Del.icio.us

Yum - this is delicious. I decided to give it a try and set up an account of my own. I discovered that Del.icio.us 'tagged' onto my Yahoo account. I have been trying to find a way to organise my bookmarks and this works. I can also access my bookmarks from anywhere in the world - now that really is 'delicious'. When you add a bookmark you can make up your own tags, but if the site has been tagged before, you also get a list of popular suggested tags that you can use as well. I have made most of my bookmarks private but you can see my public bookmarks here.

LibriVox

I love being read to. I find listening to someone reading a book, or poetry, to me enjoyable. Especially on a dull, rainy afternoon when I have a broken leg and can do little else. LibriVox has an extensive collection of audio material in the public domain. I found a book I had read years ago, Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", and enjoyed listening to a chapter of it being read so well. You can also download the books, poems and dramatic works as a podcast which makes them portable. LibriVox would have a lot of appeal for many people, including being a source of audio books for the visually impaired.

Planet Google - Google Books

I have used Google Books to help to find bibligraphic details of books for purchase. This time I searched for books I doubted would be available and was surprised that I could not only find them but also read them online. I added some to My Library. Google has a partner program with libraries to include their catalogue in Google searches. Libraries can also add Google Books to their collections with the same copyright restrictions of electronic books.

Where will it end? Google and Google Books makes me think of the Dr Who episode where the library was a whole planet. Maybe we will see a Planet Google.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a site where you can join and create your own library, store information about books, write reviews, share information, find others with similar interests, learn about the latest book releases, events and more. In short, it is a booklover's paradise.

I particularly like that I can create a library of my own books. It is an easy way of keeping track of the books I own and the ones I have read as well. What is even better, I can just type in a search and find all the details of the book online from Amazon, Library of Congress, Australian National Library or from a number of other libraries and sources you can choose to search. How easy is that. You can add a book's details manually as well, if by some remote chance you can't locate it online.

I am sure that I will find even more that I can do. Here is the link to my library in LibraryThing.

RSS - Library Blogs

Task 9 is to locate and subscribe to library related blogs. I found this list of Aussie Library Blogs which may be of interest. It was on the Libraries Interact blog which I subscribed to, as well as a few others on Bloglines.

RSS - Really Simple

RSS feeds - can't survive without them. Not exactly, but I have been using Feedreader, the feed reading program on the library staff machines, to collate my RSS feeds for some time. I have subscribed to some very informative blogs that help me to keep informed about technology in particular. I usually skan the feeds daily for the latest ABC news and anything else of interest. Of course, I have to be on the computer at work if I want to read them. This has been a problem recently as I haven't been able to get into work because of a little broken leg.

Bloglines being online is much more flexible than Feedreader because you can access the site from anywhere in the world. I have tried other online feedreaders but I really like Bloglines. I had fun setting it up and exploring what I could do with it. I couldn't remember all the feeds I have subscribed to at work but I was able to find and subscribe to some of my favourites, like LOL Cats, and found some new ones that I have added. I discovered that, like Feedreader, I could organise my feeds into folders which is a feature I particularly like. So now I can keep up to date with what's happening, and enjoy a little recreational humour as well.

One of the 23 Things activities is to share our Bloglines blogroll. If I have done it right you should be able to see it here.

Web 2.0 - The Global Village

After reading some of the other library blogs, I can see that others also favour Flikr over Picassa. Flikr is easier to use than Picassa. Although, Picassa has a lot of features that would probably be popular with the more serious and dedicated photographer.

I will probably continue to use Picassa though. As an exercise, I added another user as a favourite, (see my previous blog entry), and was surprised to receive a message from them. It was written in French and thanked me for adding them as a favourite. I was added as a favourite by them. My school French is a very rusty but I plan to respond, in French. I need the practice as France is one of the countries I will be travelling to in 2010.

I can see that Web 2.0 technology can help us to reach out to the world, and connect with people with similar interests.

Photos and Images - Picassa

Picassa is similar to Flikr. I downloaded the Picassa 3 desktop program and managed to upload some photos to my account. Using the program I also created a collage of photos I had taken of the UQ Gatton Campus in 2007. I have made my albums public so you can view them here.

I explored Picassa and found albums by other UQ library staff - previous participants of 23 Things. I also found some beautiful photos taken by another Picassa member. Check out the public gallery of magraiveur.

Photos and Images - Flickr

IMG_1163
Originally uploaded by lizerea

I already had a Flickr account but I had not explored all the great things you can do with it. Uploading a lot of photos using the web can be very slow. I downloaded Flickr's desktop uploader and recommend it as a much easier way to upload a lot of photos. All you have to do is drag and drop the photos in the space provided. You can create sets and add tags before going online to upload the photos.

Tagging the photos make them much easier to find, and with 100MG of space you can add a lot of photos.

I uploaded this photo taken outside the library at Gatton. I joined the University of Queensland Group and added it to the group.

Photos can be marked for public or private viewing. I discovered that a couple of the photos I had uploaded some time ago had been added to favourites by other Flikr users. I am pleased they liked them.

Blogging

Neither blogs nor blogging are new to me. It seems like there are blogs on just about everything. In particular, I have found blogs a useful source of information about technology and trends. This is the first time I have created a blog of my own. Choosing colours and pictures and layout is a lot of fun. Writing content is another thing ... thank goodness the posts can be edited.

Introduction

I completed Tasks 1 and 2 of the 23 Things some weeks ago. Unfortunately, a fall on the stairs at home resulting in a broken leg has side tracked me for a while. While bones are knitting, I can now create my blog and get on with with rest of the tasks.