Week 10 #23

I mean, it's the last post for the 23 Things Project! It is hard to believe. Although I have been on the IHCPL committee, the 23 tasks appeared daunting to me for quite some time. I personally needed some help with a couple of the tasks- online image generators and LibraryThing- but, apart from these two things, I had no trouble completing the exercises. I was left with the thought- See, that wasn't so hard!

Personally, my favourite exercise was week 3 #5: create a free Flickr account. I have fallen in love with Flickr since first making my account while on IHCPL- for better or for worse. Flickr has allowed me to explore my interest in photography- an interest that I have never properly acknowledged over the years. I recently acquired a digital, single lens reflex camera and signed up for a photography class through Leisure Learning. I now have a new hobby! Plus, I am making friends on the other side of the globe. Flickr is definitely my social networking tool of choice.

The 23 Things project has affected my lifelong learning goals by making me more confident in my ability to learn new technological skills. As I mentioned before, one unexpected outcome of the 23 Things Project was the relative ease at which I completed the tasks.

At this point in time, one thing I really want to explore is Animoto. I saw Melanie's excellent music video featuring HCPL photos and I now want to make my own!

Stay tuned. . .

Week 9 # 22

Wowie! I am really impressed with all of the audiobooks that I have been looking at on Overdrive and on the audiobook downloading for free sites.

To be honest, I have not looked at Overdrive since the training session I had at Freeman many moons ago(!) I am pleasantly surprised with all that I have found there while browsing today. I am really impressed with the "burn to CD" option on Overdrive for music and audiobooks. While reviewing the site, I placed a hold on an audiobook title called "Buddha's teachings." Also, I came across several New Age music titles that looked interesting.

The WOWIO and LibirVox sites are both great, too. I found a title that looks interesting on LibriVox called Buddhism and Buddhists in China. On WOWIO, I found a downloadable title of English translations of Chinese poems written during the Tang dynasty.

Quite naturally, the free sites don't have any music to download. This makes Overdrive much more appealing to me. It's great to get acquainted with Overdrive once again.

Week 9 #21

Podcasts are neat because you don't have to have an Ipod to listen in. You don't even have to have Itunes, either. All you need is a Bloglines account. I did a search for podcasts on Buddhism at podcast.net and came across The Path of the Mahayana, an ongoing series of Dharma Talks and lectures by Dharma Teacher Rev. Jiun, Osho, covering the entire spectrum of Mahayana Buddhism and detailing the path and practice of the Bodhisattva. I added this to my Bloglines account. Now, just to find some time to listen!

I did a search for library and library news at podcast.net and found "Tonight at the Pritzker Military Library." This is interesting because the podcast outlines the upcoming events at the library. Also, podcasts of speaking events held at the library are available for listening. It seems that this would be very useful for HCPL branches. HCPL libraries could follow suit and make speaking events available as podcasts.

Week 9 #20

Well, well, well. It's You Tube! This site is talked about so much but I have rarely visited it. The thing I like most about it is its great collection of Jimi Hendrix film footage. Some of the Hendrix footage on You Tube is rare and unreleased, such as his performance at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1969. The Jimi Hendrix performance at the Royal Albert Hall was filmed but never released due to legal wrangling. This brief interview with Hendrix looks like it was filmed backstage, perhaps before the show. I like watching interviews and footage of Hendrix.

I think it would be neat if individual HCPL branches could upload You Tube video to their particular branch web pages. This would allow patrons to view footage of events held at a particular branch.

Jimi Hendrix Interview

If you cannot see the video, click here

Week 8 #19

Zoho Writer seems to be a very useful and helpful site for word processing. I created a small document, saved it under my account, and posted it to my blog. I tried out the other features and discovered that the site truly mirrors Microsoft Word. One of the neatest things is that you can save documents online! No more flash drives or diskettes required!!

So cool.

Treason

I created this mini paragraph on Zoho Writer:

Are there any books on treason? I patron once asked me this question. I was not sure how to answer. So I dug a little deeper and found out it was a high school history project about treason during the ancient greek and roman times.

Week 8 #18

Well, I looked around all of the social networking sites. The one that appeals the most to me is Ning. The site just plain looks attractive to me. The graphics, colors, and the page setup all look good. I made an account on Ning for an LPC exercise that never panned out. I tried to find my old account by had no luck. So, I made a new one! I will look around and possibly join a network or two.

The other social networking sites did not entirely appeal to me. The cat one looked cute not not enough to make me want to sign up. I personally loathe myspace due to all of the negative publicity surrounding it. But, I actually made an account there for the sole purpose of receiving emails from a rock group that I like(!)

Social networking has its pluses and minuses. Its pluses include making new friends from around the world. Its minuses include threats, harassment, and obscene postings from other group members. I recently cancelled my Flickr account due to to harassment (in the form of lengthy emails and comments on my photos) from another member. I know I had the option of blocking the member but I got so fed up that I wanted to end the whole thing. Yet, at the same time, I have made friends with someone who lives on the other side of the globe. So, I have mixed feelings about social networking. I made another Flickr account and started over again. It's time to begin again.