Beyond Method 8

I have discovered something about myself.  I am not interested in learning how to do every bit of tech whiz bang stuff myself.  This surprised me,  because in some tech areas I am proficient.

I AM interested in knowing what is possible, so that I can encourage people who ARE interested in doing it themselves to do so.

And, I enjoyed watching some of the screencasts highlighted in Method 8.

Beyond Method 7

I viewed many of the examples listed in Method 7 and found many of them to be extremely interesting ... but I chose to stick with Google Docs.  Time is precious to me.  I already know how to produce a presentation in PowerPoint. 

I find it far more efficient to use PowerPoint to create the presentation, then upload it to Google Docs to make it accessible in the Cloud, than it is to create the presentation directly in Google.

Here is the URL for the presentation I sent to the Cloud:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxysjlXeifLvZkN0WHFyUkxWYVE/edit

Beyond Method 6

I searched for R. Caldecott's First Collection of Pictures and Songs by Randolph Caldecott

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20777

Question 6. Click on the title of the work to open up the book record.  Looking at the downloads, would you know which file to select if you had a Kindle?

Answer: Yes, it is clear which is the Kindle file.

Question 7. Open up the basic HTML version of the text.  Do you find this easy to read?

Answer: It would not be my favorite way to read a long novel, but it would be far better than not having access to it at all.

Question 8. On your blog, add a link to the book record that you viewed and post to your blog about this exercise. (Please include “Beyond Method #6″ in the title of your blog post.)

Was Project Gutenberg easy to use?

Answer: Yes. very

Do your think your patrons would be interested in a public domain service like Project Gutenberg? If a patron wanted help putting a title from Project Gutenberg on an eReader, do you think you would be able to help them?

Answer: Not sure about this.  I have yet to use an eReader myself.  I'm sure I could figure it out, but would hate to put the user through my learning how to do it.

Beyond Method 5

The library I work at (AIU-Houston) uses LibraryThing for its "OPAC" so I am familiar with the service.  I had not considered using it to organize my own collection ... just too lazy to do so.  But with a prod from Method 5, I have begun to do so.

Here is my LibraryThing link ...

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jsteinha

Beyond Method 4

When I was laid off three years ago the company provided us with a month's worth of classes with an outplacement firm.  To my surprise, I found the classes to be worthwhile.

That's where I learned about the job board aggregators like Indeed.com.  Thanks to them, I also learned about and joined LinkedIn.

It is thanks to these two free services that I am now employed full time once again.

I personally don't find much value in the other resources mentioned in Beyond Method 4, but I know that others will have a positive experience.  So I will be recommending all of them to the students at our for-profit university.

Beyond Method 3

Creating a Google Map is so easy, thanks to the instructions in Method 3.

Here is the link to the map I created:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201576693472686683397.0004bfa4c573b58e99185&msa=0&ll=29.727415,-95.548096&spn=0.107777,0.153637

Beyond Method 2

#2 Customize Your Window to the Internet
Lots of work and not much time to spend on the Beyond Two-Steppin' project, but I promised myself to take a break ... So I re-read Creating a Librarian’s Info-Portal with Netvibes and RSS, and revisited the NetVibe pages produced by Cranbury and Dublin public libraries for inspiration.  Then I went to my NetVibe account and went to town.

I am a little frustrated by the number of widgets that don't seem to work, but you can't beat the price.

And the ease with which you can create interesting Web pages has made me want to explore the possibilities for staff participation.