i was reading

I watched both the Wednesday and Thursday archived Webinars.  Compulsive I know, but after three plus hours I had really learned how to use the Wimba Archive Navigator.  So……………do I get three or six hours of CE credits?!?

I have also been looking at EVERYONE’S blog on the participants page.  I’ve visited all the Academic Libraries and am now half way through the Public Library list, I intend to see them all, so much to learn from everyone.  I am sending lots of RSS feeds to Google!  Like this entire adventure, reading these blogs is OVERWHELMING, I think of it as 23 Things Blur!! 

Just rereading my entire blog, my broken arm and I had big plans on week one!  I planned to experiment with adaptive technologies, was a great idea, still is, but it definitely fell off my map!  And, I am sure it has been done, and done well, elsewhere!

I setup a LibraryThing account before week fourteen and added several books  http://www.librarything.com/home/iwasreadin.  I read the comparison chart that you provided from Hennepin County Library I feel good about the app I picked other than the 200 title limit/cost.

BTW……….Hennepin Co. Library website http://www.hclib.org/ has some awesome features I use regularly, specifically the “If you Like” author search http://www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace/FindAGoodBook.cfm.

Wait, reassessment.  Now I have a Shelfari account http://www.shelfari.com/o1514298126 and like it too!  I vote for Shelfari, but reserve the right to change my vote at a later date.

Adding a Shelfari bookshelf to my tumblr blog is not an option I found.  What I probably should reassess is my choice of blogging app (a little late at this point, but turmblr is definitely not the most full-featured blogging app out there).  I also struck out linking Shelfari to my Facebook page.  Maybe it’s me, not tumblr!!!!

The governing body of Falls Township in Chase County, Kansas has only three responsibilities, Prairie Grove Cemetery, Miller Cemetery and Burnley Memorial Library.  The Wikipedia page for Falls Township, Chase County, Kansas mentioned the cemeteries, but not the library, a huge omission in my mind.  I have remedied that situation now.  Listed now under External Links is Burnley’s KLOW website Falls Township, Chase County, Kansas.  I tried to add a photo of the library, I got it uploaded to Wikipedia Commons, but when I inserted it on the page it was HUGE, at least ten times larger than I planned.  So, I give up, I’m tired, I watched both archived 23TKS wrap-up webinars today, and my best guy is accusing me of hogging the computer. 

The pic I tried to add to the Wikipedia page………for your viewing pleasure.

This was a fairly easy assignment, and fun.  Animoto definitely does MOST of the work.  I was unable to embed the video here in this post, so my Animoto slide show is close to the end of my blog.  That and a 30 second limit were the only stumbling blocks I encountered.

I also Tweeted the video, shared it on our KLOW page, and posted it on my personal Facebook page.  I’m calling Roger Ebert as soon as I post this.

I put this off until the last……no ideas for subject matter.  But I dove in today, 5/25/2010, and used a real-life recent library situation.  I hope the video is self explanatory but just in case, I show how to use eBay Advanced Search option.

http://screencast.com/t/M2Y2ZmMwM2

I actually had fun doing this, not to many false starts.  I stopped after the third take.  I know it will never be perfect, and this one is good enough, I think.  I sometimes worry things to death!!

Only glitch…….I was so amazed that I got through my explanation in less than five minutes that I forgot to name my video, it got saved with only today’s date as a title but that doesn’t appear to be a problem.

I thought I could catch up this week, I don’t know why I thought that, I know myself and once again I didn’t take advantage of the gift I was given and use it well.

Susan, President of the “Drag Your Feet Club.”

First, I need to get my video camera from my daughter………….maybe I’ll just try out the video feature on my digital camera.  I sure don’t want to interfere with the ongoing videoing of the grand kids!  I may need to backup one step and find the instruction book for the digital camera.

5/25/2010 Just this lesson and the Wrap-Up and I’m done!!!

If you have read my blog from the beginning you know I broke my arm in December.  I had surgery and occupational therapy.  A sore left hand has been a problem since, and this video was useful when I had to do lots of typing.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGRFN2SK8jY&feature=related

I’ll add this youTube video for those with a strong stomach.  I watched this video after my surgery, it’s the librarian in me, always seeking more information.  I did think after viewing it that I was glad I hadn’t watched it before the surgery.  BEWARE VISIBLE BLOOD!!!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0whuUtem9s&feature=related 

As long as I’m talking broken arm, I’ll stay with that theme, and mention adaptive technology again.  I going to make a video and show you guys my cool Bamboo Pen.  The one that I mentioned at the beginning of my blog.  Let’s see how it goes………..I’ll be using my Canon digital camera because I had no luck getting my video camera back from youngest daughter.  I sure need to win a Flip camera.

I thought this would be easy, but not so.  No wonder people in the movie industry make millions, they are experts.  I wasn’t able to get through my script because I was so frustrated, you can see that I lost my way and just stopped.  No explanations needed.  I will try to embed my two lame little attempts, and then you can watch the youTube I found that succeeds where I failed.  Why reinvent the wheel?!?!?!

First video attempt.  I can see I needed to employ a screenwriter.  I sure am glad all I said was WOOPS!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVKk8PXIZU

Second attempt, pitiful huh?!?!?! I won’t be calling Roger Ebert on this one.  Uploading to youTube was excruciatingly slow.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2NXaE3HsIQ

Wacom’s Bamboo Pen youTube video, http://youtube.com/watch?v=UigPWJT_lFk&feature=channel

I’ve chatted some on Yahoo & Facebook, and signed up for Meebo recently, but really haven’t used any of these services much.  In order to complete the activities for week nine I signed up for Google Talk and then added my Yahoo, Facebook, and Google Talk accounts to Meebo, worked without a hitch! 

I chatted with Liz Rhea, Heather Braum, and Sharon Moreland several times last week on the #23Kansas IRC channel.  Thanks for setting that up Liz, such an easy interface!!  No bells and whistles, just chat, chat, and more chat, plus I was promised extra credit!

This is the module that caught my attention from the first announcement of 23 things.  I usually have at least an idea of purpose if not the ability to use most online tools, but I haven’t the vaguest idea about Cloud Computing.  Who makes up these names???

I intended to Google ‘cloud computing’ before week 8 so I could at least know what we are talking about, but unfortunately I’m behind so this will truly be a learning week for me!

More……I guess I’ve been in a ‘cloud by myself’ for sometime and wasn’t aware that was what I was doing.  Maybe I’m all wet in the exact definition but……..forever I have emailed word and excel files, photos, password reminders, etc. to myself and then they are available from any computer with an internet connection.  Our public access machines are locked so nothing can be saved to the hard drive, when a patron wants to save something I have them email it to themselves, they are usually surprised by the concept!  It’s to simple!  Any student in Kansas has access to an Education Backpack on the Kan-ed site, they are in the clouds there, just may not know it.

I signed up for a Twitter account last year, have tweeted only 2 or 3 times, I don’t think anyone tweeted back, really useless.  I get email from complete strangers telling me that they are following my tweets, what tweets I never tweet?!?!  They must really be desperate for human contact.  I am probably really missing something here, but Twitter makes no sense to me at all.  Maybe if I had a fancy web enabled cell phone and could get a signal without standing on my head………but until then IM works for me!!!!

I did add several 23TKS participants to my follow list but couldn’t figure out who was tweeting or for that matter what they were saying.  Twitter shorthand doesn’t compute for me, plus I could never complete a thought in 140 characters.

And, to top it all off I gave myself the most pitiful username ever, usandaviss, Pig Latin for God’s sake, what was I thinking!?!?!

Not at all sure if I will get credit for this lesson, basically all I did was bitch!

I’ve had a delicious page since 2004 but not done much with it.  It sounded like a good idea at the time but the need wasn’t great, I worked mainly from only 2 computers, work and home and not much overlap at that point.  Bookmarks in IE was plenty.

How things have changed, add a laptop, logging in on my daughters computer at her house when I’m bidding on an eBay item, switching between IE and Firefox, doing lots of library work at home, trying to keep up for 23 weeks, you name it, I need help!  Delicious to the rescue.  My portable bookmarking system!!

I use iGoogle mainly for a gadget, Latitude, to keep track of my grown girls physical location (with gps tracking on their cell phones), they both travel lots for work.  A really cool app BTW.

When I added a RSS feed and clicked on Google I thought it would come to me in my gmail account, but lo and behold it popped up on iGoogle.  I think this is better, no glut of emails to wade through.  The RSS feeds that I added are book reviews from both NPR and USAToday, David Lee King’s blog, 23TKS blog, and the journal on BigPumpkins.com of my good friend Diana who strives to grow gigantic pumpkins.  I’m not sure exactly how what I’ve done differs from using Google reader.  Maybe one of the mentors can tell me, or I may have to investigate on my own.

I follow Jen Lancaster’s blog Jennsylvania (full of razor sharp wit like her books), but find absolutely no way to send a feed of it.  I signed up for Feed My Inbox, entered her blog’s url, but no feeds have arrived in my inbox.  I suppose there are blogs, pages, etc. that are just unfeedable!!

UPDATE….A new Jennsylvania blog post just arrived in my gmail inbox.  I was too impatient, she just hadn’t been blogging.

Setting up a Flickr account was easy, uploading pics also easy, but really slow!  I invited several friends who have Yahoo accounts to view our Flickr page.  I will take some extra time to figure out how to attach a Flickr slide show to our Wordpress page http://burnley.mykansaslibrary.org/ .

At this point I don’t know how to tell anyone the web address of our Flickr site, boy do I feel stupid!!  I somehow setup Flickr so that I must login with my personal Yahoo account, boy do I feel stupid!!  Hope this is my low point on 23TKS.