QR codes - find the code, follow the link, and find out

QR code stickers direct mobile phone users to content that may interest them.
Libraries are starting to use them to provide information, link to the library catalogue, book reviews, maps, event notifications etc.
QR codes can be quickly generated using goo.gl
Put in a link, click shorten link, add qr to the link then hit enter to generate your own QR code.

If these directions are a little unclear, see the explanation video here. 

Here's 2 codes to try out....

2CoolTools: Typing Tutorial

Having never formally learnt typing, I am sometimes a bit dyslexic and hit the keys in the wrong order or my hands wander so I hit the key next to the one I wanted. Perhaps you would be interested like me in a free typing tutorial?

2CoolTools: Typing Tutorial

Firesheep, Blacksheep and botnets

Firesheep became a problem recently for people who use wireless internet in cafes, libraries etc. because it meant someone else nearby could download this free software to snoop on your activities.
This was quickly followed by another application called Blacksheep, which says it can detect snooping to alert you to the fact.
To understand how BlackSheep works, we first need to understand the details of FireSheep. FireSheep listens to the HTTP traffic on port 80. When it identifies a transaction to a known site (Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, etc.), it looks for specific cookie values which are then used to identify a specific user.

When FireSheep identifies a user session, it then makes a request to the same site using the user's cookie values in order to retrieve user information such as their name, picture, etc. This active network activity is however visible to others on the local network.

BlackSheep detects the active connection made by Firesheep. It does this by making HTTP requests to random sites handled by FireSheep every 5 minutes (configurable) with fake values. BlackSheep then listens to all HTTP requests on the network to detect if somebody else is using the same fake values.
Zscaler has recommended users logout of the social service they are using as soon as an alert is raised and stop using the network.

All this should make the average user wary of doing confidential things in wireless internet situations. There are smarter hackers out there than the person who downloads Firesheep.

As for the idea that your computer may have been captured and be secretly used as part of a zombie computer army or botnet, please follow this link to McAfee to find out more.....

Here are some tips to help keep you bot-free:

• Never click on a link or download in a spam email or instant message from someone you don’t know
• Use comprehensive security software, like McAfee Total Protection™ software, to protect you from viruses, spam, and other Internet threats, and keep the software up-to-date
• Set your operating system and browser to automatically apply updates
• Turn your computer off when you are not using it—when you are disconnected from the Internet cybercriminals can't access your machine

Are you already part of a botnet?? Well, there is advice at the above link about that too.
Some major ISPs have already begun malware disinfection programs. Australia's recently launched voluntary anti-zombie code for ISPs was held up as a good model for achieving relatively low levels of infections. General levels of education were also an important factor.
Don't get paranoid, just get SAFE!

Cbyer safety

Libraries play an important role in providing internet access and advice to children, their parents, and other library users. To help library staff in this role, the Australian Government ACMA has developed a range of resources about how to manage risks so that  library users have safe and positive experiences online.

Developed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Cybersmart is part of the Australian Government’s cybersafety program.
Developed in conjunction with the Australian Library and Information Association and Australian public libraries these resources aim to complement existing policies in libraries and provide additional resources and support to library staff.
The Cybersmart Guide for Library Staff provides information, support and tools to effectively promote internet safety in Australian public libraries—especially for children.
This guide is complemented by a cyber rules poster for young internet users and a series of online cybersafety videos. Information for families, including the Cybersmart Guide for Families is also available.
Safer Internet Day, an international event marked on 8 February 2011, will focus on the theme ‘It’s more than a game, it’s your life’. The event aims to help children and young people learn essential skills about safe social networking.
To help raise awareness of cybersafety issues with library users, library staff may like to use some of the free Cybersmart resources, including the issue-specific downloadable brochures, below, which are designed for parents and their children. These can also be ordered as hard copies. You can order these free resources online or by telephoning the Cybersafety Contact Centre on 1800 880 176.
Please allow 10 working days for delivery.
The following valuable resources may be useful for raising Cybersafety issues with your library users.

• Socialising on the internet (PDF 1.2 Mb)
• Dealing with offensive content (PDF 1.2Mb)
• Mobile phone safety (PDF 1.3 Mb)
• Say no to cyberbullying (PDF 1.4Mb)
• Social networking-A guide for adults (PDF 1.2Mb)
• Cybersafety Resources brochure (PDF 678Kb)
• ‘It’s more than a game, it’s your life’ Safer Internet Day poster (PDF 394kb)

Animation sites and story book sites

Making your own mini animations is getting much easier these days, thanks to sites like www.voki.com which do all the hard work for you,  making it quick, easy and fun.

Here's an example of a cartoon character that you can personalise with a supplied or uploaded background, add your own voice or type text which is turned into voice, and then publish.

Another site which allows you to make an extended dialogue between 2 characters is xtranormal.com which adds your text to a movie, complete with characters that gesture and different camera angles.

Then there are quick ways to produce digital story books.

Batalugu [http://batalugu.com/] is a new free (beta) site that is great for creating digital books. The easy to use on-line tools will take you on a step by step journey as you write, rhyme, illustrate, design and print your book. This user friendly site has lots of options to choose from such as: themes, page layout, and is ideal for digital storytelling. The book you create can be shared online with everyone.

Another one is Storyjumper, which will print and sell you the resulting picturebook. 

Virtual art exhibition

Another use for Powerpoint presentations is to produce a virtual walkthrough.
This could be a tour of the various features of your local library,
you could promote virtual family history research and local tourism via a cemetery tour or local history walk,
or invite art lover visitors to a virtual art exhibition.

Here is a peek into an art exhibition held by Rockhampton's
Central Queensland Contemporary artists, held at Gallery 6 of the Walter Reid Cultural Centre.

As you like it art exhibition

View more presentations from Anna  Casey.

Simply irresistabull

Could't resist as an artist, having a look at our city's Beef Capital theme - the urge to create
art featuring bulls and cows was simply irresistabull!
Let alone the current aim to make our region the most liveable in the world... so here's a few vignettes of life in the Beef Capital.
It's a bull town sure, but it's a cow town too ;-)

Enjoyabull livabull Rockhampton

View more presentations from Anna  Casey.

* Nubia_group Powerpoint Collection *: La Mouton - Photo artist

* Nubia_group Powerpoint Collection *: La Mouton - Photo artist: "Enjoy the fantasy world of the Russian artist Anna Rastorgueva nicknamed « La Mouton » talented photographer and retoucher, based in Moscow"

Aussie Christmas cards

Aussie Christmas cards

View more presentations from Anna  Casey.

Powerpoint and slideshare and Scribed

Maybe you have a business and want to send a slide presentation out to the world.
Or you are an artist wanting to share some images with a potential buyer.

Or you have learnt something clever and want to make an instructional presentation to share your newfound skill.

Microsoft Office Powerpoint is easy to pick up and use.
If you need a hand, ask a primary school child - they probably know how to assemble a slide presentation, having used Powerpoint for school assignments.

You can save the finished presentation to your blog or http://www.slideshare.net or
http://www.scribd.com

Slideshare accept presentations in these formats:
Presentations: pdf, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, pot, potx (Powerpoint); odp (OpenOffice); key, zip (Apple Keynote).
Documents: pdf, doc, docx, rtf, xls (MSOffice); odt, ods(OpenOffice); Apple iWork Pages.

Max file size: 100MB for presentations & documents.


Scribd
As their blurb explains, "On Scribd, you can easily turn any file—such as PDF, Word and PowerPoint—into a web document and immediately connect with passionate readers and information-seekers on our thriving community, through connected sites such as Facebook or Twitter and search engines such as Google. Scribd users have shared tens of millions of free and for-purchase documents and books ranging from vampire fan fiction to research reports and business presentations.
There's something for everyone—students and teachers, business professionals, companies and organizations, writers and artists. Millions of people contribute to the conversations happening on the site through comments (scribbles), ratings and other sharing features. They also read in whatever way they choose, including on Scribd.com, mobile devices, through downloads or even in print."

You can then embed your presentation in your blog or other social networking sites that support that format.
Voila! You are now sharing with the world, or just the friends you nominate.

Family reunions

There comes a time when people need to gather to celebrate being family, and to ask questions of older members while they are still able to remember family facts and stories. People don't stay in the one town all their lives anymore, and it is easy to lose touch with all your cousins and aunties and uncles.

Family reunions are a perfect chance to catch up with all those relations you haven't seen for years.

Once again, social networking and the internet are there to help.
 
In order to to invite your relations, why not send out a group email to multiple recipients? Any email addresses you don't know can be added by those relations who have kept in touch. Ask everyone to hit "reply all" on emails as the suggestions and plans roll in, as using that same group emailling can save a lot of phone calls.

If you are lucky, someone in the clan will have already developed an interest in family history, and may have a family tree that they can bring along. Before the day, if you are able to email the family tree to all your guests (using a spreadsheet or Word document or pdf file)  you can ask them to check the family tree and make any corrections before the day. That way any new babies or new partners will not feel left out.

Be sure to use name tags if you are thinking that you will hardly recognize some guests, due to the fact it has been years since you saw them last.

Have a time where clan members can talk about their memories of grandparents and fun times  they shared as children. Perhaps you can ask each guest to bring a photocopied baby photo and shuffle these up and hand  them a different photo to go find the person whose photo it is - a handy icebreaker that will get shy relatives mixing and asking questions.

Afterwards, why not set up a blog where any photos taken on the day can be posted for all to see and comment on?

 Picasaweb is one photo host that allows multiple people to add their photos to the one album. Just have one person set up the album so that any others from your set of email addresses can contribute.

Anna Casey ~ Art is....~

Musings on the nature of art and what it is to me

Anna Casey ~ Art is....~

View more presentations from Anna Casey.

Teaching about blogs

In my job, I have opportunities to hand on the skills I learn, and this is one of the best parts about being a librarian. Not only can I find people books they might like to read and specific information they are asking for, either in books or on the internet, but I can show them how  to use the internet for self-expression and communication with others.

Because I will soon be teaching a group about blogging, I decided to set up my own training materials as a Powerpoint slideshow with links to the sites I want to use to demonstrate.


Having published this slideshow at slideshare.com, it can now be viewed by a lot more people than are coming to my class.
 
Then I decided to post it here as well for you to see....

Blogs and blogging

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Blogs and blogging

View more presentations from Anna Casey.

Looking@ 2.0

If Facebook fills you with fear, Twitter sounds like twaddle and Flickr seems as though it is spelt incorrectly, this is the course for you. Jump online, register here, have a go and learn a bit about web 2.0.
Looking @2.0 is a free, online course presented by the State Library of Queensland, supported by OPAL funding.

Queensland Public libraries are joining forces with the State Library of Queensland to offer an online introduction to many popular forms of social networking. Participants can learn in their own homes at their computers, at a time and pace that suits them. Or they can go to the public library to attend sessions and ask the librarians questions about the course. There are great prizes to be won such as digital cameras and iPod shuffles.

Many people are interested in learning more about skype, or starting a blog, or sharing photos on the internet.

I've even found a site where you can make your own animated cartoon style movies with all sets and characters already supplied - you just add your own script and imagination.
It is called xtranormal.com. as with many other sites, there are some free characters and settings and you can pay a fee to access more characters and advanced features. However the free option gives enough features for you to have lots of fun. 
For example there's a great comment on the life of a dentist for those who don't mind a bit of tension and swearing ;-)

The great thing about a lot of these sites is that they provide all the computer expertise, and there is no software to buy for the results you can quickly achieve.
You can learn anything like how to knit or how to make pasta carbonara from short videos on sites like commoncraft. Or upload your own videos to youtube and see if they are popular with those who visit and view them.
Heaps of fun and very addictive, that's for sure. You'll gain some internet friends with common interests as well.

Happy Easter everyone

Problems librarians may face with blogs and Web 2.0

Web 2.0 holds many possibilities for libraries to put information and publicity online.
This possibility relies on their manager/employer to put in place the ability to do so.
Some employers may think maintaining a blog or webpresence is too time consuming and not worth the trouble. They may think core business is all they have time for, given the few already busy staff they have.
This is not true.

Many libraries already produce library newsletters, fliers and media releases in order to promote their monthly activities. Cutting and pasting that already written content into a blog will really take very little extra time and yet have the potential to reach a much wider client audience, even reaching people who have not come into the library recently. These customers can subscribe to the blog and get regular updates on free workshops, reviews of new books, author visits,  booktalks and children's activities that they can attend, boosting numbers and so making them more successful. This is turn justifies the funds spent in organising these events in the hope someone will attend.

Short speeches, films and photos can be posted that promote collections and local history information that the library holds. A local cemetry tour could become a slideshow that can be downloaded to an Iphone and used as a virtual guided tour by someone walking through the cemetry. Someone overseas researching family history can find a keyword indicating that there is a photo of their ancestor's grave included in that tour, and be able to make a virtual visit to the grave.

Libraries are all about reaching a wider audience with knowledge.
Trove has made a start with putting old newspapers online, and the response has been very enthusiastic.
The ability for readers to correct the text they see on screen or put a comment with more information under a photo is very interactive and builds on the knowledge presented without costing the site extra money.

What is the use of having valuable old records and photos locked away where few can access them?
Digitisation projects get these same items out on the web and being accessed, as well as providing a copy that cannot be ruined by fingers. A poster for a display takes time to produce and is taken down after a short time, but a poster and photos scanned and uploaded to the internet makes a display available worldwide for a long long time.

Other blocks to using Web 2.0 functions include library web filters that stop even the librarian accessing them; the inability to place widgets eg. for delicious on the top browser bar; and not having backroom or offdesk time to perform these tasks. Managers may see publicity as the job of a personal assistant and not see the need to produce a more attractive professional-looking product that librarians with layout or Indesign skills could supply. If other Council departments produce branded well-marketed fliers, then simple old style library fliers may start to look second rate. Public library computers need to have access to programs such as Adobe and Flash for customers to access interactive functions such as movies or online forms on sites. These require an IT department that is able to keep these updated and working. The library may need to buy a digital camera or scanner or send staff to training, but in the long run there is not a lot of extra money or time involved in getting an exciting web presence. The greatest obstacle is the permission to do so.

Trove and family history searching

Losing a loved one is an impetus to go poring over and sorting through old family photos. 

Researching family history can be done in a number of online sites these days, such as ancestry.com and cyndislist.com.

I am no expert on this sort of research, and so was pleasantly surprised to find the National Library Trove search page http://trove.nla.gov.au

which allowed me to access photos that have been stored by the John Oxley library and newspaper accounts of family members going back to the 1870s from the Sydney Morning Herald and the Brisbane Courier Mail.

The ability to edit and correct the newspaper transcript as we read the scanned pages is a great interactive tool to allow users to help with the digitisation project, as is the ability to leave comments and information about the photos I had ties to. This is a great way to add to the store of knowledge being presented. I sincerely hope that regional papers such as the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, a full archive already held on microfilm, may come to be added in to this resource. What a boon for researchers to have it all online!

So if you have done any family research and have old photos of pioneering days, consider sending copies to the John Oxley Library in Brisbane to have them added to this resource. Booklets, diaries, letters, photos and the like are encouraged for their insight into our history.

The State Library of Queensland's John Oxley Library, opened in 1934 and now in its 75th year, is responsible for collecting, managing and providing access to material which documents Queensland's history, development and cultural life.

The John Oxley Library collects widely, assisted by the State Library’s legal deposit role whereby publishers and others are required to deposit a copy of their works with the library. It also acquires the works of Queensland authors.

The collection falls into the following broad categories and access points:

• Manuscripts Queensland, providing online access to the library’s extensive collection of manuscript and archival material as well as works of art relating to Queensland.
• Picture Queensland, providing access to those images from the pictorial collection that have been digitised for on line access. In addition to these online pictorial resources the remainder of the library’s pictorial resources are available on site at the John Oxley Library.
• Published materials, accessible through the State Library’s One Search. This collection includes books, serials and newspapers. Significant printed collections include Rare Books and Ephemera.
• Maps collection, with particular strengths in historic, land exploration, pastoral and commercial or real estate maps.

Back to the National Library and Trove.

Trove describes itself as "a new discovery experience focused on Australia and Australians. It supplements what search engines provide with reliable information from Australia's memory institutions.

If you are researching in the fields of the social sciences, literature, local or family history, or need inspiration for your school assignment, then this is the tool for you.

Trove was designed to:

• provide a single point of access to the resources of the deep web
• facilitate access to a significantly greater range of resources from major sources, including selected digitised material freely available online
• support searching of, and access to, full-text content
• enhance ease of discovery by providing improved relevance ranking, refinement by facets, FRBR-like grouping of related items (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and exploitation of thesauri
• engage with communities and individuals through annotation services
• ensure that relevant information is not missed in a search by reducing the need to search material-specific discovery services separately
• provide a platform for niche services to query a vast resource of Australian metadata and adapt if for their own needs.

For example if researching images relating to Edmund Barton, our first Prime Minister, results will include descriptions such as people, book, manuscript, map and newspaper articles. A researcher searching for information on Nellie Melba will be presented with a range of results including biographies, pictures, music, newspapers, books etc."

Well worth a look.

Peter Stephenson newspaper illustrator and artist

This is my Father's obituary in the Courier Mail. Sadly, he died on the 14th January 2010.

Artists view life with careful eyes and imagination. They frame life and present it to our eyes. My father loved the Australian landscape, horses and birds, and these are well reflected in his art. Some artists never become famous in the eyes of the world, and few readers would have noticed the signature under his many illustrations in the Courier Mail, but they were the work of a talented artist. His work in the Art Room of the Courier Mail enabled him to support us as a family.
Given time, I may be able to assemble some of them from newspaper microfilm archives. The scanned images I assembled as a Powerpoint for his 80th birthday party can be found at slideshare and below.
As a family we hope to compile a booklet of his life and art.

He left his family paintings, poetry, jazz cds and an illustrated story of his childhood. Most of all he left us an inherited creative streak, a love of playfulness and nonsense, many rambling conversations on all sorts of topics, and a lot of quiet love.
Googling his name I find there are two Australian artists named Peter Stephenson, but to my mind Dad is the original and the best.