Hooray

Finally after a number of nights sitting on my computer chair, I have finally completed the programme. I have learnt so so much. When I see teenagers watching videos on youtube, browsing through bebo, I can now understand why. If you ask me to list down the ones that I found the most useful to me personally and to my role, I would say flickr, online generator, wikis, rss and netlibrary. I am not sure whether I will ever use the online productivity as I am very happy and familiar with Microsoft office products.

NetLibrary

Finally I coming across something that is not new. Previously I have searched and used NetLibrary before but must admit it was not in detail. I did learnt new things by watching the video e.g. once you created an account, you need to close the window first. I am impressed with the amount of titles that are available. My favourite is Not Your Mama's Beading. On the other hand, I don't think I am that patience when comes to reading e-books online.

Podcasts

I was looking through the notes and was trying all the recommended links. I didn't find it helpful especially "Yahoo: What is a podcast tutorial". When I clicked on the link, there was no tutorial. I later tried the recommended podcast directory. Almost all the results, required me to subscribe and pay. My colleague recommended news websites such as bbc, radio New Zealand and CNN. I felt much better. I added a number of links to my bloglines account.

Week 9

Excellent stuff. I managed to find a number of recordings that I have been hunting for. For example: Casanovas' Sonata in F. When I was exploring I came across Victor Borge's video recordings. I simply loved than man and I still remember the day when I read about his death. The layout is easy to navigate and the search box is just right in the middle. This website is definitely a useful source of information only if users does not mis-use it. I suppose is a hard request not too.

Christmas is coming

Was a hard decision. Finally I decided to click on Pandora because I like to listen to new music. Unfortunately I was not allowed because of licensing constraints as I live outside of U.S. Then I decided to try Picasa. For editing pictures, I have been using Microsoft Picture Manager and for sharing, I have been using Digitalmax. This is my first time I tried Picasa although I have heard of it many times. It was not heard to figure out how to download the software but I don't like to layout of Picasa. I still can't figure out how to collage my pictures but I managed to blog the photo that I wish to put in my blog.

ZOHO

I still prefer Microsoft products maybe because I have been doing it for years. I can see the benefits of ZOHO services but I am not sure whether I will use it. Able to work online and with one document definitely is an advantage. For example if I am doing a presentation and wishes to view it remotely, I can access it easily. I like the word counts that comes out automatically when I saved it.

I tried the ZOHO Show. Managed to import my previous PowerPoint presentation to it. Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint, ZOHO Show doesn't have templates. I am still trying to figure out how to present it when I needed. Do I need to save or import it to another programme/software?

The ZOHO Wiki was pretty easy to set up. I created a Wiki http://singsong.wiki.zoho.com/ but now sure how to jazz it up. Please feel free to edit it...

Week 7 Continued

It took me some time to figure out how to edit the page. I didn't know the edit page is right on top. I kept focusing on the right. Finally I figured out to edit the page, I need to click there. Finally when I was at that page, I didn't know that I need to type in the name of the blog. The videos are not useful at all. Oh well, what I learning curve. I have added my blog and my favourite book on the wiki.

Week 7

I have something to confess. All this while, I have a bad image of wikis. The idea of anyone able to edit information, really proves that the information can be unreliable. I have heard many stories that teachers disallow students to use wikipedia as an information source. Because of that, when possible I will try to avoid wikis. Couple of years ago, I was dealing with a reference question, I searched every where and the best answer was found in wikipedia. Even after that, I am still not convinced until now. After reading and browsing through the wikis, I can see the potential in a library situation.

I really like the core competencies wiki. The idea of putting trouble shooting information in one place is really helpful especially when training new staff. Occasionally, one will forget to inform other staff about changes. For example: Please do not use docket rolls from the printers in the self check machines. Even though there might look and feel the same.

St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides is interesting but I was quite disappointed in the amount of information on the wiki. I would expect a bit more. Previously I have friends that did their research project on subject guides. I suppose with wikis, researcher can now do an online subject guides. I like the layout is easy to navigate around. Overall, if the guides can include more detail information such as notes and bibliography, I think it will be better than the traditional pathfinders.

My favourite is the Book Lovers Wiki. I never thought you could have a wiki book review. This is amazing. The index to the reviews are useful when you just wish to browse through only fiction books for example. The search box is visible and the layout is neat and user friendly. I love the idea of having a summer reading club for adults. At the moment, my library only offers reading for kids 12 years and under. We have book clubs for adults. A reading club with incentives such as book vouchers can be very attractive.

Library success for libraries will be a dream come true for libraries wishes to set up wikis. I love the table of contents and it covers basically everything you need to know. The confirmation of e-mail address makes it more authoritative, I suppose.. I will definitely recommend this site.

Week 6 continued

LibraryThing was a bit scary at first. I did the tour and after that find it relatively easy to navigate. Nevertheless when another staff member asked for help, I was blank. Blame it on "senior moments".

I managed to set up at account, http://www.librarything.com/catalog/siong.ng. What I like best is the "similar libraries" feature enables searches for other people who share many books with my library. Back to "senior moments" topic, couple of weeks, I attended the LIANZA Epic training. Looking back at the notes, this website was mentioned there.

Rollyo was more complicated to set up. I had to navigate between two windows. Trying to read the instructions while doing it. I am not sure whether I will use this website again as I am not convinced how relevant it will be for my job. At present, my work subscribed to Fitch, has a similar function and it is not widely use among staff. I have an account and managed to create a search roll in my blog.

Week 6

Tagging and more tagging. I explored del.icio.us -pretty cool name. I am a fan of bookmarks but at times I can't remember where and what name I saved it under. Perhaps del.icio.us will be useful because of the tags and notes. I loved the amount of links already there especially all those free craft patterns. I created an account which was pretty straight forward but the only problem I have is that I used SlimBrowser not Internet Explorer at home. The other advantage is also able to share relevant websites with your family and friends. For example: if you are really into craft, you could send them the website address and they can explore it themselves. Check this out http://del.icio.us/craftmadness

I don't fancy technorati. The interface is awful. I hate the colour. Overall it doesn't attract me. I read all the eOCLC newsletters. The most scary part is the "To a temporary place in time" article. Web 2.0 is off putting enough now we have to worry about Web 3.0. My favourite is "Into a new world of librarianship" where it ends with the following "Librarian 2.0 also listens to staff and users when planning, tells the stories of successes and failures, learns from both, celebrates those successes, allows staff time to play and learn, and never stops dreaming about the best library services." Is important that librarians never be content with their services but aim to provide more to the community.

Week 5

Greetings. Fun and more fun. The week's project was a bit challenging. I selected a number of generators to try. My favourites are:

Chalkboard Message Generator
DoppelMe Avatar Generator
Flickr


I don't like Random Fortune Generator (I don't find it funny) Letter James (not very user friendly), WebsiteRibbon Generator (took me ages to figure it and it is not that great)
Not sure what's next, this is really addictive, worst than coffee. Bye for now.


From:
Floppy Chilly-Elf (according to Santa's little helpers' name generator )

RSS continued

Setting a RSS feed wasn't hard at all. After all the online guided tours, a new user such as me found no complications at all. I thought to myself, let's try something more exciting. I logged into Australia and New Zealand Reference Centre, and found out that the database has such service. Unfortunately, I have no such luck this time. I tried many ways and each time there is an error message. Being a librarian, I even consulted the Help file. Any successful attempts, please let me know.

Kuala Lumpur Assam Laksa (N.Z. version)

This is my mum's version of the Assam Laksa recipe. All the ingredients are available in N.Z.

Fish Gravy
1 Trevally fish
1 big onions
1 bunch of daun kesum
5 pieces of tamarind skin
1 packet Assam Laksa spices (I use Hup Loong's
famous Assam Laksa)

Ingredients
1 packet of thick dried rice stick noodles (soaked over night
or for 5 hours. Boil for about 5-10 minutes)
Fresh or can pineapples. Cut into strips
1 cucumber, shredded
4 hard boiled eggs, cut into half
Some mint leaves



Method

1. Bring 7 cups of water to boil. Put in the trevally fish and cook for about 10 minutes or until just slightly cooked. Carefully remove the fish and drain.
   
2. Remove flesh from fish and put the bones back into the stock together with the onions, daun kesum, a packet of Assam Laksa spices and 5 pieces of tamarind skin. Simmer for 1 hour. Strain through a sieve, only the stock is required.
   
3. Lastly put the fish meat into the stock and bring to a boil. Taste and ready to serve (do not boil the fish for too long.

To serve

1. Place a serving of noodles in a bowl. Top with some pineapples and shredded cucumbers.


2. Pour the very hot laksa gravy together with some fish over the noodles and vegetables.


3. Serve with mint leaves, egg, prawn paste and lemon (optional)

RSS and newsreaders

Wow this is something new to me. I have a Bloglines account and have subscribed to a number of feeds. My favourite is the Unshelved -library cartoon feed. Personally news feed will be very useful for someone that their job requires them to be up-to-date all the time. Profession such as Journalist, corporate librarian, PA will find it useful. Is definitely useful in a library situation but I am not convinced totally. Is important to know current events because librarians are being asked some of the time with school homework etc.. My doubt is that there are enormous other tasks that librarians are required to do. Therefore, I am not sure whether keeping that up-to-date is really essential.

Week 3

Technologies

I love the online databases. My favourite is Press Display. Is an online database that library subscribes too. It has the full version of newspapers from many countries. Very useful to keep up to date with gossips ...

I did had a look at Bebo, Myspace and Facebook. I am not a huge fan of these but I like Flickr. I did the tour and managed to create magazine cover, stamps and badges. I can see the possibility of these in library displays.

Just a thought. This year's Library Week theme is Pass It On. Among all things that librarian does it so well, is it crucial that we pass on our technology knowledge to our customers?

Let me know your thoughts

p/s The photo was taken in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia in July 2007. Is a tea plantation. I used Flickr to create the border and I love it

Week 2

Dear all, thank you for all your feedback. This is the first time I am doing a blog and so far it has been fun. I thought it will be hard but no. It's even easier than Millennium-library management system. So here you are another recipe this time a dessert.

Steamed coconut corn cake

Ingredients A
1200ml think coconut milk
100g rice flour
100ggreen peas flour
2 tbsp custard powder
250g caster sugar

Ingredients B
1 can cream seeet corn
1 tsp salt
1 tsp alkaline water

Mix all ingredients A in a big bowl then ingredients B and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a pot. Stir and cook at low heat until very thick. Pour into a 20cm greased round steaming tray and steam for 35 minutes until cooked.

Cool completely and cut into pieces. To look really porfessional, try to get those knives that are jagged.

The recipe is from Pasar Malam Delights by Bee Sim Chan, Plilip Yoong and Alan Kok

Recipe Part 1

Welcome to my blog. My reason for setting this blog is because I would like to share what I know and hopefully other people will contribute too. Unfortunately, there are not many nice Malaysian restaurants in Auckland. Occasionaly people asked me to recommend. Personally I am not even able to even shortlist even one restaurant. The most disappointing thing is the turnover of Malaysian restaurant owners are very high. Therefore the standard of the food and service drop. You might like the restaurants on your first visit and when you are back the second time round, you might see a new menu and different staff.

Anyway, let me share this recipe with you. Nice and easy to make.

Rojak

Part 1
Sauce: 4-6 red chillies, 1 tsp toasted belacan, pounded finely
3 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp thick black soya sauce mixed with 1/2 cup water
4 thsp shrimp paste (har koh)
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Part2
About 300g toasted peanuts (yes you can toast it in the oven), skin removed, pounded coarsely
50g toasted sesame seeds

Ingredients:
You can use fruit or vegetables such as mango, cucumber, pineapple and apples.

Method:
Mix part 1 until well combines. Add 2/3 of the peauts, mix to form a thick paste. Pour into a bowl.
Arrange or stir all ingredients on a big platter or bowl.

Easy to prepare and can be done hours in advance.

Enjoy!