I missed getting a photo up for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was September 19th (Arrrgh). So I'm posting this photo from Flickr as a belated celebration. You never would of thunk it, but nearly 2000 images come up when you search for library and pirate on Flickr.
Avast.
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Flickr (Postscript)
Flickr was a lot a lot of fun and easy to use. The use of tags as the primary scheme of organization is not only incredibly effective and efficient, but it yields some surprising results as well in a search. This sort of organization scheme adapted for use in libraries can lead to a community that is more engaged and invested in their local library. I'll elaborate on this later on when I get around to posting about library thing.
If time allows I may play around with some of Flickr's 3rd party applications. I'm especially interested in using the images I've posted and making putting them in a map mash-up.
If time allows I may play around with some of Flickr's 3rd party applications. I'm especially interested in using the images I've posted and making putting them in a map mash-up.
Do the ChaCha
ChaCha is service that provides answers to questions via text message on your cell phone. This is a powerful idea as it really puts information at your fingertips at anytime. ChaCha's service isn't just any old search engine either. Real people rather than algorithm provide the answer to your query. Currently, the searcher at ChaCha is often using Google to answer a query. But they are creating their own database of answers to questions. Also, since it is driven by human intelligence, ChaCha can provide analytic answers to questions rather than just a relevancy ranked list of results. Did I mention ChaCha's service is free other than your standard text messaging rates? Their revenue is derived from directing users to services, i.e. the nearest sale on a particular item and advertising derived from their tracking of users query history.
This is the type of service that must cause us to rethink traditional reference and adapt with changes in technology. Due to services like ChaCha people will come to expect fast answers to questions on the go available at anytime and any place. As such, we must look to answering patrons reference questions not only at the desk, but via text e-mail and other means. If libraries can develop effective strategies to do just this we would have a decided advantage in protecting our users privacy in not mining our users records for targeted advertising.
You can find out more about ChaCha here.
This is the type of service that must cause us to rethink traditional reference and adapt with changes in technology. Due to services like ChaCha people will come to expect fast answers to questions on the go available at anytime and any place. As such, we must look to answering patrons reference questions not only at the desk, but via text e-mail and other means. If libraries can develop effective strategies to do just this we would have a decided advantage in protecting our users privacy in not mining our users records for targeted advertising.
You can find out more about ChaCha here.
http://www.chacha.com/
Or Listen to a story from American Public Media's Marketplace here.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/21/cha_cha/
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Thomas Tredway Library, Augustana College
This is the library at Augustana College in Rock Island. I earned my undergraduate degree here. The library is beautiful and was one of my favorite places while I was attending school. Unfortunately, Augustana isn't very engaged in the community at large and it has a sort of cloistered feeling. 
Thomas Tredway Library, Augustana College
Originally uploaded by Bretzel
Thomas Tredway Library, Augustana College
Originally uploaded by Bretzel
Friday, September 19, 2008
IL-Moline - Lagomarcino's Soda Fountain
This is also from Flickr. This is the candy shop/soda fountain my family owns. This year was our 100th anniversary. While I was familiarizing myself with Flickr I showed my father how many images came up tagged Lagomarcino's and we were both suprised.
IL-Moline - Lagomarcino's Soda Fountain
Originally uploaded by plasticfootball
IL-Moline - Lagomarcino's Soda Fountain
Originally uploaded by plasticfootball
Flickr
So up on the list of 23 things is to familiarize myself with Flickr. I was familiar with Flickr but had not used it previously. So I created an account. For this blog I thought it would be fun to load some photos from some of my favorite spots around my hometown. After I figured out how to register my blog with Flickr, posting photos turned out to be incredibly easy. I spent quite a bit of time just searching for photos with random tags. I was very surprised at a lot of what I found while looking for photos of favorite spots around my hometown. Not only did I find multiple photos of many of my favorite haunts, but many photos of acquaintances of mine.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
My first blog entry
So this is the blogosphere eh? This is my first foray into blogging. I'll be keeping this blog as a project for one of my classes and recording my learning and experiences completing PLCMC's 23 Things Learning 2.0 project.
I'm generally not very technology savvy, but I'm very excited to be learning some new skill sets and becoming familiar with web 2.0 applications. This is doubly good for me because I was previously running version 1.8.2. (I'm sorry. I couldn't resist a bad joke.) All kidding aside, getting started has been surprisingly easy and fun. I look forward to keeping up with a couple of things, from the aforementioned list of 23, each week and sharing my learning experiences.
I'm generally not very technology savvy, but I'm very excited to be learning some new skill sets and becoming familiar with web 2.0 applications. This is doubly good for me because I was previously running version 1.8.2. (I'm sorry. I couldn't resist a bad joke.) All kidding aside, getting started has been surprisingly easy and fun. I look forward to keeping up with a couple of things, from the aforementioned list of 23, each week and sharing my learning experiences.
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