Reading about Library 2.0 on wikipedia seemed only appropriate as this web site embodies many of the characteristics of this concept. The article makes a good point that many people enjoy debating about the "newness" of Library 2.0. Some love to argue that these concepts are nothing new. I beg to differ. While involving customers in libraries may have been around since the 19th centutry, the emphasis on this and the web technologies to do so are certainly new.
Libraries must invite customer participation in order to survive and stay relevant. When selecting a book, how many of us have used the online user reviews on Amazon and then gone to our library's web site to procure the book? (My hand is currently raised high). Let's tear down the brick walls around our library web sites and let customers post their opinions of movies, books, etc. This would be a great first step in maintaining a place of relevancey in the online world.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Check out my new Mouse Minute web site
As part of my lifelong learning, I am working on my Masters in Library Science degree from the University of South Florida. This past semester, my project for a class was to create a web site. You can see my results here
As you can see from the web site, Disney and theme parks are a passion of mine! I learned a great deal from this project. The main thing I learned was that is important to take the time to plan web sites out ahead of time. All of my previous web projects were thrown together as I thought of them. Having a formal design process truly helped me organize my web site so that it is easier for visitors to navigate.
As you can see from the web site, Disney and theme parks are a passion of mine! I learned a great deal from this project. The main thing I learned was that is important to take the time to plan web sites out ahead of time. All of my previous web projects were thrown together as I thought of them. Having a formal design process truly helped me organize my web site so that it is easier for visitors to navigate.
Mmmm Delicious!
I had tried the Delicious social bookmarking site about a year ago, but my attention quickly fizzled. I just couldn't seem to get started. However, the excellent quick start introduction here helped me get going with this web site.
At home, I use an Apple Computer and an Iphone. Any bookmarks I save with the Safari browser on my Apple computer automatically synchs with the browser on my Iphone and vice versa. However, Internet Explorer is my only choice at work. Therefore, I have 2 different sets of bookmarks (aka favorites). Add onto this that I sometimes use Firefox at home for my class work and I actually have 3 different sets of bookmarks. Delicious gives me a way to use the same set of bookmarks no matter what computer I use.
I added the buttons at work and plan to add them at home as well. The buttons will increase the odds that I will consistently use Delicious.
At home, I use an Apple Computer and an Iphone. Any bookmarks I save with the Safari browser on my Apple computer automatically synchs with the browser on my Iphone and vice versa. However, Internet Explorer is my only choice at work. Therefore, I have 2 different sets of bookmarks (aka favorites). Add onto this that I sometimes use Firefox at home for my class work and I actually have 3 different sets of bookmarks. Delicious gives me a way to use the same set of bookmarks no matter what computer I use.
I added the buttons at work and plan to add them at home as well. The buttons will increase the odds that I will consistently use Delicious.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Study shows 95% of all email is spam
An amazing study conducted by Barracuda Networks showed that 95% of all email sent in 2007 was spam. This is up from 70% in 2004. It seems that as one side of the spam war attempts to make more clever spam filters, the spammers use technology to go around those filters. These figures are truly amazing. What amazes me more is that ANYONE would buy ANY product or service they learned about via spam. Someone out there must be buying or spamming would not be profitable.
Email services vary in their ability to weed out the spam. In my personal experience, Google does a much better job than Yahoo of getting rid of the junk and NOT deleting the emails I want to receive.
Read more about the spam study in this cnet article.
Email services vary in their ability to weed out the spam. In my personal experience, Google does a much better job than Yahoo of getting rid of the junk and NOT deleting the emails I want to receive.
Read more about the spam study in this cnet article.
Trading Card Maker
I absolutely love the online Trading Card Maker from Big Huge Labs! This is an amazing free service that allows you to create customized trading cards quickly using your own images. Then, you can save your creation and even print it out to share with others. My first creation was used with a photo I had taken and uploaded to Flickr. The web page can automatically link to your Flickr site, so this is another plus. To the left is the first card I made in a matter of minutes.
Happy Holidays from Epcot
I used Flickr to post photos from this weekend's visit to Epcot where I enjoyed their Holiday Storytellers. Each country featured a costumed character sharing the Holiday traditions observed by their people. If you have never been, I highly recommend it for the entire family.
Here are just a sampling of the storytellers:
Monday, December 17, 2007
Searching for Blogs
I used a handful of blog search tools to find information about library programs. My results certainly varied! I conducted a simple unscientific bit of research by searching for the words library program. Here are my results using the Bloglines web page: http://www.bloglines.com/search?q=library%20program&ql=en&s=f&pop=l&news=m
There sere several useful links there. Many of the links pertain to specific adult or childrens library programs.
When I attempted to access Feedster, I was greeted with the screen shown at the right:
Apparently Feedster is going through some sort of major update. Did someone buy out Feedster? Is Feedster totally changing their format? Is Feedster in the midst of a major upgrade or expansion of services? Only time will tell.
The search for library program using Technorati yielded thousands of hits. Since the site has a technology bent, many of the hits had to do with "software" programs. Most of the hits did not seem related to libraries at all. See the results here: http://www.technorati.com/search/library+program?authority=a4&language=en
The Synidic8 search page returned only 3 hits!
http://www.syndic8.com/feedlist.php?ShowMatch=library+program&ShowStatus=all
Topix provided the most satisfactory list of relevant hits about library programs:
http://www.topix.com/search/article?q=library+program
My best results were achieved by using Google's Blogsearch:
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&tab=wb&q=library+program
There sere several useful links there. Many of the links pertain to specific adult or childrens library programs.
When I attempted to access Feedster, I was greeted with the screen shown at the right:
Apparently Feedster is going through some sort of major update. Did someone buy out Feedster? Is Feedster totally changing their format? Is Feedster in the midst of a major upgrade or expansion of services? Only time will tell.
The search for library program using Technorati yielded thousands of hits. Since the site has a technology bent, many of the hits had to do with "software" programs. Most of the hits did not seem related to libraries at all. See the results here: http://www.technorati.com/search/library+program?authority=a4&language=en
The Synidic8 search page returned only 3 hits!
http://www.syndic8.com/feedlist.php?ShowMatch=library+program&ShowStatus=all
Topix provided the most satisfactory list of relevant hits about library programs:
http://www.topix.com/search/article?q=library+program
My best results were achieved by using Google's Blogsearch:
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&tab=wb&q=library+program
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