web 2.0 awards, continued (i heart etsy!)

Web 2.0 Awards

i really enjoyed looking over the Web 2.0 Award Winners. i found several sites i was already familiar with (and a fan of) there, as well as some new sites i could try.

i am already a fan of YouTube, Facebook, Yahoo!Answers, and my newest favorite: Flickr. i was happy to see all of them as winning in their categories.

one site that took 2nd place in its RETAIL category was etsy. i have been hearing so many good things about this site and have been wanting to explore it.

i think i know where my next online purchase will be! www.etsy.com is a site that sells specifically handmade goods. it works like eBay, where you buy from the seller directly, not to etsy. you can search for all kinds of things, from toys to clothing to plants to housewares and art. i am especially fond of items in the toys section, i have a love for stuffed animals, and i love the look of those that are handmade! i even found amigurumi, japanese crocheted animals, yay!

Google Labs (or i heart Google)

Google never ceases to amaze me. just when i was recovering from my obsession/love of Google Earth, i now discover the products on Google Labs.

i tried Google Trends and found this search quite interesting. By going to the main page of Google Trends, you can see the top 10 searches on Google for the day (or maybe lately? until something changes?) and i was surprised when i saw my own name there at number 6! well...sort of. the number 6 search was listed as "abbiejane swogger" and so i clicked on this search to see what this was all about. my middle name is jane, afterall. i didn't realize there could possibly be any other abbie janes out there! :P

so, as it turns out, i am most certainly NOT abbiejane swogger-as she is a stripper-turned-teacher's aide in Pennsylvania who is in trouble with the law. if i've sparked your interest, why don't you do your own search on her and see what you can find. i am a little embarrassed that i have the same first and middle name as this person! hmmmphhh!



the other tool i tried today was Google Web Page Creator. i am so excited to learn about this! i think it's a great way for people to learn how to create a web page. i didn't get a chance to really experiment, so i'm not sure as to how well it works. i am excited to learn!

Yay, Google!!!

i think using Google Docs seems a very complicated way to post an entry on a blog. maybe i am just new to the idea, and need to grow accustomed to it, though. i think the real test will be when i try to post this entry to my blog!

i do like the idea of not worrying whether computers are compatible, i know that can be a big problem in the long list of problems between personal computers and macs. whether material has come from a mac or not, i have had trouble opening information (while it is a document, a presentation, etc) on any of the PC's i use. it's very frustrating.

search engines

for this exercise, i tried clusty, yahoo, and wink. clusty and yahoo both found the same "top 5" sources for given topics, while on wink, i became distracted with the people search tool. i created profiles for myself (one under my married name and one under my maiden name) but after doing so, i'm not sure exactly why. i will have to play around with wink a little more.

testing yahoo as another form of search engine almost doesn't seem fair, i mean, it's been around since the days of everyone's favorite: King Google. i've never used it much, so i guess i could start trying. i think i will test all of the search engine examples and see what i think.

i found myself wondering what happened to the search engines that originally came out in the days of yahoo and google. what happened to excite? does everything still exist? it would be interesting to see a list of every single search engine available. i think this will be my next mini-research project. :)

library 2.0

while doing the reading for this exercise, i thought of what the city library already does (and does well) with the Library 2.0 frame-of-mind and what it could do better.

to me, library 2.0 means that the library is beyond user-friendly, it's user-driven. library services and subject matter can and should be available in users' preferred environment, which has become the Web. in this part, i must admit that i am not a big fan of the city library website. and i know i'm not alone. patrons ask questions and even complain, all the time. i am hopeful that when the Web Master position is filled, our web page will improve. i believe that a great website is crucial in this era of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0.

something that the city library is doing very well these days is being MORE than just a collection of resources that users can find on the internet. we offer so many programs that most of the time, i feel like my head is spinning, we offer our public space for public discussions. in the past, i have struggled with how much of the library's resources (both in staffing and in financial) are devoted to programming. i have been of the old-school librarian thought that more of the budget should be spent on The Collection. now, thinking along library 2.0 lines, i am reexamining my position on the programming issue. perhaps it's not an issue-collection vs. programming, maybe it's necessary for the library's survival in the present and future?

i really enjoyed the examples in "Into a New World of Librarianship" of the most important traits of a LIBRARIAN 2.0, as i think i am one, or striving to be. :P

updating my travel map

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

image generator

RSS Feeds

RSS Feeds seem confusing to me, but i have set up a Google Reader account and subscribed to the following feeds:

Google Reader bundle "Fun"
Google Reader bundle "Celebrity"

Hello Kitty Hell

Salt Lake Tribune

New York Times

New York Magazine

NY Post

i plan on spending more time with Google Reader and getting used to it. i'm still a bit confused, so i need to do this. it would be nice to subscribe to different friends' accounts on MySpace and Flickr, but i think i'll just stick to the aforementioned feeds for now.

flickr tools

while i am becoming a big fan of flickr, i don't really like any of the flickr tools. i mean, colr pickr is pretty fun, but seems ultimately pointless, unless i was really searching for photos or images of a certain color.

i plan on continuing to use flickr and i will explore the tools more.

on another note, speaking of flickr, i really do hope that i will get to create more photo "sets" once it is a new month. i read in flickr help that you can create more with the start of a new month. i have three and it just isn't enough! i don't want to pay for this service, though. i can have as many "albums" as i want on photobucket, all for free.

so, we'll see. like i said, i really like flickr and plan on using it a lot. one aspect i especially enjoy is while searching for photos, when you find a photo you like, you can save it to your "favorites." this is great!

today's favorite photos on flickr (according to moi)

i want to be this girl!





this is the beach where i was married:

i heart flickr!

i have been aware of flickr for a while, but never really used it much. i created an account a few months ago, after Britton sent out an all-staff email encouraging library peeps to do so. now, after exploring for a bit, i love it!

i have used photobucket for storing photos online for the past couple of years. i do love photobucket as well, but there are aspects of flickr that i like better. i like that you can make "contacts" and comment on user's photos.

i am a big collector of photos of different examples of asian pop culture (i believe i've mentioned my love for Hello Kitty in earlier posts) and that is mostly what i have stored on my photobucket account. while doing photo searches on flickr, i noticed all sorts of new photos that i haven't seen before, anywhere on photobucket or even google images! yay! you don't know how new photos of japanese stuffed animals makes me!

i am part of the Salt Lake Public Library Board and Staff Members flickr group, so if you'd like to check out some of my photos (especially some of my Hello Kitty & Friends collection, hehe) add me as a contact and you'll be able to view them in all their glory.

library thing

i like library thing. it's similar to an application on facebook called "visual bookshelf". i like library thing better, it seems to work more smoothly. i'll probably use library thing to keep lists of books i like for personal, as well as, professional reasons.

i will have to explore library thing more, i saw a note somewhere on the site that library thing can be added to MySpace, which would be fun to add to my page there.

i like that there is a librarian forum and that you can be connected to other library thing users that like the same books or similar books. i am excited to use this site!