Social Networking (and that's no April Fool)

I dreaded this assignment because I felt I was truly the last person in the known Universe to NOT have a MySpace page. I've become somewhat of a hermit as I speed towards 30, and the thought of past classmates contacting me (Hi, Amanda!!!! We had PE together Freshman year. I remember your frizzy hair and huge glasses!!!! Are you still a nerd?) wasn't exactly anything I was looking for, or wanting.

But, in order to expand my skills (okay, because I really, really, really want that IPod) I sucked it up and here are my social networking sites and a little bit of what I thought of each:

http://www.myspace.com/ginchy_amanda

Again, with MySpace I went with the username I generally use online. I have to say it was pretty simple to set up, and I do like how clean the profile page looks. The addition of pictures and a song really makes it feel more like 'your' space, even if your space is unique... just like everyone else's. When I signed up and put in my high school, immediately I was shown something like 68 people I had graduated with 10 years ago and asked if I wanted to friend any of them. I've declined for now. But I do have a few library friends, a cousin, and my husband on my f-list.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500142674

I detest Facebook. I did not find it easy to use. The profile page is cluttered, and it is very hard to figure out how to do any application. I was teasing with one of the students here in ILL (as she's a huge Facebook user) that only people born after 1986 are born with the Facebook gene. However, I did find the extremely cute 'Catbook' to be worth my time, and created a profile for my handsome putty, Bailey.

http://apps.facebook.com/catbook/profile.php?id=1263595

But you can be rest assured that after this assignment, I will not be anywhere near Facebook again, unless it's to delete my account. ;)

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/ginchy

Lastly, I signed up with LibraryThing, which was once recommended to me by my buddy Kathryne. I found this site very, very user-friendly and so easy to use. I had so much fun seeing how many other people own the same books as me, and I can't wait to delve in and read/write some book reviews. I think this is a site I will use more often, and I found I had a hard time stopping after adding just a few books. I wanted to add all of my books!

I've enjoyed Blue 2.0. Thanks for taking the time to set it up and to drag me (kicking and screaming in some cases) into some of these sites that I may never have used otherwise.

I think from here on out, Days of Our ILLIAD will become a blog dedicated to the crazy things that happen here in ILL--never a day goes by that SOMETHING nuts doesn't happen down here in the basement.

Photo, Podcasting, and Video

This week was a challenging week due to the sheer amount of stuff to do. I did enjoy it, however, and feel that I've learned a lot.

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http://ginchy.podbean.com/ “ginchy’s podcast”

I had no trouble at all creating my UFO podcast. My husband is a low-budget film maker on the side of his UK job, and he had all the equipment I needed for this project. He and I had actually discussed doing a Paranormal Podcast before, as the paranormal is something we’re interested in. That’s why I named this podcast ‘ginchy’ instead of ‘illiadgal’… ginchy is the handle I use most often online, and I may want to keep up with my podcasting once Blue 2.0 is complete. Podbean was a great and very user friendly site, and I love the idea of a podcast. I feel like a radio broadcaster! In thinking about how podcasts could be used in a library, I have thought that perhaps library news could be done over a podcast and linked on the library homepage. Another idea is that instructions could be given out in podcast form for people to listen to. I get a ton of calls every day from people who are confused about the ILLIAD login process, because they are failing to read our webpage. Perhaps if they had a podcast to listen to linked right on the ILLIAD website, they would feel more capable of logging in on their own.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/24883729@N02/ “ILLIAD Gal Photos”

I had a very easy time with Flickr. I use Imageshack and Photobucket already, so I had no trouble importing some pictures to this new site. I liked everything about Flickr including the speed—it seemed faster than Photobucket. I could see Flickr being used in the library system for the staff and faculty. I know that quite often pictures are taken at events and I never see them. Perhaps these pictures could be uploaded to a site such as this, for all members of the library to look at and enjoy.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XvAakX__cQ “Angry Librarian”

The YouTube video “Angry Librarian” gives a comical look at a situation that may not be unfamiliar to many working in any branch of a public or University library. Told from the POV of an obviously disgruntled library employee, the patron is never right in this mock send-up of what any librarian might want to say, but never would.

The piece is funny, with several laugh-out-loud moments that only those who work in a library would appreciate. In particular, the small bit at the end with the librarian marking down on his chart the five questions he’s so helpfully answered is familiar and just plain funny, especially when one thinks of the charts that real library workers must fill in daily. The video is anti-library patron, and this may make some people uncomfortable, especially since patrons are what keep libraries in business.

All in all, this video is fun and funny, especially for any library worker suffering from a bad day and a long line of patrons who can often make any day seem more hectic. It’s all in good fun… after all, the patron is (almost always) “right”.

Play Week

Well, play week was a lot of fun. First, I created this Danger Sign:

LOL! The "back-story" here being that we had a bit of a PCB leak from a light here in the office. Never a dull day in ILL! Anyway, using the generator was a lot of fun, and very easy. I now have this warning lable as my desktop background!

Second, this week, I created my own Search Engine through Rollyo. I really love that site! It was so easy to create the search engine, and I love how you can get it to search any topic you'd like. I created a search engine called "Nerdie Stuff" where you can search for anything Harry Potter or Star Wars related. I think I'll find that very handy.

Del.icio.us and Google Docs

http://del.icio.us/illiadgal

Del.icio.us seems like a pretty nice site. I liked seeing all the tags I had in common with other people, and it looks like I might even be able to find some new sites about some of my old favorite things (such as Star Wars or Harry Potter). It was very easy to use, and the only thing that confused me was adding “UKBlue2.0” to my tags, but I asked my coworker about it and she cleared up my confusion.

Google Docs was very, very easy to use and posting to my blog from it was easy-peasy as well. In fact, I'm hoping not TOO easy. LOL!

Google Docs

As I said in my blog, del.icio.us was very easy to use, and so far, so has Google Docs been. I've just clicked a few buttons and here I am typing a document. That's almost easier than opening a Word Document on a desktop! It's interesting to find all these things out on the web that I'd never think to look for.

PB Wiki

For the past hour, my coworker, Trina, and I have been creating a UK Medical Center ILL Wiki, located here:

http://ukmedilliad.pbwiki.com/Everything-You-Never-Knew-You-Wanted-to-Know-About-ILLIAD

We did not find PBWiki to be very user-friendly. It was hard to figure out exactly what to do, and we realize only now that we edited a secondary page instead of our 'front page', and I'm still not exactly sure what that meant. We tried to make our page look eye-catching and fun, but working with the fonts was murder, and eventually we just had to make the page pretty bare-boned.

I think wikis are a fun idea, but it seems easier to me to just look on the website for the product/service you're looking for instead of going first through a Wiki. I do hope, however, that our wiki will be viewed and, perhaps, helpful.

Bloglines

Today I spent some time creating my Bloglines account for activity 3 in Blue 2.0. It was a little more complicated than our initial assignments, because I wasn't understanding where exactly I was to copy the RSS feed address. Once I got that down, it was basically pretty easy. I added a few blogs (including 2.0's) to my Bloglines account, and then here on Days of Our Illiad, I added some 'Blogging Buddies'. It will be a lot easier to look in on everyone's blogs now!

I think I'm going to like the 'default' feeds they subscribed me to, as well. My favorite so far is 'About Cats'.

Now I'm on to Wikis. :)