Task 18--Wiki--CHECK!

I'm a fan of the wiki...so back off wiki haters. I think its wildly convenient and helfpful. Sometimes frustrating and difficult to navigate? Okay, occasionally, but I think that's usually the exception and not the rule. I'll admit I did need the hints sometimes. (I have never, ever, been asked about library plant life. ::Shrugs:: Ever.) At any rate, I got a 100. There is much, much, much more there than I have ever really had the occasion to look at, so this is a good reminder of the wealth of its content, and maybe I'll have to "page watch" some things so I stay as in the loop as possible. But yes, a helpful task over all.

Task 18--Tiny URL/Zamar--CHECK!

I'm a big fan of Tiny URL. In a lot of my virtual reference work for school, etc., we were trained/instructed to use Tiny URL in all email correspondences, since longer links would break in the messages. At any rate. So I did a Google search for banana coconut cupcakes...why not?The original URL for my selected result: http://www.nibbledish.com/people/Chengaleng/recipes/banana-coconut-cupcakes

The Tiny URL: http://tinyurl.com/ylfxm8y

It is really helpful for a variety of reasons, but if using, you should just be careful to explain you have shortened the link for their convenience. Even in our comp classes here, we teach people what they can glean from a URL address, and folks should understand that the REAL URL will appear in their address bar after they open it. Meanwhile I've never used the above recipe and can't verify its deliciousness.

So Zamar. Its cool. I like that there's no registering at all and that certainly saves a step. I think it would be very helpful in the PC area. Only setback I see is that mine took maybe ten minutes? to send to my email, so. Then there's the "I need my time back" whine. But still really useful. I was hoping it would take a PDF or image or something and convert it to a web address, but I couldn't figure that out. I've used Tripod for such things successfully in the past. At any rate. You can now enjoy a seasonal photo of my friend's adorable about 10 month old baby. Zamar successfully converted it from bmp and jpg and tiff and pdf and all those fun things. Again, only setback was it took a while. But he's adorable in all formats and certainly worth the time.

Task 17--Library Sites/Blogs--CHECK!

Apparently, my last post was October 13th. Geesh. Glad to be back on the Webolution tour. I enjoy this task--I'm glad all the helpful/interesting sources have been rounded up and put in one convenient spot for us to view at our leisure. Especially after library school, I knew it was important to stay aware of trends, etc., and plus, just seeing what other libraries are doing is cool and thought provoking. I already have WebJunction and Library Success on my favorites. I can only usually get to poking around them every few weeks, but they're still worth it. I liked viewing other library's blogs, other library's readers advisory stuff, and in WebJunction, I have their "IT cookbook" bookmarked too--which isn't unlike Webolution-esque stuff. One of my favorites though, just for new-sy type items is LIS news, which I didn't see on delicious. (http://www.lisnews.org/). Of course, if I hadn't webolutionized since October 13th, I don't know when the last time I had time to look through it was, but this task is a good reminder to do so!

Task 16--Open Source--CHECK!

One word to describe Open Office? Awesome. (If I did this combined webolutionizing correctly, you should be able to hear Awesome when you click on Awesome due to SoundSnap. Yay new learned technology. If I did it incorrectly, you'll probably just get weird pop up boxes. ::shrugs:: Works on my computer!) Anyway. Open Source. The definitions were helpful because my understanding was incredibly vague. I understood it meant free, and my general assumption about free stuff (i.e. creative commons and weird non-famous free music and other such tasks), is super low quality or just weird and not at all time worthy. But I didn't know all the business about the code, etc., or that Mozilla was an example...and so I'm probably behind the open source times a little. At any rate, it was great to learn and know. I downloaded Open Office and was pretty darn astounded. I think I am an open source convert. It was extremely comparable to the Microsoft products, it was crazy. Why oh why oh why would anyone ever pay the bazillion dollars Microsoft charges now? I figured it would do the basics without any bells and whistles. I expected there to be limited fonts, etc., but for the most part, it was just as darn capable and easy and professional looking. What a fantastic thing to know about. It has a lot to do with libraries...what are we about if not free and sharing? This is free and sharing. And unlike all those other free tasks I wasn't a big fan of earlier, THIS is useful and meaningful and helpful and full bodied and could really help someone out. I'm thinking of college students who can't afford Microsoft but need to do reports, or any of our patrons with the same limitations/needs. Very cool. Big fan. Thumbs up. Thanks for the photo, Creative Commons. Can I win most tasks combined into one post??

Task 15--Clipmarks--CHECK!

I thought I was going to be in love with this program/application/diddy when I read the task. I liked everything it seemed like it would do for me. And I went to the video and watched and thought it was magical and I was all impressed. Look at how easy and applicable and wowwww-e. So video, great...signing up...painless...Install...ouch. Not painless. Very difficult and weird. Restarting the computer. Going through Install Wizards. Not being able to find it. The gadget not actually on my browser. Doing it again assuming I did something wrong. Took a long time. Not intuitive. Clipping. Well. It looked all magical and easy to select exactly what you want on the video, but it wasn't really. And you can only clip like 1000 characters, which apparently isn't much of anything. So I finally "clipped" what I wanted. Hurrah. And then I tried to send it to my blog. Which...look around...clearly did not work even a little bit. (It was the first "chocolate cake" recipe result from Google, which is Hershey's.) So. Then I tried to email it to myself. Which worked, but this was the subject line: Delivery Status Notification (Failure.) I don't know why this site is calling me a failure. That's offensive. Um. The only other options are print and save. I have to say that I feel like pretty much every other alternative available is easier and more friendly than this. I would rather bookmark, copy and paste, or highlight and print a selection. And again, I don't feel the need to "share" any of it...and if I did I could delicious it or email the link or what have you to those individuals who would find it interesting. I'm not self important enough to think everyone cares about what I'm reading online. So I had high hopes. And it fell flat. Sorry Task 15.

Task 14--Downloadables--CHECK!

I'm glad this was one of our tasks, because no matter how many times we train or practice or try to become familiar with it, some patron inevitably comes up with a seemingly really simple question or issue and I can't figure it out and I feel like I look like an idiot. I usually blame the computer. But it doesn't always make me feel better. Anyway. So I hadn't really had the opportunity to play with the Media Center, so that was my goal. It happened to be loaded on the staff computer I was using, so all I had to do was create my account. Easy-fo-sheesy. Then I logged into the Media Center. One word--usable. It was intuitive, friendly, easy, even fun. It was clean and logical. The searching and browsing was really nice, you could sort by practically anything once you had a results list. I found it pretty darn delightful. I think it's very convenient that once they have that on their computer, they don't need library card numbers or to go through our site--it saves steps. I liked how visual it was, too. Finding the format you needed was easy, and so was figuring out the length, etc. If I was a bigger fan of this format, big enough to own an MP3 player, I would be in love with this. Its nice to have an account too, because now just instead of describing how functional and easy it is to patrons, I can log onto it at the info desk and show them. Think I'll win some people over that way.

Task 13 - Sound Effects/Free Stuff - CHECK!

Back to webolutionizing, yeehaw! Sound snap was a pretty good time. I thought it was rather addicting, because one sound makes you think of another, or the descriptions do, and you just keep searching and giggling, because most are comical in some way. Maybe it's just because its like 10 seconds of totally out of context noise, or maybe it's just me. I searched for "train", "cat", "screech", "laugh", "eating", "applause", and "jingle". Jingle took me to Christmas which took me to Thugs Christmas--which, don't you see what I mean?--is just funny. Also, the descriptions for most are chuckle worthy--for example, one for eating was described as "subtle wet chewing and gulping." Ew. I did not listen to that one. I've been trying to think of how this could be applicable to the library webpage...and can't come up with any stellar applications. Curious to see what other people think. The rest of the task isn't really meant for me. For the Pandora task, I discussed how I'm kind of indifferent to music, as in it doesn't particularly interest me and 9 times out of ten, I'd prefer silence. So looking for free music isn't really very exciting. I don't think I'll be "digging new artists" anytime soon. I do appreciate free things, but like all free things, I kind of assume it's free for a reason, as in the quality suffers. I have checked out Jamendo, which is...well...okay, I guess. I didn't "discover" anything magical. I can understand why a lot of our patrons could be excited about using this stuff, though.