Thing 9 - Finding Library-related Blogs and News

I tried various search strategies to locate blogs. But for my money, the best advice on this type of thing comes from three sources:

(1) a colleague who is presenting about blogs
(2) a list of best of the best - see the jpeg image to
the right of this text. This Time magazine article picks the top 25 blogs . I added one blog (Lifehacker) to my aggregator on the basis of this article. This blog provides technology solutions to life's overload. There were several other interesting blogs but I am trying to hold back.
(3) following a link to a blog from another blog

The above strategies is how I added several of my blogs that I am attempting to follow. The Google search tool was the easiest to use and Technorati was the least satisfactory and most confusing.

It is always interesting the places you go when
reading blogs. Today I found some great info about
student's weaknesses in searching. Some of the library
blogs can be redundant. Everyone reads Blue Skunk for
example and comments on it. That can be a bit repetitive.

Thing 8 - RSS feeds, Readers, Oh my!

So there are lots and lots of super librarians out there and they are
doing a whole lot of talking on blogs. To even begin to keep up with stuff it helps to not need a lot of sleep. Since doing without sleep is not a viable option, one must choose. Actually, you need to be very, very selective and choose only the most compelling reading. Otherwise you are doomed before you start. This is hard becuase most librarians are information junkies and just want it all. The reader or aggregator helps but still one needs to make checking in and looking at the posts on a regular basis. My resolution after this module is to cut back on my subscriptions. Bloglines is my aggregator of choice.

Thing 7--- Google tricks

Google is so amazing. I enjoyed spending some quality time with some of the tools. I already was using I-Google which is amazing. I have found it works better for on Firefox. Right now I am avoiding Internet Explorer whenever possible. Anyway it was fun picking the art for the header and my gadgets. I have a countdown gadget for my vacation - only 10 days!
This is my current iGoogle banner.

I also added Google notebook. Seems like it could be very useful to a book lover and researcher.
Dave Pogue mentioned the Google thumbnails in his recent NYT column so I added that as well. I think that is way cool. Can't wait to start using it. Here is the link to download the Google thumbnails.

Thing 6 - Mashups

I like to travel and during the past few years I have been able to go to Italy, Spain, and Portugal. I have also been able to visit neat places in the U.S. like Pittsburgh, Reno, and Chicago as I attended various library meetings.


This summer the big trip will be to England, home of some of my favorite authors. To the left is some pictures from my Flickr account that I took in Italy. We saw lot of fantastic sites as we traveled from Rome to Pompei to Tuscany. I used Mosaic Maker to combine 4 of my pictures in a more aesthetically pleasing presentation.





One of my favorite authors is Jane Austen. I hope to see some of the places where she lived.
If I collected author trading cards, this is one that I would have to collect.

This is an example of using two web-based programs to create mashups. The travel pictures were created with Mosaic Maker and the Jane Austen card was created with Trading Card Maker.

Thing 5 - Flickr and author sightings

Homo sapiens love to take pictures. They especially love to take pictures of themselves with famous people. Authors are famous people. You can search sites like Flickr to find pictures of some of your favorite authors. Here are two pictures I found in the Flickr common grounds section. This section has photos that you may use under certain conditions outlined on the site.
The picture on the left is Sherman Alexie talking about one of his books to a gathering. The picture on the right is Neil Gaiman autographing one of his books at an event.

Thing 3 - - - The deed is done

So as I have begun to play, the blog's the thing and Reading Thoughtfully the title. My avatar has made her debut and will represent me well I hope in the weeks and months to come. Now on to Flickr and other sites most visual.

Thing 2 - - - Starting out

So here I am playing with Web 2.0 tools and having fun doing it. My plan is to use this blog space as a vehicle to communicate with my High School Name That Book Community which consists of readers from several high schools, their sponsors, and possibly parents. I will track my efforts on our current reading list and comment about my reactions to titles as I read them. I also plan to post any news about the books and authors that we are reading. With my job, I frequently run into opportunities that I would like to share with all of you. The first book I read this year is The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian. Sherman Alexie is a fantastic writer and certainly deserved the National Book Award for this effort. Part-time Indian is funny, smart, and compelling. Definitely will be one of the best ones on this year's list. I have not received my Name That Book shipment yet but hope to receive the order this coming week. Can't wait. Unpacking a box of new books is one life's greatest pleasures!

For my Library2Play class, I need to comment on being a life-long learner. I think most good teachers and librarians are by default life-long learners. For me the most difficult part is one of the most important - Habit #1, goal setting. Being a mentor to others is the easiest part of being a life-long learner. When I see great books or cool tech tools, I am literally driven to spread the word.