Thursday, June 21, 2007
Tipmonkies!
Wow I just found this great site today, thanks to being on Twitter... on my Twitter list is this person who goes by "TechTools," and is located in DC and describes (her/him/it)self as
Well they have certainly turned me onto lots of great stuff, and today was no exception!
Tipmonkies has "Ten Great Tools to Help You Twitter Better" and that's just what I need (not)! But anyway, what a cool site: Tips for Better, Safer Computing. Hmmm.. not sure about the "safer" but I think I can definitely be "better" by checking this out....
Some of the things posted, for example:
The Dalai Lama's Top Ten
This awesome thing called JOTT
A thing about carrying NYC Subway lines on your iPod
and more!
I know I'm going to be checking it out regularly!
tracking yummy, cool, visionary tech tools to help us grow and fulfil our lives
in: art, tech, free, fun, and destiny. find your life's purpose with me.
Well they have certainly turned me onto lots of great stuff, and today was no exception!
Tipmonkies has "Ten Great Tools to Help You Twitter Better" and that's just what I need (not)! But anyway, what a cool site: Tips for Better, Safer Computing. Hmmm.. not sure about the "safer" but I think I can definitely be "better" by checking this out....
Some of the things posted, for example:
The Dalai Lama's Top Ten
This awesome thing called JOTT
A thing about carrying NYC Subway lines on your iPod
and more!
I know I'm going to be checking it out regularly!
Labels: amy kearns, blogs, cool sites, tech tools, tips, twitter
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 6:33 PM 0 comments
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Infodoodads gives me HOPE!
I read this message today and went to check out the new blog - it looks great and I plan to keep my eye on it (or, I should say, I have added it to my bloglines)! It also gives me hope - read on....
What's especially nice about this to me is that I have recently been thinking about and talking to some people about just what it is that the current crop of library students are learning.
I graduated from library school in 2003 and it's been awhile (especially when you think of how quickly things change and advance in technology and the world) since I've been in school! I think about how we are all working hard to "catch-up" and help others "catch-up" to all the new technologies and ideas about customer service and so on... if we are currently producing new librarians who will find themselves in this same position then we are fighting a losing battle!
One might think that the "new" librarians are "young" librarians and would automatically be "hip" to the new social technologies, i.e. facebook, instant messaging, flickr, etc., but this is not necessarily true, and it is also not necessarily true that any/all "young people" know about this stuff and/or understand or believe in it in relation to the library world.
Case in point: I mentioned this to my library garden pals and one replied with anecdotal evidence that I was afraid of:
Oh great. What is going on here!? What are the library students being taught about. If we are spending time and effort catching-up current librarians, I think this will have to include some of the library professors as well. Apparently.
However, this blog is a ray of hope to me since there is a student on there and he obviously knows about these things and is blogging about them with some colleagues. I guess you could say that he perhaps knew/knows about those things already and didn't learn them in library school.
You also might say that maybe the students USE RSS and don't know it - like many "lay" people do - If you ask a bunch of people if they use RSS they say no - but if you ask them do you use My Yahoo! and they say yes, then they are using RSS and they just don't know it.
Of course the second point about reading library blogs there is just no excuse about!
So check out this blog to help yourself "keep up" and let's think about doing something NOW about the next generation of librarians being "created" so we won't be fighting against a growing tide of people who just "don't get it."
Note: I just found out that Leslie Burger, current ALA president (and Director of the Princeton Public Library, NJ) is interested in this and is working (I think) on a way to look into this and address it. Yay! :-)
Also: If you want to look at a great and simple way of learning about RSS, check this out.
Greetings,
Several librarians (Margaret Mellinger, Hannah Rempel, Kate Gronemyer, and
Jane Nichols), one librarian to-be (Michael Baird) and myself have been
maintaining a blog dedicated to reviewing information tools on the Net. A
little shameless self-promotion never hurts, and I wanted to spread the
word. :)
We hope our website is useful for librarians and other information-lovers.
Please check it out at http://infodoodads.com/
Have a great day!
Laurie
.......................................................
Laurie M. Bridges Business & Economics Librarian Oregon State
University
What's especially nice about this to me is that I have recently been thinking about and talking to some people about just what it is that the current crop of library students are learning.
I graduated from library school in 2003 and it's been awhile (especially when you think of how quickly things change and advance in technology and the world) since I've been in school! I think about how we are all working hard to "catch-up" and help others "catch-up" to all the new technologies and ideas about customer service and so on... if we are currently producing new librarians who will find themselves in this same position then we are fighting a losing battle!
One might think that the "new" librarians are "young" librarians and would automatically be "hip" to the new social technologies, i.e. facebook, instant messaging, flickr, etc., but this is not necessarily true, and it is also not necessarily true that any/all "young people" know about this stuff and/or understand or believe in it in relation to the library world.
Case in point: I mentioned this to my library garden pals and one replied with anecdotal evidence that I was afraid of:
I did a talk for (a class) as recently as October 2006. By show of hands,
maybe 2 out of 30 in the class had any idea what RSS is, or read any
library blogs.
I found this upsetting . . . (because) RSS IS
an information literacy technology. Perhaps it is THE single best
technology for allowing us to manage the flow, display, sharing, and consumption
of information. As promoters of information literacy, librarians should be
ALL OVER THIS.
Oh great. What is going on here!? What are the library students being taught about. If we are spending time and effort catching-up current librarians, I think this will have to include some of the library professors as well. Apparently.
However, this blog is a ray of hope to me since there is a student on there and he obviously knows about these things and is blogging about them with some colleagues. I guess you could say that he perhaps knew/knows about those things already and didn't learn them in library school.
You also might say that maybe the students USE RSS and don't know it - like many "lay" people do - If you ask a bunch of people if they use RSS they say no - but if you ask them do you use My Yahoo! and they say yes, then they are using RSS and they just don't know it.
Of course the second point about reading library blogs there is just no excuse about!
So check out this blog to help yourself "keep up" and let's think about doing something NOW about the next generation of librarians being "created" so we won't be fighting against a growing tide of people who just "don't get it."
Note: I just found out that Leslie Burger, current ALA president (and Director of the Princeton Public Library, NJ) is interested in this and is working (I think) on a way to look into this and address it. Yay! :-)
Also: If you want to look at a great and simple way of learning about RSS, check this out.
Labels: amy kearns, blogs, librarians, students, technology
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 11:20 AM 3 comments
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Another love letter - this time to Playlists in Bloglines!
It's funny that Mary posted her love letter to Picasa b/c I was planning to post this one to Playlists in Bloglines!
Maybe I am the last to know or use this awesome feature but if not, I have to share!
I love Bloglines. It's no secret and I've never been shy about that. I have always loved it and used it. Last night I was wracking my brain to recall who it was and when and where it was that I was shown all the glorious extra wonderful amazing features of Bloglines besides just reading blogs, but I couldn't recall! So for that I'm sorry! But let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time I used Bloglines to read blogs and feeds. It was wonderful. Then, I found out about all the other amazing features: saving a search and subscribing to that; reading listserv messages; having an e-mail address; having a blog (which is cool even though I don't on there); tracking packages and the weather; and there's even more!
However, I was so enamored with Bloglines that I added about 1,109,333 feeds and even with it's wonderful organizational capabilities, I could NOT keep up! I was too overwhelmed! So, for awhile I stopped reading it. I downloaded the Bloglines notifier and would be constantly reminded that there were now 1,109,334 feeds to read and I will nervously click the message away!
So, I had to start over. I made a new Bloglines account and tried to limit my subscriptions to really, really important things. Still, I was in a period of being out-of-love with Bloglines and we grew apart.
Lately, I have been really wanting to get back into keeping up with the blogs and so on, so I started adding some more feeds in. This caused me to immediately panic, remembering my old ways.... Then I noticed this Playlist button - I kept wondering - what is that?! What does that mean!?
Well, now I know and let me tell you - it is love at first sight all over again! :-)
Playlists allow you to organize your feeds into, well, "playlists" of individual feeds even though they may already be organized and categorized into folders and so on.... this means that you may have a folder (as I do) labeled "librarians" and in that folder are all the blogs from librarians - tons, that is! Well, to read those is still overwhelming! However, if I make a playlist of the ones I feel I need to read FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, then I can pick and choose a few and "play" them first thing in the morning. I can add in some news feeds that I need to see FIRST THING and just look at those - instead of being overwhelmed again by all my feeds!
Then, I can make a playlist for the afternoon let's say - of the blogs and sites and so on I feel I need to check up on again - or for the first time maybe - later in the day!
Hooray! Newly organized and not overwhelmed! I can still keep everything filed according to my preferences, i.e., by groups like "librarians" "libraries" "jobs" "politics" etc., but I can pick and choose individual feeds from within those folders to look at as another separate, different "group" if you will in Playlists!
Thank goodness!
Bloglines, you truly are amazing and my love for you is stronger than ever. I think it is almost becoming possible to ONLY log into you and get almost everything I need in one place now! FANTASTIC! I especially love subbing to the flickr feeds and seeing the newest photos RIGHT THERE in Bloglines without having to log into flickr separately!
Love, Amy
Maybe I am the last to know or use this awesome feature but if not, I have to share!
I love Bloglines. It's no secret and I've never been shy about that. I have always loved it and used it. Last night I was wracking my brain to recall who it was and when and where it was that I was shown all the glorious extra wonderful amazing features of Bloglines besides just reading blogs, but I couldn't recall! So for that I'm sorry! But let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time I used Bloglines to read blogs and feeds. It was wonderful. Then, I found out about all the other amazing features: saving a search and subscribing to that; reading listserv messages; having an e-mail address; having a blog (which is cool even though I don't on there); tracking packages and the weather; and there's even more!
However, I was so enamored with Bloglines that I added about 1,109,333 feeds and even with it's wonderful organizational capabilities, I could NOT keep up! I was too overwhelmed! So, for awhile I stopped reading it. I downloaded the Bloglines notifier and would be constantly reminded that there were now 1,109,334 feeds to read and I will nervously click the message away!
So, I had to start over. I made a new Bloglines account and tried to limit my subscriptions to really, really important things. Still, I was in a period of being out-of-love with Bloglines and we grew apart.
Lately, I have been really wanting to get back into keeping up with the blogs and so on, so I started adding some more feeds in. This caused me to immediately panic, remembering my old ways.... Then I noticed this Playlist button - I kept wondering - what is that?! What does that mean!?
Well, now I know and let me tell you - it is love at first sight all over again! :-)
Playlists allow you to organize your feeds into, well, "playlists" of individual feeds even though they may already be organized and categorized into folders and so on.... this means that you may have a folder (as I do) labeled "librarians" and in that folder are all the blogs from librarians - tons, that is! Well, to read those is still overwhelming! However, if I make a playlist of the ones I feel I need to read FIRST THING IN THE MORNING, then I can pick and choose a few and "play" them first thing in the morning. I can add in some news feeds that I need to see FIRST THING and just look at those - instead of being overwhelmed again by all my feeds!
Then, I can make a playlist for the afternoon let's say - of the blogs and sites and so on I feel I need to check up on again - or for the first time maybe - later in the day!
Hooray! Newly organized and not overwhelmed! I can still keep everything filed according to my preferences, i.e., by groups like "librarians" "libraries" "jobs" "politics" etc., but I can pick and choose individual feeds from within those folders to look at as another separate, different "group" if you will in Playlists!
Thank goodness!
Bloglines, you truly are amazing and my love for you is stronger than ever. I think it is almost becoming possible to ONLY log into you and get almost everything I need in one place now! FANTASTIC! I especially love subbing to the flickr feeds and seeing the newest photos RIGHT THERE in Bloglines without having to log into flickr separately!
Love, Amy
Labels: amy kearns, bloglines, blogs, feeds, playlists
¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 1:35 PM 0 comments
