Thing #12 Roll your own search engne

My Online Clothes
http://www.rollyo.com/dashboard.html

Above is the link to my rollyo search engine. It was very easy to make.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to use it. I will explore the site then write more.

...time passes...

Now I've explored. When made my roll viewable to the public, it let me search it. Not straight away though - I had to go in and out a few times. I don't understand why it finally allowed me to search.
Here's the link that can be searched:
http://rollyo.com/search.html?prevsid=323063&q=t-shirt&sid=323063

I noticed two odd things. One is that amazon.com, one of my sites searched, absolutely dominated the results. Few results came up from any other. The second odd thing is that many of my results are from sites not included in my search roll. Perhaps this is because amazon.com outsources their clothing. I will remove them and try again.

...time passes...

I removed amazon.com, no change. Then I noticed on the search page that my rolls were there, in addition to the web and a bunch of others. I went to the edit page, deleted everything except the roll I wanted to search. That worked.

Rollyo was very easy to make, but hard to use. Instructions are nonexistant. I learned:
- the Home screen is where you search your roll
- you need to tell it not to search anything but your roll under Dashboard. If you click on your roll, you get a box that looks like the ones you can search under Explore, except that there is no way to search it.
- Explore links you to other people's searchrolls. I don't understand why they have search boxes but I needed to go to a seperate homepage.
- Tools is about adding rollyo to your toolbar

Thing#11 Thing This: LibraryThing

I lost my reading diary - a book I picked up at ALA where I record what I've read and what I want to read. I was thinking of buying another one at Barnes and Noble, then I discovered this Thing.

Here's the link to the last six books I read plus four of my favorites: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bconkin

I found a spot in LibraryThing that allows you to display your books in your blog. I coped the code to do this below, but as you can see, it didn't work. Or perhaps it doesn't work on a mac in Firefox, which is where I am now.
EDIT - It didn't display the books under preview post, but here they are after I published:



I haven't figured out how to search other people's libraries yet. I feel a little awkward doing that - it feels a bit like going through a stranger's underwear drawer.

I remember in library school that we talked about how the web is so unmanageable because everyone and their dog posts their own things there. I wonder if LibraryThing isn't online clutter. I can use it, but I don't think it is necessary to tell the world the last six books I read and four of my favorites.

I wish I could merchandise my LibraryThing. I suppose that's what the tags are for, though I'd like to rearrange the covers. While there are many ways to display the list, there is only one way to display the covers.

I like LibraryThing, but would like it a lot more if I could keep my library private.

Thing #10 Play Around with Image Generators

This would be a strange street sign to come across, I think. But I suppose it is safer not to read while driving.
Street Sign Generator http://wigflip.com/easystreet/







I wouldn't mind having my own diamond shop.
Custom Neon Sign Generator http://www.neonmirrors.com/custom/


















Chocolate Bar Generator http://www.glassgiant.com/chocolate_bar/
I think this is my favorite one. Go chocolate! It's also a great segue into another whine about my tummy flu. I hope I am better enough to eat candy before Halloween. I'm only allowed toast now.

Some observant readers may be thinking - hey, didn't you have a flu last week? Yes, and it's the same one! And it has to be completely gone before I can get my flu shot.

I generated five images, but I could only upload three. I made a very pretty plate, but I couldn't save it. The comments said to press 'print screen' but I'm on a mac laptop, which doesn't have a button that says that. I didn't try pressing the apple, and there are tons of pictures on the function keys, I just don't know what they do.
I also made a Hermione doll, a cartoon character and a doll whose makeup, eye and hair color I chose. I couldn't save her to upload either.

This would be a great program for our BOOST kids, but I have 50 of them and only four computers. The crowd of fifty are afterschool kids, so they aren't there on Saturdays. Maybe a Saturday program.

Look - I fixed it! The words aren't all over the images. Making the images was easy, but dumping them here was a little harder. The hardest part was the re-editing so the text wasn't hitting the pictures. But, I did it.

Thing #9 Feeding frenzy

The hunt for feed -

To evaluate these newsfeed search tools, I searched for "increase library circulation", "public libraries" and "afterschool programs" in each.

Feedstar
I was very impressed with the uncluttered look of the Feedstar page in comparison to the others. I really wish that all websites would learn from Google - it's all about the white space.
I wasn't sure where to search on this page - there was a search box and a search widget. Shying away from the unfamiliar word "widget", the search box on top found me no newsfeeds, only blogs, for "increase library circulation". The search for "public libraries" found links for yoga, agriculture and iPods. "Afterschool programs" got me the most accurate results.

Topix
Topix had a nice graph by dates. Again, "library circulation" wasn't a very successful search. I did find one link that went to the 404 not found page, but that was when I used the map to go to May because it had a spike in results. This feed searcher gave the best results for "public libraries". Results for "afterschool programs" were similar.

Syndic8.com
I learned what a syndicated feed was at this site. The site would be better if they hired a graphic artist.
"Increase library circulation" found nothing.
"Public libraries" got four hits.
"Afterschool programs" found nothing, but interestingly, suggested "designer handbags" as an option.
I don't think this feed searcher would be there if it wasn't good for something, so next I searched for the traditional news word "Bush". It found oodles.

Technorati
The main page was constantly updating, which I liked. I also like that the words you are looking for are highlighted in the results. "Increase library circulation" found 77 hits, just when I was starting to think I'd have to go back to the database librarylit exclusively for this. "Public libraries" found over 8500 hits, and even had pictures. The first hit was from 59 seconds ago. "Afterschool programs" was also very successful. I was very happy with the result "Free After-School Activities for NYC Kids and Teenagers". Did it know that my mac and I were in NYC? It bragged about NYPL's afterschool activities and not ours, though.

And the award goes to:

Technorati. Although I was very impressed by Feedstar's lack of clutter and easy to pronounce name, the results that I got from Technorati and their organization was the best. I'm happy to say that their results page wasn't cluttered, and a pretty green color.

Thing #8 Make life simple with RSS

This post is about my RSS experiences. I'm home in bed with a tummy virus, so I may be more negative than usual. Please accept my apologies beforehand.

Despite all my woes, I first want to point out that I am now the proud owner of a bloglines account and am successfully subscribed to 10 feeds.

Now for the woes.

Here are the mistakes I made, which I share so that others can avoid them:

1. I thought a bloglines account meant that I needed to figure out how to install that little orange button into this blog. This blog and bloglines are two different things, thankfully.

2. After hours of reading all the links on Library Learning at home with my head spinning, I realized that you don't need to read everything. Fellow neophytes, you will save a lot of heartache if you just go to the links:

* RSS in Plain English. The link to this is in the "Week End, Week Begin" post on 10/14 after you click"RSS Feeds" in the sentence "This week we'll tackle RSS feeds"
* Feed Me
* Adding RSS Feeds to Bloglines
and
* Using Bloglines Tutorial - but only steps 1 - 3. It's a little tricky, because it isn't just 3 steps, but has a 1a, 1b, 1c etc for each number. Don't do it on a mac, I think that's why step 3g was different for me.

Now, here's what I'm supposed to talk about:

* What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?

Once you know what you are doing, it saves a lot of time.
I must admit, yesterday I hated RSS. I also had a temperature and upset tummy. :-O Now that I understand it a bit better, it's growing on me. My fever is also gone. :-)

* How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work or personal life?

It will save time monitoring both news headlines and career info.

* How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

I subscribed to a library's newsfeed. It has all kinds of children's book reviews (with photos). It may have had crafts. I'll check back and post updates.

RSS success

Last night I added a RSS newsfeed to my home computer - called "Latest Headlines". It's right up in my toolbar - very handy. I used the video below to do it.

This week's post starts out "Last week we flickr'd away. This week we'll tackle RSS feeds."

I looked at all the RSS feeds links in order, thinking I was doing the right thing, but was terribly overwhelmed. The last link was the charm. It's a great little video online called RSS in Plain English. It helps to watch it with sound. Your ACLM and/or CLM should know where the headphones are.

I'd recommend looking at this link first, before the other links on Library Learning, if you are not a techy person.

I'm very happy to have my "Latest Headlines" RSS ; its a great timesaver and lets me see what's going on without watching sensationalist TV news, which I hate. I'd like to have a "Library related headlines" link - I'm sure that kind of thing must be out there. Usually, I search some of our databases for the word "library", but this is very time consuming.

Thing #7 Blog About Technology: comment opportunity

In QL Chat, we were discussing the lack of posts vs. the number of members. Many more people are in QL Chat than people who post in QL Chat.

The QL Chat staff has been discussing whether there is anything they can do to encourage more people to post. My idea was that many more may come out of their shells if there was a spell checker. I post almost everything from home in Firefox on my mac, which has a spell checker. However, when I use Internet Explorer at work on the PC, I can't find a spell checker.

I'm not QL Chat staff, just the ACLM/J at East Elmhurst. I've posted a lot because I'm a chatty person, and I have a computer at home. You can use QL Chat at work whenever time permits - a new P&P just came out on that.

This week's Learning 2.0 task is to add a comment to a blog. Feel free to comment here about any ideas to get more people posting in QL Chat.

Thing #6 Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools

I started with Color Fields Colr Pickr
but spent the most time in Spell with Flickr.

As as soon as I figure out how to post my name in Spell with Flickr here, I'll do that. This is an experiment:

Thing # 5 Halloween craft idea

Missing you on Halloween
Originally uploaded by richard_dupont123

This is the first combined Halloween & Missing You card I have ever seen. It would be great for the kids who have can't be with a loved one this Halloween. It gave me an idea for a simple Halloween craft as well.

The BOOST kids could design and decorate letters in small groups in a Halloween theme to spell Happy Halloween. We could hang that on the wall above our book display.

Then I'll have the BOOST kids decorate a letter for each letter in their name. Letters could be simple such as the S's and the I or fancy like the N, O or U for those more artistically inclined. They could take their names home.

My favorite letter is the U.