Indecisive Blogger...

Social Networking

2008-03-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

FACEBOOK:

I've had a facebook account for several months now. I'm not as religious about updating it as some people are, but I check it on occasion and reply to most messages I receive there. ;) I really like facebook for the ability to connect or reconnect with people. I've actually heard from several people that I graduated with in the last few months, and it's a good way to stay in touch with people that you don't see on a daily basis. I don't particularly care for the applications that require you to "install" them in order to participate in whatever "game" or "question" one of your friends has tagged you with. In fact, I often ignore those requests because I don't want to take the time to install the application or to decide which applications are worth installing. That said, I know you can always uninstall them, but it's still something I'd rather not spend my time doing! ;)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12931703

MYSPACE:

I actually had a myspace account awhile back, but I didn't care for the interface, so I disabled my account. I've created a new account for this project... which I will soon most likely ignore completely. ;) I have several friends and family members who use myspace, but they've been unable to convert me from Facebook. Overall, the myspace account was very easy to set up. The time consuming part is entering all of the personal info. I know some people spend tons of time customizing their pages to make them more unique, but I just don't have the time nor the patience. ;) I did take a look at the UK Libraries page - very well done! Includes lots of helpful information, and I like the layout! I also looked at a few friends profiles... lots of different ways to set things up!

http://www.myspace.com/MirandaHines

CLASSMATES:

I signed up for classmates.com as the third part of this exercise. I've lost touch with a lot of people that I graduated with, so I was curious to see how many of my classmates were actually registered there. It was very easy to do, and I was immediately able to view information about several people that I'd went to school with. It isn't possible to customize this site quite as much, but it's very easy to quickly see information for anyone who's registered there. The best part is that I didn't have to search for anyone... once I put my info in, all the information for my classmates was already there. Overall, a painless process!

Photo Sharing via Flickr

2008-03-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I wanted to do something funny for this assignment, but it seems that Flickr isn't completely cooperative with keeping photos in a specified order. Nonetheless, I did upload a few fun photos to Flickr, I added commentary, and I played around with a few minor features as well. Overall, it's a handy site that's nice for sharing photos with friends or whomever. Thanks to Jen and Jeff for their help posing as "goofs"! ;) The link to my photos can be found below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24822751@N06/

Podcast

2008-03-18T12:25:00.000-07:00

I have to say that this assignment has proved to be the most frustrating for me. I encountered several problems with downloading the software necessary to actually do a podcast. Downloading and using Audacity was a snap, but I didn't realize until I was ready to save my podcast that I also needed to install a Lame file in order to convert the podcast to an MP3 file. This is where I ran into problems. My PC at home didn't want to install Lame for whatever reason, and of course, you have to have administrative permissions in order to install anything on your work PC. After many tries, I was finally able to record, save, and convert my file to an MP3 file, but only after Shawn logged me onto a PC that already had the necessary software! ;) Next, I ran into problems uploading the podcast so I could actually post it to my blog, but alas, the process is complete!

Below is the link to my podcast, but be forewarned... it IS about copyright and it MAY induce snoozing!

UMD Cribs Review (YouTube)

2008-03-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

So part of our next assignment was to find a favorite "library" video in YouTube and to write a review of it. Not wanting to go with the usual dry videos that tend to be posted on this subject, I had to look long and hard to find a funny, unique video related to libraries. I came across this video spoof for the University of Minnesota, Duluth Libraries that was the winner of a library video contest. I thought it was a hilarious take on "library as space", and what a fun way to intrigue students to visit the library! ;)

Play Week - Encore, Second Life, Image Generators, and More!!!

2008-02-29T05:39:00.000-08:00

I've had entirely too much fun this week!

Encore:

I'm actually part of the Encore working group, so I've had LOTS of hands on experience with that. For those of you who haven't had a chance to play with Encore, please do! And be sure to let us know what you like, what you don't like, and what you think can be improved. We've already sent several of our own requests/suggestions for improvement to III, but we would love to hear what you think! So far, my thoughts on Encore is that it's a great tool for undergrads. I don't think the faculty and grad students will find it as helpful, but it's good for what I call those "undefined" searches where you're not certain what you want. The tag cloud is great, and I'm looking forward to actually being able to add our own search tags to records. Eventually, we will also have summaries and book reviews in Encore... we have to get Syndetics working with it first. The limiting facets are very helpful when narrowing searches to certain formats or "collections". I wish book availability was in "real time", but for now, Encore points patrons to InfoKat for book availability. Overall, Encore is "pretty", but I still love my InfoKat and will continue to use that for most of my work related searches.

Second Life(SL):

Ok, all I can say is, "Wow!" I was a bit skeptical about SL when I first heard about it, but I decided to give it try for Blue 2.0. There is so much possibility with this site (and I've had TONS of fun)! Beth and Stacey have done a fantastic job getting a library presence started in SL, but after spending some time there this week, I think there's even more potential to be explored. Terri and I made friends with a SLer named "Manni". He gave us a few pointers for getting around in SL, and he let us help him "build" some of his area on SL. It has been quite the experience. Yesterday, he showed us a notebook of student papers that "Alice" had given him. When you click on the notebook, you are given the opportunity to select a reading. When you click on the reading, it goes to text on the internet that you can read. Well, this really got my cogs going! I started thinking about the reference materials that have already been established in SL and about the two UK courses that are being taught via SL this semester... and I thought, "Heck! We could do ereserves via SL!" Of course, there would need to be some way to limit who accessed the material, but still, the thought is there! :) Aside from the work possibilities, we've traveled to many virtual places this week, went dancing, and even met a very interesting person from Moscow... who visited our site so he could see the library and the information we have there. We've also been talking to someone at NKU who wants to set up an area similar to the one Beth and Stacey have done for UK. The possibilities are endless!!! :) By the way, there's a picture of Terri and I in SL above!

Image Generators:

I didn't delve into this too much, but I did play around with a few different effects. I would post the picture here, but I don't think the person in the picture would appreciate it very much! ;) In fact, I might not survive the posting of it. It was rather... ummm... "different". I used a site called Lunapic, and while I could see it being useful to some people, it probably isn't a site I will personally use that much.

Personal Portals and Chat Aggregators:

I glanced at these, but I decided that I really wasn't interested in what they had to offer. I don't rely on any one website enough to warrant placing it on a personal portal page, and I really don't have a need for a chat aggregator.

I use the internet for many things, but this week in particular has opened my eyes to a whole other side that I probably wouldn't have bothered exploring otherwise. Thanks for the eye-opening!!! :)

Glenn Kotche's "Monkey Chant" via You tube

2008-02-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

I wanted to play around with adding a You Tube clip to my blog, but I wasn't sure what to add. On a whim, I did a search for Glenn Kotche, the drummer for a band called Wilco. I marched with him in the drumline at UK for two years. He was always such a character - and a very talented, not to mention 'awesome', drummer! I only found out about a year ago that he's the drummer for Wilco. When I caught up with him at a performance here on campus, I also learned that he travels internationally doing solo shows/demos as well. Wow! And the funniest part of all??? He has groupies!!! Who knew??? Lol! I had great fun teasing him about that!!! Anyway, below is his piece called Monkey Chant. There is a whole story behind this piece and a lot more information about Glenn online.

Where's my photo?

2008-02-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Eeek! Where did my wonderfully funny photo on my previous post go? It was there yesterday, and now, sadly, it's gone. Well, being the persistent type when it comes to these sorts of things, I'll play around until I figure out how to make it reappear!

Google Docs

2008-02-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Since this is my first experience with Google Docs, it's kind of hard to write about my experience with this particular software. So far, it doesn't seem much different from using Word... at least the OLD Word. :) I'll let you know at the end of this piece what I think about Google Docs!

Since I can't tell you much about my experience with Google Docs at the moment, I'll tell you all about how excited I am to be using del.ocio.us! If you've read my blog, you know that I think it's the best thing since sliced bread! I can't believe I didn't think to ask or investigate this possibility sooner! There are so many possibilities for that particular website! I just hope that I have time to utilize them! For the assigment portion using del.ocio.us, I just created a list of useful copyright sites. However, I would love to create lists of sites covering things like recipes, decorating, organizing, gardening, vacations, and various kid related things. This is one website that I will definitley remember to take home with me and that I plan to share with others I know... like my co-workers... perhaps those pictured below!

As you can see from looking at my document, I've been playing with many of the features offered by Google Docs. Overall, I think the software is very usable, and if you didn't have access to Word, I could see it being very handy. However, Word is much more versatile and allows much more in the way of formatting. I think I'll stick to Microsoft Word!

Del.icio.us! Yum!

2008-02-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

This is a very cool website! Do you know how many times I've been at home and wanted to look at a website I found on my lunch break but not been able to remember it??? Or vice versa!?!? This is the best thing since sliced bread! OK... well, maybe not that great, but it ranks up there!

For now, I've only posted copyright related sites on my account, but I can see it having great potential for personal sites as well. Thanks for sharing this tool! My account can be found at: http://del.icio.us/mjhines1974/

Wiki-Wiki

2008-02-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Those of us in Circ who are participating in Blue 2.0 decided to work on a combined Circ wiki. So far, I've completed a reserves portion for the wiki and started on a "projects" section. I'm sure I will be adding more as it develops.

I'm not a huge fan of wikis, but I can see them being useful for sharing of basic internal processes. Some of the sites I looked at seemed like they could be very informative while others weren't laid out clearly at all. Our idea for creating a Circ wiki was that it could be used by staff and students as a quick "find it" tool for those questions regarding day to day operations.

http://uklibcirc.pbwiki.com/

My RSSSSSSSSSSSSSS...

2008-01-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

So, I did it. I created several RSS feeds as part of my Blue 2.0 assignement, and again, I found it very easy to do! I created feeds to a few sites that were readily available in Bloglines, to our Blue 2.0 blog (of course), and I created feeds to a few of the Blue 2.0 participant's blogs. So far, one of the most interesting feeds is a recipe blog... and I have to say (even though neither has been updated too much), I find the "creepy lady" blog and the "my so called slis" blog very amusing for some reason. ;)

Instant Messaging

2008-01-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

Another part of our online assignment is to write about our expereince with using IM. I've actually been using Yahoo IM for sometime now, and I've found it very easy (and fun) to use. Establishing my account with AIM was a little tricky, but I figured it out easily enough. I just had to read the screen a little more closely than I'm used to doing to get it all set up! I know several people who use Yahoo IM, but I'm not as familiar with people who use AIM. I grabbed a few screen names from our participants list and IM'd a couple of them using AIM. Only one of them was actually online, but she was away from her desk at the time.

Using IM at work does come in very handy at times. I don't think we're supposed to have Yahoo IM installed on our work PCs, but some of us do. I've used Yahoo IM to ask co-workers work related questions that need a quick response. Usually to verify a process, a contact, or to ask a simple question. For more in depth discussions, I usually call or email.

My first blog experience

2008-01-23T13:06:00.000-08:00

Part of our assignment in creating this blog is to write about our experience with creating a blog. As I mentioned, this is my first, but overall, the process was pretty easy. I can see why people like to use blogs as a way to post their thoughts on a variety of topics and as a way to keep in touch with family and friends.

At first I wasn't quite sure what to do to start my blog. Should I pick a specific topic? Should it be work related? Should I do something more interesting? Should I be silly with it? In the end, I just decided to have fun with it, so I chose "Cool Scenes" at the topic. Initially, I thought I could post information on cool places to visit and perhaps some interesting pictures of a variety of locations. I don't know what direction it will end up taking since this is all new for me, but it's a start. Let's go!

Australia

2008-01-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

A co-worker and I often joke that we're going to run away to Australia when things get crazy. In Australia, we could sit on the beach sipping cold drinks, snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef (before it becomes extinct), visit the outback to see interesting wildlife, hit the town for some night life, visit the museums and opera for a cultural reprise, and endulge in one of many enticing restaurants. And never, ever, would we discuss mundane things such as work, bills, or anything else that requires one to act like a mature adult! While I've always wanted to visit Italy, I think Australia might give Italy a run for its money! ;)

Next up... the Glaciers before they melt! :)