You have to admire Elle Magazine. While most magazines haven’t ventured out of their comfort zone, Elle has gone all out. They had their own Reality TV Show, Olivia’s stories at Elle are as important as Whitney on the City, and everyone seems to be crushing on Joe Zee. My favorite so far is their shoe diary. It documents cute shoes worn by the staffers every day. The pictures are surprisingly cool. I think it’s an adorable way to show the public more of what goes on inside Elle and I’d love to be a part of it.  I wonder what shoes I’d have to wear to get an internship there.

If i had a Daily Booth this is definitely what I would do.

He warned that the rush to make WebPages more dynamic often meant users were badly served.

He said sites peppered with personalisation tools were in danger of resembling the “glossy but useless” sites at the height of the dotcom boom.

Research into website use shows that sites were better off getting the basics right, said Mr Nielsen.

User tests

Describing Web 2.0 as the “latest fashion”, Mr Nielsen said many sites paying attention to it were neglecting some of the principles of good design and usability established over the last decade.

Good practices include making a site easy to use, good search tools, the use of text free of jargon, usability testing and a consideration of design even before the first line of code is written.

Sadly, said Mr Nielsen, the rush to embrace Web 2.0 technology meant that many firms were turning their back on the basics.

“They should get the basics right first,” he said. “Sadly most websites do not have those primary things right.”

There was a risk, he said, of a return to the dotcom boom days when many sites, such as Boo.com, looked great but were terrible to use.

“That was just bad,” he said. “The idea of community, user generated content and more dynamic web pages are not inherently bad in the same way, they should be secondary to the primary things sites should get right.”

“The main criticism or problem is that I do not think these things are as useful as the primary things,” he said.

Well-established patterns of user involvement with sites also led Mr Nielsen to question the sense of adopting Web 2.0 Technologies.

Research suggests that users of a site split into three groups. One that regularly contributes (about 1%); a second that occasionally contributes (about 9%); and a majority who almost never contribute (90%).

By definition, said Mr Nielsen, only a small number of users are likely to make significant use of all the tools a site provides.

While some sites with particular demographics, such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, have large involved communities of users that will not hold true for all sites, he said.

“Most people just want to get in, get it and get out,” said Mr Nielsen. “For them the web is not a goal in itself. It is a tool.”

Web firms rushing to serve the small, committed minority might find they make a site far less useful to the vast majority who come to a site for a specific purpose.

Mr Nielsen also questioned championing teenage use of the web as a harbinger of what people will continue to do when they were older.

Although people in their late 30s make very different use of the web to those in their teens, Mr Nielsen expects that when those teenagers grow up the time they spend online will diminish.

“It’s because they are 20 years old that they act differently to 40-year-olds,” said Mr Nielsen.

Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6653119.stm

Web Designers Chicago

I like the details that Squidoo gives its lensmasters. It alerts you to which lenses haven’t been updated lately, which ones aren’t getting traffic, etc.

I can check daily for the ranking of each lens, its stats, see what links readers click on, and generally get a feel for the productivity of the lens. Pretty nifty.  Here are some examples.

Cynthia Ross – Kansas Author

Overall LensRank: #290336
Topic LensRank: #3180 in Books
Top Traffic  – Nice work!

Least Traffic – Time to get the word out.

1. Getting Older – 0 visits
2. I Love Books and Libraries – 0 visits
3. Fabulous Florida – 0 visits

It all began so well and you found yourself being so excited about finally finding the right person to help you get your website up and running. Every day you check your email multiple times waiting for the next update to what is happening. For days, or even weeks, the updates continue to come but then one day… “Poof”! And the quiet is deafening.

So, what went wrong? Why did it appear that everything was going so well and then it just stops; with no explanation and little if no response to your requests?

There can be many reasons why and honestly, no matter what you do, you cannot totally protect yourself but there are some things you can do to better your odds that your new webmaster will be there for a long time to come and stay responsive to you and your needs.

1. With the ability to communicate that we now have, build a relationship prior to hiring them. As a note to this, if a webmaster will answer no questions of how to do things, don’t hire them. Gone is the world of closely held secrets of how webpages are built.

2. Request a formal proposal that outlines what is to be done, the expected cost, and the time line involved.

3. If not included in the proposal, ask what files and information you will be provided with. Even if you cannot access them, it is important to have them in case things go south. A note here, make sure the location, username, and password for your website are listed.

4. If you need a domain name and they will be arranging that for you, make sure that you will own the domain and that you will be listed as administrator and not the webmaster who is buying it. Unfortunately some webmasters will register your domain under their name and that prohibits you from moving it….basically, you are screwed.

5. Find out if the whole process will happen in-house or is part of the project being outsourced. Make sure they have the ability to handle all aspects of what you need done. Outsourcing is acceptable but understand it will probably cost you more and you will have less control.

6. There should be a formal agreement even if it is just a fax that outlines the responsibilities of both parties and that you both sign off on. Not that anyone will take the time to sue anyone, it is important for both parties to understand that this is a business agreement, not just a favor for someone.

In the world of social networking some time we get a bit too informal and then things can break down. You can be hooked as friends, but keep business, business.

I wonder about myself sometimes. When I try something new and it turns out well, then I want to keep working on it. Lately I’ve been trying out Squidoo. It makes a great place to promote my mother’s book. It takes some time to create each lens, but I think the topics will draw the right people over the years. The topics I’ve created include one on Tyro, Kansas and one on pet badgers. Quite varied, but both relate back to My Flint Hills Childhood.
The other topics that relate to the book are An Old-Fashioned Christmas, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, and An Old-Fashioned Halloween. In additon, I’ve created one on Feedsack Dresses and one on the Flint Hills. Other topics from the book that might make good Squidoo lenses include Making Rag Dolls,  Being Quarantined, Bertha McGhee’s Life, Vining Genealogy, McGhee Genealogy, and School Days on the Prairie.

I need to stop for awhile and get back to editing my dad’s book. That’s the trouble with some of these websites. They are just really fun once you get past the initial learning stage. I still have a lot to learn about Squidoo and making quality lenses (webpages) there, but I’m off to a good start.

Surfing the Internet may be a way for older persons to preserve mental skills. Researchers found that older adults who started browsing the Web experienced improved brain function after only a few days.

“You can teach an old brain new technology tricks,” said Dr. Gary Small of Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. With people who had little Internet experience, researchers found that after just a week of practice, there was a greater extent of activity in the areas of the brain that make decisions.

“Which makes sense because, when you’re searching online, you’re making a lot of decisions,” he said. “It’s interactive.”

Researchers studied 24 neurologically normal adults, ages 55 to 78, who were asked to surf the Internet while hooked up to an MRI machine. Before the study began, half had used the Internet daily, and the others had little experience with it.

After two weeks, researchers compared a baseline MRI scan with new ones.Those with prior experience showed a much greater extent of brain activation in the baseline scan. After at-home practice, however, those who had just been introduced to the Internet were catching up to those with experience, a Health Day report notes.

This can be a great option for seniors looking for something fun to do, especially if they have never experienced the World Wide Web for the first time. Home Instead Senior Care hires youthful caregivers who are familiar with today’s uses of the internet, and they could even get mom or dad started!
Home Instead Senior Care will provide outstanding caregivers to help your loved one with personal care, incidental travel, companionship, medication, reminders, light housekeeping, and even meal preparation. To learn more, call 248-203-2273 or visit www.homeinstead.com. Home Instead Senior Care is the world’s trusted source of in-home non-commercial personal care and companionship for seniors. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. And remember, to us, it’s personal.

Surfing the Internet may be a way for older persons to preserve mental skills. Researchers found that older adults who started browsing the Web experienced improved brain function after only a few days.

“You can teach an old brain new technology tricks,” said Dr. Gary Small of Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. With people who had little Internet experience, researchers found that after just a week of practice, there was a greater extent of activity in the areas of the brain that make decisions.

“Which makes sense because, when you’re searching online, you’re making a lot of decisions,” he said. “It’s interactive.”

Researchers studied 24 neurologically normal adults, ages 55 to 78, who were asked to surf the Internet while hooked up to an MRI machine. Before the study began, half had used the Internet daily, and the others had little experience with it.

After two weeks, researchers compared a baseline MRI scan with new ones.Those with prior experience showed a much greater extent of brain activation in the baseline scan. After at-home practice, however, those who had just been introduced to the Internet were catching up to those with experience, a Health Day report notes.

This can be a great option for seniors looking for something fun to do, especially if they have never experienced the World Wide Web for the first time. Home Instead Senior Care hires youthful caregivers who are familiar with today’s uses of the internet, and they could even get mom or dad started!
Home Instead Senior Care will provide outstanding caregivers to help your loved one with personal care, incidental travel, companionship, medication, reminders, light housekeeping, and even meal preparation. To learn more, call 248-203-2273 or visit www.homeinstead.com. Home Instead Senior Care is the world’s trusted source of in-home non-commercial personal care and companionship for seniors. Each franchise is independently owned and operated. And remember, to us, it’s personal.

Well, time flies when you’re having fun. I just noticed that it was October 30, 2008 when I first posted to this blog. People were always talking about blogging and I thought, why not give it a try. Here’s some statistics on it:

Total views: 7,521

Busiest day: 933 — Sunday, August 23, 2009

Posts: 139

Comments: 58

During that time, I created two spin-off blogs for the family: (my mom and sister’s author websites to promote their books).

During this past twelve months, I’ve also:

• created 13 lenses on Squidoo
• written  almost 300 articles for the eHow website
• created 5 books using print-on-demand site Blurb, with several more underway
• posted 28 articles to the Helium website (essays and creative writing)
• added to my poems and essays on the Our Echo website (family memories)

I noticed on the eHow site that my articles are nearing the half million views milestone.  I’m also just 34 articles away from having 500 written.  Wowee….

Ein Problem der kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Inhaltsanalyse im Internet ist die Archivierung von Webseiten, um die interpersonale Nachvollziehbarkeit zu gewährleisten. Tja, nach langer Suche habe ich heute ein tolles Tool gefunden: HTTrack. Es ist kostenlos und genau richtig!
Man kann:
- einfach einen kompletten Webauftritt (inkl. Bilder, verlinkter Dateien etc.) herunterladen
- komplette Webseiten inkl. der Seiten, die verlinkt wurden (wird schnell sehr gross!)
- und vieles mehr:

Am besten mal selbst ausprobieren: http://www.httrack.com/

.

可愛い猫 recommended me a browser-plug-in called Rikachan for manual translation of web pages. All in all its a very simple plug-in but at the same time very helpful. Like JWPce it shows both pronunciation in Hiragana and Katakana as well as English translation.

Installation is quick and simple and does offer a name database as well. The plug-in is activated by right-clicking any page and picking Rikachan from the context menu. Hovering your mouse over a word in Japanese in a homepage will then automatically prompt a pop-up translation.

A small but great plug-in for reading Japanese web pages.

ウエッブぜんやく！

~ Stefan / 気難しい猫 ~

If you’ve been around the web much, and you’ve heard of Web 2.0, chances are you’ve also heard someone say PLE, or Personal Learning Environment. But what is a PLE? Well, as the name suggests it is a personal environment that you as a user piece together resources, to provide yourself with a pool of resources to educate yourself on specific, or a broad spectrum, of topics.

A PLE can be as simple as using Google, or Wikipedia, or as complex as piecing together several sites and links using Netvibes, or Delicious. So what is a PLE? Well, like Web 2.0, it’s a concept. As Michele Martin states in her blog,

“In other words, a PLE is a combination of the formal and informal tools and processes we use to gather information, reflect on it and do something with it, which is essentially what we mean when we talk about learning.”

As Wikipedia states, with a PLE a user:

• sets their own learning goals
• manages their learning; managing both content and process
• communicates with others in the process of learning

Graham Attwell put together a rather nice slideshow in which he points out,

“PLE are based on the idea that learning will take place in different contects and situations and will not be provided by a single learning provider.”

What a personal learning environment does for you, is it allows you to piece together information in a way that you can assimilate it and learn it in the fashion you find easiest. Note that I said ‘piece together’, as a PLE is generally made up of multiple sources to provide you with a fuller understanding of whatever information you are seeking. That is the beauty of Web 2.0 and PLEs, in that it not only provides you with several sources, but interactive ones as well. As with all things, not everyone will see everything the same way, and so with a PLE you are capable of getting a broad perspective of all those different views to allow yourself to form your own.

Some, like Moodle, would like you to believe that a PLE is a software bundle or a package they put together to help you learn. While it could very well be that, depending on the user, it’s important to remember the Personal part of PLE. You are not limited to one source for learning.

On Michael Eury’s blog, he talks a bit about his experiences with PLEs and mentions that, “The real test of an idea is having to write it down and publish it – this is real personal learning!” He goes even further in explaining the concepts of Formal vs Informal learning, which are essential in understanding how a PLE works.

I’ve just started on developing my own PLE, and while my sources are limited at the moment, they are quickly growing on a daily basis. I see the value in having a Personal Learning Environment, as it is the only way to keep ontop of, and up to speed with the rapidly growing and changing technology and information available today.

Some of the tools that I am using so far are:

Secondlife

WordPress

Google

Wikipedia

Netvibes

Facebook

Skype

Techamok

Youtube

Resources:

Michele Martin

Wikipedia

Graham Attwell

Moodle

Michael Eury’s Blog

Michael Eury’s Website

Ok, well the new thing is virtual envelopes of where you spend the most money. Everywhere, to the credit card companies. I mean really, that is where it goes.  So my goal is 1,000.00 in the savings account as a fall back on fund for emergencies only, like car repair, or something major. Right now I have .35 in my saving’s account, um yeah that scares the hell out of me. So I have been saving my change, and any money that is extra to keep in this new 1,000K club that I must have in case I really do need money.

I have been looking at webpages for the past hour, and can’t make heads or tails of which way to go except to pay off the credit cards with the highest interest rate first to get rid of them. So, I guess that is what I am going to do, I need a plan of action, so I have started using my calendar in my email of what is due and when, it is seeming to work out I am hoping to have all this under control by Jan 1, 2010 that is when I am going to make Debt my new year resolution! To be debt free and organized.

I am still trying to figure out how to stretch my already thin funds, well I am going to the grocery store today for essentials only and I will see how much I spend I am hoping no more than 25.00. I have practically everything else at my home, just need a few things to pick up.  The worst part is that I need to make a dish for a birthday party this weekend and that is the bulk of my spending right there.

I am going to look at more ways of being frugal and see if I can cut even more expenses!

I just finished a similar training session at realkana.com I did with the Hiragana but this time with both alphabets. The final result was 163 replies wrong in 1000 correct ones. Somewhat better than the last round of Hiragana I did if I am not entirely mistaken. I believe I am getting good enough at both to move on, out of the misses I believe some were typo’s, virtually none from Hiragana, but I still have some issues with ワ,カ,セ but I believe they will settle in once I get more used to reading.

The approach i used to Katakana was somewhat different from what I used for the Hiragana. As I already knew the Hiragana reasonably well I decided to first copy down both Hiragana and Katakana more along the combined Hiragana/Katakana table in Japanese for Everyone except I made a line or two of repetitions for every character of both alphabets to get a better feel for how the characters are written. As with Hiragana, I suggest using japanese.about.com or something similar to get the stroke-order right from the very beginning.

After letting this sink in a day or two i did roughly a thousand repetitions on realkana.com set to only Katakana to grind them in a bit better. This seems to have worked reasonably well. A few days later, today, I did another 1000, this time using both all Hiragana and all Katakana, the results shown above. Good enough for now, hopefully grind them in more just by reading and writing in general. Next stop grammar and to start with actual Kanji!

~ Stefan / 気難しい猫 ~

As mentioned in my last post i used Japanese the Manga Way and Japanese Grammar to start out with my Hiragana, I feel the prior book is better due to the mere size of the pages making it much easier to read than the latter. However only Japanese Grammar included their Hiragana and Katakana tables in their book preview on Google Books.

However both these books are better for reference rather than actually learning how to write the characters. I would suggest Japanese.about.com’s tutorials on Hiragana and Katakana in order to learn how to write. I preferred them over the books since they are more in-depth and they especially show the stroke order. Both recognizing the importance of this from my old Mandarin classes and combined with the fact that the line-order in Japanese sometimes is even more illogical than in Mandarin a lot of the time, I would really suggest these online-lessons in front of either of the books.

可愛い猫　also recommended me realkana.com for actually grinding both Hiragana and Katakana into memory. It took me about 2000 runs of Hiragana before I was reasonably fluent and I expect Katakana to be somewhat similar.

Since both alphabets frankly have 107 characters each (including や/ゆ/よ forms) I realized it might be somewhat overwhelming to try to learn both alphabets at once and decided to learn first Hiragana which seems generally expressed as the most important one and then picking up Katakana once the Hiragana was actually in. This seems to have worked reasonably well, at least with Hiragana so far. However, the Hiragana/Katakana table in Japanese for Everyone has a different approach than the others, laid out with every character in Hiragana/Katakana/Romaji, instead of separating Hiragana and Katakana into seperate tables. I’m not sure of this approach, and i especially imagine that in the beginning keeping Hiragana and Katakana separate after learning them this way, could be difficult, and therefore decided I will just keep going with my old way and pick up more from the book once I am done.

~ Stefan / 気難しい猫 ~

DMITRIY GRECHKO
Phone # 610 513-2531
Recent Updates:

Key skills: Web Design, performance optimization, small business consulting, and also team management

Recently whilst working on a customer’s PC I noticed that they booted up they would manually open several webpages. I asked the customer two questions, do they do that every time they use the PC and if so would they like me to show them an easier way.

As it happens the user did repeat this process everytime they worked on the PC and she was more than willing for me to show her how to get the same result with two clicks !.

Solution

1. Open up notepad

2. Type the following (substituting the web addresses you require) :

start iexplore.exe -new http://www.aaronharvey.co.uk
start iexplore.exe -new http://www.bbc.co.uk
start iexplore.exe -new http://www.facebook.com

3. Save the file to your pc e.g. your desktop.

4. Rename the file to have a .bat extension instead of .txt.

5. Double click the file and you will see that the 3 websites will now open up

On Saturday 12 September, I went along to the J.B. Priestley Society’s annual dinner, which was held at the Great Victoria Hotel in Bradford.  The date ties in as closely as possible with JB’s birthday!  It was, as always, a great opportunity to catch up with Priestley contacts.

If you enjoy Priestley’s work, you may like to find out more about the  Society, which brings his admirers together to socialise and learn.  The Society has recently launched a new website, which is bringing a lot of fresh attention.  It includes full details about the Society, how to join, Society news and events, other Priestley news, Society publications, and a section on using Priestley in schools.  Among the benefits of membership, the Society runs at least four events a year, plus publishing a Journal and a Newsletter.  I am on the Society’s Council and also involved with the web site, exhibitions, academic events and anything else where my skills and expertise may be helpful!

i dont know how to play guitar,,,i dont even take lessons from any guitar tutor,,,,but its feeling really coooooool after almost covering the acoustic version of the whole song….. and i m lovin it….

i hope u know the song lukka chupi from the film Rang de Basanti….. Its an awesome song…..and the film is also fantastic…….

when i got the tracks and I listened to them,,,,,,i loved the song..

this is a kind of track that u dont get every now and then…..its heart touching…..its livng,,,, appealing,,,,and full of feelings….

from that day i wanted to play it myself…..but i didnt hav guitar and i didnt know how to play it…………..

after 3 years now i hav a guitar but i still dont know how to play a guitar…….i just surfed the net…. searched for videos to get the swing and saw many webpages for the chords………. and beleive me after that i serched for the pictures of the chords and how to play them on guitar………

after 2 days of all that,,, i have now covered almost the whole song….. and its really fells coool,,,,,,it makes me happy……..and makes my family crazy,,,, b’coz all the time i just playing the song on guitar…………..he he…

well guys if u are also searching for the actual chords and any video related to that then no pressure…..”MAIN HOON NAA”

guys,,,,,,, here goes the chords

LUKKA CHUPPI-RANG DE BASANTI

| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Luka Chuppi bahut huyi, saamne aa ja naa
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Kahan kahan dhoondha tujhe, thak gayi hai ab teri maa
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na

| E --- | E --- | E --- | E --- |
Kya bataoon maa kahan hoo main
| E --- | E --- | A --- | E --- |
Yahan udney ko mere khula aasmaan hai
| E --- | E --- | A --- | E --- |
Tere kisson jaisa bhola salona, jahan hain yahan sapno vala

| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Meri patang ho befikar udd rahi hai maa
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Dor koi loote nahin beech se kaate na
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na
================================================================================================
Interlude
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
================================================================================================
| E --- | A --- | B --- | E --- |
Teri raah takey aankhiyaan, jaane kaisa kaisa hoye jiyaa
| E --- | A --- | B --- | E --- |
Teri raah takey aankhiyaan, jaane kaisa kaisa hoye jiyaa
| E --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Dhire dhire aangan utre andhera, mera deep kahan
| E --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Dhalke suraj kare ishara chanda tu hai kahaan
| B5 --- | E --- |
Mere chanda tu hai kahan
===============================
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Luka Chuppi bahut huyi, saamne aa ja naa
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Kahan kahan dhoondha tujhe, thak gayi hai ab teri maa
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na

| E --- | E --- | E --- | E --- |
kaise tujhko dikhaun yahaan hai kya
| A --- | E --- | A --- | B --- |
Maine jharne se paani maa tod ke piya hai
| A --- | E --- | A --- | B --- |
Guchcha guchcha kai khwabon ka uchal ke chuwa hai
| E Asus2 | B5 --- | E Asus2 | B5 --- |
Chaaya liye bhali dhoop yahaan hai, Naya naya sa hai roop yahan
| C#m9 --- | A --- | A --- | E --- | E --- | E --- |
Yahaan sab kuch hai maa phir bhi lage bin tere mujhko akela
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Luka Chuppi bahut huyi, saamne aa ja naa
| E Asus2 | E Asus2 | E B5 | Asus2 --- |
Kahan kahan dhoondha tujhe, thak gayi hai ab teri maa
| B5 --- | Aadd9 --- | B5 --- | A --- | E --- | E --- |
Aaja saanjh hui mujhe teri fikar, dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aaj ja na
well thanks to UltimateGuitar.com 

 
Heyy i also have one excellent video related to this...... Here goes the Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDHpmPMH60
Enjoy guys.... hoope u'll like it.....
 

New LIS/KM student orientation wrapped up on Saturday, August 22.  Dr. Stewart Brower was thankfully present in the flesh to provide a much-needed infusion of life and enthusiasm Saturday afternoon.  He gave an overview of the new OU-Tulsa Library, showed off the cool new laptops and cameras available for student check-out, and gave a tour of the present library facility.  I think Dr. Brower was just the breath of fresh air that the students needed after watching professors on a TV screen for three 8-hour days.  If I one day learn how to give a presentation with just a quarter of Dr. Brower’s energy and charisma, I will consider myself a very successful presenter.

Dr. Brower also let the new students know that the OU-Tulsa Library is available to provide information literacy assistance.  I think some of the new students struggling to figure out the Desire2Learn platform will find this helpful, if they aren’t too shy to ask for help.  I assisted a couple new students with some D2L navigation tips, and I’m glad that at least one of these students was not afraid to ask for guidance at the library as well.  I hope I was of some assistance.

I gave a bit of a pitch for OLISSA and OUTSA on Saturday.  I think my delivery needs some work, but I tried to explain to the new students that this LIS/KM program is what you make of it.  If the students want to make the program meet their needs, the best way to do this is to get involved with the student associations–advocate for the changes they want, earmark funds for more useful tools and technology in the library, etc.  We may not be able to change everything or get everything we want, but we won’t get anything if we don’t ask.  I hope my message got across.

In other news, I’m exploring the idea of creating a facebook page for OLISSA.  Afterall, the OU-Tulsa Library is on Facebook now.  Might be a good way to get the word out about upcoming meetings.  We could post past comps questions in the notes section, share URLs for the portfolios of students who have successfully defended, LIS/KM student blogs, student-created comps preparation wikis, etc.

OLISSA also has an ancient blog that could be updated.  A blog would be accessible to everyone, even students without facebook accounts.  But since so many students are on facebook, it seems useful to go where the students are, and have important postings appear on a webpage that students are already looking at.  I think a webpage, a blog and a facebook page would all be useful to their niche audiences.

A Facebook profile and/or a blog would be easier to update than the OLISSA webpage.  I think we should still have a webpage, but if you’ve looked at it recently, you can see it’s out of date.  Unfortunately I don’t know how to update it at the moment.  It can only help to have up-to-date information about our organization out there–how else can students find us?  How can students think OLISSA is relevant if we’re outdated?

Creating a facebook page and/or blog for OLISSA could serve as one of my accomplishments/artifacts for my portfolio I’m working on.