Library Life: I'm liking...

working in a VERY quiet library with the sounds of clock bongs every 15 mins or so.

Library Life: It's really nice when....

You look up from working and see that everyone in the library has their heads down, cogs alomst audibly whirring.

Library Life: It's really nice when....

Students come back into the library after the summer and greet you like old pals catching up....

...also rather humerous when this happens and you can't remember them at all!

This is the end...?

Hello finishing line!  All has been done, all has been sampled merrily.  Some things I have liked (or already liked), others made me say, "Meh!"  Some things have still to be investigated further such as Flickr and the other search engines - google is a reflex, no wonder it's entered speech.  

LinkedIn and twitter are the things that I have used the most, LinkedIn still in a formative way.  Googledocs, too, I have thrown lots of docs onto for use on scribd, while delicious I had problems uploading my bookmarks onto and so have left alone but everything looked at here has the potential to be time-saving and useful and whatnot.  It just takes me more time to get there with some things and thus:

What I will try and do is update this blog slowly as I discover more and delve deeper into these 23 things and learn more about being a library bod in general. 

So: stay tuned, folks! (Hopefully not my last words....)

Google... and beyond!

I never think about using anything other than google to search.  And even after this weel's things, I imagine it would be extremely difficult to get out of the habit and use a different binary loco. 

The searches I ran ("gillingham", "city" and "James Atkinson") didn't turn up up massively different results across google, yahoo, bing and ask jeeves, though there were some small differences.  I was more intrigued, though, with some of the other features such as the Popular Q&A on ask jeeves and the Related Searches on bing which looked fun and useful. 

The meta search engines were the real revelation for me - I can't understand why these aren't used more - why search one engine when you do the lot - zuula seemed the best, and most random at times - which just makes it all the more fun, of course - esp when it reminds you of your Victorian namesake's hair remedy: http://www.uniquebottles.co.uk/PotLids1.htm

A google a day might be the coolest thing I've seen here, and a good way to round things off.

Two weeks for the price of one! Though possibly a rambly and tangled mess:

Last week I was looking at Sharing in the form of SlideShare, wikis and delicious.  All three looked useful tools, for me perhaps more through looking for information than sharing at the moment.  Though a wiki can be a handy way of storing information.  I used to use one for storing information on all the football matches I've ever attended.  But it's gone now, along with all the info. :( Perhaps I can start again on wikispaces sometime..... The prospect for using them rather than a group e-mail is good and potentially very useful.  Evernote, too, the cool extra thing could be handy in a similar way, though I rather like post-it notes, I must say.  Actually, OMG!!!  I've been writing rhymes using my e-mail as storage - why not Evernote.  There are time-stamping issues, maybe but not if I'm not fussed.  Maybe time to get a hold of this mess?  I put this blog up on the UK library blog wiki thing.  Hello if you've arrived from there! [Had a look after writing up to "stuck in my ways" and may stay there as it looks like Evernote deletes your notes every 29 days?]



I'm trying to utilise delicious more but found it difficult to send my bookmarks into it at home, will persevere though, because it would be so darn handy to have bookmarks on the internet like that rather than trying to remember every site I like while on the move.  Really rather goodn and handy - thank you! 



This week was multimedia!  YouTube I have wasted some time on before with music videos and clips of old shows.  Using it for library information has a wealth of possibilities, espeicially if you can find eager media or film students!  Certainly the clips featured on the 23 Things blog were good - esp the dinosaur search clip, I think that helped me enough that I could help students better in future!  And myself.  Just need to think synonyms and key concepts!  hmm, snacks or treats AND chocolate or caramel or nuts...?  Not sure that one would work, actually - I shall heep practicing!  Same with the dalek one.  I like daleks.  


Podcasts are one of those areas I've happily ignored despite knowing I'd like it.  Bit like most of the internet, actually.  Bit stuck in my ways.  I've added a couple to Google Reader but don't exactly have the time for them, which is a shame.  Doing one would be a lot of fun, though.  Either just messing about or attempting comedy skits or something, stories, whatever.  Or connecting it with work, even - each day over the Day in the Life week twice a year.  Or get cats involced and do a podcat.


That is all.


Except for playlists....

Better late than never?

Hmm, bit late this week in writing up my exciting findings!  This is due to a surprise visit form the head honchos - yes, I think I will blame them! - on Monday which led to me not getting to this bit til now.

It was all about the office this week, and online tools that may help.  I've never used PowerPoint (or even done a presentation for a long, long time) but Prezi makes me want to confine it to history, I think (though I'm not sure I want to do a presentation!).  It looks super sharp and whizzy!  Although, I've not yet tried it (the website was a bit defunct on Monday), I really would like to give it more of a whirl.

Doodle and Remember the Milk didn't realy get the saliva flowing in the same way and I sort of just stared at them briefly.  The latter I'm sure would help me a lot, mind.  But.  Not now.  Silly, really, not to try, but, as I said, I had not much time...

I did do a survey though.  A VERY simple one to ascertain a preference for tea or coffee.  As with the others, this could be a very useful tool, particularly as a simple way to gain information from users and will keep in mind.  In the meant time, 2 people did my survey.  Both tea drinkers.

Google Docs got me the most excited and I am very keen to try and use this more, esp in conjunction with iGoogle which I've been playing with more this week.  Could be very good for sharing documents - whether they be stories or more work-related - with people.  So much easier than blogging or e-mailing, potentially.  Super.  Will be playing with it more - probably in conjunction with my adjacent blog, twitter and scribd....

Til next week....

Toodle pip!