Welcome to iHCPL. This site was created as an adjunct to Harris County Public Library's iHCPL Learning 2.0 Program; a discovery learning program designed to encourage staff to explore new technologies and reward them for doing 23 Things. In addition to our staff, we would like to encourage our customers to explore these same technologies. The program is adapted from The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County's Learning 2.0 Program.
Okay, let's all admit it -- even library employees sometimes forget to turn in their borrowed items on time!
The Elf will help take care of that problem by reminding you when items are due, when holds are ready and about to expire and will give you a list of everything you have checked out. Alas, it won't check under the seats of your car to find that missing DVD.
HCPL does provide a reminder service for library cardholders. If you are having trouble receiving notices, want to keep track of multiple library cards, or if you would prefer RSS or text messages, the Elf is the tool for you.
Discovery Resources: Demo of Library Elf FAQ of Library Elf
Discovery Exercise:
Register your library card (or cards) with Library Elf and track your items and requests. Post on your blog what you think about this service.
Are you a book lover or cataloger at heart? Or do you enjoy finding lost or forgotten gems on the shelf to read? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you! Developed for book lovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online account and catalog of your own, it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes.
Add a book to your catalog just by entering the title -- it's so easy you don't even need to be a cataloger to do it -- or connect with other readers through your similar reading tastes. There are lots of ways to use Library Thing. You can view your books on a virtual shelf, add a widget to display titles that are in your catalog or install a search box on your blog.
So, why not join the ranks and create your own library online? With over 240,000 members (BTW: LibraryThing has a group forum for librarians and over 16 million cataloged books) you're bound to discover something new.
LibraryThing is not the only personal cataloging application out there. You might also try All Consuming (not only catalog books, but music, movies and even meals!) or Goodreads.
If you aren't able to view the embedded video, click here.
Generators? No, I'm not talking about those gas powered back-up things. The generators I'm talking about allow you to easily manipulate image and graphics to create fun images like these:
One of the discovery resources for this "thing" guides you through building an avatar. Safety is a major point for avatars, but it's also a great way to express yourself and your interests without showing an actual picture of yourself.
For this discovery exercise, please just have fun. Find a few interesting image or text generators to play around with and write a post in your blog about one of your favorites and display the result. Often adding the image you mocked up to your blog is as simple as copying and posting code that the page provides. If not, you may just need to right click on the image and then save it to your hard drive before using Blogger's image button to add it to your post.
If you're having difficulty getting your image added to a post in your blog, ask a co-worker for help.
Discovery Resources:
FDToys - try the magazine and movie poster cover generators! Avatars from Yahoo! Customize comic strips. Choose from a variety of image generators.
Discovery Exercise:
Play around with some image generators and find one that you like.
Post the result of your discovery process in your blog. Note: Be sure to include a link to the image generator itself, so other participants can discover it too.
Take some time and have fun with this exercise. And remember to be tasteful, too.
Subscribe to the Generator blog, each post delivering an interesting new Image Generator.
Now that you have a newsreader (your Bloglines account), you can begin adding other newsfeeds that interest you. There are several ways you can locate newsfeeds:
When visiting your favorite websites -- look for newsfeed icons that indicate the website provides it. Often a feed icon will be displayed somewhere in the navigation bar of the site.
Use Bloglines search tool -- Bloglines' search tool lets you search for newsfeeds, posts, citations and the web. Use the "Search for Feeds" option to locate RSS feeds you might find interesting.
Other search tools that can help you find feeds: Feedster (one of the largest collections of news, blogs and podcasts), Topix (news and media outlet feeds), Syndic8 (open directory of feeds submitted by users) and Technorati (a popular blog finding tool).
Discovery Exercise:
Explore a few of the search tools located above that can help you locate newsfeeds.
Create a blog post about the experience. Don't know what to blog about? Here are some questions to get you started...Which method of finding feeds was the easiest for you to use? Which search tool was the easiest to use and which the most confusing? What kind of useful feeds did you find in your travels? Or what kind of unusual ones did you find? What other tools or ways did you find to locate newsfeeds?
If you aren't able to view the embedded video, click here.
You've heard of RSS? You've seen those small, funny tags on websites? You have no idea what it really is?
RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and is a file format for delivering regularly updated information over the web.
Think of RSS as the ultimate web filter for news and events. Many users (yes, RSS is still just catching on) go from website to website reading the latest news, information or blog posts from their favorite writers. RSS allows you to choose which of these you want sent to a central location. It's like having virtual newspapers sent to your virtual door. You stop at one location, one that you've created, and read the latest from all of your favorite places.
You could use RSS to get the latest headlines from CNN, have Netflix update you automatically with new movies coming your way, or to keep up with your best friend's blog entries.
This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS news feeds and setting up a Bloglines account (a free online newsreader) for yourself to bring your feeds together.
Using Bloglines tutorial -- follow steps 1-3 to set up your Bloglines account. Steps 4-9 are optional and cover subscribing to different types of feeds (photos, podcasts, etc.)
YouTube video from Helene Blowers on adding RSS feeds.
Discovery Exercise:
Follow the discovery resources above to learn more about RSS and newsreaders.
Create a free online Bloglines account for yourself and to at least ten newsfeeds through your reader. See the tutorial from the discovery resources, steps 1-3 for instructions.
Very few of us are able to take a perfect picture, whether it is of a library Harry Potter party or your annual family reunion. Now there are a variety of free online photo editing tools available to crop and lighten and resize digital photos (some will even add special effects!).
Or create a lolcat (or dog) like the one on the right.
Like many web 2.0 sites, Flickr has encouraged others to build their own online applications using images found on the site. Through the use of APIs (application programming interfaces), many people have created third party tools and mashups that use Flickr images. Here are just a few samples...
Trippermap - allows you to graph a trip on a map with tagged photos.
Colorpicker - lets you find public photos in Flickr that match a specific color.
Trip planner - lets you build a travel itinerary and photo site.
Okay, let's all admit it -- even library employees sometimes forget to turn in their borrowed items on time!
