Thing #46 - Stixy

Part One:

Stixy.com is a fun site and could actually really help people's organization.  I too have plenty of post it notes either on the cabinet on my desk or in the drawer.  The site was really easy to use and being able to add pictures, notes and documents is a lot of fun.   


Part Two:

I think this site would be a good tool for anybody in the library to use.  It's great for organization or to just get your thoughts out there.  If you got a lot of people involved it could be a great forum for opinions to be put forth confidentially.  It would be great for staff or the community to be able to post their ideas about what can be improved about the library.

Here's a board I made for Ideas for the Library:

guest access: http://www.stixy.com/guest/113788

Password: librarytime

Thing #45 - Account Settings

I usually don't even think of the account settings after the initial set up so it was a good idea to go back and take a look at the different options that are out there.

I looked at my blogger settings and my gmail settings.  The blogger settings are something I had looked at pretty recently but it's always good to go back and check to see if there's anything new.

When I first set up my Blogger settings I was excited to have all of the different options and how easy it was to pick what you want.  The best options are probably the formatting ones and having comments sent to your inbox.  It's also great to know what the privacy settings are set to.

Looking at the gmail settings is an interesting experience because there are a lot of choices there on some stuff that I didn't think about/didn't know you could change.  The option I was happiest to find her was that I could turn off the option called web clips so know there are no advertisements above my gmail.

I think it was worth the time to go back and check the settings because you never know whether a new option has been added.  It's also important to teach others about these settings especially privacy settings if you don't want the whole world to know what you're up to.

Thing #44 - Foursquare

Foursquare is interesting as a social experiment but not really something that I want to be a part of especially since I barely use my cell phone.  I just don't think it's the smartest idea to broadcast your location at all times.

The Elkhorn Campus Library wasn't in the system but Elkhorn Campus was and did have a Mayor.  I wasn't sure that I should claim the library so I'll leave it to someone else. 

I lot of locations that are frequent are in the system, especially restaurants and bookstores.  This could be handy to track yourself and see where you spend too much time.  I would probably use it more if I owned a smart phone.

I wasn't surprised by the amount of locations in the system because people like to have attention even if it is only online.  I seem to have a couple of friends that are always on Foursquare so they're the Mayors of a lot of locations.

One good aspect of it is that you could keep track of how many people check it at the library and what they're saying about it.

Overall an interesting service but not one that I'd be inclined to use. 

Thing #43 - Libraries and Hyperlocal Information

Okay, an interesting concept but there are ways to do better.

I tried Patch and Outside.in as well as looking at the other ones.  Patch was okay but if you're not going to include every state, it's not very relevant to a lot of people.  I looked at Minnesota and some of the towns listed.  It's a good idea in theory but there have to be better ways to go about keeping people informed.  One city I looked at had almost all the articles written by one person.  Having one person's view of a city is not very beneficial.

Outside.in was good because it actually had news about Nebraska.  It had a good mix of news, not all written by one person. 

These sights serve a purpose but none of them are really better then the other and there are more newsworthy sites out there and the same thing can be done with online newsletters.  I don't think these sites should be a main source of information for anybody, people need to learn to look for their news from trusted sources.

Libraries are already full of hyperlocal information.  They are because they are found in neighborhoods or schools and are likely to have more info about the surrounding neighborhood or school.  Look at all the fliers and events that go on, they are normally about local activities or events.  I think many libraries already provide this info on their website or can lead people to sites that would have this information.

Overall the question has to be how localized any given place has to be and whether people will read and seek out this information.

Thing #42 - Pimp Your Twitter

I tried two different areas on TweetStats because they do two very different things and seem to be the easiest apps/site to use.

TweetStats is fun and easy to use.  It lets you view the number of tweets in a month, see a cloud of what you've tweeted and see follower stats.  I like how everything is straight forward and would be easy to present to someone.  I'll probably continue using TweetStats just to keep track of what I tweet and to see what it looks like.

TweetStats Trends is also fun to use because it shows the different trending words of everyone on Twitter and you can see things like the top 50 trends of all time.  It's fun to see what people think should be important or what they want to promote.

I think I'll continue to use the TweetStats site for the stats and trends.  These could be handy to use in a library if your library has a Twitter account.  You could keep track of how often you are posting updates about the library.  It would also show you what you talk about the most so you could track that and see if it works for you or tailor it more to what you think people are looking for.

Overall an interesting site with two great components, stats and trends, that are easy to use and informative too.

Thing #41: There's No Excuse Not To Learn! (or "How To" 2.0)

Learning is indeed something everyone should continue to do throughout their life. These tutorial sites were fun to look at and see the many different things you can learn about.

The two I found that were interesting were from the Instructables and Graspr sites.

The one from Instructables was on how to build Angel wings, so pretty cool if I ever decided to build a costume like that.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-pair-of-Angel-Wings/


The one from Graspr was on how to open a coconut.  It was very informative but I'm still afraid that I would probably cut a finger off or something if I tried it.  The information is good to know anyway though.




The sites are fun because they are both easy to navigate and have a wide variety of topics.  There are many advantages to these sites because they allow information to be out there that people might not know or can be a quick refresher if you have a question.  In that respect they are better then some how to books which are pretty massive.  These short videos and tutorials are better then flipping through a giant book and are more interactive.  They would probably be best used and seen as supplements to a library collection.  For an in depth topic you would be more likely to use a book but for something fast these tutorials are key.

Thing #40 Funky Photos

Here are my pictures all done on  Pixlr.

Love the Kaleidoscope Filter

The Vignette filter makes everything look a bit more mysterious

The Emboss filter makes for an interesting photo.

I did try both Pixlr and Aviary but Pixlr was by far easier to use.  It's really easy to upload the picture and the tools are easy to use.  Aviary on the other hand was not easy to use at all and has way too many components.  I couldn't even open the Peacock portion, it just never loaded.  My favorite filters were the Kaleidoscope Filter and the Emboss filter.  I made the embossed picture of me my profile picture on Facebook.

This would be a helpful tool in the library for maybe improving signs that we put up and add some interesting elements to displays.  The program could be a good tool for students to use for projects that require pictures, I don't know if it would get used a lot but it's a good tool to know about.

Overall it's fun to use the different filters and tools on pictures and could indeed be a useful tool for the library.