Phil Bradley trawls the internet to find the answers to this month’s readers’ queries.
Q How can I add images to my weblog? Is there any easy way of doing this, since I’m not particularly technically minded?
A You haven’t said which blogging software you use, so I can’t be very specific here, but my general answer is ‘yes you can do it with almost any blogging software’. In Blogger for example there is a small icon you can just click on when you’re writing an entry, choose the image that you want to include (together with its location) and you’re done. A really easy way to do this, however, which works with a lot of different packages is to make use of the photograph-sharing service Flickr (www.flickr.com). You can set up a free account and add your photographs to it with a simple upload (you don’t even have to put any software on your own machine). Once you have a picture on Flickr and you view it, there is an option to blog it. Flickr will then ask for details about your blog, password and so on, and you can then write some content to go with the photograph.
Flickr then works in conjunction with your blogging software to upload it to your blog. Technical abilities are not required!
Q I’ve heard that some free email facilities are available that help reduce the amount of spam that I get. I’m aware of things such as Gmail and Hotmail, but can you suggest any others please?
A There are an increasing number of email utilities that you can use as throwaway accounts, if you simply want to register for something or get access to a resource, but you’re concerned that you might get inundated with spam as a result. Tempinbox(www.tempinbox.com/english/) is a free, receive only email service. Simply choose a name such as ‘librarianfred@tempinbox.com’ and email will be sent to that address and you can pick it up for as long as you want, and then throw the account away. However, this is not a secure system, so don’t use it for any important information, and it is also receive only, not send. Spambob (http://spambob.com/) comes in three different varieties to check mail, have it forwarded or deleted immediately. If you don’t like either of those, try PookMail (www.pookmail.com/).
Q I’m thinking of trying to start a wiki for my library, but I’m confused by so many options. Is there a particular package that you would recommend?
A For those of you not sure of the term, a wiki is a collaborative page (or number of pages) where people can contribute, add, edit and delete information. The Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) is probably the best-known example. There is a nice site called Wikimatrix (www.wikimatrix.org/) that lists most of the major packages in this area, and you can compare and contrast the features for yourself to decide what would be best.
Site of the month
My site of the month is ‘Neat New Stuff on the Net’ (http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html) which is compiled by a US librarian, Marylaine Block. Every Friday she lists all the new and interesting sites that she has discovered, and almost all of them will be of interest to librarians. It’s a very mixed bunch of material and she provides excellent short summaries of the sites, and they are all of substantial reference value, packed with information, or just plain fun. It’s a must read in my opinion.
Phil Bradley is an internet consultant, trainer, web designer and author. Visit www.philb.com for free information on internet introductions, search engine articles, web design tips and a host of other free information. New: 3rd edn of The Advanced Internet Searcher’s Handbook is now available! If you have any questions about the internet send an email to philb@philb.com with the subject header ‘column query’.
Updated: 24 January 2006