Thing 19 - Hobbies

I have been making great use of the Spotify app.  I took the challenge of making a play list for the library.  I tailored it toward music I prefer, but also music that is easy to listen to without being too distracting.  I like jazz, so I downloaded about 10 jazz classics--including Take the A Train--one of my favorites.  My co-worker is from the big band era, so I downloaded some Glenn Miller and Jimmy Dorsey.  My other co-worker was a teenager in the 80's so I downloaded some popular hits from that era.  I was listening to it today, but no one was here because of a raging spring snowstorm outside.  Spotify seems to be better at current music, which I like also and need to explore more.  I had to browse the "Decades" section to find the 40s, 80s and 70s music.  Making a play list for myself was very easy--just tap to add.  I also like the feature that I didn't have to listen to the whole song--just enough to know what it is.  I haven't tried, but I like the radio feature, where I can listen to a certain type of music.  I don't quite understand the "following" feature. I'm not really into the interactive aspects of some of my apps.  I also downloaded the garden app and the sibley lite app.  I think the $19.99 version might be kind of nice to take out in the field, but for now, I use the hard copy of Sibleys.  I'll explore the Sibleys app when I get home since it takes forever to download programs at the library.

Happy National Library Week

Thing 18 - Education

I have downloaded three education apps.  The first is a dictionary, which I can see can come in handy--nice to be able to check a word meaning or spelling.  The Thesaurus will be useful when I'm writing--like now and trying to avoid redundancy.   I tried to download NOAH which is a program for identifying plants and animals.  That didn't seem to open.  The final app that I downloaded was Google Earth.  I've used this on the computer, but enjoyed using it as an app.  You just type in a place or address and then it shows an aerial picture.  I was able to look at my husband's trailer court in Arizona, my brother's house in southern Minnesota and some sights in San Diego that we may see on a trip there next month.  I like that you can use your fingers to get in closer.  The feature of the walking man is nice if you want to look at the front of a house or building.  I was able to look up my daughter's house in LaCrosse.  My friend Joan was over for dinner last night and she showed me her childhood home and her boyfriend's cabin.  It is interesting to see the type of landscape each area has--urban and rural are very different, but dessert is much different from the swamps around Onamia.  My brother lives in southern Minnesota which has rolling hills with many cultivated fields.  This would be a great tool for teaching children different types of environments.

Thing 17 - Connecting to Community

I have downloaded several of the local apps and I think I could use several more.  The one that I have been using all winter is the 511 on Road Conditions.  I have been using the website on my computer so it is handy to get a snapshot of road conditions on my Android device.  The Superior Hiking Trail App is also handy, although I do have a book that describes the trail in more detail.  (I was super excited about hiking this trail last summer.  My brother and sister-in-law came for a visit and we went up to the north shore to try the hike from Split Rock to Beaver Bay--well we got lost and ended up hiking two hours longer than we expected.  I was completely exhausted and lost a couple of toenails in the process.  My brother and sister in law were fine--they hike in real mountains on a regular basis, but I learned that my enthusiasm doesn't always match my skill level.)  I have also downloaded the Explore Minnesota App.  My husband and I like to bird watch and there were several ideas of places close by that we haven't explored yet, so this will be a great app for us this spring.  I also like MPR and listen on a regular basis.  This App provides me another way to access my favorite shows and music.  The road conditions app has been the most helpful professionally.  When I was unsure of whether to open the library after a particularly icy and cold storm, the road conditions that recommended "no travel" on the roads that lead to the library was confirmation.  It's always good to have some strong evidence when you have to make a decision not to open.

Thing 16 - Audio

This thing has been kind of fun.  Again, I didn't have as many choices for programs as was suggested.  I couldn't get either Audioboo or ipadio for my device, so I went with SoundCloud.  It had the same feature as the other app, allowing me to record and share as well as follow and listen to other people's sounds.  Soundcloud has mainly music, so my little radio-type announcement of a poetry contest may not be the typical sound cloud.  I just recorded a few lines of poetry about spring (T.S. Elliot, Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams) and then announced the contest.  I took a picture of some melting snow near my house and posted that as the image.  As with other things I did, I had trouble posting.  I tried to post to Tublr and my blog, but it sort of froze up my device.  I even tried turning it off and back on again, but I still get a "working on it" circle when I try to open my blog from my device.  I am posting this from my laptop, which I find much more efficient for typing.  I will keep trying to post the stuff I'm doing, but I guess you'll just have to take my word for it for now.  I'm not sure if it is slow wi-fi or what, but posting has been the most challenging task for me on these apps.

Thing 15 - Infographics

I downloaded Infographics Hub which seemed the only app that was compatible with my device.  Although it had many fun graphics to looks at, I'm not sure how I would use these.  I looked at one on Antibiotics and how their overuse is causing super resistant bugs.  The bugs looked like a cross between superman and an alien.  The poster was laid out well with different sections such as History, The First Signs, MRSA, and Trust Your Immune System.  I also looked at another one comparing health in 1950 vs. today.  Two sides, Then and Now with lifespan, dying, health costs etc. compared.  I can "share" the app on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.  I kind of hate to clutter up my personal Facebook account just trying out an app, so I just posted one of them on Twitter.  From Twitter it was a link, so the nice graphic has to be clicked on to be revealed.  Maybe I will try one on facebook to see if the graphic shows up on the page.  I thought maybe there would be some instruction on how to make an infographic--that might be useful for library education.

Thing 14 - Videos

I downloaded viddy and have found it to be very easy to use.  I took a very boring video of my daughter's dog--sleeping, but I was able to add music and spruce up the color to make it look more interesting.  I found a video on my machine that I had taken a month or so ago and I was able to make a "viddy" with it.  I find it to be fun.  I hope that I can make a short video that can be shown to classrooms about the summer reading program.  I tried to do one earlier this week, but the sound was not very good.  I think I need to have it be more visual--maybe I will do a puppet show.  Anyway, videos are like photos that can be posted on the website.  I like the idea of doing training videos to show people how to place holds or order ebooks.  I will try to attach the viddy that I made.  Well--I couldn't get it done--the most I managed was to post it to my Twitter Account (Katherine Morrow@ islelibrary).  I will try to post a thumbnail of the video from my tablet.