Thing #7:Online Image Generators

I created this comic strip because, I love comic strips. Plus I think this would be a great way to advertise a program, a new book and even a new online resource. I liked the different ones but this one was my favorite.

by awaters | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com

Thing 6: Flickr Mashups

Thought this was neat, I really liked the letters, but I made a badge of my kids...so cute, this picture is the latest of my kids taken just a few weeks ago.

I think using the letters on a library blog would be a good way to promote either new releases mentioned on the blog or promoting a library program. This would be a great way to catch the reader's eye and its different; not to many people use them, that I've seen. Also, the badges would be an awesome tool to use for kids programs.

I like photo sharing, it just like anything though you have to be careful, especially if you don't want everyone to see your stuff. I have my personal ones set to private so only my friends and family can see them, but library pics are public...you want everyone to see those.

Anyway, still playing around with things...lots to learn!

Thing #5: Flickr

Eileen at the Live Oak branch helping apatron
Originally uploaded by suwanneelibrary

Well I added this picture and created this blog post in Flickr. It took me a little longer to do but I got it. Some of the instructions was a little tricky. I liked the fact that you can edit your pictures in flickr after loading them. I noticed a lot of photo sharing sites are doing this now.

I hope to start using flickr to showcase our library programs and events that we have. I'm going to create a personal one to show family photos and share that way...cheaper than printing and mailing them.

This was fun can't wait to do more!

Thing #4: RSS and Newsreaders

Well, I learned a lot about RSS. They are great. I like the fact that you can subscribe to a blog or news feed so you don't have to keep going back to the webpage each time its updated. If you're like me, you definitely don't have time to go to 5 to 10 webpages or more each day. I used Google Reader which I like. I also used the Google blog search to find the feeds too. Like in my previous post I prefer Google over the other sites so using their tools was easier for me, plus for my other favorite websites I just went to them and subscibed, a lot of them were saved to my bookmarks so it was easier to get to.

I think librarians would find this very helpful because I know at our library most days its very hard to find the time to look at your favorite websites or ones that are helpful or blogs that you like so having them all in one place is great and it saves a lot of time...which is what all of us are striving for these days. I know I'm setting mine up to look for the latest software and technology that comes out so I can incorporate that into my computer and internet classes that I offer to the public. Plus its just helpful to know.

Thing #3: Blog Search Tools

I know I'm falling behind a little but I'm catching up. I looked at Technorati it was pretty interesting, not really my favorite. I also looked at Google's blog search and liked it a lot. I guess that's because I consider myself a Google girl. I prefer Google over all the other search engines that I know of...I probably shouldn't though. You know putting all your eggs into one basket kind of thing, but I can't help it. I like the fact that everything is all right there and I don't have to go to another website to get the info that I want.

To me Google's was easier to find the information I wanted. Technorati's just confused me...to much info on one page, it made my head hurt.

Both Technorati and Google's blog search tools were about the same, both have the same advanced options (find all the words in a blog or none of this words or exact phrase) , Google has it where you can search by the date the blog was posted, Technorati doesn't...that I saw. Also, Technorati has a search by tag option, Google doesn't; so each site has their advantages.

Well I've gone on long enough, hopefully most of this makes sense. My brain is trying to take off for the weekend early...it's been a long week...

Thing #2: What is Web 2.0

I'm kind of new at some of the Web 2.0 tools. I'm familiar with myspace, flicker, blogger, things like that so this is definitely a learning experience for me. Right now I don't have a lot of time to devote to this so I'm spending 10 minutes here...5 minutes there to do this. I'm in the middle of putting together computer training classes for our patrons so that is taking up most of my time.

I found a website that has a lot of Web 2.0 tools here's the link http://www.go2web20.net/

A lot of these I never heard of but some were pretty cool!

I hope to start incorporating some of things I learn back into my job since we are not really using the tools that are out there...a lot of it is making time to do it...not enough hours in a day if you know what I mean.

Well that's all for now, be back with more later.

Thing #1-Creating a Blog

Well I just finished creating my blog, pretty easy, blogger makes it that way. Can't wait to start doing the other things that are to follow.