NetLibrary and WorldCat - Thing #12

Setting up the NetLibrary account was a piece of cake. Finding a book to look at wasn't hard. But moving around the "book" was maddening. I'm used to Adobe Acrobat. The book looked like Adobe Acrobat, but it took me forever to realize that you turn the page by clicking in the upper right hand corner, not at the bottom of the page as in Acrobat. I could easily show a patron how to use this--I'm waiting for my first opportunity in the Lab!

WorldCat was fun to play with. Most of the items I searched for were part of the OCL system, but I had fun with my old friend, Swedish mystery writer, Henning Mankell. When I looked up Faceless Killers in large print, I found the nearest copy to be 10,200 miles away in Griffith, Australia!

Does our ILL Department use WorldCat? Will there be a time when the Circ Department does their own ILL work? Hmmmmmm?

Library Thing - Thing #11

Library Thing rocks! I got carried away. I'm into books on Afghanistan and Swedish mystery writer Henning Mankell. Of course, Jane Austen, Jodi Picoult, and Janet Evanovich are favorites. I kept adding books and lost track of time. Two hours later it was time to stop. The reviews were pretty much what I expected--except for Henning Mankell whose reviews were in German and Spanish!

I plan to use the Library Thing recommendations in the future and I love being able to keep a record of books I've read.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/half-a-cup

Technology Blogging - Thing #10

Yikes, I'm overwhelmed! My brain is totally fried by what's out there. How can anyone keep up with all the stuff? Reading the 20 Things to Watch bought up these random thoughts (on the stuff I could comprehend):

What's a Mobile Crackberry? Google sent me to a site for Blackberry addicts--how sad. Let's talk!
Spent this weekend in a car with a GPS--that woman's voice was so annoying and she got us lost!
Microblogging looks like a fun tool for extended families--an electronic family reunion.
A very smug elderly lady came into the library recently to tell us we'd never see her again. Her son was getting her a Kindle. Oh to curl up with a book by the fire with a glass of wine!
DVD's are making way for streaming video. I haven't gotten all our family videos on DVD yet!

David Pogue's blog had a terrific article, Turn Those Bytes Into Books. I've been working for years on a family cookbook complete with family photos. I was so proud when we put it on CD for our family members. Now I'm going to check out these new ideas.

Then I hit the technology blog and checked out a review of Skype's phone service. Our son gave us a webcam and Skype account because he and his wife were working in South Africa for 6 weeks. We just love it. We have "skyped" friends in London, Sweden, Slovakia, Missouri and, of course, Johannesburg. We only use the phone service when we are trying to contact someone.

I want to be a lifelong learner, but I can understand how too much information can turn you into a Luddite!

More RSS - Thing #9

I was stunned by the number of links in Jill's Bloglines account. How can any human keep up with so much information! And now I have the same problem. When I was going back and forth between Bloglines and Google, I used the Blogline's Search tool and Google Search. I came up with the Onion, Slate, Salon, Dilbert, About Cats and I Need Coffee! I was disappointed that I couldn't find a blog for John Batchelor, a former radio host on WABC who is now on a satellite station.

I didn't like the Bloglines Top 1000. It didn't feature a Search tool so that I could look for something I was interested in. And 1000 is just too much to scroll through, especially when you had to click on the preview of each one whose name wasn't self explanatory.

When I have time and my Web Thing work is done, I'm searching for a filtering tool so that I won't have more news feeds than I can handle!

RSS and Me - Thing #8

Learning about RSS took more time than I ever expected. I did the tutorial for Bloglines, but had been warned by co-workers that there were some glitches and Google Reader might be easier to use. So now I've used both and settled on Google Reader.

My reader now contains the OCL TR Events feed, The New York Times, CNN, BBC, Woman's Day, and some fun news accounts (at least fun for me) like The Local - Sweden's news in English and MSNBC's Chris Matthews (I've become addicted for presidential politics).

With the election coming up all too soon, I'll be checking my Reader daily to see what the candidates are up to. I'm sure the librarians at OCL are hot on the trail of what's new in libraries around the country and world. What a great tool!

Thing #6 - At Last!

Here's my favorite place in the TR Library--where I spend my break relaxing with a half-a-cup and a good book. I had a lot of trouble using the "add image" icon in blogger, so I just dragged the picture from flickr to my blog and it worked!

By the sea, by the sea - Thing #7

We are Jersey shore people! This is an old, old photo from the 1920's that I scanned into Picasa and "played" with to make it as clear as possible. Last Christmas my cousin in California sent me about 50 old photos from 1920 to 1960. I scanned them into Picasa and made them as clear as I could. Had lots of fun learning how to manipulate old photos with a tech tool.

The handsome devil on the lower right is my Dad--a true Swedish fish! He loved the shore; to fish and swim was heaven to him. Going to Asbury Park from North Jersey was an adventure in a Model T. When you got there, the adventure continued in a rented bathing suit.

I'll bet he has a half-a-cup of coffee on the blanket behind him.

Miss Mikki - Thing #5

You see I have this cat--Miss Mikki. She has wavy fur and no undercoat--so she is not allowed outdoors. Truly a delicate creature. She weighs about 5 pounds and has a thyroid condition--but that does not explain the curled back ears, her buck teeth or her throaty cry. We should have named her Miss Misfit. Shhh, she has no idea that she is not the most elegant cat on the planet.

Here's Mikki in all her glory taken by my son from his Flickr postings.


Enjoy!

Google Hates Me! - Thing #4

Here I am getting a late start trying to catch up and Google blocks my blog. The robots at Google think I am spam.

I am Sam, Sam I am. I do not like green eggs and SPAM!

Hey, I'm a Jersey girl and Jersey girls are Taylor ham people. No more Spam.

PS I finally got up and running and was able to let the Team know I exist!

Google doesn't like me! - Thing #3

Here I am trying to get a quick, but late, start and what does Google do? They block me. I AM NOT SPAM! I don't even like spam--I'm a Taylor ham girl myself! Aren't all Jersey girls?

I think I have been and will continue to be a life-long learner. I've always had trouble with "goals and objectives" when in a small group working out a plan. Setting a goal is not easy for me. I'd rather say "I'll give it a try and see how I like it." I gave skiing a try--it didn't like me and my backside didn't like it! I took on a project to type up some old family Christmas recipes for my children. It has evolved into a family cookbook. The challenge was pulling the recipes out of my mother and using technology to scan family photos and deliver the project on CDs. This has been an on-going project which has gone through many updates and has included recipes from many branches of our family from Europe, New Jersey, California and Arizona.

I am not going to "try" the challenge. My goal is to finish all of the OCL "things."

Half-a-Cup Profile Photo

I searched Flickr for a picture of me--Half-a-Cup. Through searching "text" I found over 3,000 pictures of coffee cups and all their variations. Thanks Miss Beckles for this public image that I've used in my profile!

Late Start

Getting started a month late is my REAL challenge. Not usually a procrastinator. Just too busy planting peas, cleaning up two gardens, updating Quicken and doing taxes.