new(ish) blog

So, I didn't fall for tumblr afterall. ;-)

Bookmobilekids is now "bookmobile reviews" on WordPress. Though, I may run out of free space there and eventually return to Blogger.

Decisions, decisions--my external internal struggle. Such is the life of a Libra with Gemini rising.

In any case, check out my current space for book reviews: http://bookmobilereviews.wordpress.com. More to come here and there, soon.

my new online identity experiment #1

The time is near for me to settle on an online identity. The kids are getting older. I'm about to start my final semester of grad school. I have a new career. So far, I've blogged as a wannabe children's writer, a reader, a mother, and a LIS student (here, here and here).

Whoa. Talk about your Sybil. Right? So, what's it gonna be?

Here's my latest experiment in blogging: bookmobile kids -- It is (or will soon be) a microblog of children's book reviews. I loved the bookmobile as a kid. Plus, since I envision it as a microblog, I'd love for my future hordes of readers to subscribe in their mobile web browser (you know, so they can read my reviews right in the library or bookstore)--so "bookmobile" is also a little play on words. (Clever me. ;-)

I'm not married to the tumblr platform, but the learning curve was short, and I'm happy enough with the results for now. Take a peek. Let me know what you think here, since there's no automated option for on-blog commenting on tumblr--it requires some plug in or development. I'm also taking suggestions for other platforms. (In the end, I might even stick with Blogger, who knows.)

blogjam

It's a brand new semester with a brand new workload. Don't know how much time I'll have to post here, but you can follow my web 2.0 adventures in a new blog (or two) that I've created for my social software course. The new blogs are destined for abandonment at the end of the semester. So, maybe I'll cross post here. (Definitely, if I can find some way to automate it and my posts make any sense to anyone outside of the course.) But for now, I'm all blogged up.

Parts of a book 101 and blog abandonment?

I was writing a post for my Materials for Children class and wanted to talk about an illustration on the inside cover of the book. I originally referred to it as the "flyleaf" but wasn't sure if this is correct. I found this great diagram (I must-see for inner and aspiring librarians) on what may be an abandoned blog.

Which brings me to my random question of the moment: At what point do you consider a blog abandoned? The one I found hasn't been updated since February. I have blogs that I haven't updated in ages, but I don't consider them abandoned (yet). I still think of them wistfully, and often think, "This would be a great post for my old blog xyz." I miss them. Do they miss me? Have I abandoned them? Should I? What's the concensus on MOPD (multiple online personality disorder)?

BTW, that illustration is on the endpapers or endsheets of the book.

customizing Snap Shots

I've been playing around with Snap Shots for a few days, and I finally think I have it customized to my liking.

Snap Shots plugs in automatically to Blogger, so it truly is a "snap" to use, but it was adding Snap Shots to my del.icio.us cloud, my post footers, and everything, ad infinitum. It was not pretty. And, as a newbie to all of this, it took me some time on their site to find and decipher their FAQ.

Anyway, here's the q&d of how I customized Snap Shots for this blog:

1. Create an account and install on your site. (These directions were relatively straightforward - especially for Blogger, where everything was automated.)

2. Under advanced options, only check the boxes for:

• "Show Snap Shots Link Icon" (I have no problem with supporting their branding.)
• "Trigger Snap Shots on Link Icon Only" (That way your readers can choose whether to view the Snap Shot. Otherwise, if you have lots of links, it can be annoying. Sorry.)

3. Do NOT check the box for "Enable Snap Shots for External Links"

4. When you post and want to include a Snap Shot for a link, edit the html by inserting "class="snap_shots" between the "a" and the "href", like so:
a class="snap_shots" href="http://www.snap.com"

Voila!

Something (new?) for the toolkit

I was updating the RASL blog today and wanted to add RSS buttons. Found this cool button generator from TopRank Online Marketing. Just be careful which ones you choose - feedlounge, for one, appears to be obsolete. Also, the Google Reader button doesn't seem to be working from that site, but you can generate one quickly at Google here.

me 2.008

So, the me 2.0 thing has been a non-starter. I've been playing around with blogger, flickr, vox, pbwiki, and shelfari for a while, but nothing has stuck. So, my new year's resolution is to work on me 2.0, or, as a slightly improved version: me 2.008. ;-)

My plan? I'll be blogging here, and I'm soon to take the reins on Rutgers' Association of School Librarians' website and blog. I also hope to build on my budding web design skills from last semester, and update (maybe even redesign?) my inner librarian website.

If you are also looking for a starting point for "you 2.008," check out PCLMC's 23 Things. I've already tried many of the tools mentioned there during my coursework, and will probably return to the list for inspiration and reinforcement. Good luck! And happy 2008!