Musings

Well I managed to finish despite not having enough time in work. Again, all very enjoyable as I love learning about new technology and new ways to share ideas. The least impressive for me was FeedMyInbox as I don't personally feel the need for RSS feeds, although I recognise their use for other people. My favourite was definitely SlideShare as it was so easy to use and there were so many great presentations on there. Tastespotting was fun and enCompass Culture is also something I'll use again. File sharing is very useful and Box was worthwhile. PicApp must be a godsend for more dedicated bloggers. Looking forward to the next one!!

EnCompassCulture - the global bookclub

An interesting site and easy to use. I had a look at the humorous travel books, a genre I love, and found much to tempt me. I then looked at the books for 12-18 year olds and found the Contemporary classics, which would be very useful in readers' advisory as lots of parents want their children to read 'good books'. However, I was disappointed to see that they only listed seven titles. I then tried Reality for Struggles and Self-Discovery and got a more satisfactory 290 titles. Definitely a site for both staff and customers.

Web 2.0 Tools to Inspire

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Web 2.0 Tools to Inspire

View more presentations from Chrystal Porter.

SlideShare - online presentations

SlideShare is very easy to use. I watched one presentation Web 2.0 Tools to Inspire and was so impressed that I decided to post it to my blog so that I could easily revisit it. I didn't have to register and within two minutes it was on my blog. Wow! I then watched Visual Definitions of Web 2.0 which was also very interesting and finally An introduction to Web 2.0: The User Role which was a short and simplified explanation of Web 2.0. I think this a great site which could be very useful to library staff and is also something we could suggest to customers. It does say that you should get a free account in order to share, but I posted to my blog without doing that.

Tastespotting - a community driven visual potluck

Yum - looking forward to browsing this site. I had a quick look at it last time I was on struggling with Picapp and saw a lovely savoury scone picture which inspired me to make batches of savoury scones and muffins at the weekend. This time a mashed potato pizza caught my eye, but I decided that was a bit much for the waistline. Settled on cauliflower with mustard seeds as I'm not a cauli fan and this looked a good way to serve it. Mmmh, I could browse this site all day and I'm trying hard not to salivate over the desk! What was the question again? Oh yes, an easy site to use, registering was quick and easy and I will definitely use it again, love recipe sites and this is a great one. Nice to have a fun site and as cookery books are so popular, lots of customers would like this site too.

FeedMyInbox - RSS made simple

After struggling with PicApp, FeedMyInbox was easy to use and I set up an account and subscribed first to Auckland City Libraries Books in the city Posts. I then tried the NZ Book Council, but it couldn't find any feeds. I then successfully subscribed to Lianza. I look forward to seeing the feed into my inbox from these sites.
PS I now have regular feeds from Lianza, but not from Auckland City Libraries - better check that out.

Picapp

I struggled with this exercise, but eventually got it right! Yay! I kept trying to upload the image under Compose instead of Edit HTML. The site is great and there are lots of fantastic photographs. I chose a golf image because I watched quite a lot of the Tour championship over the weekend. Having eventually mastered it, I could help customers with it. I think the level of expertise of a lot of the customers is above mine, so they would probably find it easier!!