To the Library.... and Beyond!

Lamentations

2009-03-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

I am having a really hard time getting motivated to do anything this week. It has been a really interesting transition for me coming from a 4 branch suburban library to my current one-man band rural library. Obviously, the patron traffic and the budget are a bit...... less. I am really proud of the accomplishments my part-time person and myself have made over the last year or so. We have finally finished automating the collection which is a huge thing as you can imagine. We are showing consistently higher monthly circulation totals when compared with the previous year. I feel like our print collection is stronger and more diverse, especially in the children's section, just because I have 5 years of experience working in a children's department and knew authors and subjects where we were sorely lacking. We also really beefed up our Summer Reading Program, expanding it from K-5 to 3 yrs. to 6th grade.

BUT

I am at a point where I would like to do more programming and activities and am feeling some pretty intense opposition from my board. I have a lot of requests from patrons for storytimes, afterschool youth activities, and computer classes, so I know the public would be receptive. However, when I bring it up at meetings, I seem to get the giant brush off. I was told that they didn't want me using staff resources for things like that. Great. One problem is that I only have 1 day a week when I have someone else working with me, so that is the only day I can do programming. AND while I could schedule programming on all of those days, it is kind of nice to have a day where I can shut my office door and get "administrative" things done.

SOOOOO.... I'm just feeling kind of stuck. I would like to do "normal" library things and hopefully bring more people in to utilize us, but without support from my board I can't really do anything. I am finding it increasingly hard to motiviate myself to do anything of great substance because I just feel like what's the point? Do all librarians have days (weeks) like this, or am I just super lucky? *sigh* That's all. Just wanted to whine a little bit.

Thing 23: The end but the beginning of everything else

2009-01-26T09:05:00.000-08:00

I have very mixed emotions about this being Thing 23 AKA the end of our little journey together. To be honest, in the beginning, I decided to do this mostly for the CE credits. 15 is a lot of credits to go towards my certification! Once I got into it, however, I found myself learning things!

A few things, like Instant Messaging, Flickr, and You Tube I was already pretty familiar with. RSS feeds were one thing I had never used before, and now they are a part of my everyday internet life! I check my gmail and then click on over to Google reader to check various blogs and feeds all in one place! This has cut my internet surfing AT LEAST in half, because all the blogs and websites I used to visit almost daily are all in one place! I also found a lot of new fresh voices in the library internet community through the RSS exercise and Delicious. Intelligent thoughts on libraries and librarianship that make me think and make me proud to be in this profession.

This discovery program also "forced" me to try things I probably never would have used before. I tweeted! I added to a wiki! I was at a library board meeting 2 weeks ago and we were discussing slide show presentations for some reason.... One of our board members said that slide show presentations were so hard to transport from computer to computer because they take up so much space blah, blah, blah.... I told them about SlideShare!

I find myself at a disadvantage to try to incorporate much of what I learned into my daily life at the library. We have such a tight budget and so little techological fortitude (as a library) that bringing us into the 2.0 era will be a challenge. However, after completing this program I now have several ideas for us to establish a presence on the web even if we can't get our own website up and running right away.

I'm not exactly sure how much going through this affected my lifelong learning goals. One thing I know it did was force me to learn new things. It also made me stay on task (at least to a point). I am a chronic procrastinator, so having goals and deadlines helped me to complete this before 11:59 PM on January 29th! I was way behind and enjoyed the challenge of catching myself up.

I was surprised at how much time I spent on some of these exercises. I got the general feeling that some people spent more time on them than others. I know that is what happens with self-paced learning, but I found myself wanting more feedback from other participants on a lot of "things" and was sometimes disappointed in what I found. I am sure people think that about my posts too, so I guess it's just my issue. :)

So as this little journey we have all taken comes to a close, I hope this is not the end. I really enjoyed the feeling of community we created here and I feel like one of the great things about the Web 2.0 movement is there is so much opportunity for interaction, sharing and learning. I want to keep the dialogue going about Web 2.0 and other library related issues. Whether that is though a network of blogs, a wiki, a social network.... I think it could be beneficial to all of us. And any time our illustrious colleagues at the NLC want to put together another discovery exercise like this one, I am totally in. Thanks for all of your hard work guys! I feel like I have earned those 15 CE credits but I learned so much more.

Thing 22: Podcasts

2009-01-26T08:49:00.000-08:00

This exercise just makes me wish I had an MP3 player.......

I checked out several different podcasts. I enjoyed the NPR sites and was happy to find that I could listen to Fresh Air online. I listen to it quite a bit on my way home from work and it's nice to be able to browse and listen to ones that I may have missed.

I also listened to Uncontrolled Vocabulary and enjoyed that very much as well. From a professional development standpoint, I can see where podcasts could be very useful. The isolation of my Western Nebraska location prevents me from attending a lot of meetings and workshops. It is nice to be able to listen to a podcast and get kind of caught up on what is going on in the greater library world.

As far as podcasting in the library, I think it would be a great thing to use (especially for YA's) for book reviews, what's going on in the library, programming, etc.... If I ever get our library website up and running, this is one of the things I am going to look into doing. I am not quite ready to do my own podcast, but after "22 things", I know I can do it!

Thing 21: You Tube OR How I wasted hours I should have been cataloging instead

2009-01-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

I love You Tube. Online videos have become such an integral part of a lot of our lives. I know several friends that follow TV shows this way. I dated a guy who listened to Camaro engine sounds on You Tube (note past tense there...). Yesterday I watched the Inaugration of our 44th president switching back and forth between CNN and FOX News. Actually, You Tube and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it, but also can not use it often because I never want to stop.

I spent a lot of time trying to look at library related videos on You Tube. My success rate varied. I found a lot of inappropriate stuff, a lot of boring stuff, and a lot of useful educational stuff. I can see You Tube working well for promoting Youth Services since most of the kids I know surf You Tube regularly.

Here are two videos. The first is a slightly risque but completely hilarious video called the Librarian Song. The second is my favorite commercial of all time which they no longer play and it makes me super sad.

Thing 20 or thing 2.0....

2009-01-14T10:15:00.000-08:00

So going through this list made me feel a little bit better about my techno-savvy. It also helped that I attended a session at conference about 2.0 apps. Looking through the list, there were quite a few I was already acquainted with: Craig's List, Facebook, Career Builder, Monster, Myxer..... One of my artist friends sells a lot of her paintings, homemade cards and other crafty stuff on Etsy.

As a purely non-professional genealogist, I explored My Heritage and had mixed feelings. When I typed in different surnames I research, I found no information on my family whatsoever. This, however, is not shocking, because I seem to be the only one researching my family. :) It was all just a little cumbersome for me, and I frequent a lot of genealogy sites. The one good thing it does is bring up matches and links to other genealogy websites which is great for people who don't already know about them.

This is another one of the things where I think a lot of this stuff is more pertinant for my personal use rather than library stuff.

Thing 19!

2009-01-13T13:21:00.001-08:00

What what what?!?!?!

How did I not know things like this existed before?! I can't even count how many times I have had a patron want to save something to our desktop (which is verbotten...) because they forgot their floppy or flash driver or whatever. Heck! Just the other day, I wanted to make a database of cow/calf records for my Dad (beware... inner farm girl emerging.....) and I don't have a spreadsheet program on my computer at home! Seriously?!!?!?! This is great!

Things 17 & 18: Wiki's!

2009-01-12T14:33:00.000-08:00

So Wiki's are fun. I had to make myself stop exploring some of the links I found on the Wiki's: weeding information I had long forgotten, storytime ideas and activities.... I have used wiki's before, but these exercises really did help me to feel more comfortable with them. When I was at my previous employer, St. Joseph Public Library in St. Joseph, MO, I handled Interlibrary Loans and was part of an ILL list-serv that was very popular. A few people from the list created ShareILL, a wiki with information on everything from copyright to suppliers.
As a small, rural librarian, I don't have much use for internal wiki use, but I see the value that wiki's can have as far a resource and idea sharing.

I enjoyed getting on the NE Learns wiki and posting and learning things about my fellow participants. I think it would be cool to have a Nebraska Librarians wiki where we could get on and post/read about what other libraries are doing for things like policy, story times, book clubs, and promotions.

The ongoing saga of Thing 16: Library 2.0

2009-01-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

OK. This post has been nothing but trouble for me all day. I have written it and deleted it several times (on purpose), and accidently deleted what I actually wanted to say once. So here is the truncated version of what I wanted to say.

I refuse to believe that the advent of Library 2.0 will signal the downfall of print collections. There is just something about holding a book in your hands that no Kindle, IPod, or computer download will ever replace. I do not forsee a mainstream society where I move my virtual avatar to my virtual library to find virtual materials. Coming from the perspective of working in a library that is just barely into 1.0, the mere thought of Library 2.0 is sometimes scary. A year ago our collection was only 60% automated (thankfully this should be remedied by the end of the month when we will be FULLY automated). I still have charging boxes on my circulation desk. Many of my patrons are still mad they can't just write their names on the checkout card anymore. Many of my patrons are also mad that I have mostly stopped ordering audio cassettes because "those CD's are so darn tricky". Playaways? Forget about it....

Following is a quote from John Blybergs blog "11 Reasons Why Library 2.0 Exists and Matters which requotes Sarah Houghton:

http://www.blyberg.net/2006/01/09/11-reasons-why-library-20-exists-and-matters/

“Library 2.0 simply means making your library’s space (virtual and physical)
more interactive, collaborative, and driven by community needs. Examples of
where to start include blogs, gaming nights for teens, and collaborative photo
sites. The basic drive is to get people back into the library by making the
library relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives…to make the
library a destination and not an afterthought.”

When I look at it from this perspective, Library 2.0 seems a little less scary. It doesn't necessarily have to mean completely getting rid of what we are doing now, it is just a matter of incorporating new ideas from our ever-changing world into our ever-changing workplaces. Isn't it easier to jump online to the library's webpage to find information about upcoming events? Doesn't it save time to check the OPAC from home to see if a book you are looking for is in? Isn't it convienent to use IM technology to ask a reference question? AND don't all of these things save librarians time in the long run? Tally up all of the minutes you have spent answers "What are your hours?" phone calls and get back to me. These tools give us more time to plan and implement programming, teach computer classes, and order new materials.

Really it is all a matter of going to where your patrons are. The fact is that an increasing number of our current and potential patron base can be found online. I think if libraries can establish a presence in people's virtual lives, the probability of them including libraries in their offline lives goes up as well.

Thing 15: Slideshare

2009-01-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

One of the other participants remarked that Slideshare is "You Tube for professionals". I have to agree. I found varying degrees in the quality of the slide shows. Some have a lot of pictures and no sound, so the point of the original presentation is kind of lost. Some have a lot of text, so it is easy to follow even without sound. I have "favorited" several presentations which are for the most part all different. My account is: http://www.slideshare.net/roinoke . Below is just a fun (absolutely nothing to do with libraries) show about my favorite city.

New York

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mundo del)

Thing 14: I heart Delicious

2009-01-05T15:08:00.000-08:00

Can I just begin by saying that I am so glad I am participating in NE Learns because it is forcing me to explore applications and webpages that I probably would never have looked at on my own. Some of them, like Delicious, I have heard of but still never explored.

As I watched the "tutorial" and explored the site, I kept thinking how great this would have been for me to have at my previous job. I was back and forth between 2 or 3 computers every day and it never failed that when I needed something I had bookmarked, it was on the other computer. I have that issue to a point here, but usually I am the only one working, so I just switch computers. :)

While exploring Delicious, I clicked on several library related tags and found a lot of new stuff that I am excited about. I found a couple of librarian blogs that are informative and entertaining (http://www.librarian.net/), some professional articles, and just plain fun library stuff. I have not yet set up a Delicious account, but I am going to! Personally it is going to be a god-send for my genealogical research. (Come to think of it, I could probably use it for that in the library as well.....). Once we get our library website up and running, I think Delicious will be perfect for reference and research links. As for updating broken or outdated links, it seems like changing the links in Delicious would be a lot easier than having to go in and update code.

Thumbs up for Delicious.

Thing 13: Twitter time

2008-12-29T12:36:00.000-08:00

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter, what can I say about Twitter.....

From a professional standpoint, I can see where Twitter could be very useful in promoting library events and activities. I looked at a couple of library's feeds and it is nice to have this event coming up on this day and a link to their website with more information. For my immediate professional use, its impact would be very little because we don't have a website or the budget/staffing for a lot of activities and events to publicize.

I searched for Hastings Memorial Library and found nothing. I searched for Grant, Nebraska and found one item concerning a murder we had here this fall. I finally ended up searching for St. Joseph, Missouri, the community I lived in before moving to Grant, and found a few items including Joe Biden's campaign visit there earlier this year.

Personally, I don't think I will use Twitter much either. After doing some friend searches, very few of my friends and acquaintances use Twitter, so I would pretty much just be tweeting into the greater realm of cyberspace. Also, Facebook has a similar application where you can do status updates saying what you are doing, seeing, thinking, etc... I think microblogging is kind of like text messaging. I love texting on my phone because sometimes I want to tell someone something, but it is not worth an actual phone call. Viola! -- text message. Let's say I want to express my distaste for having to wait in the drive-thru for 15 minutes before getting my food. Do I necessarily want to compose an entire blog about this? No. However, a small twitter relaying this message? Excellent.

It's a Library Thing thing

2008-12-22T14:04:00.001-08:00

So I have to say, I was kind of disappointed in LibraryThing. I had been meaning to get around to getting my own account for some time because I thought it would be a great way to keep track of all of the books that I read. Maybe I just need to play around with it some more, but I honestly prefer the Visual Bookshelf app on Facebook. It just seems easier to navigate and all of my Facebook friends with Visual Bookshelf automatically show up on my profile page.

The idea behind both applications is a good one. At my previous library, we were always encouraging people to keep a reading journal to help them remember what they had read. I tried it myself for awhile but it worked about as well for me as keeping a regular diary did (AKA not at all). With the online applications, however, I can see where it would be easier for people keep on top of it. Heck, I am doing it fairly well with Visual Bookshelf. We are getting ready to phase out the use of checkout cards in our books, and a lot of people will be angry because that is how they tell if they have read the book before or not. Library Thing and other like apps may be a good way to help wean our patrons off of the cards.

Thing 11: A Thing about Technology

2008-12-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

As a member of Gen X or Gen Y (depending on who you ask), technology has always been a part of my life. Sure maybe as a kid it was playing Oregon Trail on the Apple IIc, or as a young adult hauling around my brand new 5 pound cell phone, but technology has almost always been there. The internet, my cell phone, satelite TV are some of the things I use every day without another thought to them not being available to me.

When I started at my current position last October, a blaring techology gap was brought to my attention front and center. Our collection @ Hastings Memorial Library was only about 60% automated when I started. My previous library had been fully automated since the early 1990's and it was a real adjustment for me not to be able to simply go to the OPAC or circ software to look up a title/author/subject to find material. If someone came in and asked me for juvenile books on Mars or parakeets, I had to remember what Dewey number those topics fell under. If a patron asked me if we had easy readers about hibernation, I had to draw on my personal knowledge on this topic an outside database to find what they needed. Now I would say that our collection is 90% automated and it is nice to be able to go back to the old familiar OPAC to find what I need.

Sure technology can be frustrating, cell phone calls drop, the internet goes down for no apparent reason... but it is an essential tool for my job as a librarian and in my life. The thing that I am appreciating the most about these "23 things" we are working our way through is that the exercises are making me move outside of my technological comfort zone. I am learning and doing things that I probably would not have done save for this actvitity. As you can probably imagine (since our collection is not even fully automated), our library is not really on the cutting edge of technology. We have 6 public access computers that see quite a bit of use, but I think very few of my patrons even know what an OPAC is, let alone how to use it. Our website is essentially a place holder website with our address and hours and not much else. If nothing else, these "things" have jump started my desire and motivation to move technology forward in our library. That and made me wonder how I ever lived without RSS feeds. :)

Thing 10: What not to say to a librarian.

2008-12-18T16:02:00.000-08:00

Be Dumbledore, Einstein, or this poor schmuck... @ www.imagegenerator.net

Thing 9: The Flickr journey continues....

2008-12-18T15:54:00.001-08:00

I looked a few of the apps and I have to say I am not totally sure what I would use a lot of this stuff for (related to the library ) at this point in time.

Now having said that... I searched for "Harry Potter" in Montagr and formed a picture montage in the shape of Robert Pattinson's face (Cedric in HP and Edward in Twilight for those of you who don't have really contact with YA girls. :) ). I think my YA girls might be impressed with that.

I could see where Spell with Flickr could be interesting for creating headlines for webpages or flyers. It was kind of fun as well.

It is fascinating to see all of the manipulations that can be done from one little program. That is about as much as I am getting out of this exercise at this point in time. :)

Thing 8: Flickr pics

2008-12-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

Flickr is one of those things that I have been aware of for quite awhile, but have never used. The signing up was very straightforward as I used my pre-existing Yahoo account. I didn't explore how easy/hard it would be without one. Do you have to get a Yahoo account in order to use it? I should find these things out. :)

I have quite a bit of experience uploading pictures to the internet using Facebook, MySpace, and Snapfish, so that part wasn't too difficult either. I think I like the community feel of Flickr, and plan to explore this further and also plan to look up friends I know are already using Flickr.

The picture above is of our reading garden. A long project planned and implemented by our Friends group, the garden was completed late this summer and is beautiful in full bloom. It is winterized now, but the bench, statue, and landscaping combine to make it attractive even without plants! I think you'll agree it is much better than the slab of concrete that was out there before. :)

Thing 6 and Thing 7: The Fantastic World of RSS

2008-12-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

OK. I am now officially in love with RSS feeds. I am slightly ashamed to admit I have never used them before. I signed up for Bloglines, and added all of the things we were supposed to add in the exercise. I really like their top 1000. I found websites I liked, websites I forgot about, and sites I visit regularly.

I have to say however that I also started Google Reader and like it better. I may keep Bloglines for professional purposes and Google Reader for my own fun, lame, gossipy stuff. :) Seriously, this has the potential to save me so much time in my life. I don't have to surf from page to page, it is all there for me. If I want more I can always go to the main site, if not, eh, move on.

As far as library usage goes, offering an RSS feed to a library blog would be a great way for people to stay on top of what's going on at the library. This is still way in the future as far as my library is concerned, but still. I must say that I am learning a lot from these "things". :)

The IM post AKA Funny how some things never change....

2008-12-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

In college, I was always a procrastinator. I rarely finished a paper before it was due. The night before.... the class period before.... So here I am a month later, back to my Library 2.0 experience. Last month, before I became a terminal slacker, I signed up for Meebo. IMing is something I've been doing probably since high school. I have MSN, Yahoo, and AIM. In college our big thing was ICQ and I don't even remember my info for that account....

ANYWAY... Meebo. The thing I like about Meebo is that a) you can log in to all of your accounts at once, and 2) you don't have to download the software for each messenger to your computer. I can see this being a really great thing for ready reference in Reference Departments. As Grant, NE is being dragged kicking and screaming into the technological age, it is not something we will be incorporating right now. However, if we ever get a webpage up and running, it would be something I would consider doing as one or both of us is almost always near a computer when we are open. When I signed up, I talked to Christa rather briefly which made me glad to know I did sign up and add people correctly. :) Now, on to conquer the world of RSS.

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

2008-10-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

I can see why this was one of our first tasks on this little learning journey. It really helped me to bring into focus what I want to learn and what I want to accomplish by incorporating what I learn into the everyday operations of our library.

HML (Hastings Memorial Library) has a fantastic library facility with 6 public access computers, color and black and white printing capabilities, a scanner available for public use, and wireless internet access. So while from the outside it seems we are keeping up with technology, a closer look will most definitely change your mind. Our main push right now is to get our collection fully automated. We are almost there with only non-fiction and biographies left to go. The next thing I want to do is establish a web page for the library. The tutorial really helped me to outline what I need to do.

I think the easiest habit for me will be to begin with the end in mind. I know what I want to accomplish, and I know how great this will be for our library once it is completed. I can already see the benefits a public presence on the web could be for HML, the convenience of accessing the library catalog from home, a place to let people know what is happening at the library...

The hardest thing for me I think will be to view problems as challenges. I anticipate running into a few roadblocks along the way, and I think my main "challenge" will be to face the problems head on and not let them deter me from what I want to learn and accomplish.

Nebraska 2.0 -- here we go!

2008-10-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow Library 2.0 bloggers!

I am finally jumping on the bandwagon, so to speak. I'm Robin from the Hastings Memorial Library in Grant, not to be confused with Hastings PUBLIC Library in Hastings. We are much smaller, much closer to Colorado...

As a person somewhere along the border between Generations X and Y, technology has been a part of my life for a very long time. I remember in grade school we used to race to the library to get on the good ole Apple IIC's and play Oregon Trail (which I still maintain is one of the greatest games EVER!). Boy, have we ever come a long way from there! I consider myself to be fairly computer savvy, but this new Web 2.0 movement has shaken my faith a little bit. There is WAY to much that I don't feel like I have a good grasp on anymore, so I am excited to take this journey with y'all and see how much I can learn.