Secret Garden

Last day

2010-10-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Today is the last working day under the Manukau City Council name.
I've finally completed the second round of Web 2.0 and done the survey.
Yay!
This round is much better than the first round of training,
fewer programmes to get through, more digestable.
Bring on November 1st! Auckland Council!

Week 6: EncompassCulture - the global bookclub

2010-09-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

I liked the way that they list all the sub-categories for you to choose from just in case you can't think of the name for the genre that you like. Overall it a nicely designed website, easy to navigage around too.

It is good for reader's advisory as it has three main categories, adults, teens and children.

Would you promote EncompassCulture to customers?
Why/why not?
Well if the opportunity arises I might, but I understand that this website only contains British authors so might be a little limiting in this way. But I do like the booklist they've got on the website, especially for children.

Week 5: Slideshare

2010-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

It is a very useful website for creating slideshows. I have personally used the Powerpoint slideshow before, but this one is different, it is online and you can access it anywhere. Initially it sort of reminded me of the online photo storage websites such as WebShots and Snapfish. I find the SlideShare website will be good for university students and business workers, or anyone doing like a group presentation. I had a look at some of the slideshows on there, they are interesting. You can get ideas for yourself from other people, like how they've formatted the slides and stuff. It's also got the same functions as Facebook where people can leave comments. I quite like it.

Almost Bourdain: Lemon, Lime and Orange Soufflé

2010-09-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Almost Bourdain: Lemon, Lime and Orange Soufflé

Week 4: Tastespotting

2010-09-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

It's all very fun, quite informal and visually stunning. Be warned, don't visit this site without having eaten first, because then you spend the rest of the day feeling like you're starving ;)
And yes you've guessed it, I didn't follow instruction and now I'm hungry as! Such mouth watering pictures of FOOD, glorious food!

Find one recipe/image that you think looks great
I've linked the lemon and lime souffle, it says it's a fool proof recipe, I'll have to try it out. It looks so delicious, there are many comments down the bottom of the recipe and they all seemed positive.
What recipe did you choose? Why this particular recipe?
I've got a sweet tooth so I look at most the desserts. Fruity ones, chocolatey ones, coffee flavoured ones...oh divine!
Is this site easy to use? Would you ever use it again?
Overall the website has a very pleasant layout, easy to navigate as well so yes I would personally be using it to look for recipes and be adventurous in the kitchen. (Become a domestic goddess - Not!)
What did you think of this task? Would you prefer that all web 2.0 activities relate directly to libraries and our customers? What did you, personally, get out of TasteSpotting? It's a bit of fun, feast of colours to the eyes, I don't mind having one or two activities that aren't related to library. It broadens our knowledge.

Week 3: Feed myinbox - RSS made simple

2010-08-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Most of the websites, particular news related ones, already have the function of sending you updates regularly to your email, so in that respect I don't think it is necessary to go through this particular website to sign up for updates.
I have signed up to the NZ Herald and Yahoo news and I'm getting many updates from the Feed my inbox website. They sort of come in this very dull looking format where all the headings are in bold blue font and the content in normal size 12 font. It doesn't look very attractive.

Write a post about your FeedMyInbox experience and consider: Is it easy to use? Would customers find it simple? Could we use this in the learn.nets and in our workrooms? Do you think that you're likely to use this site again? Would you promote this service to customers? Why/why not?

Week 2: Picapp part two

2010-08-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

This picture also comes from my search of Harry Potter, quite nice scenery isn't it? I don't think I would be using this website much at all, I haven't had customer asking how to put pictures onto their blogs in the library so no probably not likely to tell customers about it too.

Why did you choose this particular image? Is this site easy for staff to use? Would customers find it simple? How could Manukau Libraries benefit from a site such as Picapp? Do you think that you're likely to use this site again? Would you promote this site to customers? Why/why not?

Week 2: Picapp

2010-08-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

Mmm... I have reservations about this website. I've gone into it several times and each time I typed in a different subject matter to try to get pictures of, but I find a lot of time it comes up with ladies, ladies with long hair, ladies smiling, ladies on the beach or ladies in bikinis. Not all the pictures are relevant to the subject that I am looking for, to be honest some of them are of poor quality. I wonder how these pictures get on the website. I prefer the Google images to Picapp. However this website is good for copying pictures into blogs.
This is a picture of the Gloucester Cathedral featured in Harry Potter movies. (one that does not contain women in the pic)

week 1: Box.net

2010-08-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Wow this is a very, very cool website. I can see myself utilising it whenever I may be using a computer neither at work nor at home. It is definately going to be useful for the computer users in the library as sometimes they don't have the CD or the USB drive to store their documents and things. I like the layout and design of this website, it is clean and easy to navigate.
I mean, it's not bad that you get free 1GB storage, if you wanted more you could upgrade to bigger storage and pay a fee. They already have 25 million users and guess what, if you use up the 1GB space, why not just create another account on Box.net?

We founded Box.net because we believe sharing should be simple and we're committed to providing the easiest tool for sharing, collaborating and managing your content.

Whether it's for personal or business reasons, it has become a lot more simple to store files online (pictures, documents, songs, videos). The beauty of online file sharing is that you can keep it private or you can opt to share your files with friends. Your invited friends can then create and upload new files, edit already existing files or simply leave a comment.

Web 2.0 part 3 (Does it ever end?)

2010-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Slow start for this round, determined to finish it on time... Only six modules - I can do it!

summary of the overall web 2.0 experience

2010-07-14T16:59:00.000-07:00

I think overall this round of web 2.0 modules were much more digestable (is this a word) than the first lot we did last year. I was particularly impressed with the Zamzar module, it was really useful to know - I've already since completing this task, shown customer on the learn net this website! Anyway, the overall experience has been positive. I know for a fact this is not the end of Web 2.0, hehe!

June 4th - Completed!

2010-06-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

I am finished! Done the online survey too!

Week 5: Music files and MP3

2010-06-03T18:59:00.000-07:00

MP3 has been around for quite a long time as far as my ignorant mind remembers. I remember my friends from high school back then spending day and night downloading songs off the internet and yet I have never ever downloaded any songs from the net before - and guess why? Because I buy CDs! I didn't get a simple MP3 player until two years ago and that was because I was going overseas for two months and I couldn't bring all my favourite CDs with me so I bought one and then burnt all the CDs onto the computer then onto the Mp3. But I don't really enjoy listening to the music through tiny set of headphones, I like listening to music in the car when I drive or at home. The music sounds better and you won't damage your hearing as much as using headphones.
Anyway I'm not surprised that there are so many music downloading sites on the internet. One of the very first website I've heard is 'Mp3.com'. I looked at it and explored it, it had the music in genres (i.e.: rock +pop, hip-hop, alt + indie, hard rock + metal, r & b + soul, electro + dance, country, international and jazz) along the top line so it's easy to identify the type of music you want to listen to. Downloading is also very easy, you can also just type in the song title. However it is quite a dark coloured website but it's definately easy to navigate.

Week 3 - Twitter

2010-06-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

send us a 'tweet' (message) on Twitter

I know everyone uses Twitter, however this is definately not something that I would personally take up because I am not a cult follower (well I mean I only follow myself and I'm not interested in closely following someone or something). I have seen the Manukau Libraries page on Facebook and I thought this was enough if anyone wanted to know what was happening with the library without having to be updated every two seconds. Plus we have got a fabulous library website already so don't think I'll be promoting this to the customers, sorry.

Week 6: Face book

2010-05-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

Out of all the topics that we've had to do for Web 2.0, I liked this week's one the best, because I had already been using the Facebook for a while now and I like it as a social site. I don't usually put updates on there, but I always look into my friends updates, see what they are doing. I especially love going through all the photos my friends have loaded on there, but that's probably all I do now, occasionally I'll send them a post or something. It allows you to chat online as well so I've chatted to friends that way too. I will always use Facebook and I've seen many customers use the Facebook in the library as well. I think the idea of Manukau Libraries being on Facebook is very smart. I looked at the Seattle Public Library on Facebook and found that people are very engaging there, posting lots of questions and updates and things.
I've posted something on the Manukau Libraries page today, about what book I'm reading right this moment.

Week Four: Good Reads

2010-05-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

Goodreads is a free website for book lovers. Imagine it as a large library that you can wander through and see everyone's bookshelves, their reviews, and their ratings. You can also post your own reviews and catalog what you have read, are currently reading, and plan to read in the future.
Create a post and tell us how this site can be used for readers' advisory purposes, consider: how might customers find GoodReads useful? What would library staff get out of this site? Would you promote GoodReads to customers? Why/why not?t

Right... I've taken the tour, done a bit of exploring and now going to write my comments. I think if we were doing reader's advisory I probably wouldn't recommend this website as it does not suggest similar authors and titles like some other websites do. This website is good, in my opinion, if you like to make diary record of all the books you've read or going to read. It's almost like the My Library on our Manukau Libraries website.

Week Two: Zamzar

2010-04-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

This is an absolutely amazing website when it finally worked! It is so simple and quick. So many times when helping customers on the LearnNet they have asked how to make a word document into PDF file, and.. voila! This is the ultimate solution. Will definately be showing customers this website.

Something is very strange about this Zamzar website, I'm not having much luck with converting the file on it... Have tried twice at very different times now and just not doing it, why???

Web 2.0 !! Year 2010 version >>>

2010-04-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

write a post about your experience - we've listed some questions/pointers to get you started. If you're a first time web 2.0 user then consider: How could you use this in your role? What worked for you? What didn't? What surprised you? what amazed you? How could a library use a blog? What would customers get out of a library blog? Would you promote this to customers? If you're a repeat web 2.0 user then consider: what are your 2.0 expectations this time around? What are your 2.0 fears? How might a public library use a blog? What could our customers expect to see on such a blog?

Well well well... so many questions! I think this time the exercises will really be useful to learn about and actually be applied in our daily library work. Such as things like PDFs and MP3s, customers are always asking so yep, starting to explore now! Hopefully this time I won't finish second last! Ha!

Finished!

2009-06-15T22:16:00.000-07:00

Hip hip hooray!
It's been fun doing the blogs and learning about all the amazing things online.

Zoho Writer

2009-06-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

Hi,
it's Michelle's outrageously sexy nan pan yo here.

We looked through Zoho writer and found it interesting. We liked the share aspect of the software and thought this would be useful. However you can't share a document with a person who isn't a Zoho member.

Question! Can you share google docs with non-members? If so we think google docs would be better then.

Week 9 Discover YouTube

2009-06-11T19:53:00.001-07:00

In this day of techonology, you can just about see everything you want to see or not want to see on the internet - particularly if you use the YouTube website. I have often received links from friends who have sent to me via the Facebook. Sometime even the banks have links to You Tube videos for useful information, such as a recent one I saw was about an interview with a US financial advisor saying most of the people spend too much time on planning their yearly holiday and not enough time invested in learning about finances - I think this is so true in my sense. I've even seen on the Air New Zealand website that they make YouTube video to advertise for positions. I thought that was absolutely great because it saved you time to read through the job description and all you had to do was watch the video of the person talking about what this position entails. Air New Zealand has always kinda been very advanced in technology. Other videos I've seen are more comical ones that were just good for a laugh.My goodness, I clicked into the Web 2.0 directory and guess what I found, 62 different video sites for creating, discovering, searching, sharing, storing etc for videos. This day and age of over flowing of media.

Week 8 Online application

2009-06-11T19:52:00.001-07:00

Today I explored the Google docs. It turned out I had used it before for some other thing. The Zoho Writer site didn't load on the LearnNet, it was blocked by WebMarshall so couldn't view it. It's really amazing all the various useful applications that are on the Google website. Just creat one google account and you get access to all these applications. Very cool!

Week 7 Social Networking

2009-06-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

In this week's module it introduces different social sites. It was easy with Facebook because I have been using it for a long time now. It's great for posting photos and keeping in touch with friends who don't live in the same city as you. Whenever I log in to my Facebook account I would have new friends invites, I can see new photos they've posted and also send messages to them. In a way it's good to be able to keep in touch with people like that. But emailing works just the same though.

With the MySpace, it works pretty much the same way as the Facebook where people post photos on there as well as write blogs. I have friends who make their web page look absolutely amazing, very personalised. I've often enjoyed reading their blogs when they have updated them, even though I've never posted blogs onto MySpace myself. But I do also have MSN messenger application which I use to communicate instantly with people online. Because I have a webcam so I can even see the other person and all I do is just talk into the microphone and it's just like talking to the other person face to face.

Week 6: social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

2008-08-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Friday 12th June 2009: Revisited this week's module and read the article on Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users

Wow what an interesting website, i read a few articles on tips of being a good manager. I like some of the tips they posted. For example:
The chief responsibility of a manager is to turn a person’s talent into performance.

Great managers find what is unique about each person and capitalize on it.

Average managers play checkers while great managers play chess - they understand the differences in each piece and coordinate the team to take advantage of the individual strengths.

Social networking

2008-08-13T14:13:00.000-07:00

Hey this is great! I am already a user of Facebook. I've got Kelly Mucalo (a library staff) as my contact already because we have one common friend. Who else uses FaceBook? I have posted many trip photos on there before.

Week 5: Wikis

2008-08-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

For this week's module, I took a good look at the wikis. There are 2 simple step by step slide shows which explained the advantages and uses of wikis. I had heard of wiki before. In fact I have even used one called 'wikipedia'. It is a very good website I think, the information is very current and up-to-date.

Week 3: Play week

2008-08-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

I played with the generator blog today and made myself a lucky certificate - I should be full of luck!

Image generator

2008-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Today I played with some image generators. One is called Library Thing. It lets you keep a record of all the good books you've read and you can make recommendation to others. Quite a fun website if you want to keep a record of what you've read, but the free membership only allows you to record up to 200 book titles, any more you'd have to subscribe.

photo has been linked from my flickr account!

2008-08-06T14:30:00.001-07:00

DSCF1089,
originally uploaded by secretgardenflower.

just had my blogger account linked with Flickr and now trying it out

Week 4: Explore Flickr

2008-07-31T21:27:00.000-07:00

I had an hour's play at the Flickr website. I uploaded a photo, wrote a caption, created little cute Eiffel Tower picture with different texture, cropping...etc, also made a title with colour and this font style which looks very French.

Week 2: RSS feeds

2008-07-02T19:32:00.001-07:00

Signed up for the RSS account - it's amazing really, i can definately see an advantage of this website. All your favourite links are connected togther and best of all, updated all the time!

Introduction week one

2008-07-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

still trying to find my way around the blogger website. I've chosen the background template, changed the colours for the texts. Want to make it a nice looking blog page for everyone to visit.

2008-07-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hi!! I am the 'secretgarden'.