colors!

As I was browsing the blog entries of my class mates, I noticed many of them have been discussing the colors they will use for their final project. So I thought I'd go back to our week 3 materials and read the optional readings on color. I honestly don't know which colors I'll choose for my final site, but I'll probably take the advice of the "Colors on the Web" site and pick analog colors for my primary and secondary colors and a complementary color for my highlight color. I have a pretty bold taste in colors in my attire and home decorating but it looks like I'll have to tone that down a bit for my website. I'll try to strike a balance between what I feel is pleasing to the eye and what my users will be able to handle.

copy, right?

Since the topic of class discussion this week is copyright and I've just finished assigned reading on the topic - I must say that this is a concept that doesn't sink in right away. I've sat through discussions on copyright and intellectual property in several of my library courses and even attended a full-day library symposium on the topic last year and I still could not speak with authority on the matter. There is a lot of gray area with plenty of room for interpretation when it comes to fair use. In fact, the keynote speaker at the library symposium I attended emphasized this fact and said that we as librarians can use it to our advantage. His name was Ken Crews and he really helped break down the issue and put it in layman's terms. He maintains a website called "Copyright Management Center," which has a handy-dandy fair use checklist.

Mission Accomplished

So I finished creating my first website completely from scratch (SA#1)! I know I said I was nervous about it because I missed class last week, but this handicap made the accomplishment even sweeter. I never new how much fun I could have doing this type of work. There is just something magical about typing a strange language (html) into a text document, uploading it to a server and viewing it on the internet. When I viewed my webpage online for the first time I was truly amazed.

tummy ache

UNFORTUNATELY, I had to miss class this week due to a sudden and extremely unpleasant stomach ache (boo!). As a result, I'm a little nervous that I'll have some trouble completing Skills Assessment #1. Thank goodness for the class capture and my extremely gracious co-worker and friend Dorothy Schwartz (shout out!). Here's hoping I'm able to figure it all out with my extremely limited web design experience. The good news is I'm feeling much better now. I'm looking forward to next week's class.

I've got it!

So I've finally decided on a topic for my final project - The Library Job Search. It's a combination of the personal and professional that I think will work quite well. Since I'm in my last term of library school, I've been actively looking for jobs and with my professional background in career services, I think I have enough useful information to populate a website on the topic. Woo hoo!

Still deciding

It's week 3 and I have still not decided on a topic for my final project. I just found the section on our course website with examples of what students have done in previous terms. I think this will prove to be pretty helpful in my quest. Over the weekend, I thought I might do a work-related topic for my site. If I did this, I could reuse some of the content from my class project for the research guides I create at work. For example, I could create a site about job search resources for specific fields of interest (i.e. architecture, fashion, digital media, etc.) But after looking at the types of sites people have created for this project in the past, I'm not so sure this idea will work. The research guides I create at work are just lists of the best websites, books and databases for finding information on a particulat career-related topic and I'm not sure how this would translate that into a site that has a homepage, about page, etc. I'll have to give it a little more thought.

blogs, etc.

Since we're learning all about Web 2.0 this week and experimenting with blogs, I'd like to mention my other blog. It's called DrexelCareerLib and I started it in February 2007 as a way to let Drexel students know about new career library resources. In fact, many Drexel library staff members maintain professional blogs to promote library resources to their users. For the complete list, visit http://www.library.drexel.edu/blogs/index.html.

I also have a professional Facebook account so I can connect with students "where they are." I set it up so my blog automatically feeds into my Facebook account. This way students can view my latest blog entries without ever having to leave Facebook or visit my blog page. The latest sites I tag in del.icio.us are also fed into my Facebook account. You can find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/p/Jenny_Roberts/10510427.