Thing 7

It is really amazing how many options we have for communicating and how indispensable some of those tools have become!

Email
I use email both at work and at home. In the media center I receive requests to pull materials, locate materials, answer a wide variety of questions from staff, administration and parents. It is also my main form of communication with reps and companies that I do business with. Not too many elementary students email me but I get a few of those as well. We do not have the staff to offer online reference service but I think it is a great idea. So many people use email daily that I am sure this would be a great way to reach users.

The productivity article covered all of the things I learned the hard way. I no longer take time for cute stationary and my answers are brief and reference places where staff can find answers for their questions rather than writing out step-by-step directions. At certain times a Mail Template would come in handy! If a question will require numerous messages back and forth I just pick up the phone! I hate Spam that gets missed by filters and I am not good at filing messages that I need to keep, but I wouldn’t give up email for anything!

IM
I don’t use IM at work any more… classes to teach and I am not always right in front of the computer. I use it at home but everyone is so busy you almost have to make a “date” with them. I used IM a lot when my son was in college. It was a great way to stay in touch without extra phone bills and it was more like talking in person. We would talk occasionally but he learned how to type faster if we didn’t. Again, the idea of an instant librarian is very appealing to library patrons. Another way to make reference services relevant and still have a people connection.

Text Messaging
I stink at this! I can see how it is a good way to get information out to people who do a lot of text messaging but I think it is costly and, in my case, not very efficient. IDKHTAWLTKD (I don’t know how to abbreviate words like the kids do!) Working on that.

Web Conferencing
This I like! I have participated in the MINITEX Webinars and enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to travel to get the training. They met my needs on several levels. Web conferencing can certainly bring more training and programming to libraries. I was not familiar with OPAL but I will now be taking advantage of their online programming. I am anxiously awaiting the April 11 conference with Jenny Levine (Shifted Librarian) whose blog I have been reading. It is at 1:00 pm. I’ve got my plug-in and I’m ready to go! I noticed a lot of book discussions that looked interesting as well.

Thing 6

There were a lot of interesting things to create with image generators. The last few Things I have worked on have opened a lot of possiblilities for using photos to help promote the media center as well as some ways to make some great personal gifts and messages. I am not crazy about the trading cards as I think it would be a big expense in a school the size that I work in but for a special learning project in a classroom or a unit it might be OK. I'm experiencing some frustration with not getting photos from Flickr to my blog and I am still working on trying to get a slideshow of my media center up. I'll keep working on it.

Thing 5

Well, eat your heart out Marylin! This Warholizer was made at Big Huge Labs and was easy and fun to do. I played there for hours! There are just so many ways you can use photos and again, I must say that it is very cool that people are willing to share their pictures. I am totally amazed at the programs that people have developed to make Flickr so fun and interesting to use. I can see uses for games and visuals for events and signage, prizes for contests, calendars for fundraisers, interesting ways to share photos from special events, etc. I've become a mash up fan!

Thing 4

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2335/2271631687_0941799684_o.jpg

My Little Reading Buddy Gus

I have used Flickr to share photos with family and friends but mostly from the receiving end. It was good to do some more exploring and set up an account. I checked out all of the information on groups and tags and how libraries are using Flickr. It was easy to upload photos to Flickr but I had difficulty getting it to my blog. I plan to look over the tutorials again as this didn't work as well for me as I thought it would and I will practice with some photos of the library to see if I have most of it figured out. The Clemens and Alcuin libraries “add a note” use of Flickr… is an interesting way to browse the shelves… not enough help in my library to start a project like that but I can see some other uses since there are always digital cameras at school events and special moments are caught every day. One of the blogs for this project featured a shelf with a photo of new books and that would be easy to add to a blog. It will be a great way to help promote library events and services.

I am a very visual person and the idea of sharing photos really appeals to me. I literally spent hours looking around Flickr! From a teaching standpoint it is always wonderful when people are willing to share what they experience and their talents. We can learn a lot about our world and other people through photographs. I would not hesitate to make mine public but I also feel responsible for subjects in the photographs so permission would be a big priority for school photos and restrictions would need to be made on who would access those. I also started a Picasa account but I haven't had time yet to make a good comparison. This will be an ongoing project!

Thing 3

I am happy to say that I have completed Thing 3 without any trouble. This is a tool that I know I will be using... in a previous post I said that there is just too much information to get to and using Google Reader was certainly a simple way to pull useful information together. I used several of the suggestions for blog searching and was excited that they produced some interesting choices that I did not know about. Initially it will take some time to get my Top 10 (or more!) but it will save time in the long run. It is really easy to add feeds and delete them so this will be a work in progress. If the teachers used an aggregator it would save them precious time and allow them to keep up to date with everything from new books that are being added to the media center, teaching strategies, professinal develpment opportunities and more. I am anxious to pass this along to my peers who hate spam and looking through lists of Favorites. I hope everyone is keeping warm! It is a good day to learn things on the computer in MN!

Thing 2

A few weeks ago I stopped to meet someone at Caribou Coffee. The shop had been taken over by college and high school students. As I was waiting, I watched them answer their cell phones, send text messages, look up information to add to their conversations, email, and instant message. They were collaborating, exchanging and accessing information... they were a mini Library 2.0! If all of the people who were connecting with each other had physically been there, the place would have been packed! If a coffee shop can pack in all of these folks we should be putting coffee shops in all of our libraries!

John Blyberg stated that "L2 is about being relevant" and that we need to "let go of old notions of what a library is." I couldn't agree more. As I am becoming more "enlightened" by experiencing the possiblilities that exist for libraries, I feel reassured that libraries can remain relavant and continue to serve their patrons needs if they make that a priority. Serving our patrons is what we do after all.

I watched the Stephan Abram video (on my computer is was like an old western where the lips don't quite match the words) and I began to think about ways that I could manage all of the information I need to be reading and keeping up with. Time is always a factor but keeping up with new developments and trends is a must. I don't think it will be hard to find time if I can locate some helpful information that can be accessed easily on a day to day basis.

Internet has made me more effective and efficient at work and at home. I don't know what I would do without it! I can communicate and share photos with family, find recipes without buying spendy cookbooks, take virtual field trips all over the world, plan vacations, find lesson plans, research topics of interest, etc. I spent last summer recooperating from surgery and did all of my shopping online!

Thing 1

I enjoyed setting up my blog. Adding an avatar was frustrating... I can't even decide what to wear to work every day and I am supposed to go through all of the choices offered? I thought I would use the opportunity to create a new persona but then settled for a fairly close likeness. I was able to enter my photo and add some information about myself without any difficulties but I have my settings so that ALL may see my blog and I noticed that I can access other people's blogs by clicking on my interests. Should this setting be different for this project? I am still a little uncomfortable with "putting myself out there." I think I would like to set up a blog that can be accessed by parents to discuss issues and offer information or use this format as a way to discuss books and projects with students. I will need to learn a little more about how to limit who can participate.