#8 RSS Feeds

I set up a Bloglines account to keep track of my sites that I want updates for. I have 15 entries in my feeds, some are of other library bloggers, there are some scrapbooking feeds, Imdb movie feed and a fun feed for up-to-date Sudoku games.

I also have an RSS link on my blog for any one who wants to add my blog to their Bloglines account, all they need to do is sign into their bloglines account, open my blog and click on the link to add me to their feeds list.

Using RSS feeds, I was able to add a weather watcher, where I chose five cities to give me up-to-date weather.

When looking up Sudoku in my Blogline searcher not only did I find it had a feed I could add to my feed list but also a html script allowing me to add it to my Blog page.

Feedster is a RSS search site where you can find feeds of a topic you are interested in and create what they call a Widget, when you have created your Widget, it gives you a html script you can include on your blog giving regular updates. But it also works just like the blogline searcher where you can find feeds and add your chosen feed to your blogline feed.

#7 Technology

There is no escaping technology, no matter where you go you are faced with it, keeping up with it is the biggest challenge of all. We have gone from morse code and writing letters to mobile phones, sms messaging, msn instant messaging and emails. Even when you go to a supermarket, the machines do all the tallying up for you, there is no thinking or working out for yourself.












As a circulation officer I have library patrons asking me for books on computers. They ask for instructional book on how to use the computer. What surprises me, is that when asked about what kind of things they want to learn about their computer 95% would say emails and surfing the net.

But what these people don't realize is that there is so much more that can be done on computers and lots of fun to be had.

I love my computer and so do my children, creating fliers, posters, business cards, typing letters and searching for new and interesting fonts to use instead of the standard ones. They have the computer to do their school homework and the internet to find cliparts, to enhance the end result.

The wonderful thing I really like about my computer is generating your own home movies with movie maker. When my daughter turned 16 I embarrassed her by scanning photos of her from when she was a baby to the latest photos. I then put them into movie maker, giving each photo a different transition (the fade out of one and opening of another photo). Then you can add music for background sound which plays while viewing the slides. Also giving it the finishing touches by adding an opening statement and ending it with credits. When you are happy with your creation, the last step is to save it... Then sit back and watch your creation come to life.

Below is just a small sample of a video done with Windows Movie Maker.



How can this form of Technology be used in a library you might ask? It can be used as demonstrated in an earlier blog post "Adding images to audio to make a video" to promote new books, videos, audio books or anything the library wishes to promote, even to show activities that took place in the library. These movies can also be put on hard disc and viewed by video through a TV screen.

#6 Mashup!... I finally did it.

Hey all,
At first I found Mashup to be a bit of a struggle. I wasn't really sure what to do, and I had come up with a few ideas, but they weren't really what I wanted to do. After A LOT of playing around I came up with this.


So what I did here, was to use Bubblr.
I inserted a picture from Flickr into the program and then choose the speech bubble that I wanted and inserted the text. Using Bubblr was quite fun and easy to use. I only used one picture but it has the function to produce a comic strip.

Adding Images To Audio creating a Video

Press play to view the slide show and listen to a small snippet of the Book

Eragon

#6 Flickr Fun

Flickr had me baffled for a while, wasn't sure if I liked it or not. Still not sure. But I have uploaded quite a few photos. Last lot of photos I added are photos of our Heath Road Library which I have put into the blog as a sort of slide show. This is called "Build a Badge" which is a tool found in the upload photos section. I like this effect.

#5 Flickr "Ready to stand...."

"Ready to stand....",
originally uploaded by disney_dreamer700.

Flickr, interesting, still feeling my way around learning new things about it. I have uploaded photos and had made them private. But have decided that I would change it to public as they are only photos of my puppy (well not such a puppy any more - she is 9 years old).

So as Ariel would say "ready to stand..." so I have taken my first steps creating this calender with fd's Flickr Toys.
Hopefully the first of many.

#4 Setting up Blog & Registering

After creating my blog the next step was (as a scrapbooker) to make it colourful and reflect a little bit about me.....

If you haven't guessed I love Disney classics, my favourite colours are pink and purple, I am a bit of a romantic at heart and I just had to add a bit of "Bling" to the page.

As for registering the blog, how scary is that... Registering makes it official, entering into an agreement to continue with it, overcoming obstacles, learning new things, putting what you learn into practice in the blog and watching it grow to reach the end goal (achieving the 23 things).

Just like Belle, making a promise (agreement) to return to The Beast after visiting her father who was ill, learning to trust one another, overcoming their differences, friendships growing and by the time they got to the end something wonderful and magical happens.
...But the point is they got there.

# 3 First post

Hi all,

Surprisingly I work in a library and I'm suffering from writers block!! I don't know what to write. Well I suppose I should start with the Lifelong Learners and what the podcast taught me.

When she spoke about what it means to be a Lifelong Learner I realised I have always been one. But one thing she did not mention was motherhood, and the many obstacles mother face and have needed to overcome. First as babies learning on a daily basis what each cry meant and the changing of nappies, to children letting them leave for their first day of school and to now, like my oldest one at 19, having his own car and watching my littlest one in her last year of high school.

But I must say, at heart, I am a Disney Dreamer as I'm sure most women are too . . . dreaming of that Prince Charming riding up on his noble steed . . .
and whisking you away into the sunset.