Image Generators

This is fun too! At first, I made a pennant for our high school. (Because I really did have a stalker, I'm not posting it here.) I played around with some of the other tools. (I look pretty cool with flames surrounding my head-courtesy of border effects!) I can't wait to email some comic captioned photos to family and friends. Students would enjoy these tools as well, but, again, I don't know if the filter will allow it. Thinking about other applications, there is a lot of potential to use these tools in creating PowerPoint presentations, program advertisements, etc. I post announcements on the school televised bulletin board and I could really jazz up the slides using some of these tools.

Fancy Flickr

I enjoyed exploring the Flickr mashups. I once went to an art museum site (?) that had a feature similar to Colr Pickr. You could pick a color, and all the art images with predominately the selected hue were located. I pulled this image from a free images site because I didn't feel right pulling a random picture off of Flickr and I wanted an image of a bridge.

If you don't set your Flickr images to private, is it legal for anyone to use your photos for whatever purpose? Anyway, the high school students at our school library could certainly use some of these tools. I'll have to see if the filter blocks them. (We tried to use Picnik last week to no avail.)

Flickr

I've been on Flickr before to see friends' photographs, so I'm somewhat familiar with it already. However, using it for the library hadn't occurred to me. (Something to consider once we glam up the web page a bit.) I went ahead and created an account, which was an easy process. I pride myself on being relatively anonymous (I had a stalker once- not pleasant), so I posted some generic (but pretty, if I do say so myself) photos of a butterfly and ladybugs. In the spirit of Texas, my first impulse was to post some of the bluebonnet pictures I take every spring. I searched for "bluebonnets" and found numerous lovely images. Here is the link to my photostream (such as it currently is): http://www.flickr.com/photos/38731839@N07/

Library/Web 2.0?

I'm not a huge fan of catch phrases and 2.0 appears to refer to a bundle of things. I completed 3 1/2 of the 4 activities. (I kept zoning out during activity 3.) I think I got the gist of 2.0, but I couldn't define it succinctly if my life depended on it. (Apparently, I'm not alone.) Essentially, libraries and librarians must provide the technology and know-how that patrons need in the current Internet environment. That is why I'm here!

NOT the Library Troll

The woman who previously held my position at the high school library in which I work was called (affectionately, I hope) the library troll. I planned to name this blog The Library Troll in honor of inheriting this title. However, upon googling troll, I learned (courtesy of the same Wikipedia that I hypocritically tell students not to use so much) that "an Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion." I am sincerely glad that I looked it up first- wouldn't want to give anyone the wrong impression! To make a longer introduction even longer, I decided on The Bridge for several reasons. First, a bridge is a means to cross (overcome) an obstacle as it spans (connects) two places (or ideas). This is an apt connotation when discussing the digital divide- bridging the gap between those who understand and have access to technology and those who do not. Second, it is a pun on my first name. Lastly and back to my original thought, trolls live under bridges (okay, so this is a stretch). Anyway, I am here and ready to document my North Texas 23 Things experience!