Lesson 4- Gale Reference Library

I chose the subject of history for this project; then to the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. We have just received a We the People Bookshelf Grant titled "A More Perfect Union" and I thought this would be a great resource to go along with the books received. The books I found to provide more program ideas was fantastic!! These plus the Bookshelf Grant books will be wonderful resource to encourage students to learn about how our county was made strong thorugh the efforts of great leaders. What a fantastic addition this will be for our library as we don't have much in the way of non-fiction books, especially for young adults.

I typed in Civil Rights Movements, as that is part of the "A More Perfect Union" Bookshelf Grant subject and was amazed at the number of references. Again, a great resource for our programming for the grant books. The fact that we can listen to the articles is quite an advantage for students who struggle with reading or some do better at hearing rather than reading a subject.

Happy New Year

Well, here it is almost the end of the year! I want to take this time to wish everyone a Happy New Year:o)
I am not at the library this week, am enjoying the company of my daughter and 5 year old grandson from Wisconsin. We have been very busy sledding down the 6 and 7 foot snow drifts in our back "40". Whew! I'm not used to that much energy around, but it sure is fun. We even made a few snow angels. Shaun has been the light of our lives and has made me forget all the troubles of the library for one week. God bless him.

Library Thing

Wow! Is all I can say about Library Thing. What a site! I can use this site not only for the Public Library, but my personal selections as well. Being able to search the books, make comments and find others who have the books and have reviews is great. I see Library Thing also has a place to receive first copies of books, a great resource for my library. Thank you, Colleen, for giving me the chance to view this site, it will certainly keep me wanting to continue this project! I just can't say enough about this one. Here is the link to the page I set up:
http://www.librarything.com/home/prairie5librarian9

This is a sight rarely found out here on the prairies. This is a nest of 13 pheasant eggs I found this past spring, wanted to share it with you all. Don't know if all the pheasants hatched or not, but the hunting this fall was great!

Our finals

Well, I can't believe this class is almost over, it has gone way toooo fast! It has been quite an adventure in learning for this chick. I may not be able to keep this up to date every day, but if I can spend time each week checking out the new places, up dating this site and the others on my list, it should enable me to continue. If a specific time is set each week for me to sit and work, that may help. Being the only one here has its difficulties- janitor/children/adult/story time/cataloger/reference/you name it librarian/even sidewalk shoveler of many inches of snow person; makes it hard to focus on just one thing. There are wonderful learning tools in Web2.0 and Library 2.0 so one must really keep at it. Enjoyed the video clip from the MSNBC news release on libraries in hard times. It is one of the selling points I have been trying to use on our Town Board for quite sometime now. It was a great story.
Merry Christmas to you all, have a wonderful 2009.

Lesson 9

Well, I am still slightly confused over tagging, but in due time will learn it, one way or the other.
Wiki seems to be a bit easier to understand. Wow, did I got into brain over-load! This is a very fascinating lesson, I think I can use this one quite a bit. Will have to think a bit on how my library up here can use Wiki, but personally it's going to be great. There is a family reunion coming up next summer and this could be a wonderful source for all family to pool resources. I like this one:o) I think the best example has been Library Success: A best practices wiki. This one kept my attention following all their posts and resources. I could still be on that site; it's a great one! The others are okay in that they are mostly for local people only.

Lesson 8

Well, I managed to set up a Delicious account. Maybe I am finally gettinig the hang of technology! I can see where this would be useful to patrons coming into the library. They can access their page from other places, check their favorite tags, make comments, and add more places if they wish. It would be especially helpful for travelers who come in to use the computers here and need to get information remotely. It was very interesting to search Delicious and check other tags. I especially liked the ones tagged for reading groups, books reviews, and library statistics. This is, indeed a good site.