At YouTube I entered 'Sacramento History'. There are a lot of choices. I picked 'Green Glory: The Early History of Sacramento Trees'. The video is also available to watch while in the Sacramento Room at the Central Branch of The Sacramento Public Library.
I chose the video because I love trees and because I love the old days and because I love Sacramento. Another reason I chose it is because it is 7:53 long. Most videos are shorter and end too soon for me.
The YouTube site is easy to navigate. A selection of videos came up immediately. There are several pages of links regarding Sacramento History. One video is about low riders. There are many videos about Sacramento History by a former Sacramento City Historian.
One of the things I like about YouTube is there are a lot of graphics on the home page, but the graphics do not clutter the page. What I do not like is that the photographs on the page seem gaudy, juvenile, and sensational.
SPL can use some of the features on our site that YouTube has. One is a video to click and watch regarding the library. Possibilities are a tour of Central or a trip to each of the twenty-seven branches with photographs of the landscaping and the outside and inside of the branch. Something else we can do is to have a link that states what downloadable DVD's from our website are being watched now.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
#19 DISCOVERING WEB 2.0 TOOLS
So much information was available, I went to the short list. The topics I chose were Travel, and News and Blog Guide.
My choice to search in Travel was Farecast. I wanted to know the price to fly from Sacramento to New York. The 'economy' fare is $241 on Delta. The 'first class' and 'business' fare on Delta is $319.
Before I went to News and Blog Guide to look up a travel blog, I went to http://www.tripadvisor.com/.
I entered Sacramento, then Forum, then Africa, then Algeria. I was expecting to find groups or events or lectures in Sacramento pertaining to Algeria. Instead I found links to Algerian websites. If someone was coming to Sacramento and was hoping to spend an evening going to a lecture, they would be given a choice of links not related to Sacramento.
My next step was to look for blogs under News and Blog Guide. I was expecting to find a lot of blogs that discuss peoples' experience travelling, either commenting on airlines or hotels, or telling stories of adventures they had.
What I found were blogs posted by airlines and hotels. I did a lot of searching, then entered 'Customer Service' in relation to travelling in the search box. The site I explored is http://www.allbusiness.com/. A writer on that site has two interesting pieces of information. His name is Glenn Ross. There is 'Nine Customer Service Blogs You Should Check Out'. Relating to travelling is an article- 'Delta Gets It; Or, At least One Captain Does'.
After that, I clicked ICEROCKET. ICEROCKET is ranked fourth in a list of four in News and Blog Guide.
ICEROCKET has an attractive page. The page is not busy. I entered 'travel blogs about peoples' experience travelling' in the search space. What came up was a post 'Why Travel Blogs Are Absolutely Essential To The First-time Traveller'. It was not interesting.
The information I found using the Travel, and News and Blog Guide topics could have easily been found doing a general web search. The tools were of no help to me. I feel I could have found better information had I not depended on them. I cannot see how the tools I used would be helpful to a library patron.
The Walker
My choice to search in Travel was Farecast. I wanted to know the price to fly from Sacramento to New York. The 'economy' fare is $241 on Delta. The 'first class' and 'business' fare on Delta is $319.
Before I went to News and Blog Guide to look up a travel blog, I went to http://www.tripadvisor.com/.
I entered Sacramento, then Forum, then Africa, then Algeria. I was expecting to find groups or events or lectures in Sacramento pertaining to Algeria. Instead I found links to Algerian websites. If someone was coming to Sacramento and was hoping to spend an evening going to a lecture, they would be given a choice of links not related to Sacramento.
My next step was to look for blogs under News and Blog Guide. I was expecting to find a lot of blogs that discuss peoples' experience travelling, either commenting on airlines or hotels, or telling stories of adventures they had.
What I found were blogs posted by airlines and hotels. I did a lot of searching, then entered 'Customer Service' in relation to travelling in the search box. The site I explored is http://www.allbusiness.com/. A writer on that site has two interesting pieces of information. His name is Glenn Ross. There is 'Nine Customer Service Blogs You Should Check Out'. Relating to travelling is an article- 'Delta Gets It; Or, At least One Captain Does'.
After that, I clicked ICEROCKET. ICEROCKET is ranked fourth in a list of four in News and Blog Guide.
ICEROCKET has an attractive page. The page is not busy. I entered 'travel blogs about peoples' experience travelling' in the search space. What came up was a post 'Why Travel Blogs Are Absolutely Essential To The First-time Traveller'. It was not interesting.
The information I found using the Travel, and News and Blog Guide topics could have easily been found doing a general web search. The tools were of no help to me. I feel I could have found better information had I not depended on them. I cannot see how the tools I used would be helpful to a library patron.
The Walker
Sunday, January 17, 2010
#18 Web-based Apps
'It's December 22 in the big city. Three more days to Christmas. This is my first Google Doc for exercise 18 of 27 Things.' This was copied and pasted from my Google Docs. The address is:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbeJtPwjLclpZGc1cmdta18wZG1mbmhkdmc&hl=en
I inserted the following by clicking the 'Link" in the taskbar above the Google Doc, then entering the url.
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USCA0967
This has been the most difficult assignment. I wanted to download a photo to my google document about the weather, then paste the site to my blog.
When I clicked the 'insert' link in Google Docs, I entered the web address for the photograph I wanted, but the address was not accepted.
At the beginning of this assignment I went to Zoho. My email to Zoho was not accepted, so I went to Google Docs.
Google Docs is very professional. It saves a person from having to be at one's home computer or carrying a flash drive. For now, it is not clear to me what other benefits Google Docs has.
The Walker
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbeJtPwjLclpZGc1cmdta18wZG1mbmhkdmc&hl=en
I inserted the following by clicking the 'Link" in the taskbar above the Google Doc, then entering the url.
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USCA0967
This has been the most difficult assignment. I wanted to download a photo to my google document about the weather, then paste the site to my blog.
When I clicked the 'insert' link in Google Docs, I entered the web address for the photograph I wanted, but the address was not accepted.
At the beginning of this assignment I went to Zoho. My email to Zoho was not accepted, so I went to Google Docs.
Google Docs is very professional. It saves a person from having to be at one's home computer or carrying a flash drive. For now, it is not clear to me what other benefits Google Docs has.
The Walker
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
THING #17: ADD AN ENTRY TO THE SPL-LEARNING SANDBOX
I added an entry to the Sandbox. I saw how fun a wiki can be. Even though I am fascinated by cats, I do not have one. What I love about the site is the color- black ink on green backdrop.
For personal use, a wiki would be great for family members to take a turn adding to a family Christmas wiki. Then the cousins could add to it. Then the grandparents.
As for SPL, a wiki would be good for Black History Month and other holidays. The public could keep adding to the site throughout February, or the month of the holiday.
The Walker
I added an entry to the Sandbox. I saw how fun a wiki can be. Even though I am fascinated by cats, I do not have one. What I love about the site is the color- black ink on green backdrop.
For personal use, a wiki would be great for family members to take a turn adding to a family Christmas wiki. Then the cousins could add to it. Then the grandparents.
As for SPL, a wiki would be good for Black History Month and other holidays. The public could keep adding to the site throughout February, or the month of the holiday.
Finally, I added this blog-my blog- to the Staff Blogs table.
The Walker
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
THING 16: WIKIS
I went to three wikis. The first one is Saint Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides. The page presents links ranging from legal topics to local history.
I clicked Local History, then 1875 Atlas Online. There is a slide for each page of An Illustrated Historical Atlas of St. Joseph Co., Indiana.
Yes the site is successful. There are many links. The site is not flashy.
This is a great site. However, the Subject Guides are not listed on the home page. A patron must go to the Research link and scroll to Subject Guides.
Maybe SPL can have more text on its web page.
The next wiki I went to is Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. The site presents lists of links by category. The links relate to libraries. The layout of the site reminds me of Wikipedia.
The wiki is successful. An article is presented on the page followed by categories, with links listed below each category. I went to Training and Development For Librarians. There are two library schools from California listed: San Jose State and UCLA.
The Contra Costa County Library was discussed in a short article listed under Online Library Card Registration and e-Card Services.
SPL could use this formal style if we wanted to write information on local topics and places on our home page.
My favorite wiki is The Bull Run Library wiki. The page is mainly a menu for community events such as book sales, musical performances, and classes.
The site is successful because it is simple and informative. The first link on the site is a Translation Tool. The site can be translated into 52 languages. Then comes the list of community events. Following the community events are two links: overdrive and a wiki for all the libraries in that county.
SPL could learn from this site by having our data translated into 52 languages. If we want to simplify our site, then The Bull Run Library wiki is an example to learn from.
Finally, I went to www.sacwiki.org. On the Home Page I clicked Sacramento Wish List. The first item on the list says, "I wish that Sacramento hadn't cut itself off from the river with I-5 and that the city would fund its Riverfront Reconnection project." I agree.
This is the end of this post.
The Walker
I went to three wikis. The first one is Saint Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides. The page presents links ranging from legal topics to local history.
I clicked Local History, then 1875 Atlas Online. There is a slide for each page of An Illustrated Historical Atlas of St. Joseph Co., Indiana.
Yes the site is successful. There are many links. The site is not flashy.
This is a great site. However, the Subject Guides are not listed on the home page. A patron must go to the Research link and scroll to Subject Guides.
Maybe SPL can have more text on its web page.
The next wiki I went to is Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. The site presents lists of links by category. The links relate to libraries. The layout of the site reminds me of Wikipedia.
The wiki is successful. An article is presented on the page followed by categories, with links listed below each category. I went to Training and Development For Librarians. There are two library schools from California listed: San Jose State and UCLA.
The Contra Costa County Library was discussed in a short article listed under Online Library Card Registration and e-Card Services.
SPL could use this formal style if we wanted to write information on local topics and places on our home page.
My favorite wiki is The Bull Run Library wiki. The page is mainly a menu for community events such as book sales, musical performances, and classes.
The site is successful because it is simple and informative. The first link on the site is a Translation Tool. The site can be translated into 52 languages. Then comes the list of community events. Following the community events are two links: overdrive and a wiki for all the libraries in that county.
SPL could learn from this site by having our data translated into 52 languages. If we want to simplify our site, then The Bull Run Library wiki is an example to learn from.
Finally, I went to www.sacwiki.org. On the Home Page I clicked Sacramento Wish List. The first item on the list says, "I wish that Sacramento hadn't cut itself off from the river with I-5 and that the city would fund its Riverfront Reconnection project." I agree.
This is the end of this post.
The Walker
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
#15 LIBRARY 2.0
For this exercise I read three articles: Away from the 'icebergs' by Rick Anderson, To better bibliographic services by John J. Riemer, and To a temporary place in time by Dr. Wendy Schultz. Each writer states the need for libraries to embrace the new era of information.
Mr. Reimer says that when a patron renews an item or is looking for a book using interlibray loans, libraries should have links for patrons to buy the book. Mr. Anderson claims that with electronic access to so much material, libraries should get rid of their special collections. Ms. Schultz states that some librarians will become superstar librarians and celebrities.
I think Mr. Reimer's idea is a good one. As for getting rid of special collections, it is nice to have books to open on a table when one is researching. Let's keep our special collections. Will the superstar librarians be able to obtain more tax money and donations for America's libraries?
My vision for the future of libraries is that libraries buy small parcels of property around their city or town. The parcels can be landscaped and designated as outdoor study and reading areas.
There can be tables in the sun, tables in the shade, and tables with a roof or arbor over them.
The Walker
Mr. Reimer says that when a patron renews an item or is looking for a book using interlibray loans, libraries should have links for patrons to buy the book. Mr. Anderson claims that with electronic access to so much material, libraries should get rid of their special collections. Ms. Schultz states that some librarians will become superstar librarians and celebrities.
I think Mr. Reimer's idea is a good one. As for getting rid of special collections, it is nice to have books to open on a table when one is researching. Let's keep our special collections. Will the superstar librarians be able to obtain more tax money and donations for America's libraries?
My vision for the future of libraries is that libraries buy small parcels of property around their city or town. The parcels can be landscaped and designated as outdoor study and reading areas.
There can be tables in the sun, tables in the shade, and tables with a roof or arbor over them.
The Walker
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
#14 TECHNORATI
Before I started 27 Things, I went to Technorati to look for information on customer service. I found some entertaining videos. One of the videos had an interview with a manager who spoke for thirty seconds about customer service. She must have practiced explaining things quickly. She made magnificent use of thirty seconds.
This experience with Technorati was boring. I found no difference between a regular search and an advanced search.
Next, I went to 'Search Post', then clicked 'Search Blog'. Following that I entered 'Entire Post'. Then I entered 'Tags Only'.
The next click interested me. It was 'Popular Blogs'. After clicking 'Videos', I was surprised to find few links to each video. When I went to 'Music', one of the titles had 31 links. The title is You Visit Me Not by Sonnie Day.
I then clicked 'Tags'. Something surprised me. The top search was 'taskbar'. 'News' was second. The last item on the list of fifteen was 'ibm'.
The Walker
This experience with Technorati was boring. I found no difference between a regular search and an advanced search.
Next, I went to 'Search Post', then clicked 'Search Blog'. Following that I entered 'Entire Post'. Then I entered 'Tags Only'.
The next click interested me. It was 'Popular Blogs'. After clicking 'Videos', I was surprised to find few links to each video. When I went to 'Music', one of the titles had 31 links. The title is You Visit Me Not by Sonnie Day.
I then clicked 'Tags'. Something surprised me. The top search was 'taskbar'. 'News' was second. The last item on the list of fifteen was 'ibm'.
The Walker
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