Del.icio.us

I'm sure that there is potential for research via Del.icio.us (if properly tailored/organized), however, I feel it is more an easy means of creating bookmarks and making them easily accessible. I poked around using the HCPL account, and found the top subjects to be interesting contenders. In fact, it lead me to transport some bookmarks from the HCPL list to my personal bookmarks.

I have to add - the video tutorial was of very poor quality. There has to be something better out there?

Elf

So I guess I wasn't as impressed with the Elf as I have been with other tools we have discovered on the i-journey...We are all aware that Harris County delivers notices of this sort...I suppose this is what detracted from the "cool" factor...Although, others, whose libraries don't provide alerts, might find this tool to be wildly helpful in keeping track and organizing.

A Library Thing

Do you notice anything different? Look to the right...

It's a Widget! Please check out My Library powered by Library Thing. Want to create your own personal library - it's the simplest thing! (and so much fun)

http://www.librarything.com/

Photo Generator Link

A link to the photo generator I used - http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

Generators - "Napuglean"

I had a blast with this excercise...more to come later...just enjoy the image

Adding Feeds

To continue on the excercise concerning RSS...I had already added a number of feeds to my Bloglines account when I began the second excercise, which requests that we utilize particular tools to add such feeds. My first thought was...gee it's not too hard to scroll through a page and look for that distinctive RSS icon...but, not surprisingly, I was wrong. Not totally wrong - just sort of wrong. I discovered my "wrongness" after discovering Feedster.com. Using Feedster's categories of news/information made it soooo easy to locate feeds without doing the back and forth between the websites and my newsreader! I added three Political feeds I found through Feedster right off the bat, and I'm going back for more! Thanks iHCPL ;)

RSS

Whew! I just completed the RSS excercise, and am now a proud user of Bloglines. This news junkie had a great time selecting feeds! Please allow me to share with you the 10 feeds I added to my Bloglines account...

CNN
Houston Chronicle
NY Times Sunday Book Review
National Geographic
Yahoo Music Top Albums
Dalla Morning News
PETA
HCPL e-branch
KHOU Health
Amazon Daily

More to come on RSS later...

Photo Editing

What do you think? Quite nice if I do say so myself! Here it is ladies and gentlemen - my first "edited" pic. If your not noticing the "edited" part, allow me to make it clear...

I utilized the Pixer website to edit my photo. The photo you see to the left is one of my fav pics. (Makes you feel like a kid, doesn't it? Who doesn't wish they had an elephant for a friend?) Utilizing Pixer I prescribed the "cloud" effect to the pic, hence the "cloudiness".

Once I had it all figured out, I spent some time playing around with other pics and effects. You really could spend all day designing and customizing pics. If anyone has yet to explore Pixer, get right on it! It's a blast. May I recommend the "oil painting" effect. I applied this effect to a pic of the LOC reading room, and it looked so cool!

Flickr

Afternoon...How did you spend yours? I spent most of my afternoon exploring Flickr. While I found it, at times, to be overwhelming I also found it to be quite interesting. I successfully uploaded my first photo to my Flickr account and I am satisfied with that accomplishment! Moreover, as per the iHCPL instructions, I explored further some of the other tools and applications Flickr makes available. Trippermap is fascinating. Perhaps "fascinating" is a bit much, but I am a person who is highly impressed with the GoogleEarth abilities. I love utilizing Google Maps to get that bird's eye view. Imagine...you can view the satelite image of almost any destination/place.? I also played around with Colorpickr a bit. You could entertain your eyes all day with it!

Internet Safety

What are my thoughts on Internet Safety? Well...a lot of what I learned while pursuing my MLS concerned the Internet and subsequent Information Revolution, and some of it stuck. I make a number of purchases via the Internet (it's sooo convenient), and I am always sure to carefully consider the website and its policies before I make the decision to provide my personal information. A technology and communications course taught me to check a website for particular levels of verification and security. To this day, I snoop around a website looking for those, if you will, particularities. I feel fortunate to possess such knowledge and awareness. I only wish that the public at large maintained the same understanding. Of course, online purchasing is one issue among many where Internet safety is concerned. Becasue I am a Children's Librarian the safety of children online is a more intense concern. Now there's an issue...