Tech Play - all finished!

This has really been a lot of fun. I would never have tried some of these things without being "forced" to by Tech Play.

Thanks guys!

Tech Play - Twitter

I am glad to know exactly what this is all about, but I have to admit that I really don't care what my friends, or even people I'm fascinated with (eg. Barack Obama), are doing on a moment-by-moment basis. My friends' blogs or Facebook pages are enough for me! The only possible library application I can see for this is for programming - "15 minutes until Storytime starts," "Don't forget the library book discussion starts at 7:30 tonight," etc.

Tech Play - Instant Messaging

I have tried IM in the past in a "chat room" sort of setting and wasn't crazy about it - the time lags drove me nuts, not to mention the multiple chat lines that were going on at once and overlapping each other. However, using IM for patrons to ask questions of the librarians could be very useful - if someone was willing to sit and monitor the computer for questions.

Tech Play - LibraryThing

This is a pretty nifty site. If I didn't own thousands of books I would be very tempted to put my entire collection here ... but since I work in a library I'll just content myself with reading the records for the books on First Search! :) The social networking with people who have similar libraries is very interesting though, and might prove to be more useful for finding friends and dates than some of the dating sites I've seen ... :)

Tech Play - Social Bookmarking

I can sure see the utility of Del.icio.us but I would need a ton of time to import all of my bookmarks from my library account! I networked with Roberta.

Tech Play - Tagging

I had seen tagging before but wasn't exactly sure how it worked. I see that you can sort by tags, but I wonder - does Encore really sort by the tags that patrons have entered? I'm going to go back right now and make a goofy tag, then search by that tag ...
* * *
OK, Brooke, that didn't work. I gave "purple chickens" as a tag to one of the scores of chicken books in the system, but then when I went totally out and just tried searching as Joe Blow, "purple chickens" as a search term did not find the book that I had so tagged. Wait, does this only work when I'm logged in? I'll try that now ...
* * *
Nope, still doesn't work. So - what the heck is the point of tags in Encore?

Flikr

I have been intrigued by Flikr since a childhood friend of mine and I reconnected last year, and she pointed me to her photos on Flikr so I could see what she looked like now, see her dog and her husband, and generally catch up. I use a similar site called dotPhoto.com which has the added attraction of selling prints of any photo you'd like. Obviously you you can choose to print your own photos, but also (if you allow it) visitors can order their own copies. It is nice to be able to share photos from trips or get-togethers with the other participants!

YouTube

I've been playing with YouTube for quite a while, but it is always fun to find new things to look up ... this time I tried "Broke Trek," a parody of "Brokeback Mountain" done with clips from classic "Star Trek" episodes, with Kirk and Spock in the cowboy roles. It was hysterical.

Tech Play - Social Networking Sites

This was an easy "thing" for me as I already have a profile on Facebook, which has proven to be addicting as I reconnect with all of my high school friends ... while I don't think the world is waiting to see what I'm up to every second of every day, these sites are a terrific way to find people that I've lost touch with over the years.

Tech Play - To Do Lists

This one, while clever, is something I don't think I'll ever have occasion to use. Of the three I prefer "tadalists," found "rememberthemilk" to be too complicated, and found "thingamalist" didn't have enough interesting recipes! However, this was the easiest "thing" so far.

Tech Play - Podcasts

Now I finally understand what a podcast is! I played around with a bird site (what else?) at odeo.com and found it interesting enough that I thought I'd add it to my Google Reader ... but I could not get it to add the RSS feed ...

So - whoever wrote this week's Tech Play, could you please come up to Reference and show me what I did wrong? :)

Later PS: Gail figured out a way to add a podcast to her Google Reader, involving cutting and pasting the URL of the podcast. I tried that and it worked. Crude, but effective!

Tech Play - Downloadable Audiobooks

This one is really nifty - if the La GrangeLibrary ever signs on for audiobooks I could even see myself doing this, and I am not a big audiobook user. I particularly liked the fact that you can speed up the reader by several factors as my main gripe with audiobooks is that I can read a book much faster than I can listen to one.
I found fewer of them available for iPods than I would like, given the fact that we have an iPod.
So, I vote that we get into the next group purchase for downloadable audiobooks, but only if a good proportion of the available titles are compatible with iPods.

Tech Play - Wikis

I like this one even better than online applications! It's very easy to use and seems to be the best way to coordinate a group's activities.

Tech Play - Online Applications

Now here is a "thing" that I think I might be able to use! I co-teach a class at COD with a friend, and we're always emailing versions of our lectures back and forth to check with each other. It will be a whole lot easier to work off of the same copy for the lecture, or the PowerPoint presentations that we use (which would have to be converted to Google Docs, I guess ...). Anyway, this one was very cool.

TechPlay - RSS Feeds

The exercise was easy to follow, and I now understand what RSS feeds are all about. I tried to add my home town newspaper as a RSS feed but unfortunately they don't seem to have added this feature ... :( So, I added the NY Times Science section, and the American Birds Conservancy's news feed. Now all I have to do is remember to check my Google Reader every day to see what has been posted!

Squirrels redux

We installed the world's greatest squirrel guard on the offending platform feeder. This guard is an approximately 30 inch metal disk, fluted and shallowly dished. It has a top hook for attaching to the wire leading up to the tree branch, and a lower hook for the feeder.
This miracle of squirrel denial and frustration worked for about one week. This morning I observed a fox squirrel as he looked, shimmied down the wire, and stood on the guard as he peered over the edge at the feeder below. As the guard tilted he slipped off, making a futile grab for the feeder on the way down. After sitting on the grass for a moment, he went right up the trunk, out the branch, down the wire, off the guard - and succeeded in grabbing the feeder as he fell. After one try he had figured out how to thwart the squirrel guard!
So, I got the ladder, took down feeder and guard, and cut the wire about two feet from the branch. I installed the guard on the end of the shortened wire, then attached the remaining wire on the underside of the guard and hung the feeder. This meant that the feeder is now about four feet lower than the squirrel guard. We'll see if any squirrel is brave enough to fall four feet in the hopes that he can catch onto the feeder on the way down.
Stay tuned ...

Squirrels in the feeders!

We hung the old feeder that Roger made (for use at the library's temporary headquarters at Shawmut) as feeder #8 in our back yard. It is a simple frame of wood with a wire floor, hanging from four wires, intended to hold sunflower seeds. It sure didn't take long for the squirrels to find it! Stymied from stealing from the other feeders by various forms of squirrel baffles, the resident fox squirrels were soon shimmying down the feeder's wire hanger to stuff their cheeks full of sunflower and safflower seeds. It never ceases to amaze me how quikly squirrels adapt to new situations, particularly where food is involved. I definitely see a trip to J & M Feed Store for another squirrel baffle in our near future!