Thing #30 and the webby goes to..

Exploring the Webby awards was fun. I remember a few sites that I used in the past would send e-mails encouraging me to vote for them in the Webby awards but I never went much further than that. Browsing the webby awards, not knowing what category I wanted to explore, I reached Services and Applications and found http://www.blurb.com as one of the nominees in this category. My niece used this application to create a very high quality book of their son's first year of life in photos, complete with colored dust cover. I was impressed with the book and saw possibilities right away. They created about an 80 page book which they could purchase for about $37 ($25 for softcover) and others can purchase it from the website as well. I told my son about it as a possibility for wedding photos since they have the rights to the digital images. I'm thinking this would be a great way to display my travel photos instead of scrapbooking or traditional photo albums.

The software is free to download and the site has several tutorials to get you started. I watched most of the introductory video. You can use pictures from your computer files, from Flickr and Picasa web albums or a few other sites. If you don't want to use their software, you can use your own software and upload a PDF for printing. Authors can opt to keep their book private or for sale, preview or no preview.

This is something that I will want to explore further by downloading the software at home and playing with it. The software promises to be very flexible as far as making changes in format along the way. The only thing you can't change after you start is the size and shape of the book so the tutorial recommends that you play with a few pictures first to decide if you like the landscape or portrait shape or the 7-inch square book or coffee table-sized book. You can also publish a book with only b/w text for as low as $5. They do offer a flat rate shipping rate of $6.99 for 1-5 books.

Time will tell whether I actually get this done. I have been very guilty of letting lots of pictures sit on my computer where I enjoy them randomly appearing as my screen saver instead of printing very many of them.

For libraries, I could see this as a way to get historic images out for the public or publish a small book about the history of the library.

Thing #28 Google Reader

With this being my second round of exploring Google Reader, I spent part of this month really making an effort to check it frequently and read the RSS feeds that I had subscribed to earlier. I then found I needed to make my list more manageable and ended up deleting several feeds that didn't really catch my interest. At the same time, I really enjoyed several of the feeds and ending up sharing them in Google Reader and e-mailing two to a friend who teaches elementary ages. Sharing and sending were my two new skills learned. I sent one feed to my blog (previous post) and a link to another to my Facebook account.

Google Reader is a great way to have my RSS feeds together but I still like to use the RSS feed ability of Microsoft Outlook. I can log into my e-mail and easily scan the subjects of the feeds after I read my e-mail. Google Reader has the advantage of letting me move between the different feeds very easily by using the left side-bar list and going up and down in the window of the feed I am currently looking at.

Now I just have to find more time to read feeds and stay more current on things happening in the world in general. Thanks Allana for your shared items on Nebraska libraries.

eMints: eThemes

I've been using Google Reader as a way to get several RSS feeds in one place for easy browsing. I found this on the Librarian's Internet Index. I shared it with a friend via e-mail but decided it was worth sending to my blog too. It has links to a vast amount of information. When exploring Africa, I was impressed that suggestions also let you know if the linked site also contained advertisements.

eMints: eThemes: "'eThemes is an extensive database of content-rich, age-appropriate resources organized around specific themes. These resources are created for educators to use in their classrooms.' Search or browse 'more than 1,000 eThemes ... on topics ranging from Africa to Yellowstone National Park.' A service of the eMints National Center and maintained by University of Missouri-Columbia College of Education staff and graduate students from the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies."

Learning more about Facebook-Thing #27

I've been using Facebook for awhile, mostly by the "learn by doing" method. When I first signed up I searched for friends using my high school graduation information that I had filled out on my profile. Almost immediately I connected with a classmate. She used both Facebook and MySpace and encouraged me to sign up for MySpace to see photos she had posted. I felt more uncomfortable than at home in MySpace so I haven't done anything else with that account. Signing up for my account however, did provide me with some troubleshooting info for asisting a patron with problems using MySpace so I didn't feel I wasted my time.

I now have lots of family "Facebook friends" spanning 3 generations and feel like it has brought distant family closer. I especially like the ability to share photos and tag people in photos. I also enjoy reading posts from my library friends and other high school friends.

I thought the tutorial suggested on the Nebraska Learns 2.0 post was very valuable and I'm also including the link for other friends that read my blog.
Facebook for Grownups

Initially, I left applications alone until prompted to use "We're Related". That application became extremely annoying as it started sending me frequent e-mails to add more relatives. Changing settings did help with that problem. My niece introducted me to Hippopost, a postcard applcation that will send "snail mail" postcards to USA and Canadian addresses. You can upload jpg images and write a message. You have to choose an ad from one of several sponsors but there is no cost involved. It takes 2 weeks or more but it is a fun way to send a picture postcard. My niece uploaded pictures from her computer in Germany and sent postcards to her grandparents in Nebraska. I like FREE! As part of this month's exploration into Facebook, I decided to add the Visual Bookshelf application. I had blogged seeing this application when I was exploring LibraryThing during the first "23 things" and one of the application's creators commented on my blog. I like the layout of this application and easily wrote a review of a book and published it to Facebook. I think some of our Facebook using patrons would enjoy that application. And for fun at home, I decided to play with the Farm Town game application since I had seen several of my friends play that. I wouldn't say I am completely hooked on that and will probably never have a virtual farm as spectacular as some I've seen. I'm too busy trying to keep our real farm looking nice. I am currently growing sunflowers on both farms!

Our library doesn't plan to have a Facebook page anytime soon, however I really see the value of a page such as the Perkin's Library at Hastings College. Since Facebook originally was limited to users with .edu addresses, a large number of students could be reached through event invitations. Susan Franklin has almost made me want to jump in the car and drive the distance to her library. Our small rural church has a Facebook group and I used the event invitation option to remind people in the group of a potluck dinner. It generated lots of responses even on short notice.

In summary, Facebook is a great thing for reconnecting and staying networked to friends across the country, learn more about people I know through work and to spread the word about events at work and in my personal life.

Worldcat.org: Thing #26

Learning more about Worldcat.org and the ability to create my own lists has been a fruitful experience. About a day after reviewing the basics of using the site, I had a patron ask me if there was a way he could look up books that he might want to request via interlibrary loan. I immediately showed him Worldcat.org and told him of the list feature. He was hooked and later thanked me for showing him the site.

I really like being to search a title and also find book reviews. My daughter-in-law and I had been talking about how some books had evolved from blogs. She told me about one such author, Jen Lancaster. Our library recently acquired her book, Pretty in plaid : a life, a witch, and a wardrobe, or the wonder years before the condescending, egomaniacal, self-centered smart-ass phase
Worldcat provided some great reviews on this book, one of which said it was a prequel for some of her other books so I don't feel bad reading this one first. Now I just have to find the time to read it!

I like the list feature because I am terrible about remembering everything I want to read. I don't know about other library staff, but I see lots of books that appeal to me as I am checking them out to other people at the circulation desk, then later can't remember author or title. I might write down a quick note that eventually gets lost. I can see using the lists on Worldcat to jog my memory and will probably recommend this feature to others. I started a list called Cozies

I did find the Worldcat.org application on Facebook and finally got it on my wall and profile and added a search box as a gadget on my blog. Initially, I did a search for gadgets to get the search box but it was too wide for my sidebar so I went back to the website and found the code for a smaller search box. It looks better.

Again, another fun lesson that has already been put into practice!

My other blog-Cooking with Terri

I decided to start posting recipes from my cookbook that has never been compiled. I did a cooking spot on KNOP TV for 12 years before I started my job at the North Platte Public library. I intended to put a cookbook together as much for myself as others but I was never motivated enough. So, I'm going to post my favorites at least once a week. I put this blog on my blog list so if you look at this blog you can see if I have a new recipe on Cooking with Terri. RVLS board members will recognize my latest recipe. I served it at a board meeting and they requested again when I hosted the board meeting the last time. It is very good! I like easy and the recipes from my cooking spot had to be easy-I had to demonstrate how to make them in less than 10 minutes. Let me know what you think and follow my cooking blog. Who knows what could come of my blog! I want to use it to explore the potential of blogs as I have seen others do with their blogs. Mostly, however, I just want to have fun and share some great food!

Thing # 25 Assignment 3: My Maps and More

Playing with creating my maps was really a super feature on Google and I would be tempted to call that my favorite. I started a map of our library and surrounding area but since I don't work with our website I decided to map our farm instead and then embedded it in my previous blog post. I was having way too much fun.

I uploaded a picture of my house to my Picasa web album and then embedded pictures from my Flickr account. It took me a little time to remember how to do that. After choosing the individual photo, I could grab the URL of the picture by choosing all sizes, selecting the size I wanted, and copying the URL at the bottom of that page.


I also played with the marker icons. I added the water icon to my river location, the hiking icon to our river pasture and a picnic table icon by our pond where we like to picnic if we're not closer to the river. I made the map public so you can actually search it by searching: cranefarm, Hershey, NE. In my first search without our village name, I discovered quite a few places named crane farm. I plan to add a few more pictures and adjust the size of some of my pictures on my map.

Google maps definitely is a good library resource, not only for people locating our library but also for our patrons. I point people to Google maps because of all of the features we've worked on in this class. My son and his wife used a link to a Google map on their wedding blog to show locations of hotels near the church.