Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year! 
This year I learned about the Pack, Click and Ship feature at US Postal Service.  Slick.

And today, I just finished my annual holiday card, thanks to Shutterfly; you can view my card by clicking on this link  It was super easy, after I decided what photos to use.  

Here's to a happy and healthy 2013.

My Favorite Book

Summer Reading Club is underway at my library and this summer, there is a blog assignment for staff each week of the program. Which means my blog has a direction again. The assignment this week: Blog about your favorite book.

I am at a loss to actually name a favorite book. There are so many that could claim that title, but then again, there are so few that actually stick with me. My favorite series is the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, of which I have treasured every one of the six volumes about Claire and Jamie Fraser, for their history, as well as the romance. I enjoy Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels because they make me laugh out loud. Hometown favorite Jennifer Crusie also makes me laugh, and well, she’s from Columbus. And the classic To Kill A Mockingbird turns 50 this year. But if I had to actually pick a book….the one that calls to me each summer is Up A Road Slowy by Irene Hunt.

Newberry Award-winning Up A Road Slowly is the story of Julie, who is raised by her spinster Aunt Cordelia, after the death of mother, during her formative teen years. As a young teen myself, I loved it, identifying with Julie, even if I didn’t quite understand all the nuances. As an adult, I see themes I didn’t see when I read it the first time, such as her bachelor uncle’s alcoholism, yet those themes enrich Julie’s story in yet another way. Something in it draws me back, be it the characters or the empathy for Julie, I’m not sure.

For those who know, but can’t quite place the name, Irene Hunt also wrote the award-winning Across Five Aprils, often required reading for students due to the Civil War theme.

MS Office 2007 test

I've been working in Office 2007 for about two months and I'm feeling very comfortable. Today, I'm testing the Publish " Blog feature in Word.

The staff at my library are playing a huge game of Clue for our summer reading club. Each week, we visit a different area of the library and learn something about that division. Today, I experienced the "cone of silence" in the AV division.

The summer reading club staff are also sharing clues of the mysterious murder of Mr. Boddy at our blog. Additionally, they post some fun cyber tools to use like these sneakers I customized. I need to write on my real ones so I could make a fashion statement during my evening 2 mile walk.



Still looking for a tag line, or rather a lyric.

Jungle Jim's Field Trip

Today, we played hookey and visited Jungle Jim's International Market near Cinci. We had heard it was a fun place and we weren't disappointed. First, we ate lunch at Jungle Jim's Subs & Salads and I had a fantastic veggie and black bean hummus (which they don't sell in the store) sub. After lunch, we got a map (yes, a map) and some guidance from the greeter at the door. We agreed to head towards the international section, followed by the Aisle of Inferno, marked by an old fashioned fire truck and contains just about every hot sauce known to man. I wandered off to the wines and beers and found more brands of hard cider than the now mainstream ones. Happy me :)
We are already making plans to return..... and IKEA is 10 minutes away!

The Transition

When I started this blog, it was an outlet for the Learn & Play activities sponsored by my employer, Columbus Metropolitan Library. Thanks for everyone who followed my journey of 23 things in Web 2.0.

However, what do I do with my blog now? I've been trying to make the transistion from work to a little more personally oriented. Some suggested that I take down this blog and begin a new one. However, I've got so much invested, I hate to restart. I'm not that motivated.

So now I'm struggling with how much to write and when; I like blogging, but I don't want to be a web nuciance. I think this is a good venue for family and friends to check in and see what I've been up to. If you fit into one of those categories, let me know what your thoughts are.

Still searching for a musical tagline

Happy New Year!

Today, instead of productive, I'm being retrospective. Which lead me to the 43 things page: www.43things.com. There is a quiz to determine your "personality".

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Romantic Spiritual De-Clutterer

Anyway, I find I'm truly unique:

0% of the 12718 people who have taken this quiz are like you.

I think I'm going to join and list my goals while I am in the pre-new year funk. Once the year turns to 2009, it's all about getting through the week, much less my goals. However, maybe if I really put some effort into this, some goals will be realized.

You know, I'm still searching for a tag line...

Happy Holidays!

Amazing what you can find just driving around and listening to the radio. I heard an OnStar ad where the driver and kids are looking for the North Pole. I also heard this group, Straight No Chaser. I found some of their videos on You Tube, which are really enjoyable. I've embedded their "12 Days of Christmas" as my musical holiday greetings to all.



Happy Holidays!

10 Random Things -- a superscript

Our Digital Strategies Director at CML issued this challenge: Why not blog ten random things about you and twitter me the link and that way I (& others) could also get to know you better.

So on my long drive over the river and through the woods, I compiled 10 random things about me:

1. I love traveling. My parents took our family camping for vacation every summer growing up along the east coast. As an adult, I’ve been to Colorado, Florida, Boston, Nashville, Italy (Florence was my favorite city) and London, England and my next destination is either Ireland, Scotland or Austria.
2. Lacy J. Dalton (country singer) is a distant cousin, although I have never met her. At family reunions, I have seen the branch of the family tree which connects us.
3. I had a déjà vu experience as teenager at Harpers Ferry, VA. I leaned on a table in a building which had been used as a surgeon’s table and I could hear sounds and smell the surgery. To this day I pay attention to how I feel when I visit places and I feel most at home when I visit historic sites in Virginia.
4. I survived Three Mile Island; I was a freshman at high school and spent mornings at another school to ease overcrowding. We were about 5 miles from the nuclear plant during the emergency and school officials exiled us unsupervised to the auditorium.
5. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger received an honorary degree from Allegheny College at my graduation in 1986.
6. I love to play Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit.
7. My parents opened their homes to exchange students during the summer and hosted an end of summer party for the exchange students in the area. At one time we had about 25 nationalities sitting in my back yard singing songs. Our family hosted students from Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and Iraq. I’m still in contact with my friend from Iraq; she now lives in Canada.
8. I really like to cook, particularly for a special event. At the holidays, I make biscotti for family and friends who drop in for a visit.
9. My high school chamber choir competed at the Worlds Fair in 1982 in Nashville, TN and we performed in front of the Grand Ole Opry (the new one) at Opryland.
10. I read historical romance novels. My favorite author is Diana Gabaldon, writer of the Outlander Series, a time travel romance series taking place in the 18th century. The most moving line in her series of books (and I paraphrase badly): “If ever there comes a time when we are parted and I fail to tell you I love you, it will be because I didn’t have time.”

Hope your Thanksgiving was full of turkey and things to be thankful for.

A journey, not a destination...

This week, my final exercise for CML’s Learn & Play is to reflect upon my learning journey. While I really started this program to get the USB stick (and maybe one of the other cool prizes), I’ve learned new things and stepped outside my comfort zone. And I finished, which is a personal goal. Here's some additional reflections:

What were my favorite discoveries on this learning journey?
Flickr and its toys -- for fun
Delicious -- for work
You Tube -- to interact on common ground with my tween
My colleagues

Were there any take-aways from this program that surprised you?
I really enjoyed reading others blogs and getting to know them; finding connections with coworkers. While I wanted to make connections, I have really enjoyed finding the nuggets that have opened avenues of communication at meetings, expanding my capacity. Also, having the freedom to try new things in an environment which encouraged me to learn was really refreshing (thanks boss!)

What could we do differently to improve upon this program's format or concept?
I think we all learned that not every activity took 15 - 20 minutes, so allotting more some extra time is good. Not everyone learns at the same pace. Also, sometimes I felt overwhelmed when 2 things popped up on the blog on Monday, instead of one. I was already behind and that psychological idea that now there were 2 more things instead of 1 could be discouraging.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you partipate?
ABSOLUTELY!

How has this program assisted/affected your lifelong learning goals?
In addition to the USB stick, I've got new tools at my disposal and I've broadened my horizons about those tools. I keep thinking of ways to use them.

I am disappointed that my dad hasn't been able to participate as we planned, but when I see him over the holidays, I will share some of the cool things I've learned. We might even set up a modified Learn & Play. You're never too old to learn, if you're open to the possibilities.

Thanks CML for this opportunity.

MOLDI, but not an oldie

This week I played around with MOLDI, the Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative. If you don't have a library card through a member library, I think you are only able to browse. I’ve looked around this resource before, but no so intently. The searching was a little awkward and I’m frustrated that newer items are nearly always checked out.

This time, I reserved Inkheart in an audiobook format. Since the movie’s coming out soon, I thought I could listen to the book and maybe even get my daughter to listen. I was disappointed that it didn’t show up on my CML account reserve list to check on it, but then I remembered MOLDI has its own log in. I just checked on it and it’s not in yet. I’m excited to try something new.

I’m not a huge fan of audiobooks. Slowly, I’m being converted. I’ve spent so long reading textbooks, I’m enjoying re-discovering pleasure reading again and I’m like a junkie! I do like reading the physical book in the evening and listening to a chapter or two in the car. I’ve learned I have to be careful during my commute because I get distracted and run red lights. Sometimes, my reading choices are not always suitable for tween ears in the car. So many books, so little time. I will remember MOLDI as an additional option when I’m looking for titles.

Thing #21: Podcasts

I was looking forward to learning about and play with podcasts for purely selfish reasons – I hoped to find podcasts related to fitness walking. I did look through the podcast directories, since I don’t have iTunes, and I found podcastalley to be a little more organized in it’s layout. However, on both podcastalley and podfeed, the user has to wade through a lot of drivel. Additionally, the search is pretty basic and I couldn’t find any way to refine my searches. I was successful in finding a library-related feed: http://sirsidynixinstitute.com/podcast.xml and I found several that provided me music for my 1 mile walks. I added all these to my Bloglines account.

What would be really useful podcasting for CML is the obvious -- putting children’s storytime in a podcast; (although there might be some copyright issues with that), book review groups, or keeping patrons updated on the many events in the system. More specifically, we could make some of CML’s classes for customers available in podcast form, so they can come to the "library" on their time, not just when we say.

I just discovered Thing 1 (my husband) has an iTunes account; I’ll be looking for more podcasts there.

Podcasts: 2 music notes.

Not 23 but Thing 1 & Thing 2

Just taking a moment to share our scary Halloween party photo, since it fit into the theme of the blog...

You too can You Tube!

When I saw this Learn & Play exercise, I knew exactly which video I wanted to share with my CML collegues: The Fredricksen Library Book Cart Drill Team. This is my mom's library (and the one from my childhood). What I didn't know is that they had a new video posted in August. I give them kudos for their creativity.



What I like about You Tube is that you can find videos of just about anything -- some good, some not so good. I liked that I could reach out and expand my network by connecting to the librarian who shared the drill team video. I opened a You Tube account just so I could send a message!

I didn't spend too much time on this exercise, since I knew the video I was looking for. I think I could spend another couple hours exploring You Tube.

I can see any features or components of You Tube that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites and we are already doing that in the Learn & Play blog. We can invite patrons to become part of our community by sharing their videos as well.

I was unable to get the entire embeddable code to copy and paste into my blog and I don't quite get why... if anyone can help me -- I'll also put a message on Twitter, since most of my Learn & Play associates are addicted to tweets. Once I figure it out, I'll post it. However, I've embedded the link above.

CML Power Tools

I downloaded the library’s tool bar the minute it was available; I have it both at work and at home. It’s great at work because I all the shortcuts I love right there in front of me. At home, I showed by daughter how to use it and she can go right to the CML homepage (I'm sure I've shocked some that my homepage is not the library's) and look in the catalog or check her account. It empowers her to be responsible for her own account, even if I still have to lug the materials back and forth!

I also looked at BoingBoing; a really eclectic collection of things. It’s like News of the Weird but global and on steroids. It’s part news, part scavenger hunt from around the world, but 90% entertaining. For example, today there was a post about NASA’s top 50 photos and the one featured on BoingBoing is the Star Trek Enterprise crew meeting the real Enterprise. I think I may have to add this to my bloglines account.

I did post a comment on the library's blog Tooling Around about the highlighting feature. However, I have to say I'm disappointed the last post on the Tooling Around blog is from Sept. 2. Although, I was almost convinced to better use my Gmail account.

Kudos to the CML Library toolbar...

And the winner is....

While not the Oscars, this week I explored almost ALL the Web 2.0 Awards nominees and even some in the databank of Web 2.0 applications as well. Some were useful, but I didn’t spend time with those which had costs associated with them. Here are my favorites:

MyHeritage: Geneology has long been an interest, so I had to try this. It was free, so I built a quick family tree which other family members can add to, expanding my research capacity, as well as being included in the social piece. I liked you could add photos, link in others’ family trees, and there was a search function I didn’t get to explore, but may be promising. In the quick moments on the site, I couldn’t find the privacy button, nor could I see my account, which was weird. I also couldn’t find how to make my ex-husband my ex, so it looks like I have two husbands. Let me know if you find it; I used sopranolibrarian for my screen name. I’m anxious for some feedback. In a library setting, you could use this on a Family History Day like CML just had, giving patrons hands on experience for building their family tree online.

.docstock: This is an administrative assistant’s dream! I was particularly impressed with the Creativity Link, which had oodles of powerpoint templates available. There was some drivel in each of the categories, but you can upload what you’re looking for or keep it in a folder on the docstock site. I didn’t create an account, but it has potential to be a good place to go when your boss says “Find me an RFP template,” instead of a web search, where there is even more drivel to wade through.

Imcooked: The place for budding Food Network TV stars to launch their careers! I was amused by this site; cooking is another one of my passions. This site was free, though I didn’t create an account there either; I was mostly interested in how it functioned and if it would be useful. If you're inclined, you can make your own cooking demo video and a whole community of foodies can watch you. I did find some cool new recipes, so I bookmarked this with my delicious tags.

Fixya: This site is a toolbox for just about anything. If you need something fixed, you create a post. Someone else on the site may know the answer and tell you how to fix it. It’s like a community of handymen, helpdesk gurus, and car folks. They proport to have a huge database of manuals, but I couldn’t think of one to look for. But now I know where to look. Good for librarians who get those reference questions on how to fix things.

I’ve tagged the Web 2.0 awards site, so I can continue to find applications to assist me at work and at home.

#17 Google Docs

I was so excited when I read this Learn & Play activity because I’ve actually done this one before Learn & Play. In my Academic Libraries class, each member of the class was assigned an academic library and we developed a spreadsheet in Google Docs to compare and contrast our libraries with each others. With this information, we were able to collaborate and provide information to each to use, without a million documents clogging our email and wondering which version was the most updated. Our professor didn’t have to be the one to collect everything and repost it back out. In this sense it worked really well. However, since we had about 20 in the class, the spreadsheet grew rather large, sometimes resulting in lags in updating and saving information. Also, at peak times, being in the document was agonizingly slow, even with broadband and you had to make sure you didn't delete someone else who was editing at the same time.

In my day to day work, I’m not really sure how Google Docs would benefit me since I’m non-exempt and there is little I actually do collaboratively. I can see project managers and project leads perhaps using this technology to gather information for a group, but everyone in that group should have access to the same files.

In a broader sense, incorporating these tools at libraries is a little beyond my scope. I guess you could use them for collaborative learning environments, such as we did for the Academic Libraries class, especially those involving patrons. My imagination is not working overtime today. For now, I’ll keep on mulling it over. I’m sure my fellow Learn & Play participants can spark some conversation on this; I’ll have to review their blogs.

Learn & Play Wiki

This week, I added my blog to the Learn & Play wiki. Like others, I had to wait to have access, but unlike others who commented on the Learn & Play Activity Blog, it didn’t take too long – the administrator worked pretty quickly on that (Thank you!).

I enjoyed learning other Learn & Play participant’s favorite things. It was fun to see what others had put and who like the same things I did. The favorites also jogged my memory about my own experiences. I added my favorites to the Books, Restaurants, Vacation Spots, Web Tools and Childrens’ Books. Let me know if any of my favorites are yours!

I hope I can find a purpose soon for creating my own wiki.

Wiki & the Library??

Today I explored the potential uses for wikis at the library. Some made sense, such as book discussion groups and knowledge banks for professionals. Other library wiki uses made me think “Cool” but really make sense, particularly if you’re trying to build a community. These include making catalog annotations, like customers are invited to do at Amazon or IMDB, intranets and web sites, and courseware.

For my department, I’m going to make a giant leap. Our budgeting team produces an award-winning budget book annually and department heads contributes their achievements. Maybe the Budget team makes a wiki so that instead of a once a year edit, the functional areas could add their achievements as they occur, making it easier to prepare a final draft at the deadline. Proofreading each section could also be easier because several people could proof read it before printing, with one final proof at the end. This might make the sections more cohesive and less compartmentalized, because others can see what is being written and how.

Who knows, wikis could assist with project management for those who missed meetings or in place of meetings input on projects without having to leave your office to drive to a destination.

So is there a place for wikis in the Library? They already are in use, but library wikis are only limited by our own lack of imagination.

PS. still searching for a tag line....

Library 2.0

Wikipedia defines Library 2.0 as user centered library services where users help create content and build community. I see Library 2.0 as where we are heading – meeting our customers’ needs where the need is greatest instead of making them come to us – and beyond.

We all have been there – the only time I get to really use my computer is after 10 pm when my child is finally asleep, and I’m in my PJs (I know, too much info). The world is now about my convenience instead of someone else’s timetable. Heck, I’ve even found positives with my boss having a Crackberry.

Providing service is not new to librarians; however, the way we deliver those services is what is shifting and librarians feel it. The disconcerting thing is the speed at which patrons not only wants the information, but the speed at which the delivery systems change. I found three main ideas from all the articles in the Learn & Play readings:
• Removing Barriers
• Creating Community
• Always Aware Technology

Libraries are more than books; they are communities and conversations (Dr. Wendy Schultz, To A Temporary Place In Time). Library 2.0 is the way libraries and librarians participate in the community and conversation. Intertwining the library into the fabric of the community is the way to sustain our libraries, and ultimately our democracy.