Fun with Flickr

Flickr will be the answer to my family's extensive digital photo collection. Since we have an award-winning amateur photogrpher here at Dorchester Road Branch, Flickr will also help us to organize our branch photos. We will probably have to upgrade to the professional status in order to create more than the miniumum number of sets (3) allowed. I find this a very useful tool and I plan to explore more of its features. I found Flickr to be very easy to use and I am excited about the possibilities that it affords!

Del.icio.us and Technorati

In trying Del.icio.us, I found the instructions easy to follow and I liked being able to organize and access favorite sites with a minimum of effort. I have both Firefox and Internet Explorer at home, so I will try Del.icio.us at home as well. The information about Technorati was not as easy to follow and I did not particularly like the content of the site. I guess if you are an avid blogger, Techorati would keep you abreast of the very latest information. I don't have to know what everyone is thinking about everything. It is just too "dernier crie" for me!

Subscribing to Feeds

The directions for this quest were somewhat cryptic to follow. I am looking forward to getting lots of information without lots of keystrokes. Here is the address for bloglines subscriptions:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/mgreenhill1

So far, the quests have been interesting and challenging at the same time, especially for a non-tech type of person!

Instant Messaging

IM was a new experience for me. I liked the immediacy and experimented with both the emotors and audio aspects that are in Yahoo. I had my share of technical glitches which seem to follow me like dirt follows Charles Schultz's character Pigpen! My office computer would not accept Yahoo IM, so I found a computer in the workroom that did accept it. Helen Walker and I had fun experimenting in IM with the audios. Other staff was treated to our laughter and exclaiming as we tried the sounds. I tried meebo today and it worked on the children's services computer, but again, Yahoo IM would not work! I wrote systems about the difficulty. Meebo seems less showy and I like the fact that I can use my pre-existing Yahoo IM information to sign in--it simplifies the prolifieration of passwords.

Life Long Learning

In viewing the ideas for lifelong learning, I find that attitude makes a big difference. Obstacles are sometimes created due to attitude alone. Technology can be one of our most useful allies, unless our attitude turns it into a foe (obstacle). I was concerned that it would be difficult to create a blog--the only tiny glitch was finding a user name for my g-mail account--a common difficulty that librarians encounter often when they are helping patrons create e-mail accounts. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the process.

As librarians, it seems a natural part of our profession to do informal teaching on the job. I feel strongly also about mentoring employees who are considering entering our profession. These are lifelong learning habits that I already practice.