gaming take two

Thanks to Stacy who urged me to try again. The activeX was on the other computer in the department, so I was able to try out a couple of the Pop games.  Sad to say, I never got the strategic gist of “bejeweled” but was definitely hooked by bookworm. Must be all the scrabulous games I play on Facebook with my friend in Toronto! Good thing it is spring and I don’t have any excuse to sit at a computer and get more hooked on these online games!

Week 15 - gaming and virtual worlds

I tried to play bejeweled on the popcap site as Stacy suggested, but the game never appeared. I will have to try again later.

I can see libraries using virtual worlds to demonstrate various library things. Like RFID self check out procedures to patrons. Or how to do research using electronic databases.

Play time

This week I went to the online generator blog and tried out one of the tools. In honour of the Chinese New Year, I looked up my name and had it translated into Chinese. It was pretty easy to do.

Wiki’s homework on my blog!

Here is the wiki post I had sent to the wrong place initially.

I can see the value of wikis as an easy online way to collaborate on projects.  One of the Library Success wiki ideas that I might use is for posting/viewing various themed story time programs for use by children’s department staff.

Photos and images

Again, I realized I had posted this originally in the wrong place, so I am re-posting it here. I had posted the photo alone on my blog initially.

I posted a photo on my blog from Google images but wondered about copyright issues.  How does one tell if something is copyrighted or not? Jersyg1rls may be tough, but they don’t purposely flaunt the law!

 

e audio

I realized i had posted this in the wrong place. So I am republishing it now.

I admit some hesitation for this week’s homework.  I had numerous questions and concerns. I did not want to create problems on library computers, but hesitated downloading e-audio files to my home computer. I have seen the books on cd with mega sets of cds and wondered about downloading that much data onto my hard drive.  And then debated whether I really wanted to burn it to numerous cds to listen to in the car (I don’t want to listen to it at the computer nor do I have a MP3 player, yet!) Does the burned cd “expire” after the 2 week borrow period? Is there any info on how long the data remains on the hard drive of the computer? Does one have to specially remove data from the hard drive even after the 2 week lending period? I know lots of patrons who really enjoy this service, but I have never seen myself using it except for my infrequent long car trips and have resisted using the collection until now. I tried to check out “milkweed” but my work computer needed the e audio program downloaded, which I found hard to do.

I am not the sort of person who likes to read things on a monitor or sit at a computer to listen to an audio book.

Online Applications

I created a document in Google Docs. Here is the link to my document. http://docs.google.com/Edit?tab=view&docid=dgcm73rr_0hsjpbtdg

It was easy to insert a photo. Now I have to figure out how to share with another team member. I saved my document and shared it with the 2 team hosts, Stan and Bruce. I set up a folder, but had some trouble putting my document into it. That’s all I can manage right now.

I can see using these tools when working on a shared project. Easy to use from any computer. Especially helpful when there are many revisions to keep the current one easy to find.

podcasts, etc

I used the Podcast directory, which took a LONG time to load. Some of the sites I tried to “view” did not load. I typed in “library” as a search, and went to the Sunnyvale Public Library Podcast of “Mother Goose Storytime for pre walkers” http://www.podcast.net/play/84770/11 This is the link to that podcast. It was boring without any visuals.  Maybe because it was hard to hear, let alone appreciate, in our noisy department.

I enjoyed You Tube much more. I especially enjoyed seeing Darcy’s take on the Donald and RFID for a second time. There were a couple of other cute “library” videos that I viewed: “Romance 2.0: You Don’t send me emails anymore” that was made by the Des Plaines Public Library. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5pAjhCQnBk It really raises the bar for staff-made videos! (But I am sure HPL has lots of talent to rise to the occasion)

Did anyone know about this video? It was filmed in the fall of 2007 at Central Library Children’s Department by Mike Long, who dances everywhere and posts the videos on You Tube? This is the link for “Bobby Angels & the Tuxedos - “Baby Sittin” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0FYvu8Zno

RSS feeds and HPL electronic databases

This week’s homework was tricky in that I had already forgotten where I had saved my RSS feeds. I could not save them to my wordpress blog so I had created an Igoogle account. So for this week’s homework part 1, I chose the Canadian Reference Centre database and searched for “Beijing Olympics”.  I saved the feed to “my favorites”, since I will probably use this feed only at work to answer children’s questions about the summer Olympics. For part 2 of the assignment, I chose articles about Web 2.0 and saved them to my email, since I will probably use this information only at work.  I found it difficult to save anything to my WordPress blog and I obviously am not using my IGoogle account since I had completely forgotten it was ever set up!

social network homework

I have played with Facebook this week and enjoy it as way to keep in touch especially with younger people - nieces, nephews, students. It is conveniently accessible from any computer.  Easier than checking my home email account. It is a time consumer, though! I am interested in how the student at Ryerson College who set up a study group on Facebook fares after his expulsion meeting.