Thing 36 - Comic Relief

I have used many of these generators before: Image Chef, Big Huge Labs, Easybib and Timeline Creator. Easybib is my favorite and often used by the students. I tried Read Posters and Dictionary Entry. ToonDoo was fun (see below). I use ComicLife with my students and that is very easy. I found the Convert Your Name to a Dewey Number very interesting and a bit scary.
I can't remember where I learned about WigFlip, you can make fun signs, graphics, scrolling text, or sticky notes for your webpage.

Thing 36- ToonDoo

Thing 36- Comic Relief

Mary Keifenheim's Dewey Decimal Section:

006 Special computer methods


Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works


Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.



What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Thing 35 - Books 2.0

I have faith in the future of the printed book. I have no quarrel with ebooks etc., and I think the new media has advantages. But there are enough people who love the feel, the freedom, and the convenience of a printed book in the hand that there will be a need for books in the future. In the school library, reading is still strong. I give credit to Harry Potter.
I loved many of the Book 2.0 sites. I think discussing with, reading and interacting with other readers, is a positive for the future of reading and books. I use Shelfari for my books list for the students. I also linked Shelfari to my facebook page. Parents have commented that they checked my Shelfari often during the summer for suggested good reads. I had fun with BookStumpers, I enjoyed reading the solved mysteries. "What's Next" did not work for me, I entered the Ranger's Apprentice series and the Percy Jackson series - no information. BookGutton is great, I plan to visit it more in the summer. I also, have resolved to release at least two books on vacation. For a book lover, Book 2.0 is fantastic. I hope to explore more this summer.

Thing 34- Online Answer Sites

I had never used or visited an online answer site before now. I found them fascinating. Many of the questions were straight forward technical or information questions. All of these requests were questions a reference librarian could easily answer. The personal questions were, of course, more interesting. The attraction of using an online service is that no one knows who is asking about their own "misleading facial expressions". I suspect that people often use the online answering sites because they are comfortable with the technology and it is anonymous i.e. how do you unlock an iphone. I am not worried about the role of the library or the reference librarian, I think the variety of sources makes it harder for many people to navigate and evaluate information. When I teach researching to my elementary students, I often require two sources and many times the two sources disagree. My students often look at me with trust in their eyes and ask me which one is correct:) I am needed.

Thing 33- Travel 2.0

This was fun. I did get the travel bug after checking out some of the sites. Many of them would have made our trip to Europe years ago easier. I forwarded several links to my daughter and son-in-law , they are traveling to Scotland and Ireland this summer. I enjoyed My Kugelhopf, the photos of the food were fantastic. Notes from the Road was also interesting with great photos.
I thought Igougo and Boo both would helpful when planning a trip. Hotspotr and Wines and Times were fun to visit. I don't need to visit Fastfoodmaps.

Thing 32- Google Maps

Google Maps and some of the mash-ups can be very useful. I enjoyed touring Jane Austen land and making a map.

• I also enjoyed digging a hole (its not the first time).
  
• I forwarded the bike path mash up to my daughter for her bike trip - very useful.
• I had fun with the UFO sighting maps.

What I want to do is create a google map tracing the path of a character in a book for the students. Perhaps, Stringbean's Trip tom the Shining Sea or Elijah of Buxton or a non- fiction book about the underground railroad.

Thing 31 - More Twitter

More Twitter is right! I spent a lot of time on twitter, not in twittering but reading and exploring extras. I tried to join the Librarians Directory, but it took forever to log on, but it is worth the effort. I think its popularity is bogging down the system. I am trying to twitter more often, but I would rather read than enter. I do though enjoy following some of the other tweets (CNN, Mr. Twitter, School Library Journal, and most importantly, my daughter). I enjoyed some of the extras ( I am a question mark and get along well with commas). So far I am not using it as a communication tool, it is just is another way to find out about books. At this point I have a "presence" I am a baby tweet.

Thing 30

I use RSS, in fact it is very helpful in many cases. I found that if I didn't attend to it I could become overwhelmed. I had to learn to ignore a lot. I think that filtering is the answer. I reduced and organized the feeds and so far the information is more pertinent and I am not wasting time on articles not related to my needs.
I also had used Delicious, but after upgrading my computer I lost the site off my tool bar. I intended to add it again but never did. I finally added it back to my browser and I love it because I work from different computers. I also had resorted back to printing articles that I wanted, what a waste of paper. I love saving to delicious and then just rereading the information when I need it.

Thing 29 Google Tools

Back to Google. How do they think of all of it? I set up Google alert. I choose it because it seemed easy and I have a semi-rapport with Google. At first, I was certain that I did not want to be alerted to anything. I already am overwhelmed with information. But it was very easy and I have found the alert is helpful. I set the alert to report software update issues daily to my email. The first time I looked at the alert I found a very timely warning. I rarely find time to search for the information on the internet, so I am pleased with the results.
With a more positive mind set, I set up Google calendar. I need a calendar to keep track of my grandmother babysitting duties. The schedule changes often and it is easy to forget the details. It will be convenient to share the calendar with my family so we all can keep track of our schedules. I embeded the calendar on my igoogle home page. I am not sure how to use the calendar for library events