Thing #13 - Del.icio.us

Spent some time this afteroon exploring the del.icio.us world of website tagging. I searched the most recently and most popularly tagged websites about all sorts of things. The tricky part is knowing just how vast the database of search terms or tags must be since everyone tags their chosen websites independent of everyone else. Two word possibilities could be two separate tags or they could be one tag (i.e. montgomery+county vs. montgomerycounty). Incidentally, the most popular site tagged with montgomerycounty is our very own Montgomery County Public Libraries. We were beaten out in montgomery tags by a youtube video about a Flea Market Montgomery but we win again if you count the 34 people (as of today) who also tagged our webcat (ibistro) page. One could probably search for hours here. I also checked out the tag libraries and I have a connection to the most popular hit there too - the IPL (Internet Public Library), formerly housed at my alma mater, the University of Michigan. I answered virtual reference questions there while in grad school. Ah, the good old days!

Thing #12 - Rollyo

Today I tried to explore the search engine creation site rollyo.com. Unfortunately, rollyo.com seems to be too popular for its own good. Several times I got a "Too many connections" message while trying to explore the site. I did look at just a few of the searches created by rollyo users but not enough to comment on yet. I tried creating my own but again got that dreaded "Too many users" message. If rollyo.com really wants to be a player in Web 2.0, it will have to find a way to fix its bandwith issues. I will continue to explore the site and update this blog as necessary.

Thing 11 - Library Thing

Today, I explored the world of Library Thing. I thought I had initally started a Library Thing library many moons ago, but I was able to find it. Although, someone was using the username I wanted (LibrarianChris). I wonder if it's me? Anyway, you can visit my Library Thing library at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/LibrarianChristopher. I've just started to get my feet wet, so there are only a view books listed and no tagging as of yet. Searching for these books was harder than I thought. You would think finding a American copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would be easy using Amazon as the search database, but alas it took me several pages of results to find something close. I searched LC and Maryland Interlibrary Consortium too with no luck. Very odd!

Thing 10: Online Image Generators

I was ahead of the game on this one, having created an avatar for our Staff Development Day back in October. Visit http://www.meez.com/ to create your own. :) Yes, some of the physical attributes, clothing, and accessories require coins, but many, including everything about my meez, are free.

Thing #9: Explore MERLIN and Library-Related Newsfeeds

It looks I've my first thing that needs updating. Part of this thing's exercise was to check out several blog/rss feed search engines. Well, Feedster, what 23 Things bills as one of the largest rss feed collections out there, is apparently no longer in existence. (Google strikes again!) It sounds like Google's blog search and Bloglines did it in about 2 years ago.

I checked out Topix and it freaked me out just a tad. As soon as I got to the Topix homepage and was greeted with a list of the latest postings related to Silver Spring, MD (where I live). I could understand that if I was at home in Silver Spring since it could figure out my location through the computer's IP address, however, I am at my work computer in Bethesda. Shouldn't it have listed Bethesda-related postings instead? Ooh-wee-ooh! Searching in Topix is a bit different from other sites since it searches individual postings instead of feed titles. If I searched with Bloglines, I am searching by feed title. Topix even maps out (via who else? Google Maps) where the postings were from. Eerie indeed!

Thing 8: RSS Feeds and Bloglines

Hmmm..........

I think it's still going to take a little convincing for me to believe that RSS Feeds are worthwhile. Maybe it was just the bad first experience I'm having with Bloglines. When first joined and added feeds to my list, they worked fine. I logged back in to my Bloglines account this afternoon and one by one, my feeds are crashing. Instead of seeing postings for each feedm all I see is the hyperlinked title of the feed. (So at least I can still get to the webpages they originated from. That kinda defeats the purpose of RSS feeds though.) I'm wondering if there's a problem with Bloglines. I sent an e-mail to the powers that be at Bloglines and am awaiting a response.

Thing #7 - Techno Blog - Early, Early Literacy?

In library circles, we have, of course, been pushing the value of building early literacy skills right from birth. However, I read an article in today's Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/28/AR2009092802893.html) Style section in which describes several devices which are now being touted as ways to give babies a head start in learning -- in utero. Those who swear by them say they've help their babies avoid now common conditions like ADHD and autism as well as put them ahead at some pediatric developmental milestones. Those on the other side say the results of using devices like BabyPlus and Ritmo, which send rhythmic patterns, music, and/or speech into the womb, are unproven and that in using them could even be harmful. Nothing has been proven either way at this point. Will this be the next big thing in learning? Will we someday be leading mommy-to-be storytimes and piping in our music and voices through these or similar devices? Stay tuned!