What do I see?

Well, for Thing #10, not a whole lot. Maybe I'm just not looking for "cool" and "happening" places and things. Or, maybe no one else who has been to places I'm interested in have posted pics, yet. I'll have to keep on trying. I tried "Boca Grande" on Google Maps and Yelp. Google did give me an interesting street view which might be pretty current as it showed construction/new sidewalks right in front of Boca. This would be helpful if I was planning on heading out that way for a quick dinner. Parking in that area is already so horrendous, I wouldn't want to finally get there and find out all the sidewalks are closed off! Yelp is good for finding those funny reviews of places you know. I think I need to do some digging and see what Yelp's capabilities really are. I guess this is a "to-be-continued" chapter....

catch-up time

Hi there,
well, you'll all have to forgive me for being late on some of the "Things". I'm up to my eyeballs in reviews and haven't had 2 minutes to myself, it seems. I'm really interested in exploring the photo sharing sites. There are a ton of photos I want to share with family and friends, such as wedding photos of my friends' wedding -- from OVER A YEAR AGO! Picasa seems to be a really great site, user-friendly and fun to search. I found some good photos of Iceland (yeah, I know their economy just tanked right after we planned a trip there... oh, well.) It really seems that Google has everything all bundled up through their site, which is nice to have a one-stop shopping experience. Here's a couple shots of two places I hope we can catch on our trip. Hopefully I'll have my own photos up soon after: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/71uFYYNJhI7OwfOFirdJRA and http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/abGHX9oBuBdMO4926kueYg

A lot of these discovery activities make me think of ways they would be useful in our academic library. For example, our Student Coordinator and I have been trying to figure out a better way for all the students to be able to sign out for work shifts, while allowing other students to sign up to cover the vacancies. I'm interested in exploring how Google Calendar might help us there. Also, I think it would be nice to have a way to post all the new books as they arrive each week. That way patrons could "pre-browse" for something. A lot of times, people see from the catalog that a new acquisition is "available", but it was just cataloged at the main library and hasn't arrived at our branch, yet.

Thing #7 - Feed Me!

At first glance I do feel overwhelmed with all the information out there. I'm hesitant to subscribe to RSS feeds and be bombarded with tons of "junk mail", even though I'm the one seeking it. I do like the idea of having our library have a more robust RSS feed. It's so infrequent that we post new news, I don't think any of our patrons are interested or willing to subscribe to us. I checked out MIT's New Books feed and really liked the idea that we could adapt something like that to our library so our faculty could keep up with new acquisitions from their subjects, as well as cross-over interests.

My review posted!

Hi,
Here's the promised review on Sprecher Brewery: www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g59917-d735709-r20543481

I really didn't like the delay in posting and the TripAdvisor site really was cumbersome to navigate. I probably won't use this resource in the future. I much preferred to just Google a search on "Iceland" to get some information on my up-coming trip. While searching through those hits, I came across other reviews. I guess the good thing about TripAdvisor and having to sign up to post reviews is that it cuts down on the companies/businesses posting rave reviews about their own establishments.

Not your average classified ad

I hope this link will still work, if you look at it. I was working on Thing #6 and right off found this ad on CraigsList. It really cracked me up, considering I have a small son and there are times that both my husband and I would gladly trade him for a riding lawn mower/tractor or even a serviceable horse. I know you would never find an ad like this in the Globe or even Herald. I think the Coos County Democrat (the local paper I grew up with and still enjoy) would get kick out of it, though.

Reviews...

Well, I'm still waiting to see if TripAdvisor will even accept and post my review. I wrote just a little blurb about Sprecher Brewery, located near Milwaukee, WI. I visited there years ago, but didn't even have my own computer at that time, let alone know about review sites. So, I'll give them another day and hopefully can give you a link. At the least, follow the link to Sprecher's site, if you like beer at all and are in the area, it's definitely worth the trip.

Social networking

So Thing#4 is all about expanding our social networks. Well, (insert your favorite deity here) knows, I sure need it. All I did was list a few favorite books, and lo and behold! Up pop thousands of people who also love these books! I'm glad I'm sitting down. Not only do they like the same books, but they also listed other interests that match my own. This is all pretty new for someone who has always been comfortable with only a handful of close friends.

Now suddenly, I'm able to check out comments from people who have traveled to Iceland to get a jump on my surprise trip. I've used Craigslist to find my apartment and first pet African Clawed Frog. Now I'll have to get that Facebook account....