Lives and loves of a Victorian Clerk

I read an interesting article relating to the lives and loves of a Victorian Clerk .Westminster City Council archives have created a blog based on a Victorian Clerk's diary of 1846 - transcribing the entries, then loading them on to the blog  including related images from the archive and releasing the entries on the equivalent day in 2010. It seems to have created a stir Nationally and Internationally - seems like a really interesting way of using blogging technology to lead to a collection.

to sum up thing 6

pop art elephant

I got carried away and had a Warhol moment!

The real "thing" 6 - Big huge lab

Big huge labs was good fun - I made a jigsaw. Really liked how easy it was to link to my flikr account.

The real "thing" 6 - cool text

Created a logo using cool text - which was very easy to do and easy to edit when I forgot to add my own text. I'm not sure what I might do with it yet, but it's good to know that it exists.
Linking buttons on the blog e.g. a logo for new books....?

back to flickr and picnik

Just had a very happy time using picnik - lots of fun and creativity available there. See the results here.

"Picnik Show"

Create a free slideshow with Picnik!

Thing 6 - Image generators (letterJames)

My thing numbering has gone awry this entry is really thing number 6 which looks at image generators.

The first to try is Letterjames and to celebrate the forthcoming holidays - I've chosen a seasonal theme. But I can see it being very useful for marking occasions in the library/academic calendar - I think I might use this one in my music blog, but might also spend hours trying to top it (there was a chocolate Santa that looked tempting!). Also a flurry of e-cards (until the novelty wears off).

It was amazingly quick and easy to do and the best bit was not having to create yet another account (Hurrah!). I am having problems adding further images into this post - but that's either blogger or my computer at fault.

Thing 6 - Creative commons licence

My creative commons licence has now been added to the bottom of the page I think I imagined it would be a long and tedious process so it suprised me how simple it seemed. Perhaps becasue of the simplicity I dithered a bit before opting for a liberal approach -  but with non-commerical use (not that there could ever be commerical use of my material!)

When reading the licence terms, it occurred to me that

• As this is being done as a staff development activity - Does the employer own the copyright? in which case should the licence should be for the University
• Does the University have a policy on creative commons licences?
• Should we consider licencing the academic laision blogs and subject pages? Even if we gave our material a liberal licence it would show evidence to staff and students of how we are engaged in the debate around copyright and the web.

Connected to my last point, when looking at other users of creative commons licences I came across some interesting music material that I think I will be adding to my music blog at some point.

flikr - Some of my photos

Flickr - the commons

Just found "the commons" on Flickr - hidden treasures in the world's public photography collections.
partners include Brooklyn Musuem, Smithsonian, Imperial War Musuem and many many more.....

my photos

Ohh blogger's gone weird on me - can't see any options but a big blank screen. I've noticed that in general it seems a bit "flaky" - I've not been able to save my posts and have had to re-write them a couple of times.

Anyway I thought I'd mention that I'm starting to put my pictures on flikr but I think that they are quite large file sizes - does anyone have any tips on how to reduce the file size without affecting the quality too much.

David Sedaris

David Sedaris reading a short story from his new collection

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

snapfish and flickr

Still struggling uploading photos - down to 2 at a time and it's doing the primo thing of 99%. While I was waiting I discovered that flickr links with snapfish - where you can print your photos and turn them into fabulous gifts and decorative items - and also into STAMPS; as in postage - is this legal? does the Queen know? - I'M SORELY TEMPTED.....

flickr - uploading photos

I did "break" flickr. The best thing seems to be to upload a few photos at a time - been organising them into folders which is quite good fun ...I'm such a librarian! - brings back happy memories of the slide library - just wait until I start "tagging" AKA subject terms.

Flickr

Oh well reached the monthly upload limit on flickr very quickly. I think they are quite high res. images? but it's good as I have to be EVEN MORE selective.
It's been a useful exercise for me as I bought a new camera on holiday and knew that I would have to try to work out how to upload the images - I've got a tendancy to keep buying new cards for the cameras (this may be my 4th, 5th, 6th...?!).
The difficult part was the yahoo password - I had to change it twice before I could get into flickr. The time consuming part was uploading the camera software onto the computer. The easy part was uploading the photos to flickr.... I spoke too soon.....I'm writing this while I wait for the images to upload -I think I may have taxed the broadband to it's limit! (stuck at 14%.....).

RSS feeder

Simples

Well that wasn't too bad - In fact it was scarily simple to set up an RSS feeder... why was I putting it off?
I am concerned that this is yet another thing that I should be looking at which I won't remember to do. Whenever I went into an RSS feed it claimed that I was already subscribed, amazing! (I thought) but hah! I still seem to have to manually put a link into the google feeder...maybe it's the computer I'm using.
I thought I'd put a link to Billboard as I hate it in my in-box (I think it's using too much file space) - it's a massive website  - but I can't seem to find an RSS feeder (I didn't look very hard). There's a noricceable difference between websites that want you to used the feeder (usually free and RSS prominently didplayed) and those that don't (not free, please subscribe).
thanks to Ellie for setting up the 23 things blog bundle - I'ts been great reading the 23 things blogs so simply and will check out the sites that Ellie and Anna have recommended.
Q? will the bundle pick up comments or just postings?

Dale Chihuly

By coincidence Allan has found a picture of Dale Chihuly which I thought I would share with you...
(taken from artdaily.org)

Perhaps glass art isn't such a safe medium!

Reflecting on the first 23 things task ....

I was a bit suprised by some of the "widgets" that could be included on a google home page - I'm still wondering why anyone would bother with some of those...!
Although there was some useful material - it seemed to be very US centered; for example although I could find something from the BBC I couldn't find any UK papers. A few of the widgets that were on offer didn't seem to work on the page.The google home page is a good place to keep information together - but, and it's a big but - how useful is what's actually available? (perhaps that's why I'd forgotten about setting the page up in the first instance). On the plus side it's incredibly easy and if you were working for a small underfunded institution or organization, it could be of some benefit.

The first 23 things task

Dale Chihuly glass

I'd forgotten that I had already set up a google home page (and still can't remember when I orignally did it ), so it was a useful reminder that the page still existed.
I found a great Dale Chihuly template - which reminded me of a fantastic exhibition I saw a few years ago at Kew. Chihuly is a really interesting USA- based art glass maker. There's an enormous piece of his work hanging from the ceiling in the V&A entrance- aparently each piece of glass unscrews like a light fitting - it helps with construction, cleaning and repairs. Look up next time you are in there.
Frasier ( the character from theTV series) used to collect his pieces - but they never seemed to be that interesting in a domestic setting.

First entry

This is my first post for my 23 things blog. I'm catching up with stuff before going away (hence the day and date). I'm worried that I won't be able to catch up with this programme when I come back.  Lucky me I've come down with a cold, so there's some sneezing and watery eyes going on at the moment. Looking forward to my break though.

Can you guess why I chose this template!