Week 15 – Gaming & Virtual Worlds

Finally, this is the week I have been waiting for!  After watching (and paying for) my kids play MMORPGs for years (World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Lineage 2, Anchary, City of Heroes and on and on) I am no longer just a spectator.  I already have some experience playing online games like checkers and poker so I went with option #1 and joined Second Life.  I created a character called Joanne Staryk.  So far I can fly and drive a car.  I feel a little uncomfortable chatting with strangers.  

Millions and millions of people are addicted to on-line gaming.  Heck, if a dinosaur like me can enjoy virtual gaming, anyone can manage it.  The audience is there for libraries to access.  Educational institutions have certainly tapped into virtual worlds to reach students.  Libraries is a natural progression.

Week 14 – Online Applications

Google Docs is amazing.  I had no idea that this service was available!  I created two documents; top ten dvd holds and a book review for The Lost Madonna.  Then I created to folders to store them in (which I can add to in the future).  I invited Mary Kennedy to view these documents.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgwd5nbf_0hrckdzfw

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dgwd5nbf_1fb8pw8fr&hl=en

 

http://docs.google.com/#folders/folder.0.241eb138-6c29-459e-961f-736931bb12d3

 

http://docs.google.com/#folders/folder.0.9e074f43-d821-4eff-9fac-5c66588758d7

Committee work could benefit from this services.  I have often needed access to work files from home and now if I save these documents to Google Docs I can access them anywhere.

 

Podcasts, video and downloadable audio – Week 13

I am shocked at the amount of podcasts available through the general directory! There was just too much choice and I kept selecting what might be entertaining for some people but to me was garbage. For this reason I went to http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/ and selected podcasts tagged ‘comedy factory’.  (I knew that CBC would not disappoint.)  I looked at the list of past podcasts and selected the Comedy Factory, First Anniversary Special - Paper.   I created a folder called podcasts and downloaded the file and listened to it on Windows Media Player. It was actually very funny - but long!

http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/pastpodcasts.html#ref7

p.s. loved watching ‘the Donald’ Glidden. My family enjoyed it too!

 

 

Overdrive Audio and NetLibrary e-books and e-audio – Week 12

I am so happy that this was one of the learning activities.  I have always wanted to use this service.  I tried to download the Overdrive program when HPL first got it and it was not easy – and I gave up.  This time it took minutes.  The tutorials were very helpful.  I played around with the search options – title, author and published date.  I really like the fact that the series number is added in many cases. For example, Double Cross by James Patterson is listed as #13 in the ‘Alex Cross’ series.   I downloaded Abduction by Mark Gimenez on Overdrive.  I had to upgrade my Media Player but this did not take very long.  I love the Overdrive program! I just needed my library card number. Net Library included an extra step - create a free account – and you needed your library card plus password to access the program.  The selection was very strong for nonfiction but not as good as Overdrive for popular fiction.  I downloaded The Cemetery Yew by Cynthia Riggs.  Searching was not as easy as Overdrive which offers an alphabet ‘jump to’ option at the bottom of the page.  However, I must say the language option for Net Library is a great feature. 

Week 11 follow-up

Okay, that was easy!  I tried the exercise using another database! I used Ebsco Animals and typed in the subject ‘koalas’ See below!!!!

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April 3, 2008, 3:04:59 PM

Introduction to Electronic Databases at HPL – Week 11

Part 1. I chose Canadian Reference Centre and entered the key words ‘Wiarton Willie’.  Then I clicked on create alert for this search and it gave me the following:

  http://rss.ebscohost.com/AlertSyndicationService/Syndication.asmx/GetFeed?guid=1320479 . 

Part 2.  I had no difficulty using Gale’s Academic One File database and creating a search alert to be sent to my email at work.  I chose the subject ‘invasive marine species’.  Almost instantaneously Gale sent the following message:

Your Gale Search Alert has been successfully created.  If you no longer wish to receive this alert, please visit our Unsubscribe page.

3.  What a fabulous service – to have alerts sent directly to your email address. I prefer this method but I can see the time-saving value in both.