Create search engines

Creating your very own search engine with Rollyo is easy -here's a Photography roll.

This boomer's head is spinning - thanks for giving us the opportunity to learn these 23 things.....

Playing around

I had a lot of fun with Generator - here is a slide show of some of my water lily photos:

fd Flickr's toys is another fun site - used Framer to create a postage stamp of Central Library

These image generators are easy to use and can get very addictive....

New York Times Archives

As you can tell, today is my day to catch up on the 23 Things.....

A post on the Swiss Army Librarian blog caught my attention:

On Google News, you can search the archive of the New York Times - click on the. News Archives Search link. I did a search on Beethoven (his birthday was December 16) and was amazed at the number of free articles from the 1800's that appeared. When I did a search on Van Cliburn, all of these articles cost $3.95.

Click on news archives for more information.

RSS is simple

In my old position as Automation Manager, I read blogs and listed them in my IE favories and visited each site individually - some of my favorites were Jenny Levine's The Shifted Librarian, Karen Schneider's Free Range Librarian, and others. I learned about the RSS newsreader, Bloglines, from Karen Schneider's blog, and signed up immediately. It was (and is) such a timesaver to go to one place to read the new entries, email interesting articles, save articles to the Clipping folder, and to add/delete blogs.

For 23 Things, I created a GoogleReader account but Bloglines is still my newsreader of choice - something about teaching old dogs new tricks......

Recognized on Flickr

What a pleasant surprise.....one of my photos on Flickr was chosen to be included in the Schmap Washington DC Sixth Edition guide. Before the Innovative Users Group conference started, my husband and I spent one afternoon doing the memorial walking tour. Schmap selected a photo from the FDR memorial....... Did you know that there is a George Mason memorial? I loved the relaxed pose.

Click on Schmap guides to get more information.....

Thing #7 Blog about technology

When my husband and I went cell phone shopping, I surprised my husband by wanting a phone with a keyboard for texting and using the Internet. So far, I sent text messages to my children but they reminded me that most people respond to text messages faster than 2 days or more.

My husband said that I wouldn't use all of the bells and whistles on this phone. So far he is right - don't tell him this....

7 1/2 lifelong learning habits

Can't believe that my last post was in September -- time to catch up on the 7 1/2 habits discussion.....

When I went to library school (back in the dark ages), every professor emphasized that a library professional must always keep up with the latest trends, join professional organizations, and attend workshops - in other words - accept responsibility for your own learning. So habit #2 has always been the easiest for me to do. I like the face-to-face interaction with instructors and classmates and found it easy to keep up with the latest library trends by reading library blogs and ALA/Library Journal updates via email.

What I find hardest is Habit #6 - using technology to your advantage. Participating in online courses has taken me out of my comfort zone - I still print everything and want to phone the instructor or classmates to ask questions or continue discussions. After taking several online classes from NEISD continuing education program, I finally found the right approach that works for me - select a course that has a practical use. Right now, I am taking a Photoshop Elements class - I've used this software program for a while and wanted to learn about all of its components. I feel that I'm really learning something that helps me organize and edit my photographs and learning a lot from the student online discussions. My next goal is to learn to do more with Flickr, Facebook and other social software programs - maybe even begin twittering.

A Boomer's View

As you can tell, I am from the baby boomer generation and eager to participate in SAPL Learning 2.0 program.

I am comfortable using PCs and digital cameras but have never sent or received a text message, used twitter, or participated in a mashup (whatever that is!). I consider myself at the 2.0 novice stage since I like to read a lot of library, photo and news blogs via Bloglines, share photos of the twin granddaughters with friends and family on flickr, and keep in contact with family members through Facebook. But today I made the big leap - creating my first blog. It was a very easy process.

SAPL Learning 2.0 will be a lot of fun even for a boomer!