Monday, February 23, 2009
Take a long walk off a short bookjetty...
This week I had a look around Bookjetty and catalogued a few books (that's what librarians do in their spare time - we catalogue books for fun!) It's a good way to keep track of the books you've read and the ones you want to read. I found Bookjetty to be a bit user-unfriendly, and no one seems to be reading the same books as me! This is a kind of online bookclub where people can share their ideas about books, and it is far better than Litlovers for commenting and doing other Web 2.0 things. Bookjetty may appeal to younger readers, rather than seniors, but I would be reluctant to recommend it. Try Library Thing instead, I reckon. Nevertheless, there is my widget on the left.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Book clubbing
This week I've had a look around the website Litlovers - a sort of online book club and a great resource for book lovers in general. The website has lots of tips for starting up and running a book club - everything from themed recipe ideas to author backgrounds, information about various book adaptations, and ideas to get your literary discussion underway. Some entries have added user comments.
A book I recently read and enjoyed was 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon. The resources about this book on Litlovers include the publisher's information, a couple of reviews, information about the author (a bit about his life and his other works, and so on) and some key questions to help kick start discussion about the central ideas and themes in the book.
Authors on the Web does what it says on the box - it's a resource for publishers and authors, and it lets readers keep up to date with their favourite authors. There are lots of similar sites, such as Author Yellow Pages and the Book Report Network. Most of these sites are for authors and publishers and some are more geared to readers than others.
For New Zealanders I would recommend the New Zealand Book Council for finding book clubs in your area, and then I would suggest you use the many online resources.
A book I recently read and enjoyed was 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon. The resources about this book on Litlovers include the publisher's information, a couple of reviews, information about the author (a bit about his life and his other works, and so on) and some key questions to help kick start discussion about the central ideas and themes in the book.
Authors on the Web does what it says on the box - it's a resource for publishers and authors, and it lets readers keep up to date with their favourite authors. There are lots of similar sites, such as Author Yellow Pages and the Book Report Network. Most of these sites are for authors and publishers and some are more geared to readers than others.
For New Zealanders I would recommend the New Zealand Book Council for finding book clubs in your area, and then I would suggest you use the many online resources.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
A belated 'welcome back' to readers of my blog!
Forgive me for not re-introducing myself earlier! I am doing this a bit backwards, but I started this blog months ago and just recently resurrected it for Web 2 take 2, but I neglected to do a proper intro. The (good? / bad?) thing about teh internets is that you can't really delete anything anyway - not unlike zombies, blogs can come back from the grave too!
I learned so much from that first round of Web 2.0 activities that I set up a blog of my own, to satisfy my own personal need to self-publish, and have been maintaining it irregularly, just for fun. There are so many cool new tools and things, I'm really enjoying discovering all these new and exciting things to do online. I wonder what Web 3.0 will be about?? I have heard of such innovations as hyperlinking every word in a paragraph - which sounds completely mad - but we're living in the future now, and the only constant thing in the world is change!
I learned so much from that first round of Web 2.0 activities that I set up a blog of my own, to satisfy my own personal need to self-publish, and have been maintaining it irregularly, just for fun. There are so many cool new tools and things, I'm really enjoying discovering all these new and exciting things to do online. I wonder what Web 3.0 will be about?? I have heard of such innovations as hyperlinking every word in a paragraph - which sounds completely mad - but we're living in the future now, and the only constant thing in the world is change!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Family trees
Geni and Myheritage are are useful tools for putting together a family tree. I found that Geni is a bit more user-friendly when it comes to adding and changing details quickly. I like that both sites account for modern-day families by allowing you to add your Great Aunt's lesbian life partner and your Dad's kids from his fourth marriage, or whatever. Myheritage is not quite as smooth as Geni, and it has lots of bits that look like ads and other trivial celebrity stuff, such as finding out that you look 20% like Christina Aguilera or something. Which may or may not appeal to some people.
I have met many library patrons who enjoy tracing their family history and I would recommend Geni to them. It seems pretty straightforward, even for most technophobes. The Web 2.0-ness of it is great for sharing and getting others to add details and photos of their own. (You have to be suspicious of those family trees that just go straight down, like those people who came from pods in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. LOL). Please check out my tree to the left there, my name is Spawn 2.
I have met many library patrons who enjoy tracing their family history and I would recommend Geni to them. It seems pretty straightforward, even for most technophobes. The Web 2.0-ness of it is great for sharing and getting others to add details and photos of their own. (You have to be suspicious of those family trees that just go straight down, like those people who came from pods in 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. LOL). Please check out my tree to the left there, my name is Spawn 2.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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