Fairtomiddling's Weblog

E-Audio Books

fairtomiddling — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:41:28 +0000

So . . . I did some downloading on our home computer and somehow I was able to operate Overdrive, though I don’t recall the steps I went through. I placed a book on reserve and checked out a book by John Stott called Why I Am a Christian and had a chance to hear the preface. Hoping to listen to parts of this later this weekend.

I then went to NetLibrary, which several colleagues have said is easier to use–checked out two books: Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh and Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl. However, when I went to listen to them, I found that I had to redo the downloading of Windows Media Player (and ran out of time) to do so.

Although I was happy to find myself listening to Overdrive e-audio, I’m unsure about the process I used to activate it–it seemed different than the process described on our website.

One difference between the two e-audio locations: Overdrive has so many more items available–there are less than 800 books accessible through NetLibrary and I found the classification of some of their titles odd, too, as if it wasn’t a librarian organizing them. The e-book collection is interesting, though.

P.S. How many librarians does it take to change a lightbulb? We’re not sure, but we can look that up for you. (thanks to a CE4 patron looking for joke books) And, on that note, my course work is done!

Google Docs

fairtomiddling — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:30:54 +0000

This is one of my documents–I also have one on Gardening Tips, with a couple of Web entries:

STAFF MEETING AGENDA SUGGESTIONS

oversized paperbacks

SOMP print rotation?

We could use Google docs for recording random ideas, concerns and suggestions while at info desks.

I could see using the share feature for committee work, e.g., compiling next year’s list for Books and Bites, which we’re used to doing with e-mail.

Gerri

Second Life

fairtomiddling — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:55:57 +0000

I’ve been trying to get a handle on this phenomenon–and don’t really (understand its virtues.) At first sight, it just seems ugly to me, and therefore disinviting. Anyway, by exploring some of the suggested links, I did find this interesting blog site: Rough Type by Nicholas G. Carr, with its take on the carbon footprint of the avatar:

www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/12/avatars_consume.php

What do you folks think? Is this meant to be tongue-in-cheek?

(I will also confess to spending between 1 and 5 hours hooked on playing Bejeweled and Zuma. I don’t think I should ever enter a casino!)

f2m

Podcasts

fairtomiddling — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:55:13 +0000

I’ve enjoyed the podcasts produced by the National Public Radio.

For example, last night I listened to a review of a book about a Victorian murder case: Kate Summerscale’s The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher. If I’d had more time I could have listened to the most recent news. Anyway–it’s a great connection!

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php

Gerri

Electronic Database Services @ HPL

fairtomiddling — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:39:04 +0000

I had a little difficulty creating the EBSCO alert–I simply couldn’t find out where to paste the new feed. (I guess HPL isn’t the only organization to change terminology and throw us aging boomers for a loop, staff or no.)

I think the Search Alert feature is a very good tool–one I wouldn’t have known about before this course. It could be helpful for someone working on a major paper over a period of weeks (for example). Could a link be created under Info to Go to a short tutorial for customers ?

Gerri

del.icio.us

fairtomiddling — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:31:16 +0000

My newest addresses are: http://del.icio.us/fairtomiddling, and

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Gerrilink

(I hope these don’t tell you too much about me . . . )

What made me think of olive trees?

fairtomiddling — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:59:59 +0000

Winding Wall

fairtomiddling — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:50:55 +0000

British artist Andy Goldsworthy constructed this wall-in-a-wood. I love his work and think you will, too.

Playtime

fairtomiddling — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:09:53 +0000

Although I didn’t have much time to review these features (Family Day week makes for an interesting schedule), I did apply the Blog Readability formula and scan the Generator Blog. (The Nightingale Song generator is interesting, though I guess we’d have to take the author’s “word” for its authenticity. The snowflake generator is a good proposition, but the results weren’t visually satisfying.) If I have time and can figure it out, I’ll try to add my name in Chinese characters, an idea I saw on Jerseyg1rl’s blog.

Au revoir!

RSS

fairtomiddling — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:28:14 +0000

Well, I’m set up in Bloglines after trying to use Google Reader (broken link?)
I subscribed to BBC and a number of other feeds suggested by Bloglines–unsubscribed to a few already as the material was disorganized-looking or dated 2003 or 2004. Could I be missing something? The problems were with NYT Review of Books and the […]

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