Finally got a chance to practice with the free photoshop software. You have a lot of options such as adjusting hue, sharpness, saturation, exposure, tint, and several others. It is easy to manipulate the pictures and see the change in a few seconds. This definitely beats the version you can buy. Even though you have more options with the version for purchase, basic photo editing works wonderfully with the free one. I only made a few changes to the picture, some color and some touch up. The Google program Picasa will accomplish some of the same functions as photoshop express. All you need is a google account to access it.

I got side tracked  the last two weeks at work.  I now have the Photoshop Elements software package on my work machine and I have been messing around with that version instead of the free one. Examining the version is next on the list to do. One would think darkening text on a photo would be easy. Nope! It required whiting the area out and typing new text. 3 full hours of eye strain and a whopping headache.

More and more people are getting interested in locating old material such as pictures, diaries or other items for local history and genealogy research. Housed at Michigan State University is a project called the Making of Modern Michigan. It is a web site of “donated” digital collections from libraries throughout Michigan. The long term goal is to help smaller libraries build their digital collections and safely store them off-site. They have the usual pictures of court houses, churches, and events, but MSU placed their old cookbooks from the 1800’s on the site.  For you Toledo, Ohio folk, the Toledo Luca County Public Library has their own version called Images in Time. Just hover over the Library Collection tab on their site to find the link. You can search by address or keyword.  Fun stuff to pass the time.

I have to thank the wife for this bit of info….

A difficult part of my job is to help patrons modify/edit images and load them onto facebook, myspace, blogs, and etc. The problem is that a person can only do so much in the program Paint. Forget about fixing “red eye” or reducing an image. Eventually, most patrons tend to leave frustrated. Now, thanks to Adobe(thanks to the wife for telling me) you can access an express web version of Photoshop. You need a valid email address to sign up. You get roughly 2 gigs of server space to save photos. There are wizards/tutorials to help you share photos and make galleries. Once I try it out I will report back.

A coworker pestered me to go to a worshop called Teaching Technology in Libraries. The whole reason is to hear Jessamyn West as the keynote. Am glad I went. She truly is a great speaker who captivated the audience of about 70.

There were 5 presenters speaking on various topics involving libraries and technology. How to structure basic computer classes? How to teach/deomstrate gadgets(ipods, kindles, etc)? Why are were technology trainers? Does New Horizon or the local con ed program handle that? Well, not for most of our patrons. And that was the theme. A chunk of patrons who cannot afford classes come to us and boy do we need all the help to get them past the beginning.

Jessamyn was able to put all the frustration and daily life of a librarian helping others with technology in plain yet hillarious terms. Helping one person with there mps player to cursing the computer for locking up and then ending the day with helping a person submit a resume online. Oh, they do not have an email. Need to do that first. have they used a computer? No! They were just told to do it at the library. SOmetimes you can help and other times they walk out frustrated.

Check out jessamyn’s blog at librarian.net. Many aspire to be as good and cool as her.

Buried at MSU is H-Net, a great resource for book reviews and posting/contacting scholars in the humanities and social sciences. What is great is that it is home grown and shows the potential for cooperation and new types of jobs for the 21st century.

The skinny is that there are numerous discussion networks that you can subscribe to and read discussion threads, book reviews and post questions. Citation checking to where can I stay in DC for cheap for a conference. For librarians and others wanting more detailed book reviews, the review tab is the place to start your search. Scan the the discussion lists, there is probably something there for everybody to enjoy.

Man, winter in michigan can be bothersome. Sliding everywhere in the van to a workshop on technology and youth. it is for my job… to explore new technology and go where everybody else is…. I had to cut out early, but I learned a lot in three hours. machinima a great way to blend game clips and music to tell stories. Didn’t even know it existed until today. I have seem them on youtube and other sites, but never new. check out machinima.com for all kinds of help on making these videos. Check back for more intersting sites later. There is a lot to go through.

There was nothing but thought and musings.  I know, bad line, but it seemed good at the time. I need to work on a blog for work and I thought the best way is to practice with this one.

I am not a MI native. I grew up south of the border, Toledo. I am not sure who came out better in that war, Michigan or Ohio. Anyways… Lansing is a good place and I am intrigued by our be a tourist in your own town concept.  You will probably find random musings and such, but I will do my best to contain that. The palm has a lot to offer us and hopefully you will find somthing useful  and interesting about this place.