Thing 7

I used http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/ to find this website: http://www.remixito.com/news/buzz/who+wants+to+be+a+millionaire/, where I created my image (sorry, I'm not good at the whole hyperlinking thing). I thought this Thing was pretty cool, and I may play around these types of image generators in the future. I'm sure librarians could have some fun with these, too.

Thing 6

Well, that took entirely too long. This was the first Thing I actually had to get help with, because I couldn't figure out exactly how to get the html of the mashup into my blog. Not to mention that I had several perfect versions of this mashup you see here (I'm very happy, by the way) and lost them.... I thought if I saved one of them to my favorites, I would be able to go back to it, plus I refreshed the whole page once because one of the letters stopped loading...and lost everything again. This version isn't bad, though. Contrary to what the instructions for Thing 6 said, I did not see any instructions about how to copy the html to my blog on the website I used (Spell with Flickr).

I can't think of how necessary or useful this would be for a library (though it is fun) other than to jazz up its own website, or, of course, assist patrons who are having a bit of fun on the internet. As for photo sharing, like I said on my post for Thing 5, I'm a little wary about some of it, though it can be rewarding to receive comments.

Thing 5

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2081/1826710591_2e82f804d0_d.jpg

So there's more to Flickr than I had imagined... I started by clicking on the "popular" tags lists, but that didn't interest me, so I moved on to the "world map." After an unsuccessful attempt at clicking on the peninsula of Florida, I decided to type in my hometown of Cross Creek, FL. I knew I'd find something I was quite familiar with... other people have been to the places I frequented on a regular basis and been compelled to capture them in pictures. I couldn't resist blogging about this picture of turnips in the garden at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Historic Site, where my father is a tour guide (I was almost hoping to find a picture of him). I once spent part of an afternoon digging up turnips like these in this very garden, but that's another story. I actually kind of enjoyed the sensation of digging my hands into the earth and pulling out the very food I would later eat (especially the red potatoes...to this day I have a soft spot for red potatoes because of that experience).

I liked what the Clemens and Alcuin libraries did with their photos. It's more intresting than simply looking at a library catalog because you can see how the books actually look in the library. I don't use a photo hosting service, and I don't foresee using one in the near future, though I do have some photos on facebook. I feel slightly uneasy about having photos public... there's always that fear of unwanted attention. If you don't make your photos public, on the other hand, you might miss out on welcome comments.

Thing 4

Well, I never thought I would know what an RSS is, let alone use one, but now I have. I do find it an interesting concept and like the fact that I have the ability to add blogs and websites of interest to my own little page... I suppose it's like having your "favorites" there to log into from any computer, though more time-saving. I tried going to certain blogs I knew I was going to add to my RSS and clicking on what looked like their "subscribe" links, but this only worked with one, which presented me with a page of html, so I copied that URL into my green "subscribe" box in Google Reader. With the others, I simply copied their URL into the same box, and everything seemed to work. If I were a librarian, I can see how having an RSS with continual technology updates at my fingertips would be useful and could save time from web-browsing to help patrons. If I do happen to come across blogs of interest to me in the future, I will consider adding them to my RSS, however, I haven't been an avid blog-reader or internet buff thus far, so I may not use this feature all that much.

Thing 3

In my first experiment with blog search engines, I compared Technorati with icerocket.com. I liked the layout of the Technorati site better than icerocket.com, but didn't notice huge differences in the types of results I found, only that they were individually different from each other. I looked for various things, such as "Obama white house," plain "white house," and "inauguration" in an effort to find non-political information on the new first family's transition (I know, I know, it's the stuff of Entertainment Tonight, but I do watch the actual news, too). Though I didn't really find what I wanted with any of the search terms, it seemed the more specific my search ("Obama white house"), the more relevant the results were. Seldom did the results have words that matched my terms in their headlines, though they were (not always) in the blog somewhere. Icerocket.com did have a "preferences" page that Technorati did not, but their search options seemed pretty similar. Something I was surprised about was the fact that a lot of the results in both search engines were links to online newspaper articles, not blogs... I suppose if they contain relevant information...

Thing 2

I will find time for the 23 Things when I have nothing left to shelve...alas, it seems that is all I am ever able to do... I almost feel like I'm being bad by sitting in front of a computer blogging instead of fulfilling routine page duties. It is a welcome relief, though. I am participating in the 23 Things, quite honestly, because it's something I can do while on the job besides shelving. I still hope to get something out of it, even if I won't necessarily be the go-to person for patron inquiries (I have been the defacto walking-answer-book on a few occasions when pushing carts near the patron computers). It would be nice to find a web tool of use to me. The internet has at times been a welcome means of researching papers for school, while at the same time a distraction from those very papers. It's not something I've ever really benefited from in the work realm, but in its usefulness in tools such as email and bill-pay, it's definitely a time saver. I'm also partial to online library catalogs. The Web 2.0 tools that I know I have a familiarity with are Facebook and Myspace. I'm looking forward to being able to utilize other tools I suppose I ought to know about by now.

Thing 1

I have reluctantly created a Blogger account... the reluctance being in using Blogger itself, not creating the blog. I wanted to use Wordpress, but that was going nowhere for reasons unbeknownst to me. Maybe my password wasn't "excellent" enough. Anyway, they didn't want me, so I am now on Blogger.

I've been hearing about blogs for a while now, but never envisioned myself creating one...okay, perhaps I thought about creating a Live Journal account or something along those lines when I was younger and just getting into the IM, etc. craze. That didn't last very long, though. I followed a few blogs back then, and have looked for at least one since, by the author of Julie and Julia (about a woman who cooks at least one recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking every night for a year-great read).

I suppose it is interesting to think that someone I've never met in cyberspace could read a blog post of mine and find my thoughts interesting. We'll see if that happens with this blog. A senior colleague has vowed that he will ask for my help if he has problems with any of these 23 things, though I am afraid I will be experiencing a lot of new tools the internet has to offer myself, aside from a few things such as Facebook and Myspace.

Technology does scare me a little... sometimes I almost feel an aversion to it and fantasize about escaping to the proverbial cabin in the hills of West Virginia with no running water or electricity. Technically, however, I would still be employing some form of technology, so it's really an unsatisfactory term. The way everything's becoming more and more "futuristic," I suppose, is what I mean. I will try my best though.