Week 7 Photos and Images

I had created an account in Flickr several years ago, but was never sure what to do with it. The additional readings gave me some good ideas for the future.

For this week's assignment, I searched the Flickr archive for pictures from my hometown. I found an interesting assortment, but chose one of the park near my home. http://www.flickr.com/photos/junie_moon_photoshare/2967825484/ The range of tags that one can assign are more informal that library subject headings. The photographers select the tags and images based on whatever topics appeal to them. As a searcher, the casualness of the phrases makes searching for images a little more complex. Photographs of empty mills in my town had the phrase "run down" used as a tag, not a standard term. Some of the photographers added notes about how the picture was composed, techniques used to "tweak" the images, and who the subjects of the pictures were. I think that I have only seen a tiny bit of the vastness of Flickr and just touched on the uses that this site offers.

I decided to add some images to my Flickr account to practice uploading and tagging. I work for a high school library and do not want to put student photos on this site. I am active in the local historical society, so I took pictures of the building. I added some picture of our different activities. We don't have a web site yet, but this will be good experience in working with images.

I uploaded 10 photographs on the Vernon Historical Society building and Myrtle's garden. I assigned tags. After I saved everything, I went to search for them on Everybody's Uploads, but couldn't find them. I found a statement that said that the uploading process to the whole Flickr archive will take several days if the account is new. I haven't used it in quite a while so that may be why. I will check back in a few days. Tags to search for vernon historical society and myrtle's garden.

I enjoyed playing with Lunapic and Picnik. Amazing effects! Public libraries could use these mashups to spice up their webpages or add dazzle to any RSS feeds. Like any new application, it has to become part of the routine for it to be used a lot.

Week 6 Organize your books

I had heard of Library Thing, but I didn't realize that there were other sites out there to help readers or book clubs to develop lists and get ideas for future reads. When I first looked at Library Thing, it seemed a bit overwhelming, but the short introduction helped. I added titles from two fiction bibliographies that I had created for students: Voices from Beyond the Grave and Alternative Fairy Tales.
My Library Thing page: http://www.librarything.com/home/swhsMC
I showed one of our English teachers what I had input and we looked at some of the features that Library Things offers such as reviews, talk and groups. I liked the ability to search by tags which means that I could input several fiction bibs and tag them by subject.
I also looked at LitLover. I think that site would work very well for book clubs and I will suggest this site to members of my neighborhood club.
Public library uses: lists of new books, special collections, themed display books, book lists that align with library programs or author visits. The group feature would be the place for a library sponsored book club/s. "Talk" and "Groups" would help with Reader's Advisory suggestions.
Optional librarian blogs: Lots to read! I looked at several of the blogs and recognized some leading names whose websites I had already bookmarked. Nice to have a list of all these to bookmark.
PS. In one blog site, I found a YouTube video: Medieval help desk. Good laugh for a Friday!