Wow...Christmas is coming...SOON!

Well, the turkey is done and the football games are over. The tree is up, stockings hung, decorations everywhere. The Christmas season is upon us and it is time to be merry and happy! It is actually getting colder here which is a treat in itself. So on this last day of November, I want to be the first to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! And remember that it is not the gift but the thought that counts and books are always a GREAT gift!

Friday Eve!

It is Friday Eve...What does that mean you ask? It is a celebration of the fact that tomorrow is the end of the work week and the weekend is approaching. But this Friday holds the rest of my birthday present in its hands....NEW MOON OPENS! Yes, I am one of those people but it is ok I go to meetings about the obsession problem. So enjoy your Friday Eve and let's have fun at what we do people!

New Moon! YAY!

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that New Moon comes to theaters on Friday! And we here at the library are just a pumped up about it as is most of the teens that come into the library. (Not to mention how pumped up their moms and eveyone else who read the books are.)
So I thought that I would grace my blogsite with just a little picture of Jasper Cullen and leave a passing thought ... Only a Vampire can love you forever! (Yea, I'm Team Edward, but Jasper can warm your heart and mess with your mind. And who does not love that in a man?)

Method 12 -- Reflection and Evaluation

And ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the finish line....and the crowd goes wild, "AHHHH!"

I am glad that I had the opportunity to take this course and learn new things. I think that the most interesting thing that I learned from this course had to be the lessons about Flickr and Delicious. Even though I had used them in the past, I really got to learn how to use them connected to other outlets. This I believe will help me to be better organized and more creative. As always for me, learning is an everyday process. We learn something new everyday even when we are not trying. Today, I learned that Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song and not as a Christmas song. (Yes, some people will say that it is just useless Jeopardy knowledge, but it is knowledge just the same.)

From this course, we are going to start using more of the technology that we got to play/learn. We started today to investigate the possibility of having a Facebook page for the library and I have been talking to the director about adding the Zoho to the public Internet computers' favorites so that it will be an easy access point for the patrons.

I think the course was well put together and was well rounded in the information supplied. If I had to change anything, I think some of the articles presented were long. Maybe if a suitable, shorter, more condensed article that presented the same type of material could be found, then possibly that could be substituted. I think the inclusion of videos throughout the course was really great and helped when reading the material was new or hard to grasp.

If another program such as this is created and offered, I would definitely sign up and take it. Thank you so much again for the opportunity to take this course online and at my own pace. It is really nice to not feel rushed and have the ability to take your time and sometimes even help others to understand how to do the steps in the lessons.

And just a little bit of useless trivia for the ending...the very first music video played on MTV was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. (And yes, I stayed up the watch it!)

Method 11 -- The Wide World of Podcasting

The concept of podcasting is really nothing new. I mean really, is it? When I listen to an audio podcast, I am reminded of talk radio. I can honestly say that talk radio is not my favorite form of radio on the market today. (I mean I don't even like commercials between songs.) But the men in my life all seem to love talk radio by either listen to all news all day or ESPN Radio. But the benefits of podcasting are very apparent. If you make an audio podcast, anyone can then download the information and listen to it anywhere, at anytime. The downfall of this is that these podcast may need to be updated or changed more often than printed information. Some patrons may also think that podcasts on the library website are just audiobooks and may wonder why it is not The 8th Confession by James Patterson. Some larger libraries may benefit from the ability to having podcasts on their websites, so that frequently asked questions can be answered all in one place by a friendly voice rather than a cold printed screen.
Video podcasts are a whole different type of media. This type of media could be helpful in many ways in many libraries. I think that a video tour of the library posted on the website would be a great way to introduce the library to someone who just moved to town. Video podcasts of storytime or just of a staff member reading a picture book could be a great help to moms that need to have a story read to their child but may not feel confident enough to read it with expression and feeling. (As a person who does Storytime lot, I have no problem with acting out a book for kids.) Even a video podcast of how to do things around the library such as how to get a library card or how to sign up for eaudiobooks would be great for both the patrons and the new staff members that may not have much experience with the answers.
We need to weigh all of the options before we jump head first into the world of the web, but by sticking our toes in the water first, we can test it and find out what really will work for each of our situations.

Method 10 --- This Wiki World

St. Dominic Cemetery
Originally uploaded by Noel Kerns

In an instant, we can possess the knowledge of the ages. Just a click and you can know anything about any subject. And now you are telling us that we can CREATE the information on the World Wide Web?!?!?! Fabulous ... Let's do it!
Wikis are wonderful tools that have great potental. The fact that we can place any information that we need to get to the population at large. So why the picture of a graveyard? This makes me wonder if the ease of wikis will do away with some of the other forms of communication we have. Will we stop using the phone for conference calls? Will emails stop clogging up our inboxes?
I do see a really use for wikis in many places. And I do believe that the library and the library patrons could benefit from them. (Just as long as they can be set so that the patrons could not CHANGE the information provided on them.) We should all try the world of wikis and see if we can connect more easily.

Method 5 -- testing

succulents in black and white
Originally uploaded by kristina is kool with a k

Just wanted to test to see if we could blog a picture that I did not personally add to the blog.

Method 9 -- Chat and IM

Today is my birthday and I have already "Chatted" with quite a few of my friends from all over the world this morning. I was able to get on Facebook and chat with my friends all morning; each one wishing me a great birthday and an even bettter Friday. I even had friends from Guam and the Virgin Islands IM me on my way to work to tell me to have a wonderful day. (The following video/podcast is from my husband who thinks that Def Leppard is the greatest band on the planet and it is only way he can express Happy Birthday to me...My name is NOT Sharon though.)

Chat and IM have been around for a long time. I first used them when you still had to be part of AOL to use them. I remember having to go to a chat room, then find who wanted to talk with and begin to chat. With Instant Messages, you and your friend could have a more private chat. I remember at the time thinking how wonderful it was to be able to "talk" to my friends at any hour without having to hear the phone ring.
Now chatting and IM'ing has moved from the computer to the smart phones. I can now have a chat on my phone with out talking and in real time. This means that there are definite pros and definite cons to this technology. We do not at this time have this feature on our website at the library but to be honest, I have been at work and have had friends IM me on my phone with reference questions to help them at work. And the questions always start off as very work related (i.e. What is the form that I would need to use for Power of Attorney? Is there a grace period for a payment for this...? ), but then I get the really reference questions such as: How many home runs did the Astros hit in the 2007-2008 season? If someone is married in one state to one person, then crosses the state line and marries someone else, does that make them a bigamist? I do believe that this is a great way to communticate with patrons who may not want to come in and ask the questions that they really need answers for. But then the cons, do we as librarians answer ALL questions that come through? Do we have to answer questions that make us believe that the person on the other end wishes to cause harm to themselves or others?
You know, just some questions to ponder while we answer the public's reference questions. I can honestly say that this portion of the course was one of the most fun to "play" with.

Method 8 -- Social Networking

Do you remember being "social" when you were younger? Of course you do...it meant that you talked to people and hung out either at someone's house or in some public place together. But now that has all changed, social networking has created a public place on the Internet for all of your social "get-togethers."

I have been using Facebook now for a few months and it is a great way for me to keep up with old friends and relatives that have moved out of the area. I also see the benefits of using it as a way to get information out to the public about the libraries. With the information out on the Internet updated on a regular basis, patrons would be able see when events are scheduled, new books come in and when the DVD collection had been updated. This may not only increase attendance to events but it may also increase holds and circulation statistics.

I can really see that advantages of using Twitter. Some people have the updated sent straight to their phone, so don't even have to check their computer. With this feature, as soon as the library decides that the information needs to get out there, the patron would have it in hand.

I am not a fan of MySpace. I really think that it takes too much time to upkeep the site. I really think that if a library wants to become social and be out on the Internet going with Twitter or a Facebook Fan page is the best ideas.

Method 7 -- Delicious

Yummy...I can't believe it is that easy. Bookmarking your favorite sites and being able to share them with everyone is a wonderful way to get a group project done without having to always be in the same place.

Delicious, the website, is a wonderfully easy tool that everyone should at least try to use at some point. The process by which you can add, tag and store websites is useful in so many ways. As librarians, we could help each other keep up with information by sharing pages with each other. But wouldn't it be even better if we could help our patrons with this information also. I mean with this website, we could bookmark tons of helpful websites that we know patrons would ask for. Then with the help of tags, we could sort these bookmarked sites by common names rather than standard subject headings. If a patron needed websites that covered French history of fashion rather than having to search through hundreds of sites that would not have what they are looking for, we could get on Delicious and find the one site that did. What a joyful expereince at the library for both them and you! And isn't that why we are here....to help people find the craziest things that we never thought anyone would want to look for? I really believe that this and other websites that allow for social sharing are great when used correctly and not abused by others.

Method 4 --- RSS Feeds redeux

I have to ask for forgiveness...I made a mistake and forgot to include the links of the three websites that I subscribed to in this exercise. So I am now going to include the links to the sites.

Librarian.net http://www.librarian.net/
The Shifted Librarian http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/
The Library Channel http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/
And I added some to let off some steam when it is needed.
Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/
tru TV http://www.trutv.com/

I really hope that the Library Gods will forgive my indiscretion.

Method 6 --Youtube

We live in a world where we want to see things, know things and experience things NOW! Pictures are great, but do you know what is better? VIDEO! What a great way to be able to see and experience things vicariously from the comfort of our sofas. What a world we live in...
In reality, video sharing has both its pros and cons. A great big pro is having the ablity to instantly share videos with friends and family. It is a great way to introduce other people to yourself or your library. A negative thing about video sharing is video piracy on the internet. When is something actually yours to share and what makes it yours to share. We also have to look at privacy issues when we are filming in the library. Even if you accidently film someone, the minute you put that out on the internet for everyone to see, you have now violated someone's right to remain private.
With all of the advances in technology, we really need to do some research before we embark on the roller coaster of all that is Web 2.0. I have to admit that I love Youtube as much as the next person. I mean who does not love to see the sneezing panda or some scary music video from the 80's that I have not seen since MTV stopped playing music videos. It is a great way to see what new trailers are out there for new movies or to see what your friends in another state are doing for Halloween. The video I have chosen to place in my blog is the last trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. One of my little obsessions I guess...I love the books and the movies are not too bad. This movie comes to DVD December 8...just in time for Christmas.