Chapter 22

Blogniscient is kinda cool. (It was #2 on the Award Winner list). It tells which blogs in the computer universe are being looked at most, at any given time. Where is everyone congregating? What are they looking at? This site answers that question. http://blogniscient.com/

It even rates the political articles "left" (with a blue icon) and "right" (with a red icon). So if your political slant determines what you want to read, it's mapped out for you here.

There are several categories, like sports, entertainment, sci/tech, etc. Each of these blog links also have an icon that helps categorize things.

A drawback, though, is that it doesn't seem to be updated in real time. I went back a few days after my original viewing and it looked like the same blogs were listed, with dates from March (?). Something to keep in mind.

How does this translate into helping patrons? Again, kinda nebulous. Maybe if someone had a hot topic, this site could be used to connect with pertinent (if any) blogs.

Online Software

I did this a bit out of order. Assignment 21 was done and posted before #20. But so it goes. It's all here.

Quite liked both Google Docs and Zoho. And, it is great to know about them. Brand new info for me. Something to definitely share with patrons.

A 'Googlin We Shall Go

Labs... Makes me think of mad scientists with wild, wacky hair working into the dead of night. Trying to to come up with that "eureka" moment.
But, I guess if you are in "perpetual beta" that moment may never come.

I sauntered around Google Mars, just 'cause I wanted to visit outer space for a bit. It was mostly very colorful maps and links to NASA articles. Fun.

Google Trends just puzzled me a bit. I decided to compare "lollipops" and "mp3 players". Charts popped up, and links to articles about these subjects. "Candymakers, hemp advocates debate over marijuana-flavored lollipops" and "Narcotic lollipops new drug hitting Philadelphia streets". Hmm; I notice a trend there, even though the articles are years old. The mp3 stuff was more mundane. The problem that I had with the charts was that there was no context. What do they mean; there was no scale given at all. Not really useful.

Another Week

Before I start blathering about this week's assignment, I wanted to say this........ It's really incredible what some of you out there have put on your blog sights. Really fun, creative stuff. It's great just to wander around the participant list and see what comes up.

I've been hesitant about posting anything truly personal. Just don't feel at home in this workplace format. But I must say that I am now more inclined to set up a personal blog that could be more reflective of who I am.

Nuf said.....

Library 2.0 Articles

The "Icebergs" article was interesting. But, it was written from the perspective of a university librarian. Whole different angle than what we face at KCLS. He mentioned a "55% drop in circulation rates over the past 12 years." Not our case at all. Phasing out our book and media collections -- not going to happen. We'll be updating, keeping an eye on the flow of what's going on, trying to respond. We are a popular internet center of our communities. But, our core as a public library are the items that patrons want to check out and take home with them. The author does make some valid points about "just in case" collections, though.

The "New World of Librarianship" read kinda goofy to me. I guess 'cause I kept laughing at the innumerable references to "This librarian". The traits of a "Librarian 2.0" that were mentioned and the tools that can be utilized were all a nice synopsis. It's just the writing style was awkward.(And, I can laugh easily......)

And, lastly, off into the future with Wendy Schultz. She heads off into Library 3.0 and Library 4.0. Way beyond reading, into virtuality and interacting, experiencing. Will these ideas come to pass?

Searchin'

As per usual, I bumbled around a bit with this next exercise. I played around with searching (via "KCLS & Neighbors") in both Rollyo and Google. Truthfully, I just didn't feel comfortable with Rollyo. I didn't like the format in which the search results were posted. Probably just a preference. I'm so used to the look and feel of Google searches that I could relate to those results much better.

As for potential uses -- well, I draw a blank there. I guess just to gather together, under one umbrella, the search results for a specific thread. Could be used for assignments, or readers' advisory, or somesuch.

I linked a Google custom search tool to my blog. It pulls together some web sites pertaining to an upcoming trip that I'll be taking -- to Machu Picchu, the Galapagos and parts of the Amazon.

Problematic, Sporadic.......

I'm going to remove something from my blog now. It stopped working, for some reason, a few days ago. I had created a message with twinkly letters from a specific site listed on the Generator Blog. It's no longer generating. Maybe it had a shelf life ? So, bye-bye. If I have time later, maybe I'll post something to replace it.

Cartoon Land

Took a bit of work (and asking advice from others), but I finally was able to download the Simpsons and South Park images. Kinda goofy; but oh well. That was fun to play with.

Frozen and Unbuttoned

Do Dah!

Wiki Wiki

I lived on Maui for 10 years; so wiki-wiki will always mean "hurry up" to me. Of course, I went on super-drive to get through this exercise (#15). And, I'll probably wiki-wiki through this narrative also....

I've been familiar with and enjoyed Wikipedia for a while now. It's really fun to wander around, linking all over the site. You can find some interesting, if not authoritative, stuff there. Of the wiki links from this exercise, my favorite was the Book Lovers Wiki. It's a small site, but a nice application of book club reviews and insights. I can see how this could be a template for usage at any library. There are, of course, many wiki roads that could be followed in a library setting -- book talks, internal staff info., storytime theme exchange, etc.

I'm ending now because it's dinner time and I have to get out to the Info Desk right after that. Wiki-wiki........