Task 19 YouTube

Is this worth adding as an entry? I dunno - but it made me grin so I'm adding it for the smile factor. I think that makes it worthy.
I fell in love with Lyle Lovett when I heard him sing this song - made me think that a man should have recorded it in the first place. You remember him - he was Julia Robert's first husband - the guy with the weird hair.

YouTube rules in our house - we all love it. How can you not like a site where you discover death metal folk?

This video of the old song "Stand by Me" is not from YouTube, but it's just WONDERFUL - it'll put a big smile on your dial and start your toes tapping. What fun this must have been to make.

Task 18 iGoogle

A couple of years ago we were all gungho for iGoogle in this library. We all discovered Del.icio.us and iGoogle at the same time. I didn't like it then, because every time I used Google after that it would open at my iGoogle page and that wasn't always what I wanted it to do.
It took me quite a while to figure out how to shut it down and I was relieved when I finally got shot of it - I felt at the time that Google was taking over my world; that my privacy was being somehow invaded.
So - iGoogle is not my cuppa.
Also - fond as I am of Google - making an iGoogle page my personal home page means I probably won't think to look anywhere else much for "stuff" - (does that say more about what a lazy person I might be than it does about Google?)

Task 17 Google MAPS and Google DOCS

I love Google MAPS. We use it regularly at home, usually to check a location on a map, but I always ask for directions , either because I really do need help getting somewhere or because I want to test my directional skills against it. I have found that it isn't always uptodate - worth remembering - but then as I only buy a new street directory every few years it's often out of date as well.

Today I added a place to the map; now I have to wait and see if it's accepted. Fingers crossed!!

I have read the Wikipedia entry about criticism of Google - I never thought about suing them for invasion of privacy, but I would like to force them to put up a new picture of the street view of my house - the day they chose to photograph my street was the day I had put out rubbish for a council kerbside cleanup, so there is a particularly unattractive view of my estate. I'm sure it's value has diminished as a consequence. I also have looked for friend's homes and been given the wrong view - so again not always accurate.....

I didn't know Google Documents existed - but I can see that it might be useful - perhaps if travelling and needing access to your own documents - but I wonder about how secure it is. Think I'd prefer to rely on my trusty USB.

Task 16 Add an entry to Libnet

It was harder thinking of something to add than it was doing it. Well played Libnet.
Here's a clip of what I added - well played Byrds.

Task 15 Wikis

I couldn't tell you how often my household uses Wikipedia, but at a guess I'd say at least once daily.

I use it all the time - for answers to questions about old tv shows and music and movies; for crosswords - it's the first place I look.

Despite all my best efforts, my youngest son still regards it as the definitive reference tool for school assignments...and his marks suggest that it serves him well. What that says about the standards of our education system will become quite evident in 4 years time when he starts University....or will it?!

My only other experience of a Wiki is our own Libnet - which I use all the time to find answers, but also add to as often as necessary. It is easy to use - though I am finding that the bigger it gets the harder it is getting to find stuff. I think we need a second Wiki called WikiArk where all the stuff that isn't looked at very often can go.....just joking - think perhaps we need to be stronger about what stays there.

I like Library Success: a best practices wiki - found some interesting tips here on library displays and will come back to this wiki again.

Task 14 Technorati

This is where I turn into a complete luddite and go BAH HUMBUG. I am beginning to find blogging a bit weird - like wanting to be on Big Brother, or Idol. Technorati shows me that there are millions of geeks out there all looking for their 15 minutes of celebrity and really, who cares?
I think blogging with purpose is great - eg conference organizers might have a blog, but this would have a specific time frame and then become largely irrelevant - but just to air your views on anything and everything seems pointless.

I found this video about Facebook, which I thought was pretty funny, by browsing on Technorati, but if I'd waited long enough I think I would have ended up with it in my inbox.

OK, so tags are a good thing, more or less - certainly gives you a better chance of finding something that hasn't been catalogued, but I'm not at all sure that I want to know the personal opinions of heaps of strangers. I am feeling like the world is about to be crushed by the overload of information and hot air on the net so I'll get off my high horse and will stop adding to it at least for today.

Task 13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I signed up for de.icio.us a long time ago - it's a favourite place to play on if I have some time when mouse clicking is all I feel up for....

....so I thought I'd look at it from a work perspective this time round. I felt in the short time I gave it, that for that sort of searching I'd rather use Google. We have been looking at ideas to make the displays in our Library more enticing, so I thought I'd see what I could find here. Sadly, the answer is not much...no more than by trawling through using Google. However I didn't find this fascinating site on Google so I'm pleased Mr Lee's put Google Earth to such good use. And, no, I have no idea how I got from Library Displays to CatCam......

Task 12 LibriVox

Fabulous.

I went searching for a book by Freud that had been requested on audio and which we hadn't been able to find - and BINGO! Lucky though because only 2 books by Freud were in the catalogue and the one I wanted was one of them.

Easy to use, lots of help and a worthwhile exercise - a great use of technology I think.

Task 11 Google Books

I've used Google Books at work for tracking down out of print texts - with mixed results. Still it's always exciting to find something freely available online that you thought you'd have to pay to borrow from someplace obscure.

This time I thought I'd have a look for some books I haven't seen for a long time, so I picked a couple of titles my Dad introduced me to when I first started burrowing into his bookshelves for more to read than the local kids library could offer.

I went searching for The specialist by Chic Sale.
The results were dispppointing - no preview, no reviews, no summary of contents. For those who've never heard of it - it's about someone my generation so charmingly called the Dunny Man. Once a week (or more if you could afford to pay for the extra collection) he would come and empty the contents of the backyard toilet. I know that not all of you will remember times when you couldn't just pop into the ensuite in the middle of the night, but once upon a time (and not so very long ago really since I am still alive to tell the tale) we had to put on our slippers and dressing gown, take a torch and go out into the backyard to go to the loo. I think the most exciting day of my adolescence was the day the indoor toilet was first flushed! (even better than the day a man walked on the moon). Anyway - this was a funny little book and my only memory of it was an outdoor earth closet with moons or stars cut in the door so he could look out while completing his visit. I'm sorry that I couldn't find out more about it, or about where I might buy it.

So - I tried one more - 1066 and all that - can't remember the authors. All Google could give me was fuller title and author details:

1066 and all that: a memorable history of England, comprising all the parts you can remember including one hundred and three good things, five bad kings and two genuine dates

By Walter Carruthers Sellar, Robert Julian Yeatman, John Reynolds

Illustrated by John Reynolds - good fun as I remember it - wonder if I would still find it as funny now.
Resolved not to spend any more time looking especially since I know already that this can be a useful tool.