Month: November 2009

Finding Images

In both our professional and our personal lives, it is good to know where we can get free and interesting images to spice up a presentation or to use in the family’s annual Christmas letter.

There are a couple of tools that help out with your search:

GazoPa Similar Image Search: This is a new image search service that searches for similar features, still in beta, but it looks promising.

(Also, if you like this check out: Gwap’s Squigl)

Googe Image search

  • Has a creative commons setting (see advanced search)
  • Now includes “similar images” below some picture (try “Eiffel Tower”)
  • Allows you to search by image type (click on “Show options”)

Google Image Search "Effiel Tower"

Images Canada: Allows for non-commercial use of their pictures

Library of Congress’ Flickr Stream:

  • Don’t forget to just search Flickr’s Commons for good images without copyright restrictions.

Stock.xchng:  Make sure you scroll down to the second row of image results, for the free results.

Free Digital Photos.net : Use of images requires acknowledgment of the host site.

What other sources do you guys use?

Items of Interest

This latest installment of Items of Interest is brought to you by the fact that there are only 20 days left in the semester! Unfortunately, until December 10, it seems that finding the time to keep up with this column is becoming more and more of a challenge…especially now that I’m working two days a week!

Nevertheless, in anticipation of a future installment, in which I have every intention of breaching the Books vs Ebooks (and according to the New York Times Book Review vs Vooks) debate, I leave you with one of my favourites from Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, the geniuses behind Penny Arcade:

Penny Arcade Comic: Progress
Image Source: http://www.penny-arcade.com. Copyright 2009 Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins.

TTFN

That’s it for now. Join us again soon for another installment of Items of Interest and don’t forget to send your own interesting items to ltaigblog@gmail.com, with the subject Items of Interest.

Being web-savvy

I like to talk about tech and the internet, mostly because it is what I deal with in my work-life. Previously, I’ve written about early adopters, but I wanted to add some resources to the conversation. This is partly due to a course description that I recently I saw, which was offering to train people in the following technologies:

It is a long list for sure. But I can see several things that are missing; facebook and other personal networking sites, twitter, reddit and other social sharing sites, as well as streaming audio and video to name a couple.

And recently the Library 101 project has been released. It includes essays, a music video, and resources. The project has been met with derision by some here and here and enjoyment by others here and the comments on the library 101 website. And definitely check out this post: http://lisnews.org/why_i_support_library_101_and_so_should_you

What do you think about new web technologies and their application in libraries? Do we get enough education about them? Or do you feel like we’re not learning enough? Does your workplace provide in-house training on the web tools that they are using? Are they using applications like twitter, facebook or librarything?

There are a lot of questions that we can ask surrounding web technologies, what is good for the library and when? What is good for our patrons? How do we deal with things that surround these new things? Privacy, security, hardware needs, supporting software, etc.

It’s a complicated topic, that I approach through keeping on top of the news via rss feeds and sites like delicious and reddit. And I can’t forget my favourite journal Computers in Libraries. But I know I miss out an a fair bit of what is going on- I often ask my younger sister or my tech-savvy co-worker to find out what is new and popular. What do you do to keep up?

Items of Interest

The latest installment of Items of Interest is brought to you by the letter ‘s’ for short and sweet.

I ‘Heart’ Libraries

This week we’d like to draw your attention to a recent article published in the Victoria Times Colonist entitled “The Importance of our Local Libraries.”

It’s a love letter of sorts to BC libraries, in which Paul Gerrard, Chairman of the Greater Victoria Public Library Board asks the very interesting question: why is there money “for a new roof at B.C. Place but not for libraries?”

Any thoughts?

TTFN

That’s it for now. Join us again soon for another installment of Items of Interest and don’t forget to send your own interesting items to ltaigblog@gmail.com, with the subject Items of Interest.

Name that Blog! Part One: Suggestions!

Hello everyone!

It has been suggested that we have a catchy name for our blog.  We’d love to have some suggestions from everyone to make sure that the new name represents us well.

Our current suggestions are:

  • LibTech Soup
  • T & A (technicians and assistants)
  • Paralibrarians

Please comment with your suggestion or email it to ltaigblog@gmail.com

  • When making a suggestion, we would ask that you consider that we’re assistants, technicians and a whole host of other names.

Next week we’ll hold a poll with all of the suggestions!

 

(eta: clarification in title)