Sunday, March 30, 2008

tumblelogs

the tumblelogs kinda remind me of Boing Boing

i really enjoy both types of information sharing - blogs and microblogging. i keep reading that twittering is very popular. i have tried to imagine how life would have been different as a young person with all of these options. seems like a lot of fun.

microblogging can be very useful for libraries...we could update patrons about closures or changes in schedules. i was excited to sign up for an RSS feed of multnomah's new gardening books. it would be fun to receive the same kind of info about booklists through twitter. can we twitter overdue notices?

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Podcasting

i found a lot of interesting content on podcastalley.com. i would like to just click to listen from podcastalley before subscribing. only because subscribing takes a couple more clicks and i'm kinda lazy, or busy or unmotivated until i know it is something i will like.

i found the format and search results from podcastalley friendlier than searching yahoo.

Greg Schwartz makes a good point on his Beginner's Guide to Podcasting podcast - there is the issue of keeping up with the podcasts you subscribe to as the content is consumed "real time". you will spend eight minutes listening to an eight minute podcast...i have a hard time listening to all of the things that i want to, or i listen to them without really tuning in because i'm trying to multi-task. i love video podcasts (are they even called video podcasts?) but it makes it more difficult to do something else while listening.

it is a good reminder to be more thoughtful about the information i am consuming.

Cool stuff

it was very tempting to just jump in and start answering questions on yahoo answers...it is entertaining to read though the questions. the answer sharing option is not something i have seen available from libraries. i found myself thinking that i should submit more questions to libraries. even though i often comment that people do not know about, or just do not use what is available to them from libraries, i guess i don't use them myself. i usually ask friends or do my own research. in a way, it seems more approachable to throw a question up on yahoo answers than to use a library's ask a librarian feature. i'm trying to figure out why...it is appealing that users answer questions on yahoo answers - can a library "sponsor" a similar site and fact check the answers? maybe that is just too redundant. on another note, i discovered that i am really good at typing with wordshoot.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Audio and the public domain

did you know that the Internet Archive has a bookmobile?

"In a celebration of the Public Domain, the Internet Archive's Bookmobile will be coming to a town near you, bringing with it the ability to access, download, and print one of the almost 20,000 public domain books currently available online."

(oooh, i was just able to ad that link and have it open in a new window, hopefully. i'll keep my fingers crossed.)

i'm listening to pandora right now and loving it. someone turned me onto it a few months ago. it makes me so happy to be pleasantly surprised by bands that i like coming on. i get kind of behind on voting and don't use the social networking part of it...i really enjoy what i do use. i think that is what really counts. do i think cd's are dead? no! i really enjoy giving and receiving mixed cd's from friends - i just mailed one to my sister. of course i then burn them to my computer and never use the actual cd again. so maybe their muscles are starting to atrophy. i really enjoy corresponding by snail mail too and can be a little romantic about that kind of stuff.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Google docs

yay for google docs. this would be a great tool for collaboration. i have no problem with storing my personal documents and emails on google servers, but does it cause concern for professional organizations. should we be concerned about the life of google? i suppose you would want to back up the final product on your server. i am going to post this straight from google docs to my blog. i love that i can publish it straight from here instead of writing in blogger.

Monday, March 24, 2008

wiki gardening

i wanted to take this opportunity to find wikis about gardening, hoping to come across some good tips that i can use in my new herb garden. i stumbled upon interesting info about the practice of wiki gardening:

http://www.mojavelinux.com/wiki/doku.php?id=wiki:gardening

just tidy up as you wander through, and everyone does it...i like that idea. i also like the collaborative, non-hierarchical info sharing of wikis. they seem like great tools for brainstorming and gathering notes and ideas. here is another fun site i came across:

http://sca21.wikia.com/wiki/Growing_and_gardening

it is inspiring to read and respond to ideas coming from real people, especially when reading about gardening. i like that ideas seem to grow best when the environment is focused but not highly structured.

p.s. i'm going to make a real effort to label my posts. really, i am.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

goodreads

I heart GoodReads...it has so much more potential than my wadded up receipts with scribbles and lists at the bottom of my bag and in my kitchen drawers and on my desk. I always lose those before I have the chance to pick up the books I am soooo interested in, then I stare blankly at the library shelves trying to remember what I wanted to read. I also like to get inspired by seeing what my friends read.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Camel Bookmobile

the tutorial from the discover 2.0 instructions made technorati seem more inviting than i remembered from earlier- but it doesn't look the same when i go to the technorati site. using the tag search feature it was easier to find blogs with bookmobile info. including this cool video about the camel bookmobile in kenya.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

de.licio.us

I like the idea of looking at what others have tagged and found helpful. It is a great to find sites. As far as the social networking goes, I will probably use more than I participate. What is my problem here? I just don't take the time to tag and organize, but I do like looking at what others find worthwhile.