Where has the time gone

This school year is going very quickly especially when I notice I have not posted a comment in over a year. Comments on the school technology has moved to my other blog so I will be posting on items other than school related. Today is relaxing day working on the computer with my genealogy and organizing crafts/knitting.

New Year

Well, I was surprised to find that it has been a year since I have posted on my blog. I guess time really does fly.
I am still using technology a lot at work and at home. My family tells me I am attached to my Blackberry, but having the capacity to search the Internet while traveling is helpful. (I am the passenager).

Feb 2009

I came across a Flickr group that takes a picture everyday in their libraries. The idea sounded fun, so I did start taking pictures. The pictures will show up on my web page eventually. The idea I want to do is take a picture of something different in the library. It is also a way to keep track of ideas that we use for bulletin board and displays.

Winter 2009 Reflection

Well the school year has been very busy. I have not kept up with my posts, so I will try to give a few updates.
We continue to look at the Web 2.0 applications and how they can be used in the library. We are looking at up grading our catalog system.
There is always so much to do, but so little time and money.

Summer Reflection

It has been summer break for me. I have changed my Avatar to a more summer background.
Technology has been helpful for summer, I can check school email even though I am not at work. If I need to make changes to the school website from at home. I can be reached by cellphone if needed.
Technology has made traveling easier also. I make plans via the Internet. I can keep in touch my cell phone, plus with my new phone I check the weather or map. I look for points of interests which include costs and times or even buying tickets ahead of time on the Internet before I go. Of course I send pictures from cell of really great places. Or I can ask my son if he wants that shirt before I buy it for him by sending a picture of the shirt by cell phone. Actually we do a lot of texting.
I am checking out a libraries books on their card catalogs before I go there to do research for genealogy, so I know what they have ahead of time.
I is a nice day out today. I have done some gardening but I am also spending some time on the computer for my next day plans. Now it is time to do some more summer chores.

Reflection 4

Well, the last couple of weeks has filled with technology, some old and some new. I spent some time with different printers and paper for pictures. One discovery was that the laserjet did not do as well with multiply pictures for a longer period of time as the inkjet. The inkjet was still much slower.
My job is part problem solving, many of the questions are figuring out how to do things or fix things with technology.
I am always learning something new, rather it is dealing with the old overhead projector or the lap top.

Reflection 3

Just a short reflection today. It has been a very busy week at work. A lot to do with technology. It is important when it comes to technology to always check to make sure the hardware and software work together. Also to make sure the new software works with the other software. Sometimes it is like a puzzle making sure all the pieces fix together. Some times my favorite is making sure I have the right cable to download the pictures from a camera.

Reflection 2

I needed a title after Thing23, so I decided I was reflecting on technology in the media center or my life each week. This weekend I realized how important technology is to communication. I keep in touch with both school libraries thorough out the day. It makes my job both easier and more complicated at the same time.

I use either my cell phone or camera to share photos with friends or family at a click of a button. It was fun to go on a trip up north to see Lake Superior and the beach. Yet, I was able to share the fun and beautiful scenery with family because of digital pictures and email.

April 26 2008

I haven't quite may my goal of once a week to adding to the blog, but things have been very busy. The picture I am adding today is the latest in snowfall that we are receiving at this moment.
As for technology I am planning to start a wiki for work soon. We are looking at changes for the website. I am looking at other school library websites to see how I can make the media center sites better and more user friendly over the summer. I would also like to work more on book blog over the summer.

Video part 2

I tried putting a home video, it shows in previews. Once I publish it it doesn't show. It is a video of the morning of the blizzard in April. I will need to check and see what the problem is. It is a new camera that all the movies are mp4.

Thing 23

I made it to the 23!! I know this is really just the start of using all the things I learned. This was a great opportunity to learn new things. I liked the videos I could watch and learn on my own. The instructions were good. I am excited to try out some of the Things I learned. The goal is the post something at least once every week.

Thing 22

How to keep up with everything! I found a lot of great things through 23 Things on a Stick (and a log more passwords to keep) and I do want to continue to use most of them.

I will add to this blog each week, adding comments on how things are going on the different technologies. I want to explore some things like WebJunction, NetLibrary, and ELM more. I also thought Flickr and Ning will be interesting for more ideas for the library.

If I make a comment each week then I can also include things I find on my Google Reader and groups weekly, too.

I will see how I use everything for school, since it is getting towards the end of the school year. It may have to wait until the next school year.

But on a personal note, now that I know how some of these technologies work. I am starting a blog for my husband. He likes bike riding and we are going to have a blog on some of the trips. I already have a couple family websites, so I am going to be busy on the web.

I am going to head back to Flickr to try a slide show of our latest blizzard!

Thing 21

The Ning groups give a focus on work or work related issues while Facebook seem more like fun or finding friends. The other part of Ning I will probably join is the Teacher/Librarian.

I have not used WebJunction to its full potential. I found the technology section this time and need to spend more time looking at more of the site. There is a lot of information that can be found and shared with other librarians.

Thing 20 plus

I just wanted to add a note about Thing 20. I used the tutorials on ExpertVillage.com. It was very helpful and I decided to look at some of the other "how to" videos. There are lots of videos and all type of subjects including on how to build your own computer to baking bread. According to the web site the videos are done by experts in their field. I just thought it was a helpful site.

Thing 20

Well, I joined Facebook this morning. I could not find my daughter and her husband to invite, so they invited me. Through their contacts I invited my niece as a friend. They are all in graduate school so they don't mind helping with my assignments. The moment I put in my graduation year other people with that year started showing up as possible friends. There was no one that I knew but it was certainly making it easy to find people. My profile was set for friends only but my daughter had no trouble searching and finding me. My daughter and I started talking back and forth, it would be easy to stay on Facebook. I promised to add more pictures after this project is done.

As for the library sites for the public libraries or university libraries in MySpace. It certainly makes it easy for patrons ask questions of librarians. Schools usually have the site blocked.

There are so many possible choices for a library to have for or on a website- blogs,podcasts, wikis, a library in Facebook or Second Life. The one problem I have is the time to do it all. A small library may have to choose which serves their patrons the best. With limited budgets and staff cuts it makes it difficult to do all the technology options and to do it well.
I am enjoying enjoying the challenge to learn as much as possible.

Thing 19

Podcasting is a great way to find information. I have made podcasts and taught podcasting to teachers. Podcasting with audacity is easy. The longest part is preparation. You need to know what you are going to say. My microphone always picks up the paper turning so I keep from moving the script.
But podcasts were a fun way to share new books with students in a book talk that can be put on a web page. Despite it being fairly easy it did take time. I would like to try some video podcasting maybe giving a tour of the library resources.

The subjects on podcasting that you can listen to is endless. I even have one subscription for a knitting podcast. Video podcasts are great also.

Thing 18

One of my favorite videos on You Tube is The Book Cart Drill Team at ALA. I have seen the contest advertising for this year. There is a contest from a company for a poem about the book truck also. I do know how to post the video from You Tube on my blog but decide I will try a video of my own later. I read the policies and if I post the videos on Blogger it is stored on Google Video.

Thing 17

I suggest the use of ELM databases frequently for research for both students and staff. World Cat search is helpful for searching for resources by type. It sorts the resources by ebook, Internet, book, sound, etc.. I have used both EBSCO and Proquest.

It has been awhile since I tried the NetLibrary, but it is easy to use. I made an account this time. I usually just look at the ebooks I want and exit.

ELM is a great resource!

Thing 16

I have known about the Research calculator but have not looked at it closely. It could be helpful for students to help them outline the steps they need to take for a project.
I looked at the handouts for teachers and really liked them. They are several that I could put out in the library for students to use.
It will be a site to show teachers. The one hand out called research out aloud was very interesting, it would be helpful in teaching research skills. The handouts would be helpful in teaching research skills.
There were handouts to help students as well, such as interview tips and search tips.

Thing 15

Thing 15 The graphics of Second Life is very interesting. Sitting surrounded by snow drifts, I was thinking of going someplace virtually that at least looks sunny. I did a search in Second life and there are quite a few librarians in Second Life. I notice there was a cost involved in Second Life. There was the basic get started free part, but also a basic monthly fee for the premium subscription. Also if you wished to buy land and build there was a cost.

I also looked at Pirates and started to play the game. The electricity started to flicker and I had to get off the computer.

I have been to a workshop on games and literacy, where we played a few games. The games were scenario and we had to make decisions for the people in the games. It was interesting but of course there was a cost for each computer it was used on.

I tried playing a couple of games for practice for library skills, but I cannot remember the exact site the games were on.