Maps #31: Have Map, Will Travel: The Whereabouts of my family....

View Larger Map

I found the measuring tool useful when trying to locate something that was west of the river, so many miles south of this and east of that. Helped to narrow down the area. I am still trying to add pictures to the map. Google, Yahoo and Live Maps seem to be almost identical.

You could use this feature to make vacation itineraries or logs.

Spring Cleaning #30: Take a Load Off Our Drives

For the last few years I have been periodically weeding my z-drive and p-drive folder. I did go ahead and do an extra specially good job of cleaning them out this month. I also had new, stricter guidelines to follow when choosing to save, delete or move items. I have decided not to save timesheets farther back than 3 months. I could save them on floppy disc but I am sure that I would lose, collect or corrupt the discs.

I am sure that I had old files from "many" years ago. I did find that I was fairly well organized and understand the basics of the different drives (z, p and s).

Spring Cleaning #29: Email

I had lots of email saved that I wanted to be able to refer back to. I thought virtual computer space was supposed to replace hard paper copies. Oops, I was wrong. After carefully adding to my folders I had to go back in and delete all the emails with attachments! What a pain if you want to keep information. I ended up revising my theories on keeping files. My new theory is that if the information hasn't been saved to Harriet or a supervisor hasn't saved it to the p-drive, it really isn't important. I have now deleted thousands of emails or redirected them to my personal email account. For the time being I am keeping my organizational folders even if they are empty until I am sure I won't be using them.

I go through my old emails periodically during my down time at circ or in the drive-thru. There are always slow periods throughout the year for major weeding.

Spring Cleaning #28: Don’t Clutter Up Expensive Cyberspace

The online organizational tools were interesting but at this time not practical for me. I move from computer to computer constantly throughout my day. The time spent learning new programs is too costly. By putting all these new gadgets into our computer aren't we taking up space also? I do use the organizer/calendar in our library email account. This is one place I have to check several times a day anyway.

I do use set times and places or organize and deal with things at home. I believe I already use the technique of taking care of something rather than filing it for the future if it can be done in two minutes or less. My organizing techniques are quick and get looked through frequently.

I do tend to keep more filed away than I should. Today I noticed that I have IRS returns dating back to my first year of work as a 16 year old. Yes, for me that is a very long time. I have to admit that I actually had a use for them today that I never would have thought of. Now, the old cancelled checks and stubs can definitely go!........... Good thing I didn't get rid of those check stubs too soon! I actually needed them too! I will be going slow on weeding out old files at home.

Week 10: #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

I particularly liked learning about Library Elf and Bloglines during this training. I've found them quite useful. I got a good look at the vast amount of information out on the internet. Unbelievable! Now we need to learn the easiest way to navigate this immense amount of information and how to find the most reliable information. The Library perhaps?

There was alot of information I just skimmed going through this training so I will be going back and taking a more in depth look at some things. For example, I have not tried making a badge or twitter.

The group that put this training together did a great job! It really introduced me to a lot of new things. I don't feel like I'm in the stone age anymore. The more I have gotten into it the more questions I've been asking my kids and coworkers and getting into wonderful collaborations with them. This training was great and I hope we have more of them.

Week 9: #22 Downloadable Media

When it comes to searching for downloadable material I liked the library's site the best. It was easier to find things. When using "Wowio" you could only search by one term. "LibriVox" was just plain confusing. The library site had more popular authors also. "Wowio" did have a few new titles but they were for obscure authors.

Congrats Harris County Public Library on have the best elibrary catalog!

Week 9: #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I can see some useful items here. It is time consuming to find things but if you really needed something it would be worth the time. I've subscribed to a tech podcast to help keep me up to date.

Week 9: #20 Discover YouTube and other video sharing sites

Thank you ebranch for getting my avatar on the parade of avatars.

I thought YouTube was great. A little unwieldly but I'm finding all internet sites are like that. I'll just have to take some lessons from great librarians who know how to find their way around lots of information quickly. A great source for teaching information, and a lot of fun too. I found the Creative Commons Comic to be the easiest way to understand Creative Commons. I still had many questions though. Maybe the library could tape some of the interesting programs we offer and put them on YouTube for people who cannot attend the programs.

I am posting a couple of videos that my husband found on YouTube that I just love. These are from the Britain's Got Talent show.




If you have trouble accessing the embedded videos try the Url: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5L5U92_54
and http://youtube.com/watch?v=sxOytYLlhiQ

Enjoy!

Check out my new "Meez" avatar & ZingFu pet

The motorcycle does wheelies and moves around but not when uploaded to a blog. Awwwww!

The motorcycle I currently ride is a blue Kawasaki Vulcan 500. When dirt biking I ride my husband's KLR 650. I do not do wheelies! I also wear a helmet but I really wish it was safe not to wear one. Helmet hair, Yuch! I love the wind in my face and hair. Not so crazy about the bug splatters though.

I cannot change the font back to black! Okay, there, I did it. Can you feel my frustration?! Notice that the color black is different though?

If you move your cursor over the ZingFu pet he moves his paw, eyes and tail.

Riding Free

Go to meez.com to see me do tricks!

Week 8: #19 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Here I am in Zoho Writer Online Word Processor. Here is a cute picture of my granddaughter. Can you tell she cannot read yet?

I wanted this picture to be much smaller but could not figure out how to do it. Any suggestions? I tried putting in a comment but it did not work. Now, to try posting it to my blog.

Yes! It posted. I did downsize the picture in blogger but it won't show my picture on the blog. It put line spaces before and after the emoticon too (sporadically).

Okay, now the picture is posting correctly in the blog. Maybe it just depends on which day or time you try it. To top everything off, I accidentally deleted the picture four times! Aaaargh! Had to reinsert it from a different place and now it doesn't look as clear.

I don't think Zoho is a good place to put confidential information. Even if you don't make the document public you are still giving the Zoho people access. When I use "LibraryElf" I notice that they are looking at what I check out and suggesting similiar titles. Users beware.

Week 8: #18 Social Networking: Making friends in the comfort of your own home

You need to be a member to get into a lot of these sites. Signing up for things and getting into them is so time consuming. I can see the appeal if you truly are looking for socializing and/or have special interests, but beyond that it is just something more out there. I see my kids use myspace and love it for keeping in touch with friends for school and the neighborhood. They have rekindled old friendships and developed a few new ones. Kids seem to already know several of the security risks and how to avoid them. My daughter who was job hunting knew to make her site private, invitation only because prospective employers now look to social networking sites to find out more about you. This can also be a place to put your best foot forword for prospective employers.

At this time I don't see me using social networking sites until I have more time, like retirement maybe.

Week 7: #17 Blog About Technology

Technology - It is moving way to fast for me, although I really do like all the new features. Online banking, fast fill holds, online texts, email, faxing, photosharing, quick access to almost anything if you have a fast server and know what you are doing, the list is endless. I wish more sites would use the same "basics". It is hard to learn all the new programs. Maybe that will be one way libraries can be useful. They can direct users to user friendly sites.

I posted a comment on the "iStar, you Star, we all Star" blog. This person seems to think alot like me.

Week 6: #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I added my blog to the hcpl wiki favorites. I then received numerous (understatement) emails from the wiki everytime someone did something to it. I have now chosen to "never" receive email notices. I did find some interesting sites on the wiki. I will definitely be coming back to this for further review.

Library Elf : My Experience

Twice this week at work I had customers mention how they had trouble keeping track of all their library card records. I work at a library where many customers have 2 separate county library cards and a college card. It they have kids they all have numerous cards and mom or dad have a devil of a time keeping up. Many have gone to insisting that the kids use only mom or dads card. Kids want to use there own card and get sad when they can't.

Library Elf to the rescue. I've been telling these customers about libraryelf and they are so thankful, excited and impressed with my knowledge.

I have found it very helpful myself.

Week 6: #15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read all the perspectives and agree. We have to provide a service that customers want and need. If customers don't find what they want where and when they want it they will go elsewhere. Providing obsolete service will be the death of libraries and some company will provide the service and charge for it. The internet is definitely the way to go now and keeping up with technology is going to be the most important aspect for libraries.

Technology is changing so fast, it is hard for librarians to keep up with all the new sites and software and how to use them. The same goes for customers. We have to be aware of what is going on so we can direct customers and help them. Obviously we do not have to time train people on all these new changing ideas. We need to make our interfaces easy enough for customers to use on there own. Directing them to these sites, user friendly sites, will be our new job.

Libraries must expand both physically and virtually. They need to stay as advanced as there savvy users and make information available to the less savvy user. This won't be easy but is something to strive for. Embracing change and a willingness to try new ideas is probably the most important thing for individuals and library organizations.

Week 6 : # 14 Getting Not-so-technical about Technorati

When using the Key Word search of blogs in Technorati I got 10 times as many results compared to using tags or Blog Directory. I wouldn't want to have to go through almost 7000 results to see if any looked relevant. I would have to be pretty desperate to go through 684 results. The results in Tags and Blog Directory seemed to be close to the same thing. I imagine if you added a few more tags you could get even closer to what you want.

Popular Blogs in Technorati seemed to be high tech sites, music and video downloading sites and celebrities. I don't see myself using this much.

Halloween Smiley

Here is a smiley I found through an image generator found in "The Generator Blog".

Week 6 : #13 Tagging makes the web 2.0 world go round.

I subscribed to del.icio.us and was able to succesfully add the buttons onto my cubicle computer. This was not an easy task for me. I thought the best part of del.icio.us was that you could move from computer to computer and access your information, but we can't put the buttons on our "circ profile" computers. Is this something that may happen in the future? I can see the benefits of tagging and bookmarklets but you sure have to have a lot of time. I imagine once you take the time to learn a site it will become easier.

toondoo.com, Image Generator, found in del.icio.us