Thing 8: Photos and Images

I’ve always been fascinated with elephants and I found this picture to be rather interesting.



I was somewhat familiar with Flickr before I started this assignment but I was unaware of all the apps available. We don’t use Flickr for our library as we don’t have much use for it as of now. I suppose if we ever wanted to have a virtual tour of the library we might use Flickr to organize and edit our photos.

I played around with a few different image generators and I found Spell with Flickr to be among my favorites. Below is an image I created using Spell with Flickr.

Thing 7: Sharing Slide Presentations

Slideshare just didn’t want to work for me! I was unable to create an account but I browsed through some of the slideshows and wow, there is a lot of stuff out there! In order to narrow things down, I decided to browse through by category and “pets” caught my eye as I just got my first dog. I found this slideshow to be just too cute not to share.

Just The Way You Are

View more webinars from Holy Cannoli.

Due to my inability to create an account, I wasn't able to play around with things in Slideshare but I get the just of it. We have a lot of different presentations on our website that teach the students about the various services we offer and how to go about using them however, if they don’t have PowerPoint on their computer they will be unable to view the presentations. Slideshare would make it possible for anyone to view our presentations regardless of the programs loaded onto their computer. I really like that you can comment on the presentations as well, this would be very helpful as feedback always helps us to improve our services. I definitely think this would be a great resource for our library to use.

Thing 6: Chat

When I was in college, living in the dorms, I used IM all the time. You there? Busy? Dining Hall? These are a few examples of what chatting consisted of in college. It was just easier and much quicker to IM than to pick up the phone because I wasn’t looking to have a conversation. Once I moved from the dorms, I found myself using IM less and less. Today, I rarely ever chat online. Facebook has an instant messenger feature which I quickly learned how to disable. If I am on Facebook looking at something or checking updates, I don’t want to bothered with someone trying to strike up a conversation just because they see that I’m online. I find IM to be very distracting and needless to say, time consuming. If I want to have a conversation with someone, I’ll do it on my time, not when a dialog box pops up on my computer screen. Call me old fashion but I’d rather pick up the phone to have a conversation with someone, it’s much quicker and more enjoyable.

As for LRC Live coverage…I’ve never done it. I looked at TCC’s LRC Live Chat Widget and I think it is a great idea! We have a large icon on our webpage advertising LRC Live, however, anytime I mention the service to a student, they say “Wow, that’s great! I never knew this was available!” or something to that effect. If we had something similar to TCC or just something on our webpage that resembled a chat session, I think it would be used more often. The way our site is setup now, LRC Live is often overlooked.

Thing 5: Wikis

I browsed through the examples of the library wikis and WOW, someone spent a lot of time creating the wiki for Antioch University! I guess that is the thing with wikis, they may be time consuming to create however, once established they are a real time saver, a one-stop shop for everything. Before doing this lesson today, when someone said wiki, I automatically thought of Wikipedia and nothing more. I knew a wiki was collaborative website but I didn’t realize how easy it would be to create and maintain one until I watched the “Wikis in Plain English” video.

We don’t currently have a wiki for our library but after looking at the example pages, I think it would be very helpful if we did. We could use it for a number of things; training, polices, procedures, links to good sites / free resources, frequently asked questions, troubleshooting, etc. The possibilities are limitless as to what we could do with a wiki for the library.

Thing 4: Social & Professional Networking

I set up a MySpace account about 6 years ago in order to stay up to date on the happenings in the music world. About a year ago I reluctantly created a Facebook account due to my friends constant nagging about me not having a Facebook page! Both of my accounts are strictly personal as I don't care to mix work with my personal life. Work is work and play is play. Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed that most everyone has migrated from MySpace to Facebook however, I still think that MySpace is a much better resource for music lovers. Facebook has band profiles but they don’t have a music player on the page and the tour / album info isn’t as easy to locate. For me, I use MySpace for music and Facebook for friends.

As for social networking sites and the library, I think Facebook would be the best choice. Our library currently has a Twitter account which I’m not too fond of. I really just don’t understand the point of Twitter, it is entirely too limiting! Our account was set up in order to promote new books / videos, announce changes in operating hours, inform students about upcoming events, and to advise students of useful / interesting websites. The problem with this is that we don’t have too many followers so we aren’t really getting the word out. More students are using Facebook than Twitter so the solution seems obvious to me... go where the people are!

Thing 3: RSS Feeds

I am attempting to get caught up on my 23 things since it is exam week and the library is fairly quiet. Today I discovered the world of RSS Feeds. I always see the little RSS icon on many of the websites I visit however, I never paid much attention to it or had any idea how much easier and quicker it would make it to get all of my news. I subscribed to FLS (Free Lance Star) News to get all of my local news, FOX News for regional/state news, Germanna Community College News so I can keep up to date on what is going on here at the college, National Weather Outlook so I know what is going on outside, and last but certainly not least, I subscribed to The PRP for all of my music news.

Thing 1: Blogging

Hello! I'm FINALLY getting started on my 23 things...I'm only a month late! Better late than never, huh?! This is my first blog as I do not have too much free time and if or when I do, I'd much rather be outdoors than on the computer blogging! I am doing this as a part of the 23 things for VCCS libraries in an attempt to better familiarize myself with Web 2.0 applications. It's time to learn!