Bruised but victorious

We certainly finished up with a challenging task -- at least it felt that way for a first-time downloader of an ebook. I found my way to the Reading page of the SPL site and was surprised to discover that there is no heading for ebooks! (There is a heading for audiobooks.) Soon I spotted the appropriate link and was on my way. I thought I was doing well to plow through dense instructions for downloadable ebooks and eaudiobooks, but I had no idea what lay ahead! Endless screens of instuctions and agreements and registrations for Windows Live ID and Adobe DRM Activator might have discouraged me were I not an intrepid 10 Thinger. Pity the hapless patron who attempts an initial download from home. It was worth the effort in the end: I received a clear, eminently readable ebook that is mine until the plug is pulled. The process was by no means a friendly one, however.

Google takes all

Creating a Google Docs word processing document was effortless; saving it to the Internet seemed handy. I'm inclined to agree with the CommonCraft narrator that "Google Docs rocks" -- but did he have to end with that kinda creepy, ambiguous hand signal? Am I to understand that Google offers word processing and recruits for nefarious street organizations?

An Internet home seems useful for some information, but can Google Docs really offer "full control over who can see and access your documents"? And even if Google can do it today, can they do it tomorrow? My radical trust feels a bit strained.

"Get together"

Radical trust. Pardon me, but isn’t this where I came in? Wasn’t I the sincere and idealistic teenager singing, along with the Youngbloods,

C’mon, people now,
Smile on your brother.
Everybody get together,
Try to love one another right now.

Can a 21st-century understanding of trust be applied to the Web? Yes, indeed! (You can take the boy out of the sixties, but you can’t take the sixties out of the boy.) Safeguards are key, but the concept seems to work. As a cataloging librarian, I already find Wikipedia to be one of my most useful resources, especially in the search for leads on new authors and artists in our graphic novel collections. Time and time again, I can't find information in traditional resources, but I can find a valuable starting point in Wikipedia!

Schubert to go

Thing 7 was my introduction to podcasts -- I'd never heard one, much less subscribed to one! I used the suggested directories and, in a flurry of initiative, sought out a few more. PodcastDirectory.com offered great leads for discussions of classical music. Did you know that Schubert composed over 900 pieces before he died at age 31? (And I thought I was busy.) Although we're defining podcast as a "non-musical audio broadcast that is distributed over the Internet," a few notes did manage to squeak through.

Tasty

del.icio.us is an interesting concept and, in my inaugural attempt, easy to operate. I'm going to have to work with for a while, however, to more fully understand its usefulness. The tag list is a bit overwhelming; I would think that the number of sites per tag might become unwieldy as Web pages proliferate. I can see that specificity of tags is crucial. I felt limited by having to come up with a single word -- until I noticed the many creative compounds.

The tortuous path from Flickr to blog

John F.W. Herschel, 1792-1871
Originally uploaded by theskokieten

Now that I've managed to accomplish the Thing, I love being able to enhance my blog with photos! I've long wondered how they do that. The process is easy, but the Thing was not, because the instructions only work if the person preceeding you follows them! Hitting "Blog this" did not allow any link to my blog. It did result in my -- inadvertently -- adding this photo to someone else's blog! (My apologies, Anonymous. Feel free to expunge Sir John Herschel, who, in the right place at the right time, named seven of Saturn's moons.)

Social networking for the over-50 crowd

According to the tag line, Eons is for people "lovin' life on the flip side of 50." Yeah, well, I guess. Registering was easy and the interface had nice big print for myopic seniors. The organization mirrored other social networking sites, so I was able to set things up quickly. How nice of Eons to provide Suzy, an "automatic friend" -- perhaps a doting aunt to the generic Tom of MySpace fame.

"Talking" at the speed of typing

Setting up Google Talk was the most straightforward (i.e., enjoyable) Thing yet, thanks in large part to my IM buddy, Ms. X, who is always ready with witty textual repartee. Instant messaging can be fun, but I don't tend to use it much. I'd usually rather phone than trade lines of text, unless I'm contacting a friend in, say, Antarctica. Maybe it's a generational Thing.

Subscription, yes, but not really simple

I made several missteps while completing this task, but the end result is both exciting and useful, especially now. My brother is very ill with advanced, inoperable liver cancer (metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma), and I comb the Internet for encouraging news. My job just became a good deal more efficient -- if only it were more fruitful!

As for missteps, I started by going to a few sites, only to discover that they didn't offer RSS. I never did see an RSS icon in my browser's address bar (even on sites that I eventually added to my Reader!). I finally realized that I could search RSS-equipped sites by entering search terms at Add Subscription. (Yes, yes, Andy probably covered this is his rapid-fire tutorial, but the non-interactive and outdated interface didn't help me much with the task at hand.) When I finally located relevant sites and got them into my Reader, I signed out and decided to "check back" per instruction #5 -- but back where? I eventually found a link for Reader buried under "More" on the Google home page -- not very intuitive, but it got me where I wanted to go. The URL we used to set up our page also worked.

The next problem I intend to solve is how to add a new site to my Reader. Unfortunately, the Reader page now looks different than it did at setup. According to Reader Help, there is supposed to be an Add Subscriptions link, but I'm just not seeing it. ... Success! In reckless desperation, I clicked on a tiny, unlabeled gray triangle in the left margin of the Reader page. A new column containing the Add Subscriptions link appeared! Who knew?

A blog is born

Aside from a few navigational snafus, I found the task to be straightforward and interesting. I enjoyed the other library blogs and was pleased to see the use of more than one language. I was particularly impressed with the industrious folks at Darien -- and only a little less so when I realized they're in Darien, Connecticut. SPL can certainly follow the lead of the vanguard bloggers in highlighting specific interest areas that viewers can find without trudging through an entire site. We seem to have the beginnings of a blog with our archived front page.

I read and left a comment on Camlibrarian.

After I previewed my post, I injudiciously hit my back arrow and seemed to lose the whole thing! (Who knew that Hide Preview was the button I wanted?) How nice to discover in my panic that Blogger had saved a draft!