Thing 7 of 23 things

I got hung up on Webinar/OPAL part of this one because I am behind and the timing for the webinars and the OPAL programming wasn't working out for me. When I viewed this thing for the first time, over a week ago, I was in a rush and didn't read thoroughly about archived material. I also had to print out part of the reading requirement at the library that wouldn't show on my home computer. Tonight I started to panic and did more in depth searching through the possiblities to fulfill the requirements and I ended up listening in on an archived Author interview of Dana Stabenow, who is liked by many of my patrons. It was very cool to have the streaming audio, text chat, presentation slides and webpages magically appear before me. From reading the catalog of webinar and OPAL options I can see that it is an advantageous way to learn, especially since my location is, what you might say, isolated.

We use email at our library to communicate between branches and to contact patrons who have given us an email address. I learned a great deal from the productivity hints on emails. I am now instant messaging on Google as many people who I can get to use it - 2. Wow. The number will increase. I wish the helpdesk at our headquarters did IMing. Most of the other communication tools mentioned are new to me, but I look forward to getting the opportunity to trying some of them out. I have no doubt if I don't learn to use them, I will not be able to do my job as effectively.

Thing 6 of 23 things

I now have a trading card. who'd have guessed. I didn't notice any place to put info on the back as the Carlton College Librarians do, not that I'm anxious to do that. This was a fairly painless, fun thing to do. It could be a cool way that the library kids would enjoy, especially during the Summer Reading Program. Also, the story hour person could hand out a "trading card" to the kids. It would also be an easy way to make introductions of staff or volunteers in a newsletter or blog.

Thing 5 of 23 things

I used BigHugeLabs to create my photo mosaic and I'm motivated to do some more with this tool. It had a fantastic assortment of possibilities using photos. It is difficult to get the navigating down to travel between flickr, my computer, BigHugeLabs, and my blog. I learned that using tabs helps tremendously, but I still haven't got that totally ingrained, so I have wasted time along the way by getting lost or clicking out of what I needed, inadvertently.

The possibilities are numerous for using this thing in the library; promotion materials and the library blog, collaborating with other libraries would be the first to come to mind.

I'm quite comfortable with having photos online. One tends to expand their comfort level when it saves a lot of time and provides security for storing photos. I am concerned about getting signed permission for photos of young library patrons. I don't know how successful it will be, but regardless, I am sure I can make better use of photos after learning this thing.

thing 4 of 23 things on a stick

Winter Reading Program
Originally uploaded by kris.bratsch

This is my photo of the display for Renville Library's Adult Readers Winter Forum. I am blogging this to fulfill the requirement for the 23 thingsonastick. This is thing 4.

I have learned great restraint on doing this thing; restraint not to scream or pound my mouse or keyboard. I came so close, so many times to getting this done earlier, but something would always baffle me. With all the help screens, and the switching sites and pages, I was on brain overload.

This is a good way to entice people into the library to see what is new in person or enable those who aren't able to come in person to be there via the internet. I will have to work on ways to promote the blog, however. I'm looking forward to having enough photos for a slide show. This has made me aware of how other libraries use Flickr and I want to do further investigation on that. I'm considering how Flickr can help promote the Summer Reading Program and also help with the organization of it, since our library and another are collaborating for the first time. Also, it would be great if there was a computer activity for the kids using Flickr.

thing 3 of 23 things

I am so happy that I have been introduced to the rss feeds. This is something I wish all the library computer patrons could experience, since most of them do not have internet at home, this makes any computer sort of customized for you.

I started out with bloglines, which was easy to subscribe to feeds, but not that convenient of a format. This morning I subcribed to a number of feeds on google reader and I like the format better. I thought that I would get passwords all mixed up and I do, but it is worth the minor confusion.

I subscribed to my head librarians blog, many other book blogs, news feeds, and entertainment. I feel like I'm suddenly "up on things", which is weird because I didn't consider myself necessarily in the dark before RSS feeds came along.

I have to say that I feel like I am going at too slow of pace on the 23 things. Hopefully, what I learn along the way will help me move a little quicker through the steps or at least entice me to make the time to do it.