WEEK 16 - THING 15 - CREATIVE COMMONS

The Creative Commons concept is a great idea and hopefully will allow better and easier collaborations for greater project successes. I looked up "Artistic Club" on the CC Contents site and was impressed at how the lack of copyright restrictions allowed so much creative sharing to take place. While I understand the idea behind the law that makes everything one does automatically copyrighted, it often causes problems and impedes progress in the development of ideas, etc. That said, it seems to me that the four categories necessarily allowed under CC could also have the potential to be a bit cumbersome. Flickr has helped to make that easier.

I think this is wonderful information for a library to be able to share, so I am glad to have had the opportunity to learn about CC. It seems our professors could benefit from being familiar with how to find "free" materials to present to their classes. I don't think I would hesitate to allow whatever I do to be shared. I remember presenting a program several years ago, and being asked to write it up for publishing. Because I had used material (ideas) from many sources, drawing from memories of things I had read or discussed, etc., I couldn't be sure that I had not crossed the copyright line, so I declined. The program had involved considerable work on my part, and I would have loved to have made it available for others to use. (Perhaps I'm so willing because I'm pretty sure that nothing I create has a real monetary value!!)

WEEK 16 - THING 8 SCREENCASTING

This is going to take a bit of time, so hopefully, more later!

WEEK 13 - THING 14 - ONLINE SURVEYS

Okay, I had to "mess" around a bit, but in the end this was a fun and informative project. I had a lot of trouble saving the survey to be accessible through a URL.

My survey is located at:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dEt5UmFZZEZvdmNoWlcyNUg0M09XSlE6MQ#gid=0

or better yet, the shortened form:

bit.ly/d92v9p

THING 13 - DOCUMENT SHARING

I really like the idea of using Dropbox--just imagine not having to keep up with my flash drive, not worrying about backing up my documents on my home computer, being able to access what I need from wherever I am at the time, etc., etc.!! I think Google.docs could be a big help in sharing information with fellow library staff as a substitute for emailing attachments which they then have to print out or save. The documents would always be readily available to whomever needs them from a shared site.

I am sharing one of my favorite poems by Edward Sill.

http://bit.ly/cYIdGy

WEEK 12 - CLOUD COMPUTING

I like the idea of being able to access what I need "on-demand," though I wonder about the costs involved. I think the ability to access docs from anywhere fits in with our on-the-go society. I enjoyed Mama Z's library instruction doc which she uses to instruct English classes on library policies, etc. It is always nice to see how other libraries handle certain situations.

WEEK 11 - SEARCHING TWITTER

Okay, I'm late with my postings; it's way past time to try to catch up! Admittedly I went into this topic thinking "I know what this is; I'm not really interested in another social network; I'll finish this in less than an hour." I viewed the YouTube "Twitter ruined my life" and found it not only hilarious but a justification of my opinion that twitter is frivolous and not really useful. It just "enables inane interaction" as one site noted. Then I read some comments about how it helped in research to instantly share information, and that some felt it was a way of learning to be brief with your thoughts (I could profit from that!). That the Library of Congress is archiving tweets is impressive since it will allow a searchable history of comments on events as they happen and can be used much like we now use old diaries and letters.

Since today is the big announcement day when LeBron James will let us know where he will play next year, I searched for tweets that gave opinions on his probable decision--not so important, all conjecture, but fun. I also searched Bozeman MT weather after I received a note from a friend there talking about a recent hail storm--in July for heaven's sake! I also looked at the VCCSlibraries site but couldn't bring myself to join still another network.


WEEK 11- URL SHORTENERS.
Amazing and useful. I used a library site http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=107&sid=ad961edc-b30c-4f86-ac96-2b8d994c607a%40sessionmgr112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=9611116444 and got http://bit.lylbnKr7P.

Week 8 - FLICKR

Though I got a bit lost at times when trying to upload a picture, I had a lot of fun playing around with Flickr. The library could use it to highlight a specific section such as our Lease Books and add a picture with brief information about the collection--mostly fiction, rotating, etc. I looked up Montana because I often visit there and think it has incredible scenery.

http://www.visitmt.com/

Our director showed me a really fun part of Flickr. Search Google for idee: Multicolor Search Lab, arrow down to the picture set and play with the colors--too cool!!