#64 Springing into apps

So Spring has...(and so forth) up and out of the cave I go

Something useful is only useful if you use it.Will I ?will we? incorporate them into our daily tasks. Workplace Internet restrictions can slow downloads and make many of the tools practically useless however if we can just find a few each wemay convert each other.
character copy and past would have been great for a patron last week who wanted to translate English to Polish and got a strange result which he said was because the characters were not
available
Regator is great, some more needed organisation in the blogosphere , however many great blogs are missing I tried a search for Boroondara and found none. I find I haven't been using Bloglines as much as I used to, may be this format will be more useful. It does provide the option of creating ones own blog directory and organisation tools. So popped the library ones and a few professional ones in my directory maybe I can link it into another tool grazer and have it just there on the blog.
Kuku Klok
Your computer yelling at you in the morning how irritating would this be, not going to happen.
Stormpulse when hurricanes threaten Melbourne we will need another version meanwhile maybe I should put off that holiday in Florida this year.
Pixadus
Not as good as some other picture sites
Fake Name Generator
This is me (not) of undefined gender (never know could be useful.Not)

Gérard Tardif
62 Dossiter Street
Recherche TAS 7109
Website: Skipnte.com

Email Address: http://www.fakemailgenerator.com/GerardTardif
Phone: (03) 6275 2069
Mother's maiden name: Mercier
Birthday: August 16, 1980
MasterCard: 5231 7228 8490 0076
Expires: 8/2011

PicApp useful resource for library images but it seems can only be used on the web otherwise copyright infringement.

#63 Foxit pdf

More pdf fun ? with software from Foxit a pdf reader.
Ok so a patron wants to fill in a pdf form online in your library and they can't, do you let them down load this program to your terminals? Once again there is a catch, an evaluation mark is left on the form so it cannot be sent online for that job application and some extra costs to fulfill some changes etc. You can print this form off without the evaluation mark but where is the advantage you still have to post it, you had to do that anyway you could have just printed it out at the beginning and just written neatly then sent it off. (maybe you could scan it in)
It may well be a quick and and small pdf reader but if you already have a reader installed would you bother with this one.

Winter vacation, now where did I leave that cave?

#62 fun with pdf ,not

A tool to make a non editable form usable online. PDFescape.com
This tool requires a fee to operate well (large promotional logos are placed on top of free documents) and at this exploratory phase I am happy for others to bother.
Do work places put out these non editable forms much these days anyway.

#61 library faces

Libraries have taken Facebook by storm as groups many tools and applications can be found, some are created externally. Libraries Australia and Pub med are good examples the ability to search these in one place may just win me over.
If this tool loses popularity a lot of work may be in vain but I suppose we could migrate to new tools and leave trails check out
101 reasons why Librarians should be on facebook slideshare

#60 Faceoff

Facebook.... OK, its part of the exploration but I like annoyed Librarian can't help but think it could get out of hand. (but think of those door statistics)
I can see if used as a group tool it may be useful, many libraries including our own Boroondara public libraries have a presence that highlights library activities and links to booking sheets etc. It would interesting to check out how many people found out about library events via these social networking sites. Which one to use, or should we be a present on as many as possible, are we trying to be all things to all people? Maintaining links is a challenge in itself to access my RSS feeds to keep up to date could take all morning and then lying waiting are all the standard work emails and we have just scratched the surface of a day.
Can't bring myself to bother with chatter on a personal level on top of this, at some point I must sit out in the sun I promised myself.

#59 Books at last

Book reviews and things at last, I was getting irritated (who moi )by cooking widgets etc. So good, I immediately crossed over to my library online and placed a reservation for "The Archivist's tale" If book club links on our library website can lead patrons back to the catalogue it will be a very relevant and useful site. The book report network is a useful professional tool for keeping abreast of Author information and providing numerous links to specific genre sites author sites etc Author yellow pages handy for author groupies and Authors on the web has lists of up and coming publications reviews and author sites. Links to these on our ref desk web links guide could be really useful.

#58 feeling green

Don't get me started (too late)
A wired life means electricity but if we could just turn off so much could be saved. I did have my candles and a perfumed oil lamp ( was that green?) on earth day . Yet here I am blogging about going green while recharging my battery from electricity created from burning coal. (Such a hypocrite.) Without green electricity we cannot live this life and enjoy these toys and tools. I consider the biggest challenge for Australia the attempt to create a electricity from coal by utilising carbon sequestration it may take 10 to 15 years to be practicable if ever.Can we wait that long?
The little personal steps we take may make us feel good about our selves but change the worlds total global warming problem very little. However having said that let me say this(where have you heard that before)money talks and if we buy green products that utilised green IE: low energy inputs etc in production we could put some high energy/water user manufacturers out of business. Check out the Virtual kitchen. Even though a small nation in population terms we contribute greatly to pollution by selling coal to other countries. These other countries may not even utilise this new technology even if we can get it online.
Do we have a responsibility to leave it in the ground?(aka uranium) does the argument that they will source this raw material from other countries justify our role in the global warming mess . If you know the answer let me know
At least a few major initiatives have been started in Victoria with the worlds largest solar power station to be built in 2009
It will be interesting see if any brilliant new ideas come from the 2020 ideas summit.
But back to the library, I saw that hallmark are creating cards from recycled paper and sugar cane pulp.
Many books are printed now on recycled paper and are easier to read (less glare) Should we move to buying a pod for supplying print on demand only books and lending ebook readers for the economically disadvantaged.
As for Internet tools Google has created a search engine that only searches within green sites?(see side bar)