Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Gimme an "R" gimme an "S" gimme an "R.S.S." Gooooooo TEAM!

Clarefucious says "When called an idiot sometimes is better to be quiet, than open mouth and remove all doubt."


OK, I have very little experience with RSS feeds but that probably hasn't stopped me nodding my head sagely when hearing them come up in conversation and saying things like "Oh, that's interesting" and "I understand perfectly".


License 2 Test Drive clarified things for me - so now I really CAN understand and cease making a fool out of myself (in that arena at least...). I joined with Bloglines which at first seemed a little confuzzled as it bleated an error at me, stating I was already a member and yet still sent the confirmation email through - it now seems happy to let me play within it's bounds without booting me out and screaming obscenities I don't need to hear (I get that enough from my co-workers ;).


I added a number of blogs to my feeds, including those that were professional (OPAL, SLQ, PLS & Librarian's Internet Index) and a few that were not (Dilbert's Daily Strip, Drawn! and Rotten Tomatoes - a movie review site).


I can see that if you're the sort of person to have many blogs on the go, this sort of website would be invaluable as it has everything in one place and at a glance. However, I've never been the sort to stick with blogs (either my own or others) and find that if things aren't right in front on my face when I open the net, I mainly ignore them.


I imagine looking at Blogline that there are innumerable number of ways to use the site effectively, if only you have the time to decipher, add, edit and maintain. I'm too busy finding ways to work big words such as "Innumerable" into my vocabulary.



Friday, June 5, 2009

Social Notworking

Clarefucious says "If man chase cars he will get exhausted"


I started my foray into the world of social networking a couple of years ago with a MySpace account - like most things in my life, it managed to hold my interest for about 2 months and then dropped off my radar. I also found that most people were simply adding others to get their number of "Friends" (and I use that term very loosely) up. Something about it seems to fill that need most humans have to be "The Most Popular" - it just reminded me about bad days in highschool - something most people can probably relate to.


What also annoys me about MySpace is the amount of time it takes to load the image-laden, often badly designed pages - all the while being blasted by someone's idea of "good" (and I use that term loosely as well) music choice from their mini-ap song player.


The journey to Facebook kept my hooked, once again for around 2 months - every now and then a flurry of activity will occur with my "Friends" and my interest will be peaked but that invariably goes away and is often replaced by a comfy chair and a good book. I will say this for Facebook though - it was a great way to get in touch with old friends (of the real variety).


Possibilities for your library to use social networking for client interaction, marketing and networking opportunities - I started a Young Adult group last year titled "YAAH!" (Young.Adults.Arana.Hills) - during the first meeting we discussed how we'd like things to work - one of the questions being "Would you like to create a MySpace or Facebook page for use by the group?" - the answer was a resounding "NO". The group is a diverse range of teens aged 12-16 years and yet only around 50% of them even had a social networking account. Interesting...



Wik-wik-wikiwik-ahh


Clarefucious says "He who eat cookie in bed, will wake up feeling crumby"

Finally had some time to check out Test drive No 3 - Wikis. Had a look at three of the wikis on the list provided and on the whole, liked what I saw. I visited the Wookieepedia site - a Star Wars based wiki featuring...well...Star Wars. Not really my cup of tea but interesting all the same (and go on, the name is cute!)


I found some good tips on job interviews in the Library Success: A Best Practices wiki - I've bookmarked it to go back to later and have a thorough lookie through.


Thought I'd continue on the random-bumper-sticker thing and give you all another one that tickled:


Thanks again to Flikr for supplying this photo by "awynhaus"