Cloud computing

Cloud computing is, in some ways, a bit foggy at the moment, but maybe that's because I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. If I'm understanding it right, it's the ability to use computer programs/storage off-site. In a sense, that's what MARMOT does for us. Because we have MARMOT we don't have to hire our own IT person, as we pay the MARMOT folks to do that. I'm also guessing that some of our databases are cloud computing. As libraries grow and information grows, "clouding" could beneficial to libraries. By not having to hire IT people, significant money could be saved and used toward collection development. I participate in Facebook, which I'm guessing is cloud computing. Also, my delicious account could be considered the same thing. I don't have it stored on my computer. I can see where this type of service might be helpful to me to have a safe and secure place to store my writing, so that if my computer at home died, and my flash drive self-destructed, then I would still have access to what I have written. The drawback would be how secure the information might be. With the ability of hackers, I suppose nothing is completely secure.

BTW--How did they get Wes to narrate the video?

September Webolution--Election

The Libguide for elections is great! Lots of info in one place. I took the quiz and scored 100%. And yes, I've already voted--turned in my mail-in ballot today at the mall location. I'll be glad when Nov. 3rd gets here and the phone is not ringing off the hook from all the political calls. Always starts when we've just sat down for supper and doesn't quit until we go to bed. Aaaaaargh!

Historical events on birth date

"Critical Past" is a fascinating website. It was fun to see the large range of history that it covers. As for my birth date: U.S. airmail was inaugurated in 1918 (we've come a long way in the last 92 years--I thnk); lots of WWII news including the Dutch defending their homeland against the Germans in 1940 (my heritage is Dutch, so this was interesting to me), the fall of the Remagen Bridge to the allies in Ahrweiler, Germany in 1945, and a Japanese air attack on the USS Bunker Hill, 1945. In 1935, King George V of Britain celebrated his Silver Jublilee, and in 1948, a New York City motocade celebrated the new state of Israel. On a more sporting note--Bimelech won the Kentucky Derby at Pimlico, MD for a purse of $50,000 in 1940.

And, yes I already knew the minimum temperature for cooking pork, but went to the website anyway to verify. Yep, 160 degrees F.

Printer Friendly

This site is a very handy tool for printing only the article. It not only cleans up the page, but it shortens the number of pages by eliminating all the junk. I can see where this might be useful with ILL when sending articles to other libraries. The article can be saved as a PDF file, and that could be sent through email as an attachment, saving time and postage. Now, if I can just remember to use it. :-)

New Opac

Enjoyed playing around with the new opac. Fairly easy to use. There's so much information on each page that I can see where it might be confusing to people who don't use the internet or aren't familiar with computers, or find searching for something intimidating. For those savvy in using the above, it's a virtual playground for information. It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to it.

Newspapers

I enjoyed visiting this site, but the first time I visited, I didn't have enough time to explore, so missed the interactive map. I think the map is easier than trying to find a newspaper through the "gallery" or the "list." This could be helpful for "current" obituaries or current news items. It doesn't, however, provide historical information, which many genealogists are looking for. It was fun to play around on the site.

Ebooks and ePub

This proved to be a bit frustrating. When I tried to download the Adobe Digital Editions, I kept getting a message about an administrator password. Aaaaaaargh! Thanks to Cari, I discovered that MARMOT no longer allows downloads on our computers, so I can't download any books using ePub. However, I visited Project Gutenberg, Google Books, and ManyBooks. Results: Found one of my favorite books, Mark Twain's "Adam's Diary" on Gutenberg (which I couldn't download) and Google books, which I could as a PDF file--actually it was "excerpts from"--so that worked out. On ManyBooks, I browsed "Recent Additons" and found "And That's How It Was, Officer" by Ralph Sholto, which looked interesting, but I, of course, couldn't download it. I doubt I'll use this much--still like having a book in my hand--but I can see how a lot of our patrons would "eat this up."

Optimal Resume

This is a great site. Really helpful in all areas of job searching. Not just the resume help, but cover letters, interview skills and job searches. Was a little disappointed that Library wasn't listed as one of the areas for resumes, but oh, well. Can't have everything. The job search was very interesting. You could really narrow it down to the area you wanted to look in. This will be an excellent tool for our patrons.

Learn-A-Test

This one was fun!I decided to see if I could pass the citizenship test. I was really proud of myself. I'm guessing I would have scored between 95% and 98%. Keep in mind this was the end of the day and my brain was tired. (A couple of things just couldn't be retrieved from that vast filing system in my brain on a Friday afternoon.) I recommend everyone look at this test--see if you can live up to the title "citizen." As for recommending tests to someone, I've done that several times, particularly the GED test. At the Palisade Branch, a young man comes in every Wednesday morning when I'm there to receive tutoring in math so he can attend college. I showed him the practice ACT and SAT tests and he was thrilled. I'm extremely glad we have this particular database.

E-books--Okay already

Did the e-book thing on Overdrive. Checked out "Emma" as that was one of the few titles available. Downloaded the software and voila--a book to read from my computer. If I were going to do e-books, I would definitely get a Nook or something comparable instead of trying to read something from my computer, but at the moment, I can't bring myself to spend $259 plus tax for the reader. I can see its advantages if you travel a lot (which I don't), because the Nook would be easier to pack and use on a plane. Ahhh, technology...it's amazing.