Thing 6 - Online Image Generators

I can see that these online image generators will be useful for handouts and for our library blog.




My trading card is pathetic, though.

It needs some statistics.

Thing 5 - More Flickr

Just checking out the Flickr toys. These are kind of fun.

Thing 4 - Flickr

I created a Flickr account and uploaded this photo of our new library building as it is being built. It's shows the south facing windows and the electronically controlled tinting.

I created a Flickr tour of the State Law Library when I worked there, but I have not used Flickr personally. If you want to take a look at the Law Library virtual tour, it's located at http://www.flickr.com/photos/9201331@N04/sets/72157600431218715/. Click on "View as Slideshow" and then on the "i" in the middle of the screen for the full effect. I plan to do this for Century's new library once we move as well.

I probably will not use Flickr for posting photos. Flickr is owned by Yahoo, which is being pursued by Microsoft. Do you want Bill Gates' company hosting your photos for free? How long do you think a free service will last when owned by Microsoft? And how private will the information remain? I would much rather rely on my own computer and backup system. I firmly believe that I am much more reliable and trustworthy that Microsoft or any other online system.

Thing 3

I've had a Bloglines account for several years, so again, this was not a new technology. In some ways, I prefer email lists to RSS, because I don't go look at Bloglines nearly as often as I look at my email. On the other hand, I like that I can access Bloglines easily from any computer. And when I switched jobs and email addresses, my RSS feeds were easily transferred, while my email lists took forever to unsubscribe and subscribe. In the process of switching addresses, I moved as many discussion lists as possible over to RSS. EBSCO will even feed Table of Contents into my feedreader. That's cool!

Thing 2

I've been learning and reading about Library 2.0 for some time, so these ideas are not new to me. My problem is that I can't figure out how to apply and make them relevant to our library. Although I've used many of the tools on the 23 Things list before, some I have not, and this will force me to try them. In the process of trying these new things, I hope to spur ideas about how we can use them in our library. I hope to determine which ones are useful and which ones are fun, but a waste of time.

One interesting concept in the reading was that the social aspects of the net require trust. Trust that employees will post well on blogs. Trust that students will stick to comments that can remain public. I've seen the comments on the newspaper sites degenerate quickly, so I can see the need for trust. Do we have that trust? In staff, definitely. In students? I will have to persuade my colleagues.

23 Things - Thing 1

I have two other blogs, so creating this post is very familiar. However, the avatar is a new one for me. I wish I could just choose clothes separately. And the red hair looks really fakey. I'll have to check out other avatar creation sites.