Section 6 OFFICE TOOLS

I love the office tools. I wonder why more folks do not know about these types of programs. I thought they were all pay type programs. I can't say how many times people have come in without a disk or money to buy a disk. This is an important tool for me to use.

I tried both google docs and zoho. I am more comfortable with google because it is more familiar to me. However, they both seem pretty easy to use. Good way to back up important work.

Twitter Twit Twit

October 10:

o.k. I am twittering. I understand the concept but I don;t like that you have to have people to twitter to. It could be great for an instant message system. I think I need to still play with this one some more.

Shelfari

In Exploration 5, I decided to try out Shelfari. It seemed to be more user friendly and I heard in from my fellow LATIers that it was a favorite. It seemed pretty straight forward and then I added it to my blog. I even managed to tag a few of my books and mark them as favorites.

I have never kept track of my reading in written form before, so I might actually try this out. Normally, I believe that reading is for fun and when you track it and keep a log, then you are making it work. However, so many people I have met in this job, keep some sort of log, so I will try.

In the library, it could be used to track what we are all reading and make recommendations. Possible for storytime type activities or book club recommendations.

System wide, it could be used for patrons to see what we like to read. Our staff recommends hear at the library was very popular and I was amazed to see how many times I had to choose more books for the display. That also proved to be a situation where a list of books that I have read would have come in handy as I scoured the stacks looking for books to put on the diplay.

RSS Feeds

Today, with the help of a nearby staff member, I finally figured out how to add an RSS feed onto my blog. The instructions in Module 4 were not very clear as to what results were expected. I knew what an RSS feed was, I opened an account in bloglines, but it seemed like an extra step to have to go to the bloglines page to read the feeds.

I went to eHow and learned how to modify my blog to capture an RSS feed.

Hhmm. Maybe I missed a key point to it all.

Flikr Away

Venturing on in my exploration of Web 2.0, my next stop was Flickr. Having heard so much about the photo website, I was excited to actually have work time to experiment. I can't wait to actually try and upload photos, which of course are all at home in my computer and not here at the office.

Oh well, homework for me tonight.

How can Flikr be used in the job? Good question...

1. A place where HQ can look to see the crowds (and enthusiasm) generated by programming.

2. Bring a book to life in some type of online book review. (Not pictures of a book, but perhaps images that relate to the book)

3. Showcase staff in community/schools outreach.

Time to go and serve others.....................

A New World

This is my very first blog entry. Hope it works........