T is for Tagxedo

As with Wordle this was very easy to use but what I really liked was the shape feature. Here's what I did!

W is for Wordle

Here's my wordle for my blog. I thought this tool was easy and fun to use and I can definitely envisage using it again in the future. I found it interesting seeing which words I've used most often in my blog. I'm reflecting on what that says about me....

And here is one based on the Books by Artists exhibition I have co-curated with Linda Newington at the Winchester Discovery Centre. Catch it while you can! It is on until 12 April 2013.

Code cracked!

This one should work thanks to Ric's troubleshooting! I think I deserve to crack open an Easter egg now!

Breaking the code

Or rather being broken by the code!

 

 

Here's my attempt at making a QR code. It should link to information about the exhibition 'Books by Artists' which I'm co-curating with Linda Newington at the Winchester Discovery Centre.

 

I tried using the Nexus tablet in order to read it but got into a complete muddle. I was confused by the fact that I kept seeing myself  until discussing the problem later with my son. I now realise that the camera/reader element must have been set as front facing rather than back facing. However, I was unable to work out how to change this. If you are not used to using this kind of technology (that's me as I still don't even have a smartphone) then this sort of thing is not intuitive. I did manage to scan my code and was very excited but then got the message "oops Google Chrome did not recognise that http". I've left it in this post so do let me know if it works for you!

 

If we were to take these seriously and start using them across the Library we would need to know that more users than not had the technology to read them. In my naivety I thought all smartphones came with the capacity to read QR codes but this doesn't seem to be the case. I also feel that much information is more easily accessible in other forms. We have experimented tentatively with using QR codes at WSA library. We produced holiday opening times as a QR code and some users, mostly our international students, did find this helpful. This sort of infromation seems more suitable for a QR code rather than, for example, a website.

 

It was good to learn about QR codes but I can't see myself using them in the future and remain in need of convincing of their worth to libraries.

 

 

Sharing things

Jessop's Hospital, Sheffield

I successfully found the above image of the hospital I was born in through Wikimedia Commons Unfortunately, it is currently under threat of demolition. I checked the licensing section for this image and found it came with permission to use in any way I wanted. I simply chose to insert it into my blog.

I have found this exploration of Creative Commons an extremely useful exercise. The information on the website helped clarify the various approaches and levels of licensing. I found the Youtube video really interesting in terms of the projects it outlined, particularly in relation to the way the students work at WSA. I have used images from CC before but having the time to fully explore the website has meant I feel more informed for when I use it again or when I have to answer any queries about it. Definitely something i will be continuing to use.

Picture this thing

I love taking photos and organising them so it has come as no surprise that I like Flickr. Rather than following Ric's advice to set up a Yahoo account I took advice from my son whose experiences of Yahoo were far from complimentary (apologies Ric), and set up my Flickr account through Google. This was then more complicated than it needed to have been because I hadn't set up a gmail yet. Having set that up though I was in.

The site was very easy to navigate around and I successfully uploaded some photos for the open air category of the competition. I then proceeded to create a set, add contacts, set up a gallery, favourite a photo, and join a couple of groups, although I'm still waiting to hear back whether I've been accepted into Sot23things group!

I will definitely be exploring and adding to this more. Here's the link to what I've done so far.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cathcando/

I've just followed the instructions to share and blog about one of my Flickr photos. I was expecting it to appear here but to my surprise it is already on my blog! Very slowly getting the hang of all this.

Frenchmen's Creek

Frenchmen's Creek, a photo by artcath on Flickr.

This was taken on a fantastic holiday to this Landmark Trust cottage on Frenchman's Creek. I read Daphne Du Maurier's novel of the same title whilst there. Sublime!

LibraryThing

This was really easy to set up and good fun.The only frustrating thing was that I couldn't always find a match for the exact edition of my copy.

In terms of the exercise I had 3 books published in the last decade with fewer than 10 other LibraryThing owners.And the author of those 3 books was a certain Martin Polley.

I am sure when I have a bit more time I will return to this and start adding in all my books, particularly those nineteenth century favourites.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again

Or was that Mendeley?

I have no need for this tool at the moment but it was useful to become more aware of  how it works. I am often asked by staff and students to recommend free bibliographic software and it was good to have the time to explore this. I am most familiar with Endnote and have some knowledge of Zotero. However, this exercise has been useful for me in terms of weighing up the relative merits of each and feeling more informed.

I think I should add Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca to my LibraryThing now!

Delicious things

There are far more delicious things out there than Delicious. I have followed the instructions and set up my account and bookmarklett. However, nothing about the site was exciting or intuitive.and so I decided to quit while I was ahead. This way of working is not for me.

Books by Artists

Photo by @kristiannedrake

Despite my good intentions I am already a week behind...My excuse is that I have been involved in a couple of events over the last week. First was a talk on photobooks from the WSA Library's collections at John Hansard Central as part of their E-book show. This was a great show and I really enjoyed being part of this and meeting so many interesting people.

Second, I have been helping set up the Books by Artists exhibition, which I'm co-curating with Linda Newington, at the Winchester Discovery Centre with colleagues from Special Collections. Jane Birkin had prepared twelve wonderful large scale photographs of some of the artists' books to go around the atrium space at Winchester Discovery Centre. Before these went up, we had the painful and backbreaking job of peeling the adhesive panels from a previous exhibition off - harder than it sounds, as witness the painful wounds to the fingers. However, no pain no gain (thanks for reminding me of this saying Jessica!), and the results look fabulous.

Meanwhile, in the City Space, the display cabinets were moved into their positions and all the books have been carefully placed within them by Anne-Marrie Steel and Jessica Crann.The exhibition opens on World Book Day, 7 March 2013 and runs until 14 April 2013.