Mmm... Delicious

So once again despite hearing much about Delicious I had never used it. So being prompted to do so by PLCMC's list of 23 things I signed up for an account. I also added the Delicious extension to my Firefox browser and I am in love. Well not love exactly (I don't use that word for things) but I am very fond of it. Firefox's Delicious extension allows you to coordinate your bookmarks between Delicious and Firefox and I now have a button on my browser for bookmarking and tagging sites to my Delicious account. If I so desire, and I do, I can keep a side bar up on my browser with all my Delicious links and tags. I was able to import my bookmarks from Firefox right to my Delicious account.
The uses for Delicious are manifold. In my short time using it I've been able to discover a lot of other links by viewing other peoples accounts. Setting up collaborative accounts makes a lot of sense for a library or a library consortium to build and share a collection of free and reliable reference links. While perusing PLCMC's site and their links related to Delicious I discovered a couple of libraries that allow users to subscribe to their accounts so that the user can be notified when the library adds new links to the Delicious account. Delicious can also support your research or just general interests by allowing you to subscribe to tags so that you will be notified when other users add new sites with a particular tag. Delicious is the Web 2.0 tool that I have found the most utility in and had the most fun with.

Roll, Roll, Rollyo search engine

Rollyo is a tool that is new to me. I can see all sorts of applications for it, especially at the reference desk. As you can create many different categories of customizable search tools. Rollyo would be especially handy for ready reference questions. You could make up several categories, for entertainment, government, news/current events, sports and so and so forth. With an account the Rollyo search engines you create are easily edited. At the reference desk this could be an incredibly helpful tool for narrowing searches rather than automatically painting with the broad Google brush. They also have also sorts of rolled search engines other users have created that can be stimulating for ideas or good links. Here's mine.

Generators

I played around with a few of the generators from The Generator Blog. It is amazing to see how many of these there are out there. Virtual baby generators, a Sarah Palin interview generator, Chinese movie generators and on and on ad infinitum. Some of the highlights from a few of the generators I played with are as follows:
From The Mob Name Generator, my mob name is John "Tube Steak" Scarpanco. If I were born to Sarah Palin my name would be, Strangle Thicket Palin. Thank goodness for small blessings. Since I've always fancied myself to be the greatest white MC alive I thought I'd take some suggestions for a Hip-Hop moniker. The Hip-Hop name generator came up with Big Daddy Woo-Wop. I'm going to ask for a second opinion.

You can find some inspiration for Library 2.0 strategies here at the Library 2.0 idea generator. This was fun and offers up a sort of pithy Library 2.0 Zen with the click of a button.

And being prone to laziness at times I was relieved to find a blog post generator, where you can create a blog post in a Madlibs sort of fashion.

OMFG! I just opened mine eyes, and lo! I have not updated this since Hammertime was in the charts... You would not believe that I'd been abducted by aliens. I hope they bring chocolate!.

I am flat out like a lizard drinking with finding Jesus (after someone told me he was lost), selling my soul to Google, just generally being a parent to every Lost Boy that crosses my path, my day is filled with fluorescent light from 8am to I run out of alcohol. I am not complaining though. it will be fun fun fun till they take my TBird away.

I make a solemn vow I will update you with my nefarious activities as soon as I get a chance. You wanna test me? Don't hold your breath though, you're likely to turn blue..

Librarything

I've heard people in classes so far talk a lot about Librarything, but until now I'd never set up an account. This is an addictive site. I began by setting up my library with books I've read so far this term for my LIS 631 Young Adult Literature class. I continued by adding a few favorites as well as some recent reads. You can of course link to my virtual library shelf from the widget I've added to the blog. Comments and recommendations are welcome.

I struggled for a moment trying to add the widget to my blog. I started by creating the widget on Librarything's site and then pasting the code into my template. This didn't work. After a few minutes I learned that adding the widget was as simple as searching Blogger's gadgets, putting in my Librarything user name and adding a title. Simple.

The fits and starts of doing this blog have taught me two things thus far. One, with a modicum of patience one doesn't have to be technical at all to do a blog or to add a variety of really cool features. Two, despite the relative ease of using Blogger, I'm reminded of how much I don't know. I realize that a lot of these features are customizable, but I don't know a lick about HTML, CSS, javascript etc. I still get hives when I see long lines of code.

RSS Feeds

I've long been reluctant to use an RSS reader. As such, I've learned that I've been stuck in a web browsing rut, bookmarking my favorite sites and checking in with them in haphazard fashion. My reluctance stemmed from my fear of information overload and what I feared would be an ever lengthening list of articles from various RSS feeds waiting to be read. It wasn't until doing the PLCMC tutorial that I realized how much browsing time RSS feeds could save me.

I use Firefox, which has a built in RSS reader, as my primary browser. As such, I'm not sure that I see much utility in a web based RSS reader, such as bloglines, other than being able to check in on my RSS feeds away from my home computer. Still, I set up an account with bloglines.com and subscribed to a number of library and technology related blogs. I found it to be incredibly easy to use. I liked the search functions and the feature of being able to pre-populate your reader with RSS feeds by checking a box next to a variety of subjects.

To locate some library relevant RSS feeds and blogs I checked out syndic8.com, topix.com, and technorati.com. Technorati was by far my favorite of these sites. It seemed the most polished and had screen shots of various blogs and the ability to search for blogs and posts by tags. Syndic8 in comparison was much more clunky and not as polished. In addition, I tried a couple of links which were broken and noticed a couple of others which were clearly spam such as the link to a blog entry about herbal penis enhancement pills. I didn't have any particular problems with topix, but technorati was superior in every facet.

I'll be adding the feeds from my bloglines account to my blogroll later.