I have been learning all about RSS and newsreaders today - I have read through and listened to information on RSS technology, created a Bloglines account, subscribed to several newsfeeds, and organised my feeds into folders (http://www.bloglines.com/public/debonnielass).
I also used the search box on Bloglines to search for feeds on various topics. Some of the library feeds looked really interesting and I will go back and have another look later.
I really like the idea of being able to keep up with information in areas that interest me - without having to remember to go to Internet sites and blogs myself to check them for new postings. I can see myself using this technology to keep abreast of innovations happening in the library world and as a way of gaining great ideas that can be implemented in my work. It helps to create a sense of being part of the whole world of libraries. We can have library patrons connected to our library blog and reading sites etc in the same way, so that they are informed of the latest books, and library resources, events, and technology.
I am about to have a go at adding a Blogroll to my blog so that my list of feeds can be shared.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
#7 Technology
Taking part in this Learning 2.0 really does make you think about the rapid changes in technolgy in our lifetime.
The process of creating and using photographs of Aden today is so different to the process my father used when taking photos of me as a young child.
Now it is possible to take lots of colour photographs of Aden on a digital camera, to check straight away that you have some good pictures, upload them on to a computer and manipulate them if you wish (change colour, lighting, crop etc), use some of the technology that I have been experimenting with here to create works of art (create frames etc), print out as many individually as you want on photographic paper, insert them into a document and print out, email some to relatives on the other side of the world in minutes, download some to your blog so the whole world can see them!
When I was a child my father was interested in photography, but he took black & white photographs of me with his Ilford camera and developed them with photographic chemicals and a stopwatch timer in his darkroom, which was actually the linen cupboard in the hallway of our house! He could only process a few at a time, but everyone thought it was great that he was able to make some into slightly enlarged photos (postcard size) and even do a little cropping of backgrounds. Relatives overseas had to wait for the postman to deliver a photo or two in a letter from Australia.
I have also been thinking about the means we have today of creating a newsletter or brochure with a computer, the right software, and resources available on the Internet - including variations of layouts and fonts, inclusion of photographs and graphics, printed out or online etc. We are already using some of this technology to promote our library services and resources and there are amazing possibilites opening up for the future.
In my earlier working days the process was out of a different world!
I was also the newsletter editor for my bushwalking club and in order to produce the monthly newsletter I had to type all the articles on to wax stencil sheets on a big old manual typewriter, with no changes of font, graphics or pictures possible, and little variation in layout. If you made a typing mistake with stencils you had to paint over it with a solution like nail varnish, wait for it to dry and then try to line the word up again in the typewriter in order to type the correction over the top. Too many mistakes and the wax stencil would start to break up! For printing, the stencil sheet had to be wrapped around the printing drum of the gestetner duplicating machine (trying not to crease it in the process - that would cause wavy lines to print out on the page along the crease lines). A few turns of the drum would print out a test page and then you could turn the power on and let it run to print your copies (one sided of course, only black ink, and on rough duplicator paper). There was a limit to the number of copies you could get off one stencil sheet before it started to disintegrate on the drum. This was only in the early 1980's, before widespread use of computers or photocopiers.
The process of creating and using photographs of Aden today is so different to the process my father used when taking photos of me as a young child.
Now it is possible to take lots of colour photographs of Aden on a digital camera, to check straight away that you have some good pictures, upload them on to a computer and manipulate them if you wish (change colour, lighting, crop etc), use some of the technology that I have been experimenting with here to create works of art (create frames etc), print out as many individually as you want on photographic paper, insert them into a document and print out, email some to relatives on the other side of the world in minutes, download some to your blog so the whole world can see them!
When I was a child my father was interested in photography, but he took black & white photographs of me with his Ilford camera and developed them with photographic chemicals and a stopwatch timer in his darkroom, which was actually the linen cupboard in the hallway of our house! He could only process a few at a time, but everyone thought it was great that he was able to make some into slightly enlarged photos (postcard size) and even do a little cropping of backgrounds. Relatives overseas had to wait for the postman to deliver a photo or two in a letter from Australia.
I have also been thinking about the means we have today of creating a newsletter or brochure with a computer, the right software, and resources available on the Internet - including variations of layouts and fonts, inclusion of photographs and graphics, printed out or online etc. We are already using some of this technology to promote our library services and resources and there are amazing possibilites opening up for the future.
In my earlier working days the process was out of a different world!
I was also the newsletter editor for my bushwalking club and in order to produce the monthly newsletter I had to type all the articles on to wax stencil sheets on a big old manual typewriter, with no changes of font, graphics or pictures possible, and little variation in layout. If you made a typing mistake with stencils you had to paint over it with a solution like nail varnish, wait for it to dry and then try to line the word up again in the typewriter in order to type the correction over the top. Too many mistakes and the wax stencil would start to break up! For printing, the stencil sheet had to be wrapped around the printing drum of the gestetner duplicating machine (trying not to crease it in the process - that would cause wavy lines to print out on the page along the crease lines). A few turns of the drum would print out a test page and then you could turn the power on and let it run to print your copies (one sided of course, only black ink, and on rough duplicator paper). There was a limit to the number of copies you could get off one stencil sheet before it started to disintegrate on the drum. This was only in the early 1980's, before widespread use of computers or photocopiers.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
#6 More flickr fun
From FD's Flickr Toys site I used the Badge Maker to make sure that Aden's lovely dog Shadow could have her own library card.
It was a really straightforward process using a photo of Shadow sent to me via email attachment by Aden's mum.
I created the badge on the Flickr Toys site, saved it on my computer and then uploaded it as an image to my blog.
There are lots of interesting possibilities in the Flickr toys. I'd love to have more time to play with them but I guess I had better move on to the next step in the training!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
# 6 Flickr fun
Tonight I looked at lots of Flickr mashups and 3rd party sites and found some amazing things that you can do with your photos. I created this trading card of Aden having fun at Christmas time a few years ago.
FlickrFont sounded interesting - where you can turn text into graphics using photographs of letters from Flickr to spice up headings. But it came with a warning that "it is not recommended from a usability, design, engineering or aesthetic point of view". Greg Hill, PhD candidate in IT at Monash University who developed it, says on the site "In fact, it is so gimmicky with such garish results that I refuse to use it myself"!!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
#5 Flickr
I have finally managed to thoroughly explore the Flickr site after reading the instructions for this week, listening to the podcast, and looking at the Flickr tutorials. I signed up for a Flickr account and uploaded some photos. I checked out some amazing photos on Flickr but decided to upload some of my own photos to my blog. Now I hope to utilize another Flickr service and add a Flickr badge - if I can work out how to do it without taking all night! This exercise has been really interesting and actually straight forward when you come to finally do it. It is sifting through all the maze of information that takes a lot of time. Thank goodness I have broadband at home now as there is no way that I have time to do this training at work.
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