RSS/Google Reader

I have actually been using Google Reader personally for a while now. I regularly use it for Book Review blogs, other librarians blogs, and any other relevant info that is able to be RSSed relevant to my work. My two favourites that I always look forward to are Unshelved and Awful Library Books *2014* Google Reader is sadly another tool that has ceased to operate. I was on maternity leave when this occurred, so didn't realise I had to move all my feeds into another reader and now they are all gone. Well, not gone, but I can't remember half of what I was following. There are other tools like Feedly which can be used as an alternative.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking tool aimed at connecting people with friends, acquaintances, companies and anything else that may be of interest. While Facebook itself is often blocked by school networks, the school library could use it to communicate with students outside of school hours, as well as the parent community. I have had a personal Facebook for many years now, and follow many areas that are of interest to me, which helps me keep up to date with issues and organisations I am interested in. While Facebook is great for finding lost friends from years ago, I found I was not actually interacting with any of these people, and I didn't want people I didn't know anymore delving into my history, though I suppose if I didn't want it out there, I shouldn't put it there.

Myspace

I used to have a Myspace account, but I got rid of it when I moved to Facebook and wasn't using it anymore. I found that though it is a great tool, you often get bombarded with requests from musicians and authors trying to promote their wares. I think it has done fabulous things for those artists trying to get known.
As for school use, I believe that social networking sites are often barred by school networks and as such, would probably not have much effect when used by our school library.

Using Flickr

Pic6
Originally uploaded by allie83

Well I have finally joined Flickr, and have attached my blog to my account. The pic I am posting is one of our library book pyramid "pimped up" for the Book Safari theme for book week. There are other library display pics from this theme too.

Enjoy :)
Flickr is not only a useful virtual place to store pictures of what your workplace has done (as posted above), but also to facilitate searching of images which have a creative commons license, meaning no copyright is being breached.

Image Generateors

I have not had much experience with image generators, but now I realise where all of those funny picture posts have come from.

This is kind of morbid and freaky, but yeah, I thought it was amusing at the time :D


I found that a lot of the codes I was given to copy and paste to the blog had an error on them and Blogger wouldn't allow me to post. *2014* Image generators, while still used, have evolved into meme generators. Meme's are user created images that are usually funny and spread widely among internet users. Common memes are Grumpy Cat and the Keep Calm images

Second Life and virtual worlds

Wow, I hadn't realised that so many were invested in online realities. I'm very tempted to sign up but can see it draining away my time. The benefits for education would be great though, I am currently studying via Distance Ed and one of the lecturers is actually interested in using second life as part of the subject, which I am actually looking forward to, it is sometimes so much simpler to interact "face to face" so to speak, than through emails.

Personally though, looking at the videos and the about Second Life, it looks like a real time version of The Sims, probably the only video game to get me truly hooked, so Second Life would be a very dangerous time consumer.

The online gaming world really doesn't interest me, mainly because of my addictive personality (and that while studying DE is really NOT a good thing) but I can definitely see how some people get so immersed in it that they completely forget about their First Life

iGoogle

I find iGoogle really useful, both personally and for work stuff. My fave gadget is Google Reader, where I subscribe to about 30 odd blogs/news services to keep be updated in the world of libraries, books and more. One of my favourite subscriptions is the Unshelved comic strip, which can be found at www.unshelved.com

Until next time :)

Allie *2014 amendment* Unfortunately, iGoogle has been made defunct and is no longer available. This is disappointing, as it was a place to keep a lot of information in one place. I have not yet discovered an alternative, though I have not yet searched for one.