Yay! Last activity!
Alright, back to what this activity was all about. My task was to discover YouTube and explore the website. I was also tasked to link a video to my blog from YouTube.
I knew about YouTube before this activity, so I did not learn anything new. I have used YouTube to watch movie trailers, listen to movie soundtracks, and to sometimes watch funny clips from reality shows. YouTube has too many uses for me to write them all down. But I do remember during high school and community college, students would use YouTube to upload a presentation to share with the class, or they would use YouTube to share videos that other students had made from just about anywhere. It definitely helped when giving a school presentation; it gave the class audience something to watch along with the presenters' lecture.
One thing I don't like about YouTube is that videos are constantly being taken off because of legality reasons. So you can't always rely on YouTube to have the same video a week after you viewed it.
YouTube could be used for a library's website to help upload instructional videos onto the site that are offered by the library staff. For example, I found a video, made by the University of Arkansas Library, that explained how to read a Library of Congress call number.
Here is the link to that video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4djuA5ZfOWE
I think YouTube has potential as a good online tool.
The video I choose to add to my blog is the movie trailer to 'The Young Victoria'. I really enjoyed this movie when I saw it on DVD, and I remember I first watched the movie trailer on YouTube.
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFiI5moxmIQ
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Activity 5: Rollyo
This activity was all about discovering Rollyo, which is a personal search engine tool, that you create, for just the websites you know and trust.
My task for this activity was to explore Rollyo and create my own search roll for any subject I liked.
The search roll that I created was entitled "Books" and the web pages I listed to search through were book stores' websites and amazon.com.
Overall, Rollyo was easy to access and explore. It was very simple to create a search roll and add websites to it. Although, I have to say the sight wasn't too exciting, because there wasn't much to explore.
But this tool does have potential for its users. It makes searching easy, because you only go to the websites you know and trust. You don't have to sift through websites you don't know and may contain viruses when you go to them. I could see the use for it being a parental control tool too. My experience with Rollyo was good, yet uneventful. I found exploring LibraryThing, in the previous activity, more exciting than exploring Rollyo.
Here is the link to my search roll: http://www.rollyo.com/ladybugamelia12
My task for this activity was to explore Rollyo and create my own search roll for any subject I liked.
The search roll that I created was entitled "Books" and the web pages I listed to search through were book stores' websites and amazon.com.
Overall, Rollyo was easy to access and explore. It was very simple to create a search roll and add websites to it. Although, I have to say the sight wasn't too exciting, because there wasn't much to explore.
But this tool does have potential for its users. It makes searching easy, because you only go to the websites you know and trust. You don't have to sift through websites you don't know and may contain viruses when you go to them. I could see the use for it being a parental control tool too. My experience with Rollyo was good, yet uneventful. I found exploring LibraryThing, in the previous activity, more exciting than exploring Rollyo.
Here is the link to my search roll: http://www.rollyo.com/ladybugamelia12
Activity 4: LibraryThing
This activity called for me to discover LibraryThing. LibraryThing is an online tool, developed by book lovers and catalogers at heart, that enables you to create an online catalog of your own books, and connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes.
I was to create an account and add at least 5 books to my online library shelf, and then blog about my findings.
I added some of my favorite titles. I have too many favorite titles to add all of my favorite books onto LibraryThing.
I found the site very easy to use, and easy to find books to add to your personal library shelf. All you had to do was write in a book's title and a list of options appeared on the right side of the page. You scrolled through and found the book you wanted to add to your library, and simply clicked on it. If you viewed the books in your library, you could see how many other members had added that particular book title to their library, and what their opinions on the book were. It even had a section with a popularity rating, reviews, and conversations people had had about the book. It was neat to read what other people were saying about the same books that I loved too!
Here is the link to my LibraryThing book page: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ladybugamelia12
Overall, I really liked this activity because I learned about something new. I had never heard about LibraryThing before, and I think I may keep using it. LibraryThing is a cool way to connect with fellow book lovers.
I was to create an account and add at least 5 books to my online library shelf, and then blog about my findings.
I added some of my favorite titles. I have too many favorite titles to add all of my favorite books onto LibraryThing.
I found the site very easy to use, and easy to find books to add to your personal library shelf. All you had to do was write in a book's title and a list of options appeared on the right side of the page. You scrolled through and found the book you wanted to add to your library, and simply clicked on it. If you viewed the books in your library, you could see how many other members had added that particular book title to their library, and what their opinions on the book were. It even had a section with a popularity rating, reviews, and conversations people had had about the book. It was neat to read what other people were saying about the same books that I loved too!
Here is the link to my LibraryThing book page: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ladybugamelia12
Overall, I really liked this activity because I learned about something new. I had never heard about LibraryThing before, and I think I may keep using it. LibraryThing is a cool way to connect with fellow book lovers.
Activity 3: Image Generators
This activity was all about having fun. I was to discover about image generators. Image generators allow you to easily manipulate images and graphics to create fun images. There are lots of image generators out there, and the pictures are often funny and whimsical.
All I can say is that some people have way too much time on their hands :) Even though some of the images I viewed were funny to look at, I still kept wondering to myself, 'who has the time to manipulate an image?'
I viewed images at http://www.thegenertaorblog.com/, and used their link to make my own Batman and Robin cartoon, inserting my own words into the picture.
Overall, this activity was fun and super easy. Now I know all about image generators.
Activity 2: RSS
RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication' and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web. An RSS document/feed includes full text and metadata about publication dates and authorship. The benefits are that you can get timely updates from favorite websites and to put all those feeds into one spot for easy access.
This activity required me to subscribe to Bloglines, and insert my subscriptions into my blog for people to view. Bloglines tracks your favorite news or blogs, and much more, for you, freeing you from hunting for the same information over and over again. For example, one of my subscriptions is to the BBC News Front page. Bloglines keeps the information updated for me, without me having to hunt for the webpage myself.
The easiest method of finding feeds was using Feedster, one of the largest collections of RSS feeds. Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs, and podcasts.
The search tool that was easiest for me to use was Bloglines' search tool. Bloglines' search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations, and the web.
The RSS feeds that I subscribed to were mostly news related information sites and updates on bestsellers and book reviews. Some interesting feeds I subscribed to were, the National Geographic, Quote of the Day, and Dictionary.com Word of the Day.
All in all, this was an interesting activity. It was not very hard to set up my Bloglines account or to subscribe to RSS feeds.
Here is the link to my Bloglines subscriptions: http://www.bloglines.com/public/ladybugamelia12
and if that doesn't work, just check out Bloglines at http://www.bloglines.com/ and create your own account.
This activity required me to subscribe to Bloglines, and insert my subscriptions into my blog for people to view. Bloglines tracks your favorite news or blogs, and much more, for you, freeing you from hunting for the same information over and over again. For example, one of my subscriptions is to the BBC News Front page. Bloglines keeps the information updated for me, without me having to hunt for the webpage myself.
The easiest method of finding feeds was using Feedster, one of the largest collections of RSS feeds. Feedster lets you search for feeds in three categories: news, blogs, and podcasts.
The search tool that was easiest for me to use was Bloglines' search tool. Bloglines' search tool lets you search for news feeds in addition to posts, citations, and the web.
The RSS feeds that I subscribed to were mostly news related information sites and updates on bestsellers and book reviews. Some interesting feeds I subscribed to were, the National Geographic, Quote of the Day, and Dictionary.com Word of the Day.
All in all, this was an interesting activity. It was not very hard to set up my Bloglines account or to subscribe to RSS feeds.
Here is the link to my Bloglines subscriptions: http://www.bloglines.com/public/ladybugamelia12
and if that doesn't work, just check out Bloglines at http://www.bloglines.com/ and create your own account.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Activity 1: Discover Flickr
This first activity I completed was from the original project from Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. This activity was to discover Flickr, a photosharing website. In this activity I was to find out how tags work, what groups are, and what people and libraries are using Flickr for.
Flickr is an amazing photographic community. Groups are a way for people to come together around a common interest or photo project. And if a person doesn't find a group that interests them enough to join, they can create their own group. Groups are either public or private and have a pool for sharing photos and videos among group members. Groups also have a discussion board for communication. Flickr has made it easy for people to photo-share with others with unique privacy features and levels that are set up at the group's discresion.
Flickr uses about 20 million different tags, such as words like tiger, snow, sea, jump, or cold, to make collections by associations. These tags make searching easier beacuse you can search for a photo or tag a photo by your own personal description.
For example, the Library of Congress has partnered with Flickr to allow people to access part of their huge photo catalogue. The librarians have choosen about 1,500 photos from their popular collections to show on Flickr. These photos can be tagged with an associated word, making it easier for the next person to find and view the photos on Flickr. This is called the Commons on Flickr.
One photo can have multipe tags in it. One example was someone had tagged a book in a photo of a library, saying "I have this book!"
But it is not just librarians that are using Flickr, just about anyone can use Flickr for photo-sharing possibilties. An interesting image that I found on Flickr was entitled: Collision of Destinies. It is a picture of a Daisy flower. Here is the link to view it -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/joora/4654459199/
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