Rollyo and Google Custom Search

I think many of my fellow library employees are exploring Rollyo right now too. The site seemed slow and unresponsive.

Even with the slowness of the site it was fun to explore. It does take a lot of steps to create your CSE but it was fun. I liked looking at the CSEs other folks had created. I did create a CSE, Shoemath, all about shopping. The results it gave were not quite what I expected but it worked out okay. I think I need to tweak it a bit more and it'll work fine.

Google's CSE was much easier and faster to set up. I have it bookmarked on my toolbar. I couldn't figure out how to do that easily with Rollyo. In all, I think I'd use Google's CSE instead of Rollyo just because it is simpler.

I'm getting quite a collection of bookmarks on my toolbar. I wonder if firefox extensions will offer different options on the symbol next to a link? I'm getting bored with the generic dog-eared page symbol.

Library 23 Things tutorial session

I attended the Library 23 things tutorial session this morning at McHenry library. I'm so glad Kerry and Sue held this tutorial.

I had a blast learning more about the 23 things we've been working on. The tutorial was set up so we could go and our own pace, ask uninformed questions (speaking for myself) and ease any panic about finishing all of the 23 tasks. It was also fun to talk with other staff members about our experiences learning the 23 things.

I'll definitely try and make the next session.

More on Wikis

I've been enjoying looking around at different Wikis. I do wonder how well they would work in a public/staff interface. If they are just used for work then they'd be fine.

I checked out some of the library outreach/instruction sites, Wiki served more as a listing of links, which is useful. It didn't look like libraries were using the Wiki itself to provide instruction information.

Thanks to Kerry I have a better example of an interactive Wiki used as a wiki, not a place to list links. The Ohio State University Library provided a great example of a library using Wikis and Meebo chat.

Don't you just love finding out who/what has been editing Wikipedia? I would like to see such information more readily available, perhaps as part of the Wiki itself instead of a Hack providing that information. I know on some Wikis you can check what a previous entry looked like but it doesn't always tell you who edited it.

Wiki 2: Woohoo, I added an entry for Special Collections. Yay me.

I like the chat feature with Meebo. Sue showed me that if you want to save a session you need set it up to save before hand, you can't save the session during the chat.

Catching up...

I haven't had much time to blog so I'll try and catch up in this post.

I liked Del.icio.us as well. I like the convenience of having my bookmarks readily accessible. I also liked seeing what other folks had linked too. However, it does seem "Big Brother"-ish. I know I can set my bookmarks as private, I just haven't done it yet. Any new bookmarks I add will be set as private.

Wiki: Oh, this could be such fun. I agree with Sarah, the possibilities are exciting. I'll step away now before I get carried away.

MySpace: I don't log on as much as I used to. My friends were using it as a way to share photos but Flickr is taking it's place. I don't care for the Search & Browse features on MySpace; I find them very cumbersome.

Next up: Pinging