Showing posts with label technology books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology books. Show all posts

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Thing 7: RSS Feed Me!

Hello,

I'm not quite clear on what you want for this thing. It just seems so similar to the blog feeds. I wanted to make sure I did it correctly. Thanks.


Yeah, RSS Feeds and Blogs are closely related. In fact, a blog feed is one type of RSS feed. Other types of RSS feeds could be news stories from CNN.com or some library databases use RSS feeds to alert researchers of new articles in a specific subject.

As a librarian, I love information as much as the next person, but I feel I'm courting information
overload. RSS feeds, can help my keep up with the last trends, lessions and information related to my profession without hunting down specific websites, podcasts, etc. Goggle Reader does make it easy to access all of these feeds. If you want to read more (as if you needed more information), try a book called Blogging and RSS: a Librarian Guide by Michael P. Sauers. Until then, keep reading.

Queen B.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Bonus Buzz: Web Tool Book- Blogger

Hello Readers,


I can't believe I didn't have a blog before 23 Things. Well, I had my reservations, but I'm really enjoying this now. Blogger is so easy to use, but there is so much more. When I decided to take on these 23 Things, I checked out a couple of books. One book I found useful was Publishing a Blog with Blogger (part of the Visual Quick Project series).

Just to let you know, the book was published in 2005, so some of the features look different in the book than how they look in Blogger now. Still, the book was very visual- large color pictures, concise text and multiple examples. There was also clear explanation and breakdown of HTML codes and how it looks in your posts. Now I'm not into code, but it did help me see how it translates. One day I'll probably go down that road when I need that challenge.

Now everything in the book could probably be found in Blogger's help section, but I can't stare at a computer screen to read all of the time. Having a book to refer to while I'm doing a project helps. Give this book a look. Let me know if you've found a better book on Blogger or blogging in general. Until then, keep reading.

Queen B.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bonus Buzz: A Web Tool Book to Check Out

Hello All,

Queen B here giving you some bonus buzz. Storms came and went, but that's Texas. While I waited for the weather to clear, I read by flashlight- a quick read called No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog by Margaret Mason. You could follow the Amazon link, but many public libraries have this title (World Cat says 193 libraries worldwide have this title physically in their library and over 200 have an electronic version available ). What I found interesting about this book is the blogging ideas are divided by the amount of time you may have to dedicate to your blog. The first chapter is called "Fifteen Minutes of Fame". The other chapters cover Thirty minutes, one hour and long term blogs.

The one of the ideas I found interesting was "29-Place Yourself". Using the website Platial, you can create a Google map mashup of anything you like. For instance, the summer reading program for our district is "Books that Bite". Librarians or students can do literature maps like "Places That Bite" (a Google map mashup of the settings of vampire stories, shark , reptile or bug related stories). I going to explore this site and let you know how it goes. Until then, keep buzzing.

Queen B