Del.icio.us and diigo

Back in May, I created an account at del.icio.us. I love it! I have been saving links to it like mad, and thoroughly enjoy creating my own tags.

Today in class, Karen suggested I try my hand at diigo. I'm not a big fan of it. There is a steep learning curve, and it does not feel as intuitive as del.icio.us. I was able to import my links from my del.icio.us account to diigo ... but I just did not feel as comfortable using diigo. To use a computer analogy, del.icio.us is more like a Mac, while diigo functions like Windows.

I think social bookmarking can be a great research tool, especially in an academic function. I am able to search other user's tags, even if they are not in my network. Several weeks ago, I actually searched through another user's bookmarks, in order to find out where she got her fabric.

Another great aspect of del.icio.us is that links can be shared. When going to the full screen edit function, I can "send" a link to a user in my network. This is the link I shared with two of my classmates, Carol and Dan.

Flickr madness!

I am having so much fun with Flickr! I learned some new tricks (uploading pictures to blogs, directly from Flickr, had never figured that out before), and about Creative Commons. Now I can search for pictures on Flickr by specific license parameters.

I never knew about bighugelabs before this morning, and it's delightful! For me, the best part was finding the lolcats generator.

As an educational resource, Flickr can be a great resource. Students and staff can upload pictures, use the creative commons licensing, make the images public or private, add to groups... The only caveat is that students' faces cannot be shown, for privacy issues.

One thing I just saw that really interested me is the Trading Card Maker. With this, students can make up trading cards of favorite book characters (using his or her own drawings).

I wonder, if a librarian creates a private photo stream, can he or she put up pictures of his or her students? Private photo streams only allow the creator to view these pictures. If I created one, I can imagine making motivational posters of my students reading, or a mosaic of all students in one class. It's a tricky area, and one where I'll have to consult with the principal.

Knitting and the Butler Library

Monkey Sock and Butler Library, originally uploaded by quietjaneeyre.

One sunny afternoon in April, I visited the Columbia University campus. It was gorgeous out, and I was knitting a sock ... I decided to remember the day's visit with a picture of the Butler Library with my project in the foreground.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.