Blog Scavenger Hunt

I got into knitting because of blogs, and I starting blogging more because of knitting. Funny, huh? Anyway, a couple of years ago I did a fun Knitting Blog Scavenger Hunt, and I thought it would be fun to spin off from that for a new scavenger hunt inspired by Learn&Play at CML. Please join me! If you're reading this, you're tagged. Let's see how many L&P bloggers we can link to!


Da Rulz:

1. Use a different blog to answer each question.
2. Be sure to include hot links in your answers, and if you're referencing a specific post, be sure you're linking to the permalink for that post (not just the general blog addy).
   
3. Not every linked blog needs to be a Library person or a L&P participant.
4. If you do this meme, please come back here and give me a link so I can read it!

Da Thingz to find:

1. A blog written by someone who lives close to you physically.
2. A blog you read written by someone you've never met, but would like to.
3. A blog written by someone who has the job you used to have, or the job you wanna have someday.
4. A blog entry that made you think about something a new way.
5. A blog entry that made you laugh so hard your co-workers and/or family asked to know what was going on.
6. A blog from someone you've known a long time but haven't hung out with in a long time.
7. A blog or post that inspired you to start blogging (or just written by the person who got you going).
8. A blog from someone you never thought would be blogging.
9. An article/post/site that you think could change the library world.
10. A blog you've found that makes you feel great every time you read it.

My Answers (left off the main section for your cut & paste pleasure . . .):

Da Thingz to find:

1. A blog written by someone who lives close to you physically. Maggie!
   
2. A blog you read written by someone you've never met, but would like to. My friend, Cat in the UK
   
3. A blog written by someone who has the job you used to have, or the job you wanna have someday. The Sock Princess - she's retired and can do whatever she wants (mostly knitting, but not posting) all day. I've also always wished I could be a stay at home mom (added bonus: being in a cool foreign country)
   
4. A blog entry that made you think about something a new way. Michael always gets me thinking in new ways. This is just one of many times.
   
5. A blog entry that made you laugh so hard your co-workers and/or family asked to know what was going on. Shelf Check almost always makes me laugh. Although most of her posts are her own comic, the other day she posted a great vid of Carol Burnett as a Librarian - with Lucille Ball!
   
6. A blog from someone you've known a long time but haven't hung out with in a long time. A long time ago, I worked with Jim and Annette. It's been fun to catch up again online.
   
7. A blog or post that inspired you to start blogging (or just written by the person who got you going). Janis was the first person to talk to me about blogging after she went to the Internet Librarian Conference, years ago, but GottaBook, Don and Gerald really inspired me to do more than I'd been doing.
   
8. A blog from someone you never thought would be blogging. I'm so excited about my co-workers who have started blogs! Yay Linden Team!
   
9. An article/post/site that you think could change the library world. It may seem like a small thing, but how we market ourselves could really change our future.
   
10. A blog you've found that makes you feel great every time you read it. I look forward to reading Post Secret every Sunday. I don't always feel happy, but it always makes me think. I've just recently discovered this blog from a former CML-er that makes me smile every time I visit - fabulous photography!
    

Library 2.0

Well, I have come to another end, also. This is my last official post for the Learn and Play at CML project we've been doing for a few months. You've seen me posting my 23 things, and I appreciate my non-L readers sticking with me! I also warmly welcome all the new readers who may have joined from CML and might, if they're interested, and might keep reading. Welcome! In order to limit my verbosity, I'm going to do a list (also, just because I love lists).

Top Things about L&P at CML

1. Being able to explore Web2.0. It's given me the incentive to really look into some tools that I'd not used before, and to go deeper into things I've only sampled before.
   
2. Encouraging my team to explore - use their backroom time to do some fun things.
3. Seeing people finding great new tools.
4. Nifty new flash drive I'll get.
5. Thinking about ways we can use this technology to reach and serve our customers.

Final Thoughts:

1. We need to keep moving forward - don't stop here with just 23 things, but keep exploring and stay on the cutting edge. It's not enough to just do this.
   
2. When we think about using these tools, we need to remember they are tools, not the end-all and be-all of service. A really good chef's knife can do a lot, but real chefs have a variety of knives they take care of and use. We need to be the same way - the right tool for the project is important.
3. The cool gadgets aren't the whole answer to the most important question: What do our customers need and want? The first answer always has to be: excellent customer service. The next question, then, needs to be: How can these tools help us give excellent customer service?
4. How can we continue to find ways to help bridge the digital divides in our community? What do the people in poverty need to know of this stuff? How can we help them access what "the haves" have?
5. How can we use this technology to promote early literacy (you know that's always in the forefront of my mind!)?

Thank you all for reading!

MOLDI adventures - Thing #22

OK - I've tried it. I'm sitting here in my office, knowing I have to work this 12 hour day (at least - hoping we'll continue to have no lines at the poll this evening), and decided to try the MOLDI (Mid-Ohio Digital Library Initiative, where you can download books and movies, supposedly just with a library card) audio book and movie downloads. Grr. If I was at home, I could download all the proprietary software, make all the updates to the players and things that are needed, and download a book or movie. Several years ago when we first got this stuff, I dutifully (and excitedly, really, as I love gadgets) downloaded an audio book and a print book. It was fun, but neither one was any easier than just getting them from the L, and unless I was far away, I might as well just get them through more traditional means and not muck up my hard drive with more software.

So today, I thought "Hey, maybe things have changed in . . . what . . . 3-5 years". So what has changed? Nothing! First I looked for some titles I've been meaning to listen to: Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat and Crowded - nothing, and then Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin movie - nada. Sigh. Then I just browsed and found a Lawrence Block mystery I like - got that in the online book - not audio - but it's now on my computer. Big deal, though, as I don't really have a handheld that will hold it and I'm not likely to sit at a terminal and read it.

Then I found a movied I'd be willing to watch, but after about 3 download things, it told me it can't play because I need a newer edition of Window's Media Player. Grr. Same for the audio book. Blah

So what did I learn about MOLDI? It's not where I want it to be, yet, to be a happy user. That said, I do have a good friend who downloads audiobooks all the time because he works really odd hours and ends up not being able to access the physical library much. Understood.

It's not horrible - it's just not yet the product I want to use.

Podcasts Thing #21

You know, I've got mixed feelings about podcasts. I love the idea. I love that anyone can basically start their own radio show. Video show, too, if they are vlogging. Thing is, I have a short attention span. I like listening to what people have to say about things . . . but then my attention wanders if the podcast is more than, say, 20 minutes. I've enjoyed Lime and Violet . . . but it's too long for me to listen every week. I've tried Sticks and String, too, but still . . . too long. I think podcasts just aren't for me every day. Once in a while, I can geek out on what other people are saying about knitting . . . but I'm not into putting them on my iPod and taking up my music/book space.

But maybe that's just me?

I do like exploring the directories that L&P suggested. I hadn't really spent much time searching for podcasts before, since the first few I listened to didn't thrill me. It's good to know those sources are out there, though.

You Tube

I don't know what number Thing this is, but I just had to jump on the bandwagon and share a few of my fave Youtube clips. This vid of the Tuttle Kids (Molly Tuttle has a CD out now with her dad, that I love!).




I also like this song a lot - by Molly and Jack Tuttle . . .


And, for a bit of difference, this great and moving song by Labi Siffre:

Searching for stuff, Thing #19

I LOVE Firefox. I had it, then my computer got mussed up so I didnt' have it, and there are some apps that I need for work that don't use FF, so I didn't bother loading it at work, but then I was at IT one day and they teased me a little because I only had IE on my computer (and for goodness sakes, guys, YOU are the ones in the department that built this laptop anyway, so either give it to me or don't tease me for not having it . . . or something, and really, how crazy is that!?!?!?), so I finally caved to peer pressure (and knowing better) and loaded it again - both at work and at home. {end breathless rant}

My fave of the CML Power Tools is the Catalog Search Plug-in for Firefox. It's brilliant! I can simply choose to search DP instead of Google whenever I want. LOVERLY!

I don't have more to say (isn't that miraculous?).

Comiqs - Thing #18

I've made my first online comic strip!


Simon's New Sweater from Caterwauller on Comiqs

It was fun and easy, too! I wish I had more photos of people in my Flickr account to fool around with . I'll have to work on that! I think this is an app that my son will get a kick out of.

Google Docs - Thing Something or other

So I decided to check out Google Docs. I have gmail, and I like gtalk . . . and I've used the calendar and Google Reader . . . so I finally opened the Docs thing. Guess what! I already had a bunch of documents there and I didn't realize it! They were all from email attachments! I was amazed.

I started by cleaning out the docs that I don't really need. Then I added a new one - with information that, truly, I'd like to have access to from any computer. It's easy and fun! Just like they said!

I'm interested in trying out more apps, but honestly, I'm a little bit under a pile and I want to catch up on the rest of the Things before venturing beyond google for this one. You know - make sure I taste every dish on the buffet before coming back for seconds. :-)

Reluctant Wiki-er, Thing #16

Well, I am sure you could tell a few posts ago that I wasn't too thrilled about the whole wiki thing. I mean, we have discussion boards and we have other collaborative web things, and I just figured that a wiki would be more of the same: clunky to use, challenging to keep up, short-lived novelty, etc.

I'm starting to think maybe I was wrong! I know, I know, it seems impossible (hmm, I guess you're all thinking that what is impossible is that I'll actually admit I'm wrong - me being wrong is fairly normal?) I finally had time to watch the little vid clips that the L&P team provide on their blog, and I think they might be right - Wikis are cool!

What I'm thinking about wikis:

• Someone on my branch staff had suggested a month ago that we should start a local history blog for the Linden Community. I'm thinking, now, that a wiki would be more functional and use-able. It would be great to get local folks contributing as well as library staff. I'd love to make/post some video footage of interviews with community elders!
  
• A Wiki would make it much easier to handle things like the Ready to Read Ambassador organization. We just need to figure out how to make/use a calendar in it.
• Sharepoint kind of sucks (I've always found it clunky), and a wiki would be easier to keep up with.
• I'm still convinced that a wiki is only as valuable and as strong as the people involved in it's writing.

Wiki wiki bo biki- Think #15

Boy, I'm definitely going to fall behind in the L&P thing. First was The Great Blackout of Ought Eight, and now is The Paperwork Pileup, made worse by the fact that my MODEM at home is BUSTED! I never really realized how much I take care of online work while at home until this week. It's very hard to keep up with everything at work in just 8 hour days . . . and then I was sick on Monday and Tuesday . . . and my finger tips hurt . . . and the dog ate it.

Ok - enough whining.

I took this "learn about wikis" thing as an opportunity to finally look into the ALA Ready to Read Wiki. I have to admit that I'm completely underwhelmed. Of course, the most recent posts seem to be from 2007, and many of the categories, etc, seem to have just one or two posts on them. I didn't find it impressive or useful at all, which leads me to my main point for this post.

MAIN POINT>>>> A WIKI is only as useful as the group that uses/writes it.

So, creating a Wiki is cool. Writing and contributing to a wiki is cool. However, just like the more antiquated "discussion boards", if the community that is using the wiki is boring, so will the wiki be. I'm still looking for library wikis that honestly look useful and cool, so if you have something specific to recommend or explain to me, have at it!

Hopefully my home connection will be healed tomorrow (laying on of hands should occur between 4 and 6 tomorrow afternoon, so look for the lightning). Maybe when I have my house back in order I'll be less cranky.

Who Are We?

I love thinking about the future. Partly, this is because I love not having to think about how far behind I am in what I should have done today . . . but partly I love it because it allows for that higher-level thinking. I love dreaming, basically. The Current Professional Terminology (CPT) for this is being a Visionary. Whether you call it visionary thinking, daydreaming, dreaming for real or just plain imagination, I love it!

So, when I was given (thanks, E!) tickets to Thomas Friedman lecture at OSU, I jumped at the chance. (Ok, no actual jumping was involved, but in my mind I was jumping) Talk about a visionary! Friedman wrote The World is Flat, which I've read and enjoyed and which really has some excellent point in it about the Global Economy and what the US or any country should be thinking about in terms of staying a legitimate "player" in the market.

What does this have to do with Library 2.0? Well, I'll tell you my version! I'd love it if you read his book and have some comments and shared them. Anyway, his new book is Hot, Flat and Crowded, and it's about how we need to consider Green Technologies (GT), alternate fuel sources, etc, and bring back a culture of innovation in the US if we're going to be able to keep up . . .again, with the Global Economy thing! (see here for a discussion on his website)

One point that really resonated with me and with what we've been talking about is the idea that 20 years from now the whole world will be completely different from what we know today. Now, don't be thinking Wall-E, but also don't discount the truths that are underneath that animated movie. We need to get our head around the concepts of GT and be innovative in finding ways to live w/o leaving such a gosh darn big carbon footprint!

So - hold on here - I'm almost to my point . . .

Government regulation is something that Friedman says will help with this problem, because, he says, we should be charging people a Carbon Tax - something to compensate the world (and whose bank accounts?) for the cost of producing, say, the lovely AC that is currently making my office 68 degrees. He also says that our governmental system (all hail the glorious Democracy!) is NOT good at dealing with long-term, multigenerational changes (this I totally agree with!).

Who is good at handling mulitgenerational change? Well, I would propose that Libraries sometimes are . . . and maybe should always be. Think about the longevity of our institution. Think about CML and how long some of us have been working here. You know, sometimes change is hard to deal with at CML because some of us have been here so long, our experience and our natural human tendancy to think "but we've always done it this way" is slowing down our ability to be maneuverable in the market. On the other hand, we could choose to embrace that longevity and harness it to perhaps create multigenerational change in our world.

This, my friends, is where my brain is today. I am thinking about how we can make a huge difference 20 years from now because of what we're doing today. We can live with a smaller carbon footprint, build our new buildings to be more efficient, AND (those of you who know me should have seen this coming) get all of our local parents to accept responsibility as their children's first teachers . . . and 20 years from now the Columbus School System will be thriving, our children will be out of poverty, the crime rate will be down, etc.

Ahh, it's getting me dizzy, up here on my soapbox.

As for Library 2.0 and the future of libraries I'm ready to jump on the Vision train. I see our library as being a catalyst for effecting real change in our community, through the Ready to Read program, through continuing to be a valuable center for lifelong learning and research, through being a promoter of innovation and through providing people of all socio-economic levels the same great service and opportunities to learn and to access information.

You're It! Thing #13

Yup - I'm finally back to Learning and Playing at work. I'm on thing #13, which was really meant for last week, but . . . well . . . read my last post for my excuses. I'm checking out delicious, which is a social bookmarking sharing site. You keep your "favorites" list on this website instead of just in your browser, and you can access it from any computer instead of just your usual place. So, I can keep one list of sites that I can access from home, from my laptop at Panera and/or from work. I signed onto this site a year or two ago and it never really tripped my trigger. Now, however, looking back at it again, I'm thinking that I might give it a try! I'm doing more and more online work for all aspects of my life (Boy Scouts, PTA, my band, playing . . oh yea, and work), and this might help keep track of things I like better. We'll have to see.

So - take a look at my delicious list and see what you think. I'm not done, yet, with taking care of my big browser upload, but soon you'll be able to see most of my bookmarks. :-)

Handling all my old bookmarks again brought me back to my favorite online song cartoon, if you're into things like that. Take a few minutes and listen/watch! I like Heywood Banks!

Donating, Picking, Slideshowing

Well, we'd intended to go to Via Colori so Simon and some other students at his school could do a square at the chalk art festival, but then his teacher got an email saying we didn't have a square. We could have, apparently, been "alternates" and gone down on the off-chance we'd get a square that others didn't want, but we decided to do other things instead.

We took a donation to Ronald McDonald House. We thought about taking a picture, but decided to let Simon be a little more incognito. This is money he collected at his Birthday party, in lieu of gifts. It was cool! The women working the front desk were REALLY nice and doted on him a bit, and gave us a quick tour around the facility. I hope Simon feels even half the pride that I feel in him doing this!

We also went apple-picking. It was great! I tried to upload some photos for you, but for some reason it isn't working. They're pics Mike took, and I'm wondering if the files are just really big or something.

Anyway, because of work, I'm still playing around with Flickr apps, so here is a slideshow of hats and scarves that I've made - lol.

Things 11 and 12

I've been using LibraryThing and Twitter for a while now. I added both as widgets to my blog a while ago, too. You can see them to the right!

I like LibraryThing because it is allowing me to track my reading. What I don't like is that it doesn't allow for showing how much of the book you've read. For instance, I'd like to be able to post a book and then show how far I've gotten in the book when I go to update. I can do that with my knitting projects on Ravelry.com, and I like it! My reading isn't usually just one book at a time, ya know? I've heard some folks talk well of goodreads.com, so I might take a look at that soon. I just don't want to get engulfed in yet another social online site. They become so time-consuming!

Lazy Blogger's Post

I just found this cool generator for Lazy Blog Posting, and I created this:

Wholy smoke I just had a cup of tea and realised I have not updated this since they invented sliced bread... You would not believe how hard it is being waited on hand and foot and generally lounging around. But I'm sorry you'll just have to take my word for it..I am lost in a sea of pseudo-olde-english with a weight-lifting regime, watching Dexter, just generally being an embarrassment to my cats, my day is long and tiring from sun up to sun down and beyond. I am so tired of my kids wanting me to give them attention and stuff. life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.I go, my lords and ladies; just that when the weather turns bad, I will blog more often. No, really! This is for my ever faithful, devoted public.


Funny! It's like Mad Libs, techno-style!

More Fun with Flickr - Thing #10

I've been having all kinds of fun with Flickr this morning. I've been playing at Big Huge Labs, using their tools. See what I've done?

First, I made myself a smart-alecky name tag . . . I love the pink! Actually, this could be a fairly useful tool. I'm thinking of encouraging my PTA officers to make name tags for themselves. If I make one for that, I'll be on my Flickr photostream.

Next, I played with the beaded photo thingy. One thing I like about these applications is that you can take pics from your computer - you don't have to load them to Flickr first. Cool.

Finally, I couldn't resist the thought bubbles. Ha! I saw the app for making trading cards, but I thought all of these looked like more fun. Maybe I'll do trading cards later. I'm thinking it could be really cool to make trading cards for each staff person for our next all-team meeting!

flickr toys

More toys, suggested by Gerald 2.0 :
First, a contestant for my banner, if I can figure out how to put it into the template in the right spot. This comes from Spell with Flickr



Next time, I'll go to the trading card thingy he suggests. Right now, I'm going to go back to my regularly scheduled day off and watch an episode of Firefly.

How much is enough? (#9 of 23 things)

How much is too much news? How much is enough? How much time should I spend reading news each day? These are questions I've always had in my head . . . well, maybe not always, but for a really long time.

I have never been one to read a lot of news. It's depressing, often, and it takes time when I could be DOING things. So when asked to explore news feeds I thought to myself "gack! I don't even like to READ the news!"

But I have found that some well-chosen RSS feeds of headlines is a helpful way to cut down on the time it takes to read the news while still being aware of what is going on in the world. So now I have some headline feeds that are easily accessible from my browser toolbar. I can scroll down the list of headlines and just pick the few that interest me. The rest I can ignore. yay! Ignoring is fun!

For all of my friends who are news junkies (you know who you are!) - happy now?

#8 RSS Feeds and Blogrolls

Hmm - say it again - "blogrolls". Does that sound yummy to anyone else? This week's Learn & Play stuff starts out with some great information on what an RSS feed is and how to use them. I already use Google Reader to keep track of all the blogs I follow. Am I a faithful follower? Nah, not really. I like how GR will give me the first line of the post and I can use that to determine if I want to open it and read it or not. I do read a lot of blogs, though, so don't think I'm not reading!

I have about 80-90 blogs that I watch. Some are mostly dead, while other blogs have new posts every day. What's great about the Reader is that I no longer have to go to each one and see what is going on. I can just look at those who've updated. LOVE IT! Saves me so much time, and it helps me keep up better!

I should probably add a newsfeed or two - but I haven't yet. I don't generally like reading the news - it's often depressing. But I guess that's just a personal problem I have!

So - in the spirit of Learning and Playing at work, I've also investigated Bloglines. I started an account and added some feeds. It's neat! I like being able to easily share your blogroll with others. Here is my public blogroll - yippee!

I Like those Stinkin' Badges!

I've added a few more widgets, after discovering them through other peoples' blogs. Tell me what you think about the Flickr and Meebo badges!