#12 Roll Your Own Search Engine

I think this could be a very useful little thingy. If you're really impatient and don't want to waste time going to multiple website trying to find a specific book, article, whatever, then this is a great resource.

I only have Amazon and Fantastic Fiction on my Searchroll. That's probably not the best thing, but those are the main sites I use to look up books.

I understand what Andrea was talking about with Amazon dominating the results. It's crazy how many items show up that aren't what you're looking for.

Some time later this week when I'm back at the Reference Desk I'm going to try to make one with all the Manga sites I have bookmarked. If I remember that is.

Anyway, here's the link to my Searchroll.

And here is my Search Engine:

Select Search Engine...MangaBooksSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

P.S. - For some reason I had a real hard time getting that search to post. Oh well, it's up now.

#11 A Thing about LibraryThing

Sadly, I'm not really a fan of LibraryThing. I can understand why people would like it though. Searching for books is pretty straightforward and there are loads of comments and the recommendations actually make sense, which is always a plus.

One of the things I don't like is having to pay to get over 200 books listed. I know it's only $10 or $25, but I'm poor and can do this for free elsewhere. Also, I don't like having to tag the books to keep track of what's read, unread, or currently being read. For one of the applications I use elsewhere you just add the book and click a button and it automatically sorts it into one of those three groups, it also has different colors for each category when you look at your whole list. I know it sounds lazy, but a lot of people aren't going to understand how to use the tags to keep track of these things.

Anyway, here's my LibraryThing.

#10 Play Around with Image Generators

I found three that I liked, so here you go.




This one was made with the Chocolate Bar Generator

This one was made with the Simpsons Church Sign Generator
This just seems like something you might see on their church sign.


And this little guy was made with the ezSmiley Generator
He's a ninja bear of some kind, probably grizzly.

Many of the generators I came across were ones where you'd simply enter text of some kind and the generator would do the rest. And that's no problem as long as you can thing of something funny to say. I usually have trouble with that. Also, it was hard figuring out what all to do to my Smiley.

A lot of these generators also have links to other generators. So it doesn't take much effort to find one you'll like.

P.S. - I couldn't figure out how to post multiple pics with Flickr. Anyone know how?

Zodiac

I got to go out to eat with my mom today. We went and had Chinese since she never seems to get to have it unless she visits me. As we were leaving I noticed the big beautiful calender on the wall. Apparently, it's the year of the Boar. My year. How did it get to be October without me realizing that?

#9 Finding Feeds

I mainly used Feedster. The other three ended up giving me some naughty things.

Feedster was pretty easy to use. Just put in something to search for and there you go. I found that the names of the feeds were potentially the most helpful thing to look at. Some of the "articles" seemed like one shot deals, so looking at their content wasn't always helpful

I found a few more feeds dealing with Graphic Novels and Manga, which is of course the main thing I'm concerned with at the library for the time being. I found a number dealing with new release schedules and reviews of manga. It was harder to find graphic novel ones though. Most of the stuff I came across dealt with the individual comics. But I also found one or two regular book review/recommendation feeds and one on Japan and Japanese culture.

The easiest way I've found a feed was just by visiting my favorite sites. A number of them offer feeds, or at least emails for daily comics. I'm all about the comics.

#8 Make Life "Really Simple" with RSS & a Newsreader.

Here's my Blogroll. A word of warning though, if you're easily offended I'd advise you to stay away from Explosm.net.

So this thing is great. It's basically just a more advanced bookmark list, but it's still good. As you can see I went a little crazy with my feeds. 32, after just starting it, wow. I just wish all my comics would display.

Thanks to the Reader's Club Graphic Novel list I can keep up to date on some of the newer releases, very good since I'm ordering them now. Same goes for Fantasy. Although, the Fantasy is more for pleasure than work. And I can easily keep track of my favorite comics and the news.

As for Libraries utilizing this resource, like I said, I'm ordering Graphic Novels and this will help me with that. Just in general it can help us keep track of new releases. Go to the right place and you might get feeds on how books are actually doing sales-wise.

P.S. - It's taking awhile for my verification/confirmation email thing to be delivered, so I'm not sure when my Blogroll will be viewable.

#7 Digital Archives

Puppets
Originally uploaded by jabatiger

I chose this pic because, come on, who doesn't love a puppet show? And how often do you see a puppet show featuring a Polar Bear and a Witch?

Since it wouldn't let me save the big version of the pic I had to settle for this smaller preview one. Here's where I got it: Photograph of puppeteer Tom Tichenor with puppets Witchie and Marco Polo Bear, 1962

#6 More Flickr Fun

lolMax
Originally uploaded by jabatiger

I played around with a few of the applications and the Lolcat Generator was my favorite. Mainly because I have this awwsome (in my opinion) pic of my cat Max being all sphinxy.

It very easy to use. You just browse for a pic from your computer, preferably of a cat. Also, preferable of a cat doing doing something interesting/weird/funny. Type in what you want it to say at the top and how you want it aligned and then do the same for the text at the bottom. Simple as that.

I also made a trading car of myself, but we don't need to discuss that.

P.S. - I know I misspelled awesome. It was intentional because every time I see that pic I go "aww." I miss my kitty.

#5 Exploring Flickr

Liger 4
Originally uploaded by batistabomb

Oh my god! That woman is the luckiest person on Earth! I would love to be able to get that close to a liger.

Look at how big it's head is! Beautiful.

Graphic Novels and Manga

So, I get to order Graphic Novels and Manga now. Anyone have any suggestions? I have signs up here at the Smyrna branch asking patrons for recommendations. I've gotten a few. One person even went so far as to give me page-long list. As soon as find that thing I'm gonna get to work on it.

So yeah, if anyone has any recommendations, or if any of your patrons have been asking for something, let me know.

#4 The Online Library

I chose to do the Gale Group Database's What Do I Read Next. I'm a big reader so this is something that appeals to me.

I've been fiddling around with this resource for awhile now and I have to say that I'm a little disappointed. The Author, Title/Series, and Custom searches are fine. They do exactly what you want them to do. The other applications are a little trickier.

With "Help Me Find a Book" you're asked to enter the title of a book you've enjoyed. I picked Carpe Jugulum, a Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. A list comes up of all the books with the title you entered. There was only one for me, no surprise there. You're then given a list of "attributes" associated with the book within different categories and you're asked to pick the ones you'd like to include in your search. I chose Fantasy, Humor, Death, Vampires, Witches and Witchcraft, and Witches. This search pulled up only one book. Carpe Jugulum.

Now to me, including all those attributes in the search means I'm asking it to search for fantasy books, preferably humorous, dealing with death, vampires, or witches. To this database though, it means only search for books that have all of those. Seems counterintuitive, but then it could just be me.

If you don't include a lot of criteria then you will get a list of books to go through and they will have the attributes you indicated. So it does get the job done. I might recommend this resource to a patron, but I'm more likely to recommend Fantastic Fiction or Amazon. I have better luck with them.

"#3 Test Blog Entry"

I'd figure that my first post would count as my test blog. But just in case I actually have to have a post with this title for it to be official, I thought I might as well make one just to be safe.

I can't wait to see what other staff members come up with for their blog names. I'm hoping for some funny ones since I failed at coming up with one that wasn't already taken. It still saddens me. Cause I mean, I started this blog so long ago and I've had so much time to regret not coming up with a better name.

I'm interested to see what everyone else has to say about the 7.5 habits.

Also, it's going to be fun trying to figure out who any anonymous people are. Hehe.

#2 Lifelong Learning: Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

Watched the tutorial and found it interesting. Of course, I was kinda bad and imagined how I would have narrated it.

So, first off, here are the habits:

1. begin with the end in mind
2. accept responsibility in your own learning
3. view problems as challenges
4. have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
5. create your own learning toolbox
6. use technology to your advantage
7. teach and mentor others
.5. play!

Hmm. I think I should relate this to one of my current goals. I want to learn sign language. I have a good friend in TX and it irritates me to no end that when we get to actually met up we have to rely on texting, pen and paper, or an interpretor to communicate. I would like to be able to talk to him on my own.

The easiest of these for me would have to be either 1 or 7.5. It's easy to start something when you have a goal in mind. What's the use in starting if you can't see yourself accomplishing it? My goal is to have a conversation with my friend without resorting to other means of communication. And play is simple. We could tell jokes or hurl insults at each other.

The hardest for me with my current goal would have to be 4. I'm horrible when it comes to languages, so it's already hard enough for me to have confidence in my ability to learn the signs. But ASL (American Sign Language) is more like French due to it's origins. So I have to translate my thoughts into sign, but then I also have to translate my English into French, so to speak. It's so hard (I don't want to hear anything out of you, Mel). But I wouldn't mind just knowing Pidgin. And it might be easier if I had someone to practice with. Learning a language on your own is just so difficult.

The hardest part

The hardest part of starting one of these things is actually picking a name. The ones you want always seem to be taken. I wanted "Shut Your Face" or "Where Am I Pointing" or "What Did I Just Say?" All unavailable.

Oh well, a less... annoyed sounding name is probably for the best.

But it's nowhere near as amusing.