Dust Cover for Dog

I learned how to search for patents in my “Searching Online Databases” class last night, and this is by far my favorite invention ever.

No more dusty dogs for me!

My HTML Web site

I created a Teen Gaming Web site using HTML for my LIS753 class. The site includes a homepage with general information, a Gaming in the Library page, a Links to Online Games page, and a permission form (PDF).

I started off with a very simple page, and as the hours passed during lab time, I stole ideas from my friends and neighbors. My original idea was to put my links on the left side of the page, but when I started coding I wasn’t sure how to format a table within a table properly so I just put the links at the top. As I learned more about how tables work, I could have moved the links to the sidebar, but I decided I liked the look so I stuck with it. I think I ended up with something that looks sort of OK!

Some of the more interesting elements I used are a header from FlamingText (which includes what I consider to be a lovely shade of neon green), lots and lots of tables, and 35 breaks at the end of the page so that my anchors would actually take users someplace useful.

The number one thing this project has taught me is that I’m even more obsessive than I thought — once I start coding, it is possible, and in fact likely, that I will spend several hours hunched over the computer trying to figure out how to put my text in just the right place. Hmm, why can’t I feel my wrists? But the number two thing this project has taught me is knowing HTML code is like knowing a different language. Once you learn it, you can open other sites and understand how and why they work, and even speak the language to edit content when its necessary. Fun and useful!

-Laura

Only four billion minutes remaining

I’m not really sure why Norton hates my computer.

Post #4 — The Trading Card

This was fun.

You can make your own and other fun stuff at Big Huge Labs.

Is that Slave Leia or Christian Bale?

I had to share this link from Pop Candy of “The 10 Star Wars toys that unintentionally look like other celebrities.” My favorite is number 3, General Rieekan/John Kerry. It might not have much to do with libraries, but its hilarious nonetheless.

-Laura

Twine

Check out this article about Twine, a new web-based application that could make it easier to index stuff online (websites, documents, emails, contacts…).

I haven’t used the application yet, but from what I understand, you can send pretty much anything to Twine and it will automatically tag the item into categories like people, places, and concepts. Rather than wondering “where did the email with the name of that great little Italian restaurant go?”, you can search Twine for it, and at the same time pull up the incredibly useful restaurant review web site you visited six months ago but completely forgot about. Another fun feature — it will make recommendations for further research based on what you twine.

It’s looks like it could be a kind of wiki for indexing the web, with regular people adding what they find useful so that others can use it as well. Your Twine could be private, shared with a few other people, or made public.

I’m on the wait list to try it out. Only 30,000 people ahead of me and then I’m in.

Librarian Dress Up

Inappropriate? Probably.

Play Librarian Dress Up.

-Laura