module 3 Topic 2- google alerts

I looove Google alerts! The best thing is that updated mail is only sent if something new is reported so it is a very efficient way to keep tabs on a particular subject, event, person etc without having to trawl through all the old history.

My search originally started with "metastatic melanoma" but as I was only really interested in the developments concerning Dr John Pollock, I used his name as my "feed alert".Unfortunately, I could not find any "feed alert" so had to resort to RSS'ing the headlines instead!

A more successful exercise was using the "feed alert" for my daily dose of the "Sideswipe" column in the New Zealand Herald.This was confirmed by Google in minutes.

I have discovered that not all items have "feed alerts" but at least I am aware of them now.

I think these alerts would be very useful to patrons following a particular author or pop star in discovering exactly when they have written a new book or new release etc.

RSS Feeds

I tried putting an RSS feed from AccessScience, Proquest and Science Journals but it constantly drops out while waiting between "save" and "create RSS feed". At least this exercise has alerted me to the potential of both these time saving ways of keeping up to date with selected information, AND being able to view this information in 1 place!!

I was wondering if this can only be set up with services that supply RSS feeds? and if not, then how?

The NSL website was fascinating, showing information about the latest computer classes, new book titles, book reviews etc.

Twitter and Libraries

1. Some interesting tweets about recommendations of other books enjoyed by patrons eg: "If you enjoyed Stieg Larsson's 'Girl with the dragon tattoo', try Nora Ephrons' parody. Some mindless tweets about one's wardrobe for the day!

The vast quantity of tweets makes it impossible to follow any particular one.

2."....if I have to listen to 1 more mother extolling the 'advanced reading age' of her child, I will guffaw loudly while remembering the "Belynda Broadcast" at the Childrens Reading experience!"

Twitter continued...

Lazytweet: This sounds like a better idea....Apparently, just by adding "lazytweet" to your question, it may be answered, without having to sign up to Twitter! I would really view any information with great caution.

Searching Twitter

(1) Tweepsearch:I understand that one can find people on Twitter either by location or by name.

So, location :"New Zealand, Auckland" or by name "name: ****". No results.

Searches can be combined,

" location: auckland name: *****". In spite of changing the option to New Zealand in ChirpCity, the only results were from the USA.

I was wondering if the user had to join Twitter first to find people or whether the person you are trying to find also has to join?

(2) Again, using Tweepsearch, I searched for John Key in Vietnam in both basic and advanced search. I knew he had 70 photos of his recent trip from the first Twitter search.

Eventually, I entered "John Key in Vietnam" in the searchbox and lots of unrelated images came up although containing both search terms eg John Lennon, low key guy etc.

Any information regarding both these unsuccessful searches will be gratefully received!

(3) Twazzup - The best feature of twitter is "news as it happens" so I entered "All Blacks" hoping for the latest score (not that Im the slightest interested in rugby!). One very uninteresting sentance came up, followed by a rant about a majority white jury in a court case in L.A. As Twitter is limited to only 140 characters, I found it difficult to understand what it was all about.

I assume that once you join (and/or have the time) you can access all the related tweets and follow the links to their home page to find out whats it all about. As Twitter deals with a social networking environment only, I would preferably use Google to search for results.

Introduction to twitter

I was surprised to see twitters attributed to certain authors actually have other people twittering for them. Some tweets are VERY boring (thank goodness they are restricted to only 140 characters!) but some could be quite interesting.Some tweets do not make much sense due to this restriction but apparently if you subscribe you can access the information more fully. The use of '#' is a very good idea for a quick reference to themes instead of having to wade through lots of twits' tweets (hahahha).



Meg Cabots' tweet had some very banal entries - but also a very interesting one about Olivia who is doing drawings of birds to sell to raise money for the Gulf coast birds affected by the oilspill.

John Keys' tweet appears to be about self-promotion and events.

Regarding our library, this would be a good way for our library users to view reviews of our latest books if we didn't have a link to them on our librarys home page.

I did enjoy the information available from"grabaseat", "NZ history online" and "cookbook via twitter" even though the recipes did appear to be written in Yiddish!

Open ID

Using Open ID does save time as numerous different accounts and user names do not have to be set up. It is also a very good idea for those users that are liable to forget passwords. You still do have to register all your details and passwords with another site, however, so your own security and privacy can still be compromised.

Personally, I do not know anyone who uses Open ID but it may be a good idea for setting one up to use for future Web.2 programmes.

Creative Commons

(a) 6 baseline rights were laid down for allowing one the rights to use certain web programmes, images, music etc but with certain conditions. The images are allowed to be shared, copied, distributed and adapted but the author must be acknowledged. Should the image be altered in any way, it can only be distributed under the same creative commons license as the original.It is recommended that the image used should be accompanied with a link to the web page.





(b) Here is the link to my image : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerdurden/361274809/sizes/l/

.

Testing again...

Module 1 topic 1

The more people are informed about the disadvantages as well as the advantages of using the www, the better. Our library patrons (or anybody) should be made aware never to let anyone know, or use, their passwords.They should not leave their passwoods lying around or leave sensitive information on the screen when absent from the pc. Passwords should be fairly complex consisting of letters, numbers and symbols. Always keep in mind the "safeness" of the venue when sending sensitive material for eg, I feel that banking online would rather be carried out in our library rather than an internet cafe. Always ensure you log off properly.