Amy's Noggin

Ponderings on a wet Sunday

2009-04-26T12:11:00.005+10:00

Whilst I'm tucked up in bed with my laptop on this wet and windy Sunday, I find my myself thinking about how overwhelming life has become. We now have such extraordinary access to information that it's led to a feeling of information overload. I have enough trouble keeping on top of my paper filing at home let alone trying to handle the abundance of information I'm privy to through such technologies like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, RSS , Email, Blogs and more that I now find myself asking what on earth did we do prior to the Internet? One thing comes to mind - we were more relaxed! We could happily kick back with the weekend newspaper, cuppa in hand without that niggly feeling we should be blogging, tweeting, updating our Facebook status, adding photos to Flickr for our friends and family to view or catching up with the thousand or so feeds on our Google Reader. I'm not sure why but I feel a sense of guilt whenever I spend more time than is necessary on the Internet. But how long, you may ask, is considered a 'necessary' amount of time - after all it's all choice, or is it? We talk about work/life balance but what about online/offline balance? How do we measure this? Is it when you're getting sore from being hunched over the computer and your arm feels like it's about to drop off? Or when your house looks like you've had a party which in reality you didn't have because you deemed it more important to spend hours playing Bejewelled or some other brain training, mind altering, hand-eye coordinating game! About all of this I'm not too sure except that for the moment, even just for a little while, I'm going to 'sign out' and return to offline reality.

Twitter

2009-03-01T22:23:00.003+11:00

Just decided to create a Twitter account. Not sure how much I'll use it though.
http://twitter.com/AmyRossiter
Still, knowing how quickly I became addicted to Facebook there's every chance I'll use it frequently!

My Personal Leadership Style

2009-01-05T11:18:00.000+11:00

Thanks and Yay!

2008-09-24T12:39:00.002+10:00

Just wanted to say a big thanks again to Jason on two fronts: for putting together the great 23 Things program and for pulling my name out of the box last Friday - looking forward to spending my $100 voucher! Any feedback on how to spend it is welcomed...!

Library 2.0 and reflections

2008-09-18T16:54:00.014+10:00

Since I attended a presentation from Stephen Abram back in October 2006, the concept of Library 2.0 has been at the forefront of my mind. Utilising Google during a reference inquiry is certainly one important element of Library 2.0 but encouraging people to share and interact is a more overriding theme. I've created a Delicious account for everyone to use as a point of reference on the Information Desk. This allows everyone to share the webpages to which they commonly refer to during an inquiry. In my view, it is very important that as librarians we are aware of advances in technology and embrace change. However that said, it's extremely important not to adopt change for change's sake.

I've really enjoyed working through the 23 Things program and would like to thank Jason for all his work. I will continue to use many of the things in the course of my day-to-day work as a TAFE librarian. Stay tuned as this is by no means the last of my posts...

Google Maps

2008-09-18T16:54:00.012+10:00

I'm a bit old school when it comes to using online maps (not too sure if 'old school' and 'online' go together..!) Although I've used Google Maps before, I tend to refer to www.street-directory.com.au when requiring directions - guess it's out of habit. Google Street View is a bit scary privacy-wise - you can even see our car parked on the street out the front of our place. Guess it might be useful when we eventually want to buy a new house...

More Google!

2008-09-18T16:54:00.011+10:00

How many more Google products can there be? Heaps is the answer and here I will tell you my thoughts on Google Book Search and iGoogle! I quite like the concept of iGoogle but to be honest, my Facebook page acts as my homepage outside of work. I guess it's like all of the vast array of Web 2.0 products - it's all a matter of changing our past habits with regards to the way we interact with the Internet and PCs. I also feel it's very important not to use Web 2.0 products just for the sake of it.

What can I say about Google Book Search... Again it's all about changing one's habits. Think I'll need to investigate this product a little further before I can really comment. I think it could come in handy when trying to determine whether or not to purchase a title for our collections. I'm so used to checking items on JBO and BookFind and have become quite familiar with their search interfaces. They also provide me with an $AU and let's face it in the end it's all about the $$$$!

Filling in the gaps

2008-09-18T16:54:00.008+10:00

It seems I've forgotten to mention some of the earlier 'Things' I have completed. The first is 'Extend your browser' and for this particular task, I initially added the 'Morning Coffee' extension. Since completing this task some months ago I've branched out and quite like the Delicious and Facebook extensions. Actually I can't recall the last time I used Morning Coffee even though at the time I thought it was the best thing since sliced wheat free bread!

Another 'Thing' I've failed to blog about is Podcasts and Vodcasts. For this task, I revisited the Lets Talk Net collection of audio segments that I came across some time ago and thought might be useful for those who required an intro to the Internet. I've added the podcasts to my Google Reader in the hope that one day I'll eventually get to listen to them!

Google Docs

2008-09-18T16:54:00.005+10:00

I can see Google Docs being very useful, particularly for collaborative projects. Fortunately we can access our Chisholm Home and Shared drives externally so for docs that don't require any collaboration there isn't any real necessity to move them to Google Docs. One thing I did find was a loss of formatting when I uploaded a Word doc to Google for editing - this was a bit irritating. Guess when using Google for collaborative projects, it'd be best to start a doc from scratch. Hmm, the possibilities and challenges that Web 2.0 presents us with..!

Facebook: the ultimate procrastination tool

2008-09-16T11:06:00.003+10:00

Ah Facebook! Since signing up in May, Facebook has become my friend (and enemy!) I initially signed up after our VATL LIT group decided to set up a page. At first I was very skeptical however it didn't take long for me to become a total addict! It's been great for networking, tracking down old friends and for getting to know colleagues a little better. Sadly, I often find myself at night curled up on the couch in front of the teev, laptop in hand playing 'Bowling Buddies', chatting to a friend (even if I hadn't caught up with them since primary school) or exploring another of Facebook's numerous time-wasting applications. I'm just thankful Facebook wasn't around when I was at school or uni - don't know how I ever would have passed given I am already, at times, the ultimate procrastinator!

You Tube

2008-09-16T10:48:00.003+10:00

After a long absence I've returned to finish the things! After consulting 'help' I worked out how to embed a vid from You Tube. For this task, I couldn't go past a bit of live 'Muse' - love this band!
I've viewed vids on You Tube quite a bit in the past and am keen to upload some of my own footage soon. I'll leave you with a great snippet of Sabine Schmitz, professional racing driver who raced a Ford Transit Van on Top Gear:

An alternative to Google

2008-06-25T10:21:00.009+10:00

This is very exciting for all you fellow Greenies out there! I just came across this search engine: http://www.ecocho.com.au/
Their motto is "You search. We grow trees." Their carbon credits provider is Global Carbon Exchange who only purchase credits from the official, government controlled New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (NSW GGAS, found at: www.greenhousegas.nsw.gov.au) For further information on how they are verified, visit: http://www.ecocho.com.au/verified.php

So next time you find yourself on Google, think eco and use 'Ecocho' instead!

Technorati verification

2008-06-19T09:36:00.004+10:00

I finally received the verification email from Technorati at 9.06am this morning - the powers that be must have decided to release it!! Anyway, I can now claim my blog, here goes... Technorati Profile

Chisholm Library - Dandenong Campus

2008-06-18T19:11:00.005+10:00

Chisholm Library - Dandenong Campus, originally uploaded by amys_pix.

Here's a pic of Dandenong Campus Library that Derek took earlier this year. I've tagged it in Flickr with 'chislib' - will add a few more soon. Looks like that's 'Thing 15' taken care of!

Flickr

2008-06-18T19:07:00.001+10:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Technorati

2008-06-18T18:15:00.002+10:00

Ok - just tried to 'claim' my blog on Technorati and I'm not receiving a verification email. Guess I shouldn't have used my Chisholm email address! Am currently awaiting a reply from their support team - in the meantime I think I'll move onto the next 'Thing'!

Flock

2008-06-17T13:51:00.001+10:00

Via one of my RSS feeds I've recently discovered a great browser called 'Flock'. Now that we're subscribing to lots of 'things', Flock - 'The Social Web Browser' - is great as it allows you to log into various supported services (like Facebook, Flickr, Blogger and more) and automatically activates the services within its features. Therefore you can blog, drop photos or link directly to a friend right from your browser. It was ranked 6th in PC World's 100 Best Products of 2008 (I sound like an advertisement!!) Check it out - www.flock.com

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Managing your RSS feeds

2008-06-07T21:20:00.003+10:00

Just came across this article with useful tips on how to manage your RSS feeds - check it out: http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/manage/2744

LIT Facebook page

2008-06-05T23:15:00.004+10:00

We have now created a Facebook page for our VATL group (LIT - Liaison, Information & Training). We are using it to promote the group, invite people to events and as a place for 'real time' communication/networking - if you have set up an account, you can visit the page at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20435683973

Delicious

2008-06-05T22:38:00.002+10:00

I've been using Delicious for quite a while now and love it. I don't use it for the social networking aspect, more for the convenience of being able to access all of my tags (and add to them) from any PC. I like the idea of having a Chisholm Delicious account - perhaps we could continue to contribute to the one that Jason has created for use on our ref desks...

Library Thing

2008-06-05T22:28:00.003+10:00

As you can see, I've now incorporated Library Thing within my blog. Didn't find the search function very useful though - this seems to be a bit of a trend with social networking sites. Don't think they were developed by librarians! Feel free to search my collection - it's not all that large yet. Might be a project for the long weekend! (How daggy is that!!)

Chisholm Wiki

2008-06-05T20:51:00.001+10:00

Just added a couple of pages to our wiki -

Favourite Eating Place

How can we incorporate the 'things' at Chisholm?

Thought it would be a good idea to have somewhere central to record all of our ideas...

Shared Items

2008-06-05T19:12:00.003+10:00

By the way, I've now added a 'Shared items' section to my blog. This will display all RSS feeds I feel are worth sharing (from a professional development point of view). Check them out if you get a chance - the clip of Clay Shirky in 'Want to know about social media?' makes for really interesting viewing.

Image Generator

2008-06-05T18:29:00.002+10:00

This was the result of putting my photo into 'Big Huge Lab's' Warholizer

I also had a play with Simsonize Me

Then I put the same photo that I used in the Warholizer into You Wild to see what I'd look like as a lion! You can view the result of my morph here

Think that's enough playing for now!

Wikis cont...

2008-06-05T17:41:00.002+10:00

Added a few faves to the Chisholm wiki - it was lucky I was at home whilst I was working on this 'thing' as I could consult some of my collections to remind me what my faves are!! Even though I have basic web editing skills I still found the PBwiki a bit hard to format. Then I realised that the 'side bar' pushes anything that's centrally aligned a bit towards the left. Was all good practice for me (including trying to remember what I actually liked!!).