Stumbling in the Dark

So, I registered for StumbleUpon and it looks like a pretty cool place to hang out if one were interested in getting lost in this labyrinth of interests. I did "stumble" on one interesting place but doubt that I'll use it beyond this exercise. It's good to hear about these things so I know what people are referring to in conversations. However, I haven't heard anyone talk about StumbleUpon yet - so I'm one stumble ahead of many I think! Yay!

Apps

I downloaded Overdrive Media Console on my iPad a few months ago so was familiar with this already. I haven't used it though so I went through the exercise of selecting an e-book, borrowing and returning it. I had also downloaded the BiblioNB app months ago and so I revisited it to see if I remembered how to use it. I did learn something new because I didn't realize that I had to go from BiblioNB to Overdrive to download a book. It seems to me that I am still struggling with the e-environment more than I thought. Once I opened the e-book to read it I tried to figure out how to return it but didn't even know how to get out of the book back to Overdrive. Simple solution (with a little help from a friend) which required a swipe in the right spot. Now why didn't I think of that? I've been using the iPad for months now. I'm sure that if I started reading e-books I would really get the hang of it in no time.
The Electronic Library experience is easier on the iPad than on the computer and Kobo as it's all in one spot. It's great that the library is on the cutting edge with this technology and even though it can be difficult for patrons to navigate, mostly everyone seems quite pleased with the service.

Scoop It!

I can't say this was one of my better weeks. Overall it wasn't too difficult but since I was determined to follow a scoop by trying to locate its Topic Board, I wasted some precious time (I won't tell you how much). I'm still trying to figure it out with the help of a Team23 member and I hate to admit I still can't do it. However, I did complete Things 18 and 19 because I just followed something that I could easily follow. I also shared a scoop within a topic (I think) on Twitter. I checked my Twitter account to make sure it landed and was happy to see it there.

My energy being drained from the experience, I will bid you adios for this post.

Until next time!

YouTube, Podcasts and Other Obsessions

 

 

Here is the opening of each Mr. Dressup show as well as the final 10 minutes of the last show produced (but it continued to be aired for years after). I have many good memories of watching Mr. Dressup in my day. I guess I've just dated myself. Aaaaahhhh.....

 



 

 

 

 

Next I tried to open a podcast in the Booklist Webinar Online and had no success in being able to open a couple of them. I did have success with opening one of the TED talks and actually summarized the points but threw it out after I read that I was supposed to do a library based podcast. I then asked one of the Team23 members and they told me I could use anything. So now I'm going to try to remember the main points from the summary I threw out. The topic was titled: "Esta Soler: How we turned the tide on domestic violence (Hint: the Polaroid helped)". It was extremely interesting, inspiring and informative. This sweeping, optimistic talk charts 30 years of tactics and technologies -- from the Polaroid camera to social media -- that led to a 64% drop in domestic violence in the U.S. When Esta Soler lobbied for a bill outlawing domestic violence in 1984, one politician called it the "Take the Fun Out of Marriage Act". In 1994, Esta Soler convinced Congress to pass a law to combat the devastating effects of violence against women.  Today, her mission is global. She says that it's not about building more jails or shelters but in educating people, especially men about the impact of violence on women. Children need to be protected and healed. Ad campaigns are extremely effective and in this media driven age have a greater impact than what they were able to do 20-30 years ago.

http://www.ted.com/talks/esta_soler_how_we_turned_the_tide_on_domestic_violence_hint_the_polaroid_helped.html

Tried to embed the podcast from the TED talk but copying and pasting the URL is the best I can do. I don't know how to place it on my clipboard as they instructed. Whether or not you can open it from my blog is yet to be seen.

 

I didn't bother with the Video Conferencing because I already Skype with my sister every two weeks. It's opened up an awesome world for us and it's saving us a few pennies on long distance calling too!

 

Pinterest

Pinterest is a pretty fun way to find images and information. I found it easy to sign up but it took a while to figure out the rest of the steps. Creating a board was fine once I discovered where to click to bring it up - it was somewhat different from the instructions. I had to use my iPad to do this step as the administrative computer needed the admin to get through the firewall. Now I have an app for Pinterest on my iPad so maybe I'll use it more. I created about 4 boards and am following about 10 or more people, including libraries. I've run out of time to do the "extra cool thing" but maybe I'll get back to that someday soon.

Images

Images

Using images from the web has always been a worrisome thing so this lesson is good. But difficult. I'm going to try posting an image from Wikimedia Commons right now, right here.



"Cat with Book", 28 November 2004,
CC image, courtesy of Danny Ayers from Mozzanella, Italy (Amazon for cats #2) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

I hope I did this right. I read some of the stuff related to licensing of this image but it's overwhelming. I'm not sure that I covered reading and doing everything I needed to read and do. Can this be confirmed? HELP!!

After that last exercise, Wordle was awesome, fun and easy. Wondering if the image can be copied/cut and pasted into a Word document?? or just printed or published in Wordle? I've seen Wordle images in documents so I'm guessing it can be done. I never tried it, but perhaps Team23 can let me know.

Memes - have been curious about this for some time but never bothered to ask as I figured the answer would surface in time. Now I know.



That's all for now folks!

Bibliocommons' Lists

This week's "things" were less work than the previous two weeks as I already had some of the work done. In fact, there was more done than I remembered. When I went to create a list, I saw that one was already created - which I'm assuming was done during our bibliocommons training in 2011. There was nothing in my list, so I deleted it and started from scratch as I wanted a different name attached to it. That was a good move as it refreshed my memory as to how to create a list. All very easy and user friendly. I added four titles and made a comment on a book which no one else had commented on yet. Then I went to the full record of another title on my list to see if there were any comments, which there was: 12! It didn't surprise me. I ended up following two people whose comments reflected very much what I felt about the book. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of this. This lesson was beneficial to me because although I already knew about this feature in bibliocommons, I never used it and rarely read other people's comments. I will now do both as well as promote the social reading tool to patrons who seem potential candidates for this feature.

I listened to the instruction on Goodreads and although I haven't yet set up an account, it seems to offer more than our catalogue, but appears to be less easy to use until you'd become accustomed to it. So, if a person were to be an avid reader and didn't find the social features in our catalogue to be enough, I would recommend they try Goodreads.