#17 Avatars & Second Life

I had fun creating my Avatar. I especially like the skull & crossbones shirt. I didn't forget my headphones either.


I don't already live in second life and don't plan to. I don't need to add something else to do and it doesn't really apply to my work.


P.S. I found Ms. Dewey extremely annoying and when I typed in a medical term, she took me to a bunch of porn sites.

#16 Online Applications & Tools

These two programs are really neat. I had no idea you could do collative document writing without sending the document back and forth. I found the Google program a little more intuitive and therefore, easier to use. I wasn’t able to find the spreadsheet program on Zoho, but I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for it. Necessity is the mother of invention and if forced, I’m sure I could find it.

I probably wouldn’t use these programs in my work. I’m kind of a control freak about my documents and spreadsheets. I don’t like to let anybody near them until they are finished and I have marked them read only.

I can see where these programs would be useful for people working collaborately in far-flung locations.

Technology is moving so fast that it is hard to keep up.

#15 Search Engines

I use Google all the time for verifying RINC's. Google automatically corrects spelling errors...not that our patrons make spelling errors on titles of books or the author.

I tried the other search engines as well. To my mind, it would be nice if Rollyo had a limiter for just books. I don't think that Rollyo would be useful in my work.

Mamma.com is laid out nicely. I did some searching for just for images and it worked well. I got the idea for using a picture of a jet boat on the Snake River to remind me of last summer's vacation. This is the boat we took to go 60 miles up the Snake River. I got the picture from the website of our excursion provider, but Mamma.com gave me the idea.

I also tried Dogpile. I've used it before, but find Google better for the type of work I do. I found our Snake River Excursion provider using Dogpile. I'm a on the older side and not quite the physical specimen I once was, but the jet boat worked out fine. Once you really get up the river, there are no roads and just a few farms along the river. If you ever want to a Snake River adventure with people who really love the river, go to http://www.riverquestexcursions.com/index.htm

#14 Podcasting: something for everyone

This assignment was sorta fun and not too hard.

I did my personal interest first and chose to listen to Bill Maher's latest broadcast. It was an hour of enjoyment. I'm not really sure if he qualifies for this assignment, but I chose him anyway.

I then looked for library podcasts. The first one I listened to was (there was also a video feed) was Trish Hull of Salt Lake County Library. She appears on a podcast with brief reviews of books that are called Reader's Choice. The listeners then leave brief reviews of these books at a website. She reviewed a book I plan to put on hold called "Camel Bookmobile" which is about library service in Africa and some of the challenges that are faced. It's fiction, but based on fact.

My second library podcast was "Library Geeks" about "Liblime and Koha Open Software". All I can say is geek is the word. I stopped listening after about 45 minutes. I guess we need people doing this, but it's not me.