Moved to Wordpress

Having had trouble with a personal blogger site (it was flagged as a spam blog by their alogarithms on or before 9th Nov and still - 30 November - hasn't been reinstated) I investigated WordPress. Again. I'd looked at WordPress when doing the Library 2.0 course but was well-ensconsed as a Blogger user but this recent problem has galvanised me into action. I found out how easy it is to export your Blogger posts and import them to WordPress so I gave it a try and now have a not very excitingly named Heidi's Test Blog over at WordPress and will be posting the rest of my Library 2.1 findings over there so you might like to redo your links, RSS feeds, etc.

Signing out of here

Heidi

Library 2.1 Week 4 - Evaluation

Google Alerts and Feedburner. I've done them for Readers in the Mist but am not sure why I have done so - my evaluation of this module will have to wait until there is something to report.

I don't think this was a very well explained module.

Library 2.1 Week 3 - Delicious

You can't make me use the Delicious thing! I'm feeling very naughty and defiant here but am going to skip this lesson (I can always revisit at a later date, can't I?). I did set up an account when doing Library 2.0 and put a whole load of sites on there which I then deleted them from my Favourites - and haven't used them since.

As with Twitter I can see they are potentially really useful, especially for RA or Reference work, but you'd need to get a large no. of staff on board so one person is not the only one doing all the work and our staff -especially the branch staff who are the ones who know best what customers want - just don't have the time.

Library 2.1 Week 2 - Twitter

I'm not keen to do the Twitter thing on a personal basis. I've got a blog and Facebook and feel that that's enough. In fact, I've not been in the Facebook thing for a while and posted anything for a while - I'm getting bored with it I think and can't think of anything interesting to say. And that's the trouble with Twitter as I see it, for individuals; who, except your nearest and dearest, wants to know all the ins and outs of your life - going for a cuppa now, phew got the vaccuming done at last . . . And so much time could be spent updating blogs, twitter, Facebook, etc. (especially on the really slow connection I have at home) that you don't spend time face to face with your nearest and dearest which is ALWAYS nicer.

However, I can see that for Libraries it is a very useful tool - a quick way of getting a message out and, with links back to the blog which may have more information, an idea to pursue . . .

Done it!

Things not going well this afternoon. I had kept a screen dump of my old template but didn't save it and I've lost it now.

This is my second attempt and my second choice for a template. I was going to use Blogy-Styleicious because, as well as liking the colour, it has several tabs; I'd really like to have more than one front page to my blog. But the tabs link to something else entirely and I don't know how to make them link to stuff created by me - can anyone help?

Anyway, this is nice for now.

Phew! Thought I'd lost it

I've decided I'm going to give the next SLNSW 2.1 thingy a go. I've read the first couple of posts about blogging but I've ground to a bit of a halt . . . for the moment.

I've been blogging for some time now and love it. I do most of the blogging for the Blue Mountains Library blog, Readers in the Mist, and really enjoy myself with it. I get most of my blog post subjects from other blogs I read via the Bloglines RSS feeder or from the LISNews emails I get via my inbox. There are a couple of regular contributors who send stuff to me to re-jig for the blog and I email other staff each month for What library staff are reading . . . chocolate bribes get me contributions for that one. There are one or two other authors but they don't post often. I wish others would do more, it would make it all the more interesting for our readers. And there have been over 10,000 since February 2008 when we started the blog. Really pleasing that.

I also blog privately with a blog for sharing stuff with family and friends overseas and here in Australia and one for one of the two book groups I belong to - again I have yet to convince the others to have a go contributing much to that one. Blogs are a great way to review meetings and keep each other informed about next meeting venue, reading lists, good booky websites and other blogs. My other book group uses Yahoo groups for this kind of thing - it works quite well too although is less visually appealing and links and photos within posts are not possible.

Today I thought I'd give the adventure bit a go and download a new template for my blog. I've followed the instructions but am not sure I'm doing it right - either that or our IT restrictions are stopping me. Anyway, I have taken enough time on this today and am resolved to give it another go at home.

I knew I was right . . .

Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English (Presentations)

Any reaction to Reactions

Do you see I have little Reactions buttons you can choose at the bottom of the post?

They are dead easy to do. Just log in and click on Layout then on Page Elements. Click on Edit in the Blog Posts page element bit and open the blog post configuration tool. If you then click in the box next to Reactions you can edit the list that's already there. Click on Save in the Blog Posts page element and then again Save the Layout and it's done.

Future Vision Montage

In this article from Microsoft there is a fascinating video of some future technology we could perhaps maybe one day be using . . . fascinating.

Tweeting and twittering

The comic strip, Unshelved, which is set in a library, is doing a series of cartoons about Twitter at the moment. It's all good fun.

We all need a superhero

This is a fun site where you can make yourself a superhero. Here's one I whipped up earlier:

It's all about a mild-mannered, cardigan-wearing, booky type who ends up in the wrong telephone booth one day . . .

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website

From Digital Inspiration here's an article on how to embed almost anything in your website.

Go on, have a ball!

And just clicking on a random link from the same page . . . recommended websites.

Just look at the BEAUTIFUL way this information is presented. Awesome.

Be Prepared!

Because I know this will affect so many of us in our line of work, I include here a link to the Oscars night speech generator - cut out hours of agonising over the right words and use this to cobble together something succinct yet meaningful.

Here's my speech for tonight - Best Supporting Lilbrarian

"Thank you so much. But really, it's just an honor to be nominated alongside so many other gallus actors. I want to thank my agent, who stuck with me after I was found jinking that Tattie scone. I'd like to also thank my champit family, and jings Barra boy. I better stop now before I say something eejit. Thank you, and hoots mon!! "

Tales from the bedroom

Here is a little video of what happened in my bedroom last night (no need to get excited; it's clean).

Usually the cat is locked in the garage overnight and the dogs in the laundry. Somehow last night Abigail must have eluded capture and the Camp Commandant hadn't done a proper headcount. I ended up at 2am, with Abi on my chest reading Dear Fatty (Dawn French's book) with me. She must be enjoying it coz she was purring.

Now here's a movement I can go with

Uproar in the UK as Apostrophes abolished by council - Birmingham council has banned the use of apostrophes in street signs because its staff spend too much time dealing with complaints about grammar. (It seems being forced to spend extended periods indoors with a blizzard raging outside has been all too much!)

This is a move that has deeply upset John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society. Mr Richards suggested the move could prove to be the first step towards linguistic anarchy. "If you don't have apostrophes," he said, "is there any point in full stops, or semi-colons, or question marks? Is there any point in punctuation at all?" As a chronically confused user of apostrophes, I applaud the decision. And as for the rest of the punctuation, my granny managed just fine without punctuation in her letters - she wrote as she spoke, no room for a breath in, she seemed to be on intravenous oxygen. (It could take quite a while to get away as we waited for her to take a breath in so we could say, "got to go now Gran.") What do others think?

Do check out the comments at the bottom of the article and some of the related stories in the links to the right such as Council bans jargon and orders staff to return to 'common sense speaking' and Primary school drops word school from name as 'too negative'. Hooray for political correctness gone mad!

Our house - a peek inside

Every week the Zits comic strip features in our Sunday paper. The comic strip features an adolescent boy, Jeremy, and his parents. It is often spot on where our boys are concerned.

Here is the one from last Sunday which those of you who have met the boys, or who are parents of boys might be able to relate to:


To be able to read it properly you might be better clicking here.

For those of you unable to follow the link here's what it says.

Jeremy : I'm home.
Jeremy then empties the contents of the fridge into his mouth.
Jeremy : I'm going out again.
Dad : Along about the sixteenth year, the pitter-patter of little feet gives way to the ransacking of the refridgerator.
Mum : I'd better not find any chicken bones in the shrubbery again!

Ernies

One of my favourite awards, the Ernies are awarded for sexist public comments. The annual Ernie Awards have 10 categories and are decided by the level of boos, jeers and stamping of feet at the women's only event held at the New South Wales Parliament.

This year the Golden Ernie was awarded to the Mayor of Mount Isa, Councillor John Moloney for suggesting that ugly women should move to Mount Isa, in NW Queensland where men outnumber women 5:1, to find themselves a husband. "May I suggest if there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa," Cr Molony said. But it was when local women retaliated against the comment that Mr Molony earned his golden Ernie award by replying, "The protesters are blaming me for their looks."



Winners of the Silver Ernies, from whom the Golden Ernie winner is chosen were:

• Western Australia's Treasurer Troy Buswell picked up the Political Ernie for snapping the bra of a female Labor staffer, making sexist remarks to a Liberal MP and famously sniffing the chair of a Liberal staffer.
• The Nine Network's John Westacott won the Media Ernie for his comment that "Sheilas do health and consumer stories - you want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories."
• Professor Mark Wooden from the University of Melbourne won the Industrial Ernie for saying - at a National Press Club panel discussion no less - that "The pay equity gap has got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours."
• The hotly contested Elaine Award, "for remarks least helpful to the sisterhood", went to federal MP Sophie Mirabella for her comment during a debate in parliament about taxpayer funded staff at the lodge. Pointing to Deputy PM Julia Gillard, who does not have children, she said "You won't need his (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's) taxpayer funded nanny, will you?".
• On a positive note, the Good Ernie Award "for boys behaving better" was a dead heat between rugby international Brendan Cannon, and transport company Veolia.
  Cannon said, "I don't want my daughter Phoebe growing up in the country where almost all women will be victims of physical violence or sexual abuse during their lifetimes" and the Veolia transport company was acknowledged for applying to the Anti-discrimination Commission for exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Act, so they could exclusively employ women drivers "because women are better drivers and gentler on the buses."

Congratulations Obama

Heard this on the radio the other day and loved it:

,

The Last Post

So, this is my second time going through what was originally the 23 Things. I've learnt a bit more, but I do feel that some things could have been done in more depth while other things, as mentioned in my previous post, have not been covered at all. I feel this has been a show-us course and now I'd like to see Library 2.0.1 giving us more in-depth information, some this-is-how-you-do-it-yourself support and assistance in getting up and running with some of this stuff.

That said, I do appreciate the hard work that the PLNSW team have put in and their feedback via comments and Help! emails has been great. Well done boys and girls!

This is for you (does a wobbly curtsey)


I've mentioned to our manager that maybe small groups of us could take a web thing and really investigate it, work out how to work it, assess it's potential for our library and perhaps DO something with it. Time, money, getting staff together, motivation - all are potential barriers.

There is, though, so much potential for exciting, interesting web 2.0 stuff

Networking

Networks. Hmmmm

The Rotarua Bebo site was awsome - looked really smart and dynamic. And the Coshocton Animanga Club looked cool. I'd like to take a look at the East Renfrew Council Facebook site but I'm all out of time today (only access between 12 and 2pm).

It'd be nice to have something like that for BMCC. However, as always, I fear funding and lack of time will preclude that for this little library. It takes enough time to keep things going in the Readers in the Mist blog, never mind Bebo/Facebook/MySpace - and would we just choose one of those, or would we need to be in several places? The latter I think. And would enough people take a look to make it worth all the effort? How many 'friends' or page views would constitute making it worthwhile.

I just don't get the whole SecondLife thing at all I'm afraid. I have an active enough FirstLife with a family, friends, Rural Fire Service, two bookgroups, 3 schools, children's sport, my sport, reading, having a sex life, childcare, meetings, uploading pictures to Flickr, work, homework, cooking, blogging, cleaning, sleeping, dog-walking, being an insomniac, keeping fit, listening to music, watching the sun rise, navel-gazing, LIVING . . . where would I find the time? Why would I find the time? What do the people do in those SecondLife libraries? Why?

I was hoping there'd be some discussion of Twitter and how it is/can be used by libraries. I have come across several articles/blog posts about it through my RSS feeder over the past few weeks. I know other places use it, Chrystie Hill was very enthusiastic about it, but at the moment it's another "I just don't get it" web 2.o thing. I'll post the articles and share them anyway:

1. Social Groups built around websites

2. Finally I see a reason for Twitter

3. List of Twitter applications

4. Twitwheel