The moral of the story.....about a picture book

On the back of this book are a couple of reviews; "The humor will enchant any youngster with a fondness for animals and a taste for the ridiculous."-New York Times

"Children will be delighted with its nonsense."-Booklist

The fact is, if you are a grown up, you may be touched by the many morals going on in this book. Borrow it @ http://catalog.columbuslibrary.org/

del.icio.us

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+del.icio.us&search_type=&aq=f
Reference the link to watch YouTube videos that tell you how to use del.icio.us.

After looking at some of the bookmarks of the learn and play post #13; http://columbusmetropolitanlibrary.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/13-tagging-folksomonies-social- I realized that delicious would make it easy to access information from any location and facilitate most any project. I added the bookmarks to my delicious so that I can view them without going to or through the Learn and Play blog.

Here are instructions on making your blog bookmarkable: http://delicious.com/help/tools
Add this blog to your bookmarks!!

David Foster Wallace

"There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"......if you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about."

Commencement speach at Kenyon College, May 21, 2005 http://www.marginalia.org/dfw_kenyon_commencement.html

Somebody mentioned this author and how sad it was that he was gone. I had no knowledge of him then. So I had to look him up and see who this was. I watched some videos of him in interviews. I read some reviews about his writing and then I came upon his speach to the students at Kenyon College and I read it. I fell in love and I cried. Please read this speach if you haven't already.

Library 2.0 Web 2.0

A few months back we needed information about a car part and I used the "ask a librarian" feature of CML's homepage. What I got was a scanned image from one of the car repair publications delivered into my e-mail. I was thrilled.
Technological innovations that allow information to be accessible through the Internet are important because having to drive to a library, search the available publications on site, or wait in line to get help is often too time consuming and tedious for our purposes. Patrons need to feel not only comfortable, but pleased with their library experiences and proud to say "I just went to the library homepage....".
Michael Stephen's "Into a New World of Librarianship" points out many of the important traits necessary to support the above mentioned experience between a patron and librarian.
In addition, Tim Burners-Lee describes web 2.0 technology components as "the idea of the proliferation of inter connectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content" see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0.
There are libraries currently connected to Twitter so that content announcing upcoming events automatically posts to Twitter. The use of Twitter among other social networking tools allows for much greater interaction that is on par with how our world is using the Internet to stay informed and collaborate.

I do feel that the library is afraid of a load it can't carry well, though. For example, if there are many patrons in need of assistance and not enough staff to fulfill their needs, it really doesn't matter what technology you have in place. People will be frustrated. We have had computer failures before when not as catastrophic conditions as those we have experienced in the aftermath of Ike occurred and patrons who were interested in books expected staff to be able to take them to materials. Another example of us being unable to carry our load well is when an announcement has been made that we are unaware of which alerts customers to materials we don't know about or services we lack knowledge of or ability to deliver well. If 2.0 means communication and collaboration, it must be well done internally first and thus will be reflected in our ablility to better serve the public.

Twitter help during Ike

I have been tracking Twitter use during Hurricane Ike. Several accounts are devoted to assisting or communicating updates during the crisis;
TrackingIke http://www.statesman.com/
hurricaneike http://digg.com/general_sciences/Live_Hurricane_Ike_Coverage_on_Twitter
dw_Ike http://www.disasterwatch.org/
chronhurricane http://www.chron.com/news/specials/hurricane/

This one is of particular note: http://www.ecitizencorps.com/ showing up as "ecert" on Twitter, it's purpose is stated as;
"Uniting New Media Communities for National Preparedness
eCitizen Corps asks you to embrace the personal responsibility to be prepared; to get training in using social networks, blogging and new media; and to use these skills as a eVolunteer to support local emergency responders, disaster relief, and community safety."
One of the leaders of eCitizenCorps was sending messages such as; "US Department of Homeland Security Guard deployed 3500+ officers have come in through EMAC http://www.emacweb.org/ Hurricane Ike #Ike"
The number sign ahead of Ike is a hashtag(a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag) developed as a means to create groupings on twitter. See; http://hashtags.org/
In addition, the Red Cross is also on Twitter with an account called "Safe and Well" https://disastersafe.redcross.org/and at http://redcrosschat.org/
Updates and links to services and information made available through Twitter are an effective way to communicate in a crises on a large scale.

Columbus Gasoline Prices and Hurricane Ike

As I was driving to the storage space, I filled up with gas; $3.52/ga. As I was driving back I looked at the sign and; $3.79/ga. Even before any damage is really done, they have raised the price. So, with that in mind...

Put your Blog posts on Twitter

http://www.twitterfeed.com/

I am playing with this one. Not sure I got it together, but will see. It's just what you need to communicate automatically what is happening on your blog.

Mad Money

Music over Twitter

I took this one off because of the huge # of tweets, but it's a good one for a short while to get the URL and pick a station.
Found an internet radio station portal on Twitter http://www.stationportal.com/?page=stationhistory%26u=http%253a%252f%252f207.200.96.227%253a8008
Follow me on Twitter and look for the icon. Click on it and you can see tweets from that icon. If you want to...you can follow the person/reference so that their tweets are visible on your twitter. The icons here are just so u know what to look for or you can search them by their name/title.

Westerville Tweets

I am absolutely mystified. How can it be that Westerville is so savy that they are tweeting good stuff, using slideshare, etc etc. Check em out...http://tinyurl.com/5lxkd6

I am following several news and information tweets. Having small bits of info usually including a link is very practical. Follow me on twiiter via the widget in the sidebar.

Storage search

Searching for storage facilities today on the web. I am familiar with a couple near where I am located that are not easily located via the internet. That surprises me. Even though they are missing from this site: http://www.usstoragesearch.com it is the best resource for finding storage because each facility has to give you a 1 month free coupon that are offered because they post with the service.

Blogging On

Click on title...get a "whizle" guide to blogging. The guide mentions not being concerned that nobody is reading your blog. It's a "just dive in" approach to the "art". Anyway, since we are moving along a week at a time on this, I backed off from running ahead because there are assignments. I have already used del.icio.us and LibraryThing. I have also found some cool tools such as http://goanimate.com/ After creating a mashup with silverlight, I discovered that people would have to download it to see my work. Flash is better.
I really like blogging. I started having ideas for themes to blog about that some "civilians" might take an interest in. I am looking for a widget that allows visitors to chat with each other on my blog. Now that would be convenient. It's like point of purchase advertising...you need to connect NOW. Not tomorrow or maybe next week sometime to get an impact.