Kindle Chaos

Was reading the Denver Post's Andy Vuong's blog section and read that others are having some problem with downloading their Kindle. This article reminded me of my problem.
My problem seems to only happen at home when trying to use the USC cable that attaches my Kindle to the computer. I have tried changing the portals(there are two) and am able to download from the site to the computer but NOT from the computer to the Kindle.
With the 48 hour timeframe, I had to go to my neighbors to ask to "borrow" his WiFi. I can download everything at work using our WiFi and my Kindle Sifu(Christina) has turned off the WiFi and used the USB cord to show me how to download books. What's up??? Please help!

Alternatives to Piknik

Just a quick post today! Google announced recently that it would be closing down their Piknik service on April 19. This was a free, streamlined photo-editing service that worked with Picasa. Recently there was a conversation on the Flannel Friday Facebook page about what you could use instead. Here's a couple of links that were posted with some alternatives.

One thing to know is that Google has a new photo editing tool within Google+ called Creative Kit, so there is still a free option in the Google family. I haven't tried it yet, though, so I don't know how it flows with Picasa.

Three Best Alternatives to the Piknik Photo Editing Tools
from Make Use Of
12 Free Photo Editing Sites: Piknik Alternatives
from Between Naps on the Porch
Seven Alternatives to Piknik
from Free Technology for Teachers

Good Old Goodreads

A lot of what we all post here on Tech Talk is our exciting finds and current news, which is great! But I found myself thinking the other day how much I appreciate an "old" tool--Goodreads.

Goodreads, if it's new to you, is a site that allows you to keep track of books, to see what your friends (and strangers) are reading, and to read and write reviews. One of the things that I think makes it so successful and such a valuable tool is that there's so many different ways that you can use it.

You can just keep track of the books you've read, or list all the books you'd like to read, or list all the books you own as well. You can "tag" or create "shelves" for your books--sort them by subject in any way you want. You can keep track of when you read a book, who recommended it to you, and what you thought about it. You can keep your notes private, or write a review that the whole world can see. It's up to you!

It's flexible enough that I've used it in different ways over the four years that I've had an account. (Find my picture books here and my other books here.) Here's some of the ways it has helped me do my job better!

• When I was still doing some adult readers' advisory, I would read book reviews and add interesting titles that I knew I was never going to have time to read myself--but were good to recommend to others. This was especially great for genres that I don't read a lot of.
• When I know I've read something but can't remember the title or author, the "cover view" option is a super quick way to nudge my memory and scan dozens (or hundreds!) of book possibilities quickly.
• When my daughters read a book that they love and want me to read, I add it to my lists, so I can remember the titles, but also so I can recommend tried-and-true titles to other kids. 
• I love the "to-read" category! I used to have so many paper lists and Word docs floating around with all the titles that sounded good. Now I have all those ideas in one place. I know I'll never get to all of them, but when I'm in the mood for a certain type of book, I have a lot of good ideas at my fingertips! 
• I've used Goodreads to keep track of various reading challenges that I've participated in.
• I have one account just for picture books, and one for everything else I read. I decided to keep them separate because there so MANY picture books I want to keep track of that I didn't want to have to sort through them when I was looking for other types of titles. Also, having a separate account means I can tag and categorize picture books differently, and more easily, than I could if they were all mixed together with my other books. 
• I keep track of the books I use in storytime.
• All year long I make notes of great illustrations, so when Alyson and I are ready to start compiling our Caldecott Hopeful list, I haven't forgotten any of the great books from the beginning of the year.
• Sometimes patrons want to find a picture book that has a particular illustration style or uses a certain media--I have trouble finding lists for that online, so I started tagging the picture books I read by media, creating my own resource for this question. 
• When I can't make up my mind about a title, I use GoodReads to access a lot of other people's opinions and reviews all at once! It gives me an overview of reactions to test my reactions against, and hone my own opinion. 
• I use GoodReads to see what other children's librarians around the country are reading and enjoying. It's a great way to find out about titles that we don't have here at ALD.

So finding new tech tools is great, but finding a new tool that works so well it turns into an "old" tool--that's fabulous! What are your "old" tech tools that help you do your job? 

e-book publishers and libraries

One of the greatest features of e-reader devices is their simplicity. If you have access to WiFi, you literally have the book from your computer to your Kindle in less than a minute. But for publishers like Penguin, it's just a little too convenient, especially when you consider that you can do the same for free from your local library. The article linked at the bottom discusses the growing concerns of publishers, retailers and (most importantly) readers.

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/118005-amazon-bn-and-publishers-slug-it-out-over-e-books-while-libraries-suffer

De-Google-ifying?

Here are two blog posts about Google’s new privacy policy that I found helpful:

Life After Google: You Have Options from Lane Wilkinsen’s Sense and Reference blog A nice summary of what the concerns are for some users, as well as reporting on Lane’s experiment to go Google-free for 90 days, and some of the alternative sites/services he used.

Should Google’s New Privacy Policy Concern You? On Blomberg Businessweek.Another good summary of the issues, considering pros and cons of data consolidation.

As for what I’m doing in response, I’m not going to give up using Google products and services completely, but I did take this opportunity to do a little audit of what products and services I do use.

I signed in to Google and went to my “Account Settings” and scrolled down  to “Google Privacy.” I clicked on “Sign into Dashboard” which allowed me to look at an overview of all my information that is stored with the various Google products such as Picasa, Google Docs, Calendar, and so forth. I deleted stuff I don’t need from the services I’m no longer using and made sure I had the privacy settings I wanted for everything else. Going forward, I'm also going to try to stop being lazy in having Google be my default app for everything, and make sure I explore other alternatives before I choose.

I think it’s clear that more and more of online services are going to be looking for ways to use our data in order to either improve their services to us or to improve their ability to direct ads and make money for themselves. Or both. (Even more recently, the social network Path ran into trouble after it automatically uploaded users' entire address books from their phones to Path’s servers.)

I’m not worried about having some of my data out in the world, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being conservative in what you share and how. “Conservative” will mean different things to different people, but part of what I think it does mean is being proactive in finding out how the services you use are using your data and making decisions accordingly about how you use that service.

Google's New Privacy Policy - what does it mean for you?

Hi NL Tech Talkers! I have a something on my mind and would love to hear what you're thinking...
What do you think of Google's new privacy policy? What have you learned about it? What are the best sources for learning what it really means? What concerns you about it? What excites you about it? Are you going to change your search or email behaviors as a result? Have you thought about how you will give an opinion-neutral response to a patron who asks what it all means?

Share with us. Help us learn from each other.

Winner for January NL Tech Talk

Hi all, Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner for January for our Tech Talk blog. And the NL Techie of the Month for January is Julie Luplow from the Jail Library. We chose Julie for her post on the ALD mobile app. Even though the app has been discussed before, we liked how she also let us know that it wasn’t just for apple products and explained how to use the barcode scanner to look up items. We were impressed that she was using the newer technology she found out about and also asking for help with something she was struggling with. Julie had a 3 part post consisting of discovery, trial and curiosity. That set her post apart for us.

Congratulations, Julie! A $10 Amazon gift card is on its way to you.