Task 5-- Explore Flickr.com

Here's the link to my Flickr.com page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38114427@N00/

The pictures were sent to me by a distant relative-- found via the Internet, of course! I've been in touch with three descendants of my great-great grandparents Nicholas and Maria Schons.

And here's a link to a Flickr.com album I've admired for some time now, as I've researched my Norwegian roots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krogen/

This is in Akershus County (near Oslo). My Kristofersen and Larsen ancestors emigrated from this region around 1870.

Task 4-- Take a Digital Photo

My wife Alice and I spent a week and a half in western Ireland in August, 2005. This picture was taken on the Holy Island (Inishcealtra) in Lough Derg in the Shannon Region.

One of the sites on the island is the Church of the Wounded Men, an early eighteenth century mortuary chapel of the O'Gradys, whose motto was "wounded but not vanquished," or as I like to say, "down but not out."

I've had a digital camera for around three years. It's a relief not to have to deal with film, and to be able to save, print, and share the images.

Task 3-- Use RSS

I don't find RSS to be an especially "Gee Whiz!" kind of experience, as I don't have a burning need to see the latest from any given web site as soon as it's published. Still, it was informative to learn more about the various options Bloglines provides for managing your feeds.

How about an RSS feed on the library web site so patrons can see what's been recently added to the collection?

HeraldNet
My home town paper. It's fun to see what the folks are up to.
http://www.heraldnet.com/rss/HeraldnetRSS.xml

The Irish Independent
Keeping in touch with one of my ethnic roots systems.
http://www.unison.ie/rss/irish_independent/

Metacritic Film Reviews
It's good to be in the know-- even if it takes a while to get around to seeing the movies.
http://www.metacritic.com/rss/movie/film.xml

I'd like to mention another option for RSS feeds. I downloaded the Opera browser (which by the way has many really wonderful looking skins). After you subscribe to your feeds, whenever you open the browser, a pop-up tells you if you have new items. And there is handy access to managing and reading the feeds right from the browser menu.

Task 2-- Create a Blog

1952-- In the living room of a small rental house on Northwest Road in Bellingham, Washington, a toddler stands in front of a bookcase. He has pulled several volumes from the shelf; they lie scattered on the floor around him. He is half-turned toward his father, the photographer, a wide grin on his face (can you blame him?).

Words on the spine of a book still on the shelf glow with the camera's flash: Information Please Almanac.

Data acquisition started early, and continues with my participation in PVLD's Learning 2.0 Challenge.

When I attended the Public Library Association conference in Boston last year, I used the PVLD Blog (since transmogrified into Kathy's PVLD Director's Blog) as my introduction to blogging. Here's a link to a page of the original blog that contains my postings (scroll down a bit to see them): http://pvldblog.blogspot.com/2006_03_26_pvldblog_archive.html

More recently, I started the In the News blog on the District web site, linking current events to our collection and to other materials on the Web.