I have always used a planner that I could stick in my purse or a wall calendar...or both...to keep track of life and everything I have got going on. Without some sort of calendar or planner I would be a mess and forget everything. Even with I forget sometimes...
At work (the library) everyone uses Google calendar and we have different calendars linking together. It makes it easier to keep track of what is going on in the library and who is available and when. If we have library events it is a quick way to check and see when and where.
Once our email service switched from Outlook to Gmail, I went ahead and started using the Google Calendar. Plus I didn't get my paper calendar for Christmas :(
I am really loving it. It is so easy to add things to it whether they are events or tasks. You can color code to make certain things categorized similarly or stick out if need be. It really helps me organize my time better. Plus I can add a lot more tasks in the Google calendar than I usually could my wall calendar or daily planner. It blocks out my time and gives me a great visual for my availability. I even can get reminder notices about events! The only down side to this is I have to have my email open, though at work I usually keep it open all the time.
It is really easy to share calendars too! You just type in an email address for the person you want to share it with and BAM! You even have options on what the other person can see and if they can edit your calendar. I like the busy or available option - then I still have a bit of privacy, because I don't want everyone to know everything I do. I also like that I can invite people just to events I add in my calendar. When I do that they get a notification in an email and can choose to accept and if they do and they also have a Google account it will be added to their Google Calendar as well. If an event is cancelled it will notify the invited guests also.
There really are some cool features to this calendar. I use one calendar for work, school, and personal use and it is easy to organize and work with. This calendar is my life and I really have grown to appreciate it. Plus I can pull it up anywhere I have Internet access which makes it nice if I am not at my desk.
So this is my new favorite technology tool. Out of all the different Web tools I have tried this one I use everyday and really has made a positive impact on my life.
Thoughts about new technologies I learn about. I'm trying to be less afraid of technology and learn to utilize it a little more.
Showing posts with label google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label google. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Monday, July 25, 2011
iGoogle
I was playing around with some of the other web tools and thought I would see what iGoogle was. A homepage you can customize, brilliant! I played around with it for more hours than I care to admit. I added stuff, deleted stuff, moved it all around. It's fun and I like being able to adjust things to where they suite me best. I also like have several of the features I added all in one spot, very convenient. I added a date and time gadget at the center top. I have my email, my Google Calendar, a to do list; all my organizational necessities. I of course had to have a weather gadget, very essential for me. I threw Google maps up there and the NY Times news. Of course everyone has to have a few fun feartures right? I added GRE word of the day - adding to my vocabulary seems necessary, as well as a recipe of the day because I love food and cooking. Who says you can't have buisness and pleasure all in one spot?
This is a feature that will save me time because it has many features all in one place where before I was going to several locations to look at each thing. Plus it's still the google page and I can get to the other tools like Google Reader which I try to look at daily. It seems like a productive tool and if you are pinched for time but like a one stop place for news, weather, email, and a look at your to-do's for the day this seems like a great tool! I made it my homepage so it is the first thing I see when I get online. Plus if I get bored I can always switch things up! This is something any professional could use to stay organized and save time and be efficient in my opinion.
This is a feature that will save me time because it has many features all in one place where before I was going to several locations to look at each thing. Plus it's still the google page and I can get to the other tools like Google Reader which I try to look at daily. It seems like a productive tool and if you are pinched for time but like a one stop place for news, weather, email, and a look at your to-do's for the day this seems like a great tool! I made it my homepage so it is the first thing I see when I get online. Plus if I get bored I can always switch things up! This is something any professional could use to stay organized and save time and be efficient in my opinion.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Too Many Things To Do!!!
Like many people I sometimes have a hard time remembering when things are do or what things I am supposed to be doing when. I have all sorts of ways I try to use to keep track. I have always used a day planner and a regular calendar to keep track of things. I write things in both places so in case I don't have access to one the other. At work I have an Outlook account and I have recently started using the calender there. I really like having this calender because it i something I look at everyday to check my emails and it sends me alert notices when things are due or when meetings are scheduled. This is a great feature because sometimes I sign up for webinars or schedule meetings weeks or months in advance and wouldn't remember otherwise. The only downside to this is that I only have Outlook on my work computer, not my personal computer.
Thing 19 is about online productivity tools. They had a list of several different tools but the one I decided to check out was Remember the Milk, a to-do list manager. With this I am able to go in and set tasks and due dates. I can even enter how long a task should take. One feature I like is that you can set a priority to each task and it is color coordinated. They also have different category tabs such as personal, study, and work. Keeping the different category tasks separate is a nice feature and keeps things nice and organized. It also had an option to add it to a calender, and since I wanted to do something about being able to access my schedule on the computer at home I set up a Google calendar and added the Remember the Milk calendar to that. Now if I wanted I can keep my Outlook calender restricted to only work tasks and appointments and use Remember the Milk for personal and school tasks. If I need to access work information from home though I now have a way to do that, I just have to add it to the calender. It's very simple, and even offers keyboard shortcuts.
Since libraries are all about organization I think this is a great tool to help people stay organized. Sticky notes and lists posted all over the place can get messy or lost. This is something that is neat and can keep you on track. It also has a feature where you can share your to-do list and calender with others. If a library wanted to make a public events or meetings calender they could do so and share it with everyone in the library. That way everyone would be able to easily look up what was going on. There is always so many things going on, events and meetings, so having a public way to share all that is nice. It could save time too because you could just look at the calender instead of trying to track down a person who may not be there. It is a place you could look up when and where an event is for a patron even. I think even more than a public sharing tool, if that seems like a big step, using it as a personal professional tool to help stay organized it is a good tool to use. Outlook has a great system, but if you don't have an Outlook account this is a great alternative I think.
Thing 19 is about online productivity tools. They had a list of several different tools but the one I decided to check out was Remember the Milk, a to-do list manager. With this I am able to go in and set tasks and due dates. I can even enter how long a task should take. One feature I like is that you can set a priority to each task and it is color coordinated. They also have different category tabs such as personal, study, and work. Keeping the different category tasks separate is a nice feature and keeps things nice and organized. It also had an option to add it to a calender, and since I wanted to do something about being able to access my schedule on the computer at home I set up a Google calendar and added the Remember the Milk calendar to that. Now if I wanted I can keep my Outlook calender restricted to only work tasks and appointments and use Remember the Milk for personal and school tasks. If I need to access work information from home though I now have a way to do that, I just have to add it to the calender. It's very simple, and even offers keyboard shortcuts.
Since libraries are all about organization I think this is a great tool to help people stay organized. Sticky notes and lists posted all over the place can get messy or lost. This is something that is neat and can keep you on track. It also has a feature where you can share your to-do list and calender with others. If a library wanted to make a public events or meetings calender they could do so and share it with everyone in the library. That way everyone would be able to easily look up what was going on. There is always so many things going on, events and meetings, so having a public way to share all that is nice. It could save time too because you could just look at the calender instead of trying to track down a person who may not be there. It is a place you could look up when and where an event is for a patron even. I think even more than a public sharing tool, if that seems like a big step, using it as a personal professional tool to help stay organized it is a good tool to use. Outlook has a great system, but if you don't have an Outlook account this is a great alternative I think.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Technorati
After checking out Delicious and tagging the next thing on the list (Thing 6) was blog directories. I went ahead and tried out Technorati, which was the original blog search engine. I created an account and did some searching to try and check it out. Personally it was nothing all that impressive to me. I'm not sure this is necessarily something I would use often, unless really looking for a blog about something. Even then I may go to Google first just out of preference.
The concept behind Technorati is pretty cool though. It is basically a place where people can register their blogs and then people can search through them for topics they are interested in. It is also a good way to get your blog out there and maybe gain a few followers. They are categorized in different fields which the author can choose when setting up their account. For example when I went to register this blog I registered it under Technology and Info Tech. If you are doing a quick search and want to find something recent that has been blogged about in the field of technology you can do a search in Technorati. It also provides you with links to other sites that are similar.
If you are interested in finding blogs about libraries you would type that into the search box and click blogs or post depending what you are more interested in. Then a list of results will come up and you can find one that works then from there it will link you to other related sites. It seems like a quick and easy thing but when I did a search it came up with a lot of material that I found to be irrelevant. There was one blog that came up that had "library" in the title of the blog, but it was about fashion and had nothing to do with libraries.
By looking at some of the tags people have put on their blog may also give you other ideas of what to use as search terms. The terms are supposed to be folksonomies which are words we use in everyday language, which might be different than what a cataloger might use. I know personally I have had trouble with search terms while looking for a book or an article. I have had to try several different ways to say one thing just to get results I am looking for. I always found that to be annoying. Floksonomy tags seem to make that easier on the searcher, becaus ethey are more commonly used terms.
I think that it could be used in a library for a quick and dirty search maybe to get some good current information on a topic where if you did a google search it may not necessarily be new. But if a student had a paper to write on a current issue this could be a good tool to help them get a start and see what is relevant now on their topic. It also gives you the opportunity to see what online conversations are going on about a certain topic. To keep up with current events I can see this being useful. That is true in means of helping students with a paper or even trying to find out the latest about library issues. Say you wanted to know more about current e-book policies and what other people were saying and thinking, this would be a good place to start a search for that.
I'm not sure if this is my cup of tea, but I won't give up on it just yet.
The concept behind Technorati is pretty cool though. It is basically a place where people can register their blogs and then people can search through them for topics they are interested in. It is also a good way to get your blog out there and maybe gain a few followers. They are categorized in different fields which the author can choose when setting up their account. For example when I went to register this blog I registered it under Technology and Info Tech. If you are doing a quick search and want to find something recent that has been blogged about in the field of technology you can do a search in Technorati. It also provides you with links to other sites that are similar.
If you are interested in finding blogs about libraries you would type that into the search box and click blogs or post depending what you are more interested in. Then a list of results will come up and you can find one that works then from there it will link you to other related sites. It seems like a quick and easy thing but when I did a search it came up with a lot of material that I found to be irrelevant. There was one blog that came up that had "library" in the title of the blog, but it was about fashion and had nothing to do with libraries.
By looking at some of the tags people have put on their blog may also give you other ideas of what to use as search terms. The terms are supposed to be folksonomies which are words we use in everyday language, which might be different than what a cataloger might use. I know personally I have had trouble with search terms while looking for a book or an article. I have had to try several different ways to say one thing just to get results I am looking for. I always found that to be annoying. Floksonomy tags seem to make that easier on the searcher, becaus ethey are more commonly used terms.
I think that it could be used in a library for a quick and dirty search maybe to get some good current information on a topic where if you did a google search it may not necessarily be new. But if a student had a paper to write on a current issue this could be a good tool to help them get a start and see what is relevant now on their topic. It also gives you the opportunity to see what online conversations are going on about a certain topic. To keep up with current events I can see this being useful. That is true in means of helping students with a paper or even trying to find out the latest about library issues. Say you wanted to know more about current e-book policies and what other people were saying and thinking, this would be a good place to start a search for that.
I'm not sure if this is my cup of tea, but I won't give up on it just yet.
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