Say it with a Wordle: Thing 1

Library Wordle

Library Tagxedo - Footprint

My hopes of a nice linear storyline for my 19Things experience were dashed before it had even began. So reading my blog will be like watching the Christopher Nolan film 'Memento' where the story is told completely out of sequence. That story telling method was a way for the audience to experience some of the confusion and frustrations of the protagonist who has extreme short-term memory. The reasons for my jumbled blog is because I was so desperate to catch-up with everyone I forgot to put my trainers on. But now we've all paused for a reflective breather I can now take the time to dress properly... is this metaphor still working?

On your right you'll see my quickly put together Wordle using text from the Salisbury Healthcare Library website. This is relatively similar to one that I've created before (probably due to using the same text!) and I really do like the way they look.
Also on your right is another word cloud creation using 'Tagxedo'. What's really cool about this site is the many visually impressive shapes you can create with your body of text. Here I've used the same text as my Wordle cloud to create a footprint, brilliant! There's also a lot more colour themes and fonts to choose from, very impressed.

So that folks is task 1 officially completed.

Time to reflect on the 'Things' I've done

Man walks into a library and asks for a book on the Australian wilderness.
Librarian says "I'll get it for you, its Outback"

Bit of a odd 'Thing' No.13... reflect. I thought that's what we've been encouraged to do along the way, reflect on what we've done!? Still I suppose with we all now get to sit back and take pride in what we've achieved thus far.

I kind of wish I'd been less gun-ho in my early approach and just went about following the instructions from the start. It would be nice to be able to look back on my 19Things blog and see a nice linear structure to completing the tasks. I am quite pleased with the look and layout of my blog though, will I be able to keep it going after all this is done?.... probably not, I mean what would I blog about?

I for one have probably most enjoyed creating the Protopage and using RSS feeds, fun to do and useful too! You can see there's a real possibility with these tools and I think we should ALWAYS be looking to find new ways to deliver information to people the way they want information to be delivered. Some still prefer the good old fashioned method yes, and these people should not be forgotten. But as time goes by more and more clinical staff will want to be able to obtain evidence and literature remotely, and we've got to be able to keep up with them.

 

Well isn't this getting interesting!: Things 11 & 12

You little beauty!

I think I'm starting to get the hang of RSS feeds, and these tasks have certainly helped. A little while ago, after the Social Media training day in Whinchester, I had a crack at using RSS feeds in My Library but didn't really 'get it' at the time. I had managed to add RSS feeds of a couple of journals but couldn't really see the point of it. Now it all makes much more sense. I have to say as well that creating a PubMed search feed is every eye opening. Librarians should be getting extremely excited about the potential of all this, great stuff. I'm certainly going to use the things I've learned. 12 down, 7 to go!

Thing 10: Add RSS feed to Protopage

So, I was working in a library and this bloke comes up to me and says, "Do you have a bookmark?"
I said, "Yes, we have hundreds...but my name's Liam"

As explained in my last post I had gone a bit rogue whilst completing 'Thing 9: Creating a Protopage' and went ahead and added a few RSS feeds to my protopage, which should have been left for 'Thing 10'. Still, I followed the instructions thoroughly this time and, although I was covering old ground, it was reassuring to know I've been doing it right. So on my Protopage now is the 19ThingTVW blog RSS feed, marvellous!

My seriously exciting Protopage