Apparently the Sims 3 people learn even when you aren't doing anything with them. Isn't that creepy?
Read the article on online reading. I like to read at FF.net too. And I think reading is reading. FF.net is still reading, sometimes better than stuff that's published. Kids like to think about their favorite characters and write about them. As they get older they are more likely to see plotholes and ether fix them or exploit them. The sloppier the original work, the more fanfic you can write for it. And I thought it odd that the girl cited in the article was keen for World War Two history books but her mom got her a fantasy. The future of reading is pretty much the same as the past, there's just more of it.
From Organizing my personal library I chose iTrackmine. (I have a LibraryThing) Being able to add dvds and such will be useful. So I got all signed up and realized I don't have any of my stuff here to add. I will try to think... Hurrah you can look things up by title! Then I pretended to lend an item. Apparently I have people tracking me already which could make one paranoid. Not sure if their prices are all right, but it's still neat. Very handy for series stuff
Books on my phone. Not too keen on this, although I have put books on my palm pilot for years. Bigger screen though. My phone can't do this anyway. I looked at all the sites, but couldn't really do anything with them.'
Reader's Advisory: I tried "What's Next?" Probably shouldn't have used Star Trek as a search. It did find series within that set of books, but not all Star Trek Books.
Online book communities: Went to booktalk.org. Very busy looking website. White space is Our Friend! Did not find a search area. I will keep looking. Really not wild for this website.
Book Group Resources: Chose to go to LitLovers. A very friendly looking website. Easy to use. Saw a spelling error but I won't fuss. I like the links and the tidy sections. You can't search a title or author, however, which is annoying.
Audio books: Tried LibriVox. I did not download anything because the computer doesn't always like that. The site is easy to use and nice to look at.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thing 34
The gaming grant fell through again!!! ARG
Ok. I read some of the interviews with various librarians. I don't entirely agree with Laura Solomon that browsing is going away and that we just need an on-demand Netflicks type set up. We seem to need both. We have the pending list, where people have put requests in for items we (are supposed to have) on shelf which we retrieve and they (are supposed to) pick up. We have people who want help finding "something good to read" and people just wandering around looking for stuff. Browsing is not dead.
Looking up answers online is appealing because you are anonymous. And you can do it in the middle of the night.
I tried Snappyfingers first. They don't list questions, as such, you put in a topic and they give you all the places that involve that word in their FAQ. It is a bit weird because there is little context involved. Then I tried wikianswers. You can look up the most recently asked questions there. Those are all over the board.
Lots of the questions could be answered at the library. Some might take a lot of research like "How many black soldiers fought in the Confederate army?" Some are just fine for a quick interent answer such as "2 liters is how many gallons?"
I suppose people would like these sites because they can get a quick answer. I would think it would be frustrating though with more complex questions.
Slam the boards sounds sort of interesting but I don't think I would have time for such a project.
Ok. I read some of the interviews with various librarians. I don't entirely agree with Laura Solomon that browsing is going away and that we just need an on-demand Netflicks type set up. We seem to need both. We have the pending list, where people have put requests in for items we (are supposed to have) on shelf which we retrieve and they (are supposed to) pick up. We have people who want help finding "something good to read" and people just wandering around looking for stuff. Browsing is not dead.
Looking up answers online is appealing because you are anonymous. And you can do it in the middle of the night.
I tried Snappyfingers first. They don't list questions, as such, you put in a topic and they give you all the places that involve that word in their FAQ. It is a bit weird because there is little context involved. Then I tried wikianswers. You can look up the most recently asked questions there. Those are all over the board.
Lots of the questions could be answered at the library. Some might take a lot of research like "How many black soldiers fought in the Confederate army?" Some are just fine for a quick interent answer such as "2 liters is how many gallons?"
I suppose people would like these sites because they can get a quick answer. I would think it would be frustrating though with more complex questions.
Slam the boards sounds sort of interesting but I don't think I would have time for such a project.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thing 33
I like staying home. That said, I will now learn about traveling.
I decided to read "What is Travel 2.0?" Apparently it is a lot of things. There were websites for finding travel companions, videos, picture, 89-million hotel reviews. It is NOT Travelocity or any of those sites. Those are just for booking and such.
For the travel reviews I went to gusto. I liked the name. I looked up my home town because then I would know how accurate the site is. It's not too bad. Not sure if Duluth is feisty, as such, but maybe. Restaurant information was not completely accurate. I know one of the restaurants has moved. I can't tell if the restaurants have to pay to be on the site. Some I would have included were not there.
For Travel Journals I looked at Vcarious because I liked the name. Duluth didn't have much so I tried Minneapolis. Again, not a lot, but a bit. The MoA is not in Minneapolis, no matter what the website says, but I suppose that is a quibble. Disappointing. Not very informative.
From TravelMashups I went to FastFoodMashups so I can find all the Starbucks. The fastfood part was ok, if not totally up to date. It does give adresses adn driving info, so that's nice. The Starbucks were on another map, but that only had spots where each store was locate, no directions or anything.
I guess some of the webstie would be sueful for the library. Asuming they keep up to date. Not in Youth Services, really, but Reference might like them.
I decided to read "What is Travel 2.0?" Apparently it is a lot of things. There were websites for finding travel companions, videos, picture, 89-million hotel reviews. It is NOT Travelocity or any of those sites. Those are just for booking and such.
For the travel reviews I went to gusto. I liked the name. I looked up my home town because then I would know how accurate the site is. It's not too bad. Not sure if Duluth is feisty, as such, but maybe. Restaurant information was not completely accurate. I know one of the restaurants has moved. I can't tell if the restaurants have to pay to be on the site. Some I would have included were not there.
For Travel Journals I looked at Vcarious because I liked the name. Duluth didn't have much so I tried Minneapolis. Again, not a lot, but a bit. The MoA is not in Minneapolis, no matter what the website says, but I suppose that is a quibble. Disappointing. Not very informative.
From TravelMashups I went to FastFoodMashups so I can find all the Starbucks. The fastfood part was ok, if not totally up to date. It does give adresses adn driving info, so that's nice. The Starbucks were on another map, but that only had spots where each store was locate, no directions or anything.
I guess some of the webstie would be sueful for the library. Asuming they keep up to date. Not in Youth Services, really, but Reference might like them.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Thing 32
Just for the record, you can't use Google maps to spy on people like on TV. VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!
Apparently potholes are not considered dangerous enough because my town was not included on the Most Dangerous Roads best tools and mashups.
All righty. Time to make my own map. This is not as easy as the video. I needed to be able to move the map but you can't do that and draw.
View a nice walk in a larger map
Wow that embedding is really stupid. Why won't it show the map at the scale I drew it? How thoroughly useless.
I can see a use for the mashups at the library. Although there must be some way to produce the map at the desired scale.
Apparently potholes are not considered dangerous enough because my town was not included on the Most Dangerous Roads best tools and mashups.
All righty. Time to make my own map. This is not as easy as the video. I needed to be able to move the map but you can't do that and draw.
View a nice walk in a larger map
Wow that embedding is really stupid. Why won't it show the map at the scale I drew it? How thoroughly useless.
I can see a use for the mashups at the library. Although there must be some way to produce the map at the desired scale.
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