Thing Six

This is pretty fun. I wish there was some cost-effective way to figure out how to use book trading cards for a summer reading programs. Wouldn't it be cool for kids to have their own, personalized decks of cards showing what they had read instead of the traditional written down lists? They could write reviews on the bottom part. That would be so much more slick. But again, I can't think of any way to do it that would make financial sense. Maybe choosing selected books and reviews ...I dunno. I think there are some really fun things to do with these.
And yes, I am very concerned with legalities and making sure that artists get their due. I just think it is very important to educate (especially kids) that just because it is available, doesn't mean it is yours. The lego man image is from this article.
The photo itself is by Paul Vreeker for Reuters

What do you think of this bling? I am so funny I can hardly stand it.

Thing Five

I really like lip balm. I mean, I have big lips,so maybe it's justifiable that I'm using lip balm as a search term. Or maybe it's pathological:

LOOK AT LIPBALM

I love seeing the contents of people's purses and backpacks. I like it when it's all out in an orderly fashion. It makes me think that order is achievable. Anyway...

These APIs are fun and I think the main use for them is to make things look more slick. That may or may not be the top priority, but I really think that appearance gives credence and draws people in. The whole concept gets kind of dangerous to think about, especially with web design becoming more and more easy. One of the qualities that we were taught to look for when evaluating a website for library school was design:; how sophisticated the site was. I don't think it's as simple to tell as it used to be, because now there are so many ways to get code. Don't get me wrong, I love the look of well-designed things (duh),but so many things in the library are more important, yet I loathe the dated look of our libary's homepage, so I guess maybe I feel it's more important than I want it to be.

It's just nice to know that these mashups are available to use in whatever way you can think of. Integrating them into blogs and sites richens and enlivens the visitors experiences.