here a few years ago. It was a highlight of the year for me, I was lucky that I was able to get in and I didn't have to get a hotel room. Room shopping was great fun, got a lot of bargains plus it was fun to meet Bob Mackie. It's fun for me to look back at the pictures and relive it. It may make someone else want to attend a convention too.
Mashups
Dumpr.net is my favorite of the mashups. Lots of fun ways to play with your photos. It was easy to use. There are so many creative people out there. Now on to Social Networking.
Let's try again
Do you know how you learn to do somthing and you are all excited and work on it like you are manic and then the fun wears off and life happens and you don't share that same enthusiasm? Well, too much driving, not feeling well, having too much fun with my niece and too many interesting tv shows to catch up on kept me away from the 10 things. So today, I'll try to keep going on it. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
AHHHHHHHHHHH
I hate Flickr!! It was not user friendly. First I couldn't log in on the libraries account apparently I have an account because at home I have an sbcglobal account. So I put my pics on that and stuck them in collections and what not. I also tagged them. It took a long time to figure out how to find the blooger tool and once I did that I was disappointed that you couldn't do multible pics. It was very annoying, not a relaxing evening. I use shutterfly for my pictures. My kids use Shutterfly and Picasso. The picture is Giggles, she is one of my dolls. Trust me I wasn't giggling when I was working on this.
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