Tech post (Thing #7)

This week I discovered how to add a search box for WorldCat to my webpage. It's on my test page if you'd like to take a look.
I'm really intrigued after visiting Google and realizing the potential for making it work for our local libraries that I want kids to get to know WorldCat.
I suggested to one of mu U.S. history teachers that rather than fighting Wikipedia, he have the students use the list of references from articles about the topic they were researching. They were told they had to use Google Book Search to find out whether the book was available online and if it wasn't they needed to use Find in a Library to see where the book's closest location was. They seemed to enjoy the exercise and were able to see how local libraries can be helpful for their research. I'm waiting for the day when my library can be the closest "librar[y] near you."

flickr Fun (Thing #5)

Went into flickr today and uploaded some photos. I realized that one of the most frustrating things about digital cameras is the way they label photos. Aside from the date there is no easy way to labels photos so you know what's in them except looking one by one. I'm sure somebody's already come up with an answer but my camera doesn't know about it yet. Since my photos (8 of them) came from a variety of times and places I decided to add them to the map. I have photos from Portugal, Ireland and my own house here in Richmond. There's also a photo I took at my 40th high school reunion and one somebody took of me and my family on my 50th birthday (more than ten years ago now!). Anyway here's the link to my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomkaun/
I eventually plan on making a page for my library with historic and current photos as well and I'm going to recommend that the folks running the high school's 50th anniversary program develop a flickr page as well.

Avatar, avatar where are you?

Well, I finally got my Yahoo avatar to appear on my blog.
I do think the instructions for posting the avatar need to be more explicit than they currently are. Specifically, instructions on how to make the avatar and then how to "Export" the avatar including the simplest options for making the avatar available for the blog. (I think the URL option seems easiest.) Then once you get back to Blogger rather than using Edit HTML to customize (add the avatar URL) just do it from the main customize page.
I realize it's kind of fun to explore and make mistakes in the process of learning but we need to consider the frustration level of folks who are going to be using the program as well--we don't want them turned off too early in the process!
BTW, I just discovered that Blogger is now available from school, which is really helpful. It had been blocked earlier by our filtering software.

Blogger Blog (Thing #3)

I've got a blog (Bessie's Blog) on Bloglines already but hadn't used Blogger before because it's blocked at the school where I work. I've set up the blog now and will add to it as the course continues.

Lifelong Learning (Thing #2)

The learning contract seems like a good idea although as I stated in the first post I'm usually helped most by reminders and feedback. Nevertheless, I've never stopped being a learner. The profession I chose was really one of adapt or die (if that's not saying it too strongly!)
I guess I've always been an explorer and never afraid to fail which is also really helpful when doing something at the cutting edge.

Getting Started (Thing #1)

This program looks very interesting not only for we librarians but also for other who might want to get started learning a bit more about Web 2.0.
I have been taking online courses for a while now and find that I can stay on task if I'm given some reminders and deadlines as the course continues.
I'm usually up late at night working (I'm a night person) but right now it's only 8:40 p.m. which isn't late at all.