iHCPL #23

Finally done, yay!

I have enjoyed parts of "THE 23 THINGS", such as the Library Thing, Blogging, and You Tube. I think some of these things could be used to in the library. For example, since we don't keep records of items that were checked out once they are returned, a patron could use something like Library Thing to track his/her books. I also think that blogged book clubs could be a possibility, but you would need a core group. While I am not sure that most of what I learned is something patrons will be asking about with any regularity, I have enjoyed parts of the process, so here's to iStar.

Cows with Guns and Kitty Cat Dance

iHCPL #22

I looked at both the ebranch and the other sound sites listed by iStar. I found a few titles I liked on each of the sites, but a lot of titles I looked for were not there. I might have been doing something wrong. I thought it was a nice feature on WOWIO that it told you when something was in progress, so you would know to look back for it later. I think that HCPL's ebranch is easier to use than LibriVox, but I did like WOWIO's set up...

iHCPL #21

I looked under both podcast.net and podcastalley.com and didn't find either of them to be particularly user friendly unless the user knew exactly what they were looking for. When I searched for 'learn an accent' I got results including audio erotica spoken by a british man (that goodness I looked at the details before trying to listen). Eventually I found a couple podcasts that might prove inteteresting: "Write to Learn" and "Uncontrolled Vocabulary". "Write to Learn" is a podcast created to help people figure out how to write academic papers and "Uncontrolled Vocabulary" is a podcast about current library issues.

iHCPL #20

I usually look for amusing videos on You Tube. I found a few "Kitty Cat Dance", "Free Running", "RvD2" and "Cows with Guns" that are pretty amusing. I tried to embed the videos into a post (and I'm pretty sure I figured out how) but I can't actually see embedded videos on this computer, so I took them out.

One thing You Tube-esque videos could be used for would be "How to get a print card" which we get asked multiple times daily. : )

iHCPL #19

I wrote the following in Zoho and posted it to my blog:

This would certainly have been easier to use in college when I was having to write papers between work and home and didn't have a laptop.

I think that I might really like this feature... One question though: what is the securtiy for this site like? If you are working on a story or something personal, does someone who is not you stand a decent chance of getting your work?

Thoughts...

iHCPL #18: Social Networking i.e. Stalkerweb

As the title of my post probably tells you, I am not a big fan of "Social Networking" sites like MySpace. Facebook is not quite as offensive, since you can make your page exclusively private and only allow people you have approved to view it. But still, I don't like them. I realize I am one of the few people who don't like online social networking; and I know I sound kind of paranoid about them. I just don't want people all over the world (whether I know them or not) knowing everything about me. I have friends who have put all kinds of information about themselves online, including pictures etc. Why would you do that? Maybe I value my privacy more than other people. If I want someone to see my pictures, I'll show them myself. I don't want everyone and their mother to see them.
Perhaps if I moved overseas and needed a way to stay in touch with friends from home I would feel differently. But as it stands now, I keep in touch with people I want to keep in touch with. I don't want some of the people I went to high school or college with to "drop a line" out of the blue. Part of what I enjoy about the Internet is the anonymity it provides. Social Networking sites infringe on that anonymity.