Flickr that....(Thing 4)

Ta Da!!!!

Here is my name spelled out with Flickr spell. I must admit that it is pretty fun to see how many different images it had for each letter. I actually tried several words but decided to just post my name since 1) it's easy and 2) it's short so it would fit and not get distorted once posted. I did have a little trouble posting this up because I didn't like all the letters that came up the first time. Once I switched a couple of the letters, the code on the bottom changed so it no longer would just post here and then give the html view. It would post a link that didn't seem to work. I'm not all that good at writing or editing code at the moment so I just went old-school and saved the images and put them up here. All-in-all, it was a very fun and interesting experience.

Flickr this...(Thing 3)

Flickr

Flickr is very easy to use. It's reminiscent of Photobucket.com which I used a while ago when I first got a Myspace page. The amount of images available to view was most excellent. There were some really beautiful photographs on that site. I couldn't take a lot of time to look at them since I was at work though, I would love to take some time (should probably be personal time) to go through more of them. The site was simple to use, which is always a plus, and has lots of storage. A big plus is that it is linked to a person's yahoo account so it's way easier to remember the log in and password. Bonus!

I went ahead and created my own account instead of just looking through the pictures.

Here's the link to my photostream. I used fun pics of my friends and I.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarybombshell/

Library 2.0 (Thing 2)

The concept of "Library 2.0" seems to be a catchy way to summarize that libraries are embracing and incorporating technological resources into their collections. I remember when I was growing up that the library was a place to go get books for fun, books for research and a place to stare at that weird machine that would let you look at old newspapers. As time went on (high school, college, bad after college jobs) the way the library looked kept changing. For example, the main library at the university I attended has changed it's look pretty dramatically. (or at least as dramatic as a state university can afford.) When I first started attending that university, the campus library had a few computers around, mainly for the catalogue and a one of the upper level floors had a small cluster of computers for students to use. Now, the first floor is part computer lab, part circulation desk and part coffee shop (ok that has nothing to do with technology but boy is it still excellent!). As things changed, the library had to adapt to those changes or become obsolete. Granted, students will always need print resources but one of the main draws of a library now is the access to computers. Public libraries have an even harder time drawing the crowds (well unless there's a recession but that's a whole other subject!) but thanks to a good amount of computers with Internet access, people do still make the trip to the library. This, in turn, does make circulation go up since people need something to look at while they wait for their time on the computers.
When I started working in a library about a year ago, I was rather surprised that the majority of questions I was asked were computer-related. Here I thought I'd be showing people where to find that new novel by David Baldacci (Ok, I wasn't that naive but I was really surprised). This was part of my motivation in doing these 23 things. I want to be able to answer these questions with confidence instead of smiling and say "Sure I can help you with that," but having my inner monologue saying "Oh poo, I have NO IDEA how to do that on that website!" Now, I know that library staff will never know how to do everything but with some good training and a little time to play with the new things we learn, we should be able to make everyone THINK we know everything.

Story time with Ms. Bombshell

Although this blog is mainly for the NorthTexas 23 things exercise, I thought I'd take a small break in normal programming to tell a story I heard that made me laugh until I got a headache. This comes courtesy of an elementary school teacher.



The class was discussing the swine flu pandemic that was the news headline all last week. A fourth-grade student contributed this gem of knowledge to the discussion, "The pig flu was predicted in the bible and we're all gonna die because that's what the bible says. Oh and my friend told me that if you read the last page of the bible, you go crazy!"



This little nugget of knowledge stuck with one of the kids, in particular a severely dyslexic fourth grader, who decides to go home and read the last page of the bible.



He comes back the next day and tells the student "Nah uh, you don't go crazy! I read it and I'm fine!"

Wow, really???

So to recap:

1. The pig flu is predicted in the bible

2. If you read the last page of the bible, you go crazy.

3. The last page of the bible is something that even a dyslexic fourth grader can read.



Sometimes I really, really like the way kids think.

Hello 23 Things people! (Thing #1)

The title pretty much says what this first blog is about. I am super stoked to be doing the 23 Things activity and hope everyone that is participating is just as excited!

And yes, the name of my blog is rather ridiculous...but then again, so am I!