Holiday thoughts

In the midst of trying to work on homework and get a little bit caught up on housework this week (and coordinating a holiday party, and babysitting briefly, and ... oh, yeah, sleeping!), I took the time to put up a Christmas tree. I can remember years when I didn't put up a tree or decorate because it seemed silly to do that just for me. I've come to realize that it's important to do that, even if it is just for me. I have a 3 foot artificial one, but I enjoy putting it up and then having the lights on when I'm home in the evening. Like putting music on in the evening, it's something I enjoy but don't always think about. (Tonight I found a special on PBS - a Celtic Woman holiday special - and am enjoying it tremendously - along with the tree. Of course it's a PBS fund drive special, but... the ones I want to watch often are.) I need to remember to do these things - they help to relieve stress in a non-caloric fashion!

Grief and Memories...

This has been a year of loss as well as a year of success. Today my family (all of us but the kids) worked on cleaning out my grandparents' house. We pulled everything out of the corner cupboard in the dining room and divvied it up. We did the same with the dishes, pots and pans, and other things from the kitchen, crocheted and embroidered textiles, and more.
It's funny (funny peculiar, rather than funny ha-ha) the things that connect us to memories. I have vivid memories of my grandmother in the kitchen. I also remember her telling me that one of the knobs on the stove was mine - I could turn that one all I wanted but couldn't touch the others. That particular knob controlled the lights. (She used that same line for all of us kids, too.) It was a great way to let us participate in the activity in the kitchen but at the same time keep us safe - especially with a gas stove. I took a picture of the stove today - and a closeup of the knob. I figure I'll do a scrapbook page with it.
We've been dividing up the furniture, too, and I now have my grandmother's cedar chest. (I have my paternal grandmother's cedar chest, too.) It's hard to see things leaving that house - that's the only house that's been in my life my whole life. I'm thankful, though, for the love and memories that are there - and for the family that could gather together to do this and not fight over anything. While it is difficult to see the house emptying out, it is neat to see the things (and love and memories) spreading out through the states that we all live in.

Quiet Moments

I think doing grad school over the past year and some has given me a greater appreciation for those quiet moments that can be found here and there in life. This morning I'm sitting alone in a hotel room, eating breakfast (a granola, fruit, and nut trail mix packet - really good!), drinking tea, and surfing a bit. At 9:00 the first session of the day begins, but I have a few quiet moments to myself with nothing staring at me that needs to be done. (Those mentally quiet moments are harder to come by at home...) Ah, peace. There are a few birds on the balcony, and the sun is shining. It's a Robert Browning morning - "God's in his Heaven - All's right with the world!"

Busy, Busy, Busy

I know I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again - it's been busy around here. Between work and schoolwork, I feel like I'm moving until I drop and then up and moving again. I'm taking a few days this week to recharge - I'm visiting my aunt and uncle in Cleveland before I head to Pittsburgh for class this weekend.
Earlier this month for one of my reference class assignments I had the opportunity to look up terms in two medical dictionaries and compare the dictionaries. (Medical questions always remind me of my cousin the doctor.) That assignment caused me to decide to replace the medical dictionary in my library - we currently have Black's but will be changing to Stedman's. I had the toughest time finding "esophagus" in Black's - actually had to look at the anatomy diagrams in the center to find that it was spelled oesophagus. This was after I had already noticed that Black's used British spellings - guess I didn't realize just how far-reaching this would be. At any rate, I decided if I couldn't find things in that dictionary, my patrons probably couldn't either. We'll be replacing that one!
I'm enjoying how much my assignments this semester have some bearing on my job. It's an interesting symbiosis to be working in a job and studying for it at the same time. Some things are easier because I have some knowledge of them - like some of the reference questions, when I know what resource to look for. Others seem to be harder because I'm trying not to do things the way I always have. My first line of defense for reference questions for the past few years has been Google. Now with this class I'm trying to go other places first. For the last assignment, I actually spent several hours in our main library's reference department trying not to use the computers at all. I roamed the reference stacks using my acquired knowledge of Dewey to figure out where resources would be. It was fun!
I'm finding that this class is affecting how I approach looking for the answer to a question, even at work. I used this different approach the last two times I worked an Ask Here PA shift. It helped me answer some of the questions more quickly. I find in general library life that I'm answering fewer reference questions as a manager than I did as a youth services person. My office is farther away from the desk...

Keeping up with information

Being in an information profession, I feel obliged to keep up with what is going on in information technology, books, librarianship, and many more topics... It can get to be overwhelming at times. After opening Google Reader only once over the weekend, I opened it tonight to find 621 unread items. Three of those were personal (facebook notifications) and 2 were comics that I read through Google Reader (I read the other comics when I opened Reader last night...) So the vast majority of the 621 items have something to do with technology, librarianship, books, young adults, or other aspects of my job.
One trick I've started to use is to subscribe to a blog for a week or two to see if the posts are useful. I've unsubscribed from a few because they were less useful than I wanted them to be. I think it will be easier to keep up with these things after I'm finished with school - that gives me a lot of information to absorb as well.
I recently saw an article by Sarah Houghton-Jan from Ariadne magazine on "Being Wired or Being Tired" - it had some great tips on handling information overload.

Reference questions

As I take my reference class this semester, I'm amazed at both how much I know and how much I don't know, just from working as a youth services librarian for a bunch of years. My first three years I worked in a library that didn't have a reference assistant - the manager and I answered most of the reference questions.
For class we have assignments of lists of questions that we need to use specific sources to find the answers. (Something's wrong with the grammar of that sentence - it doesn't quite sound right... I think it should be "for which we need to use specific sources to find the answers.) The first time I read over the list of questions, I seem to think "I have no idea." Then I read over them again, and I know where to look for some of the answers. After I read the textbook, I know where to look for more of the answers. I could probably find all of them but my usual methods are less effective than using the methods I'm learning in class. (And they take more time than what I'm learning - at least they will once I have practice with the new stuff.)
I'm looking forward to seeing how my newly-honed reference skills will affect my effectiveness in doing the chat reference each month. I can find the answers, but hope to gain speed in doing so.

Brushfire Days

I've learned in management that some days are just brushfire days. I know I haven't been in management that long (not quite a year yet) but I've observed other people, too. Today was one of those days - when every time you get started on one thing you end up with something else interrupting. Shelves that were delivered to the wrong building (that are replacement shelves for the wrong items that were shipped to us originally...), 14 yellow jackets in the library, security system technician in to work on our cameras, 44 oz of diet cranberry grapefruit drink spilled on the passenger seat of my car at lunchtime (and I was looking forward to drinking it, too), register tape that ran out, a front door that wouldn't lock, kids whose behavior required that we ask them to leave, beer cans in the parking lot, disgusting food in the fridge, dishes in the sink. I'm not sure quite what I got done... Certainly not my AV order! Tomorrow I'll do that and continue to prep the library for the internal event tomorrow and the publicity event on Thursday.
With all that going on at work, I got home too late to do laundry and homework tonight... Maybe I'll take a load along for tomorrow - Becky will let me do it while we watch Buffy.

Being Thankful

I think some days that management brings out the worst in me, personality-wise. I get so frustrated and impatient with staffing issues and fixing other people's mistakes. However, today I've been glad for the opportunity to have that kind of job. This morning (while I was locked out of my house and my car and waiting for AAA to come let me into my car) I almost finished the book I was reading. Then at lunch I read the last few pages. The book's been simmering around in my head for the last few days, and then I caught up on some blog reading tonight (yes, Becky, you helped to inspire this post).
It's easy to get caught up in the struggles of life and the things that get in the way of my doing what I want to do - 96 inches of shelving that won't fit onto an 84 inch base, locking the keys in the house on the way to work in the morning, fixing and/or apologizing for other people's mistakes, kicking kids off of library property for throwing rocks at yellow jacket nests, killing yellow jackets with a fly swatter, bruises that appear without my knowing how I got them - and get discouraged by having to deal with them. Then I forget to be thankful for all the things that have gone well in my life. High school, college, the opportunity to have a career I enjoy, the encouragement to read when I was growing up, the opportunity to go to grad school, family that loves me and supports me in what I'm doing.
The book I read this week was Stolen Innocence by Elissa Walls. She grew up in the FLDS sect, made it to her 8th grade graduation, was married off at 14, and never finished high school. She escaped eventually, and appears to be happy now, but her story made me think about all the things in my life I tend to take for granted. I don't often read "misery porn" books, but this one was less a dwelling on the misery and more a "this was my life and I got out". I'm glad I read it.

Ambition vs. Reality

I'm sitting here procrastinating bedtime because I don't want the weekend to be over. As usual, my ideas of what I could get done didn't match up with reality, partly because of my allergies causing me to not feel very well. (And then I cut the bottom of my foot today on a binder clip that had fallen on the living room floor... only me.) I got bits of everything done but not all of anything. However, tomorrow's another day, so I guess I'd better turn in. Working open to close tomorrow since I didn't get a sub.

No time...

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I posted here. They've been busy weeks, and allergy weeks, and not-really-caught-up weeks. School started back up on Monday, and I already feel like I'm behind. Fortunately this is a three-day weekend, so I should be able to catch up a bit. I'm finding myself less than motivated at home lately - so much energy goes into work. I charged my MP3 player last night and I have freshly downloaded audiobooks. There're pork chops and sauerkraut in the crockpot, almost ready for tonight's supper and to be frozen for the future. Tomorrow - chili in the crockpot, hot dogs with sauerkraut, cleaning up the kitchen, and laundry! Tonight, one of my class lectures and cleaning up the living room. Here goes!

Chores and fiction

One of the things I've missed over the past year while taking classes is the freedom to read fiction. I've tried to make up for it by always having audiobooks in the car and on my MP3 player. The MP3 player works for combining fiction and chores, as well as grocery shopping, etc, except I can't get through the books as fast without the time for chores. And some semesters I've been listening to podcasts from the professors during chores. I've listened to almost a full book today while doing laundry and dishes catch-up, and it's been wonderful. Tomorrow I plan to cook, finish the laundry, and listen. I only have 2 and a half hours left on this book, but I downloaded others too.

Playing Catch-up

When the semester ended, I thought I'd have time to catch up on housework and even do some crafting. I miss being creative that way. However, I'm playing catch-up with the tasks at work instead. We're creating (with the help and financial support of a community organization) a new space in my library to reach out to a currently underserved population. It's exciting, but it's also a lot of work. And I lost 2 staff members this month. So between the project and interviews and, well, everything else, it's been busy. This weekend I'm working on housework, and hoping to get started with the food preparation for the fall semester. I've eaten far too much fast food in the last six weeks!

Semester finished

It's hard to believe the semester's over. It's been a busy one, and now I have a few weeks to pick up the pieces and get ready for the next one. This past week I was finishing up work for this semester and didn't have time to bring work-work home, so this weekend I'm working on work-work. My life is in a season where there's work-work, home-work, and house-work, not necessarily in that order, although house-work usually comes last. I'm hoping to get the house cleaned during my break, and get things a bit more organized. If I can get my pantry painted and moved into the dining room, that will organize the sustenance end of my life much better.
For this weekend, though, it's monthly report and budget all the way.

Zoo fun (and a bit of technology)

I went to the zoo today with my brother and sister-in-law and nieces and nephew. (four children in all). It was fun, and I couldn't help comparing it to trips I made to the zoo in previous years. I used to teach at a daycare, and taking four children to the zoo is much easier than taking forty. Plus with the daycare trips, I was taking a 35 mm camera with one or two rolls of film. 48 pictures maximum... And I never knew if the pictures turned out all right until I developed the film. On a daycare wage, sometimes that took a while. I took my digital camera to the zoo today, and took 250 pictures, all of which I'm able to view tonight. Some of which I glanced at right away to see if they turned out okay, so I could retake them if not. Ain't technology grand? (And escaping the daycare for the library is pretty cool too.)

Expression

After completing the CSS portion of my website assignment, I'm an even bigger fan of Expression Web. The built-in FTP publisher was soooo easy. It was tough to get started with the CSS assignment, since it looked/worked a bit differently than the inline-formatted HTML, but my brother helped me out. (Thanks, Bob!) It's hard to believe this semester is almost over - I've had a lot of fun playing around with the different technology and Web 2.0. I've definitely learned things I plan to continue using.

RSS feeds

Since I had an assignment to use RSS feeds in Google Reader, I've become hooked on it. There are several websites that I would visit either daily or weekly to keep up with things for work, and I've now set up their feeds in Google Reader (at least the ones where feeds are available). It's much faster to visit one site and catch up on things than to have to visit several and has been helpful with a few ongoing projects, as well as keeping up with reference resources.

Dreamspark

I had been playing with Amaya to do my html homework and having a hard time getting it to do what I wanted, when my brother reminded me that I had downloaded Microsoft Expression Studio from DreamSpark and that included a website design component. That ended up being easier to use/more powerful and included an FTP component to use to upload the webpage.
I had originally downloaded Expression Studio primarily for the graphic design section for my digital scrapbooking but also wanting to learn the web design piece. Microsoft DreamSpark gives college and graduate students a chance to download and learn to use professional developer and design tools. You have to establish and verify your student status once a year, but it's well worth it to be able to work with the software. It's a great opportunity.

EBSCO

I've been using EBSCO databases for quite a few assignments lately. Some I've accessed through Pitt's ULS site, and some I've accessed through POWER library through my library system's website. I've noticed that they've changed the interface, making it easier to work with. I like it, but I'll need to get used to it.

Tor.com

For the past several months, Tor has been releasing one free SF or fantasy ebook each week in three formats, leading up to the launch of their new website. Their website launches tomorrow, and all the books in the program will be briefly available one last time. I missed downloading a few, so I'll look forward to getting the ones I missed. I'm eager to see what the website looks like, too, especially after months of buildup. It promises to contain "Original fiction from star authors. Galleries of images from the field’s best artists. News and commentary about not just Tor books, but the SF world overall." And more... Should be a sight to see. And 24 free books to download, at least briefly.
From some of the buzz I've seen, and from the way news about the give-away seemed to spread by word of mouth, it seems to have been a good marketing strategy. It's definitely a timely marketing strategy. It worked on me - I can't wait to see the site.

Ask Here PA, again

I manned a shift on Ask Here PA again today. I find myself getting into the most interesting questions there. I'm sometimes frustrated by the depth of some of the questions, particularly the ones that start one place and end up being something totally different. I have reference questions in person at work that do the same thing, but maybe it's harder to do the reference interview over chat. Sometimes I've gotten someone who has difficulty typing, and it takes a few minutes in between my question and their answer. I don't want to waste that time, so I'm starting the search for the information - just without all the clarification. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Today's main/tough question would have been easier to answer with a print reference tool - the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. Someone was looking for a particular issue of a particular magazine in the 60's without remembering what magazine or issue it was. Tricky. I was able to answer the "how can I find a job in ____ state?" question, though. I was glad about that.

Busy, busy, busy

I looked at my blog tonight and realized - I haven't posted in a while. I've thought about it, but not actually done it. Last week I was getting everything (including work stuff...) ready so I could travel to Pittsburgh over the weekend for class. This week, I've just been exhausted. I've fallen asleep in my recliner two nights in a row.
I've been working on learning Amaya this week - I've gotten it to do some basic formatting of a document, but haven't gotten anything too fancy. We're learning a bit about html in class. My only previous experience with building a website has been to play around with the Office Live website for our small business - that's primarily been adapting templates to suit our theme and our content, somewhat similar to working with blogger. I've contributed content and some loose structure to a portion of our work website, but no actual programming or designing. I'm glad to be playing around with some aspects of building a site.

Koha Assignment

The site that was down yesterday that I needed to use for my assignment is back up today. (came up around 11 AM today - while I was at work)
So here's the link I need to post for that assignment - it will probably only work for classmates and professors... (requires a login)

Weiman - Blogging Virtual Shelf

And the list of books compiled with Koha for this assignment...

Contents of Weiman - Blogging

	Title	Author	Item Type	©
	Blogging for dummies /	Hill, Brad.	BK		Reserves
	Naked conversations :	Scoble, Robert,	BK		Reserves
	Share your story :	Murray, Katherine,	BK		Reserves
	Blog marketing :	Wright, Jeremy.	BK		Reserves
	Blogging in a snap /	Meloni, Julie C.	BK		Reserves
	Blog answerman's :	Lawlor, John.	BK		Reserves
	Essential blogging /		BK		Reserves
	Blogging :	Stone, Biz.	BK		Reserves
	Podcasting hacks :	Herrington, Jack D.	BK		Reserves
	The everything blogging book :	Risdahl, Aliza Sherman.	BK		Reserves
	Start your own blogging business :	McDougall, J. S.	BK		Reserves
	The corporate blogging book :	Weil, Debbie.	BK		Reserves
	Secrets of podcasting :	Farkas, Bart.	BK		Reserves
	The userlands :		BK		Reserves
	The rational guide to Google Blogger /	Lee, Wei Meng.	BK		Reserves
	Blogwild! :	Wibbels, Andy.	BK		Reserves
	Blogging for business :	Holtz, Shel.	BK		Reserves
	Career building through blogging /	Day-MacLeod, Deirdre.	BK		Reserves
	Blog, schmog! :	Bly, Robert W.	BK		Reserves
	Using blogs to enhance literacy :	Penrod, Diane.	BK		Reserves
	Publish and prosper :	Byron, D. L.	BK		Reserves
	Blogging and RSS :	Sauers, Michael P.	BK		Reserves
	What no one ever tells you about-- blogging and podcasting :	Demopoulos, Ted.	BK		Reserves
	Realty blogging :	Nacht, Richard.	BK		Reserves
	The it girl's guide to blogging with Moxie /	Reeder, Joelle.	BK		Reserves

I really appreciated having the opportunity to play around with an open source ILS. It's something I've wondered about - the cost effectiveness, the ease of use, the customizability of it... Koha was pretty straightforward in this iteration. Definitely worth thinking about for future migrations...

Score one for libraries

In the contest between libraries and bookstores, it often seems that bookstores are winning. (I think we can co-exist and serve different purposes, but I also think we often compete for the same customers.) Today at work, however, we struck a blow for libraries - a patron called looking for a type of book that she wasn't even sure existed. She had called a bookstore and the lady there told her she had never heard of one. Our library system didn't have one but I knew it had to be out there, so I checked Amazon. I was able to find a few, and let her know. I explained the ISBN to her (briefly, of course), told her she could give that to the bookstore to have them search, and gave her ISBNs for two different versions of the book. She was grateful and planned to call them.
On another note, it was insanely busy today - we had about 90 people for one of our SRC programs and between two of us at the desk we created 16 new library cards. I'll have to look at our circ stats for the day tomorrow - and the gate count. I thought it would be a quiet day with the downpours we were having, but no... However, that helps us reach our circ goal for the year, so it's good.

Great when it works...

Today reminds me of something I say to patrons when our computers are down and we can't look up their holds or fines. "Technology is great when it works." The website I need to use to complete my assignment (due today) has been down all day. It's almost as frustrating as the fact that I can't get Google Reader to share my feeds with the professor for another assignment. (Truthfully, that's more frustrating, since I think I'm following the directions to do it properly - but at least I found a workaround for that one.)
The website's being down has allowed me to work on an employee evaluation for work and some housework... guess technology outages aren't all bad!

Windows Secrets

Windows Secrets has an email newsletter that has lots of useful information. The people who write the articles really know Windows and Microsoft products and have helpful insights into their workings. This week's issue had an article on troubleshooting your PC.

The DIY Guide to PC troubleshooting and repair

There is a paid version of the newsletter as well as the free version, but I've gained valuable information from the free version. One great thing about the paid version is that you can upgrade to the paid version by making any financial contribution - pay what it's worth to you. You can also request a refund in the first 28 days if you find that you don't think it's worth what you paid. You can't beat a deal like that.

Searching Flash

This is an interesting twist to searching...

Adobe provides Flash technology to Google and Yahoo for better indexing

I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Useful Tech

During the (almost) three semesters I've been working on my master's, there have been a handful of times that I've been able to immediately apply something I did in class to something I need to do at work. Today was one of those times. I worked a shift on Ask Here PA again today, and found myself using Google Scholar to try to find the information the patron was looking for. (I finished an assignment over the weekend that required I use Google Scholar.) It was a helpful tool, although I didn't find exactly what he needed. I guess some things may not be available on the internet, even using Google Scholar.
Last week I used Google Sites to start a website for resources for my staff (another case of applying what I'm learning...) My reference assistant and youth librarian will both contribute info to the site - so it functions as a wiki. I think that will be more effective (and certainly more efficient) than trying to maintain bookmarks on each of our circ desk computers.

The sound of my own voice

is often odd to me when I record it and play it back. (although I know that's what other people hear...) Here's a brief "how-to" video on downloading and installing the del.icio.us bookmark extension for the firefox browser.
Delicious Extension Installation
The video was created using Jing, a cool program that I think I'll probably use more often now that I've played with it for school. I think it would be very handy for explaining remotely to friends how to fix something or change a setting on their computers...

Tech Confession

I've been thinking about this alot over the past week. I don't think I've ever been a technophobe. I've probably been more of a technophile for most of my life. And I had some early computer experience that probably helped.
I remember the first computer I ever had any experience with - a tiny Timex-Sinclair 1000. We couldn't do very much with it, but my brother and I enjoyed playing around with it. And then in high school I took two years of BASIC programming on TRS-80 model III's. During that time frame, my dad got us a Commodore 64. That was a fun computer. It had a lot more capability than the TS-1000, and with the color monitor it exceeded the TRS-80's abilities, too.(It was a great game-playing machine, and I used it for that purpose until about 5 years ago, when it apparently received some smoke damage during my apartment fire.)
While I enjoyed using computers from the time I was in high school, I never pictured myself working with them. My brother is a programmer, and I figured he was the one who would be working with computers - I would use them for leisure. Guess again! (Of course, growing up I never figured I would be a librarian either - despite the fact that I volunteered in my school library in 3rd grade and again in high school...) I'm glad I got the opportunity to become a children's librarian and discover how much I enjoy the library. And how much technology has become a driving force in the library world.

Blogging

I've been playing with my blog tonight, trying to add the picture at the top right and get it just right. The picture is one of the doilies I've tatted, and the hands are my niece's. She asked me to tat that particular pattern for her in that particular color. (I think she was three at the time...) I wanted to make sure I got some tatting onto my blog.
While I started this blog as a class assignment for the summer, I suspect I'm becoming hooked on blogging. I'm not sure I understood the appeal before I started doing it - I'm a relatively private person and couldn't understand why I would want to journal online. Now though I think it's an opportunity to share thoughts with others. It gives me the chance to philosophize without bugging people - if a post bores you, you can always skip it, and I'll never know the difference. I may just keep this up even after class is over. Especially since I've always wanted to write - this will help me keep in practice.

Grad School and Small Children

I have new-found respect for my LIS classmates with small children. I am babysitting one of my nieces this weekend so my brother and sister-in-law can get away and have a weekend (They parcelled out the four children. I have the house and the 16-month old.) Lorelei and I were up at 6 AM this morning, and she was on-the-go until 10:30 when she crashed and I put her down for a nap - asleep by 10:45, and now I'm working on assignments while she sleeps. This is working well, especially since she's taking a really good nap, but I can't imagine trying to do both schoolwork and housework during a child's naptime. And I'm imagining the panic one could feel when the opportunity to do schoolwork arrives and the technology doesn't cooperate. (Mine's playing well with others, thankfully.) Those of you who are doing grad school with small children - you have my utmost respect. I thought it was hard enough with a full-time job!

MP3 librarian resources

While I have yet to attend one of SirsiDynix Institute’s web seminars live, I have downloaded and listened to several of them from the archive and enjoyed them. A large number of the topics really fit well with the LIS 2600 class I am taking – Intro to Information Technology. I’ve also listened to some management sessions and some Pat Wagner sessions. I’ve seen her speak live a few times and always learned something.

I really enjoy being able to download seminars (and classes for that matter!) to my MP3 player and listen to them while I’m doing dishes or cleaning. I’ve even listened at work on a closed day while I’m shifting the books or weeding the collection. Multitasking like this is a tremendous benefit that 21^st century technology offers us – and that our busy society almost demands of us so that we can get it all done – whatever that “all” may be.

I think it’s important for librarians to find free resources like these and utilize them – especially in library-budget-challenged times.

http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php

Search Engine Watch

http://searchenginewatch.com/
I've been reading Search Engine Watch's newsletter SearchDay for a few years now. While the site's main purpose is information for search engine optimization and search engine marketing, I find that sometimes I can glean information that helps me in searching. It helps to know how search engines function on a basic level, anyway. I think it also helps in working on content for the library website.

The feed

I've been seeing a lot of websites that collect links to blogs, and I've been working with RSS feeds for LIS 2600, and it's been causing some thoughts. (That's a good thing, right?) A portion of web 2.0 seems to be devoted to bringing content to us rather than our needing to go to the content.
It reminds me a bit of the young adult book Feed by M. T. Anderson. (Which was incredible - I listened to the audiobook, and it was so well done!) In the society Anderson depicts, babies have the feed (next-generation television and internet) implanted in their brains, and very few people grow up without it. Content comes right to your brain - the latest styles, fashions, fads, the ability to chat with your friends, and any information you need. It was an intense book, and a bit scary how close to reality it skirted as a dystopia. I highly recommend it.
Commercials for books aside (well, I've worked in a library for 11 years now...), I appreciate the convenience of being able to have content come to me rather than always remembering to visit websites regularly. I do find there are sites I still just remember to visit once a week or so - that way if I have a busy day at work, I'm not wading through tons of info that I can't mentally process right then. Pluses and minuses, I guess.

Web 2.0 and Chocolate...

Today in our managers' meeting one manager shared about a conference she attended where a breakout session focused on Web 2.0. She talked about RSS feeds, wikis, and del.icio.us. (and much more, too.) I enjoyed knowing what she was talking about and having experience with it. Some of the Web 2.0 features I had played with before (like using a wiki to work with my group on the LIS 2000 project last fall) but others I had heard about and never used. We also talked about wireless - four of our libraries now have wireless available for the public. Eventually we all will, but we only rolled out four this year. I'm trying not to be jealous...
On a slightly weirder technology note, one of my junk emails (not spam, but junk) yesterday informed me that you can now put photos on custom-designed M&M's. Who knew?
http://www.mymms.com/
I can't say I ever thought about doing something like that, but at the same time I can see people wanting to use it for weddings or other special events. Technology and chocolate. A good mix!

Bookmarking and tagging

The more I worked on the bookmarking and tagging project for LIS 2600, the more I realize the different functions I want tags to have. I need to tag not only for subject, but also for format. I want to know if it's a blog, a pathfinder, an article, a wiki, or a general website. This tells me that format has an impact on usefulness and content of an item. I think I should have known that, but it's hit me in a different way.

Once a librarian, always a librarian?

I was working on my friends' computer last night, trying to figure out what was up with their printer, when I started to promote POWER library to her. She's a first-grade teacher, and I've shown her different website resources before. Things that would help with lesson planning, etc. Then I realized that I had never talked to her about POWER library, so I logged in from our website and started to show her all the cool things you can find there. The amazing thing was that she went and got her wallet with her library card and wanted to learn how to log in from her library's website. I realized then just how many regular library patrons (she uses her public library pretty regularly and even runs her church's library - she's not an "unlibraried" individual) may not be aware of that tremendous resource.
I also realized yesterday just how much of a librarian I am. There were a couple times as three of us were scrapbooking and talking about college days that we had questions about a trip that two of us had taken. Years ago, I would have been content to just talk about what kind of train it was that we had ridden or who the people in that picture were. I would count on my remembering at some point. Not anymore. Now I had to go upstairs to the computer and look up the train ride to see what kind it was (narrow-guage, coal-burning, steam-powered) and ask my friend to go get her yearbook so we could figure out who the people were. The power of research... there's a librarian for you!

The wonders of laptops

For a number of years now, I’ve wanted a laptop – for many reasons. I thought about being able to scrapbook digitally on my annual craft vacation. I thought about being able to take a laptop with me to meetings with clients for my side business. Last fall I thought about being able to check my email while I was out on campus and being able to read the PDF e-books on it for LIS 2000. I knew I would use it, but I had no idea how much I would use it.

My family (Thanks, family!) went together this year to get me a laptop for my birthday. It has been truly marvelous. I’m now on my annual craft vacation, and I’m able to do my homework in the evenings, check my work email to make sure things are going well there, and scrapbook digitally as well as on paper. I was able to check email while out in Pittsburgh for class this spring – and even check the bus schedule online. (I also enjoyed being able to watch DVDs in the hotel room in the evenings.)

But I’m finding that my laptop is far more useful in normal life than I ever thought it would be. Over Memorial Day weekend, I watched a coursecast and worked on schoolwork out in my sunroom, enjoying the breeze. I regularly attend class chats from my recliner in the living room, and work on digital scrapbooking and blogging (and sometimes other schoolwork, too) while my sister-in-law and I watch TV at their place on Wednesday nights. I can even work on schoolwork (or play a game) during my lunch break at work. I had no idea just how radical a change the laptop would have on my life. And when you combine it with a flash drive or two…

I’m even learning how to use the touchpad instead of the mouse (when I have to).

Firefox Happy and social computing

I really love the Firefox extensions - I installed DownThemAll! tonight on my laptop. I have it installed on my desktop computer and really have found it to be useful and timesaving, so I was glad to install it on the laptop - just haven 't taken the time to do it before.
On another note, I joined Facebook this week. It's an interesting site - I'm still exploring it. Based on what I've seen so far, I can see why the teens tend to go for MySpace and the demographics on Facebook skew older. I can also see why some employers are choosing to look at people's MySpace or Facebook pages before interviewing prospective candidates. I find myself being very conscious that anything I say or do on Facebook (or here, for that matter...) are visible to the public and being monitored by people I know (and maybe by people I don't know as well...) It's definitely food for thought.

Low Tech Moments in a High Tech World...

While libraries are becoming more high tech, some days as a library manager can be very low tech. Yesterday I watered flowers, cleaned up (with a good bit of help) a large fruit punch spill, fixed the toilet paper dispenser in one bathroom, and fixed toilet issues in both public bathrooms. I closed the front door and the back door at least a dozen times and worked the closing shift. Today I drove around to five different schools, climbed a bunch of stairs, and delivered bookmarks promoting the summer reading program.
After that I worked with our system trainer to help get ready for a training session on using Web Reporter, the online report module for our automation system. That was the technology highlight of my day. It's really amazing how many statistics you can coax out of web reporter and how useful they can be in the everyday running of a library. We can run our own weeding reports, track payments of fines and fees down to which computer at the circ desk was used, and look at checkouts and checkins not only by day but by hour - to see when we need more staff manning the desk. That's only the tip of the iceberg, but it's a great resource.

Creatures of Habit

Humans are definitely creatures of habit, no less so when we are accessing technology. I find this to be the case in my own life, when I try the new configuration for Yahoo! mail (for my "throw-away" account) and end up preferring the classic configuration since I know it better and switching back. I find it even stronger when I help some of my not-so-tech-savvy library patrons. At times their immediate response to changes in the websites they're attempting to access or differences in the configuration or actual technology level of the computers they're using is extreme stress and/or anger. It's been good for me to be learning some new programs and websites this semester - to remind me of what it's like to feel unfamiliar with technology. This will help me to be more patient with them.

Blogging

Blogging is a new experience, and I find I'm very much learning Blogger's interface. I've been having difficulty with the font choice and found that I forgot to label my first two posts. The only way I found to save it when I was done tagging them was to publish them again - unfortunately, that caused them to be sent through the RSS feed again. I'll figure it all out eventually...

Ask Here PA

I had my first shift covering Ask Here PA today. I took the training back in March, but it hadn't worked for me to cover one of our shifts until today. It was an interesting experience for a couple of reasons:

• People do behave differently when they are anonymous than when they aren't.
• People are even more impatient online than they are when standing at the desk waiting for you to find the info they need.
• Some people won't even tell you what info they need, but get impatient when you don't deliver it pronto.
• On the other hand, there are people who are happy to have you help them online and patiently wait for the answers they need.

The technology for doing chat reference was interesting to use. I juggled two and three chats at a time, but the technology kept interrupting my typing to tell me there was another new chat waiting (most of which were picked up by the other 18 librarians covering that time frame). I think they still need to tweak the technology to make it less clunky. I'll also have to try to get a morning shift next month - perhaps it was the slowness of our network in the afternoon that made it this clunky.

Technology and Tatting

One of my favorite things about 21^st century communication technology is the way it facilitates a 19th century craft like tatting. People sometimes think that 21^st century technology has superseded handicrafts, but I disagree.

When I first learned to tat in 2002 (from a book), I didn't know anyone else in my community who could tat. By searching online, I was able to find communities of individuals who not only tatted but designed patterns and continued to develop the craft. While tatting is often considered a “dying art,” it has experienced a tremendous resurgence online. I’m very grateful for that because it encouraged me to continue to pursue this craft that I’ve come to enjoy so much.

Limited supplies for tatting are sold in the big-name craft stores in my town, and there aren’t enough tatters to support a small independent shop selling those supplies. However, online are several tatting supply stores that are able to sell to tatters around the world via the internet and e-commerce services. While I can (very) occasionally find books of tatting patterns in bookstores and craft stores in my area, I can always find patterns or books of patterns online. This has enabled me to stay interested in the craft by providing me with variety. I’ve also met people in my area who tat and do other lace-making crafts through their guild’s website and finding out about their activities there.

I think crafts and computers go together pretty well.