Tuesday, July 28, 2009

About Flickr

I needed help to complete my Flickr assignment. So I reached into my Toolbox and pulled out Kim to help me. There is a photo on my blog only because she walked me through it! Thanks, Kim!

I watched the tutorial and read the articles, and I can see that Flickr can be a good thing. Saving your photos online and organizing them with tags sounds good. I can see personal applications for this. I confess I did spend quite a bit of time looking at photos, but they were not related to work! I took a trip down memory lane by looking at photos of my hometown!

But uploading a photo to my blog was very confusing! Another email account, another registration, another password,.... Hopefully I can remember how to do it. I would like to upload some photos I took this weekend at the Storybook Land Festival!

As for using Flickr in Library Land, it could be useful for sharing photos of programs and activities. But I agree with other posts I've read about being careful when posting photos of our patrons, especially children.

My favorite summer time place


Aberdeen, SD 2008
Originally uploaded by wellman.andrea
Thanks to Kim, I have successfully uploaded my first Flickr photo!

This is the entrance to Storybook Land, one of my favorite places to visit. The library co-sponsors Fables & Fairytales at the Castle every Friday morning during June and July. We tell stories, sing songs, and do art projects. What a perfect way to celebrate reading!

This past weekend was the 4th Storybook Land Festival. Five thousand people enjoyed the beautiful weather and fun entertainment: author, poet, and songwriter Barry Louis Polisar; concerts by Penny and Pals; balloons and magic with Mr. Twister; photos with Clifford, Curious George, and Martha Speaks, and free ice cream ! Could anything be more fun than that?

Sunday, July 19, 2009

RSS and the Blue Screen of Death

Here it is - Sunday night, past my normal bedtime - and I'm trying to wrap my tired brain around RSS feeds. I would like to be watching these tutorials in my office at the library, but my computer there has the "blue screen of death" and I am waiting for the IT guys to come and tell me if it's terminal.... (sorry, bad joke...I am really tired...I know I should have done this earlier, but I really had to watch "The Next Food Network Star" to see who was eliminated!)

I actually like the idea of RSS feeds - instead of me going to the blogs, the blogs will come to me!

As a test, I have subscribed to a couple of blogs. We shall see if I have been successful. If so, I may just go wild and subscribe to a few more!

On another note, I'm rethinking twittering: if I only could write 140 characters, I would have been done with this post much sooner.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Twitter

Even after reading the articles and watching the tutorials I'm still trying to figure out Twittering. When I hear the word Twitter, I think of birds chirping, not the latest thing in technology!

It seems egotistical to me to think that people care about what we are doing every minute of the day. And what happened to actually talking to people? Twittering seems impersonal. I don't think I will be personally twittering any time soon.

However, I could see the library twittering: "Story Time registration starts today," "A new Find Art clue has been posted at the Library," "The Library is closing at 5 pm due to winter weather," etc. Even if the library would begin twittering, it's important that we continue to use our traditional media outlets such as the newspaper and radio stations to keep our patrons informed.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Habits

As librarians, it seems to me that all we do deals with lifelong learning, either for ourselves or our patrons. Our goal is to have people in our communities value learning before, during, and after the years of formal education. Much of my time is spent selecting materials and planning programs that will encourage parents and their children to find joy in reading and learning - to have fun!

So for me, the easiest Habit is to accept responsibility for my own learning. To say, "I need to learn this," and then take the necessary steps to do so. I'm glad we have this opportunity to take this challenge. I do need to learn about new technology.

That being said, there are two Habits that will be hard for me: to have confidence in myself, and to play. There is so much out there to learn, and sometimes it feels as if my head is plum full and there in no room for any more information! How will I remember all this stuff? As for playing, who has time for that? I see that I will have to make time to play - to be free to explore and experiment without actually producing anything tangible.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

I Actually Did It!

I did it! I am now officially a blogger! Setting up this blog wasn't hard at all (except for coming up with a name...). Now comes the hard part: actually writing something.

I am not a writer. A reader, yes, but not a writer. I love words. I love the way they sound, how they look, how they evoke images and emotions. I have profound admiration for people who put those words together into coherent sentences. But I am not one of those people!

I'm a list maker. My desk at work and my table at home are littered with lists: Grocery lists, To Do lists, Books I Have Read lists, Books I Want to Read lists, Freezer Inventory lists, Quilt Fabric lists, and so forth.

I will endeaver with this challenge to improve my writing skills and graduate from lists to sentences. Wish me luck!