Oscar the Grouch

#Optional final

2007-11-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

Oscar thinks he's successfully added a Rollyo search. This could be useful to eliminate search results containing rubbish.
So, that's it, folks. Oscar thinks he's completed the program, and learnt a surprising amount about the online world.

#17 web 2.0

2007-11-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

Oscar is pleased to discover that the International Children’s Digital Library has the option of searching the collection by cover colour, in Oscar's case, green. But the New Zealanders have certainly beat us here - the only Australian books I can see are Blinky Bill and Dot and the Kangaroo.
WorldCat's also a bit 'beta' at the moment. Why don't they have a list of member libraries? At least Zotero recognises books on this site as books. Maybe it's just an OCLC thing?
NLA's Library Labs in another beta concept that could be useful but seems to have died in the last year. Some of the links from current news items to collection items are truly bizarre - eg "New PM to sign Kyoto" was linked to a picture of the 1975 dismissal(let's hope Kevin Rudd doesn't share Gough's fate), and another item about the former PM of Pakistan was linked to a biography of John Howard. The add-on for Firefox search was nifty (if currently out of date), as was the RSS feed, but Oscar found this link quite touching for personal reasons.
#18
Oscar was surprised that he did discover some new and potentially useful tools in this program, such as wikis, LibraryThing and Zotero. Oscar learnt to take careful note of passwords and logins. Libraries need to be aware of how users and potential users find information, so we can help them locate what they need in our collections. However, Oscar's a bit concerned that the online world is replacing the real world, and technological obsolescence will make historical research almost impossible (such as the approaching demise of the hardback book, or attempting to load and search CDATA 91).
Not everything can be found using Google!

Oscar will now go and play with Rollyo

#13 take 2

2007-11-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

Oscar thought he wouldn't find anything exciting and useful in the webiverse, but struck it lucky today.
Oscar needed to recommend a citation/referencing tool and discovered that there's an add-on to Mozilla firefox called ZOTERO that has the potential to be very smart indeed. Although it can't do all the things it claims (like recognise SLV or LibrariesAustralia catalogues), it is a nifty way of saving sites while browsing and then downloading the info in citation or bibliography format in a Word document.
Oscar's current grouch ( re #15) is that YouTube clips loaded from igoogle take so long to load. Oscar is a bit concerned that his PC may be self-destructing. Even Hotmail takes a while to load.
#16 as Oscar doesn't have an iPod (yet, but there's hope!), podcasts aren't a lot of use, but he's downloaded a few in the past. His Lemon-shaped podcatcher seems to have disappeared - must get it back sometime.

#13 General Rant about Techie Stuff

2007-11-12T17:41:00.001-08:00

As instructed, Oscar will now devote 150 words to this topic.
With regard to changing technology, the most useful techie thing that Oscar uses in his daily work is the scan/email facility. First, we had snail mail, so Oscar would post photocopies to customers (Oscar remembers first using a photocopier at High School. The copier had 2 sheets of paper and was a 3 step process. But I digress). Then we had the fax machine, so responses were much quicker, but still in print form. Now scanned pages from newspapers, etc can be emailed across the world in a few minutes. There's still a problem in producing a reasonably legible scan from microfilm, but at least the technology is a lot faster.
Oscar also likes igoogle, even though it can sometimes take a while to load, and crashes. It makes keeping up with Library websites a lot easier. Oscar's added a rain radar map and current temperature widget as well. And the way the colours change during the day is really pretty!
Oscar would LIKE to use Facebook, but his Nearest and Dearest have banned him from opening an account, on the grounds that there's stuff on THEIR Facebook accounts that could incriminate them. They know that Oscar isn't as cool as he pretends he is.
Have I got to 150 words yet?

#12 Online word processors, etc

2007-11-11T19:16:00.000-08:00

Oscar has known about these lovely applications for a while now, since the Writely days. Patrons of the Modest Workplace are referred to these an an alternative to proprietary software from the Seattle-based company. The latest upgrade of Zoho wiki seems to have eliminated the need to compose documents in Zoho writer first, and even the latest version of Hotmail has some editing options.
Oscar particularly likes uploading in Google docs. It'[s not really complicated, but some of our customers find it so.
Can't please everyone in this grouchy world.

#11 Flickr

2007-11-08T20:35:00.000-08:00

Oscar has managed to caption his picture using the Flickr toy Captioner. Very smart! Oscar is also tidying up some of his previous posts after inspecting the incredibly talented blogs from some of his colleagues.
Once again, Oscar is humbled

#5 LibraryThing and Technorati

2007-11-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

While Oscar found Technorati to be difficult to load on his version of Firefox, LibraryThing may prove to be a very good friend indeed!
There's a couple of novels Oscar read in the past (borrowed from a good library, naturally), and the titles completely escaped Oscar's tiny brain (a senior moment?). However, by trawling through tags Oscar had a 100% success rate - very impressive! In case anyone's interested, the titles were "Body and soul" by Frank Conroy, and "A soldier of the Great war", by Mark Helprin. Maybe Oscar's brain can be outsourced, like today's Library Link
Oscar's also added a libraryThing comment for the book featured in episode 1 of "The Librarians" - "What colour are your knickers?" by Sam Lloyd. Children's story time should always be fun!

Oscar is Amazed and Humbled by the Online Community

2007-10-21T22:08:00.001-07:00

Never in Oscar's wildest dreams did he imagine that a modest post about a string quartet he really liked would be picked up by a member of that actual group, from halfway around the world!
Oscar has enough trouble remembering to look at obvious websites to find information. He's very impressed by people who manage to find references as soon as they're posted. Some people are not only fabulously musically talented, but also very tech savvy.
But to #7 with RSS feeders. Oscar has set up some feeds on Google reader but doesn't think he'll use it much, as it's much clunkier than the Firefox reader Oscar has been using for over a year now. With Firefox, there's no signing in (and those dratted passwords!), and it's just a "drag and drop" to load the site, plus a mouse click for a dropdown list of the latest news.
Oscar doesn't know why an RSS feed would be useful on his blog, but he's added a link to the Goldberg Variations from the Mutopia feed.

And it's raining today - Hooray!

Oscar is Having Trouble Remembering Passwords

2007-10-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

Life for a humble Grouch is just too complicated these days, what with 2 browsers and many passwords and log-ons for Learning 2.0.

However, Oscar thinks he's managed to add a couple of sentences to the PB Sandbox wiki (#5) about his favourite modern string quartet, Ethel.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steve J. Sherman They really rock!

More on Wikis

2007-10-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Oscar has experimented with adding a Wiki page. Not a very interesting topic, but at least the links worked.
Check it out here
There goes Oscar's anonymity, sacrificed to Learning 2.0!

#4 Wikis

2007-10-04T18:41:00.001-07:00

I've read all the info on the Learning page. I've been following the Wikipedia debate for a while, and sometimes get clients on online reference who say they're not allowed to use Wikipedia. I often secretly use Wikipedia as a 'first point of call' for subjects I know absolutely nothing about, like chemistry! I like the links at the end - like a bibliography - and often send clients links to these, rather than the wikipedia article.
I accidentally created my own Zoho wiki when trying to log in to Zoe's desk one. I can't think of anything useful I can put in it - even less than in this blog. I've added comments to Zoe's, because it could work well for the Ref desks. It's certainly good having a copy of the roster, and changes to procedures.
I think Web 2.0 works best when there's a controlled environment - not the worldwide swamp.
So Oscar's still a bit grouchy.

Oscar was a Little Hasty

2007-10-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

In condemning the neighbourhood. Luckily, some friends from another universe have moved in, and I'm enjoying trying to match blogs to individuals. To get serious, Web 2.0 is going OK, and I'll take my time working through it (unlike Mr Smartypants, who has nearly finished already!).
Oscar is now a bit more cheerful

Welcome to the Trailer park

2007-10-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

So, I've moved in, changed the furniture a bit, and now I'm ready to meet the neighbours. But a nasty shock was in store for Oscar...
Next door, we have a lovely couple. He's a pious Christian whose favourite hobby is slaughtering "all creatures great and small" with a high-powered rifle. He calls it sport. As a green furry thing, I'd be a prime candidate, so I'd better keep out of his way.
So I tried the next van. Pornography isn't really my thing, so I tried to close my eyes when the first images started to load. Not pretty. I contemplated reporting him to the park manager but thought that could involve nasty repercussions for Oscar. Even the title of his blog looks repulsive on my "history" page.
So I'm feeling a little besieged - not the type of park I thought I'd be living in before I moved in.
That's it for now... Oscar

Welcome to me

2007-09-30T19:06:00.001-07:00

I hope I'll have something interesting to say