Digitalsummer

What not to teach (about searching)

2008-04-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

A recent post on the LM_NET listserv questioned whether or not we should be teaching Boolean operators. The librarian noted that their us...

2007-09-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Week 9 Task 23
Hip, Hip Hooray!!! I finally made it. I enjoyed the online learning experience but would have liked to have had some more interaction in some face to face setting . I think that's just me. I process better after discussing it orally with others who have the same experience. Maybe if we could have met halfway through and discussed problems or features we really liked. I know that is what the blog is for but I still like the mix of online and face to face.

I learned so many new things from Library Thing to Zoho but I probably enjoyed the Flicker Toys the most. I have already been back to apply what I learned with some of them.

I read on the Blue Skunk blog that a person is considered a professional when he/she takes responsibility for his/her own learning. I think I took away from this "things" that were most applicable to me. I was feeling a little guilty for brushing over some of the tasks (tagging and technorati) but I guess I'm the only one responsible for what I did or didn't learn.

I would definitely participate in another learning experience like this one because to quote Doug Johnson on professional development, "The logical consequence of professionals not taking their learning seriously is that they are so ineffectual they will no longer be employable." I certainly want to remain in that "employable" group.

2007-09-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Week 9 Task 22
eBooks
I looked at the Project Gutenberg site. I had used it several years back when we were wanting to put marc records into our catalog for some of the classics. It was very time consuming and I never ended up adding them. The site has changed and updated quite a bit. It was much easier to use. I even noticed some now have audio even though the one I listened was a machine translation which was a bit choppy.

2007-09-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

Week 9 Task 21

Podcasting

I had just recently downloaded iTunes and played around with it. I was actually doing a slide show for my son's wedding and needed some songs. I found it very easy to use and had looked at Podcasts in it. After using iTunes the other podcasts directories I looked at seemed very klunky and not nearly as attractive or intuitive. Except maybe Yahoo's padcasts. I found one that I thought I might subscribe to:

Spanish Coffee Break-- you learn Spanish in just 2o minutes a day

There were actually a lot of "easy to learn Spanish" podcasts available. It would just take some time to find the one most interesting.

2007-09-12T08:42:00.001-07:00

Week 9, Task 20 ( I finally made it to the last week!!)

Well, who couldn't spend all day long on YouTube! I just finally had to say enough. I found this video and found it quite appropriate for school libraries. You have to be really careful when choosing videos for students due to language. There is a LOT of inappropriate stuff.

Week 8 Task 19

2007-09-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Well, what librarian wouldn't love the Library Thing! My absolute favorite part was the sign-up. All you do is enter a username and a password. It's true, no clicking on a link that says "Not a user, click here". You simply enter the 2 pieces of information and you're in! It didn't want to know my title or my mother's maiden name. I LOVED that! I looked back over my 23 things and I have registered for at least 15 different tools. Library Thing was a snap to use, too. You can add your books by title, author or isbn. It shows you the cover and you click it and it fills in all the info you need about the book, except the summary. Or at least I couldn't find a summary from the publisher. Maybe the whole idea is that I'm supposed to enter my own summary/review. Sometimes, when I read a series I forget the details of what each on is about. (ex. Stephanie Plum series, who can remember what happened in Hot Six?) It would have been helpful to see a summary to remind me what each one was about. I think you could go to Amazon to see more.

On to the LAST week!! Yippee :-)

Week 8 Task 18

2007-09-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

This has been my favorite week so far. (only one more to go!) I loved the Zoho site. I wasn't too thrilled at first with most of the offerings like the writer, spreadsheet and presenter. They seem easy enough to use, but I can't see a need for them now. I'll continue using the Office products and don't see myself switching to the Zoho tools. HOWEVER, I thought I would really like the Zoho meeting tool.

If you've ever attended a webinar it's the same concept, except this program is free to use.
It can be used to demonstrate something on your computer to others while they are sitting at their computers. It can also be used for troubleshooting. It allows you to see someone elses computer desktop and vice versa. Pretty cool for free! It was a little clunky getting it setup. I liked it a lot less as I experimented more. What do you expect for free? The only way I could find to communicate to participants was through the chat feature. Most webinars have a phone number to dial in to hear the presenter. So....how much do those other webinars cost???

Week 7 Task 16 17

2007-07-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

I looked at several of the wiki pages and 2 particularly caught my attention. I really like what the St. Joseph Public Library System did with subject guides. We have used wikis in our district to let librarians collaborate to update our policies and procedures. It was used more behind the scenes and not available to the public. The subject guides are editable only by librarians but it is constantly changing and updated. Users immediately see the difference. I guess hadn't thought of it in that way.

I also love the idea of of the Literacy Circles. It seems students are excited to participate in the discussions. How often does that happen in the classroom??

Week 6 Tasks 13, 14 & 15

2007-07-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

I spent awhile exploring del.icio.us. I had heard about it and knew it had to do with tagging websites but until I actually used it I didn't realize its potential. I was thinking "what's the big deal, I bookmark my favorite sites already and their even in folders." Think about it like putting that one bookmark in many different folders. As a librarian I was used to assigning subject headings to materials to make it easier for users to find them. By using "tags" you don't even have to stick to "approved" headings. Whatever you want to tag a website to help you remember how to get back to it is just fine! Plus you get to see what others have tagged. It's really cool.

As for the "future of libraries"...we are definitely recognizing a need to meet our students where they are. Just because we have all of these wonderful, authorative resources doesn't mean they will be used. If users aren't using our tools we need to fix the tool or access to it, not the student. More student training won't work. They want information fast and they won't wait around to get it. They will go where they can get it fast, even if it means it may not be those good quality databases that we are paying the big bucks for. One thing we have done is switched to a federated search so that all of our databases are searched through the one interface. Non-library users seem to love it. They don't care where the info comes from as long as it fits what they need. I think it was Stephen Abrams that said, "We need to stop trying to create mini-librarians".

Week 5 Task 11 & 12

2007-07-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, enough already with logins and passwords!! I've been also keeping a written journal with some notes of "things I've learned" and I'll need to refer to it when I go back to use these cool new tools. I've tried to keep logins and passwords consistent but sometimes you have to change and it just really messes things up! (Yes, I'll have some cheese with that whine!)

I played around on the 43 things website since this course was based on that idea. It's really good to know that a million other people want to lose weight also.

I also joined the Ning network. They have a school library ning and I was asked to join or be a friend so I created an account on that and even uploaded my picture on my page

Week 5 Task10

2007-07-09T12:34:00.001-07:00

The image and text generators were a lot of fun. I can see that students would love to use these sites to enhance presentations. I created this button for my keyboard and now I just need to find a way to use it. Just what we all need--an easy button for our computers!

2007-07-05T14:46:00.001-07:00

Week 4 Task 7, 8 &9
Well, this one was a bit easier for me because I already had a Bloglines account. However, I was really far behind on reading so I used the week to catch up and to delete a few I wasn't finding as relevant. Perhaps it will be less overwhelming to have a few hundred posts less to read. I do love the idea of subscribing to the feeds. You are able to make the feeds you get personalized just for you. I seem to always spend a lot of time reading Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog and Stephen's Lighthouse. I am always interested and spend way more time than I should exploring! I just keep telling myself that is the part of my job called "keeping up with current technologies"! Oh well, Off to Week 5!

2007-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

Week 3 Task 6/7
I have spent way too much time on the fd's flickr toys website! But, what a GREAT time I had! I explored the picture cube, magazine cover, flash cards and photo wall. This site makes it sooo easy to create. The one site that I think I see an application for in my job was the Mosiac Maker. It lets you choose pictures and then displays them in a nice format. I am responsible for our library web page and have looked for a way to have a professional collage. This does it! You can save the picture and then use on your webpage. I created my mosiac looking for images with a tag of reading. This will be great for Children's Book Week, Teen Read Week and other events when I need to display several pictures from schools.

Week 3 Task 5

2007-06-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

I really like flickr! I added some pictures and now have a couple of sets also. I even added tags. I used the Flickr upload tool which made it very easy. After I downloaded the tool, all I had to do was drag photos to the box and click UPLOAD. That was easy!

2007-06-05T12:48:00.000-07:00

Week 2 Task 4
I'm now officially registered. Easiest task yet!
Off to Week 3!

2007-06-05T12:38:00.000-07:00

Week 2 Task 3
I now have a Blogger account and set up a blog. I had used Bloglines before so this part wasn't as difficult for me. Creating the Avatar was really fun (and time consuming) but I had trouble getting the Avatar to my blog. I wasn't seeing the tab called Layout. I was seeing templates. I think there was something I needed to do with the template first. Once I customized the template I was able to see the layout tab and it was smooth sailing from there. What should have been an easy task to complete in a short amount of time took me over an hour. I dug into my toolkit for help. (she is in the office right next to me) Thanks Mary!

2007-06-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

Week 1 Task 1
Well, I'm excited to be learning 23 new things this summer. It will be a fun break away from the regular work plus...I will be learning things to help the librarians with in the Fall. I like the way the weeks are organized. It was well thought out and seems like it will be easy to follow the guidelines. Let's get this party started!

Week 1 Task 2
I loved the presentation of the 7 1/2 Habits. It was easy to follow. I would like to see more things like this in our district.
My challenge will be (along with everyone else) Habit 2. My son is getting married at the end of June and I still have a million things to do. (well, maybe only 20-30) I will have to be disciplined enough to take time at work from the day to day things and remember that this is work too, not just fun!
I think Habit 7 will be easier because it is my job to teach library technology to librarians in our district.