Library Joke of the Week

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Winnie

Winnie who?

Winnie you going to bring back that overdue book, Hmmm?

Podcasts

A Podcast is a non-music audio recording which is dispersed throughout the internet by amateurs and professionals. A Podcast can include interviews, radio shows or discussions about a particular subject. Listeners can hear them on their computers, MP3’s or mobile phones and receive updates through RSS feeds when new content is posted no matter where you are.

To find some podcasts that would interest you, just google ‘podcast’ or check out the Podcast directory (http://www.podcastdirectory.com/) or Podcast Alley (http://www.podcastalley.com/)

A podcast that was of interest to me was called A Juggling Mum (you can look her up on itunes) She tells her story of a working mum with 4 children, a husband and a home business. With hints and tips for juggling work, home and a social life!

Podcasts could be used in libraries to inform members of upcoming events or what’s new in the library, to explain how to use the catalogue or to share book reviews.

Library Joke of the week

Once a blonde went to the library to get a book. A few days later, she returns and says to librarian at the counter,
"This book was very boring. It had too many characters and too many numbers, so i would like to return it."
The librarian says to the other librarian, "So that was the person who took our phone book!"

Mashups

Mashups? (Sounds like what I’m having with my meat and veg for tea tonite!!)

A Mashup is a web application that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service displayed in a single window. A Mashup brings applications together, enhances existing data, improves usability and makes a web page or blog more dynamic and engaging!

To get a better idea of Mashups I headed to The Mashup awards website (Http://mashupawards.com/winners) and I found some amazing Mashups you must try!!

Twitrans
This is a Mashup for all you twitter lovers out there, just say, you have a friend on the other side of the world and you speak different languages and find it hard to communicate. Simply tweet to @twitrans Eg. en2de Hello! Wait for the translators to do their job and it will be translated on your home page. Eg. Gutentag!
en2de is code for English to German. Here are the rest of the language codes:
Ar – Arabic, Zh – Chinese, NL – Dutch, ES – Spanish, Fr – French, RU – Russian,
EL – Greek, HE – Hebrew, HI – Hindi, JP – Japanese, PT – Portuguese and IT – Italian.
Check it out at http://www.twitrans.onehourtranslation.com/

140it
One more for the Twitterers! Do you find it hard to keep to your tweets 140 characters or less? Then this little Mashup is for you! It works by reducing words and removing spaces, shrinking URL’s and exchanging company names with their stocktwits logo. There is more information and a demonstration video on the website. http://www.140it.com/

Pixelpipe
Liberate your media!! Upload photos, videos and audio through the pixelpipe gateway and distribute your content across 100+ social networks, photo/video sites, blogs etc. with mobile and desktop applications. No more loading the same photo over and over again, do it once! Distribute your content to any of these: Flickr, YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, Picasa, Photobucket, Zooomr, Photobox, Snapfish, Shutterfly, jaiku, Blip.tv, Twitter and Blogger… just to name a few!!! Check it out yourself!! http://www.pixelpipe.com/

Google Docs

I use Google and Gmail almost everyday and always wondered what all those google applications were. Well, today i'm going to tell you about Google Docs.

Google Docs is a free online service where you can design documents and publications online and save them securely for future use. I have made a small presentation on Google Docs called Strange...but True! and then published it onto Rhy in the Sky for all to see. (Below)

The best thing about Google Docs is I can allow collegues/small group of people to edit the presentation and add their imput without overlapping. Also if you dont have any word processing software on your computer as long as you have a web browser and an internet connection your hot to trot. Upload from and save to your desktop , edit anytime from anywhere, pick who can access your documents, share changes in real time, files are stored securely online and it's free!

This software would be useful in a Library environment because all library staff could have their say on the same document/presentation while sitting at their stations, bouncing ideas of each other.

Strange...but True!

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Bella Swan, a regular seventeen year old girl moves from sunny Arizona to live with her father Charlie Swan, the Local Police Chief in a gloomy small town called Forks. It rains in Forks nearly all year round and Bella longs for the sun to kiss her skin as it once did in Arizona. She has to start at a new school and make new friends and she doesn’t expect to like it.

Bella finds her place at school and everyone is very welcoming. Sitting with her friends in the cafeteria at lunchtime Bella scans the room and her eyes lock on a table in the corner. Sitting at the table are the most beautiful looking people she had ever laid her eyes on. Her friend Jessica tells her they are the Cullen’s, all brothers and sisters adopted by local doctor Carlile Cullen and his wife Esme. Emmett is the largest and strongest looking of them all, Rosalie has long blonde hair and a stunning face, Jasper doesn’t say much and always looks like he’s worried about something, Alice has the features of a perfect pixie and Edward.…Edward was the most beautiful with his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice and irresistible charm.

As Bella and Edward become more infatuated with each other - for entirely different reasons – a diverse romance blossoms. What Bella doesn’t realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. With the odds against them, how can a human love a vampire?

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a paranormal romance like no other. New Moon is the next instalment in this emotionally addictive series.

5 out of 5
This is one the most inspiring and captivating books I’ve read in a long time.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope that you do too!!