Week 5, Thing #12

I created a search engine for information on Led Zeppelin. I only added about ten url's, but I could have added up to 25. I added the main sites that I retrieved through a Google search for the band and the band members.

http://rollyo.com/jennyhowell76/led_zeppelin/

I keep saying this pretty about pretty much every tool, but this is really an amazing utility to be able to create your own, targeted search engine. Of course, by doing so, you can run the risk of excluding some information on those sites that you did not include in your search tool. On the other hand, you can retrieve more precise, relevant results by excluding many of the sites that might have picked-up irrelevant information.

I mentioned in my entry for Library Thing that allowing users to catalog their own items is a challenge to the current publishing paradigm. The same goes for allowing users to create their own search tools. Of course you lose much of the authority and quality control that are provided by publishers, aggregators, and catalogers. Perhaps a hybrid model is emerging? That certainly seems the direction things are moving towards...

Week 5, Thing #11

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/jennyhowell76



I'd heard a lot about library thing and wasn't really sure what to expect, I guess something more "database-like", like EndNote or RefWorks. I was happily surprised by the clean interface and the ease of use. You can literally (hehe) jump right in and start adding books. Of course, the tagging feature stands out the most for me. I took a cataloging course in library school and I still have bad memories of AACRII and many sleepless nights. What a revolutionary concept to allow readers to assign their very own keywords to what they're reading! I'm not sure where this type of thing is going, but as a former employee of an indexing and abstracting company, it's really a revolutionary concept to allow users to catalog their own items! Watch out publishing paradigm!

Week 5, Thing #10

Okay, this was definitely a lot of fun. I spent a lot more time than I planned on playing with the online generators. I discovered that my goth name is 'Vicious Mistress' and my country star name is Penny Clementine - too fun. It's incredible to think that people have the time to sit around and create these types of tools (or play toys)! They're extremely easy to use and rather addicting.

Crazy lookin' cat

Did You Know 2.0

An official update to the 'Shift Happens'

Week 9, Thing 19, Blonde in the Library

Week 4, Thing #9

I use MERLIN almost every day - it's a great site to keep up to date on new technologies and to learn about what is happening around Maryland. I belong to several different MERLIN groups and am alerted each time a specific thread is updated. The Western Maryland Public Libraries regional training calendar is also on MERLIN - I try to keep that up to date so that people in Western Maryland can see what training is being offered.

Probably the most useful portion of the MERLIN site are the Learning Links. From podcasting to gaming to online learning, these links aggregate useful information about these timely topics.

Speaking of aggregating, the search tools within Bloglines and some of the other search tools like Feedster really enable you to go out and build feeds on a particular subject or on a variety of subjects. I've also found a number of feeds by just browsing the web or through groupings on other blogs or websites.