I searched Yann Tiersen as a tag on del.icio.us and every hit was pertinent, whereas a Google search gives me a ton of stuff I don’t want. However, in Google’s defense, you can limit your searches using the advanced search, but I suppose that’s not quite as intuitive as tagging can be. Another feature I like about Google is that it takes into account that some of us are poor spellers. You have to spell the tag exactly right in del.icio.us, and it’s sometimes difficult to remember if a name like Tiersen is spelled Tierson or Tiersen. The fact that Tierson produced only one hit clued me in that I had spelled it wrong. But these are trivial complaints. I do like the idea of tagging sites I like as I’m surfing around. It doesn’t happen often, but there have been times where I’d find a great website, not bookmark it because I don’t want to be inundated with bookmarks (kind of like RSS feeds, the potential for clutter is phenomenal), and then forget how I got there so I can’t find it again. I still need to explore this software some more, but so far I’m impressed.

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My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Earl Jeremiah the Abrupt of Snotting on Wold Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

I’m not overly opposed to silliness, but every generator I came across was a test of how much I could take.  Many of the them  were kind of simple and not nearly as good as what you can do with software like Microsoft Paint.  Okay, so I probably could spend more time looking at image generators, but after having the title of  Reverend Earl Jeremiah the Abrubt of Snotting on Wold bestowed upon me by the fine folks at http://www.masquerademaskarts.com/memes/yourtitle.php I’m starting to think that perhaps I should move on to the next thing.  Before I do, I’d like to mention that I once came across an age generator, where you submit a photo and the generator would age it.  That was kind of neat, but I never used a photo of myself (I didn’t have one).   In the past I’ve used Microsoft Paint to create images.  I think I prefer the flexibility of using something like Paint or Photoshop to create an image.  There are some people who do great stuff out there with image software.  I’m not sure if this next photo was created by a generator or Photoshop, but it really cracks me up:

I’ve had it for a while and don’t remember where it came from.  It would actually be fairly easy to create in Microsoft Paint, but almost every image generator I’ve seen creates things that would be almost as easy to make using Paint or Photoshop (there are rare exceptions, but they’re so rare I can’t remember where to find any of them).

For this week’s assignment I joined Facebook. Like most other social networking sites, Facebook took a little practice to learn how to navigate through. I played around with all the little bells and whistles, viewed some profiles of folks I went to school with, posted some photos and all that stuff. Despite the mind numbingly amount of friend invites I get on Myspace from porn sites disguised as young women in bikinis who desperately want my friendship, I still prefer Myspace over Facebook. Myspace has less restrictions and more to offer if you’re able to deal with the spam. Facebook has very specific networks, and those networks are fairly limited in what they offer. Facebook strikes me as being more professional and probably not quite so appealing to hobbyists or amateurs.

I decided to search out Vermont Filmmakers on Facebook and the results produced a few pages of stuff that pertained very little to film making or Vermont. I find tags to be frustrating for this very reason. I’ll stick to controlled vocabulary thanks. Anyway, I wasn’t able to find what I was looking for. That doesn’t mean it’s not there, but I’m fairly certain that what I wanted wasn’t there. Searching libraries and librarians produced many spot on hits, so I would certainly consider using Facebook for professional networking over Myspace. My interests in the Arts – music, writing, film, illustrations and so on – is better served on Myspace.

Looking at these two sites from the point of view of the Librarian in me, I think both of these site would be useful. Depending on what age I wanted to target for library services I think one or the other or both would work well in promoting events and services. Myspace strikes me as being more popular with a younger crowd, teens and young adults. Facebook would best for young adults and older. I was amazed at how great library pages on both Myspace and Facebook were that I saw. In time, I can see myself using one or the other to promote library services.

Despite the creepiness that can come from these social networking sites, I think the benefits outweigh the problems. I’ve actually made friends using these sites, a few I even ended up meeting in person. For the past two years I’ve been trying to make a short film, and Myspace was a valuable resource in networking with other filmmakers in the state of Vermont who would be willing to help on the project. If you’re curious about the movie you can click the link on my Facebook profile that will bring you to the webpage we made for the film: MY FACEBOOK ACCOUNT There’s a trailer you can view, but it’s a horror movie so be forewarned that there may be some disturbing images.

*IMPORTANT AFTERTHOUGHT: Something else I wanted to mention but forgot. There are a few sites out on the web that offer tracking services for free. I use one of these on my Myspace page. This tracker will give you the location and IP address of everyone who views your page (it doesn’t give names, but a lot of times I’ve found I can figure out who it is looking at the page). This tracker is also invisible, so people who go there have no idea that I can see where they are and how often they visit. Despite the few pop-up windows I get when I visit this tracker site, it’s well worth a few ads in exchange for knowing who is visiting your page. The link to the tracker I use is: http://www.mixmap.com/

I definitely got into the novelty of creating feeds, and probably got a little slap happy with it, but despite the fun I had I can’t really justify saying that it’s particularly useful.   Too many feeds are just too much at once… what’s the point?  I visit the sites I’d really want a feed for often enough to not really need something telling me about every little update on the site.  And there are so many sites that I don’t visit frequently that if I were to create a feed for them all it would be far too much to sort through as updates come in.   Perhaps creating a few feeds for sites you want to get to know better would be a good idea, as long as you delete the number you’re adding.  Besides that I can’t really see any real relevance of having them.

I know many Academic databases have a handy feature where you can sign up for updates on topics and keywords you’ve searched.  Whenever a new article that fits that search is added to the database you’re notified (I’m embarrassed to say I can’t remember if there’s a term for this or not).  I’ve tried to look at RSS being similarly helpful, but most websites aren’t as information specific as a string of search terms can be… I suppose some are, but unless you’re doing  research on something very specific and want the most current updates it just doesn’t seem worthwhile.

So.  While I do enjoy the novelty, I can’t say that it won’t be like any other novelty I’ve come across.  For me the interest will probably fade after after a few weeks… it has even after a few days.  I would be interested to hear what others who’ve had RSS feeds for a few months think about them.  Do you still use them/check them?  Do you think they create unnecessary clutter?  Have you ever or do you still find them useful? Maybe I’m just not thinking objectively enough.

This photo was taken in 1943 by a feller named John Collier in Bethel VT.  I know Bethel pretty well, but I have no idea where this photo was taken exactly.  But I like the serene nature of it despite the violence and destruction that was going on in the world at that time.    It also makes me think of Hobbiton and I’m probably a little Hobbit-like myself.   Besides this picture there are a bunch from the State Fair in Rutland in 1943 that can be viewed by searching a “Vermont” tag.  The quality of these photos are exquisite, and I would encourage folks to give the Library of Congress profile in the Commons a look:   http://flickr.com/commons

On a technical note, I thought I’d mention that I was terribly lazy and didn’t bother clicking the “blog this” link above the photo I posted from the Flickr site to this blog.  It seemed like too much of a hassle.  So, instead I did what’s known as ‘remote linking,’ where I right clicked the photo on flicker, went to properties, copied the image URL, then pasted the URL into the insert image feature offered by the folks who host this blog.  Remote linking is normally something you shouldn’t do because it could be viewed as stealing bandwidth, but in this case Flickr is providing the bandwidth for free anyway.  It’s usually not a good idea to remote link from other websites, but it’s a nice bit of information to know about.

On to life long learning. Like all other librarians, I enjoy expanding my knowledge and learning about all kinds of new things. Although I have a lot of experience as an independent learner, I still occasionally feel self conscious and struggle with self doubt when I’m about to delve into some new topic that seems far too complicated for anybody to ever comprehend. I’m happy to say those thoughts and doubts have always proved to be wrong, but then again I’ve never really tackled anything on the level of trying to understand the intricacies of quantum physics or the postulates of string theory. Certainly, there have always been frustrations that come with learning new things/technologies, but after a few hours (and sometimes days with particularly difficult programs like Final Cut Pro or SciFinder Scholar) of fuming and ranting and insisting that whomever did the programing for the software must have been a fool, I always come to understand most of the logic behind how these things work. Okay, I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a braggart. The point is that I think spending time and struggling with the frustrations that come with a new experience are important parts of the learning process. So that’s my schpeel and I’m looking forward to progressing through Vermont’s 23 things!