New Index

OK, I have a new index... again. This will be the third and hopefully final change to the ever-changing index system.

Blogger, the tool I use to run this blog, finally added the capability to add "labels" or "tags" to your blog posts.

Also, I have been reading how people like to have their bloggers include their opinions in order to seem more human. Well, I don't know about opinions, but I have been playing with another new feature of blogger that allows you to easily add pictures to your sidebar.

So if you scroll down a bit, you will see some various pictures of me. Hopefully I seem more human now.

"Handout" for The Spider Catches the Fly

For those of you interested in attending this workshop or want to find out more before you register, feel free to visit the "handout" for the class by clicking here.

What is LibraryThing?

Someone recently asked me this question, "What is LibraryThing?"

LibraryThing is a web 2.0 tool that people can use to catalog their own books. You create a username, add your books, and give them tags.

The fun is only beginning, though. As I have mentioned before, the process of creating a username and tagging creates this social aspect that adds an additional layer of fun.

You can search for books, if you find a book you like, you can find the usernames of folks who own the book. You can follow that string to find out what other books these people own. People can add reviews to books. You can add your comments to their comments. You can even join a Group (click here to find out more about their groups).

Why don't you take a tour of LibraryThing and find out more.

Learning 2.0 with the Help of PLCMC

Staff members at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) have created an online learning tool that you can use to introduce yourself to many Web 2.0 products such as blogger, flickr, youtube, pbwiki, and more.

Just go to http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com/. This is a blog and blogs have the newest material on top, so to start from the beginning, you need to scroll to the bottom. Click on About this project on the right to learn more about this learning experience.

This looks like a great way to learn about these new tools.

Search Strategies Refresher Schedule Extended

We have extended the Search Strategies Refresher trainings through December. Here are the new training dates:

Search Something
September 28 Thursday 9am-12pm Sarah Frierson
November 29 Wednesday 9am-12pm Laura Salehi

Library Databases
October 25 Wednesday 9am-12pm Debbie Stevens
December 14 Thursday 9am-12pm Chris Marszalek

To register, please contact Cynthia White at 415-2722 or whitec@memphislibrary.org.

The Spider Catches the Fly: web feeds as a tool for professional development

Web Feeds provide us with a wonderful way to receive professional development reading material. If you are interested in attending a new Professional Growth Opportunity, please register for "The Spider Catches the Fly: web feeds as a tool for professional development", scheduled for Thursday September 21, 9:00 - 10:30am, by calling Cynthia White at 415-2722.

At this workshop I will show you how to identify a site as being a web feed or not. I will demonstrate both bloglines and feedblitz. In the process, you will see the various types of blogs and web feeds that you can subscribe to. Then, I will help you set up your own account and subscriptions.

Receive Web Feeds in Your Email

Lately, I have been advertising the web feed reader/aggregator as a way to receive updates from various web feeds (click here for links to past articles). The only problem with this is that some folks have a hard enough time remembering to check their e-mail that they could never remember to check ANOTHER website.

Welcome to www.feedblitz.com. If you register for feedblitz, you can subscribe to various feeds and you will receive a daily email with any new posts that were added the previous day. While this does take a bit a work upfront, once it is set up, you can receive all of your updates through your familiar email interface.

For an extensive list of aggregators, visit this site. The first category is Web-Based Aggregators like bloglines. Scroll down to E-mail Based Aggregators to see a list of sites like feedblitz.

Staff Development Contact Information

Kevin Dixon, Technical Trainer
phone: 2724
email: dixonk

Damone Virgilio, Staff Development Manager
phone: 2723
email: virgiliod

Cynthia White, Staff Assistant
phone: 2722
email: whitec

No More HTML to PDF tool

So, I wrote about the HTML to PDF tool in this post. I worked this past Sunday and a customer's internet page they wanted to print was cutting off the text. I quickly found this tool and converted the page. All the text was now viewable; however, so was this huge advertisement slapped across the page.

It turns out that this WAS free but now you have to pay for it, so no more HTML to PDF tool. So how did I help this customer?

I recalled the Technical Tip that Damone provided to StaffWise while I was on leave. That tip involves changing the Page Setup from Portrait to Landscape. It worked like a charm!

The Benefit of Aggregators

Doris makes an excellent point in a comment on my DOPA post.

I am relying heavily on other bloggers to make me aware of issues such as this one (with DOPA, institutions who take advantage of e-rate subscriptions to the Internet would have to filter social networking sites like myspace.com) and net neutrality. As Kevin, has written before, using an aggregator like bloglines seems a more efficient way to *try* to stay informed than wading through e-mail listservs messages and action alerts. I guess one could use all of these methods in concert.

E-mail is an entrenched part of MPLIC work culture. I look forward to the day when scanning blogs becomes second nature to us.

Without my bloglines subscriptions, my knowledge of current tech trends in the library world would be extremely limited or much harder to maintain.

Thank you to Doris for making that connection!