Blog Posting #3, Coded Frustrations...

So, I was up relatively late last night, trying to get my website together for my other class. I guess I forgot all of the nuances that go into making a website and how temperamental it can be. As requested by the instructor of this class, we are to use Google Pages to create our website, which seems easy enough, right? Hah, what kept stumping me was that a web page of my website kept coming back as the homepage. I have no idea how this happened, and tried to fool around with the settings, but I cannot find any option that would fix it. Therefore, I just erased the whole website that I initially had, and decided to start from the beginning.

Although I would consider myself “technologically brave,” RSS feeds kind of frighten me. I mean, thankfully there are aggregators, but as I was reading the assigned chapters in Blogging and RSS: A Librarian’s Guide, by Michael Sauers, I began to get confused about XML, the language in which the feeds are written, with HTML tagging. After looking at the author’s description of each and every tag on a line-by-line basis, it did start to make eventual sense. I noticed that some of the tags that appear in XML do not appear when using HTML.

I guess it all depends upon the day; sometimes, my mind is not capable of deciphering codes, while others it is very astute in doing so. I remember when I was making my first HTML website for L401, and the biggest frustration I had was making sure that the image tag followed the coding. Honestly, I recall that the code was correct, but for some reason the image would not show up on my page. Maybe humans are smarter and shrewder than computers when it comes to editing codes; however, the frustration never seems to leave when one knows that they are right!

Without Technology?! Blog Posting #2

Well, I have been back from New York City for almost a week now, and really would not consider myself "here" yet. My boyfriend brought along his computer, so, I had no choice but to contribute to my Internet addiction along with him. Although I did not check my email everyday while I was in NYC, I did check it more frequently than I would have if I did not have a laptop so easily accessible.
I guess this is what frightens me about technology: not having it. What did I do when I did not have an iPod (I made mix tapes and CDs to put in my walkman). Everything is so much easier now; at the press of a button you can have your whole music collection shuffled. Personally, I get kind of overwhelmed by my iPod shuffling the entire contents of my collection. One second I am listening to "The Lark Ascending," by Ralph Vaughn Williams, the next, I am listening to "The Pyramid Song," by Radiohead. The good thing about it is that if you do not want to listen to a song you can easily surpass it. Another overwhelming factor with my iPod is that I am always searching for the "perfect" song for the moment. What happens, though, is that I have gone through 1500 songs, and I still have not found the "perfect" song. Maybe I am a spoiled millennial.
As technology has been at a constant flux since the 1990s, many services have proved to serve a more autonomous crowd. We no longer have to run to Sears or Macy’s for the perfect sweater; we have the capability of ordering it from an online catalog with the input of an address and credit card number.
In reading about the technological expectations of the millennial generation in Courtney’s Library 2.0 and Beyond, it almost seems like the writer is making them seem indolent and spoiled. (I am not quite considered a millennial; I was born in 1981). Perhaps, though, I am fearless when it comes to technology, although sometimes I would consider myself somewhat deficient.

Blog Posting #1: A New Semester...

It is amazing how quickly breaks from school go anymore. I always have these mental plans that I make for the break, but hardly any of them ever get completed. Between sleeping, working full time, and recovering from the semester’s fatigue, I suppose I just got tied up in practicing relaxation techniques anticipating the following semester’s levels of stress. Here it is though; the spring semester has arrived, and I am elated to state that this is my last one of academic work!

I am very excited to be alive in this day and age, and also to be a library student at this time. If any occasion would prove to be the best time to be learning about technology, it would definitely be the present. Technology is constantly at a flux; all of the information I learned at the beginning of my library school career has now been replaced by more up-to-date technological measures.

I have learned quite a bit about wikis, making a podcast, and blogging from some of my other classes. It seems, though, that in this class we will be using them quite frequently. Last semester, I took Dr. Ball’s Online Searching class, and had the opportunity to make additions to Butler University’s music wiki, but I did not really build it up from the beginning.

Although some people in the library world have claimed that Library 2.0 has existed from the beginning, while some have argued that it has never existed at all. Fundamentally speaking, when Library 2.0 is encouraged, it makes sure that library services are regularly assessed and change with the needs of the library patrons. Of course, this can be applied to the library’s OPAC, the electronic formats, the computers, and, the way in which information is exchanged between the library and the patron.

I am excited about technology, although I find it difficult to keep up with the newest additions in this field. One thing that I am looking forward to in this class is building the wiki for a client.