Thing #35

I spent some time looking at the Wakoopa website. The tracking software sounds interesting especially if you had a computer lab or public access computers. It would be a great way to learn what different resources patrons are using. Not only could it help with purchasing choices but it could also help you decide what topics/programs you may want to offer training on. Not only could you offer sessions on heavily used software but maybe also on underused programs.

I took a look at the reviews and was a bit disappointed. At least for the pieces of software that I was looking at the reviews were mostly just a few words or a sentence or two at most. A couple of times I saw longer reviews that did offer lists of pros and cons. Those were useful.

After looking at the site I decided that I did not want to create a Wakoopa account and use the software. Even though I think it would be a useful product for public access computers it's not a program that I want to install on my personal computer. There's a couple of reason I decided not to install it. The main reason is that I already know which programs I use every day. Secondly I'm just not comfortable having a piece of software track everything I use. I have read their privacy information and it sounds like it should be OK to use but I also saw that they are offering vendor accounts. It's just feels to big brotherish to me and I'm not comfortable using it.

Florence Hopes Book Drive Will Save L... - WOWT

I sent this from my Google Reader.

Florence Hopes Book Drive Will Save L... - WOWT: "

Florence Hopes Book Drive Will Save Library WOWT The Florence community is joining together in an effort to keep its library open. A book sale Friday kicks off the fundraising efforts. ... Donors Pony Up Funds For Libraries KETV.com Library donations rolling in Omaha World-Herald Festersen, Auto Dealer Pitching in to Help Save Library KPTM-TV NTV all 12 news articles »

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Delicious

I’ve been using delicious for a number of years now. It really comes in handy when I need to provide a class with list of links. It’s easy for me to add the links to my delicious account, add a specific tag, and then provide the class with my URL and tag. There are number of advantages doing it this when as opposed to creating a printed list. Of course this electronic list saves on paper. You can add and remove items to the list even after the class. Also this way the class participants don’t have to hassle with typing in the URL.

As I’ve been reading the Nebraska Learns 2.0 participants comments there are couple of comments I found myself leaving multiple times. I thought I’d just put them out there so everyone benefit from them.

First of all did you know that you can import/upload your bookmarks from your different browsers directly into Delicious? Of course getting them uploaded is the easy part. You will still have to add tags. You can find the upload option in Delicious under: Settings - Bookmarks - Import/Upload.

Secondly if your computer is locked down and you are unable to add the delicious browser add-on without help from the IT gods try using the bookmarklet option. It will add a bookmark to your browser that you can then use to add a site to your delicious account. As long as you can add a bookmark to your browser you should be able to use it. I use and it works well for me. You can find instructions on how to set it up at: http://delicious.com/help/bookmarklets

Lastly I need to say thanks to vbeck22. They are a NE Learns 2.0 participant that set up their own delicious account. I was looking at their links and came across a recipe for Cranberry Magic Bars. I made them for Christmas and my dad thought they were delicious.

Image Generators

I thought it was about time that I tried to catch up on my blogging so I took a few minutes this morning and experimented with some of the FD’s Flickr Toys and making my own receipt. Here is what I ended up with. The figures for the receipt came from Lincoln City Library’s Library Use Value Calculator.

Pilger Public Library

Check out the video of the Pilger Public Library.




Are there any other Nebraska Libraries out there creating YouTube videos?

Google Reader

I’ve been using RSS for what seems to be forever. Google Reader is my reader of choice. I used Yahoo for awhile and I’ve tried Bloglines but neither of those works well for me.

One cool feature that’s available in Google Reader is the ability to share items from your RSS feeds with others. As you are reading your feeds you can easily share an item be selecting the Share option on the item you are viewing. If your friends use Google Reader they will be able to see your shared items in their own Google Reader account. You can also create a public page that displays all of the times you’ve Shared. Here is what my Shared Items page looks like. Did you notice the RSS feed link on the page? That means anyone can subscribe to my feed for Shared items. If you look along the right hand side of my blog you will also see my Shared Items.

Check out the Google Help documents for more information.

Adding LibraryThing to your blog

I’ve recently had a couple of different questions about how to add LibraryThing to your blog so I thought I’d just put the instructions up so everyone can see them. If you see any mistakes or have any questions please let me know.

There are two ways you can go about adding LibraryThing to your blog. You can either use the LibraryThing Gadget that is available through Blogger or you can add the Blog Widget that LibraryThing provides. Each of these options has a couple unique options. I’d suggests taking a look at both of them and see which will work better for you. However, the one difference I want to point out is that the Blog Widget from LibraryThing provides the options of allowing you select which books are display based on the tags you’ve assigned to your books.

For both options you will of course need to be logged on to your Blogger account. You will need to go to the Layout tab and be on the Page Elements page. There are multiple different ways you can get to this page. If you are on the Blogger Dashboard select Layout. If you are logged on to Blogger and viewing your blog there should be a link in the top right hand side of the page that says Customize. It will take you to Page Elements page.

LibraryThing Gadget Available Through Blogger

1. Click the Add a Gadget link. You may have multiple of them available. Select the link that corresponds with the location where you would like the gadget to be displayed.
2. In the Add a Gadget window search for LibraryThing. (Make sure you do not have a space between library and thing.)
3. You will get two results. It does not which one you use. Click on one of them.
4. Customize your Gadget. Make sure you remove J_Raghu name from the title and put your own LibraryThing User Name in the ID box. (FYI - when I was writing this the Preview option was not working.)
5. When you are done click Save.
6. Click Save a second time.

Blog Widget Available from LibraryThing

At this point you should be logged on to your Blogger account and be on the Page Elements page. If you’re not go back and do that. (See above)

1. In a new browser window or tab go to LibraryThing and log on to your account. (Make sure you keep your Blogger page open!)
2. Go to this page: http://www.librarything.com/widget
3. Customize your Widget. If you would like to display titles with a specific Tag use the Tags dropdown box to select the tag.
4. On the right side of the screen there is a box labeled The HTML Code. Select and copy all of the code. Make sure you copy all of it.
5. Got back to your Blogger window or tab.
6. Click the Add a Gadget link. You may have multiple of them available. Select the link that corresponds with the location where you would like the gadget to be displayed.
7. Make sure the Basics category is selected then scroll down the page until you locate HTML/JavaScript. Click on it.
8. Enter a Title. You can use anything you want. Here are a few examples: My Books, LibraryThing, Quilting Books, or Books I’ve Read.
9. Paste the HTML code that you just copied from LibraryThing into the Content box.
10. Click Save.
11. Click Save a second time.