My overall impression is that if a person has the patience to work through any technical problems which may crop up along the way, overdrive is quite cool.  Unfortunately I ran into difficulties installing overdrive both on my home computer and on a computer at work.  At home I have now uninstalled it, and sometime when I get the chance I will try to re-install it.  At work I needed to uninstall it, delete the DRM folder, rename the ‘capicom’ file, and then re-install the overdrive.  Once that was done I was able to run the windows security upgrade and then finally download items. 

It would be nice if overdrive allowed the capability for patrons to delete items off their account.  For patrons that really take to this service I can see that they may want to download more than 10 items.  Also, for persons who may be new to overdrive, having to first click on ‘add to cart’ doesn’t seem to be an obvious or apparent step to take, before being able to check out – although for people who buy things off the internet this would likely be much more obvious.

I downloaded a movie – it took about 15 minutes – wow, I was suprised it took that long…..can’t imagine how long it would take on a dial-up computer.  Once the movie was finally up and going I thought the quality (audio and visual) was pretty good.  The one overdrive feature that I would really love to see though, is the ability to minimize the movie, in case you need to work on something else momentarily on your screen, and then you could still listen to the movie as it is playing.

Well, that’s that.  This is a service that I will continue exploring – I need to try downloading a book now, and also some music……those will be my next two items to try-out.

 

Initially I found the whole idea of social bookmarking kinda hard to wrap my brain around.  However, trying to consider it from different perspectives is helping.  Ie) students – it seems like a great way to find helpful info about relevant topics.  Ie) Libraries – this has great potential for libraries who want to do things like ’staff picks’ and/or ‘patron picks’ to give readers ideas for books to read.  Ie) Travel and trip planning – it’s always great to hear from real people about real experiences.  Ie) Recipe ideas ~ so no more!  : 0 )

 

 

 

The most enjoyable factor of this week’s assignment was that there were no sign-ups for anything! 

Ok – seriously though:  the wiki tool looks like a lot of fun.  I enjoyed the Book lovers wiki as a great way to get ideas for books to read.  Same thing with the SJCPL wiki – i particularly liked their ability to search biographies by category.

Wikis could save a lot of time for folks needing coworkers to review meeting minutes – this collaborative nature of editing seems very efficient.

Finally, the ease of use of the wiki is very appealing – it seems very user friendly.

Okay – I got this one covered, no problem.  Actually, last month I experimented with youtube and uploaded a video to my blog, and also posted a dedication for it.  So, check it out by just scrolling down my blog until you see the date of: 03/26/08 – voila! ~ enjoy!

This task was a lot of fun

 

Setting up an account on Myspace was very easy.  I was able to upload a photo with no problem.  Also, I  set up a profile, and then did a search for someone.  I sent a ‘friend request’ to the person I searched for, so am curious as to whether or not I’ll get a response, just because the person is somewhat of a celebrity (really, do they have any time to manage their own blogs/myspace pages or do they have ’staff’ to do this for them?)  For people who are interested in socializing and expanding their social network, this can be a great tool.  Putting personal info out there ‘for the world to see’ however can have pros and cons.  Do people actually put their real names?  Leads one to be sceptical of anything found on these sites.

Utilizing such a site for business promotion, on the otherhand, could really have incredible results.  It would be a great way to publicize and network.  Staff within any type of field could use such a site for troubleshooting problems or brainstorming ideas…..it could also be helpful for study groups for students.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hand_of_sands/2412168008/

Ok, so the part about copying and pasting a URL to a photo, on my blog, is easy, but I’d like to be able to put the photo itself in my blog.  Will keep looking into this and try later.

I liked this photo because when I found it, it was almost the end of the work day and the title of ‘evening reflections’ seemed so timely.

 

Streaming Music ~ very nice and handy.  Just set up an account with the Sno-Isle Streaming music ~ started a playlist, and look forward to enhancing it.

RSS FEEDS

Oh dear – am a week behind, but here goes – went to Bloglines and signed up for an account…….set up 8 RSS feeds.  Still trying to grasp the concept of the RSS feeds etc – will spend some more time exploring.

Had fun going to YouTube and posting the video on the blog page.  Also set up an account with Meebo and sent a message to SIL, but felt like the message just kinda went ‘out there somewhere in space’ since it showed that SIL was offline now……seemed like (sorta) talking to myself.  Was curious about the meebo guest number – is it just a running tally from the time the site/or that account was started?

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Casey Foo – this one is dedicated to you