Picasa Web Albums - Best Books

Picasa Web Albums - Atascocita HS Lib...

Thing9

I found the easiest way to find feeds is by looking at the lists on the sidebars of blogs. When looking at a library blog, I can find all kinds of related discussions.

My favorite search tool was Google Blog Search. I added a blog search gadget for school librarian blogs to my Google home page.

I did not like Syndic8 - it covers too much - the format is overwhelming. I was also disappointed by the School Library Blogs on Suprglu - too much scrolling to get anywhere. They should use a sidebar format.

When I blog, I am usually looking for job related information, so I would say that the most useful would be Edublog Award Winners. I noticed "A Library by any other name" was listed.

the most unusual feed (and actually useful feed) I found was the Atomic Learning. I liked the free tutorials.

The most useful feeds for me are the ones that I find in online databases such as Ebsco. I know I can depend on the information.

Thing 7

I created an iGoogle page which is very handy. I included my favorite library RSS feeds which included Joyce Valenza's Never Ending Search and also the YALSA site. I love the to do list feature which allows me to list daily library related tasks as well as personal items. Google Docs is the second tool that I found helpful. As the facilitator for our library group, I plan to create a spreadsheet for our first meeting, called Best Practices. Each librarian can access this document and schedule their best practice presentation at one of our 08-09 meetings. I also enjoy checking Google Scholar to see what articles my PhD scientist son has published. A quick search calls up everything he has written and I can choose my own search preferences.

Thing 8

I think that RSS feeds can be overwhelming. I believe that the key is choosing wisely -otherwise it is just another way to deal with information overload. The concept is great - however I tend to collect too many favorite sites and then don't have time to read them.

In my personal life, I like the fact that the iGoogle page allows you to access your favorite sites - all in one place. The bundles they set up were great.

As far as professional life, I did manage to set up a folder called Library Stuff - and choose two recommended sites that would be helpful to me: Joyce Valenza's never ending story and also YALSA.

I do not wish to make my reader list public.

Thing 6

I had fun looking at all the creative ideas mentioned in "Big Huge Labs." I uploaded photos from authors who will be attending our Teen Lit Fest in January (with their permission) and created two different posters:

The first one was a collage of all the authors using Mosaic Maker
The second was a poster adverstising the event using Motivator.