Email Etiquette

Email etiquette. Seems like commonsense to me, but then commonsense isn't all that common.

Personally, I have a pet peeve about chain emails. Some people I know--they shall remain nameless--send me these emails in which I am suppose to forward on to 10 other people. Those who have, have had miraculous things happen to them; those who haven't, well, you just better look out. Yea, okay. Delete!

Messing around with mashups

I've always wanted to be the publisher of a serious scholarly journal.

Here is where to go for your own adventure in publishing: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php

the LibraryThing thing

Below are a few of my favourite books that I have added to my just created LibraryThing account. I did a bit of exploring within LibraryThing and found the Librarians who LibraryThing group (apparently it's a verb too, you know, as in just Google it). Though there are more things than book reviews to be found on this site, I see that as its main purpose. However, as a librarian, I have numerous resources at my fintertips where I can find book reviews and reader's advisory information. I don't see myself spending a lot of time with the 'thing.'

Talking about my generation

Okay, text generators. Googled that term and found this site, http://cooltext.com/, and created this zany rendering of the title of my blog.






What more can I say? It's not something I would spend a lot of time doing, 'pimping-up' my blog with funky font, but I now know how to do it.

And here is a photo of the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem from my trip to Israel in 1999. Using an image generator, Big Huge Labs, I added the framing.

RSS Feeds

Here is my public page so you can see the librarian blogs I have added to my feeder:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/00448992464309602516/label/Blogs

And the news sites I've added:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/user/00448992464309602516/label/News

Personally, I don't think this is a tool I would use. I like visiting the CBC News website --- it is my homepage on my PC at home. The site provides images and video clips that are right there to see. The Google Reader just looks like another email inbox. It isn't that visually appealing. How much news can anyone digest in any one day? I think the CBC does a good job of covering both local, national and international news, but if I want another perspective I visit BBC News. It too has pretty pictures. Granted, people may use this tool for other things besides news sites.

(As much as I admire CBC, I didn't intend this to be a plug for the corporation. And especially so considering the changes they are planning for Radio 2 this September. I am a-fumin'! Okay, that's a whole different blog.)

I prefer del.icio.us as a way of bookmarking those information sources I want to have regular access to.
Here is my account:
http://del.icio.us/alibraryguy

Exploring Flickr

I have done some past exploring in Flickr and have downloaded some images to use as Desktop displays. However, I've wondered about copyright --- are you free to use these public images for your own personal use? Well, a quick Google search answered that question. There are a few different types of copyright licences that specify in what way you can use an image.

Have a look: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Or for some idle pleasure, search 'librarians' in Flickr.

Del.icio.us

Jumping ahead to #10 on the NVDPL Playground list, here is my del.icio.us address:

http://del.icio.us/alibraryguy

I created it about a year ago and have been adding to it bit by bit. I use it mainly for saving reader's advisory websites, and other librarian reference and resource material that pertains to B.C. and Canada. I think it is useful and I do use it, but like Bookmarks/Favourites, you can go a bit crazy with adding all those webpages you are certain you just have to save.

Looking at the tags that others have applied to the webpages I've saved, I see that my tags are longer than most. Still, there are others who, like myself, have a preference for clear description.

Take a look.