When I started using Wordle it was just as a quick test. I had used other cloud generating programs, and they were pretty disappointing. This time, I decided to test it using our library’s new Vision and Mission statements in the hopes that if it worked it just might create something we could use. And it did!
Recently I posted about Feedly, which is a handy way to access your Google Reader feeds. Alltop is another approach to making feed reading more accessible to people. Offering feeds broken into broad categories, you can browse the top blogs in those categories with no subscription necessary. I find it useful for topics that I don’t want to load into my already crowded feedreader. Their Green category is one that I am interested in, but can’t keep up with regularly, so I head to Alltop once in awhile to get a flavor for those blogs.
My only quibble is that it would be really nice to have a feed from their category. This way I have to head there to check for changes and a feed would auto-update. That would make this SO much more user friendly.
In every library I have ever worked in, baby name books are never on the shelves. Taken by some desperate mother nearing her due date, they usually are checked out in piles and heaps to be combed over for names. Enter Nymbler, one of the best working baby name sites I have ever used. The site uses insights from a baby-naming expert to make its matches and their algorithm really works!
Put in a name you like (or kind of like) and it gives you similar names to consider. When I entered the names of my two sons, the results that were returned were names that we had also considered when naming each boy. It was like magic! When I think of the time it would have saved me, though the arguments I had with my husband would have been just the same!
A great item to link to on your library website or in your library’s collection of links! Consumer Reports has created a guide called Smart Moves for Tight Times which walks people through how to approach their finances, their home, energy, health, and automobiles. You can also watch videos on how to save money on a variety of items like car rentals and home insurance.
The American Film Institute has created another one of their discussion-generating lists. This time they selected the top ten films in ten classic movie genres. Their website has the complete list of 100 films. A great news item to highlight because it links to classic films in your collection and could start discussion on your website!
Could Feedly be the interface that will get more people reading RSS feeds? Well, let’s hope so!
Feedly is an add-on for Firefox that creates your own Google start page based on feeds from your Google Reader account. It shows the newest items from your favorite blogs, lists the latest items from any blogs of interest, keeps items nicely grouped by the categories you already have set up in Google Reader, and even copes with my huge collection of feeds.
You have choices about how you want to view your feeds. You can do it by cover, which has a very structured look based on your categories. Gives the newest three entries in each category and then lists up to four of the blogs that are in the category and have updates.
What’s New is a view that will appeal to those who like a more unstructured approach. New items, your list of feeds, a list of the latest posts, and your favorite feeds listed first.
Click on any post and a more conventional reader comes up, nicely equipped with the corresponding comments on each post! Hurrah! Make sure you click on unread only to keep from seeing ALL of the recent posts read and unread together.
My favorite things about Feedly are its flexible nature, interface selections that let you do things your way, and the fact that it can be used as an opening screen for your browser each day.
TIME has announced their 50 Best Websites of the year. It is a marvelously enticing mix of some of my favorite sites and new ones to explore.
Right now I have at least 20 of the websites open and waiting for me to try out. But some of the ones that I already know are worth the trip are Free Rice, Serious Eats, Lookybook, and WebSudoku.
If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know that I am desktop wallpaper fan. Heck, I even use a program that allows my desktop to cycle through wallpapers so that I don’t ever have to settle on just one!
Desktop Nexus is my new favorite wallpaper site for a lot of reasons. They have figured out that the problem with wallpapers is that you have to know things about your computer. What resolution are you running? Will this work for a widescreen monitor? Never fear, they have taken care of all of that. Find a wallpaper you like and then just click the big Download Now button. They will make it fit on your screen. Then they even have options and instructions from that point to get you through the process. Hurrah!
Another part of their success is that they have incorporated 2.0 features into their site. Join the site for no cost and you can rate wallpapers and upload your own. They offer a tag cloud and RSS feed.
Finally, they pass the most important test of all. Their wallpapers are lovely, intriguing and cover a vast number of subjects and styles. You are guaranteed to find one (and probably many more) to add to your desktop.
Our library is taking small steps to be more green. One aspect we are working on is creating a “green corner” on our website. Before we do that, I want to have a collection of good green links to send people too, so I’m blogging them on our website. The first one I blogged is The Budget Ecoist, a blog that will give you simple and inexpensive tips on how to make your life more green.
I recommend this site because it is not about spending large amounts of money to be green, but rather about the small changes you can make on a budget. On the website, I also used it as an opportunity to plug our Go Green reusable bags which are quite popular.
Just discovered this great blog: Dumb Little Man which provides tips for living life successfully. Today’s feature story is 6 Things Money Cannot Help You Achieve. Which frankly is perfect reading for librarians.
They also just did an article on how to avoid RSS feed overload, which was a help to me. I already use a Daily folder for my most important feeds, though I really have to pare it down quite a bit again. I also categorize feeds for faster viewing in a river of news view. Take a look, they have lots of great ideas.
