Learning at HCPL

Blog Action Day 2011 : Food

2011-10-16T19:39:00.003-05:00

We use food everyday and waste a great deal of it in this country. We super size everything, get large servings in restaurants and feel gypped if we don't, then can't eat everything. Our country is one of the most overweight in the world. And yet we have people in this county that don't have food to eat. There are food banks to help people, but like many charities there is never enough and the worse the economy, the less there is to share.

Counties around the world have thousands that starve every day. There is a huge inequity in the way food is shared world wide. Many countries have no way to grow food, no water, no soil that will grow food and/or their county is at war and it is impossible to grow food.

Countries must learn to think globally about people and their problems instead of the "me first" syndrome.

America will send soldiers to other countries to fight, but not enough help the share food. Only when there has been a disaster and it is in the news, is aid sent. Haiti, is still in terrible shape, but largely forgotten by many. How many other countries have had aid after the first event and then nothing.

We spend more on fighting wars than on helping people to help themselves. Peace Corps and organizations like them have the right idea. Help people to help themselves. But those organizations should be funded by governments, not left to beg for money. Don't make countries depend on other countries for resources, help them learn to grow/make their own resources.

In this county more resources need to be allocated to helping people grow their own food (community gardens are wonderful), learning that super size is not a good thing and food banks need more support from restaurants and supermarkets so that food is put to good use rather than than thrown out.

There is no easy answer, but we need to start with small steps to feed people in our own backyard and then spread out to help others, no matter where they live.

Blog Action Day 2010 - Water

2010-10-15T08:28:00.004-05:00

In the U.S. we are very lucky to have almost unlimited access to water. Most people have water in their homes, at work and can get water almost anywhere they go. If water is cut off by a storm or water main break, we immediately are calling to find out how soon the problem will be fixed. Cut off for a day or two, we begin to appreciate water.
There are countries where people have to walk miles for water, stand in line and then walk back, carrying the water they will use that day. A lot of times, the water isn't safe to drink, but it is all they have. This is what they drink and cook with, seldom is there enough to keep clean or wash with. Children die drinking this water, but then they would die without it.
In the U.S. we waste water every time we take a shower, brush our teeth, wash dishes. The food we eat is processed with water. Clothes are made using water. Sewage is handled with water. How often are toilets flushed all over this country. Bottled water is sold at a terrific markup and the plastic is an environmental disaster!
Wars have been fought over water in this country and others. Along the Rio Grande, farmers on both sides of the border fight over water rights and the Rio Grande suffers.
There is no easy answer, but everyone needs water to survive. We are using water at an increasing rate and it may not be oil that brings countries down, it may be who has access to water at the end of the day.
Think before you leave the water running or buy another bottled water. In this country, tap water is safe to drink. Fill up a reusable water bottle with tap water and be thankful that you can do that without having to walk several miles first.

No time to post

2010-08-30T14:53:00.002-05:00

Haven't had time to post recently. With summer, the iHCPL training takes a break. Also, in the spring I became a permanent temporary librarian at a different branch in our library system. The Kingwood Branch opened in April. It's a beautiful branch with windows all around and in a woodland setting. We stay busy and it's a great place to work.

You Oughta Be in Pictures: Fun with Photos

2010-05-28T15:33:00.011-05:00

Not overly impressed with Befunky. Tried several different effects. Most didn't do anything for me. A lot of the options were just scary. Two I did kind of like were the Motioncolor and the Watercolor.

At least I still could recognize myself.

I also tried the popart on BigHugeLabs and FotoFlexer. Kind of fun. Liked FotoFlexer better, not so distorted.

A couple of them will let you remove or smooth out wrinkles. Kind of nice. They all have some different features, but most of them are just not what I want to deal with.

A simple drawing effect. Just a kind of highlight from FotoFlexer.

Then there are the put your face in the picture. Again, maybe funny occasionally, but not my thing. These may be funny with a group of friends or for a special occassion. My main thing with pictures is to just be able to post them or email them.

You Oughta Be in Pictures: Sharing Photos

2010-05-20T14:28:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed the TopTenReviews video and their website. They had several reviews that I checked out.

I have been using flickr for several years. I use the pro version of the site because I wanted to do more with my pictures. Photobucket seems to be quite similar. I have downloaded and occassionally used Picasa. It is an easy way to find and look at all the pictures you have on your pc.

I also use Facebook, though I keep forgetting to upload pictures. Sometimes it seems like there is a lot to do to have everyone be able to see your pictures. You upload to flickr and then you have to upload to Facebook. I haven't done much with sharing pictures on Facebook. This may be something I will look into more.

I like the ability to choose who sees my pictures. I do not share them across the web with few exceptions.

You Oughta Be In Pictures: Basic Photo Editing

2010-05-15T14:07:00.011-05:00

I've been using Picnik since the first iHCPL training. It's one I really enjoy and find easy to use.

For this exercise, I'm trying Photoshop first to compare it. I did like the speech bubbles and it was easy to crop and add the speech.

This is from FotoFlexer. I liked some of the features. Didn't like the way it made me add text.

This is from Picnik. It doesn't have some of the special features I saw in Photoshop, but I mostly just crop and resize in Picnik.

I mostly use the online photo editing sites to crop and resize pictures before putting them on Flickr. I might occassionaly use some of the special features if I was going to use the pictures for scrapbooking or for something fun. I might try Photoshop just to get a feel for the program.

The Web According to Google: Wave, Buzz, and Mobile

2010-04-27T12:25:00.005-05:00

Looking at the video and About Google Wave, it looks like an interesting concept. A group of people in different places could work on a project together in real time, update when they need to and add all sorts of information. You also have a timeline to keep track of everything that has been discussed or added to the project. I see that with it in testing, you have to be invited to sign up for it, so I guess that we'll just have to wait to see if it is something we can use.

Google Buzz is not something I really care to use. Not that many of my friends use Google email and it's just one more thing to keep up with.

I have a very basic cell phone and it doesn't handle apps. If it did, it would be nice to search the web, have maps and to be able to access my calendar.

The Web According to Google: Google Reader

2010-04-22T15:47:00.003-05:00

I have used Bloglines for RSS in the past. There just hasn't been enough time to even keep up with that. I'm trying out Google Reader to see I will use it more. OK, I just imported my Bloglines feeds to Google Reader. I'm trying to see if everything came over. If it did, then it was pretty easy. Easy to change which folders feeds go into. I think I will like Google Reader, I will just have to find time to keep up with some of my blogs.

The Web According to Google: Calendar and Documents

2010-04-22T11:17:00.006-05:00

I have been using the Google calendar for some time. It lets me keep track of all my stuff and I can get to it from any place with internet. It's not the only calendar I use, but I really like it. It also emails me everyday to let me know if I have something going on. We also have our staff schedule on a calendar and that is handy also.

I also use Google Documents. I have saved presentations to have access to them from other sites. It's also a good way to save information that you want to be able to get to from any internet access. I tried uploading several documents and it worked very well. Another way to have information available where ever you are.

I like and use both applications. The ability to have access to info where ever you have internet is great.

The Web According to Google: Resistance is Futile

2010-04-12T15:45:00.008-05:00

I use several of the Google products on a regular basis. I like the calendar as a way to keep track of events from anywhere. I also us the Documents. Documents lets me access items from anywhere also. I've also used it to take notes on a pc and known that I can access the info from my own pc. And for lists of HCPL passwords since I am at another branch and may not always be able to access my Outlook On my laptops, I have Google Chrome as one of my browsers. I also like Google Maps. I use Gmail as a main nonwork email. Since there is one login to remember, this is usually the website I use. They also own Blogger, which I still use to blog on. I haven't tried the Reader, I just don't have the time to keep up with the blogs I want to read. It is something I might try in the future.

Picnik, my favorite online photo editing site has just been bought by Google and I don't know what that will mean in the long run.

Google Labs doesn't have many current items I am interested in. One is Google fast flip. A lot of news stories in a short space. You can see the headlines and if anything strikes your fancy, you can go to it. There are many subjects covered, just like in the Google News page, but with images. They have put a version of it at the bottom of their news page.

The Google books is almost all nonfiction. The only fiction I can find is in the Classics area. Those also seem to have a free download. I haven't tried it yet. Some of the classics might be helpful for students who come in at the last minute and need a book that they could download here or at home. Not everything in classics is full text, but a number of them are available.

Publishing Evolution: Writer Communities & Author Websites

2010-03-24T15:15:00.001-05:00

There are a couple of authors whose websites I have visited. I do enjoy knowing something about them. I especially like to know about new books they might be writing. I have been waiting for Lois McMaster Bujold's new Vorkosigan novel to be published. She has mentioned it on her website. I don't check in often, but try to catch up when I do. I've never written an author, but most seem to have a place to contact them.

A book published by popular vote might be good if people have actually read the book before voting for it. Considering some of the books that have been published, someone should have voted or voted against publishing the book. There are some really bad ones out there and you wonder why the paper got wasted.

Publishing Evolution: Paper to Pixels (or e-ink)

2010-03-24T12:41:00.004-05:00

For myself, I prefer paper. I like holding a book and reading it. I've only held a Kindle once and while it was nice, I wasn't converted. If I traveled a lot, it might make more sense to carry a digital reader. Carring many books on one device and not have to pack and keep track of a lot of books would be nice. Back in an earlier blog, we downloaded and read a book on the computer. It was rather awkward and not something I would do.

If I wanted a book, I would pay the price whether it was digital or paper.

iFiction has a good idea with letting you start reading and then deciding if you want to purchase. I would be more inclined to buy something when I liked the start of the book. I also saw a couple of authors listed that I knew.

Publishing Evolution: Print on Demand

2010-03-09T14:42:00.007-06:00

The Science Fiction Writers of America page on Writer Beware covers what you need to know before you get into print-0n-demand publishing. They also have a number of pages on small presses, fees and a list of thumbs down publishers.

Looking through Lulu, Xlibris, Author House, iUniverse, and Createspace (Amazon.com) I don't see any huge differences. They all offer publishing packages that seem about the same. I've looked at prices and mostly they seem compatible with regular publishing, the paperbacks seem to run a little higher. Most seem to offer artwork as an extra. Other specials cost more, but you would expect that even from a regular publisher.

Looking through some of the titles, I don't really see anything that I would want. Nothing really grabs my attention. I do tend to read certain authors and not buy stuff just from reading a blurb. If someone recommended a book that seemed like something I would enjoy, I might try it.

Something nice about Amazon's site, you have the option of publishing straight to Kindle. I've looked around and can't find where there is even a charge to do this. You can also publish music and movies online as well.

Online publishing seems to be doing well, going by the number of titles listed. I don't know that people are making that much money, it's a small part of the market. As more people do things online, there may be an increase in selling online.

The Future of Media: Get Out Your Crystal Ball

2010-02-24T11:20:00.014-06:00

Newspapers have been dying a slow death for years. Very few cities have more than one major daily paper. And even the papers that are left are struggling to make ends meet. Houston lost it's second daily paper in 1995 and the size of the Houston Chronicle has been shrinking. The internet is much faster with current news and you can read the news from around the world. Some newspapers are thinking about charging to access their content. With so much news that is available for free, I'm not sure how well that will work.

TV may also join the slow death. Several of the articles quoted seem to think it is headed that way. I know I have been to friends houses with cable tv and with all the channels still not been able to find anything to watch. While I don't think I could do without a tv, this article has a few points to make: Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Buy a Television Set.

I have seen several 3-D movies and when they don't try to surprise you by having something jump out at you, it's easy to forget you are watching a movie. Journey to the Center of the Earth had a couple of those moments, but it was fun anyway. Avatar was great and I don't remember any of those surprises, and I got completely caught up in the movie.

I think some version of 3-D is in our future, maybe even at some time, holography where you don't even need a screen. Right now it is a special effect in tv and movies, hopefully some time it will become real.

I hope theaters don't go away. Going to the movies may change, but hopefully not as much as this. You don't get the same experience watching a movie on a small screen (especially if you haven't sprung for a HDTV of any size) in your home with lights on and interruptions, that you get by watching a movie on a large screen in the dark with hopefully minor surrounding noise. True popcorn and sodas could be a lot cheaper, but then you don't have to buy them.

I have never been inclined to run out and buy the newest, greatest whatever. Usually, it's too expensive and the price will come down if I just wait a while. It may not last. It will be improved before I learn how to use it, or it's more than I will ever need.

Sadly, I miss Beta. The tapes were smaller than VHS and I liked the quality better, but like many things, I chose wrong and it went away. The tapes also let you record, which DVD does not. And, if you don't have cable or something that gives you a digital recorder you are kind of out of luck. I haven't tried to fight my digital converter to try to hook up my VHS, so I haven't done any recording of programs.

The Future of Media: Movies

2010-02-23T15:51:00.006-06:00

I kind of like Hulu. It seems to have a lot of movies on it. If I could be somewhere with a fast connection, I might watch some of them. I don't have a fast connection at home. I like watching DVDs at home, but not every movie I would like to see is available throught the library and I don't want to buy a movie just to watch it once or twice. I have bought movies, but they are usually ones I will watch several times.

The Apple Movie Trailers site is also fun. I don't generally pay attention to what is coming out until I see it on TV or at the movies, but this might be fun to check occassionally. One thing that is nice, you can watch them multiple times to catch what you miss the first time. The Alice in Wonderland is an example. There is a lot going on in that preview. I've used The Internet Movie Database for years to find the names of movies, or who was in a movie. I have occassionally watched a preview through them. They have really expanded their features and information.

I might watch online if there was something I really wanted and could find a place with a fast connection and not have to worry about other people, either bothering me or me bothering them. Since I also don't have cable or satellite tv, no, I wouldn't pay to get movies at home. It is just too much trouble to have to remember to mail back with Netflix or Redbox.

The Future of Media: Television

2010-02-12T14:06:00.007-06:00

I haven't watched a full program online. The one or two times I tried, the download was slow and I gave up. There are some older programs on Casttv that I might try to watch. The main thing I might be willing to watch online are TV programs that I missed. I have some programs that are on a night I can't watch them on. I would like to catch up with some of them. This would be a way to do that. TV.com looks like a good one also. I watch a lot of shows on CBS. Hulu also looks good. Looking at Joost, I don't really see much that I would be interested in watching.

My phone doesn't have the ability to watch TV. I have a really cheap one. Don't think I would anyway. Small screen, charged to watch, just not my thing.

I don't really watch streaming video, unless there is some breaking news that I want to watch. I also do not post to websites, again, not my thing.

Searching: Video

2010-02-01T12:44:00.010-06:00

I am searching for a certain video that I have already seen on a friend's email. Trying the search on Truveo, it was the first one to come up. It's a short film of ice skating ducks. I like Truveo, it seems very user friendly. When I searched YouTube, I had to add some extra search terms before it came up. I have done several searches, using different terms and have been unable to find the video on Blinkx.

Looking at some of the videos on HCPL's YouTube channel, it is interesting to see some of the programs that have been held at other branches, instructional videos, and book reviews that have been posted. It might be fun to post parts of our summer reading programs or some of our craft programs.

Searching: Images

2010-01-25T12:19:00.014-06:00

In searching for images, I either use Microsofts images, PrintShop - a purchased software program or Schools.Clipart. I like the one the county subscribes to. They have been improving their search engine and while not perfect, it does a fairly good job.

Using Absolutely All Free Clip Art is strange. When you do a search on the list, you get a list of pages and then you have to look at each page to see if it has what you want. Searching for Santa Claus didn't find anything. You have to search for Santa Clause, which was the movie. I found a couple of cute pictures fairly quickly, but the images save as very tiny images. Not really worth the effort. I would rather use the county clipart website.

One of the sites on the 10 Places to Find Free Images Online has been bought by Getty Images. SXC.hu is now Stock.XCHNG. It has a good search engine or you can browse through the preselected subjects. When you mouse over an image, you get a larger view to save from having to click to see the larger image. They have some really nice pictures. To be able to download, you do need to register.

FreeMediaGoo.com has some interesting pictures, but I couldn't find a search engine, you just had to browse to find what you might want.

MorgueFile also has some really nice pictures. That search engine is also a good one. You can download from there without signing up.

Going to Clipart.com I downloaded an image to use with a display on finances.

Searching: Sound Effects

2010-01-13T17:22:00.009-06:00

I don't tend to use sound on my blog. Continuous music can just be annoying, but in a specific place to demonstrate something could be fun.
Well, I just lost my original post, so I'll try to recreate it.
FindSounds has a lot of great sounds. My mornings start out with alarm clock followed by the sounds of my cats wanting breakfast. I wish I could wake up in a cabin by a stream.
Simply the Best Sounds has a lot of sounds. Many sounds are not in the public domain. I did find some in the Cartoon files. I tried to post a boing, but while I can download it, I can't figure out how to put in on my blog. They did have a page of nature sounds and animal sounds that are in the public domain.

Animal Attraction

2010-01-11T12:47:00.002-06:00

Animalattraction.com closed down, but moved to a Facebook page.

Searching: Google and Beyond

2010-01-08T15:15:00.008-06:00

I have to admit that I tend to use Google as my main search engine. After that, I will try Yahoo! or even altavista. Sometimes it depends on the kind of search I need to do as to whether I choose another search engine.

Blindsearch is interesting. Many of the same results came up in each search.
The first search I did came up with very similar results. The one I choose for the best answers was marginally Yahoo! with Google as my second choice. The second search for Crosby, Texas came up with Google (1st) and Yahoo!(2nd) having the first several results the same. Bing had many of the same results in a slightly different order. My third search also has come up with most of the same sites, just in different orders. I tried a slightly different search and the one I chose this time was Bing.

The #1 search engine on Hitwise was Google, not a big surprise, second and far back was Yahoo! It's interesting that the overall search terms are for many of the social networking sites. browsing through their search statistics is interesting.

Google lets you search images, videos, maps, pulls news from a number of different sources and lets you search news sources, and shopping. Google also has a Documents site that lets you type, share, update and access documents from anywhere. There is an advanced search that lets you use phrases, not use words, search by language, file type or to search within a site. You can also change your preferences for the number of results to display, language to search and some other options. They also have search engines for a number different counties and you can see how things search from a different country.

Yahoo! has a number of links from their main site to games, Facebook, movies and things that link to news stories, other sites and news stories. There is a lot of information and links on their main page. You can search for images, videos, local businesses, shopping and other things. I couldn't find an advanced search option or a preferences page. It does have a place where you can take notes and if you go to a site, it makes a note of it on the page.

Bing is a bit different. I'm not sure that I would use it that much. One thing it does do is break the search results into different subject headings. There are also ways to narrow your results on the left side of the page. There are also all the standard searches. Under the shopping there is a Cashback reward system for shopping through their websites. There is also a preferences page that lets you select settings. One kind of fun thing, the pictures on their home page have boxes that link to other images or information about the picture.

Pets: Social Petworking

2009-11-16T12:39:00.005-06:00

I already like AnimalAttraction.com because it helps to support Petfinder, another site I like. The AnimalRescueSite is also another site that supports Petfinder and other animal rescue sites. Every day you click, raises money for pets. They have associations with Rainforest, Literacy, Child Health, Breast Cancer and Hunger. You can click each tab and raise money.

I like Catster. If I were to do a blog for my pets, this is the one I would probably use. I like reading other posts and seeing what people write about their pets. The health site is good as well. There is a lot of good info on the site. My only problem is I don't have enough time for my stuff, I just don't have time to pet blog right now.

Pets: Losing a Friend

2009-11-05T10:08:00.001-06:00

Losing a pet is like losing a friend. People that only see them as animals don't understand. I've always had trouble with that. Anyway, I've had many pets over the years and have lost many, most to old age, some to terminal illness. It's always hard to make the final decision.

I like the Rainbow Bridge idea. Besides helping with grief, they have places to donate to help pets in trouble. The Humane Society also has a good help page on dealing with grief.

Pets: Pet Health Online

2009-10-28T10:40:00.003-05:00

I did the CatAge site for one of my kitties. Since I didn't know her birthday, I had to guess at that. I said she was about 11 years old and the website said she was 48.5 in people years and that she was 13.7 years younger than average for her breed. It also gives information on things to do for her to help keep her healthy.

I didn't like PetFit all that much. It seemed to be aimed more at dogs than cats. I did like the PetMD site. It's nice to know there is information out there to help you with your pets.

Blog Action Day - Climate Change

2009-10-15T21:00:00.003-05:00

Climate change is something that affects everyone. The melting of the polar ice, both north and south is increasing and affecting animals and water levels. This is something that could endanger polar bears and other species as they lose their environment. The glaciers are melting around the world and changing local environments.

In the US many plants that were native in one area are moving north as everything warms up. States are losing their state flowers, trees, etc. as the climate has changed enough to make it inhospitable for native plants and animals.

The Northwest Passage has completely thawed out in the last few years and there is no telling how this will affect animals, environment, etc. Plus if ships start traveling through the area there will be accidents, pollution and other issues.

Continuing pollution, greenhouse gases keep increasing temperatures, changing ozone levels, changing air quality effecting everyone on the planet. Many years ago airplane pilots could see for miles when flying, now there is a blanket of pollution around the whole planet and clear days have become rare.

This is our only world and we need to take care of it. We cannot be so arrogant to assume that everything will take care of itself and pass things on to the next generation. At some point we may reach a point where there is no reversal of what we have done.

Pets: Finding a Pet

2009-10-07T15:18:00.004-05:00

I did the Pet Picker Quiz twice, with slightly different answers. Got two totally different answers. The first was a ferret, the second a bird. As I'm a confirmed cat person, that was strange. While a ferret might be fun, I would never choose a bird.
Looking on Petfinder there are so many animals needing homes, that is so sad. My kitties have been left as strays in my neighborhood and I have just adopted them. Also, my vet usually has kitties for adoption. Now, I'm not in the market.

Genealogy: Genealogy 2.0

2009-10-01T14:45:00.006-05:00

OK, I put my Celebrity Collage under my blog entries. It is just sooo wrong. I had to try three different pictures to find a group that wasn't too weird. One I had with glasses I was matched with almost all men. Really wrong. Any way it's there.

I have downloaded the free part of MyHeritage on my laptop and have been making some entries from my father's side of the family. It has been interesting and challenging to try to trace relatives. I'm not sure it will continue much past the great-great grandparents I have found in the census info. It has been interesting asking my father about some of it. I have heard about some family stories that I wasn't aware of before.

About Footnote, I'm not sure I get the point of the Member Discoveries. That said, I stumbled upon an entry by my aunt about her husband that included biographical information. Some of it I had found some time ago on a military site. Just browsing, some of the original documents look interesting. I saw some of the Apollo program pictures that were great. But this just doesn't seem like a site I would spend a lot of time on. Maybe if I were more of a history buff it would interest me more.

Genealogy: Database Researching

2009-09-26T13:35:00.004-05:00

I've been doing some searching on my father's side of the family. I have gotten bits of information from him on family names, but trying to find them in Ancestry.com is a challenge. Well, part of the problem is my grandmother's name is spelled three different ways on the census reports. When I found her mother, I was able to track my grandmother.
The USGenWeb site has links to more current pictures of the cemetery where a lot of my family is buried. Found my grandmother's and her sister's, mother's and father's markers.

Genealogy: Detective Work

2009-09-16T10:31:00.009-05:00

I tried to listen to some of the Tejano Voices, but they wouldn't play on the pc I was using. I'm going to try some of the JSC programs when I get a chance. I'm more interested in space anyway.

I've never really tried to do an oral history as such. Years ago, we tried to get my grandmother to talk about her past and tape record some of the stories. I've seen the tapes recently. I guess I need to try and find them and see if they can be made digital for the family to have if they want them. Some of her stories were of traveling to Texas (I think) in a covered wagon. The only other people that could remember some of the stories are my father and aunt. My father did a video around his home town on one visit. Again I need to find that tape and see if I can get it in a digital format.

I'm using Findagrave to find the cemetery where a lot of my father's family is buried and where we will go. It's the Coop Prairie Cemetery in Mansfield, Scott County, Arkansas. There is a picture saying Coop Prairie was founded in 1849, but in the records I can only find a death date of 1864 as the earliest burial. There are a number of records that don't have dates listed and they may be too worn to find a date. The burial for Elizabeth MaryAnn Shannon Hukill gives her death date as Feb. 19, 1864. According to the website, as the stone is very hard to read online, it says Elizabeth M, Wife of Jas. S. Hukill, born 1840.

I think there may be an art to taking pictures of gravestones. I lot of the ones on this site are hard to read. They are taken from above and the text isn't clear.

Genealogy: Genealogy Genesis

2009-09-14T13:35:00.008-05:00

I haven't really been interested in genealogy. I have an aunt on my mother's side who has with her son, done extensive research and published a book on the history of that side of the family. No one on my father's side has done as much, though I believe there has been some research done by a cousin.

I have wanted to get some family stories from my father about his mother, but like many things, I haven't gotten around to it yet.

If I were to start, I would need to figure out what system to use, maybe check with my aunt on how she organized her research.

Start talking with my father about his family.

We also have a family Bible that goes back several generations that would also be a starting point.

The suggestions for software both require downloads. I might try one on my laptop just to see how it works.

Crafts & Hobbies: Knitting and Crocheting

2009-07-11T14:37:00.004-05:00

Back when I was in college and when I first started working I did quite a bit of crocheting. I crocheted several afgans, both granny squares and a ripple effect. I also made a couple of shawls. A few years ago I tried a couple of hats for someone with cancer who had lost her hair. They were OK, but I was out of practice. Since then, I haven't done much. I have tried knitting in the past, but I have problems with it. My stitches aren't regular and I can never get the size right.

I kind of like some of the chemo hats and since Head Huggers has crocheted ones, that would be something I could do.

We don't have a knitting/crocheting group. To start a group, we would have to put out a call to see if anyone was interested. Those books go out some, but I think we have more quilters in our area.

Crafts & Hobbies: Coin Collecting

2009-06-29T18:11:00.007-05:00

On and off I've looked for unusual coins. Unless I'm in a hurry, I'll usually look at coins I get as change. I'll try to spot wheat pennies and look at dimes to see if any are all silver. Haven't found a silver one in years. Frequently hold on to Susan B. Anthony dollars. From my grandfather I inherited some old buffalo nickels and some other old coins that he had collected over the years. Haven't gotten into the state quarters.

There is a coin shop in Humble, don't know that I will visit. I do look at the coins when I go to the Houston International Gem & Jewelry show and the Houston Gem & Mineral Society show. There are usually people there selling coins, but I look at them for interest, not for buying.

This is not something I would do seriously, but I have fun looking at my change.

Crafts & Hobbies: Zines

2009-06-29T17:35:00.005-05:00

I've seen and read a few zines over the years. For the most part, they just aren't my thing. If I were to do something along those lines, it would probably be craft related. I have enough with trying to blog, for work and for myself. Trying to do something else, just not enough hours in the day.
I don't see a problem with having them in the library if they are well done and an appropriate subject. They should also come out with some regularity.

Crafts & Hobbies: Digital Scrapbooking

2009-06-24T12:36:00.006-05:00

I've done a tiny bit of scrapbooking with paper, etc. Unfortunately it's very time consuming, plus you need a lot of supplies. It's not really a craft I want to do. At least with the online sites you can play around and edit everything easily. Also, no scraps or mess to deal with. I have looked at a couple of the online sites and they look like they would be fairly easy to use. There are a lot of great pages in their galleries to give you ideas on things to make. I don't know how much of this I would do, but it might be fun to make up a few pagers.

I signed up for Scrapblog to practice on. I have trouble getting things done at one sitting, so it's easier to be able to save and work when I have a chance. OK, I finally finished a page and have hopefully loaded it. Finally got it to load.

Crafts & Hobbies: Decoupage

2009-06-24T11:59:00.006-05:00

Several years ago we had a teen night and part of the program was decoupaging covers for a scrapbook. The covers were made out of a thin wood. I did the sample one. It was fun, but not a real project. I've been trying to find the time to do a project for several weeks and I just don't have the time at work to do anything like that. It is not a hobby I would be inclined to take up on a large scale. Some of the jewelry ideas look like fun and maybe not too time consuming.

I also really like the suitcases by pixiegene. Some of them are really wonderful. Some really neat jewelry too. This pendent is a fun Texas map. A good use of old maps and catalogs.

This is just not my thing, but I might like to try the jewelry at a later date.

Crafts & Hobbies: Craftspiration!

2009-06-04T11:52:00.011-05:00

The video is a real hoot!

The One Hour Crafts has some fun ideas and some good links. Found a cute easy to make scarf that doesn't require knitting, crocheting or anything but winding yarn. I like the Curbly Video on using paper nakins to make coasters. I love the garland idea from Kiddley, can be used for any season, especially Christmas. There are also some good organising ideas for crafts. This is a good website for making bias tape.

craftzine had an interesting yo-yo crocheted afgan. Maybe more time consuming than I want to do. I don't crochet much, but from her site, she had a recipe for cream cheese mints that looks easy to make.

A really cute Valentine pin craft and easy to make. Another craft with buckets and pictures decoupaged on to the outside.

One website I like when I have time is from the PBS series Bead, Baubles & Jewels.

I'm also finding good stuff on Repurposeful including what to do with leftover coffee.

I like these kinds of sites, there is just never enough time in the week to do everything I would like.

Recession Busters: Food, Fun & Frugality

2009-05-16T10:53:00.009-05:00

While there are lots of things to do in Houston, the surrounding areas can be more of a challenge. For the most part, I'm not interested in driving into town to do stuff. I also stick close to home for eating out and don't go to expensive restaurants in the first place. Many of the suggestions may be good for families looking for things to do this summer, but not really my thing. The Houston Meetup Groups did find a couple of possibles in my area, but they don't seem to meet very often.

Looking at some of Clara's videos, I'm reminded of some of the stories by grandmother told about the depression. I kind of like the bread recipe, but would want to cut it down, I don't need 7 loaves of bread.

Looking for recipes, I found a vegetarian blog, vegetarian on the cheap, where the blogger has put up some of her recipes. Some are more complicated than I want to deal with, but there were a couple that looked good. One is TVP Sheperd's Pie and the other is Granola Bars. The basic info for the Granola Bars follows, she has more info in her blog.

So, pick one or several favorites from each group and get mixing. The recipe I used is geared towards my son’s taste - notice the absence of dried fruit. Go ahead make your own and share your favorite combinations.
Granola Bars: makes about 20
3 cups rolled oats = $1.38
½ cup shredded coconut = $0.30
½ cup pumpkin seeds = $0.48
1 cup walnuts = $1.89
½ cup almonds = $0.79
¼ cup flaxseeds = $0.12
1 teaspoon sea salt = $0.05
1 teaspoon cinnamon = $0.09
¼ cup agave nectar = $0.64
¼ cup peanut butter = $0.68
¼ cup dark brown sugar = $0.03

Total for 20 granola bars: $6.45 or $0.32 per granola bar
1. Heat oven to 325º. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange oats, nuts, seeds and coconut shreds and toast for 15 minutes.
2. Combine the wet ingredients - agave nectar and peanut butter - with the flavorings salt, cinnamon - leave out stuff that would melt such as chocolate chips - and combine with the sugar - stir over a low heat until the sugar melts.
3. Combine the dry toasty ingredients with the guey ones and mix well. Spread out in a baking pan - so the mixture comes up about ¾ of an inch on the sides. If you like your granola bars thinner use a bigger pan or a smaller one of you like them chunkier. Press down well so there are no air pockets. Bake for 30 minutes.
4. After the baking sheet has cooled down completely - cut with a very sharp knife - pressing down with your weight to produce clean cuts. Enjoy!

She also has a cracker recipe using flaxseeds and Super Easy Bean Chili that would be good in winter.
She even has a recipe to make your own Automatic Dishwahing Detergent.

As far as what I've seen, the car dealers seem to be having some good deals. Store keep saying stuff is interest free for a long time. I'm not sure how this is any different that what it used to be and people are probably still buying more than they can afford. Memorial weekend is a tax free weekend for some air conditioners and other appliances. This may help some people out.

My main money savers are washing clothes in cold water, air drying clothes, don't run the A/C more than I have to and use fans to circulate the air. I try to shop for stuff on sale and try to make sure I really need it before I buy stuff. That said, I still eat out about once a week and go to the movies once or twice a month.

Money & Finance: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

2009-04-30T14:57:00.007-05:00

Read the article How Credit Scores Work and took the Credit Score quiz. Scored 100. Also read How Identity Theft Works. It was very informative.
I have in the past checked my credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com, but I'm past due to check them again.
Looking at some of the pages off of the Mymoney.gov website, I found one on savings, and it lead to a page by the SEC on Tools and Calculators for Investors. Some of them should be helpful.
Some of the budgeting plans seem very labor intensive. I have done plans years ago when I was first learning how to handle money. I guess they would be helpful for people that have problems with their spending habits or want to save for something specific. I want to look at some of them to get an idea if I can do better, but for the most part, I don't have problems.
Using the TCDRS website would be great, except I have no idea where my 2002 annual statement is to find my pin number. Some of the general info is good and I like the page of links. And why use Social Security numbers, why not our id numbers. I finally called to get a pin mailed to me. This seems complicated for a part of a training session. Finally got to log into my account. Finally found a place to see Statements of Depost and other info. It does tell you how much you'll earn depending on when you retire and how to set up your beneficiaries. As I'm not planning on retiring soon, not so much interested right now.

Money & Finance: Banking, Budgeting, and Spending

2009-04-14T15:22:00.004-05:00

I use a credit union and they do have free online banking, but I don't use it. They have security and everything. I had started paying directly from the business sites before the credit union started the online banking and I have just never changed over.
I'm looking at the budgeting websites. Foonance doesn't really appeal to me. It looks very simplistic, but you have to sign up to get much information. I will at least try expensr and Wesabe, but they seem to be time intensive. No matter what you choose, you have to spend time inputting data.
As for cutting cost, I already comparison shop and buy some things at Sam's Club cheaper that you can get at the store. I don't buy bottled water, I try to use rechargable batteries. On my mileage, I get at least as much as the highway standard and it takes regular gas.
I already wash in cold water and usually air dry. I usually use a microwave, or I have a small toaster oven instead of the big oven. I've been changing over to the florescent bulbs as the others burn out. I just need to be better about turning out lights.
I don't have cable and my cell phone is prepaid.
I have a credit union for most of my banking and there are no charges for that.
Everything else, I try to be as frugal as I can.

Pot Luck: TXT U L8R - Texting

2009-03-31T14:50:00.006-05:00

I've done a little texting. Mostly during Ike, but some since.
My father has gotten very good at texting and keeps his phone close by. When I did some travelling, it was easier to text him along the way where I was than to call. Not while I was driving! When I stopped for coffee.
I don't regularly text. There must be a lot of people texting to make the average they are showing.
I use some of the basic shortcuts.
Anyone who texts and drives or does anything else hazardous is not being safe. Talking on a phone is bad enough, but texting, which makes you look away from the road while you are trying to write a message, is idiotic.

Potluck: To Tweet or Not to Tweet...Twitter - Part 2

2009-03-25T14:34:00.003-05:00

I have been back a couple of times. I did find the search at the bottom of the page and it works. I found websites and blogs that people mention which are interesting. Searched ihcpl and found a couple of tweets. Not sure that I would 'follow' any of the people since I don't think I care that much for using Twitter. It's just too much to keep track of with everything else that I'm doing.

Potluck: To Tweet or Not to Tweet...Twitter

2009-03-21T09:55:00.009-05:00

I had signed up for an account during the original iHCPL, but it isn't something I have ever felt like doing constantly. Facebook is easier for me to use and more of my friends use it. I don't feel like trying to use it from my phone either.
I picked a couple of people mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article, How to Twitter, to try following, plus, HCPL. I also found two Houston tv stations and Houston Public Library to follow for a while. KHOU seems to Tweet a lot. Was watching ET last night, first time in forever, and they were talking about their Twittering. I'll 'follow' them for a while.
It's very hit and miss to us the name search to look for subjects. I did find a couple searching beading and quilting, but a subject search would be better. The search link in iHCPL didn't work.
It might be fun for some people, especially people on the phone all the time and with lots of friends who might want to share info all the time.

Pot Luck: Getting the Most Out of Facebook

2009-03-09T14:44:00.008-05:00

I started using Facebook with the first iHCPL. My cousin got me to seriously using it. She is in college in Virginia and it's a fun, easy way to keep up with what is going on with her. I also have several friends that I keep up with this way. I don't have tons of friends and like it that way.
I do have a number of applications that I keep up. I have fun with (Lil) Green Patch and (Lil) Blue Cove, the ongoing Snowball Fight! and Pieces of Flair. From the previous iHCPL posts, I have added Visual Bookshelf, but need to do more with it. I've become a Fan of HCPL, Doctor Who, Stargate and others.
I was glad to have the information on 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. I changed some of my settings right away. I am very particular about how far my info goes.
I have added friends to my account and found friends to join me. I have occassionally chatted with people, catching up or passing on information.
I enjoy using Facebook as a way to keep up with friends and relations. It's a fun site.

Books, Readers and Beyond: Social Networking Through Books

2009-02-20T13:22:00.008-06:00

I led the book club at our branch for several years. It was OK. I read books I might not normally have read, but it's not really my thing. I enjoy reading, but not necessarily discussing books.
I had joined LibraryThing before the first iHCPL and GoodReads during iHCPL. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to keep up with everything. Shelfari looks like another version of these. Again, it's fun to list some books online, but discussion just isn't my thing.

We have a book club at our branch. Trying to find a book by theme for our Asian Pacific Heritage month has been a challenge. I was using ReadingGroupChoices and ReadingGroupGuides and when I found a possible book, either HCPL didn't own the book or didn't own enough copies. I finally found a title by an author that was on ReadingGroupGuides, Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama. I don't know if we will use the book, but it is a possibility. Trying to use Firestorm by Iris Johansen didn't work, it wasn't in either of the book club sites.

It would probably work better starting with some of their lists rather than having a book and then looking to see if they have reviewed it.

I looked for Firestorm on LibraryThing, where it had 2 reviews, average rating of 3.76 and on GoodReads where it had 23 reviews and 4.02 average rating. So it was liked fairly well.
I don't think I would join any of the virtual book clubs. I just don't care for other people choosing what I would read and then discussing it. I read for pleasure and most of what I read doesn't show up on discussion sites.

Books, Readers and Beyond: Finding Books Online

2009-02-20T10:34:00.019-06:00

Looking for bookstores in Humble, of course we have Barnes & Noble and Half-Price Books, two of my favorite stops. After those, it's mostly Christian or Children's bookstores or they are further away than what I would shop. There is a used bookstore in Humble, but I have to admit I've never been there. Barnes & Noble, online big time, Half-Price Books, just lists where they are, no way to search inventory.

Looking for the children's book, Stealing Thunder by Mary Casanova, I found it on B&N for $5.99 with no problems. Same price on Amazon with a selection of used books listed. I didn't find it as an audio book, checked HCPL, Audible, Books on Tape, Recorded Books, and Audiobooks.com. These are the most popular distributors and if they didn't have it, then I don't think it has been recorded.

When I checked adult authors, such as John Saul, I found books on our page and Audible to be downloaded and other places to buy. Popular authors can be found many places to download. I checked on Firestorm by Iris Johansen and we have it in an abridged CD and online, unabridged. It is also available through Audible.

I have an online used book site I like, it's BookCloseouts.com. It's mostly remainders and seconds, but it's great to browse and has good prices and great sales. You can also have it notify you if you are looking for something and it comes in to them. Otherwise, it's a great site to browse.

Just browsing some of the remainders and out of print stores is fun. I have a children's author I usually check for just to see if they have some of her books and the prices. AbeBooks has some copies as does Books-A-Million. Powell's Books also has some copies. I've been to Powell's and that's just amazing to browse.

Trading books online just isn't something that appeals to me. If anything, I would sell them at Half Price books or something.

Looking at some of the free sites, it's amazing what all is out there. I found a couple of places I might want to visit more and maybe do some downloading.

OK. As far as downloading one of our ebooks, I couldn't do it on my work pc. The software isn't there and I/we can't download it. So I used my personal laptop. It took 2 hours to find a way to download and install the Adobe Digital Editions. Their website wanted Flash installed, which I did multiple times, followed their and our help screens and it still wouldn't install. Finally found a page in Adobe's support that let me manually install ADE. At that point it finally let me get it installed and then download the book from our site. I don't know how many of the public would have the patience or know how to do all of this. I found it extremely!! frustrating to do this. Will now read the book.
I did a little reading before lunch. My laptop has a shiny screen which is always a little annoying, but with a book, it is distracting because it shows everything behind me. Also, it's not real light to hold in my lap. All in all, would rather read from a book. Also went to WOWIO, which was one of the sites from the original iHCPL. It lets you use its own reader, there is nothing to download. It works fairly well on the pc, but again, you are reading from the pc and are trapped in front of it. If I had a Kindle or it's equivalent, it might be better, but a computer just isn't comfortable to read in front of or carry around.

Books, Readers and Beyond: What to Read

2009-02-09T12:10:00.023-06:00

I'm putting this at the top of this entry so that it might be seen. Everyone doesn't read to the bottom of an entry. My favorite website for series, further reading and other authors hasn't even been mentioned. The Fantastic Fiction website can be searched by author or title, or browsed. It lists all series by an author, the author's website, suggestion/recommendations by the author, other authors to read, forthcoming books. You can also browse by most popular, New books, Coming Soon, top authors, series, etc. It's a wonderful site.

The suggestions in the interview are what I already ask. Depending on their answer, I may refer them to a coworker who reads in their genre or author for other suggestions.

Looking at the suggested lists, I'm not over impressed with Library Booklists. The lists are too long and difficult to use. Some of the breakdowns are good, so it might be helpful if you have time to look for your subject. The children's fiction and the YA lists look good.

I tried a couple of authors I like and What Should I Read Next? came up with some good suggestions on one and not so good on the other. The Fiction_L Booklist didn't have one author in their list, but the suggestions for the other were good. To me, the Library Booklists makes you work too hard to get to a suggestion list. It might work better if you had a lot of time or possibly if you wanted to do some displays or bibliographies of your own. Surprisingly NoveList Plus only found 1 suggestion for one author, but did better on the other author. I'm choosing Iris Johansen's Firestorm as a suggestion.

The Morton Grove Public Library's Webrary Fiction_L Booklist has some fun genres, characters and settings. Trying to narrow it down to the correct list might be challenging, but fun.
I like the What Should I Read Next? site. Most of the suggestions seem to apply, but some are off the wall. Even those might provide an interesting new author.

Now I was working on the children's request. First looking for horse stories for the girl NoveList Plus did a good job. Two I found are Stealing Thunder and Paint the Wind. Morton Grove Public Library's Kids' Webrary has a very good Kids's Booklists by subject good bibliography and lots of lists for kids. I see one for the brother as well. Stealing Thunder was on that list also, along with Snow Pony. What Should I Read Next? doesn't work for this kind of RA, unless they already have a title. And trying one come up with mostly adult titles. Library Booklists found some bibliographies. There is a link to Deschutes Public Library - Saddle Up 'N Read which has stories on several levels, again including Stealing Thunder.

For the ghost stories, NoveList Plus has problems finding more than 2 books. I was doing an advanced seach with book, fiction, grade 7 or 8 and older kids seaching for ghost, ghosts with a subject or no subject. Now if I take the grade level out, it does find a lot of titles, but many are the wrong age, even leaving in older kids. Choosing teens did a little better. It found Breathe: A Ghost Story and Ghost in the Tokaido Inn, that are about boys and ghosts. The problem with some of the book lists, are they are not updated, so it's hard to find new titles. The Morton Grove Public Library's Teenreads has a search engine that is OK. It found A Gathering of Shades and Restless: A Ghost's Story.

Now for the Dean Koontz question.

NoveList Plus gives me Greg Bear, John Saul and Charles Grant.

Morton Grove didn't have a list for Koontz, but they do have a Horror Picks with some good suggestions; John Saul, Joe Lansdale, Stephen King.

What Should I Read Next? gave me Iris Johansen, Stephen White, Simon Green. To have something for later posts, I will list Firestorm by Johansen.

I went to Mid-Contenent Public Library for their Juvenile Series and Sequels page and looked up Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. It found the name of the series and other titles.

Song of the Lioness series.
1 Alanna: The First Adventure
2 In the Hand of the Goddess
3 Woman Who Rides Like a Man, The
4 Lioness Rampant

iHCPL next stage

2009-02-06T14:20:00.002-06:00

Well, I was never able to finish the "you ought to be in pictures" projects. They needed a lot of time off the desk and I never was able to get that. And then December was just too busy and I didn't get to the cooking things, though I looked at some of the websites, just didn't have time for the projects.
The new projects look interesting and can be done on the desk. So I'm ready to start.

Finding my Dewey Decimal number

2009-01-15T12:33:00.001-06:00

I liked this one best.

Carolyn Allen's Dewey Decimal Section:

765 Metal engraving

Carolyn Allen's birthday: 8/13/1952 = 813+1952 = 2765

Class:
700 Arts & Recreation

Contains:
Architecture, drawing, painting, music, sports.

What it says about you:
You're creative and fun, and you're good at motivating the people around you. You're attracted to things that are visually interesting. Other people might not always understand your taste or style, but it's yours.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Making a Video: An Overview

2008-10-22T16:57:00.001-05:00

Here is one I played with.

Making a Video: An Overview

2008-10-22T12:23:00.006-05:00

I had played with Windows MovieMaker earlier this year just to see how it worked. It was easy to use with a little practice. I used some pictures I took at the Bayou City Art Festival to make a short video on Animoto. It is hard to tell how many you can use before it starts to cut them off. I do like having the music right there. It is interesting, but basic.

Consumer's How To: How to & make

2008-10-13T19:15:00.010-05:00

Catahedron Costume - More cool how to projects

WikkiHow has a lot of stuff, but under my interest, beading, it could do with more pictures. Looking at some other stuff, some looks like fun.

HowStuff Works is fun for learning how stuff works, but I don't see it so much for how to fix stuff.

Instructables has good instructions and most seem to have good pictures. A couple of beading sites were good with good pictures. I love the Catahedron project, very patient cat.

Looking at the subjects, Expert Village seems to have a lot of good videos, but they keep freezing on my and I just don't have the time. I would rather look a page with instructions and occassionally go to a video if I need clarification.

So different sites have different kinds of help or information. I like knowing about some of the sites that are new to me.

Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

2008-10-11T16:22:00.010-05:00

There are so many ways to help people. In our area there is a food bank. Since Hurricane Ike, they are in need of help. I keep meaning to donate, but haven't yet. Many places have ways of helping to feed peope and there are always people who need help, locally and around the world.
It would be nice if there was a way for all the money going into golden parachutes and executives, sports people, musicians, ect. making millions of dollars to share with people who have nothing. The way wealth is spread around the world has nothing to do with need. Our nation has so much and other nations are without even the basics of food and water. People die every day from hunger. Money gets spent on pork-barrel projects that could be used to help people start businesses, get training and help themselves, to feed children, give everyone health care so that people don't have to make a choice between food and medicine or the doctor. Wonder if anyone in government is reading these blogs and getting any ideas on ways to help?
Looking at some of the blogs that have been posted, it is amazing to see the other ideas out there. If even some help comes out of the Blog Action Day, it will be worth it.

Hurricane Ike

2008-09-25T14:17:00.002-05:00

Everything has been on hold because of Ike. We were closed September 11 thru the 15, then didn't have power until September 22 and internet on Sept. 23. We are gradually getting back to normal.

Consumer's How To: Buying & Selling Online

2008-09-10T10:39:00.006-05:00

I've never really felt like buying from Ebay, though I look at some things occassionally. I know some friends that sell online and seem to enjoy it. I'm enjoying looking at Etsy, the jewelry is great. I don't know if I would buy, but I would be more inclined to buy from it than Ebay, I think.
For me, Craigslist is probably not something I would use.
I did use PayPal once to pay for an item. It makes me feel better that you don't have to give your credit info to every Tom, Dick or Harry when you want to buy something online. I haven't used it since, but would use it if I needed to.

Wellness: Staying Well

2008-09-09T15:11:00.005-05:00

The sympton checker is interesting, but seems to give a lot of options. It might at least get you started and give some treatment ideas for minor conditions.
The MedLine Go Local is very helpful. I was checking on pain as a sympton and I found a number of massage therapists in my area. A good back rub does wonders.
I also did the family tree from My Family Health Portrait and it would show how diseases or conditions travel in a family.

Wellness: Going Green - Part 2

2008-08-29T14:26:00.004-05:00

I've already been trying to do many of the gas mileage tips suggested on the Consumer Reports Mileage Tips page. Driving up and down FM 1960 makes it hard sometimes. I don't use drive thru windows because of having to spend so much time idling. It's usually quicker to go in anyway.

I've gotten some fluorescent bulbs and have been changing out my regular bulbs. I need to finish doing that.

Sometime before long I need to replace my fridge. It's over 20 years old and starting to have some problems. So I can get a more energy efficient model and I have always prefered one with the freezer on top.

I like the information on care2 make a difference on how to make different cleaners. However, I'm lazy and try to buy some eco-friendly stuff.

It would be nice to recycle, but there is no place near to go. I would spend more on gas than I would save by recycling. Neither Harris county or the garbage company my subdivision uses makes it easy to recycle. I just did a search for recycling in the area, and there is a place in Kingwood at the park and ride. Keep Kingwood Green has info on what they take and when. So, I may be able to do some recycling after all.

The DIY Life website looks interesting with a lot of info. I'll have to check on it some more.

Also, I've tried to remove myself from some of the mailing lists.

Wellness: Going Green - Part 1

2008-08-26T14:45:00.005-05:00

As far as carbon dioxide, I produce more of a footprint than I thought, though my driving is a part of it. And of course, the heat down here jacks up my electricity usage, even when you don't run the a/c except when I'm home. Also, there is not recycling where I am. In fact it's almost impossible to recycle in Harris County unless you are near a center. The National Wildlife Federation and US EPA sites are more accurate than the Yahoo site. The first two were very close with their answers. Yahoo is too general with what it measures.

The Eating Green Calculator is strange. I'm vegetarian, so most of my answers are zero and there's not much of a way that I can reduce my consumption of dairy products. It's weighted to people who eat meat products.

The pesticides list from FoodNews, is kind of scary. And while it doesn't get everything off, I wash what I eat, usually with soap. Even bananas, because when you peel them, you end up handling the banana with whatever is on your hands.

There are no farmer's markets that I know of in Humble. The ones in Houston are too far away. I also have trouble eating everything on my own. Need to have a food buddy.

Wellness: Fitness

2008-08-18T15:27:00.005-05:00

I'm not real good with the 'E' word. I know about the benefits of exercising, I just don't seem to be able to find the time to do it. The desk exercises look good, but not something that can be done while on the floor. SparkPeople is even having some articles on exercise. I do like the Exercise while stuck at your desk article.

My BMI puts me in the healthy range. The calorie calculator gives me a few more calories than SparkPeople.

The Health age questionnaire was interesting. I could do better, but at least I have a pretty high life expectancy.

Wellness: Nutrition

2008-08-11T16:11:00.008-05:00

I've looked at NutritionData.com and SparkRecipes and like them both. I signed up for the SparkPeople site to try to eat healthier. I like that you can find the nutritional data along with other info on the NutritionData site. I've added their nutrition widget to my blog for grins. Though I'm not sure where their info comes from. They don't have Oreo cookies listed. Bummer, will have to put it in myself. You can also add info to both sites. I'm trying to remember a recipe to try the rest of this assignment. Will get back to this part of assignment later.

Games & Gaming: Console Gaming

2008-05-29T12:44:00.003-05:00

I didn't remember most of the console games mentioned in the game console history site. It's amazing how many different types came out. Those games were not anything that ever really interested me.
Now, I think it would be fun to try some of the console games. The biggest drawback to them is the price for the basic console and then you have all the extras to buy. The Nintendo Wii seems like it might be the most fun since you can actually "play" the games. Some libraries actually check out games, but I would like to know what their loss/damage rate is.
Other library systems have started game nights or had groups come in with their pcs to have group gaming. In many cases the teens are surprised to find this at the library and will come back to see what else is there, including reading books. They might also read or work on homework while waiting their turn. Gaming could be a draw for some teens and children that might not come to the library at all. If nothing else, it gets them it the library and they might come back.
I still like to play Pacman and some of the older games on ArcadeRetro, though I still have to practice to get any good at them. Some of these games I never heard of, but they are still fun to try out.

Role Playing Games: pt 2

2008-05-19T19:35:00.005-05:00

I'm still working on the RuneScape tutorial. I do have a picture of my character to add.

So far, I've made it to the sword play instruction. Will continue as I can.

Games & Gaming: Get Your Game on @ the Library

2008-05-19T12:36:00.002-05:00

I've read Jenny's The Shifted Librarian blog for several years now and she has frequently talked about gaming in the library and has told how they used gaming at different libraries her former place of work in Illinois. They have had game nights where teens bring in their own pcs to network and play together. The teens have responded well to the addition of games in the library and even use the library more. I think that a library would need to have a separate room for gaming to keep from disturbing other patrons.
The games do require skills in remembering how things work, especially in other realities, what instructions are needed to play the game. Many have backgrounds that need to be read to understand how to play the game. Some require players to work together to accomplish tasks. The skills needed to play many games are more than just mindless staring at the screen.
I believe larger libraries would be able to handle gaming much better than small libraries. They tend to have computer rooms and techies that would be able to set up gaming pcs. That said, it might be something that could be taken on the road to let other libraries try it out.
So far I haven't been able to get my pc to play the Carnegie Mellon games, so I'll have to report later on that.

Games and Gaming: Online Role Playing Games, pt 1

2008-05-15T15:24:00.004-05:00

I've been aware of online role playing games for some time, but they have never really interested me. They seem very time consuming. It's very annoying that it logs you out if you haven't done anything in a couple of minutes. It's hard to do stuff on the desk. I've been going through the tutorial and that's taking quite a long time. You would have to have hours to spend playing this kind of a game and I just don't have the time or the patience. Will keep working on the tutorial.

Off Topic - Online computer tutorials

2008-05-08T14:47:00.002-05:00

Found a website, In Pictures, from ResearchBuzz that has free online tutorials for among other things, Office 2007 products. It has step by step screen shots on how to do things. It may prove handy for specific needs when we get our new Office. It also has OpenOffice, web layout, and some programing.

Off Topic - How to Make Salt Glitter - wikiHow

2008-05-07T10:06:00.001-05:00

Didn't want to lose this idea. So here's a link.

How to Make Salt Glitter - wikiHow

Games and Gaming: Games in the library?

2008-05-05T12:40:00.007-05:00

I've read a number of things on blogs about games in the library. The Shifted Librarian has blogged about this a number of times and has given presentations on games in the library. A couple of recent posts are Does Gaming Promote Reading? and More on How Gaming Promotes Reading and Library Usage. One of her presentations was even in Second Life. ALA even has a blog for gaming in libraries, News about Games and Gaming.

I had heard about FreeRice from another blog, and when I have some time, I play. You get word meanings while you donate. It is very addictive once you get started.

WordSplay is fun, though I really wonder about some of the words they come up with. It is good for learning new words and to increase typing speed. I just don't get Sudoku. Even playing the children's mode, when I think I'm following the instructions, I still can't get it right. I do OK on the spelling and some of the other kids games. These are all instructional, plus you learn to use the mouse, keyboard, and to follow instructions. Some other games I like are Bookworm, Text Twist (kind of like WordSplay except you have to rearrange the letters to form words), Bejeweled and Zuma. You either have to be good at spelling and typing or mouse control. Plus some games are just fun.

Maps: Geocoding and Geocaching

2008-04-24T16:08:00.002-05:00

I went thru the steps to get the coordinates to Hooks Airport and look it up on Google Maps. The coordinates are N30°3.69432, W095°32.98992. While I could get a street view. I couldn't get it to go to satellite. Well it finally went to a wide view satellite, but would never go close up. It kept saying it didn't have images at this level of zoom. I also tried the library, after about 10 minutes, it came up with a satellite view and I could zoom in.

Now for the geocache...
I chose one near the library, in the Huffman Community Cemetery. The coordinates are
N 30° 00.300 W 095° 04.817
The url is http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=69bb53a1-cd5d-4d99-9629-6c0468f7c273

This has turned into a very popular sport/hobby. It is a way to have fun outside, on your own or with a group of people. As with any outdoor/hiking sport, you need to take precautions about critters, heat, not going on private land without permission, etc. There are websites and books on the subject to help you be prepared.

Maps: Relocating with Online Maps

2008-04-21T17:10:00.003-05:00

The different apartment websites don't seem to list all apartments in an area. I'm not sure what the requirement are to be listed, but the information is limited. Doing a search on Crosby doesn't find any, but there is one behind the library. Doing another for Fort Smith, AR, finds 1 or 2, yet there are many complexes there. So, I'm not real impressed with the apartment websites. Would be better to just look thru yellow pages.

Looking thru the home location sites: HAR is of course for Houston, though it does have access to surrounding counties, the Urban Living seems to be rather exclusive and also Houston, the Google Maps has a number of listings. I liked Google the best. It has listings across the US, with pictures and you can choose satellite image to see the surrounding area. I kept looking for rural sites and I could tell if there were trees, etc. Also, when you are logged in, it will keep sites for you.

The Walk Score was fun. You could see what is in an area and get an idea of how far things are. But again, it doesn't list everything. I was looking on a site for Granbury, TX that lists a lot of shopping stores, but when I input the address on Walk Score, it doesn't find and of the shopping listed. So it may give you an idea of things, it still has its limits.

So as with anything, it pays to look in more than one place for information.

Maps: Current Events

2008-04-10T12:07:00.003-05:00

I'm having fun with the different maps. The Google Maps Mashups have a lot of fun stuff along with the more useful stuff. The Find a WiFi Cafes and Hotspots didn't have us listed, but I was able to add the library in easily. The Global Incident Map is interesting and besideds showing terrorists, it also shows Amber Alerts.

Several of the mashups would be useful. If someone was looking for a hostel in the world, Youth Hostels would be the answer. Or looking for a mailbox, post office or UPS drop off, the MailboxMap would supply the information.

For kids wanting state maps, with and without capitals, or rivers or several other options, National Atlas has a great page with printable maps.

The EarthNow Landsat Image Viewer is interesting, but I do enjoy the sites that let you get closer images.

How to Make Book Earrings - wikiHow

2008-04-07T12:09:00.001-05:00

A real cute idea from iGoogle. Will try them sometime.

How to Make Book Earrings - wikiHow

Maps - Have Map, Will Travel

2008-03-31T17:51:00.005-05:00

I have used Google maps, Mapquest and Yahoo! Maps to find places and get directions. Live Maps is new to me, but will be another one that I try.

I have been trying some of the things in the exercises and have been having problems. I have saved some maps in my maps, but when I try to either add a picture or a link, it doesn't want to work. I have not been able to get any video tutorials to work. I've tried two different profiles on two different machines, no luck.

I have embedded a Google Map of the Crosby area with some restaurants marked. Google has a couple of them in the wrong place.

We had used the Yahoo! Trip Planner in the first go round of iHCPL. I had set up a pretend trip then. If I were going to take a long trip, this would be a good place to start.

I've also tried all of the optional activities. Some this time, some previously.

OffTopic - LibGuides pt 2

2008-03-26T10:05:00.004-05:00

LibGuides, from Springshare, is a very interesting online system for libraries. You can list any kind of information, make different subjects, and tag items. You can post a poll to get user input. This is a link to the demo site, which has video instructions. I like this option quite a bit.
This is a quote from their site:

A Guide in this system can be any content that you create, on any topic, for any purpose. You can create as many Guides as you want. Don't be shy. Share you knowledge with others and point them to useful resources and information within your library and on the Internet.
Your Guides consist of pages, and each page is represented by a tab on your Guide.

They also have LibMarks for bookmarks and tagging. Their demo site has links and most of the links go either to blogs or webpages. I'm not sure how useful this would be.

It looks interesting, but it is a subscription site and there is no clue to the cost.

Off topic - LibGuides

2008-03-24T19:39:00.003-05:00

Found something called LibGuides from The Shifted Librarian. Looking at demo to see how it works. I don't know if it is for the public or staff only. I'm going thru the intro now to see how it works.

Spring Cleaning Pt. 3 - Take a load off

2008-03-18T10:27:00.003-05:00

I've been going thru and deleting stuff or saving it to my external drive. There were a lot of older files. Some of which I have deleted.

I have also been weeding our 'P' drive. There have been a number of older files there also. So far the oldest are a couple of documents from the World Trade Center followup in 2001. We have a lot of pix down there. I will have to save them either to disk or usb.

Most of the stuff is organized, there is just too much of it.

Spring Cleaning: pt 2: Email

2008-03-11T10:29:00.003-05:00

Argh!! One of the hardest things to keep up with. I am still plowing thru my accumulation of emails. Many I'm forwarding to my gmail account. Hooray for no storage limits.

I have set up many (too many?) folders to track stuff and it still wanders off. Thank goodness for advanced searching. I've been cleaning out emails and getting rid of some of the folders. In the future I should be able to better control my emails and just forward any that are not work related.

Having other email accounts should help with cutting down on the clutter. I have been letting people know to not use my work email.

Spring Cleaning

2008-03-05T15:38:00.002-06:00

OK, I'm not the best at this, but I have been going thru my folders and email deleting or moving stuff. Email I want to keep, I send to my gmail, since it doesn't fill up. Other things I want to keep, I'm storing on a portable hard drive.
I've been looking at some of the GTD sites and trying to figure out something to work for me. I also have the book by David Allen and I'm reading it to try to pick up some tips.
Since I already have Google accounts, I checked out their calendar. It gave me the option to import my Outlook calendar. I tried it and it worked. It also has a sync which I am also going to try. This would be an easy way to keep track of stuff and have access to it from any internet pc.
I also signed up on Remember the Milk. It says it can be used with Google calendar. I'll try that soon. This might be a way for me to keep track of all the stuff I need to do, especially the repeating stuff.
So we'll see if I can get things going.

Sound - Making or listening to music together

2008-02-21T16:04:00.004-06:00

I don't really care about sharing music or making music. I want to listen to music. That said, I checked out several of the sites.

Mog - annoying, you have to download Rhapsody to listen to the music. Other sites just let you play music without the hassle.
Project Playlist didn't interest me. I couldn't find a place to find out how to play the whole song. Their help page wasn't, and their terms of service was a blank page, and the ads were annoying.
Phling doesn't appeal to me either. Don't care to use phone minutes to listen to music.
I went to JamStudio and played a little bit. You would need patience and a lot of time to play around and make music. Just not my thing.
I like Imeem for letting me build playlists. It let's me choose specific songs. However, you are hoping someone has put the song or artist on the site. Found some light classical. I like this. Pandora is still great for finding and listening to music, but this is another choice. Somewhat limiting. It also lists what I've downloaded on my page. I'm not sure how it tagged my contacts from gmail to try to get me to add them as friends. Don't like that.

So I learned some new sites for music and not sure that I have any interest in sharing or creating music, but it's good to know there are sites out there.

Sound - downloading & burning

2008-02-12T15:23:00.001-06:00

Several of the free sites have music that I like and will burn to cd. I also like Amazon's pay site. They have a lot of music I want and I can choose the songs and there is no DRM restrictions on their music. Most songs are about $1 and that's reasonable to me.

I finally got my cd burned. I had downloaded several songs. I figured I might as well burn something I could listen to. I only had a little trouble moving songs from my music file to the burn list. After that it was easy.

As far as sharing/downloading music online, I think the Electronic Frontier Foundation has a good idea with their white paper, A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing. Charge a flat monthly rate to download and make it more economical for people to pay than to steal. This would also allow small bands with no chance of signing with a big company the chance to get their music heard and get paid for it. The whole trying to find music pirates and prosecuting them would cease to be an issue. Added benefit, put a lot of lawyers out of that part of the business. They can go bother someone else.

NextGen - Sound of Music

2008-02-07T10:27:00.000-06:00

Starting the next version of iHCPL.

I have already done some listening to music on the internet. I really like Pandora. You can have many stations with different kinds of music and the option to not like something.

I have not done any of the pay sites. On different blogs, people have really liked Rhapsody. You can listen online, download to an mp3 or burn to a disc for a reasonable price. And checking some of the obscure people I listen to, I found them listed. I just don't know if I would find enough to make it worth while to subscribe to. They do have 3 levels depending on what you want to do. Or you can just buy songs for a set price.

Yahoo Music appears to marketed to younger people, though they did have my artists listed. One nice extra was a 'Similar Artist' listing. A handy feature. Both seem to have similar payment options and both require a download of their software. Again, you can buy songs.

Napster also seems similar, but you can't get more info than is on their homepage without registering.

iTunes is proprietary and I pretty much don't care.

Amazon also looks good. It does let you use either WMP or iTunes to play. It also just has a flat price for songs, you don't have to pay a monthly subscription which is nice. And they have my artists. And another singer that it may be worth it to buy songs that I want without having to subscribe to anything. And they can be burned. Yeah!

The free site, music.download.com, has a more limited selection, which is not unexpected. They have one of the artisits I like, but just a few selections. It does list similar artists and it's FREE! and you can download. I went in and found a song I liked and downloaded it to our MP3 player. I already have a player and have downloaded music on to it in the past.

Most of the radio stations I listen to have online sites to listen to music, or to find out what has been playing. Still the main place I listen to the radio is in the car.

I am glad to find out about the password checker site. I am going to be changing passwords on some of my personal sites. I don't think I feel secure enough to put any of them on the web.

I had already starting using my gmail account for all the websites I signed up for because they don't have a size limit.

Web Time

2007-11-27T11:31:00.001-06:00

Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos

dumpr.net

2007-11-27T11:24:00.001-06:00

Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos

Found a fun website that will make pictures from anything. Above is the Amazing Circles made from a pix of our building. And above that Museum. You can post to blogs from site, email, save to Flickr.

Week 10 - Is this the end??

2007-11-19T12:11:00.000-06:00

I enjoyed going thru the different tasks. Even on the sites I was familiar with I learned something.
Having a blog for this project will hopefully remind me to keep it up for other things I learn. I have enjoyed Flickr, but did not know about the online photo editing tools. I can see using them, especially Picnik in the future. The avatars are fun. Being able to write documents, etc. online and share with others could be very helpful, especially if several people were working on a project together, but in different locales. Listening to podcasts are something I want to find time for. There are a number of library related ones out there, but as usual, the problem is finding the time.
I've been looking at Stephen Abram's 43 things. Some of them I have already done, not including iHCPL, some I don't want to do and there are some I want to try.
Some of the 23 things are already being used at the library, Overdrive, Flickr, blogs, YouTube. And for the staff Del.icio.us, some wikis.
I have enjoyed the learning process. I'm not sure what else could be used at HCPL. I think we have made progress in the Library 2.0 area. I try to help patrons and fellow staff members whenever possible with web stuff. I try to let patrons know about our ebooks and NetLibrary. I try to educate and show rather than just do it for them.

Week 9 - YouTube workaround

2007-11-15T12:05:00.000-06:00

This is a link to the video that I wanted to show.
It's called "Get a Library Card"

Week 9 - YouTube test

2007-11-15T09:21:00.000-06:00

We'll see if this works.
Just trying anything

Well, I've tried three different videos and none of them have worked. I go to YouTube and click on the embedded script and paste to the Edit Html tab and when I post, there is a box with nothing in it and then when I click a couple of time, just a different colored box. Argh!

Week 9 - Downloadable Media

2007-11-14T16:12:00.000-06:00

I have used OverDrive audio books and have been able to find books and music that I want to listen to. There is a good selection of titles. I also went into the movies and downloaded a part of a movie. The selection is kind of odd. A lot of older titles and many children's titles. There don't seem to be many newer titles, a couple that I think were on cable at one time.
It's nice to have access to free books. I also have an Audible account and enjoy it as well. There is access to many more titles, but you have to subscribe and pay for the items.
The main problem with LibriVox is the titles are all older since they are in public domain and you don't know how good the readers are going to be. I'm not sure I would use this site/
Wowio seems to be classics and some vanity press. However, the craft section has a couple well known publishers and some very good titles. The nonfiction that I checked seems to have one or two well known publisher with a few titles and more from publishers I have never heard of. I think this might be a good site if you are selective about the titles. I did find a title in the craft section that I downloaded.

Week 9 - Podcasts

2007-11-13T14:49:00.000-06:00

I searched the listed directories, plus another for libraries. Podcast Alley and Podcast.net seemed to have the best hits with some duplicates. Podscope and Yahoo! didn't seem to do as well.
Of sites found, SirsiDynix Institute seems to have a good selection that I would like to listen to.
Podscope doesn't seem to hit many searches on target.
Postcast Alley's magic term was 'library'. With that one, I got over 100 hits, many from different libraries.
Some of the ones I am finding seem to only play on a pc or iTunes. I have downloaded a couple of mp3 podcasts in the past and they worked fine on my player.
Podcasts are something I would like to continue with in the future.

Week 9 - YouTube continued

2007-11-13T12:32:00.000-06:00

OK, I've gone back to trying to embed a YouTube video on my blog. I have followed the instruction on the iHCPL blog, I went to the source page from iHCPL and copied that code and tried it, I am doing all of these from the Edit Html tab in create posting, I have followed YouTube's help page with these instructions...
Yes, you can autoplay movies! In the "About This Video" section of the video watch page, we give you the source code to embed the video:
(then follows their code for this)

To make it autoplay, just append "&autoplay=1" after the video ID so it looks like this:
(then follows their code for this)

substituting my video address for theirs in both places.
I got it to play once from one of these, but it would not play a second time.
I have tried several different videos. The most I get is a box that shows up when I mouse over it.
I don't know if there is something blocking me or what but I have become VERY FRUSTRATED trying to do this!!!!

Week 9 - YouTube and video sharing

2007-11-12T11:25:00.000-06:00

I have a YouTube account. I had been finding some movies that I wanted to keep track of, including the skateboarding dog. I have also done bookcart drills. I don't tend to spend a lot of time on the site, but it is a fun site.
One problem with using it at work is dealing with the CIPA disclaimer notice everytime you try to do anything. I understand why, but it is still annoying.
Doing searches on librarian comes up with some very good videos - some ads for libraries, what librarians do, and some libraries have tours and instructions online.
I tried multiple times to embed a YouTube video, but following instructions and trying everything I could think of, I was unable to get the video to embed. I don't know if I was missing a step or what, but I give up!

Week 8 - Web-based Apps

2007-11-07T17:13:00.001-06:00

This is my first time to use Zoho. So far it has dumped me twice and made me start over. I have no idea what I did for it to do this. I also haven't found where to name docs after they have been saved.

I'm going to try to do several things with it including importing it to my blog. We'll see.

I was on vacation at the Quilt Festival for a week taking classes and shopping. One class I took was a basket weaving class. Here are a couple of pix.

I don't like the fact that you don't seem to be able to adjust the size of a pix once you have imported to the document.

It was not obvious how to post to the blog, but someone here figured it out. I have also looked at Google docs and might use it instead, though Zoho seems to have more apps. I'm still looking at them.

Week 8 - Social Networking

2007-11-07T14:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm back from vacation and mostly missed the Horizon meltdown.
Now, I had signed up for Myspace and Facebook accounts sometime ago to see what they were like. And because I have a Yahoo account, I've logged into Yahoo! 360. I just don't really get the point. I know the kids are able to put up wallpapers, and other stuff on their sites. I have not been able to figure out how to do this and it all seems to take a lot of time. Also, it is frustrating to use Myspace at work because you have to keep clicking past the restricted page.
Looking at some of the other social sites:
Xanga lets you look around and seems to make it easy to change themes, look at pix, videos, etc without having to register on the site. The HGTV site looks like fun. Catser is also fun. Ning seems like an OK site. You can search for groups that interest you.
I guess the answer is, if you are young and like keeping in touch with Myspace, or Facebook or whatever site you use, then great, but this is not my thing. I would rather blog.

Vacation

2007-10-29T10:15:00.000-05:00

Well I'm on vacation this week at the Quilt Show at the George Brown Convention Center. So no iHCPL till next week. See you then.

Week 7 - Technology & commenting

2007-10-23T15:54:00.000-05:00

I am SO HAPPY to be able to download audible books. Even in our system, we don't have everything I want to listen to. I download from our site and from Audible. I enjoy reading Gizmodo when I get a chance to try to keep up with what is coming out. Technology is changing faster than I can keep up with it.
The second part, I left a comment on Whitty and Reason's blog about etiquette in using technology and found a Buffy fan. I do try to look thru other blogs when I have a chance, but very seldom comment. Maybe I can start a new habit.

Week 7 - Wikis

2007-10-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

I've used Wikipedia as a starting point for some reference questions. There are good links and info, you just have to be aware that info needs to be verified.
I also like Library Success. There are some good ideas for programs and other information that I want to check into.
I liked the BookLoversWiki also. Might we be able to do something like that for patrons to add to? Possibly for next summer's adult reading club?
The St. Joseph County PL's subject guides is something that would be useful for people new to an area. It might be interesting to find out how much upkeep is involved.
I also added my blog to the favorites list and added a link under the Favorite Animal page. It was tricky to get the name of the web page to hyperlink. It took me several trys to get it right.
Wikis can be useful for libraries, but there would need to be moderators to keep the information correct and to keep inappropriate material off of the pages.

Week 6 - Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

2007-10-19T13:03:00.000-05:00

There has been a lot of discussion about Library 2.0. Making everything easier for customers to use, website design friendlier, using new technology, and looking for new ideas to incorporate into the library.
Michael Stephens of Tame The Web makes good points about what the 2.0 librarian should be like. Looking to the future in planning, involving IT in design and what needs to be planned for. To realize planning may need to happen quickly, technology is changing at a very fast rate, but to make sure the technology is valid before buying it.
Rick Anderson has some valid points about people not needing hard copy of reference materials when they are available in online databases. One problem with that is sometimes a library subscribes to a service one year and drops it the next. Then you may not have the materials at all because you don't have the hard copy. If the library subscribes to a necessary database, they need to decide if they will continue to subscribe or if they are going to drop it. Making websites user friendly is what customers expect. They are used to Google or other one stop search engines or having a list of subjects to click on to take them to what they want.
This happened to me once. I had pointed a customer to a certain database and the next week the person was in to use it again and the database had been dropped and was no longer available. And we had nothing in hard copy to replace it.
That said, I refer customers to databases they can use at home to save them printing costs and that they can use after we are closed. I try to show them how to do the search they are interested in and let them know to call if they have any problems.
The online books and downloadable books have also been of use to customers.
One problem our catalog has is subject headings. As a librarian, I have trouble with subject headings. Many are old and/or not descriptive. Others seem to be applied randomly. One of my favorites is Women's Studies. It can be on anything from a book on feminism, to science fiction, to mysteries and thrillers. Sound Recordings for records, Sound Recording Industry for record/music industry. I don't know if tagging book entries is the answer, but subject headings that are more current are needed. Other books have no subject heading and others in series all have different subject headings.
Anyway, I think we are moving in the right direction, but because of the nature of the beast, it will be an ongoing project.

Blog Action Day

2007-10-16T14:21:00.000-05:00

I may be a day late, but I didn't get to it yesterday. The environment is something everyone needs to be concered about and Blog Action Day is a way to be involved.
I tend to have a rant about every strip center that goes in, every subdivision that goes up, the people building them come in and the first thing they do is to clear cut all the trees. Once upon a time, subdivisions at lease, left trees up as something good to have. Now they cut them all down, build houses, and plant a twig in the front yard and call it a tree. This also destroys the habitat for that area. Birds, small animals, insects are all destroyed. And at the rate things are destroyed in city areas, there will not be a place for the animals and birds to move to. Many years ago, in the evening, there were huge flocks of birds of different kinds that would roost around town. Now there are only grackles and not many of them, relatively speaking. Scissortail birds were every where, now I seldom see one except in the country. Lightning bugs have vanished from many areas. It's all very depressing.
Businesses need to realize trees are necessary and valuable to people, animals, birds, and insects. Don't cut the forests down! Leave trees for everyone and everything to enjoy.

Week 6 - Technorati

2007-10-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

I've tried the different searches with varying results. The search for blogs about, with exact phrase came up to almost 7000. Going to tags search without quotes is about 23,000 and with quotes 6300. The blog directory search without quotes was 465 and with quotes 280. Using quotes makes a big difference. The blog directory search with quotes seems to narrow results to library/librarian blogs. I recognized several of the blogs as ones that I have read or have in Bloglines. Many of the other sites are much more general.
Going through the 100 most popular blogs, I see several that I recognize. Looking at some of the other popular links, I liked the movies and dvds as ones I might like to look at. The others, not so much.
I'm still not sure that this is a site that I will use very much. I tend to use Google news or Bloglines to keep up with current stuff. It's not overwhelming like Technorati is.

Week 6 - Tagging with Technorati

2007-10-16T10:46:00.000-05:00

OK, I understand the concept of tagging, let's see if I can make it work. I've been enjoying the challenges of the 23 things. So far I've already known some of the things, but other things, like tagging and editing pictures online are new.

Technorati Tag: PLCMCL2

Week 6 - Tagging & Delicious

2007-10-15T12:29:00.000-05:00

I have had a Del.icio.us account for a couple of years. It is very handy when working at a branch that isn't my own. I am also working on the HCPL account. I was reading the Several Habits help list and found out about subscriptions. I had not tried that before, but will now.

Week 5 - Library Elf

2007-10-11T11:50:00.000-05:00

I have subscribed to Library Elf for a couple years, shortly after it first came out. It gives a very nice presentation of everything on your account. It tells you what's due, overdue, holds, things ready to be picked up, and things about to be due. Fairly recently I noticed book reviews showing up. There are links to Amazon and WorldCat for finding the book. I like it much better than the one the library has. Better formatting, gives more info and it looks pretty.

Week 5 - avatars one more time

2007-10-11T11:18:00.000-05:00

After doing some things on another project, I finally found out how to put my Yahoo avatar on the side of my blog where she can stay and not just have her in my post. This is a continual learning experience. What you learn for one thing will answer your question about something else.