Challenge 16: Photoshop.com

Trick or Treat! In lieu of candy, have another challenge. You'll thank me later.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular photo editing suites on the market. The retail price for the current version runs from $699-$999 and just upgrading from an older version will cost you at least $200. So imagine if Adobe were to make an abbreviated version of Photoshop, and make it available online for free! Imagine all the fantastic things you could do with your family photos! Go ahead and imagine. I'll wait.

Now go see it in action. Many of the features that non-professional photographers use most are available there, from removing red-eye, to sharpening the focus. There are even how-to videos under the help menu to walk you through every step of using Photoshop.com. Of course, what they're trying to do is make you want the full version of Photoshop. Or to purchase more storage space (the free account provides 2GB of space). Or to purchase the "Plus" subscription, which includes more storage space (40GB for the low plan) and extra features, but also requires you to purchase Photoshop Elements, which is a $150 program, and is another $70 per year for the subscription. But if you store your photos on some other site (Flickr for instance) and don't really need a ton of fancy effects or album templates, the free account will probably work out just fine for you.

Your Challenge: Check out Photoshop.com. Do you find it easy to use? Did you try the how-to videos? Are there any features that you wish were there? (If you don't want to sign up for a free account, click the "Test Drive" link down in the bottom right hand corner. They have provided some pretty cool pictures for you to play with on their test drive account.)



Bonus Link: The internet meme timeline. An internet meme is something that spreads from person to person over the internet, like viral videos, or online quizzes, and becomes ingrained in internet culture. Some of these you might have heard of, others I don't even remember. Some were innovative, some were bizarre, and some were just plain awesome. Enjoy!

Challenge 15: Browser Wars

Web Browsers.

Even after the great Internet Explorer security scare a few years back, Internet Explorer still holds 72% of the market share in web browers. Why? Well, for starters, it is the browser that comes pre-installed on all Windows computers, and many people learned to use the internet with IE. People are comfortable with IE. But there are many other free web browsers available for use. Are you familiar with any of them?

Mozilla Firefox is IE's biggest competitor online. Built from the frame of Netscape, Firefox is a free, open source program. Open Source means that the software's source code is freely available for other programmers to tweak or build off of, allowing software to do more than what the original programmers made it to do. Add-ons also allow for extra functionality.

Firefox links of interest:
Become an Efficient Researcher: Top Twenty Firefox Add-ons that Make Firefox the Researcher’s Browser of Choice

Flock is a browser that demonstrates taking the Firefox source and making it do something the original programmers did not forsee! Flock is a browser that works hand in hand with popular social networking sites to keep you connected at all times. A "people" sidebar displays Twitter "tweets", Facebook status messages, and Myspace status messages without ever having to leave what you're doing and go to the sites. Flock also has shortcuts for blogging, RSS, and other handy social networking tools.

Google's "Chrome" is the newest of the browser pack, and already it has been getting rave reviews. Right now, the biggest complaint I have heard is the lack of add-ons, but they're working on getting that feature soon.

Chrome Links of Interest:
CNET's Chrome 101 podcast - a 12 Minute introduction to Google's new browser.

Do I need Chrome when I’m happy with Firefox? Or if you're still insistent on using Firefox, but must look like you're using Chrome, check out "Turning Firefox into a Google Chrome Clone".

Safari is a predominantly Apple browser, which is now available for Windows. iTunes as well as Quicktime are both pushing users to download and try Safari.

Once upon a time you had to pay for Opera, but now they've made the software available for free. Lifehacker has an article about their newest release here.

Bonus Links:
Internet Explorer has worked to make a better browser in recent years. They've beefed up security, added tabbed browsing and added add-on capabilities. Here is Lifehacker's article: 7 IE add-ons that don't suck.

The LibX add-on is a library extension for both IE and Firefox. I don't know anything about programming extensions, but this would be fun to have for our library.

Lifehacker posted a list of cool features found in the most popular browsers.

Lifehacker's Browser Speed Tests.

Your Task: Browse the links above. I'm not going to require you to download a new browser if you don't want to (though Firefox is available on the circulation computers if you would like to try it), but read about what is available. Respond in your blog. Did you try any alternate browsers? Did you like one so much you switched over? What features impressed you the most?

Challenge 14: Nelsoncopublib.org

Does this website look familiar?

It should, it's a site we use everyday. We've looked at a lot of things that you can access just by going through our website, but with the new redesign, do you know how to find all of your favorite features of the old site? What about the features you didn't even know were there?

For instance, we have many of our policies posted online on our website for patrons to read. Just look under the "About us" and "Services" section on the website for those.

What about the Bookmobile Schedule? (Hint: click on the "Bookmobile" quick link, or go to the "Branches" menu.)

Can you find the Novelist, Ancestry and Heritage Quest links that were once directly on the front page? (There's two ways, actually. All three can be found on the databases page, and Ancestry and Heritage Quest can be accessed through the Genealogy page.)

Take a look at the Subject Guides, found under the Research Menu. Do you see popular research topics on there? You should. Need online sources on inventors, Native Americans, or going to college? Check here first!

Your Task: Explore our website! Especially take a look at the Quick Links, as well as the subject guides we have available. Is there anything you did not know was on our website? What is the most helpful resource you found?

Bonus Link: The University of Michigan has installed a "Book ATM". For $10, the machine will print and bind any digitized out of print book in their collection. If you've ever seen the prices in college bookstores, this is awesome.

Challenge 13: DIY

Ten more challenges to go! Can you believe it?

These challenges are all about teaching you how to do new things. Online tutorials have been made even more helpful by Web 2.0, and have the potential to be quite handy when answering reference questions for patrons.

Instructables is a Do It Yourself website that provides user-submitted instructions from everything from replacing a dryer belt to building a whiskey still. Have you ever had a patron come up and ask about canning? Making Soap? With Halloween coming up and all the books checked out, could you find a patron instructions on how to carve a Halloween Pumpkin? Not only does Instructables provide the instructions, but often the walk-throughs have lots and lots of pictures to help you along the way. SoYouWanna.com is another similar site, but there are more ads and less pictures, so I would check out Instructables first, and then move on to SoYouWanna.com if you can't find what you're looking for there.

Lifehacker is a blog that posts “tips on getting things done”. Many of these are computer-related, but occasionally there are real life tips as well. For example, here are all the posts tagged “health” on Lifehacker. I've been telling people about this article for days now.

Your Challenge:

Explore some of the sites above. Can you see these being useful in answering patron questions? Would you recommend one of these sites to a patron? What is your favorite thing you found?

Bonus:

Feeling overwhelmed yet? Maybe it's time for another silly video about the internet.

Your Goals: Online!

Challenge 12: Goals 2.0

Everyone has goals. Whether it's things you want to get done around the house or just habits you want to break, you don't have to wait until New Years to make your resolutions, and now you don't have to do it alone! There are plenty of online communities to help you keep track of and achieve your goals!

43 Things is a website that allows users to create goal lists online. If you click on any of your goals, you can see lists of people who also have the same goal and "How I did it" stories from people who have achieved this goal. People who are currently working on a goal can post entries showing their progress (or lack thereof) and ask advice from other members if they get stuck on their goals. When you have completed a goal, users tell how long it took to complete and whether they thought it was worth completing or not. By browsing through other people's lists with the same goals, you can estimate how easy or difficult a goal will be, and decide if you really want to attempt it! To take a goal off your list, just mark it "I give up!" You can always go back to it later.

Noomii is a similar goal website, but is set up more for people who already have a friend to partner with. Called "life coaching", the site has you pair with a partner to keep you focused and to help you see solutions you might not have noticed. Noomii has you rate your life in categories such as "career", "health", "money" and "fun", and describe what life would be like if you rated each category a 10. After you decide what you are unhappy about in your life, you invite a friend through the site and get to achieving those goals!

If you are interested in money management and are comfortable check this Lifehacker post to see five personal finance websites that often include features to help you see where your money is going a budget for future goals. (So far, none of these sites work with my bank, but your mileage may vary.)

Your Challenge: Explore the goal websites above. Can you see the use for sites like these, or would you rather deal with your goals privately? Can you think of a time when you might show one of these sites to a patron?

Bonus Link:

If one of your goals is to learn Spanish, French, or German, check out Busuu. This site has the regular language learning vocabulary lessons and such, but also allows you to chat with other people in the community who are native speakers of the language you are learning! In return, someone who hopes to learn English may chat with you for practice!

IDK, my BFF Jill?

Challenge 11: Internet Slang



So, the smiley face emoticon just celebrated its 25th birthday, and with the prevalence of text messaging and microblogging, online denizens are just looking to get their point across in as few keystrokes as possible. Especially things they communicate often. But with its mix of letters, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms, how is anyone supposed to make sense of chatspeak?

Well, to be honest, it takes practice. You get used to seeing something in conversation, and eventually, LOL (laugh out loud) becomes a part of your everyday online language. When you come across something you don't recognize, try looking it up at the Internet Slang Dictionary. There is a search box there on the front page for inquiries, but you can also browse the dictionary by first letter. While you're exploring the dictionary, don't be discouraged! You probably aren't going to see a lot of these very often (in fact, I'm sure you will probably never see "mgiwjsdchmw", which apparently stands "My girlfriend is watching Jeff so don't call her my wife"), and once you get used to the patterns sometimes you can look at something and figure out what it is on your own. (IMHO, context is your friend!) Wikipedia also has an awesome article on how Leetspeak works (also called L33tspeak, this often substitutes numbers and symbols for letters), as well as a list of commonly used emoticons to help when you get stuck on something.

Your Challenge: Explore the Internet slang dictionary, as well as the other links above. Are there any of these you use on a regular basis? Do you know anyone who does use any of these a lot?

Bonus Video:

Challenge 10: Online Databases

So we have some pretty handy databases on our own website. But how familiar are you with other databases on the web? This challenge is going to focus on two of them, the Internet Movie Database and AllMusic.

The Internet Movie Database (or IMDB for short) is an online database that focuses on the television and movie industry, providing listings and information on actors and actresses, shows, movies, producers, directors, etc. Changes cannot be made directly to a listing-- they must be submitted and approved by the IMDB's editors. Movie listings provide details, links to trailers and official websites, as well as user ratings and comments. If it is available, the IMDB provides links to buy the movie online. Cast or crew listings provide biographical details, as well as extensive lists of movies/shows that a person has worked on, awards they have been nominated for or won, and user comments.

AllMusic is a similar Music database site, that lends itself more to browsing, instead of searching. They do have a search function, but the coolest part of Allmusic is the ability to browse by genre. Click "Pop/Rock" on the first page, and see a list of all the sub-genres they have listed. Each sub-genre page gives you a description of the music (apparently C-86 is "influenced in equal measure by the jangly guitar pop of the Smiths, the three-chord naivete of the Ramones, and the nostalgic sweetness of the girl group era.") a list of top artists and albums in the genre, and related styles. Many songs and albums have links to listen and/or buy.

Your Challenge: Explore these online databases. Can you see yourself using these to answer patron questions? Do you prefer the IMDB's search, or the AllMusic database's browse? (Even better, compare the IMDB's search to AllMovie's browse. AllMovie is part of the Allmusic network, and set up similarly.)

Bonus link!Midomi is a very handy little music tool that you may have seen some people use on their cell phones. Ever spent all morning humming a song and can't for the life of you remember what it is? Midomi let's you hum a song, and then tries to identify it for you. On cell phones, it's handy for when you catch the last part of a song on the radio, and want to know what it is. Just hold your phone up to the speaker, and Midomi does all the work.