Last Unit - Social Networking

As our NetTrek adventures come to a close, I'm a little sad. I have definitely learned a lot and Brandy has made that very easy with all her hard work in monitoring and reporting our own progress to us. NetTrek has been very educational and has forced many of us to explore the web in ways we other wise wouldn't. So Brandy, thanks for all your efforts and help!

I first went through and looked at the library pages on facebook and was amazed at how many of them also had twitter and flickr accounts. I'm not sure why I was so surprised, since DBRL tweets (twitters? has twote? haha j/k) but it was eye-opening to see other libraries reaching out to their patrons and students in such an advanced way. I love that libraries across the continent are keeping up with technology and using it well.

Both librarian articles on social networking mentioned not only using sites, but using them well. Not just having a facebook page to be "cool" but to actually reach out to their patrons and improve their services to the community. In theory it is a great idea, but maintaining the page and continuing to add to it is certainly a must, especially with the target audience in mind.

ps - anyone else notice that the hot topic on twitter is taylor lautner's birthday?!?

Bibliocommons

Our new online catalogue is so easy! And fun to browse. I was lucky enough to attend the board meeting with Pat Kopp's Bibliocommons demonstration last spring, and I have been looking forward to being able to mess around with it myself ever since.

One of my favorite features is that patrons can write their own comments and rate books. As a frequent user of foodnetwork.com these sorts of comments have prevented me and encouraged me from trying recipes, based on other user's opinions. I love that I can now do the same with my book choices. I rarely read a book that wasn't recommended to me by a friend, and now I have lots of online friends to help me!

I also enjoy being able to browse the shelves online. Yes, I realize that our actual shelves are about a 20 second walk from my desk, but playing online is fun too. The scavenger hunt was a great idea as well, as it encouraged us to explore Bibliocommons in ways some of us never would.

I hope the public enjoys Bibliocommons as much as our staff has!

YouTube!

Ok, I admit. When I was first told to browse YouTube I was a little skeptical that I would be allowed to browse during work time. And I felt the need to tell everyone that walked by "I'm doing this for NetTrek!!!" but then I learned on all I'm missing out on!

Usually going to YouTube involved searching some ridiculous video a friend had told me about, or just goofing around when I'm home alone and bored. Or to watch a claymation my nephew created with one of his friends (The Adventures of Philburt if you want to search it - proud Auntie plug sorry) but I absolutely loved watching Aussie librarians re-create Thriller. Crack. Me. Up.

But it was fun to discover YouTube again. You can watch whole movies! And trailers for upcoming movies. And How-to videos and a channel called Chic-report. I plan on investigating that more thoroughly while I'm not at work.

RSS

I'm so glad to have finally learned what RSS means! I feel smarter already, thanks Brandy. The three feeds I subscribed to were:

1. Awful Library Books - it is hilarious to see awful 80's exercise books, their outfits, and people's snarky comments to go with them.

2. The Librarian in Black - I loved reading about her book! I hope that DBRL can continue progressing with technology training too.

3. Library Journal News - since I am more involved in the administration side of the library , it was fun to read the articles to keep more up to date on what is going on outside the walls of CPL.

Web 2.0 Awards

For the 2.0 Awards, I checked out the food blogs. Surprised?

imcooked I thought was interesting, but as it was all videos I didn't browse too much. I really enjoyed urbanspoon. I love that you can read reviews, and it gives you maps and you can narrow down your food choice by neighborhood or by ethnicity. I also like that it's in several cities, so you can look at your own restaraunts or some in a city you may be visiting. iFoodstv was good too. I liked that it had videos and recipes written out, along with tips and a glossary.

Urbanspoon was my favorite, but I did enjoy scoping out all three!

Easy Entertaining II - Breakfast

One of the easiest egg recipes I've ever come across is the frittata. It's super easy to make but it has a fancy name and looks good and it combines eggs and cheese so what's not to like? I also love this recipe because you can use what you already have. Typically I start with onions and peppers, and the day after Thanksgiving we threw some turkey in too. I've also used mushrooms, potatoes, hashbrowns, tomatoes, spinach, garlic, broccoli, ham and bacon.

To make:
Saute veggies and/or meat in frying pan
Season to taste.
Pour beaten eggs (I guestimate based on how many people I'm feeding) over sauteed veggies. Let it sit! Don't stir it or you will just have scrambled eggs with veggies in it.
Once the eggs are almost fully cooked, top it with cheese and stick it under the broiler until the cheese is melted to your liking.

Serve with fruit salad, or toast, or whatever you usually serve eggs with.

I've also put a link below to an Alton Brown recipe from foodnetwork.com. It's a real recipe from a real chef and may explain things better than I.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/frittata-recipe/index.html

If you have a good frittata recipe, or ideas for a good one (I keep thinking of a Greek one, but have yet to make it) please let me know!

Easy Entertaining

So this year for Christmas, it has been decided that the fam will all descend on Columbia so that my oldest sister can bring her dogs and Matt can actually participate in the holiday (retail prevents us from traveling much around holidays). So we will have 5 adults and 3 dogs (ok one is a poodle and doesn't count) in our 2-bedroom apartment. With that, and my small kitchen in mind, I started thinking of easy recipes and what I could do ahead of time so I can relax and enjoy my family.

So below I have a couple of easy (and cheap) dessert recipes.

Cheesecake:

1 ready-made graham cracker crust
1 brick of cream cheese
1 container of cool whip
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix together cream cheese, cool whip, sugar and vanilla. Pour into the crust. Let it chill for at least 2 hours.

To make it festive: crush up mint candies and fold them in, or mint and chocolate chips. Add additional cool whip on top and then dust with additional mint. Or use Oreos! Or top the whole thing with a can of pie filling. The options are endless.

Key Lime Pie:

1 ready made graham cracker pie crust
1/2 cup key lime juice
1 can condensed milk (do not use fat-free, it won't set up)
1 container of cool whip

Beat the juice and milk really well; fold in cool whip and pour into crust. Let chill for at least 2 hours.

Next I may tackle easy breakfasts...or soups...I know you are on the edge of your seat now!