Cloud Computing via "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"

Found this while reading the ALA e-newsletter and just had to share it!
Sing along everyone!
:)

Cloud Computing

Just what I needed: something to justify "having my head in the clouds!"

We already use this with our Google calendars in Info. Services, and I'm guessing it's something along those lines that allows us to access our shared files. I'd love to see those on a cloud. Every so often I'm at home when inspiration hits and I want access to one of my files to add to it, expand upon something or write a list of ideas to pursue on paid time.

Great for retrieving photos, music, saved research, etc. I think it'll soon be an expected service; folks with smartphones and other devices want access to their info wherever they are and it would be nice as public library members to help them get to it!

The Bad Three

If you live in Colorado and plan to vote, this video is a MUST SEE!

Get out there and VOTE!

Terrific amount of information on this Libguide (Thank you Linda!) and so well organized. It makes me happy because it's an easy one-stop shop for all things electoral-much easier than trying to navigate a number of independent sites.

My dyslexia foiled me again as I thought I had chosen Nov 2nd as the election date, but apparently I chose Nov 4th. Consequently I have a lowly score of 83%. So sad.

Critical Past and Food Safety

I can see that this would be a great place to refer patrons wanting actual footage of historical events such as clips from Vietnam. Found a very politically incorrect black and white video of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain that made me laugh. I was surprised to note a clip about Brooke Shields visiting the Coast Guard in Bahrain during the Gulf War. Being able to search clips by decade and year is a great tool.

The minimum cooking temperature for fresh pork is 160 degrees. (So now I guess I need a meat thermometer?) I like the recalls and alerts section.

New OPAC

I've been working with the new OPAC for a while and noticed several things that I passed on to "the powers that be." Originally when I looked up Lewis, CS a list came up with all kinds of Lewis's, but CS was down the page a ways. When I clicked on CS Lewis at the top under Suggested Topics, it took me to a page-long biography that I had to scroll down before finding his titles. If, however, I searched CS Lewis, I went directly to his titles. I see that it has now been fixed!

Browsing was also problematic. I chose to browse by author and then alphabetically, but discovered that what came up was a list of authors organized by the number of titles they had and not necessarily alphabetically. I found that confusing and unhelpful. I see that has NOT been fixed: Dickens, Dixon, Dahl are the first 3 listed under the D's.

Nancy is also aware that there is no Spanish option for the OPAC at this point and I'm sure they will be addressing that as soon as they are able.

Today I put The Memory Keeper's Daughter on hold from Clifton. Like that very much; the ability to see what is where and choose (we had only the audio here). This will be a MAJOR improvement when all the kinks are worked out.

I will very much enjoy the Cart Feature both personally and professionally when it's up and running!

Survey is completed!

Library of the Future in Plain English

What impressed me is that we're already doing a lot of this!



Presentation by Mal Booth, Sophie McDonald and Belinda Tiffen, UTS Library. Ideas and concept for the video format were borrowed from the Common Craft website at www.commoncraft.com

Newseum Museum

Great resource for getting the daily headlines.

I checked out El Nuevo Dia from San Juan, Puerto Rico and murder was the major headline. What I found odd was there was very little print on their front page; mostly photos with brief captions.

Moved on to Portugal and Spain which both had the World Cup splashed across all their newspapers: El Pais, Granada Hoy and Diario de Sevilla

I could see using this just to follow "What's up" in headlines around the world. It's also nice to see what's going on within Colorado; patrons often read something from another Colorado paper and kind of expect us to be aware of "local" happenings.

Free e-books

Lots to learn here.

I used ManyBooks to download The Secret Adversary in LP, which sounded like a great idea, yet didn't look any different than the regular sized print. I could zoom in, but was able to do that with any title. Not sure what the differentiation was there.

Had used Project Gutenberg for school, so skipped over it this time.

Was interested to see the offering of magazines on Google Books; checked out Cruise Travel (I can dream, can't I?).

Memoware kind of confused me. I checked out a mystery: Bicycle Shop Murder and liked the sidebar with related e-books, but when I clicked on something there, it took me to a confusing page with no apparent connection to the titles I chose. I also found titles "for sale" though it was not immediately clear that these were not freebies.

Online Books Page looked more academic to me. Primarily nonfiction-I didn't see much "light" reading here. And, after all the reading I've done for school, I'm much more into the light stuff right now!

Librarians do Gaga

You can tell they had fun doing this; wonder how many of their patrons actually saw it?

Video: Librarians Do Gaga

Optimal Resume

What great timing to have this and our job series too! These are terrific resources for job searchers with clear examples. I checked out resumes and letters and was impressed at the scope of the letters. Someone recently asked me to right a referral and I thought it was interesting to check out what Optimal Resume had for the different levels of one's career. This should be a valuable resource for our community!

Print-Friendly Tools

I can see using this a lot! I already knew about the print preview and tell patrons about it each week. I really like Print Friendly because it is SO easy to use. I checked out the St. Petersburg, FL Newspaper and had no trouble editing photos and paragraphs I didn't want.

Learn-a-Test

I do recommend this to many people since we're limited in the number and variety of testing books we have in OM. I did NOT know that the ASVAB test was also included under ebooks (is that part new?) and found more resources of which I was unaware. Tried the Praxis test and was disappointed that when I clicked on "Finish Later" I received an error notice so would have to start over again.

I didn't see anywhere how to delete the test from My Center if I didn't want to continue it or had made a mistake (not in FAQs, may have missed that information elsewhere). Tried the Test Help Page, but it appeared to be blank (or did I need to be in the test at the time?).

Overall, I am impressed with this database and know it will be helpful for a number of patrons.

January E-Books

This was the easiest time I've had downloading anything! The most difficult part was finding a book that was available. I finally found Of Mice and Men. The directions were clear and easy to follow. I'll be happy to recommend this to our patrons.