More delicious

I've added the History Faculty Library into my Delicious network, as it is of most relevance from the list on offer. I don't have much to say about networks yet, as I need more time to explore.

My igoogle page has also been updated, with the addition of Delicious, Flickr, and google reader, in an attempt to keep more of a grip on all the things we have been using so far. I decided it was also time for the blurred fish to go - the water they were in was disturbing rather than restful. This is much better:

Delicious

The confusion continues, and I feel overwhelmed by the ways in which I can store the same information. It seems that I can follow other people's blogs on Google reader, or in my blog account, or on Delicious, or in my bookmarks browser, etc. etc. I feel in danger of losing track of where anything is. I am unclear about RSS feeds and their relationship with blogs. Is a blog just an RSS feed?

I also remain unconvinced about Delicious. I think, as some other 23 Things participants have noted, that I will find it simpler to keep track of things in my browser, without having to log in to yet another place. But I can see that, in terms of keeping track of favourites whilst on the move, it is probably a good thing. I'm not sure how useful being able to tag websites will be, either, as I tend to rename anything I save to my bookmarks with something descriptive. I also use folders to organise my bookmarks.

Picnik

The final task for the week was to edit some photos using Picnik. I'd never used it before, and was impressed by some of the functions, in particular, the feature for straightening photos. I also played with colour and cropping, with some examples given below.

I like the way that playing with the colour has brought out the sun striking the building. I hadn't really noticed it in the original.

I've just been struggling with the positioning of images in my post, but seem to have worked it out now. I wish one could drag images around.

Flickr

Right. I've just been playing around with Flickr (which I'd never used before), but have only the most basic sense of how it works. I think I need to spend much more time exploring, but don't feel I can at the moment. I like the drag function, but otherwise things are not quite as intuitive as they might be. But I'm sure that will improve as I become familiar with it. I had to sign up for a Yahoo account (probably did years ago, but have lost the details). I find the page layout confusing, and have not yet sorted out how best to look at my photos, and how best to change settings, etc.

I've been using a (commercial) online photo storage facility for years, which has all the basic editing, sorting and grouping functions, but I've never noticed it having tags. I don't know whether it counts as a Web 2.0 system or not - certainly one can invite people to see photos and albums, but there is no open access. On the question of tags, these do not seem to display with the image, in the way that tags do in Facebook, but perhaps I am just looking in the wrong place.

I tried the map function, but it seemed a bit clunky and not particularly easy to navigate. I'll keep trying when I get more time.

I've joined the 23 Things group, so will attempt to add some photos there. I see that I will be adding to a deluge of snowy Oxford images!

RSS feeds

I've been away from my desk for the past week, and so it was with a feeling of panic that I checked the 23 Things blog to see the tasks I had missed. I've subscribed to Google Reader, and have managed to sign up to several RSS feeds. I found it hard to filter through the mounds of commercial and general sites in search of things that might be genuinely of interest. I was also initially confused about exactly what it was that I was finding (were they webpages, or blogs, commercial, institutional, or private?), but now that I've had a bit of a browse, I think I am starting to get the idea.

I suppose many 23 Things participants will have given up on reading each others' blogs, but if anyone does chance to read this, and has found any useful feeds on either rare books or on medieval studies, I would be grateful for details. So far, I have only the following in those areas:

Rare Book News

Rare Book Review

The Fine Books Blog

Medieval News

Medieval and Renaissance: past, present and future

I've tagged my post accordingly, in the hope that it might be spotted.

I've been using Google blog search, and wonder whether there are better ways of finding things.

I'm impressed that someone manages to keep a list of library blogs, though so far have not found anything relating to my own field.