Better Late than Never - Week 5

So, this week has been all about social bookmarking and tagging through the deliciously named medium Delicious. Mmmmmm, tasty! I was quite excited about the potentials of using Delicious as it's one of those things I've heard of but never really understood what it was or how it would help me. I have to say, I'm not convinced I've progressed much further yet...

Don't get me wrong, it's quite a good way to organise your bookmarks, and I like the "bookmarklet" (I found it really useful that it reminds you to think about why you're bookmarking a site and how you want to find it again), but the way I've used it so far is not unlike having different folders in your "Favourites" sidebar, although admittedly a lot quicker! The other big advantage (and one not to be underestimated) is that it means you can access your personal bookmarks on any computer with internet access, and that's definitely worthwhile.

I didn't really find the Delicious site itself particularly intuitive, which irritated me probably more than it should have. I don't like having to go back and read the instructions just because I was at a complete loss as to what it was all meant to do! Still, after some resentful muttering I did get to grips with the site for long enough to import my existing bookmarks into Delicious, add some new ones, and do some tagging. I think I can see the general benefits in theory, but in practice I just really don't want to spend as much time on the Web as would make it worthwhile! In a library-specific context though, I can see that tagging could be very useful for both prescribed reading lists and for suggested reading around topics (which would lend itself to a more "social" approach as individuals added more items of interest under a variety of tags), so maybe I am coming round to understanding the purpose of Delicious!




I then continued bravely into the world of networking. I networked with Nuffield College Library and the Education Library (both very handy given that I'm doing a part time Master's in the social sciences) and I'm beginning to see the wider possibilities of Delicious library use; there's a lot of great resources bookmarked there! I also added some of my colleagues (hello!), my only gripe being that trying to add specific people is pretty tricky if you don't know what their login name is! I guess I'm too used to finding people on facebook and assumed that this would be similar - it's not!

Week 4 - Flickrtastic Part 2

The Hurst
Originally uploaded by RSL Ratchet

So, guess who's been playing with Picnik?! I rather like this one with its dramatic skyline, even if I do say so myself! I am rather impressed that I can blog my photos straight from Flickr (I connected my blog to my Flickr account, very easy, just follow the steps after choosing the 'Blog This' option above the photo in question). Although I am rather at a loss as to how to reformat the post once I'm here - I can add to the text but haven't worked out how to move the photo itself around, short of actually saving it elsewhere and re-uploading it. Hmmm, I wonder...

Ok, so far have not come up with any more efficient ways to upload directly from Flickr, but here is the original of 'The Hurst' from 'My Pictures' for you to compare and contrast. It looks rather dull in comparison.

Flickr

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

Week 4 - Flickrtastic Part 1

Somewhat belatedly I have created my Flickr account, hoorah! Many of my friends use Flickr to display their photographic genius, but as I'm not much of a snapper I've never done more than have a quick look at their work when sent links, so this Thing has been good for me to start getting to grips with Flickr possibilities. You never know, it may lead to me taking more pictures!

So, after being unable to remember my existing Yahoo! ID I managed to finally create a sign-in that was accepted. Apparently I have a very common name, so now I have an ID I'll almost certainly forget (I'm guessing that's what happened with my last one), but until then, I have a lovely Flickr account!

Uploading photos was fairly straightforward, although I did have to save some from my Facebook account onto my computer in order to upload them as I was, sadly, photo-less on this machine. I liked scrolling through my photostream, and was pleased to see there was a slideshow facility if I ever did take reams of holiday pictures!

I only uploaded 10 photos, just to make sure I had got the hang of it, but as the Flickr site seemed pretty intuitive, I also organised them into 'Sets'.

I then managed to find my library brethren over at the Oxford 23 Things group, and have been accepted amongst them, yay!


All in all, a rather successful first toe-dip into the world of Flickr I feel, and I am very much looking forward to playing with the editing tools, fingers crossed for some exciting creations!

Week 3 - Overfed!

So this week I've been playing with RSS feeds, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information there is everywhere! I can see that there's a fine line between tools that are useful and those that are beautful timewasters... Still, I feel that I've acheived a harmonious balance with my current Google Reader set up - voila!


I'm following a handpicked selection of my fellow library bloggers, and props to Liz for spreading the word about New York Public Library's foray into Web 2.0, very interesting indeed, I'll definitely put aside some time to have a good ol' nose around their blogs.

Possibly even more exciting than seeing what everyone else has been up to is being able to subscribe to various feeds and have them stream in one place. I'm hoping that this will save a bit of time, as I've chosen to subscribe to some of my favourite places on the web - The Guardian, the Internet Movie Database (brilliant for those frustrating "I really recognise him, what else has he been in?" moments), news from the RSL, the University, and the local area, as well as, of course, the 23 Things blog itself! I'm loving the Google Reader homepage with it's "What's new" feature - easy to navigate and you can scroll down your new items which are handily broken up into sizzling snippets of juicy info!