#14 Discover Technorati and learn how tags work with blogs

I guess I am tired, but Technorati is not my favorite part of these activities. I understand it, but I think it is odd when you search something you only receive 2 or 3 hits and if you want more you need to click "view all". In the assignment they tell you to search tags, url, and blog directory. They could have told you to reach this, go to advanced search. I just hit upon it by going to that. I just transferred my bloglines feeds to Techorati. It worked! I didn't have to ask Annette. She will be so relieved. I hope she laughs when she reads this. I claimed my blog in it also.

#13 Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us, I believe can be very useful. I went throught my favorites on my work computer and added the bookmarks that I may want to use at home. When I have a chance, I will do the same at home. In the future, I will add all bookmarks to this site. Tagging can be very useful, but it is also very subjective. One person may think something should be filed by one heading and someone else may select something completely different. I think I may suggest opening a del.icio.us account that the Joppa librarian's can all use on the 3 information desk computers. I'll see what they think. As far as useful as a reference tool, it is very similar to Rollyo and could be used the same way as I suggested there.
There is a list of library systems who use del.icio.us which I looked at. I didn't see the point of looking at their sites, but found one thing interesting. One of these systems was doing an online survey of their customers/patrons about how they like the way their website is. Working at BCPL for quite a few years and here, neither system has ever done such a survey to my knowledge. I am sure it is quite work intensive, but would be quite productive also.

#12 Roll your own search tool with Rollyo

Well, I did my search roll. I think it could be very useful to a teacher you wanted to make certain sites available to students. Also to a librarian who was doing a computer program on the Internet or genealogy sites. The student who was learning would not have to type a long url with the use of a searchroll. Here is my link to my search roll Knitting Patterns: http://www.rollyo.com/suzyqsmom/knitting_patterns/. I had trouble creating a Searchbox. I need more help with it.

#11 Take a look at Library Thing and catalog some of your favorite books

I think Library Thing may be my favorite part of 23 things so far. To have a list of all my knitting books available online will be so useful. I have 11 titles listed so far. I should be able to do this at home. It won't take a lot of bandwidth. I also will be able to find links to books I am not familiar with and some of the group stuff sounds like a lot of fun. My link to my Library thing list is:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/SuzyQsMom

#10 Play around with an Online Image Generator

I had lots of fun with this. This could be very useful for library posters or stationary I might want to make. You will see to the right towards the bottom I have stated where I made the pig sign, knitting rocks, and the newspaper article. I knew when I read that magazine article I could use it somewhere. It really is true. Lucky Leaf or Mussleman's Applesauce was selected. I have been telling people for years that Adams County Apples are the Best!

#9 Merlin and Search engines for RSS feeds

I was just looking at Merlin. I found some great things. I found some tutorials that our computer volunteer might find interesting. I found a search engine for social networks called Wink. I searched the names of some of my relatives in it and found some interesting things. The blog article "Libraries in Social Networking Software" is very interesting. I haven't completed it, but some of you might want to read it.
You might want to look at this entry on the blog Library Crunch. I don't know that I totally disagree, but can't imagine finding some materials without Dewey numbers.
http://www.librarycrunch.com/2006/05/spine_labels_and_dedeweficatio.html
I was using the different RSS feed search engines today. I think I like Bloglines,Topix.net and Syndic8.com best. Topix.net-This search tool allows you to locate recent newsfeed items based upon keyword or phrase searching. The tool focuses specifically on news and media outlets RSS feeds for information, not weblogs Syndic8.com - Syndic8 is an open directory of RSS feeds that contains thousands of RSS feeds that users have submitted. I found some interesting stuff related to my home town and county. I know Technorati is supposed to be so good, but I didn't care for it. I hope this isn't too sacreligious. I did subscribe to it and claimed my blog. Perhaps if I play around with it, I will like it.

#8. Learn about RSS feeds and setup your own Bloglines newsreader account.

I started this exercise at least 3 weeks ago. I only work on this on Wednesday evenings. I like the idea of RSS feeds, but haven't had time to look at what I selected. I selected knitting blogs, news blogs and library blogs. You know I really wanted to look at the knitting ones. I couldn't figure out something, but once again Annette came to my rescue. 8/15 I was still really having trouble getting the link for my bloglines to work and Linda Zuckerman's instructions for them on her blog really helped. If anyone has trouble with this go to her blog and follow them. Thanks, Linda. 8/31