As seen in “Library Administrator’s Digest” (May 2008) there are some neat library programs out there. Two of my favorites are “Paws for Reading” where certified therapy dogs are read to by children, and the bicycle loan program at Fort Collins, Colorado, to “reduce air pollution and traffic congestion”.
I finally figured out how to Twitter with my cell phone. Oh boy, this is going to be cool. Now all I have to do is get my BFF and BF to follow my twitter on their phones, and I’m all set. They’ll both know if I missed my bus, if I need a ride, etc. 
At one of the libraries where I work, a co-worker passed along a fascinating link to a haunted library. So why did I categorize this under technology? Check this out.
One library in particular has installed three cameras that are connected to the internet. Yep, you can watch for their ghosts online ’round the clock.
If you see a ghost, you click on the camera image. The image is saved and you can write comments with it. Then the saved image and your caption go into their online collection of ghost pictures.
This was really cool because, as a total scaredy cat myself, I would never ever go near a haunted anything on purpose. Much like I wouldn’t go see a lion in the wild, but in the zoo it’s a different story because I feel more like I’m observing the critter from a safe distance where it is unaware of my presence.
While most of the saved images are shadowy, there were a few that I found truly startling.
Here is a link to their ghost cams: http://www.willardghost.com/index.php?content=ghostcams
And here is a link to one of my favorite ghost images from that library:
1. Disembodied leg. http://www.willardghost.com/ghostspottings/inspect.php?capture=28760&pic=20070111/WillardGhostCapture_20070111-04:09:29.jpg
I was at a conference last week, one that I go to for work each year, and what a difference a year makes.
Last year, there were long lines at the computer center that was set up where we could check our email and print out seminar handouts. This year - no waiting at the computer center.
Two reasons come to mind. First, the hotel has internet in each room and a wireless signal in the lobby!
I was kicking myself for not bringing a laptop from work, because in-room internet was less than $6 per day. Then I really kicked myself on the last day when I found a wireless keyboard in the TV stand! I could have been using internet over the TV in the room even though I had not brought a laptop - wow! I had no idea they were doing that.
Second reason is that so many people have phone/PDA things with internet in their pocket (and yes, I still want an iPhone and I still need to save up for it).
I was recalling this morning at work how very much easier life has been since most of our students have acquired thumb drives. These are also called USB drives or USB keys. Sometimes you will see them on a keyring or a lanyard.
These are so cool becacuse, unlike floppy disks, they don’t get ’stuck’ in the drive slot (for which we have our high-tech diskette removal beauty supply eyebrow tweezers).
They are better than CDs for three reasons. The first reason is that some of our older computers don’t write to CD. The second reason is that sometimes the student will bring a CD that is not re-writable and then they get upset that they can’t write over an older file. The third reason is that CD are prone to scratches and USB do not expose the data surface to damage.
The only drawback to USB is that they are so small. Usually this is a good thing, except that they are so totally small that people forget to take them out of the machine before they leave. We have a special box in our lost & found collection for these.
My thought on this is that the manufacturers should start making them in dayglow neon colors instead of the traditional black and grey - that way they’d be much more eye-catching and therefore more difficult to leave behind on accident.
But until then, if you leave your USB on the lanyard when you put it into a computer, and you tie a colorful little ribbon on the lanyard, you’ll be much less likely to forget your thumb drive when you leave.
I didn’t get it. When I first created an account on Facebook it was so totally boring. There was nothing going on, and it was not easy for me to figure out how to find stuff.
Now, a group of my peers has discovered Facebook, and suddenly it’s the neatest place to be. I feel like I’m in school again, doodling on my papers and passing notes to friends.
I’m sure this initial fascination wears off, as evidenced by our less-frequent logins from a few months ago. And, of course, now that I’ve been actually using it I’ve got too many cutesy little applications plugged into my profile. I’m sure they’re all gleefully sucking cookies off my computer too. But how to choose which ones to let go of?
I find that when a friend sends you an application, it’s tough to say no. One of my problems is that I may have to use my own site to demo stuff for work, so I don’t want to put anything too offensive up there, and yet I still want to have fun at the same time. For example, there are ‘fight’ pokes you can send to your friends (all in fun) but I would hate to have any of those taken out of context.
One of these applications that has me hopelessly hooked is called ‘fluff pets’. Yep, now not only do I go home to clean the litterbox of my own 3 dimensional cat, I have to be sure to feed, pet, and walk my virtual pet daily in order to avoid tremendous guilt as his mood changes from happy to miserable with increases in my neglectfulness. I need a virtual pet-sitter!
iWant an iPhone, and I will whine about it to anyone who knows me. I want visual voicemail. I want the internet in my pocket. I want a camera attached so I can post those pictures instantly instead of having them hidden on little sd cards at home that still need to be unloaded. Not to mention that it’s the coolest iPod ever. And ALL of my friends/relatives/etc. have told me to wait for the price to drop and the next release - grrrrrrrr.
I’m torn now when I use IM.
I’ve been using Windows Live Media (love all the animated winks and emoticons) but it sucks with contacts from yahoo. So for them I go to Meebo. I love Meebo. Nothing to download - log in and go. But it is limited in the cutesy stuff.
And I know that I really should be able to figure out how to use Twitter, but my GenX roots are showing when I’ve got no contacts to use it with!
My newest addiction.
Free site where you can add your favorite titles to your ’shelf’, rate and review them, and share with friends and see their ’shelves’ too. Great concept, now they need to do this with music and movies and they’ll be all set. http://www.shelfari.com
Finally got it working - between code from three different people I’ve got a search box for the NULS OPAC working. I inserted a demo in my MySpace page. For those of you who wish to add it to your webpages here is the source code (use ‘view source’ to pick it up) http://www.myspace.com/virgh
