Thing 9 -- Sharing - slides, photos, databases

Sharing information comes naturally to librarians, so this should be an easy thing. I think that it will be useful as a way to promote library materials. Maybe we could create a slide show that shows the work in progress as they work to expand and renovate our building. A photo mosaic of a library program might be fun. Of course, we all love databases! I can see it now: staff picks loaded into a database that our patrons can view!

The Mosaic above was created using Big Huge Labs. I was able to link to my flickr account and select the photos I wanted in the mosaic. Then I clicked a button to create the mosaic. Now comes the tricky part. At first I attempted to copy and paste the html code into my blog. But I kept getting an error message, then the blog closed.

Finally I simply saved the mosaic onto my hard drive and was then able to load the mosaic the same way you load any other photo from your computer, by clicking the browse button, then locating the picture you want and clicking upload. Whew! I'm hoping it gets easier as I go along.


Below is a link to a slide show of photos that I took in Cedar Key in November 2007. It was pretty easy to get this into my blog. First I opened another window, then logged into my flickr account, clicked on one of my favorite photos, and then clicked "view as a slide show." Once the slide show came up I clicked on "share." There I "grabbed the URL," and copied it to the clipboard. Then I came back to my 23 things blog and pasted the url into my blog. Simple enough. If you get organized and keep your photos in albums, then your slide shows will have a theme. I will definitely recommend flickr to patrons who are looking for a way to organize and share their digital photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/16407621@N03/sets/72157603228924401/show/with/2043976390/

Next I took a look at Picture Trail. It was pretty easy to create another free account. I did have to "skip" the free offer. But then I was able to upload some photos of the Millhopper Branch in its temporary location, on the 2nd floor of the Bank of America building, at 2627 NW 43rd St. I'm pretty sure I followed the directions correctly, but the html code does not translate into a photo slide show as expected. Could it be because I don't have the latest version of flash???

Well, anyway, here is a photo of the Bank of America building where Millhopper Branch Library is temporarily located, at 2627 NW 43rd St. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor, you will see the library on your left as you exit the elevator.

Thing 8 -- Communication - Web 2.0 Style

I've always wondered about IM'ing. It looks pretty cool, and apparently if you have a web cam you can also do a video chat, or leave a voice mail, if the person is not available. I invited 3 other google users to chat with me. We'll see how it goes.
Several days later: So far nada on the google chat scene. So I took advantage of the widget offered by the cool folks at NEFLIN (Meebo) and installed it on my blog dashboard! So come on all you bloggers, Chat with Sharon!
Several days later, a slender ray of understanding slipped into my consciousness. To sum it up, here is a quote from Howstuffworks describing instant messaging:
"Send notes back and forth with a friend who is online." Tada! If your friend is not online, there will be no messaging. Aargh.
3/28/09 News Flash!!!!
I received my very first IM this morning, from my son who lives in Atlanta. He happened to be online at the same time as me and sent me a hello how are you message! Wow that was exciting. It's kind of like a phone call without sound. Anyway, I felt compelled to share this new experience with someone. Why not here, in 23 things?

Thing 7 -- Online Image Generators

This is so cool! You can use your own photos to create art! Here's a warholized image of sweet baby Grace:

Thing 6 -- Flickr Mashups

I already had a flickr account, established during a NEFLIN workshop on Digital Cameras back in the Spring of 2005. I've not used it much since then, but here's a recent photo that I took of a quilt I just finished making. It is called a Nine-Patch Scrap Quilt. I made it from scraps of fabric that I've been collecting over the last 30 years or so.

This is a picture I took at sunset in Cedar Key in the fall of 2007. Can you believe we have this beautiful natural treasure just 50 miles from Gainesville?

I also looked at a "mashup" from Flickr. It wasn't very hard to get to it. After clicking on the link for "spell with flickr," I typed my name, then photos popped up from the millions that are stored in Flickr. I had the option to change one by clicking on the letter. Once I got the photo letters I liked, I copied and pasted the html code into this post. That's all there was to it. I was able to view the photo letters once briefly during preview, but after publishing all I can see are those little red x's that say here's a picture but you can't see it. What gives????
I'm not one to give up easily, so I let this rest for a while and then came back for another look. On 2/12, checked in on my google reader, where I am receiving rss feeds from several other Millhopper staff bloggers. Two of them had successfully spelled something using mashup!!! Lucky for me, one of them included instructions. So now you can see my name spelled out with flickr photos. Hurray!
Here's my attempt to use splashr:

My Presentation

Thing 5--Flickr

This is a photo I found on Flickr, loaded by pollobarca2, and located in the "creative commons" area. It is a picture of the beach in Montorosso, on the coast of Italy. I was there last October. It was a bit chilly in October, and the beach was not so crowded. But the water was that incredible shade of aqua blue.

Thing 4--RSS feeds

OK, I finally got it. I only wish that I had watched the video first! It was a short and sweet but to the point explanation of what needed to be done. While I understood the concept of RSS feeds, I wasn't so sure why I needed to subscribe to a reader. This is explained quite adequately on the video. The reader gives you one place to check for all the websites you are interested in. So I am now a Google Reader and have feeds from ACLD bestseller fiction, CNN, several of my co-workers 23 things blogs, and the Millhopper Staff Blog. Whew! I love it when I learn something new! Now it's onward and upward to thing 5!!!

Thing 3--Blog searching

So now I've read all about Technorati and compared it to Google blog searching. I must say I prefer the Google product. It works, it is seamless and quick. A simple search for White House retrieved 42 million hits in just a few seconds. The same search in Technorati retrieved 659 hits. What's the difference? In Technorati you can limit your search to blogs only. I still liked Google best because it has an excellent ranking system that put the official White House blog at the top of the hit list. And to give credit where credit is due, didn't they come up with the first really good search engine for the web? I've always been a name brand kind of person, so I guess that I'm running true to form. I'll stick with Google for now, at least until they lose their mojo.