I've used Bloglines for a long time, but since I use Google calendar and have an iGoogle page, I thought it would be interesting to check out Google reader. I'm curious about the feature where you see just the most recent updates from all your subscriptions at once, and I think it would be interesting to run these through my iGoogle page. So I created an OPML file. Everything seems to be working.
I created a Twitter account for our library, then used RSS to Twitter to feed the library's Blogger RSS feed into our Twitter. It's too soon to tell if it's working, but if it does, it will be cool! Talk about efficiency: I'll be using our blog to update both Twitter and our web page news if everything works.
Using Delicious, I added some people to my network, but then I deleted them. The network thing just seems like total information overload to me. My Delicious bookmarks include things like my kids' school and our church. Why would I want those things from other people? Subscribing to tags seems a bit more reasonable. I subscribed to a couple of tags.
I could not for the life of me figure out how to add the code for the button or badge to this blog. I tried sticking it in the HTML in several places, but it did not accept it. It's not a widget that I can add, and it's not listed in any of the widgets for Blogger. What the heck? Ditto for the tagroll. I give up. It's just not worth my time.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thing 29 - Google Tools
I looked at Google News from the first category. I customized a news page with my zip code and recommended stories, although I would have to use this regularly for the recommendations to be populated and useful. I also added it to my iGoogle page. Then I searched my grandfather in the archives. I remember when the archives first came out and articles were free. That was pretty cool, and I should have printed out what I found then.
In the second category, I played with the calendar. I'm actually familiar with the calendar because we use it for work. We have set up a shared vacation calendar, a sick time calendar, a general calendar, and calendars for each room we schedule. Everyone has read access to these calendars, and certain people can write to them. It certainly facilitates the scheduling of vacations and meetings.
I keep my own calendar on Google as well, synching with both Outlook and my PDA. (I use GooSync for my PDA.) I have to keep Outlook up to date so people outside the library in our institution can schedule meetings with me, and my PDA allows me access to my calendar when I'm away from my desk. The whole system is working fairly well right now, although sometimes the synching fails miserably. I want a PDA with wireless that would let me just use Google calendar.
In the second category, I played with the calendar. I'm actually familiar with the calendar because we use it for work. We have set up a shared vacation calendar, a sick time calendar, a general calendar, and calendars for each room we schedule. Everyone has read access to these calendars, and certain people can write to them. It certainly facilitates the scheduling of vacations and meetings.
I keep my own calendar on Google as well, synching with both Outlook and my PDA. (I use GooSync for my PDA.) I have to keep Outlook up to date so people outside the library in our institution can schedule meetings with me, and my PDA allows me access to my calendar when I'm away from my desk. The whole system is working fairly well right now, although sometimes the synching fails miserably. I want a PDA with wireless that would let me just use Google calendar.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Thing 28 - Customized Home Pages
I embellished an iGoogle page with my Google calendar, my Delicious bookmarks, the weather, and a Spanish Word a Day. It was pretty easy. I hope the Google calendar continues to work. I know other people who use it in a iGoogle page, and it frequently has to be deleted and readded because the application is very buggy.
As far as using this for the library, it might be interesting. We are currently using Google calendar to keep track of staff meetings, sick time, vacation time, and also for scheduling our conference rooms in the library, and lots of staff keep that open all the time. I don't know that it would display enough information as a widget to be useful. But it's something to think about.
As far as using this for the library, it might be interesting. We are currently using Google calendar to keep track of staff meetings, sick time, vacation time, and also for scheduling our conference rooms in the library, and lots of staff keep that open all the time. I don't know that it would display enough information as a widget to be useful. But it's something to think about.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thing 27 - Twitter
I actually joined Twitter last fall when I needed a screen shot for a class I was teaching. I haven't REALLY used it. Today, I found two people to follow, then tried to upload my picture. I failed miserably. It appeared to load, but never showed up, and now it won't let me try again. Gotta love technology!
Did you know that placing a Twitter badge on your blog or Facebook page requires your updates to be public? That will keep me from doing Number 6. I really don't want the whole world to know when I'm about to drive home from work. Maybe I just have a way smaller ego than most people, but I really don't understand why anyone besides family and close friends would want to follow my every thought and move in 140 characters or less. I think these constant updates are a bit silly. Facebook lets people know what you're doing on a broader time scale, and that I can understand. It's more like the news you would put in a letter to Grandma, if anyone actually still wrote letters. As for Twitter, the only people who would be interested in constantly knowing what I'm doing are my family. Or maybe someone for whom I'm late in providing a ride, but then why don't I just get there sooner rather than take the time to Twitter that I'm late?
I see that the Hibbing Library is trying to post every day, but our library just doesn't have THAT much going on. Facebook would be more our speed. On the other hand, if the critical mass moves to Twitter rather than Facebook, I suppose we'll have to be on Twitter. I wish there were some logic to where the critical mass moves.
Did you know that placing a Twitter badge on your blog or Facebook page requires your updates to be public? That will keep me from doing Number 6. I really don't want the whole world to know when I'm about to drive home from work. Maybe I just have a way smaller ego than most people, but I really don't understand why anyone besides family and close friends would want to follow my every thought and move in 140 characters or less. I think these constant updates are a bit silly. Facebook lets people know what you're doing on a broader time scale, and that I can understand. It's more like the news you would put in a letter to Grandma, if anyone actually still wrote letters. As for Twitter, the only people who would be interested in constantly knowing what I'm doing are my family. Or maybe someone for whom I'm late in providing a ride, but then why don't I just get there sooner rather than take the time to Twitter that I'm late?
I see that the Hibbing Library is trying to post every day, but our library just doesn't have THAT much going on. Facebook would be more our speed. On the other hand, if the critical mass moves to Twitter rather than Facebook, I suppose we'll have to be on Twitter. I wish there were some logic to where the critical mass moves.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thing 26 - Join the 23 Things Ning
I joined the 23 Things Ning the first time around and haven't used it much since. This time, I joined two groups, MNSCU libraries and CALCO. I suppose I really don't belong in the CALCO group anymore, but it's fun to see what they are doing even though I no longer work in a Capitol Area Library. I added to the discussion, and I also left comments for another member.
I haven't found the 23 Things Ning all that useful, but it's more useful now than it was a year ago when I did the original 23 Things because it has almost a critical mass of people who belong. I don't understand what determines which things become popular and useful. For example, Minnesota WebJunction seems to me to be the place that all Minnesota librarians should be, but very few librarians that I know use it enough to make it worthwhile for me to check it frequently. The people running it promote it frequently, but it just hasn't taken off. Why?
I haven't found the 23 Things Ning all that useful, but it's more useful now than it was a year ago when I did the original 23 Things because it has almost a critical mass of people who belong. I don't understand what determines which things become popular and useful. For example, Minnesota WebJunction seems to me to be the place that all Minnesota librarians should be, but very few librarians that I know use it enough to make it worthwhile for me to check it frequently. The people running it promote it frequently, but it just hasn't taken off. Why?
Thing 25 - Blogger's Toolkit
This is an interesting thing. I'm trying to use Site Meter to add a counter to my blog, but I haven't received the email yet. I'm definitely going to add one to our library blog, and probably also to our family blog that I post to for the grandparents. Then I can see if anyone is actually reading these things.
In the meantime, I used Typealyzer and it said this blog is an ESTP - the Doers. That's funny, because I always come up as an I in Meyers-Briggs. I wonder if all blogs come up as E, just because a blog is such an E thing to do and it forces us I's to act like an E.
I resized this photo of our computer classroom. That's a nice feature, because Blogger is not at all nice about the placement of photos, even if you edit the HTML.
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I put a Vozme MP3 on my sidebar. I'm not quite sure what the best use is for this. All it does is read the text you put in in a very computerish voice with no inflection. Hmmm.
In the meantime, I used Typealyzer and it said this blog is an ESTP - the Doers. That's funny, because I always come up as an I in Meyers-Briggs. I wonder if all blogs come up as E, just because a blog is such an E thing to do and it forces us I's to act like an E.
I resized this photo of our computer classroom. That's a nice feature, because Blogger is not at all nice about the placement of photos, even if you edit the HTML.
.JPG)
I put a Vozme MP3 on my sidebar. I'm not quite sure what the best use is for this. All it does is read the text you put in in a very computerish voice with no inflection. Hmmm.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thing 24 - Refresh Your Blog
It was fun to check out the new gadgets and create a new avatar for the blog. I have a couple of other blogs, including one for our library, and I may refresh them as well. I find that our family blog is a great way to keep grandparents updated on our kids, since I can post photos and even movies, and I only have to do it once for both sides of the family.
Our library blog is a useful way to post new things we've purchased, highlight new displays, and post photos of events in the library. I really wish we had a counter, though, so we would know how many visitors we have. I've looked at counter gadgets, but they all seem way too complicated. Of course, maybe they have gotten simpler since I last looked.
Along those lines, last year, we created a blog for the MN SLA Chapter, but we had to use the Typepad software hosted by SLA. That software is WAY less user friendly than Blogger. Then we wanted to feed the blog into the chapter web page. Last year about this time, we could not figure out how to do it. Last night, we tried again and found a number of sites that produced code to do it. We ended up with three possible options that we could use. The technology seems to just get more and more accessible.
I guess the moral of the story is that if you can't figure something out now, set it aside for a while and go back to it. It may have gotten easier.
Our library blog is a useful way to post new things we've purchased, highlight new displays, and post photos of events in the library. I really wish we had a counter, though, so we would know how many visitors we have. I've looked at counter gadgets, but they all seem way too complicated. Of course, maybe they have gotten simpler since I last looked.
Along those lines, last year, we created a blog for the MN SLA Chapter, but we had to use the Typepad software hosted by SLA. That software is WAY less user friendly than Blogger. Then we wanted to feed the blog into the chapter web page. Last year about this time, we could not figure out how to do it. Last night, we tried again and found a number of sites that produced code to do it. We ended up with three possible options that we could use. The technology seems to just get more and more accessible.
I guess the moral of the story is that if you can't figure something out now, set it aside for a while and go back to it. It may have gotten easier.
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