Frame Her

I framed this picture of my daughter Sara on one of the generator pages. Easy to do, except it took some time to get the photo quality right. You have to be sure you know what type of image the sites will let you upload--mostly .jpg. I tried the magazine cover generator but all the images came out too big. Oh, well, it was fun and I will try this some more!

Blog Potion Number 9

OK, I finished number 9! I searched several of the sites for finding feeds and found them all relatively simple. Liked the way the search feature on Bloglines itself works. I added a Daily Sudoku feed as it is one of my addictions--relatively harmless I think! If you want to add that one too, you can find it on my Bloglines page which I made public. See previous post.

P.S. It took a while but I finally figured out how to unsubscribe to a feed. You have to double click on the name from your feed list which brings up the properties page and there is an unsubscibe button at the bottom. I kept trying to right click for a delete command. :-(

RSS is ME

Well, the RSS section of the Learning 2.0 is quite fun and easy to do. I set up my account and added some feeds as well as figured out how to make my account public. URL is:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/BJHenry I had fun deciding which feeds to add and reviewing some of the new content that was available immediately! That Dewey is so silly..... Talk about too much information!

I also added the Library feed from my account. Not sure just how that works but thought I would try it to understand what patrons get who subscribe to our feeds.

I remember when I first experienced RSS at an Internet Librarian conference about 3 years ago. My main thought was how would I ever find time to read all of these things as well as my own regular work and personal e-mail. There just aren't enough hours in the day. One of the IL presenters had about 30 feeds in his aggregator and would have hundreds of new items to review each time he signed on. Obviously like anything we try to do, it's all about priorities--most days just looking at one or two topic areas.

This is making me tired. I'd better go read a book! :-)

A "PhoneLess" Day

Well, this has been an interesting day at Mustang since we have had no incoming or outgoing phone capabilities all day (since 9:30 this morning.) So this post is about when technology fails! Luckily a staff member's personal cell phone enabled me to report the problem to IS and then call later in the day to check the status. Here we are at 4:30 and still no phones. I imagine there are lots of library patrons a little frustrated with us today. We can only hope they called back in and tried one of the other library choices from the 312-READ line. The lack of phones ringing sure makes for a quiet atmosphere although the walk-in traffic has been heavy for a Monday--maybe some of the people who didn't want to brave the rain over the weekend. At this time in my life I do not have a cell phone (I am such a luddite!) so many thanks to Joan, Chris and Nancy for the loan of their phones. We also started having alarm problems at 4:00. Such fun!

Google Maps Mashup

One of the mashups that I really like is the interactive maps you can create on Google Maps. Rick Glady did one a while back for the library locations and it was an excellent example of how this can be used and applied in our day to day. Can't find the link for this example right now but will try to find it and post it later.

One of the Flickr mashups:

Color Fields Experimental Colr Pickr - Jim Bumgardner

OK--this is really cool and fun. Not something I would probably ever use, but how amazing for graphic designers or T-shirt designers. It has an amazing range/variety of colors, from very subtle to out loud. On second thought maybe I'll try for my own Christmas card design next year!

Picture from Flickr

Found this great picture of Westminster Bridge looking north to the Houses of Parliament on Flickr. I've been to London twice but would love to go again. This is especially great at night!

Review It!

Review It!
Starting today our customers can write a review of a book, DVD or CD, submit it through a short form and get it posted to our "Review It!" page. Unlike the review function in the catalog, this requires no account login.

Encourage our users to join in the fun and check the page often for new material. It may take a day or two for a review to get posted so that we can include a link to the catalog and an image. We'll put the most current ones on top!

http://library.scottsdaleaz.gov/books/favorites.cfm
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This idea came from a recent meeting of the Web Content Management Team and we are always open to new ideas and suggestions. Your eyes and your exploration of the web site ensure that it stays fresh, accurate and interesting to all of our customers.

The new site celebrates its first birthday on January 29th!