A New Look

I decided since the Library2Play and my journey of my first "23 Things" was over, I would change the look of my blog. Therefore, I have spent the last hour, not posting mind you, but choosing a new template, picking fonts and colors, and checking and rechecking to see how it would look. So far I like it, but you never know, I may need to change it tomorrow!

I have been thinking about posting and have composed several posts in my head on the way to work. (It is about the only time and place I have to myself these days!) I even have some good ideas for future posts! I have also been spending some time looking at all the other blogs. (Everyone who was in the Library2Play!)

At our Monday librarian's meeting, those of us who were able to muddle through all 23 Things got a certificate and the promise of a new toy! Plus, we have been told that there will be a new adventure for us in the fall: "11 & 1/2 Things." It is the 1/2 that makes me worried! However, I look forward to that adventure as well! Some teachers at my school who completed the 23 Things received their certificates in the mail today. They were just as excited as I was and we have all felt a little lost since completing our 23 Things. I think at the moment we are just aimlessly wondering through the blogs to see who is still posting and hoping to find something new! Give us a few weeks and we will be back with new posts of our own!

Thing #14 - Technorati & How Tags Work

Another 2.0 or social networking tool - Technorati! Technorati searches blogs in the blogoshpere! (I love this term blogoshpere!) You can search blog posts, blogs, and tags. In the video clip we watched it said you could search blog directories, but I think Technorati has changed their page and I wasn't able to find that. I did search "school library learning 2.0" and discovered there are many people out there doing "23 Things!"

I like how Technorati returns results in real time - telling you how long ago something was posted on a blog. It is amazing to me the vastness of the blogoshpere! I looked at some of the popular searches and the popular blogs. Not surprising, most of the popular blogs have something to do with Technology!

I also did a search on my blog and I found it on Technorati! It is fun to see your own stuff come up on a search like that. It just reiterates the fact that nothing is private on the Internet, so be careful what you write!! While poking around in Technorati I got sidetracked looking at different blogs - the point of Technorati I think!

As far as using Technorati, I probably will if I want to search other blogs, or try to find out what blogs are out there on a particular subject. Other than that objective, I don't know that I will use it for its other features simply because I have other ways to do favorites and keep up to date on blog posts.

Now to tagging - as I wrote earlier tagging is simply applying keywords, or subject headings for you library folk, to things in order to classify them for yourself. My problem in tagging is I don't always remember the tags that I have used in the past, so I don't know how uniform my tagging is!

Thing # 9 - Useful Library Related Blogs and News Feeds

I finally had to stop looking at blogs, feeds, gadgets, and all the other fun stuff you come across in this type of exploration learning and create this post. It is time to move on to Thing 10! So what have I learned from this?

1. A lot of people either have a lot of time on their hands, don't sleep, don't clean house, don't shop for groceries, don't do laundry, etc., OR they are much better at organizing their time than I am! Even now, I feel guilty sitting here posting when I know others need me to do all of my weekend chores!


2. There is a colossal amount of information out there - just try a blog search on any topic and you will find what someone posted 10 min. ago up to 10 days ago on that topic!


3. As I read through many of my searches I thought about the counsel of my grandparents generation and even my parents generation - "Don't tell people all your business!" WHEW! Have we moved past this or what? Now there is all but a torrential flood of every thought, feeling, even passing fancy! I think the pendulum has swung far to the other side! (See even I expound too much!)

Which method of finding feeds did you find the easiest?
I looked at many of the blog search tools and those were a little overwhelming. After much time looking through different searches, I have decided to be more judicious in adding blogs and feeds to my Google Reader. If I find a blog I like, I will look for it to appear in other blog rolls. If I see it more than once, then I will consider adding it to my Google Reader. So, easiest method - look at blog rolls of blogs I like.

Which search tool was the easiest for you to use?
Google Blog Search. However, the quality of your search results is directly related to the quality of your search term. And I wonder why my students have a hard time doing quality keyword searches, when I can't seem to do them myself!

Which search tool was more confusing?
Syndic8.com and Technorati (although, once I was able to watch the tutorial in English, it was easier!) I didn't realize that RSS feeds are listed by number - that is how Syndic8.com list them in the search results page. A little to technical for me!

What kind of useful or unusual feeds did you find?
Well I found many that I have added to my Google Reader - most of them on children's book reviews. After I added the must haves: Librarian Philosopher, A Library By Any Other Name, and Library TWEeter, I was thrilled to see that many of the book review journals have RSS - Booklist Online, School Library Journal, and Horn Book. I love reading these journals, but can't afford all of them - so now I can still get a taste of the ones I can't afford! Some of the other blogs I subscribed too are Chicken Spaghetti, A Year of Reading, Children's Literature Book Club, and Jen Robinson's Book Page.
A fun thing I found while browsing through different blogs was the Lookybook website. It allows the viewer to actually flip through the pages of a book. I am going to attempt to add an example on this post!



What other ways did you find to locate news feeds?
I looked at the recommended blogs from my Google Reader. It looks like they find related blogs based on what you have already have in your reader. Some of these were pretty good!

Now that I have all of these, I hope I can keep up with reading them!