Zoo fun (and a bit of technology)

I went to the zoo today with my brother and sister-in-law and nieces and nephew. (four children in all). It was fun, and I couldn't help comparing it to trips I made to the zoo in previous years. I used to teach at a daycare, and taking four children to the zoo is much easier than taking forty. Plus with the daycare trips, I was taking a 35 mm camera with one or two rolls of film. 48 pictures maximum... And I never knew if the pictures turned out all right until I developed the film. On a daycare wage, sometimes that took a while. I took my digital camera to the zoo today, and took 250 pictures, all of which I'm able to view tonight. Some of which I glanced at right away to see if they turned out okay, so I could retake them if not. Ain't technology grand? (And escaping the daycare for the library is pretty cool too.)

Expression

After completing the CSS portion of my website assignment, I'm an even bigger fan of Expression Web. The built-in FTP publisher was soooo easy. It was tough to get started with the CSS assignment, since it looked/worked a bit differently than the inline-formatted HTML, but my brother helped me out. (Thanks, Bob!) It's hard to believe this semester is almost over - I've had a lot of fun playing around with the different technology and Web 2.0. I've definitely learned things I plan to continue using.

RSS feeds

Since I had an assignment to use RSS feeds in Google Reader, I've become hooked on it. There are several websites that I would visit either daily or weekly to keep up with things for work, and I've now set up their feeds in Google Reader (at least the ones where feeds are available). It's much faster to visit one site and catch up on things than to have to visit several and has been helpful with a few ongoing projects, as well as keeping up with reference resources.

Dreamspark

I had been playing with Amaya to do my html homework and having a hard time getting it to do what I wanted, when my brother reminded me that I had downloaded Microsoft Expression Studio from DreamSpark and that included a website design component. That ended up being easier to use/more powerful and included an FTP component to use to upload the webpage.
I had originally downloaded Expression Studio primarily for the graphic design section for my digital scrapbooking but also wanting to learn the web design piece. Microsoft DreamSpark gives college and graduate students a chance to download and learn to use professional developer and design tools. You have to establish and verify your student status once a year, but it's well worth it to be able to work with the software. It's a great opportunity.

EBSCO

I've been using EBSCO databases for quite a few assignments lately. Some I've accessed through Pitt's ULS site, and some I've accessed through POWER library through my library system's website. I've noticed that they've changed the interface, making it easier to work with. I like it, but I'll need to get used to it.

Tor.com

For the past several months, Tor has been releasing one free SF or fantasy ebook each week in three formats, leading up to the launch of their new website. Their website launches tomorrow, and all the books in the program will be briefly available one last time. I missed downloading a few, so I'll look forward to getting the ones I missed. I'm eager to see what the website looks like, too, especially after months of buildup. It promises to contain "Original fiction from star authors. Galleries of images from the field’s best artists. News and commentary about not just Tor books, but the SF world overall." And more... Should be a sight to see. And 24 free books to download, at least briefly.
From some of the buzz I've seen, and from the way news about the give-away seemed to spread by word of mouth, it seems to have been a good marketing strategy. It's definitely a timely marketing strategy. It worked on me - I can't wait to see the site.

Ask Here PA, again

I manned a shift on Ask Here PA again today. I find myself getting into the most interesting questions there. I'm sometimes frustrated by the depth of some of the questions, particularly the ones that start one place and end up being something totally different. I have reference questions in person at work that do the same thing, but maybe it's harder to do the reference interview over chat. Sometimes I've gotten someone who has difficulty typing, and it takes a few minutes in between my question and their answer. I don't want to waste that time, so I'm starting the search for the information - just without all the clarification. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Today's main/tough question would have been easier to answer with a print reference tool - the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. Someone was looking for a particular issue of a particular magazine in the 60's without remembering what magazine or issue it was. Tricky. I was able to answer the "how can I find a job in ____ state?" question, though. I was glad about that.

Busy, busy, busy

I looked at my blog tonight and realized - I haven't posted in a while. I've thought about it, but not actually done it. Last week I was getting everything (including work stuff...) ready so I could travel to Pittsburgh over the weekend for class. This week, I've just been exhausted. I've fallen asleep in my recliner two nights in a row.
I've been working on learning Amaya this week - I've gotten it to do some basic formatting of a document, but haven't gotten anything too fancy. We're learning a bit about html in class. My only previous experience with building a website has been to play around with the Office Live website for our small business - that's primarily been adapting templates to suit our theme and our content, somewhat similar to working with blogger. I've contributed content and some loose structure to a portion of our work website, but no actual programming or designing. I'm glad to be playing around with some aspects of building a site.

Koha Assignment

The site that was down yesterday that I needed to use for my assignment is back up today. (came up around 11 AM today - while I was at work)
So here's the link I need to post for that assignment - it will probably only work for classmates and professors... (requires a login)

Weiman - Blogging Virtual Shelf

And the list of books compiled with Koha for this assignment...

Contents of Weiman - Blogging

	Title	Author	Item Type	©
	Blogging for dummies /	Hill, Brad.	BK		Reserves
	Naked conversations :	Scoble, Robert,	BK		Reserves
	Share your story :	Murray, Katherine,	BK		Reserves
	Blog marketing :	Wright, Jeremy.	BK		Reserves
	Blogging in a snap /	Meloni, Julie C.	BK		Reserves
	Blog answerman's :	Lawlor, John.	BK		Reserves
	Essential blogging /		BK		Reserves
	Blogging :	Stone, Biz.	BK		Reserves
	Podcasting hacks :	Herrington, Jack D.	BK		Reserves
	The everything blogging book :	Risdahl, Aliza Sherman.	BK		Reserves
	Start your own blogging business :	McDougall, J. S.	BK		Reserves
	The corporate blogging book :	Weil, Debbie.	BK		Reserves
	Secrets of podcasting :	Farkas, Bart.	BK		Reserves
	The userlands :		BK		Reserves
	The rational guide to Google Blogger /	Lee, Wei Meng.	BK		Reserves
	Blogwild! :	Wibbels, Andy.	BK		Reserves
	Blogging for business :	Holtz, Shel.	BK		Reserves
	Career building through blogging /	Day-MacLeod, Deirdre.	BK		Reserves
	Blog, schmog! :	Bly, Robert W.	BK		Reserves
	Using blogs to enhance literacy :	Penrod, Diane.	BK		Reserves
	Publish and prosper :	Byron, D. L.	BK		Reserves
	Blogging and RSS :	Sauers, Michael P.	BK		Reserves
	What no one ever tells you about-- blogging and podcasting :	Demopoulos, Ted.	BK		Reserves
	Realty blogging :	Nacht, Richard.	BK		Reserves
	The it girl's guide to blogging with Moxie /	Reeder, Joelle.	BK		Reserves

I really appreciated having the opportunity to play around with an open source ILS. It's something I've wondered about - the cost effectiveness, the ease of use, the customizability of it... Koha was pretty straightforward in this iteration. Definitely worth thinking about for future migrations...

Score one for libraries

In the contest between libraries and bookstores, it often seems that bookstores are winning. (I think we can co-exist and serve different purposes, but I also think we often compete for the same customers.) Today at work, however, we struck a blow for libraries - a patron called looking for a type of book that she wasn't even sure existed. She had called a bookstore and the lady there told her she had never heard of one. Our library system didn't have one but I knew it had to be out there, so I checked Amazon. I was able to find a few, and let her know. I explained the ISBN to her (briefly, of course), told her she could give that to the bookstore to have them search, and gave her ISBNs for two different versions of the book. She was grateful and planned to call them.
On another note, it was insanely busy today - we had about 90 people for one of our SRC programs and between two of us at the desk we created 16 new library cards. I'll have to look at our circ stats for the day tomorrow - and the gate count. I thought it would be a quiet day with the downpours we were having, but no... However, that helps us reach our circ goal for the year, so it's good.

Great when it works...

Today reminds me of something I say to patrons when our computers are down and we can't look up their holds or fines. "Technology is great when it works." The website I need to use to complete my assignment (due today) has been down all day. It's almost as frustrating as the fact that I can't get Google Reader to share my feeds with the professor for another assignment. (Truthfully, that's more frustrating, since I think I'm following the directions to do it properly - but at least I found a workaround for that one.)
The website's being down has allowed me to work on an employee evaluation for work and some housework... guess technology outages aren't all bad!

Windows Secrets

Windows Secrets has an email newsletter that has lots of useful information. The people who write the articles really know Windows and Microsoft products and have helpful insights into their workings. This week's issue had an article on troubleshooting your PC.

The DIY Guide to PC troubleshooting and repair

There is a paid version of the newsletter as well as the free version, but I've gained valuable information from the free version. One great thing about the paid version is that you can upgrade to the paid version by making any financial contribution - pay what it's worth to you. You can also request a refund in the first 28 days if you find that you don't think it's worth what you paid. You can't beat a deal like that.

Searching Flash

This is an interesting twist to searching...

Adobe provides Flash technology to Google and Yahoo for better indexing

I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out.