Lesson #23 -- Worth the Effort

I have to admit that even though we sold this program as a way to "play" and "have fun" it felt more like work for me, I think because I was always unders such tight time constraints I couldn't just relax and goof around w/ it.

That being said, for me this class was a great learning experience. I have already been using delicious and I can see the potential for rss feed readers (tho I can't seem to figure out time in a day for reading blogs & such).

I thought Zoho was going to be a bust for me, but I discovered this great desktop sharing program that could be terrific for online training.

What else? I really want to go back to that post-your-library one because I want to read some of the books that were posted by people w/ similar libraries as mine.

There were plenty of potential library applications. It was such a whirlwind (even in 15 weeks), I need to go back and tag all my favorites in delicious so they're easy to go back to later.

Thanks, Lynn, Karen, and Diane, for all your hard work!

Now I want my MP-3 player!

Lesson #22 -- OverDrive

I already had an account so I didn't have to do that, but I did download the software on my work computer. Browsed the selection of nonfiction history books available. Nothing jumped out at me.

I do have a cautionary tale -- If you buy an MP-3 player for use w/ OverDrive, be VERY careful. The first one I bot (for my nephew) wouldn't work w/ Windows Media w/ drm (digital rights management).

Lesson #21 -- Podcasts

I saved some podcasts on Odeo. I can see these as being valuable if I could save these into an MP-3 player and then plug them into my car radio for the drive home. It would be like a Tivo for your car radio.

Lesson #20? -- YouTube Football Hi-jump vid -- COol

ZOHO -- The future of remote training?

Hey! I started playing w/ Zoho's e-meeting software. It's got a NICE desktop sharing interface. Could potentially vastly improve our online training capability. Can't wait to experiment more.

Lesson #19 -- New & Unusual 2.0

At first I tried "docstoc", a place for all sorts of professional documents, from legal forms to leadership advice. It has potential found it to have too limited amount of information loaded yet and to be too broadHere's 15,000 documents on finance. (I know. That's contradictory. Oh well) --

Then I tried Omnidrive, which looks like a cool way to store all files online so they are readily accessible (and backed up?) whenever you need them. But they are full. Can't take new users yet. I put my name on a waiting list.

Finally, I opted for fun: Zango -- but you had to agree to have them load a thing in your browser that would make ads pop-up as you're browsing -- Yeah. That's exactly what I want more of.

Lesson #18 -- Web-based Applications

Aha. I can see the value of these applications for documents that require only the most basic formatting (like a notch above WordPad maybe?). (I used Google Docs.) It appears to format in HTML and so is somewhat similar to creating a word processing document in, say, FrontPage.

I was not able to easily adjust the spaces between paragraphs (required manually inserting code for CSS), nor to adjust the automatic numbering.

I'll give it this, though: It was extremely easy to upload to my blog.

Sample Google Doc

Outline – Enable Others to Act

1. Preface

1. LPI – Did anyone find out that you don’t need to work on any areas?
2. Model the Way = Set the example – of exemplary work ethic.
3. ISV = Get others psyched about your vision of the future.
4. CTP = Constantly looking for ways to improve things & finding creative ways to overcome obstacles.

1. Introduction

   1. What does EO2A mean to you? What do you expect this section to be about?

   2. Bill Gates quote.

   3. EO2 “succeed & grow.” Whether we are supervisors or not, what are some ways we can help each other succeed & grow?

   4. Pull out LPI page 5 (?). Don’t have to answer, but …

      1. How many found EO2A one of their strongest areas?

      2. How many chose EO2A as one of the areas you want to work on?

      3. Has anyone picked any of these particular questions to work on? (Write them down & make sure we cover them well.)

      4. Any questions about particular LPI questions? Is it hard to see how any of them apply to you?

      5. #24 – We won’t be discussing – Mostly only applies to supervisors. (Encourage supervisors to read that section of Leadership Challenge)

2. Recognize Interdependence

   1. Puzzle Activity (See instructions.)

   2. Chart – Web of Interdependence.

      1. Get a volunteer -- a public services librarian or associate – Put his/her name in the center of a flip chart w/ a circle around it.

      2. Ask about people who depend on her or she depends on, first directly, then indirectly.

      3. Ask others in the group to volunteer ways that they depend on this person or this person depends on them.

Lesson #17 -- No fun wiki

I finally remembered that the invite key got sent in a later e-mail, but this was a frustrating no fun experience spending 20 minutes trying to figure it out. Glad it's over.

Lesson #16 -- Wiki-wild

I keep THINKING wikis can be an extremely valuable tool, but I haven't yet put one into practice. However, I am inspired again -- to pay more attention to the NEFLIN staff development wiki and also to create a new one(s) that can serve JPL's purposes -- For example, I like the idea of a wiki where people can post tips that can help out colleagues in a wide variety of areas -- everything from tips for using Excel or organizing your Windows desktop to tips for efficiently handling reserves. Ohhh -- I love the idea of one for challenging reference questions -- a sort of reference question database.

I'm nervous about the disorganization of it. I like thinks logically arranged -- That's why I'm a librarian, but it looks like on some of them some compromise is possible.

Possibly a wiki for competencies, tho I think PLCMC's is both too narrow and too broad (They are really "technology competencies" because they deal only w/ tech. competencies and because they go way beyond "core" competencies).

Lesson #15 -- Library 2.0

I liked the description of the concept of "Library 2.0" in our lesson. I thot it was cogent and concise, altho for me it gets a littly mushy when it veers into "Library 2.0 as a state of mind."

It's about using web 2.0 tools but also about adopting the web 2.0 concept of customer contributions to the information that we and other customers consume.

Lesson #14 -- Technosowhati

I don't think technorati is a site I'll use again. Though I will try to add a tag to see if it works.

jpll2

Lesson #13 -- It's Delicious

Looks like not del.icio.us any more. Now it's just delicious.com. Too bad.

But I like it anyway. Here's the most immediate value for me: A place to put all my bookmarks that I can view on any computer & web browser.

Would be great for my wife, who doesn't use folders to organize her bookmarks so she just has 10,000 in a single list. If she could put some tags it would make them a breeze to organize. Got to tell her about this.

Lesson #11 -- Library Thing

I like it! I could spend hours cataloging and rating and tagging every book I can remember reading. And I also found intriguing looking at someone w/ a similar library. This guy had quite a lot of other stuff I'd read -- I could see using it to get recommendations on new stuff, to engage in conversations w/ people who have read similar things.

Cool!

Here's my catalog: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/skwrlman .

Lesson #10 -- Success

I downloaded a name badge from http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ and it actually worked! (I don't have any photos of myself so I used the stock blue mountain photo). See if you can see it:

Lesson #10 -- grrr

Websense blocked me from uploading any photos to make a fake magazine cover (after the comic strip making site was down altogether).

me getting frustrated. not have fun yet. try later.

Lesson #9 -- Blog Searching

I found Technorati very helpful in locating some blogs focused on staff development. I went to the advanced search page and decided to try searching by the url of the American Society for Training & Development -- From there it was easy to find helpful blogs, including a blog for CLENE, ALA's continuing education roundtable. I could have spent a LONG time exploring the different blogs. discipline, now, discipline.

I added a few to my feed reader, which I'd link to, but I forgot how.

Lesson #8 -- RSS Feeds

Bloglines was going so slow it was driving me crazy so I used Google Reader instead. It was easy as pie. I added the a couple of JPL staff blogs, plus NEFLIN's and Unshelved and a few others. I finally learned how to share items. So here ya go: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/16755897890591773848?hl=en .

I'm not sure how much I'll use RSS feeds. I don't really take time to read large quantities of text online (I can't fathom how anybody's able to), so I haven't quite figured out how it will be a great advantage to me to use one of the feed readers. There's probably a tipping point where I need to play w/ it enough to have an "Aha" moment and then I won't be able to imagine how I ever did w/out it. Maybe.

technology hurts

maybe it's because it's at the end of the day (when i don't even have the strength to press the caps key), but scanning these hip technology sites just makes my brain hurt. Stephen Abram had this big precis of a study on "young people and social networking services" -- I bet every teen librarian will want to sink their teeth into that one, but I just didn't have the time tonight.

i wanted something "byte-size" so i checked out helene blowers site. she decided to create a passion quilt for one of her department meetings. who is she? supertastic librarian lady? i think a passion quilt is (that's another thing about these blogs -- i always feel like i walked in late on a movie and nobody wants to explain what i missed) it's a digital photo quilt where ... oh never mind.

then the other was about "thinkering spaces" or something like that. a new concept for making libraries the third place (i can't get rid of the connotation of third place as, well ... it means you didn't win; you weren't even the runner up -- you LOST!!) ok -- here's the deal -- they bring in a set of portable walls where kids can explore their physical and virtual world and thus overcome the curse of the dreaded "no child left behind". thank you, jesus, we're saved.

this is amazing how my literary inhibitions have vanished because of the pretense of anonymity (or maybe just fatigue).

anyway, technology. what do i think about it? for me it's always preiminently utilitarian. if it helps me do something better, faster than before then schWEEEEEET! i'm in love. i was CRAZY about the first typewriter i had that had erasing ribbon installed so you never had to drag out the whiteout -- you just hit this special backspace key, and WA-LAH! the mistakes disappeared.

and then when i got my first mac plus. and could cut and paste and delete and insert. and makes words bigger and bold and (later much later) choose my own fonts. i don't know how anybody ever wrote a paper in college before my generation.

so yeah, technology -- i'm all for it -- except when it wastes ten times more time than it ever could have saved -- i LOVE paying my bills online -- many automatically and automatically entering them in my digital check book, but do i spend more time entering receipts than i ever could have saved. do you ever get ahead?

Mashups Smashups

That mosaic thing took way too long to load.

I did get a kick out of playing with different fonts from Flickr to make words.

Hey! Beautiful. I think it's going to work. They didn't make it too easy for the non-programmer to figure out how to use the creation you made, so I hope you can see this.

Regarding Mappr, they have a note saying they no longer process images. Might need to take this one down (Although, I still used it to find my photos of Grenada -- I think -- not sure now.)

Sandy Island

Sandy Island
Originally uploaded by SunCat

Grenadine island of Carriacou.

Grenada Waterfall

Grenada Waterfall
Originally uploaded by saxonfenken

Choosing this photo because it's a gorgeous illustration of my perfect vacation spot: lush, serene, cool, secluded, peaceful, unspoiled.

My wife and I have picked Grenada as a future vacation destination, because it not only has this kind of beautiful tropical forest, but lovely beaches (see next post).

Join the club

Per-plex-ation: n. 1) The state of being perplexed.