Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

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

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

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.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

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.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

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.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Lesson 6

Using Google Docs can be a great way to create newsletters for libraries to share with each other and save postage! Librarians all have tid-bits of information they like to share- accomplishments, recognitions, library building happenings, etc. Using a Document would be a fun way to share these things and others can add their information- sort of a "family" letter. To my personal life, I can see using the Google Docs as a way to let people know about what is going on and they can, in turn, add their thoughts as well. Working with the Docs page has been fun and I can see continuing to add to my page.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Lesson 7

I have a Facebook account all ready so getting around this site has been fairly easy for me. Check it out if you wish. I have pictures of the storm of this month posted, pictures of the grandkids also pictured. Facebook is any easy way for us to keep in contact with our kids and see pictures of the grandkids as they are so very far away. It's also a way for us to message back and forth to each other. I like Facebook much better than My Space. One thing I like about Facebook is that you have to log in to check out other pages; with My Space, it can be accessible for absolutely anyone- they don't have to set up an account. One does have to be careful about how much personal information is put on both places because of identity theft. However, it is a place for teens and others to keep in touch and share pictures.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Lesson 5

I could spend hours checking out the videos that are available to us. I can see where knowing these sources are available could help a patron who comes in asking for information about a subject and then being able to watch a short (or long) video about the requested information. Oh, I loved the Grand March of the Librarians!

Lesson 5

Well, looking through this section is mind-boggling. I see one must be careful to scrutinize the subjects, found lots of X-rated content on some. I did find on Podcast.com one can search by subject and found several that were interesting. Most had to be subscribed to. Quilting is my favorite subject, and I did find a very interesting podcast on podcastalley.com. Now I have to review how to get the RSS feed into my blog. It's hard when I am the only one running the library and things are busy. One doesn't always have time to sit at the computer. But, will work on it some more and try to get it posted for anyone else interested.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Lesson 4B

I think Flickr is going to take some getting used to to navigate around in, but creating a trading card could be fun to share with others. I did have some trouble putting the pictures on a map, still not sure it's working quite right. Just takes time to work with. Since I am the lone librarian around here, time is some what of a premium.

Lesson 4A

Hey there. I have set up a few pictures of our library at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bisonlibrary. If anyone wants to try it, give me a holler what you think.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Lesson 3

Hey, lesson 3 wasn't too bad, though I still have to do some "tweeking" to add a few web-sites. I can see where it will be very useful to check out all the librarians who are working on 2.0 Challenge instead of spending all the time going to each individual name, click on that, then read each one. I liked searching Google Reader much better, it seemed to be easier to navigate through. It was great to get the news, sports, and updates from libraies. I can see where teens who like to work on computers would enjoy RSS.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Lesson 2

This is my very first time at setting up a blog and I am hoping to gain experience and learn how to get the word out; receive input from others and gain knowledge about how to do this. In other words: I'm a rookie! I like working on the computer and learning new technology, so hopefully this will work out for me.

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

In the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, I gues I would have to say I am learning Number 3- viewing problems as challenges. With the library struggling the way it is, this problem has given me quite a challenge and so far I have dealt with it as much as I can. Fighting with town board trustees is another problem/challenge, but must continue to deal with them and move on. Guess that's my thoughts for now.