Saturday, November 19, 2011

Technology Projects

Group Project

My group project is going well.
I have posted a PowerPoint version for my library.
I am using the Bartholomew County Public Library 
for my library to compare to Tamara's choice:
Logansport-Cass County Public Library.

Technology Proposal
 
I decided to try to do a Technology Proposal on iPads
for my final project. Personally I have never used an iPad.
I know one library that has an iPad for patrons but it is a college.
Perhaps I now have an excuse to go there and see how they work!

Does anyone know of a library that uses iPads:
for either staff members or patrons?
I would like to get some personal recommendations on how
to use the technology and how well it is working.

Tech Projects Options

I changed my technology project from an Assistive Technology Guide of local resources
to a Troubleshooting Checklist Guide for two library technologies.
I was having trouble finding enough local resources 
to make an Assistive Technology guide 
and found the Technology Guide to be interesting. 

LibraryThing, GoodReads, And Twitter Projects

LibraryThing/GoodReads

I added a few more books to both of these
and looked through some of the recommendations.
Many of the ones on LibraryThing I deleted
because they were based on my Harry Potter books. 

I like these books but I started reading the series 
because I became hooked after buying the first book for my son
and I am not actively looking for another series that is similar to them.

I have more books on GoodReads and have given more personal ratings,
so I am getting more diverse recommendations.
I feel more comfortable adding books I have read and do not own to GoodReads.

I have tried to find another discussion topic to post to on LibraryThing
since the one I posted to seems to have fizzled, 
but nothing really interests me as of yet.

Twitter

I have posted a few tweets about my assignments on Twitter
and added a couple more organizations. 
I am back up to 26 people/organizations I am following.
I will post more on Twitter next week!

PhotoSharing-A Wordle of My Blog

Wordle: Second Try

I made a Wordle of my blog for my PhotoSharing Project. I posted the html code given by http://www.wordle.net/ and the resulting image is very small. The words become very unclear when I try to make it bigger.

I took a screen shot of my Wordle while on the website and used IrfanView to edit it.
Here is the result of this:
My Blog Wordle

I can resize this image without it losing a lot of clarity.  The website is very active and I had to search a few pages to find my wordle after only a few minutes. It is a cute idea and can be used in a fun way in different educational settings.


Sunday, November 13, 2011

A New Week: Progress Continuing

I continue to work on my long-term projects:

PhotoSharing-
I added a post with a photo and quote using a text image generator:
 tagmaker.com

Twitter-
I was curious how many times the people I am following posted.
I put some statistics for fourteen of these in a posting.
I also put the number of following/followers for these organizations/people.

 I did not make a posting for LibraryThing/Goodreads this week.
I only added four or five books to each of these.

----

My current group project with Tamara is going well.
We have both finished our interviews.
Next, we need to work out the details 
on how to put the PowerPoint and Wimba presentation together.
I hope to have the PowerPoint together by the end of next week
before the Thanksgiving break.

See you soon,

Chris

PhotoSharing Project

Tags Maker is a Text Image Generator to write Messages, Comments or Tags on Pictures

 I used tagmaker.com to add this quote to the background.

Friday, November 11, 2011

I Am Following You!

I decided to see how long it took some of the people
and organizations I am following to post twenty times. 

Here are some of the results:

Random House had twenty posts within a day.
School Library Journal took two days.
Science Museum-in the UK- took three days,
as did GoodReads, New York Public Library, 
and Library Journal. 
Connor Prairie took four days.

Some statistics on these:

Random House--Following-27,305--Followers-247,512
GoodReads--Following-10,163--Followers--218,679
NY Public Library--Following-92--Followers-170,668
Library Journal--Following-251--Followers-123,821
Science Museum--Following-7,081--Followers-119,200
School Library Journal--Following-1,055--Followers-11,598
Connor Prairie--Following-3,056--Followers--3,715

Connor Prairie is the only one of these that followed me
after I started following them. 
They are pretty even on following/followers,
so this is a common practice for them. 
NY Public Library follows the least numbers 
of people/organizations in the group.

Smithsonian Libraries and Jason Griffey 
posted twenty posts in seven days.
NY Times Books took six days.
Between Nov. 1st and Nov. 9th.,
Library of Congress has 17 posts,
Zooey Deschanel had 15 posts, and
both Google Books and Indiana State Library had 13 posts.

Zooey Deschanel--Following-375--Followers-822,494
Google Books--Following-19--Followers--376,900
NY Times Books--Following-113--Followers--315,110
Library of Congress--Following-6--Followers-299,579
 Smithsonian Libraries--Following-348--Followers--6,646
Jason Griffey--Following-593--Followers-2,971
State Library--Following-355--Followers-603

Library of Congress is following
the least number of organizations/people from this list,
with Google Books a close second. 

Zooey Deschanel, my only "celebrity," has the most followers.
Unfortunately most of her recent posts
are an advertisement for her new show. 

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Projects, Projects,...Projects

I have felt a bit overwhelmed this week.
 A project I had in another class was moved up a week and
I concentrated on this during the first part of the week.
  Consequently, I fell behind in my other courses.  

I started a group project this week with Tamara Gibbs. 
I am debating a couple libraries for the project 
and it will partially depend on the availability of staff members.
After watching and reading the example projects
I think I have a good grasp of the project.

I went with my husband and daughter today to see Phineas and Ferb.
It was cute and my daughter seemed to really like it.

I think we may go see Tangled (Dare to Dream) on ice in January. 
I have been wanting to go see a Disney on Ice production
and my girl really likes Tangled.

I think my blogs this week are a bit negative, 
partially because I was in a hurry and tired.
I will try to be more positive next week!

Friday, November 4, 2011

My Flickr Photos

Staff Desk by angelfire_2393
Staff Desk, a photo by angelfire_2393 on Flickr.
View of Room by angelfire_2393
View of Room, a photo by angelfire_2393 on Flickr.
Computers and Printer by angelfire_2393
Computers and Printer, a photo by angelfire_2393 on Flickr.
Collection by angelfire_2393
Collection, a photo by angelfire_2393 on Flickr.

Notices on Door by angelfire_2393
Notices on Door, a photo by angelfire_2393 on Flickr.
I was granted permission to take pictures
of my one room resource center
and load them into my blog. 
I have an account with Yahoo!,
which probably made the upload a little easier. 
Posting them the way I wanted was a bit of a battle
but I am finally satisfied with the results. 
I tried putting them in as a slide show but I did not like it. 
Then I put them in as a set,
and they were extremely small and were blurry
when I managed to get a couple a larger size.
So I uploaded them all separately and
now have to delete seven posts,
but they are all here and I can see them!

At this point I do not see myself using Flickr again
in the near future. 
I can see that a library or organization
that wishes to share photos would indeed find Flickr a good idea.
It would be nice for human resources to share company events
or for a library to share their programs,
and the pictures can be "private" instead of "public."
The private option is more likely to persuade me
to use Flickr in the future.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

I have not discovered how to make Twitter interesting.

I post a new tweet 
whenever I have something halfway interesting to say. 
I read all of the new tweets
from the 21 people or organizations I am following.
(I added one as recommended by my professor.)
I still find it less than interesting.

That is not to say that the organizations
that I am following are necessarily boring,
just that what they post seems to have little to do with me.

I did find it interesting that Connor Prairie
decided to follow me after I started following them. 
My husband tells me that people become offended
when others do not follow them back. 
I had someone decide to follow me
and then stop after about four days.
I have no idea why she started or why she stopped!

This is who I am following at the moment:
My professor, two of my fellow students, Goodreads,
NY times books, Library of Congress, Random House,
science museum, my husband, State Library, Purdue Archives,
Connor Prairie, Smithsonian Libraries,
New York Public Library, Jason Griffey, Michael Porter,
Library Journal, Google Books, YA lit_com,
and Zooey Deschanel. 

Does anyone have any suggestions of fun
but interesting people to follow?


LibraryThing Review

I added some of my daughter's books to my LibraryThing collection.
I decided to buy a book I have read in the past.
I added it to my collection and wrote a review for it.

"Chewy Louie" by Howie Schneider.

I really like this book! I read this book today at a preschool and both the teachers and children laughed when expected and told me afterward how much they enjoyed the story. It was a huge hit and I liked reading it because I knew my audience was enjoying it. The children told me stories of their own pets that had chewed on items around their home. While the antics of Chewy Louie are exaggerated, the story will strike a cord of understanding and sympathy with pet owners and dog lovers. ( )
  flag chrish-ivytech | Nov 4, 2011

http://www.librarything.com/work/717331/reviews/79670027 
 My discussion board post was less than successful I am afraid.
One response was to say I should have used "is" instead of "was." 
One response did actually discuss the topic of my post, but did not agree with it.
While posting this I noticed a couple spelling mistakes and changed them. 

102chrish-ivytech Oct 25, 8:07pm 

From the research I did for an English paper it appears that William Shakespeare rewrote many older works and changed them a bit to make them his own. He also periodically worked with other people to make his plays, usually people from his own theatre. He was not only a playwright but an actor and used the stories he knew well to create something new.
 
My paper was about the The Wooden O and not specifically Shakespeare, but it seems clear that he was not a "poor boy" but a somewhat educated man who was part owner and stockholder of a business that was successful.
 
I do not understand why people keep debating this issue but then there are those who swore for years that Elvis was alive. Some people like controversy, even if it is about someone who lived 500 years ago.
 
Do I like Shakespeare plays? I like to watch them more than I like to read them. The language is more engaging to hear than to try to read.

103MrAndrew Oct 26, 8:05am  Elvis "was" alive? Wrong tense, my dear sir.


104chrish-ivytech Oct 26, 3:35pm Ouch. By the way, I am a female. Have a nice day!


105MrAndrew Oct 27, 8:36am I assumed that you were knighted.


106nemoman Oct 29, 10:52pm Beknighted. What's all this stuff about Elvis being dead?


107nemoman Oct 29, 10:53pm Beknighted. What's all this stuff about Elvis being dead?


108oldstick Oct 30, 6:58am 

I like the idea of a committee at the Globe writing Shakespeare's plays but I don't believe it. I did entertain the thought that Christopher Marlowe wrote them at one time but does it really matter? No one is going to pay him any royalties and it is great to have a name to go with the works. I just hope what I read recently about the theatre in Stratford doesn't stop tourists. We need all the friends we can get!