I'm So Lonely I Could Cry

Facebook is undoubtedly a very popular means of connecting with friends and other individuals with whom one has something in common. It appears to have an slightly older average clientele than YouTube or MySpace. The article, long though it was, gave much food for though pertaining to the use of Facebook by libraries to reach their users. Simply being present, with a link or two, will not popularize the library. Being present with a defined purpose, such as sincerely soliciting feedback from user as to their preferences in media selection may be useful indeed. Perhaps they will tell us that we should stop buying CD's of currently popular music because CD's are no longer the medium of choice for the under-30 crowd.

I created a Facebook account, but I only have one friend. Is that sad, or what??? (Sorry Bob, KRL2pt0 doesn't count)

I'm Late, I'm Late...

Wikis on blogs, blogs on wikis. My brain is starting to hurt again. The assignemnt, should I choose to accept it (and I obviously have, being the incredibly competive individual that I am), is to come up with an idea for a KRL wiki. This is a challenge since I've never had an original thought in my entire life. So, I will have to fall back on my old favorite - gleaning Great Ideas from other sources. I loved the list of northwest mysteries at the Stevens County wiki. A brief synopsis of each title doesn't seem like too much to ask. They apparently thought so, however.
I visited the Project Runway site, but had no idea what Project Runway was all about, so I didn't glean any Great Ideas from this source. Personally, I would love to hear what others have to say about local restaurant favorites, safe places to ride a bicycle, wonderful thrift stores and cheap & easy recipes that taste good. But I don't suppose any of these Great Ideas have much to do with the function of a library, so if I want to see any of them in print, I'll have to do it myself. And since I doubt that no one except me would consider any of these a Great Idea, it ain't gonna happen.

KRL2.0, Week 9, YouTube

What a great concept! I love YouTube. And I will probably never look at it again unless assigned. I could spend way too much time browsing delightful videos from across the world. Watching the Mecklenburg County library book cart drill team was fun, but they could have edited out two-thirds of the video and still captured all the action. History of Dance was hilarious and all too accurate. I'm sure my favorite, though, will always be Joe and Joan and Dottie Mae reminding us of the right and wrong ways to pack a shipping crate.

Book lists. Where to begin? And Why?

There are probably really good applications for LibraryThing, and I'm trying to keep a good attitude here, but I guess I'm just not social enough to care about what other people have in their personal libraries. Either that, or I'm missing the point entirely. I did complile a list on LibraryThing of some of my favorite children's classics in my personal library, but to be limited to 200 entries really put a damper on things. My quilt book library alone exceeds 200 volumes. Then there are the art books, the history books, the nature guides, the gardening books, devotional and inspirational collections, and of course, the children's classics. I could spend a very long time cataloging my entire home library, and for what? I know what's there if I want it, and I don't much care about editions or publishers. I missed the point of LibraryThing, didn't I?

Flick'ring Through China

I returned yesterday from a wonderful, whirlwind tour of eastern China, and guess what? After three days, my camera died! I was at the mercy of my fellow travelers for photos. Enter Flickr. I suddenly had at my fingertips, a whole range of photos taken by a multitude of tourists taken in the same places I visited. I browsed through a couple hundred photos of Beijing and Suzhou for starters and selected several to my favorites list. I now have those missing pictures of Starbucks in the Forbidden City and the leaning tower of Tiger Hill that I thought would be lost forever. Thank goodness for other peoples' vacation photos. Was this a timely lesson, or what?!?

Podcasting the Weather

The mission today, should I choose to accept it, is to watch or listen to a podcast. I've already listened to/watched a few podcasts in the form of mini-lessons for learning 2.0. They were interesting and informative and served a specific purpose toward fulfilling my homework requirements. My computer doesn't seem to be fast enough to keep up with some podcasts, however, and the audio/video had frequent pauses throughout. It turned three minutes into four, but that was OK.

Today I found an audio podcast that sounded interesting using a podcast search engine (if that's the proper term). The subject heading were "quilters" and "quilting" and "quilts". Unfortunately, most of the four minutes was a lovely voice extolling the virtues of Autumn. She loved the lovely reds and golds of the trees. She loved wearing lovely sweaters all day without getting overheated. I loved it coming to a lovely end.

Feed me! Feed me!

I wanted to conclude my title with "Barf", but restrained the creative urge for just a moment.

I set up an account with Google Reader rather than Blogspot because it seemed easier to keep all the various accounts tied together. Ignorance can be bliss. Or not. I do find it handy to subscribe to "Unshelved", the online library comic strip this way. It keeps my e-mail in-box just a tad tidier.

As with all skills, perhaps this will become easier with practice. We'll see. The most difficult part of this assignment was deciding what information I wanted to be kept current on. I didn't find any. That could be because my search skills are seriously wanting, or because I'm a boring person. I'll assume the former for now.

I tend to eschew information overload, so I do not see myself desiring constant updates from anyone's blog or podcast. (no offense meant, dear friends) I do leave open the possiblilty that I could be wrong, but spending even more time in front of this infernal computer is not my idea of a good time. I'd rather bake a quiche, go for a long walk, read a good book, or work the Sunday crossword with Jeffrey the Wonderhusband. We can do this every day if we choose because I buy books of Sunday crosswords.