Gotta love LOLCats....

#15 On Learning 2.0

I think the section of the Iceberg article that I agree with the most is the "Reliance on User Education". We put an incredile amount of time and resources into teaching our patrons how to use the library; what if we put half of that towards making our resources easier and more intuitive to use in the first place? User education will never go away, of course, especially in graduate and advanced classes. However, I do believe that we need to rethink how we get patrons to use our resources. If it takes a 2 hour class just to learn how to do the basics of finding a book or article, then something is wrong! It is one of the major reasons that our new patrons go to Google. It is easy, intuitive, and you get something back (even if it frequently isn't the best "thing" for what you need).

I've been intrigued by more intuitive models of resource discovery lately; in particular, Innovative's new Encore product, which is being beta-tested at Michigan State University (and other sites). Play around with it here:

http://www2.lib.msu.edu/

or directly here:

http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/screens/encore.html

Neat-o!

#14 Technorati

Clearly I need to play around with Technorati a little more, because its practical applications are not exactly springing immediately to my mind. I tried to "claim" my blog and tag it with oulibraries, but I think something may have gone awry. The pics that I tagged in Flickr seem to be showing up fine though.

I've been getting so involved in overseeing this program that I have been lagging way behind in actually doing all of the exercises myself. Not doing a very good job of leading by example.

I promise to catch up; I'm so proud of everyone who is done already! Great job!!

#13 Del.i.cious (or however you spell it)

I think there are a lot of interesting ways to use social bookmarking/tagging/etc. When I visited the University of Michigan, their dentistry librarian was using del.icio.us extensively to put together lists of relevant sites and resources. I'm interested in exploring more ways to use this stuff, when I have some free time!!

#12 Rollyo

I created a quick Rollyo search roll for some of my favorite Great Dane sites; give it a try!

If you're not sure what to search for, try using the word "bloat" (a dangerous condition that can affect Danes) and see what comes up.

Or, search for "Davey" and you will see pictures of our adopted Great Dane! (The first hit is his success story on the rescue website; the second hit is our adoption story in the rescue's newsletter)

#11 Library Thing

I'm in love with LibraryThing. Mainly because I'm not sophisticated enough to be a cataloger, but it allows me to still "catalog" my books. I'm working on my entire library, but since I just started last night I have a loooong way to go.....

I have added a widget to the sidebar of my blog if you're interested, and here is the link to my (ever-expanding) catalog:

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

Let me know if you want to borrow anything; as long as I get it back!!!!

#10 Image Generators

Love image generators!! They are so much fun. I got lost in these for days.....finally surfaced long enough to make this post. I've used the Simpsonizer (different than the Simpson Avatar maker; in the Simpsonizer you upload an actual picture of yourself) with my picture :

From This.......

The Simpsonizer came up with this!

Wow; I should be living in Springfield. I'd be MUCH hotter.

I tried to Simpsonize a picture of my dog (hoping they would have something related to Santa's Little Helper loaded into the program), but apparently you have to be human.....too bad.