Web 2.0

I read the first article, Away from Icebergs (http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm), and found it very interesting. It does seem as time goes by the the library is seen less for its stockpile of information and is used more for a meeting place and for entertainment purposes. The Ferguson Library appears to be on the right track, by offering plenty of programs both educational and recreational. Our website is pretty well put together and easily navigable. As time goes by we are able to offer our patrons more and more options to utilize and access the library and what it has to offer via the internet. Although we will never be completely rid of print materials (and we shouldn't, not everything can be accessed completely on the web), you still need to be willing to try new things and accept changes in technology and the ever changing views of our patrons. The longer you stubbornly hang onto out-of-date ways the more you will be left behind when new advances in technology takes everyone else away into the future.

It's a LibraryThing

Wow, what an addictive site! I totally took over from Neptune for this one (he doesn't own any books or read, it's hard for him to turn the pages due to his lack of apposable thumbs). It was rilly easy to add the books, all I did was copy the ISBN numbers off of the back covers. The only trouble I had was trying to catalog some older, out-of-print titles I own (only 3 out of 24 titles, I'll have to play around with the site some more to see if I can manually add them). It was fun to catalog them to my library and see how many other people had the same book! It will take a long time to add them all, but I'd like to do that. I read a ton of books, usually several at a time, and it stinks when you get about 50 pages into a book then suddenly realize, "Hey! I've already read this one!", so it looks like a useful tool to use as a booklist. I've kept my account private for now, but I plan on making it public after I've played with it and added more titles to share with my friends and family. I also like how it links to Amazon.com so the cover of the book appears in 'Your Library'. I collect a lot of graphic novels and manga, it's nice to see the beautiful cover art that most of them have.

Rock & Rollyo

OK, I've been having the same dream for the past couple of nights. I think that makes it more than a hint. Neptune and I or off on a cruise vacation and it's scary how much fun I have with the little guy! We're strolling on the deck enjoying the cool sea breezes and laying out to get a nice tan. No, rilly, I'm serious here, this is what I dream about. So, I decided to do a vacation search engine for my Rollyo engine. I used some of my favorite vacation sites (some of which include www.travelocity.com and www.carnival.com) so I could do a quick keyword search and get a nice list comparing what the different sites have to offer. You can take a peek at a search I did for 'Bermuda' at http://www.rollyo.com/search.html?q=bermuda&sid=323045.

Original Ginsu 1 Ad

Youtube and You

I was just browsing through a catalog when I suddenly burst out with unrestrained laughter. Neptune was both at once miffed (as he was sleeping on my stomach and was indignant about being jostled) as well as being curious (duh, he's a cat) as to what caused my overflowing mirth. I showed him a full page glossy add for Ginzu Knives (now at a current price of $29.95 per amazing set) and he just gave me a blank stare. No really, not even a meow out of the little guy! I was so flabbergasted that he had no idea what the Ginzu knife was and that it is even still around that I was speechless myself. Hello! Ginzu Knife! Can I get a pulse here? The amazing knife that can cute through your grandpa's steel lung and still slice a tomato so thin you can read the repair manual through it! I think this was the first ridiculous infomercial I ever saw, so I used this lesson in my quest to enlighten my son. He still didn't get it. *sigh* Am I the only one who finds this kind of stuff hilarious?

Podcasts

All right, label me ADKD (Attention Deficit Kitty Disorder). I'm not all that into 'paying attention and listening' (my mom prattles on too much about how much her day stunk, so I've learned to tune her out most of the time and just meow at the proper times in her lapses of complaining, so I'm a bit desensitized). Therefore, I'm not all into audio books and stuff, but I did find some pretty fun music sites which I enjoyed. One music podcast I subscribed an RSS feed to was on the site http://www.beatsuite.com/. They even had some fun Halloween themed podcasts. I can't wait to use them to scare the little kittens in the 'hood when they visit my haunted sandbox this year. Mwah-hah-hah, I'm more into tricking than treating.

Audiobooks

Well, I'm a kitty connoisseur of books, so I tried both sites, Netlibrary and Overdrive. Searching was simple on both sites, but Overdrive was a bit nicer due to its 'browse' feature where you could look through a few categories just to see what they had (although there were no categories for 'catnip' or mice'-shocking!). Both sites seemed to have pretty slim pickings and we won't have to worry about them replacing hard copy books at the library any time soon. I also found that unless you liked mainstream authors like James Patterson and Meg Cabot you might be lucky to find even 1 title by an author you like. I was surprised at the lack of classic author titles from writers such as Jules Verne and Emily Bronte, so I had very little luck locating Reading List type books, so it's not a very good option if all the copies are checked out and a kitten needs it for school. Other than that I think Overdrive had a bit more to offer, having different types of items like movies as well as audio books and a lot of the titles could be burnt to cd as well, which looked like a nice feature. I tried to check out a random title, but my library account is one of the many in the system that have the 'Database Error' block on it, which prevents me from checking out titles on Overdrive. I'll have to yell at mommy to make me a new account pronto.

Anything Tech

Wow, that's a HUGE topic...where to begin and what to meow about? Well, I'm still a pretty spry kitten, but I can even remember a day when we didn't have the convenience of photocopiers. In elementary school everyone in class always tried to raise their paw up the highest to be picked to help the teacher print out more activity sheets on the mimeograph machine in the teachers lounge. Now so much can be done on the computer that you don't even need to leave your home! We take the personal computer and internet for granted. Sure, we grumble when a webpage is down or when the internet is slow, but if you stop and think about it: by using the internet and a computer you can work from home, start your own business and even get a college degree by taking the classes on-line and never even entering a classroom! Come to think of it, if we didn't have computers and the internet we wouldn't be able to take Learning 2.0 lessons and earn fun prizes. So, let's bow our heads and give a thankful moment of silence for this technology.

Flickr Mashups

After reading the blog entry, Flickr Mashups, on Reblogga 2.0 (http://rebloggaferg.blogspot.com/), I decided to play around with the 'Spell With Flickr' application. I followed the suggestion in the blog to add the letters as a page element in the bottom window of my template to be able to use this fun application on my blog. Whoever came up with the idea is simply a genius! Now I won't have to subscribe to a couple dozen magazines and get paper cuts and glue in my fur when I make out ransom notes to my mommy. You know, something along the lines of: "If you ever want to see your woobie again leave one opened can of Fancy Feast by my water bowl. P.S. and one toy mouse coated in catnip for dessert".

The Lovable Hedgehog

Spent Saturday running all over a corn maze with a lady friend of mine. While we wound our way through the dust and 100+ degree heat (or so it felt like at the time) we got onto the subject of Toasty, her pet hedgehog. She is a fun loving hedgehog who sleeps all day and is a model by night. You can see some of her famous snapshots in the 2007 calender posted in the Circulation office. Sadly, I don't have any pictures at the moment on my computer to share, so I tried browsing around http://www.flickr.com/ in search of some hedgehog photos to share. Found a purr-fectly cute one at http://www.flickr.com/photos/40239207@N00/188921945/. I suppose if I ever had Toasty over for cocktails I'd serve her up a canape or two. Sharing might be fine for some cats but the Fancy Feast is all mine, baby!

RSS Feeds and Searching

Oooh, I got so aggravated that I attacked the mouse on this one (which wasn't fun cause it was attached to the computer and had no catnip on it)! I tried all three options (Bloglines search, Feedster and Technorati) to try my own search to find posts/blogs on subjects I was interested in and got nothing but a bunch of hooey. When I tried clicking on the 'search tips' link on the Feedster website to see if there was a trick to entering in my search cues I got a big ol' 'Page Cannot Be Found' pop-up. Seemed like no matter what I typed in I got links to completely off subject lists and a lot of random 'adult' content muck. (I hope my mommy didn't see that, she'll think I was being bad and won't give me any catnip mice as punishment. She's so harsh sometimes!). Did anyone else out there have better luck trying these search readers? Also, is there any way to filter the search to bring up other blogs where the subject is what you are looking for and not just one random comment within the text? I'm totally stumped. I'm gonna go take out my frustration on the living room couch now.

RSS Feeds and You

Well, first of all let me say I was very disappointed! When my mommy starting talking about feeds and sat at her computer instead of spooning me out some Fancy Feast(tm) I'm sure you could just imagine how miffed I was. After I gave her the cold shoulder for a few minutes, though, I began to see the light. In just a few short minutes she was able to create a Bloglines account to keep track of some pretty amazing sites. She'll be the first on her block to see some amazing pictures an the blog, http://icanhascheezburger.com/ (of course, none are cuter than me, but we can't all be perfectly wonderful in this world, can we?). She was blah-blah-blahing about being able to subscribe to some other feeds on www.fergusonlibrary.org and www.ala.org to keep track of library issues and events, but I wasn't paying attention. She was also trying to drag me into some boring convo about how she can use this to help keep track of different sites and info for her on-line classes, but at that point I started giving myself a bath and she finally shut her pie-hole.