Rollyo - discovery

I tried the program Rollyo which allows you to create your own search engines from your favourite URLs. I tried to use library catalogues and discovered that it really only wanted to search web pages not databases. It is a Google alternative.

After trying a few searches under the various Rollyo search options I found the resulting lists long and not very useful. The use of quotes to create a phrase did not change the search results. Since the search results were not useful I would not use Rollyo.

LibraryThing

I found that I could spend a lot of time with LibraryThing. It allows you to catalogue or keep a list of books that you have read - or even want to read. It was easy to use, however I found that adding titles by using Amazon.com took 11 minutes to load while load a title from the Library of Congress or one of the libraries from the list took just a few seconds. It was interesting that several University library catalogues are available to choose from but not UWO's. London Public Library's catalogue is also available. This is something that I might actually use.

Image Generators - Site to print Graph Paper

The The Generator Blog has many sites that produce images to try. The one I found interesting was incomputech was for printing graph paper. Besides the standard graph paper (useful for layout garden designs) it includes papers for calligraphy, music, accounting ledgers and various circles, triangles - even guides for writing Chinese characters!

Syndic8 and Technorati

I found both Syndic8 and Technorati to bring up too many feeds which I was not interested in looking at. It would take too long to sort through to find something of interest. I would not use either of the sites.

Finding Feeds

I found it interesting that some sites I thought would have an RSS feed for news items - like the Ontario Genealogical Society, which recently revamped their web site do not.

I found mostly blogs and then tried using Google to find some different topics with an RSS feed.

RSS Feeds and Blogs

Libraries can use the RSS feeds for new acquisitions, as London Public Library is currently doing.

Using readers to collect the latest information from blogs could save time in checking them frequently. However, time is at a premium and most people can not spend time looking at material which does not impact their job. The problem would be to find blogs or RSS feeds which have a narrow enough focus so that all items would be of interest. Very difficult to achieve, unless it is a blog created and used within your area of the the workplace.

I could see using it for projects which a group was going to work together on. All members of the group would need to participate in posting - rather than just one or two people carrying the load. It would be of some use for personal reading on topics of interest.

Technology and Libraries

Libraries have a long history of using the "latest" technology. In 1970 the library world was not too sure about the new computers and what they could be used for. Data processing was taught because they thought that computers would be used in accounting -- only in accounting. Today if the computers go down -- so does the library. The new "toys" of today could become the tools of tomorrow with uses we can't imagine.

Freeport Bahamas - Where Fluffy lives.

This photo was taken from Flickr of Freeport Bahamas by toddcan. This is where Fluffy lives.

Flickr Color Pickr - Flowers

I used the Flickr Color Pickr and chose the subject flowers. As you chose a colour the pictures of flowers around the colour wheel changed to that colour. It could be useful for planning a garden design by giving you possible flowers in a particular colour.

Gardens at Elborn College

Here is a photo of the gardens outside our windows at Elborn.

Back from holdiays

Ready to start blogging -- Back from holidays. The trip to Vermont was great