pla2008

pla2008
Originally uploaded by WebJunction

I had a GREAT time!!

I learned so much. I attended some very helpful workshops and some not-so-helpful, but was able to get something from everywhere I went. What a great opportunity! What a geat experience!

It was wonderful to hang out with folks I work with and get to know them better. I am so glad it worked out for two of my co-workers to come, too. It was great to be there with them. I only regret that I could not work it out so the whole staff couldn't come!

Thank you very much to the KRL board for paying my way and giving me this great experience. Thanks, too, to NLLN and the Park Rapids Library Board for making it possible for my two co-workers to be there as well. This will be something we pull from for a long time to come.

Home Again

I ad a great time at PLA, but it's good to be home. Time to get back to things!!

~B

Thing 12. Do You Digg?

Digg and Reddit seem to me to be user-created tabloids. I was not impressed, nor would I use them. Newsvine seemed to have some good back and forth between users about the stories posted and the stories themsleves seemed a bit more newsy than sensational. I likes te way Mixx was organized, but again, I doubt that I would use any of these.

In a library setting...? I guess I'm going to continue to get my news the "old-fashioned" way. CNN, CBS and my local newspapers. Of all of the areas in our small branch, our newspaper area is one of the most used. We have folks come in daily to read te paper and talk about the news. Same thing as these sites, only live and in-person.

The best thing I saw, and it was on a couple of the sites, was the police officer talking to the protesters. What a great attitude!

Half way done!!!!

Thing 11. Tagging and Del.icio.us

This will be wonderful for elping to organize my internet searches. It only took moments to tag a few sites - so if I'm looking for books for patrons or story hour songs and projects or research info for a report, I can tag while I'm there and not have to add everthing to my Favorites so I can find it again. If a site is not helpful, I don't have to tag it. Anything that can help me be more organized is a blessing. Why did I not know about this before? :-)

I think our region could use this internally to help staff find helpful resources - there is SO much out there on the internet, if someone has done research already and is willing to tag and share that makes it easier for everyone. We could also use it for patrons to find best-seller lists, read-alike lists, good information and other stuff. We already have links to many of these things, but there are many different ways to end up at the same place on the internet. This would be a good addition...and it only takes moments!

Tag - you're it!

Thing 10 - WIKIs

Thank you for including the Common Craft video. I knew what Wikis were, but not how to use them.

I edited the 23Things wiki - and added my thoughts to the others : Is there EVER a good time to add an extra 23 Things to your scedule?! I'm having WAY too much fun figuring all this out. The coolest part is sharing the excitement with others. What better way than WIKI? - Having fun in the woods, Becky

I also added two must see movies to the B Movie Page.

Our branch is small enough that we can all have staff meeting together and get business done in less than an hour. I like that face-to-face interaction. BUT, this would be a great way to coordinate having all the branc managers going to PLA from our region. We could have created a list of who will be attending which workshops, contact information, handled questions about rooms, speakers, etc., and arranged our evening plans. All this was/is being done, but by email and phone calls. This feels like it would be a smoother and more time effecient way of doing the same thing. And everyone would be encouraged to participate and do their part and not have it all fall on one person to coordinate with everone and get the information back out. Too late for PLA, but there would be lots of other uses for this. I like the idea of using a Wiki for SRP/SLP! That would help our region coordinate the teen portion. OR for Hot Reads. Or for Story Hour themes - I love this!!

When helping partons with research, we try to give them alternatives to Wikipedia - many teacers are not accepting it or are asking for fact confirmation - which many Wikipedia entries have at the bottom. As in all things, use caution.

Thing 9 - Online Collaboration Tools

Wow! I got it to work!

I like the ZoHo Writer better than the Google Docs, but I hit the wrong key and closed out of it and then got a "document not found" error message when I tried to go back in. Bummer. I would have liked to play with that one a bit more. It had more Microsoft Publisher-like qualities than the Google Docs one. It just made more sense to me.

I can see that it would be useful for people who are working together on a grant application, on promotional materials, etc, especially if the group is large. You could set up a Wikipedia-like document for just about anyting...fun and/or serious.

And the Founding Fathers...maybe they would have approved of the idea that "the people" want to be so intimately and immediately involved in the shaping of such an important document!

A Declaration by the Elected Representatives of the newly-formed United States of America.

I would lose one of the "natures" in the first paragraph.

This is a sample document for participants in 23 things on a stick to edit and change as they explore Thing 9. Collaboration Tools. This same exercise is available as a GoogleDoc so you can try both.

This fundamental document clearly benefited from editing. Try your hand at helping Thomas Jefferson edit page 1. Feel free to make any and all changes you desire.

Declaration of Independence
Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.

(I deleted the picture of the document - it looked like clutter to me)

The original spelling and capitalization have been retained.

(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)

The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America

☆☆☆-Kristine Spanier 3/11/08 7:55 PM When people need to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with other people, and when they need to assume the separate and equal station which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, they need to respect each others' opinions enough that they should declare why they want to separate. -Klasley 3/7/08 10:05 PM

I would lose one of the two natures in the first paragraph.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,get a clue! that ALL people are created equal, regardless of race, age jd 3.8.08, gender, or religion". All People are endowed

with certain unalienable rights , including a cheerful, peppy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness . That to secure these rights, or really good things, governments are instituted among nations, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed (or, in some less fortunate cases, through fear of those in power). Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its and everyones powers in such form, as to provide for their safety and well-being.

Prudence (who's she?) will dictate (you and what army??) that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, only for heavy and stable ones. Experience has shown that grapes (grapes?) are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train why do those long trains appear when one is in a hurry? E.B.3/8/08 of abuses juxtaposed with usurpations another excellent "big word" - Janelle 3/13/08, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION! OR ELSE! Such has been the patient suffering of these territories under the immediate political control of a state; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world by means of Candid Camera or YouTube. or anyone else's home video. Doesn't anyone send videos to Funniest Home Videos anymore? Ah, the good old days. - Janelle 3/1/08

Thing 8. Share Your Creations

I would use the picture sharing sites to keep in touch with colleagues and family. I tried PictureTrail and found it frustrating. I got my photos uploaded but had a tough time finding the cool ting you could do. WHen I did find them, what I thought I was getting was not what I got, so I tried to delete my albumn, but even that didn't work. I did see that unless you upgrade to a paid subscription, your account eventually gets deleted. I guess I'll wait for that.

Then I tried Thumbstacks and was able to create a 2 page presentation but could not find a way to add a page. When I went to save it, it gave me an error message. This, too, was frustrating. So I tried Lazybase and did not understand what to do to add an entry - I was trying to set up a Staff Picks list.

After all these false starts and more than three hours of trying, I went to ZohoShow and was finally able to succeed. I wanted to create a presentation about what 23 Things was teaching me - and I must admit that I was so tired of this Thing that I just cut-and-pasted thing one onto some slides. I was able to figure out how to use it and save it. Here is the link: http://show.zoho.com/editor.do?P_ID=182908000000004013

This would be a great tool for creating staff teaching tools, or even for creating that Staf Picks list I was unable to with Lazybase. I wish I would have gone to ZohoShow first!

Think Spring, friends...it IS coming!!!

Thing 7. Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Email:

In the productivity hints, I loved getting permission to be brief and to use correct punctuation, capitalization and grammar. Be polite. We use the stationery option in Eudora and it makes it easy for everyone. I also like the Squirrel Mail way of checking in on my account on weekends and when I'm away. I try to be faithful about responding to emails that require a response because I expect others to respond when I ask questions. I try to not be chatty or bothersome and have made an effort to be breif and to-the-point.



IM:

I've been IMing for quite some time now...with my kids, my friends, I even did some IM comfirmation classes with the student I was mentoring who left the country. IM is great. I still prefer the telephone, because I have trouble judging how others are feeling without hearing their voices, but angry, heartfelt, joyous, confused conversations are definitely possible through IM. I've watched my sons develop great relationships with others in different parts of the country that they've met only once and we could not afford to call often by using IM.



Text Messaging:

Cool that Millennium will be building Texting into future upgrades. Will it be as asronomically expensive as my cell's program?! We had to block it on our family contract because it was definitely not in our budget. I think it is a good idea, but not at the expense of our limited budget. Having said that, I think that texting your library is a great idea. It's a way to get help/information quickly. I would need to learn the Text language and all our staff would need to become more comfortable with Texting. I wonder if this would be something for branches with reference Librarians. And between the patrons at the desk, on the phone and those waiting for email response, where in the priority list do Texters come?



Web Conferencing:

I have acutally taken classes throug WebJunction and I enjoy this kind of class, but I think I learn more when I can take them at my own pace. Often these are offered at a time that is not compatible with my work schedule, BUT I'm trying to take advantage of some since they're free.