Podcasts, complaints and the SF Chronicle

Did you know that the SF Chronicle has podcasts and that these include voicemail complaints from readers? Under Correct me if I'm wrong you can listen to selected complaints. One call about "pilotless drones" has inspired some interesting mashups , including some on You-tube.

Rollyo and Del.icio.us (Things 12 and 13)

I've explored Rollyo and can't quite work it all out to my satisfaction. Having your own search engine seems like a good idea, I haven't worked it out for me quite yet.
I've had a de.licio.us account for some time and I haven't yet fully explored all de.licio.us has to offer. It hasn't been that long ago since, when given a new task, I was handed a stack of articles to read by a certain librarian who shall remain nameless. If we could roll backward, I'd encourage her to send me a del.icio.us list and have various updatings. I now have my del.icio.us and post to del.icio.us added to my tool bar so I can clip and return whenever I need to. See my Rollyo search engine and some of my recent postings in my del.icio.us on the bottom right. I haven't done much with tagging except add tags to a number of my postings.

Hear it speak in different accents! Oddcast text to speech generator.

Oddcast has interesting talking avatar generators who can speak in several languages, different accents, and eye track your mouse pointer! Try Oddcast Text to Speech generator. It's fun!

SOPAC at AADL

A Social OPAC?
I just had to look at AADL (Ann Arbor District Library)'s online catalog after reading John Blyberg's article AADL.org goes social . Simply put:

"...It’s basically a set of social networking tools integrated into the AADL catalog. It gives users the ability to rate, review, comment-on, and tag items. "

And this is in addition to information provided Syndetic Solutions. Also linked to the OPAC are books, audio and video blogs. Would our users at SJPL/ SJSU like this?

I Love LibraryThing. (Thing 19)

I've used my LibraryThing account to keep track of books (mainly fiction) that I've read or that the various book groups I belong to are reading. (For more details on what I've read and what I've done with them, click on Random Books from my library on the sidebar.) It's wonderful to have all this cataloging information available and be able to add it all by typing in the title. I've explored some of the groups, but haven't joined in the conversations. If I had time, I'd use it to catalog my own library of mostly nonfiction. I set up another account on to try to track others who were reading books I was reading on a certain subject; I found records, but little comment or discussion, though I know I could always start a new group. Interesting lists and tags, though I prefer Amazon to explore what's out and available on the subject as well as read comments and reviews.

Of course I can do this!

I went back to view the WPLBookClub site of the Waterloo Public Library to get tips for a possible blog for the Staff Book Club. Looking at it after a few months, I realize that it's done on blogger -- and can recognize features that I can do! How inspiring!

February's King Staff Book Discussion will feature the Silicon Valley Reads selection:

Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle

The newest selection for the Silicon Valley Reads community program is "The Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle. This novel depicts the lives of two Southern California couples who live in close proximity to each other, but under very different circumstances. One couple is affluent liberals; the other illegal immigrants. Eventually, their different worlds intersect in what the publisher calls "a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.

• Author's web site
• Discussion questions and reading group guide
• Place a hold on a copy of the book
• Silicon Valley Reads events:
  
  The King Library Staff Book Discussion Group will meet on Thursday , February, 2007 at 12 p.m. in Room 4025. All who work at SJPL and SJSU welcome.

I always knew I belonged in San Francisco but I didn't know I was rich! (Thing 10)

You Belong in San Francisco

You crave an eclectic, urban environment. You're half California, half NYC. You're open minded, tolerant, and secretly think you're the best. People may dismiss you as a hippie, but you're also progressive, interesting, and rich!

Where Does Your Inner Californian Belong?

I always knew I belonged in San Francisco.
I wonder if Fresno, Weed, Merced, Redding, Eureka, Milpitas are locations for inner Californians?

Blogthings is a lot of fun!!

Bloglines (Thing 8 and Thing 9)

Bloglines is great! Once upon a time I had a lot of Favorites. My Favorite (bookmark) list was really getting out of hand. Now with Bloglines I don't have to check every website on my favorites list for new updates: I've put a Blogline link on my toolbar. It's true that sometimes these Bloglines can accumulate. Should I continue to subscribe to the Resource Shelf? Was linking to the BBC news feed a very bad idea? Stay tuned and have a look at my Bloglines link. (Under "links" at the right of this blog.) Don't forget that you can "clip" entries that you may want to read again and again.
Downside: Once you've clicked on the blog entry it's gone if you haven't saved it.

Flickr and Colin's Japan

My friend Colin made business trips to Japan last year and sent me a CD of photos. With his permission, I uploaded his photos to Flickr, created a set and a flickr badge.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I was dreading working with Flickr. I don't have a digital camera, but am seriously thinking of getting one. Does anyone reading this blog have any recommendations?

Future of Learning Manifesto (Thing 7)

Stephen Abram's blog alerted me to Christian Long's Future of Learning Manifesto which has been circulating by educators and librarians for about a week. If you consider yourself an educator (I do), it's worth looking at and pondering. It's roughly an exhange between a student (high school/community college) and instructor and has some interesting points about the use of technology. Beware! You may react strongly! Don't let it get you down!
Here's the short version:

"The Future of Learning" Manifesto (draft #1 -- 1.4.07) -- The shortened version:
1. "Playing Small Does Not Serve the World." 2. What Would Socrates Do? 3. Nobody Cares if You Walked Up Hill Both Ways Barefoot in the Snow. 4. Got Passion? If Not, I'll Tell You What To Care About. 5. My Memory Is Only As Big As My Heart. Otherwise, I'll Stick with Google. 6. Look it Up or Die. 7. Collaboration Ain't About Holding Hands. It’s about Going Cool Places Fast. 8. This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record. 9. It Ain't About the Technology. It's About Being Inside the Story. 10. Nobody Knows the Answer. Get Comfy with the Questions

LaSeal

Decision? Forward or Backward?

After being a model for a motivational poster and the subject of a hockneyizer, it's no wonder that this shingle back doesn't want to line up! Yes there is a definite forward and backward, but you do have to look closely. You'll find more shingle backs on Flickr.
Picture by Brandon.

New Template and Editing Tools

I changed the template to take advantage of the editing tools and so have moved from (Old) Blogger to Blogger Beta to Blogger (2) and lost my Library Thing widget. So will be starting over again and again. What fun!!

A Flicker picture from Flickr (Thing 5)

20060326_089a
Originally uploaded by joe calhoun.

This is a Flicker.
If all goes right I will have posted this picture on my blog entry successfully. First I set up a Flickr account. Then after (several weeks of) looking around Flickr, I found this photograph under Flickr's Creative Commons. (Photographer: Joe Calhoun) and put it on this blog using Flickr's blogging tool. (I did a test first (posting below).

This demonstrates how easy it is to find pictures and add them to your blog.
I was dreading doing this.

LaSeal

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Thing 4:Blogging Song

Since I'm already connected, here's a song for all you SJ Learning 2 bloggers:

I got a blog,
You'll have a blog,
SJ Learning has a blog!
In February of two thousand seven
All of us'll be blogging, blogging
All of us'll be blogging.

Happy holidays to all you previewers!

LaSeal

This is Thing 3!

In this blog I have 2 (actually more) things!
I have shown them to you!
These (anonymous) things
I (didn't) call them Thing One and Thing Two!

With apologies to Dr. Seuss

I still need to tinker with this blogger beta account. Stay tuned!

LaSeal

Seven and a half habits of Successful Life Long Learning

I found the presentation very easy to access, though I couldn't download the contract. I took down notes in Microsoft Word. The assignment:

Which of the seven and a half habits is:

• Easiest ? Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning. Usually I don't wait for someone to suggest something I should learn. I'm always looking for opportunities and new experiences.
• Hardest? Habit 7: Teach and mentor others. I usually don't pass on the experience, though I've learned that I learn more when I need to teach something, even if it's something I pass on one to one. Usually I don't think anyone else would be interested in what I'm learning. This points to Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a confident effective learner.

I've never created a learning contract, but it's a good idea.

It's time to be serious

The library's Learning 2.0 program based on Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) will be launched in January. Now I'll have to get serious and start logging what I've learned. Even though I've worked through some of the PLCMC exercises, there are others I've reviewed and haven't put into action. I confess that I still don't have a digital camera, that I'm uneasy using Flickr and Technorati. Watch this blog. I'll be sharing my joys and frustrations.

Trying to set up avatar

This is my avatar. I've tried to make it look like me. I think it's worked, though I must work with centering this.