Image generators

I was really surprised to find that there are so many freely-available handy tools for creating nice images that can get viewers' attention. These tools can be very useful when libraries promote some events or services. I created two images.

More Flickr

I do love "Spell with Flickr" and "Captioner" tools. They are very easy to use. I played with the Spelling program to find my name. I found my casual-looking name:



And with a more country-style look:



With the "Captioner" tool, you can create a comic picture very easily. Indeed, these are really amazing tools.

Flickr

I visited Flicker several times to browse images available there. I searched for library, apple, horse, etc. and it came up with amazingly various images. My favoriate search term was horse. I could see a lot of gorgeous horses with a nice background. I created an account and uploaded a picture. But I wonder whether the pictures are free to use with accreditation?

Library 2.0

Last year, I was in the Facebook Initiative Committee for our library. The committee discussed aspects of our library's being involved in Social networking sites, especially in Facebook. After doing research, at the beginning of 2008 fall, we surveyed our university students about their interest in social networking site. Surprisingly, students' response rate was so high and quick, so we created library's account in facebook. Since then, it has been operated about a year. On our page, we post our library events and photos, and set up automatic feeds from our library's official website. We also set up Booksshare books application, and add our library's new acquisition to advertise. But our library's facebook page is more used by library staffs rather than students.

In addition, our library has been trying several things to reach out students in various ways, such as make library website available on cell-phones, text-messaging service, etc.

I think library 2.0 or Web 2.0 is a kind of efforts to identify and serve patrons' quickly-changing information access needs influenced by technology development, and to make library services more flexible so that patrons can make more interactions with and lead its directions. Thus so, the journey can be never ending.

What an awesome opportunity!

I always wanted to dig into web 2.0 techchnology, so I welcome this opporunity. Although I have a full interest in it, sometimes it is hard to find enough time for that adventure, when I have files of work to do on my desk. My wish is to create a video that can be posted on YouTube. Many librarians already have jumped in that venue to promote their library services. I want to join it, by utilizing this awesome learning opportunity. Thank you, North Texas 23 Intiative leaders!

First trial

This is my first blog. I would like to see how it looks.