Thing 36: Generators Of Stuff

So that was where the templates for the READ posters came from! Very cool; too bad the link doesn't work any more.

At first I couldn't figure out why anybody would want to convert a file to PDF, but then I realized that maybe you don't have to use .html and its ilk -- you can just throw up whatever you have and that's it. Now there's a concept that bears remembering, if one ever needs to create webpages. There must be some drawback, or all webpages would be .pdf . . .

Password generator, huh. If I wanted random letter/number passwords, I could make them up myself. Otoh, this mainly exists to sell password creation/protection/management software.




CITATION GENERATORS! THAT IS FREAKING GENIUS. Best way ever to get students to cite their darned sources.


The braille generator is interesting, but it won't be useful until you can get it to raise the dots in the printer . . .


I make my own lolcats, but I suppose the generator is much easier if you don't have a useful photo editor.

Thing 35: Books 2.0

Organize My Personal Library? Since I don't collect books, I have absolute zero interest in cataloging the few in my house. Talk about bringing work home with me.

I adore BookCrossing! If I had some books, I'd leave them in the wilds of North St. Paul.

I will never read a book on my phone. Even Kindle is only a marginal possibility. I read a camping article that said Kindles were great for camping! Woo hoo, bring along yet another thing that needs to be recharged while driving, along with the phones, the half dozen camera batteries, and the walkie-talkies instead of a plain old paper book. That seemed kind of silly.

Hmmm. Booklamp. Sounds good, but you get the opinion of whoever it is, let's call her Wossname, that thinks Stephen King writes like Anna Maxtead -- pacing, tense, persepctive, et al. You might as well look up lists of "writes like Dan Brown."

Overbooked, otoh, looks genuinely useful! Yay! Figures it's done by a librarian. Well . . . except that the links at the top don't work. That's not v. handy.

Reading Group Choices, always a good source.

I was surprised at the cost of booksfree.com -- $22.49 a month for the lowest level of books on cd. But I suppose it's way cheaper than buying them. It's unlimited rentals, you just have to return #1 before you get #2. Which leaves one without one's crack for a couple days. Plus, if you don't like it, which is always a hazard . . .

One Minute Critic!!! I wouldn't have believed anyone could summarize, much less critique, anything by Jasper Fforde in one minute. Okay, it took her another 20 seconds. :) This is a terrific way to browse books!

Thing 34 Online Answer Sites

It's another case of information that's fast enough and good enough. I see some of the answers to those things and of course you get the usual collection, anything from right on to waaay off. I noticed that when I was searching for the load capacity of my factory car-top rack, I couldn't actually search Yahoo Answers' zillion pages of discussion on RAV4s, although Google did bring up a couple things. (Yes, it was in my owner's manual, just v. well hidden.)

I do get the impression that people throw questions out there just hoping that somebody will pay attention, rather than that they're desperate for an answer to that question. How like libraries that is!

Of course they're our competition. Many people who come into the library are short enough on time and/or patience -- if we don't have an answer in a couple of minutes, they can't wait any longer.

I read some of the interviews about the future of librarians a while back, and unfortunately nothing stuck with me except a woman -- who of course is an academic librarian -- talking about how libraries are still back in the dark ages, teaching people how to get email accounts, when we should quit that crap because everybody already knows that. Talk about your ivory tower.

I was not impressed with Mr. King. He seriously expects us to take a phone call as a patron is walking up to the desk, or work on an email question when there is a patron standing in front of us? That's about the worst customer service imaginable. Alison Hunt's response about paying in travel time makes a lot more sense. Mr. King apparently does not work at a busy public reference desk for the majority of his librarian hours. His very job title tells all -- Digital Branch & Services Manager.