Time waster

This week we explored using RSS aggregators and I have mixed feelings about them. While I can see that if you are very selective about the sites that you chose to get feeds from they may be useful, I can also see how they could be a big time waster. As far as ones that may be useful for work, possibly ones, such as New York Times book review, to help to keep up to date on what's being released and when. This may assist with ordering new stock and informing patrons about books that may interest them. Other interesting RSS feeds are the dictionary ones, great for improving vocabulary...would be good to suggest for high school students too. Or if you know someone is especially interested in a specific topic, you could suggest that they have certain sites feed to them.
But, actually, I think that it would be just as easy just to visit those sites that you find useful on a regular basis...instead of almost being bombarded with info that you may not have the time or energy to sift through. And although it's always good to know what's out there...and how to use the technology..I have to admit that I'm finding it tricky to keep up with all my passwords and to know what site is for what.

Hurricane Katrina

Enjoyed exploring Flickr. Had a look at photos of Albury City Library museum and Albury Art gallery. There were some amazing photos of the exterior and interior of the new Library Museum and a few historical photos of the Art Gallery. However, I was not able to find any photos of events, such as openings, speakers, or activities. Seems like it would be a great spot to to post photos of these things, would be good publicity for cultural services and a nice way to keep a record of what's been happening.
After I did a search of Albury, I decided to do a search for my hometown, enjoyed looking at familiar landmarks. As I was looking through, I noticed that there were a few photos of my hometown just after hurricane Katrina, so decided to do a search of Hurricane Katrina.
These photos brought up so many emotions...and I was overwhelmed by the number of photos that were listed and by seeing the devistation again. The photo that I decided to post is called Abandoned. It's a photo that was taken in Chalmette, Louisiana by Tampen, of abandoned dogs running down a flooded street. I think the photo speaks for itself.
Here's a link to the photo by Tampen.

Abandoned on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Making the time to learn

This is my first blog entry..how exciting! I can't believe how easy it was to set up. I use computers regularly, mainly just for emailing and for surfing the net. Have heard about different web technology, and read blogs that friends have set up, but have never taken the time to explore them myself.

I am very excited about this course as I think it is a fantastic way to be introduced to what's out there and how it can be used.

I can already see how useful blogging would be for our library. Would be a fantastic way to encourage readers in the community to communicate with one another...make recommendations to one another...and to share ideas.
Would also be a fantastic way for people in the community to give feedback to the library...suggestions for the collection, comments on service, etc etc.
It would be great to have one computer in the library designated for this purpose.

I look forward to reading about what other Libraries are doing and to learning new things.