Pride in your neighborhood

Okay, so I like clean streets. This morning, I am walking my daughter to school and it is recycling day in our neighborhood. In the middle of the road are some cardboard bottoms from 2 Gatorade packs. I told my daughter that if it is still there on the way back, I will pick it up and recycle it myself. I proceeded to do so.

I often wonder are we all so busy that we can't pick up trash, aluminum cans, shattered glass in our neighborhoods? I never see myself as too busy to keep things clean. I do wish more people were responsible for taking care of where we live.

One might argue that it was because being an employee of the National Park Service that I have the "pack it in, pack it out" mentality. But I have been like this my whole life. I don't like to see trash, recyclable or otherwise on our streets, sidewalks, etc.

Let's try harder to keep our little corners of the Earth clean, Please!?

Ray Davies: "Life Goes On, It happens everyday so appreciate what you've got before it's taken away"

Well, Mr. Ray Davies of the Kinks said it so precisely, that one can not argue with the fact quoted in the title of this post.

Here is the official end of the Learning Web 2.0 training. I have been asked, from the powers that be, to analyze the experience, to discuss the goods, bads, uglies, etc.

I most enjoyed playing with "blogland." It has been fun to do little episodes on the Learning 2.0 experience and post pictures, YouTube video, links, etc.

The bloglines account was an exceptionally neat way to keep track of blogs, podcasts and the like.

I liked the image generator exercise where I could find the Warholizer. That was lots of fun.

I was most bored with the searching sites for RSS feeds and podcasts. For me, in both instances, it was easier to go to a website on a topic I knew and subscribe to the podcast or RSS feed from there.

My post on the Library 2.0 phenomenon which was my Pollyanna-ish version of how I currently see it in libraries, was commented on from an unknown individual that I glossed over the comment since it brought back nightmares of Library School 14 years ago!!!! I just can't philosophize on that level. I have a husband, kids, cats, and the Phoenix Suns to root for!!!

I think I will continue to keep my blog up for fun. So thanks for the experience!

Here is a link to an Unshelved issue I especially liked:
Unshelved strip for Friday, March 14, 2008

Audiobooks via the Internet

I browsed the Greater Phoenix Digital Library website and explored in more detail the titles for the OverDrive audiobooks.

I liked the "Browse audio ebooks" option which allows one to search by genre. I also liked the "burn to CD" notice when you look up a list of titles.

I checked under the biography/autobiography option and found a book called Antarctica on a Plate by Alexa Thomson. This author agrees to go down to Antarctica and cook for scientists, eccentrics, etc.

This sounds like an interesting premise and reminds me of my remote and rural existence in Montana. I certainly had challenges when preparing food. Let's just say I was 22 miles from a grocery store and 50 miles from a WalMart. And certainly fast food was NOT an option. This author has even more intense experiences dealing with defrosting food in a frozen environment, for example.

I also explored "Sue Grafton" to see if any of her works were accessible via audio ebooks.

Interestingly, after I reviewed this site, I had 3 questions in a row about the Greater Phoenix Digital Library at the Information Desk and I was able to help each individual since I had just reviewed the features.

Podcasts??

I browsed some podcast indexing websites and was overwhelmed! I was flustered as to what topic I would want to listen about. I tried to see if a soap opera, Guiding Light, was still doing podcasts (in a way a perverse return to their radio hey-day), but all the dates where from 2006. Perhaps they have moved to the streaming video episodes . . . (my home computer and its internet connection are too ancient for such technology!!!).

My husband suggested going to websites of things I like. For example, the Phoenix Suns website has a link to their podcasts. I was amazed how easy it was to add that to my bloglines account. It was really neat since you can get podcasts of radio interviews that you might not be able to listen to live.

I did find the Library Channel from Arizona State University. This is a neat resource of podcasts from all facets of the many libraries in the vast University Libraries system. I have learned about Arizona history, travel, new resources, new librarians, etc. Keep those podcasts coming!

Our library system could benefit from podcasts if we were visited by an author and we could conduct an interview with them about their books. I guess those individuals who do the special programs at the library could also have their presentation be in podcast form. Such podcast-abilities are endless!

You Tube in Libraries?

How could something like YouTube be beneficial to our libraries?

I was thinking about using YouTube to provide a tour of the various libraries in our library system. Sometimes materials, restrooms, copy machines and the like are not easy to find. Individuals could link to a YouTube video from the library site and get a brief tour of the library they were curious about.

Also, a short YouTube video could track the renovation or construction of libraries in our library system as well.

You Tube

So, the wonderful world of YouTube. I will try to embed a cute cat illustration--Simon's Cat. That seems like a lot of fun. And so true for cat owners--you should have seen my screens in Montana (I was replacing them often!!!).






I chose this because I like the crazy world of cats and this individual has a brilliant way of displaying that via illustration.

Upcoming . . .

With so many Web 2.0 tools to explore, I could not decide at first what topic to pick.

In the end, I decided to explore "Upcoming" a service provided by Yahoo.com. The site provides a listing of events in a geographic area. You can search all events or go by category.

The major flaw with this event website is that people have to enter the information. It is not an exhaustive list of events. It might be a good place to search if one was not sure of where an event was being held. However, one would have to keep in mind, not all events would be listed.

It did look very easy to add an upcoming event to the site. All one would need is a Yahoo login and password.

Libraries could list their upcoming programs on this website and it would be useful to residents and newcomers to a community. Interestingly, Palomino Library (one of our fellow branches) was using Upcoming to list its upcoming programs. Good Job!

Onward Google Docs

So, I played around with Google Docs. Below is my successful posting of one of my Google Docs. It was a pretty quick procedure and I was impressed with the speed of the posting.

I also tried the share function by setting up the "viewers" to my home emails. That was neat to click on a link from my email and read the document before I even got around to posting on this blog.

I really liked the idea of not having to by separate software for spreadsheets, word processing, etc. Will it turn out to be the wave of the future? I don't know. . . .

So this is a test Google Document. Who knew you could now do word processing, spreadsheets, etc., online.

I will write about my Seal Point Siamese Cat, Koko. She is now into hanging out on the roof of our house. She meows quite a lot but when you try to get her down, she will roll on her back and play "keep away" from you. My husband, Harold, who has the long limbs in the family, is the cat catcher.

I have tried to lure her to jump over to our shed which is a mere 3 feet away from one part of the roof, but she won't budge. Also, I tried to put the tall trash bin underneath where she hangs out on the roof and she doesn't bother jumping down that way. I think it is just a game to her. The other puzzling thing is that she doesn't do this everyday, either.

Overall, we are hoping she will get bored with this before she becomes the proverbial "cat on a hot" tar "roof."

Playing in the wiki-sandbox

So I got to play in the wiki-sandbox for SPLS learning 2.0. It was neat to see how easy it was to add a comment or link to the various favorites. It was also fun to see other people's favorites as well.

I can certainly see the popularity of the various wikis that are out in the internet. Wow!

Wide World of Wikis

I just explored various wikis from a library point-of-view. Overall, I find wikis a fascinating tool since it is collaborative and easy for anyone to use.

I think that libraries could benefit by using wikis for a variety of things. As a former academic librarian, the idea of subject guides in a wiki is a great way to keep links, books, etc. current. It would be very useful tool for general reference librarians and the community that it serves.

I saw an example of one library who had a great wiki about local history with various links to Sanborn Fire Maps and obituary and newspaper indices. That would make an interesting idea for the Scottsdale Room here in the Scottsdale Public Library System.

I also found an example of a library using a wiki to keep a Frequently Asked Questions list.

Overall, libraries will benefit from the endless possibilities from the use of wikis due to the ease of use, collaborative efforts and the most current information.

Caption Challenge!

Please take a good look at this photo of my cat. I would love, in comment form, any great caption ideas for this photo. The top 3 captions will be determined by my daughter and she is quite a tough judge . . . . Good luck and enjoy captioning!

Cholla!