Yicks, the months have flown! I think it is time to write up some of them.  Now let’s see.

I’m up to thing 5 whish is about RSS feeds. My favourite RSS feed belongs to Smashing Magazine. It’s a weblog dedicated to web-developers and designers and it it also aggregates related stuff from all over the web.

This (web)log sends me off in all sorts of directions supplying inspiration and providing me with numerous ways to spend my time. One of their recent posts was 60 Beautiful Music Videos. Now I find their ideas of aesthetics questionable their are some classics amongst them.

There is the slick and very expensive; Lenny Kravitz: Are You Gonna Go My Way. Then there is the 80’s classic that was cleverly animated; A-ha: Take On Me, followed by the very ordinary song but cute stop motion animation for Blur: Coffee & TV. Bjork: Wanderlust comes close to being beautiful, but only if you keep the volume off. Funstorung: Sleeping Beauty does some quite stunning things with typography. Oh oh oh, OK Go: Here It Goes Again is a wonderfully silly video involving treadmills and four silly men with great timing. Very clever.

Another good one is Softlightes: Heart Made Of Sound, creative use of typography here too and Fujiya & Miyagi: Ankle Injuries - I wish I had a brain that thought like these people. That’s quite enough of that. If you want beautiful tru Nick Cave and Kyle Minogue singing Where The Wild Roses Grow. The video is gorgeous, the song the same.

I think this’ll do on RSS. That makes 5 elephant stamps - that much closer to my gold star.

It’s been a while folks but I’m back!  Please take as read the usual list of excuses and distractions that have kept me away, it would be a boring list and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone falling asleep at work…

To get back into the swing of posting I’ve set myself a little challenge.  If you read a lot of library related blogs you’ve probably heard of 23 Things or the Learning 2.0 programme.  For anyone in the dark, the original “Learning 2.0 Program” was a learning program for staff working at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County which was such a fantastic idea that it caught the imaginations of library people around the world.  According to the original site over 250 libraries and organisations worldwide have now duplicated the programme.  Much more information on the Learning 2.0 blog

I’d love to try doing something like this at work for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the ideas and online tools covered are those rarely covered in any formal training for library staff but frequently used and mentioned by readers and library managers alike.  Secondly, the focus is on learning through playing then reflecting on what has been learned and sharing those reflections with others via a blog.  What’s not to love??

Looking at the original list of 23 things I think I’ve already tried most of the sites and tools mentioned.  So for me this will be more an opportunity to reflect on which worked for me and how I use them personally as well as highlighting some of my favourite library sites.

Finally, I had a look at the list of libraries worldwide to see if anyone in the UK had registered a programme.
Imperial College London Library appear to be the only UK library listed so I’d love to hear if there are any others…

Originally uploaded by Mistress Librarian

This is a picture a friend sent me of her little sis. I thought it was the cutest thing getting her hand caught in the cake.

Of all the generators I tried, I think the ALA read posters and the FD Toys are the most fun. I think I’ll have to play around with them more when I get more pictures uploaded. It was fun seeing what you can do with images and text.

I’m experimenting a bit with the setup and the difference between posts and pages. I figured out how to make pages and also that you cannot add a post to a page. If you wish to work with pages, you have to write and edit in that page. I thought you made pages first and then added posts, but it doesn’t work that way. It took me a while to figure it out. Posts are always added to the frontpage or to a page you mention in the setup. I’m not sure yet, if I will really copy and past all my posts to a couple of pages. It’s a lot of work for this training site. So next time I will probably decide to start with new pages from thing 13 and leave the first set in post format on the frontpage. I will keep you posted or paged   Whatever!!!

OK Rollyo assignment: When I clicked on Free Fotos, I got a message that it was probably a spammer’s site, Sinkelservice please remove it from the lessons. I don’t really see the use of Rollyo for work or for me privately. I already have my favorites organized in folders, and can take them with me for use on another computer. Maybe if you work on a large researchproject and need to search a group of websites all the time? Anyone else has a thought about this?

Here is a quote I came across and like:

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges

Okay….so I’m exploring some more.  I started on thing 8 and I figure why stop now so I’m jumping straight to 9.  No breaks for me.  I’m on a roll. 

I tried Topix.net and really didn’t like it.  Sure, there was local news and information but it just wasn’t what I want in an RSS feed.  

So I moved on to Syndic8.  I tried searching the extremely broad topic of library and found some good ones.  I’m now subscribed to Library Link of the Day, and LISNews.

I then moved on to the bloglines search feature.  I didn’t find anything I liked but that may have been because I was searching under the wrong thing.  They have so many search choices that I wasn’t sure which one I wanted.  I tried Posts and Feeds and didn’t see anything I liked.  I have to go back and search the web and see if that retrieves anything. 

So, I decided to try the web search with quotes.  I admit I love and collect quotes.  It is always fun to see how something said 50 or even 100 years ago still applies to life today.  It makes me happy to see it.  I didn’t really find anything I liked.  If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.  Thanks.

I did search library grants because a long time ago I found this great blog but kept forgetting about it.  Maybe now I’ll be able to keep track and use it. 

Overall, I think RSS is great.  The key is to take the time to check it regularly.  I’ve got 21 feeds right now.  I guess I’ll just have to pay attention now.

So I took a few days to explore bloglines because I’ve never used it.  I’ve heard of RSS feeds and even tried to use them once but it didn’t work out well.  Probably because I was doing it wrong.  So, I guess Bloglines is a better way to go.  I think I went over 10 feeds…and I’ll probably continue to go over if I actually continue to use bloglines.  I’m always finding fun stuff and wanting to see if its been updated.  Unfortunately,  I usually forget to do this.  This might be a big help. 

As first I got frustrated with bloglines as it kept taking forever to load the feeds or to add something.  Now, I think the glitch is fixed.  At least, that is the headline on bloglines. 

So what am I subscribing to? 

1. CCLS 23 Things so I know when a knew thing has been posted. 

2. CCLS New Directions blog

3. Drop-in Titles by Unshelved

4. Faeriequeene’s Weblog

5. Going4ward

6.  Learning for Success’s weblog

7. librarian.net

8. Library Journal News

9. Publishers Weekly-Best Seller News

10. The Shifted Librarian

11. This ‘n that blog

12. Tuckerspal’s Thinking Out Loud

13. Unshelved because I love that comic

14. Yarnisawesome’s blog

I’m hoping to find some new ones that I can read.  Of course, I need to actually check the account to make it useful.

So I took a few days to explore bloglines because I’ve never used it.  I’ve heard of RSS feeds and even tried to use them once but it didn’t work out well.  Probably because I was doing it wrong.  So, I guess Bloglines is a better way to go.  I think I went over 10 feeds…and I’ll probably continue to go over if I actually continue to use bloglines.  I’m always finding fun stuff and wanting to see if its been updated.  Unfortunately,  I usually forget to do this.  This might be a big help. 

As first I got frustrated with bloglines as it kept taking forever to load the feeds or to add something.  Now, I think the glitch is fixed.  At least, that is the headline on bloglines. 

So what am I subscribing to? 

1. CCLS 23 Things so I know when a knew thing has been posted. 

2. CCLS New Directions blog

3. Drop-in Titles by Unshelved

4. Faeriequeene’s Weblog

5. Going4ward

6.  Learning for Success’s weblog

7. librarian.net

8. Library Journal News

9. Publishers Weekly-Best Seller News

10. The Shifted Librarian

11. This ‘n that blog

12. Tuckerspal’s Thinking Out Loud

13. Unshelved because I love that comic

14. Yarnisawesome’s blog

I’m hoping to find some new ones that I can read.  Of course, I need to actually check the account to make it useful.

As I said on the previous post one of the ways that new content is generated on the “read write web” is that existing services release their API.

Flickr did this and there are a large number of services that use either the API or the RSS feed to enable users to generate new images from Flickr images. I have tried only a couple - Color Fields Experimental Colr Pickr which lets you find photos using a colour wheel and Spell with Flickr which generated the image below. A Trading cards generator has been extremely popular with librarians.

Homework for this post is to try two of these services that I haven’t and write a post reviewing them.

As usual thanks to Helene Blowers and Kathyrn Greenhill for pointers to the resources talked about here.

One of the principles of Web 2.0 is the the web is now the “read write web”. Content can be user generated and not only via posts to blogs and wikis. Via RSS and sites choosing to release their API , data can be taken from sites and re-purposed in many ways. Taking “data” or content and re-purposing it is often called a mashup.

During this 23 things program we are going to be looking at a few different mashups and ways of creating them.

Have a look at Sirexkat’s post about other Web 2.0 principles especially her great presentation shared with us via slideshare and read a couple of the references.

Also have a look at this presentation from Larry Lessig at TED about the implications of mashups for copyright law:

So this post’s task is about reflection. Perhaps write something about the bigger picture of what we are learning, Web 2.0, Library 2.0 or mashups. The next task will be hands on again.

Welcome to CCLS Discovery 2.0 blog. Chances are if you’ve found your way here you’re either:

Either way… we’re glad you’re here!!

Discovery 2.0 is online learning program that encourages staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.

Over the course of the next eight and a half weeks, this website will highlight “23 Things” and discovery exercises to help staff become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.

To familiarize yourself with this project, be sure to read the About page. The FAQs should answer most of your questions about this program. If not, then please add your question to the FAQ page as a comment.

So fasten your seat belts, grab your mouse and get ready for a discovery adventure… and remember, it’s OK to play in the library and have fun!

Be sure to tune in Wednesday, October 15th for the next “thing” or discovery item … or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed.

Waaa (and I’ll come back to that) … I have had some fun creating an avatar, using Manga … walking the line between what features are available, what I want it to look like and some reality :)  O’course, with this type of “thing”, you can do what you want, who needs the reality checks?  I started by trying to simpsonize myself, but kept getting errors with the photo size, so moved on to Manga.  I’m very tempted to become a zwinky!

The waaa relates to dropping in to wordpress to write this post.  I clicked on the write link after logging in, and then saw the wordpress tip: … or upload an avatar (hyperlinked), but I was too late (note to self, read the wordpress tips before you hit the write tab).  I hit the back button on my browser (IE7) as quickly as I could but it was too late, so for now I’ll go via the Add Media link in the Post “toolbar” … so … presenting Manga Annie:

There’s a second part to my no. 5, so I’ll tackle that after a break - might head out on trusty treadly for a while.  A piu tardi.

I started this weblog to document my progress learning about Web 2.0. I have been fascinated with all the new things on the web. Some of them I use without realizing that they are new technologies, this is in part because of limited access to the internet during my teen years and being too busy with other things during college. Now I am in grad school and in the process of becoming a librarian. I realized that there is more to library science than books and information retrieval. As a teacher my goal was to make life-long learners, I hope as a librarian to further foster that goal in a broader spectrum of people. Having a working knowledge of Web 2.0 technologies will enable me to help others.

I am going to post a few of my reflections from the 23 Things website which has guided me in discovery of Web 2.0.

infobib und dann auch netbib wiesen auf den Start der “13Dinge“ hin, den modifizierten Selbstlernkurs, der bereits einen Durchlauf unter dem Titel “Lernen2.0″ hatte.

Ein wunderschönes Beispiel, wie ohne einen Kursraum ein auf verschiedene Lektionen verteiltes Curriculum durchgezogen wird, das wenig Therie, aber viel Praxisübungen und Kommunikation über die Umsetzungen bietet. Ein gemeinsamer Kommunikationsraum von Teilnehmerinnen/Teilnehmern und Dozenten entsteht, der auch Transparenz über die (Lern-)Erfolge bietet! Was ich mir überlege: Auf welche anderen Themenbereiche könnte man eigentlich dieses Konzept übertragen?!

Zum Hintergrund: Die Kurskonzeption wurde ursprünglich von Helene Blowers von der Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County entwickelt und  wird von ihr stetig weiterentwickelt. Dort sind es übrigens schon die 23things …

I try to finish a couple of things before my vacation, so I started with Image generators today. I looked through Image chef, but those images did not really appeal to me much. Many look to be geared towards teenagers and could be useful for us if we decide to do more events not only for teenagers, but involve them in the organizing too. That seems to be the best way to get them more interested. Next I went to the generator blog and tried to find something with books or libraries, but eventually settled for a glitter text generator and I made the one below. This is really very easy to do and pimps up your website considerably.

When you click on the glitterimage you can see the website I used for this text. I think this is a good idea for important announcements on our website, or when we want to draw attention to special events.

And another image made by Imagechef

The bit about getting the images centred and space them out a bit - okay, so they’re not quite in the centre (the centre alignment icon seems to decide on the centre of the whole width, rather than the centre of the post column - I got around that a bit by trying to select left alignment, but that didn’t quite work the way I expected), and they do have spaces between them - that I can’t take the credit for.  Every post is an adventure!

Done, done and done … while seriously concerned over the addiction.

I had used Picasa Web previously, but only once or twice, and its been a while since the last time.  I remember the process was easy, but clearly I wasn’t bitten - I think that is more about me than the product!

So, digged deep for an old yahoo account which I was able to re-establish (yay), and have joined Flickr, with a couple of photos of Neo and another “local scene”.  This morning started with an early morning bike ride with hubby and dog, followed by delicious breakfast cooked for me (I know that I am lucky), then some gardening … well, weeding mainly!  The plants are doing well again except for the native orchid - something has been stripping the flower stalks!  These photos are from last year, the orchids didn’t do very well at all this year, but the kangaroo paw is just as dramatic, and there were lots of lovely violets because we had quite a cool winter.

Just seeing these photos cools me down … today is even warmer than yesterday - a hot westerly! That could be coming from my [what do you call the person who establishes a personalised 23 things program?] 23 things program designer, who lives on my western side … of the continent, that is … possibly encouraging me to get a wriggle on Southerly on the way, though.

Back to Flickr, I have now learned to embed the photos (thanks to a WP forum post), and get them all into one line, and get them centred; I would like to space them out a bit, but couldn’t find anything helpful … perfunctory search, though, after trying to work it out on my own >:> before heading for the forum. I hope they’re suitable I have also (drum roll)… set up an RSS feed to CW’s chihuahuas!

I’ve walked the dog, and he went for a swim, too;  I’ve done some gardening, and now I’ve come in to replenish the water levels (in me), move out of the warm sun (waahh, its only September!) and do some professional catch-up.  Over at suelibrarian, my #4 was posted some time ago :/, and I’ve just been waiting for the opportunity after some hectic weeks (and some steps in my technology makeover to be taken) to jump in.  My SO is off doing brotherly things and the dog is stretched out asleep in the doorway, hopefully brain is switched to sponge mode for this BLOG (b****y late onset geek).

My #4 is about images, but before I start specifically with Flickr, I want to share a link to a YouTube video, the Large Hadron Rap.  One of my researchers, a physicist, brought this to my attention (gotta love the 2way info streams). I searched my RSS feeds, and could only see one post that included it (a science feed), so apologies if everyone has already seen this.  I just thought it was so clever!  I’m a librarian, an information provider to scientists, and seeing science presented like this is so exciting!

Off to read and learn: Flickr!

First post, eh?

Well, this blog’s going to be for my 23 Things adventure. And since I was one of the ones pushing for this program, I should probably do a good job of it, eh?

Over the next few weeks I shall be blogging the outcomes of our 23 things activities, some fun things I find, and so on. Yay, fun internets at work! And a good chance not only to learn a couple of new things, but to see how lots of the cool things I’m already having fun with could be of use around here making things better for staff and students.

So other 23-Thingers, come drop me a comment. Or I might cry…

(Oh yeah - attribution to jurek.d for my header image from Flikr. Whee, creative commons!!)

(Yeah, I’m going to be one of THOSE bloggers. Get used to it!)

This is a fun one.

It has two parts.

a. Avatars.

On blogs and online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and Flickr we can not only represent ourselves with a name or handle but also an image. We can use a photo of ourselves but we might have privacy concerns about this or worry about being prejudged by our age, race or gender

But there are also online image generators which we can use to generate fun custom cartoon images of ourselves which we can use.

Here are just some:

• Simpsons
• A moving talking voki
• Lego
• Manga

Look for more by searching delicious for “avatars”.

The task is to make a new avatar for yourself and use it somewhere online. Facebook or a blog post or Flickr. Somewhere that you can link to. Oh- and tell me where it is.

b. Image generators.

Similarly there are a whole heap of other online image generators that you can use for that perfect image to accompany a blog post or for a powerpoint.

For inspiration check out the powerpoint that Kathryn Greenhill made for an Unconference in 2007. Also the slide set of the images made by the PLCMC 23 things program.

There are lists on the other 23 things sites at Murdoch University Library and PLCMC. A good resource for this one is the Generator Blog. And of course a search of delicious.

(By the way- have you noticed that delicious searches have feeds??)

Obviously the next task is to choose an image generator and generate an image.

Last year I went to a talk by the inspiring Stephen Abram. One of the things that he covered that resonated with me was that librarians need to know about, and cater to, the different adult learning styles. According to him Engineers are predominantly visual (image) learners whereas Librarians tend to be text based learners.

I would like to find the citation that backs this. However I only need to compare the heavy text based library web site at MPOW to our client’s presentations (lots of visualizations- graphs and diagrams) to think that it is probably true. It shouldn’t have to be spelled out that our web sites should actually be catering for our clients learning styles not our own.

So we need to learn more about images in a Web 2.0 environment - finding them, sharing them, using them and manipulating them for our uses. As with the original 23things from Helene Blowers we will break these three aspects into 3 tasks.

1. Finding and sharing photos with Flickr

by Gloel (Flickr)

As usual have a look at the resources put together by our 23things predecessors:

http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com/2006/08/5-discover-flickr.html

http://hcplclib20.blogspot.com/2006/05/6-photo-sharing-mashups.html

http://mullet23.blogspot.com/2007/10/october-29-november-4-week-8-images-and.html

Our exercise is the same. Explore Flickr. Join up. Compare its features with any other photo site that you already be experienced with. Find images using tags.

One feature of Flickr that is very helpful, is the ability to search for images according to their creative commons license. You can find this feature under search/everyone/advanced. When people upload photos to Flickr they have the choice to allow others to reuse their photos under certain conditions by choosing a creative commons license rather than complete copyright.

As usual I am suelibrarian on Flickr. You can find and friend me if you like. But the task will be to find a suitable image or use one of your own images from Flickr and workout how to embed the image into a blog post on your blog. By suitable I mean suitable to the text of the post and not subject to copyright. For extra credit find an RSS feed for a person, pool, group or tag and add it to your reader.

My task will be to include a suitable image into every post on this blog from now on. I need to follow my own advice. My posts are far too text heavy.

… being to record my progress following a 23 things program designed for me by a colleague.  Tonight’s post is inspired partly by a request from my team leader to me to talk about my “technology makeover” to my team colleagues, and partly to record what I have done so far.  

So, it all started with a Google Reader account.  I was pretty excited when I had subscribed to 10 RSS feeds, but that seems so funny now.  No point blabbing the number now, ’cause it grows on a daily basis.  There have been a few advantages from this first thing: many of my current awareness (info on clients’ subjects) and my own professional development info is collecting in one place; this encourages me to spend some quality time learning, understanding, sharing relevant bits; my inbox is being decluttered which is something I have been dreaming of for way too long.

The second thing was to set up a del.ici.ous account.  Not so successful for me yet as the GR.  I can see that I can share things that I find; am I only able to share with those who have an account?  I prolly need to investigate more deeply … hmm, having said that, I have seen some blogs that include a “recently clipped/shared” section, maybe those items comes from del…  I will need to explore more deeply.

This blog is the third thing.  I was very nervous at first, especially as I have subscribed to lots of RSS feeds from blogs, and find that so many of you are inspirational.  That has been a great motivator!  I love what I do, and what better way to exploit my passion for librarianship and encourage it in others than to talk about it?  One thing that I am having mind juggles with is whether to add links to “hobby” sites and/or client subject sites to the blogroll on this blog (maybe categorise links?), or keep them separate, eg set up separate blogs …

Along the way, I have joined Facebook, and found a friend from school; have discovered and fallen in love with tag clouds, and am contributing to wikis and other collaborative initiatives at my workplace.

Finally made the time to play for me. I have a feeling I am more the 1-2 hours per week rather than a 15 minutes per day kinda person.

I have used other peoples’ blogs (LMD, at work), but this is the first one I have set up. I don’t think I can accomplish the 23 things by Sept. 15th since I started so late, but will try!

… or just another 23things blog

This has been a week of meeting commitments, so this one is for you, Sue!

So … this is part of my 23 things learning.  A catch-cry I love is ”never stop learning”, but I realised that I was falling behind in some of the technology stakes.  Sue had recently joined my org, and during a conference discussion, I talked about needing a “technology makeover”.  Game as a pebble, Sue offered to help, and before too long, there I was being guided along.  I’ve been dragging the chain with this one, but where will that get me?  Its also not much of a compliment for all the effort and encouragement that has been shown to me. 

O’course, this is day 1 for this blog, so all I’ve done is set it up, pick a theme, and have a pit of a poke around; ooo - I’ve also just added a category, so can assign a category for this post (my cataloguing skills just came screaming out of hibernation).  Now that I am a convert to RSS feeds via a reader (with the advantage of uncluttering the inbox), I will start to build the blogroll - pay homage to all of you that have got me to this point.  You’re an inspirational bunch, you know! 

BTW, missed out on LibrariAnne (dagnabit! And, yes, I’m an Anne), so had to get a bit sly!