Thank You

Thank you. I know I complained at times but I did learn some new things. The course gave me an opportunity to explore. I normally am so swamped that I do not allow time to explore.

I liked the format and the mentors.:-)

Thank you

Thing 17 Webinars

I have used webinars and have found them very useful. I am inclined to make time and use them a little more often than I have in the past.

Sweet 16 or difficult 16

Thing 16 -Podocasts is interesting and fun.  Do you want to listen to Just One More Book!!!


But..........
I can see NPR, authors, music or schools having podocasts on  their website. Would patrons visit the library website to listen to a story podocast?

I can see visiting an authors or musicians website to hear them read or sing a song. But am a little unsure how we can use it in the Childrens Department.

Thing 12-15

I have to work on Thing 13 ALA connect.

I have a twitter and facebook account. My library has a twitter and facebook account. With facebook all the worlds get mixed up your personal and professional. It is a great tool. I am and was concerned about privacy but I think in the past few weeks with this course I have become more adventurous.

Chat feels so much from the past- but I do notice it being used really well from customer service point.

I have a LibraryThing and recently I joined GoodReads too. Though intially I started with Shelfari and was very happy. Then Shelfari did something and I have a hard time logging to my account and that has discouraged me from going back to it

Thing 11 Flickr

Department wall - Summer reading program display in progress

Today is the last day of our Summer Reading program this display that was made with a lot of thought is beautiful we have lots of fishes on it now and alas it will have to come down now.

Department wall with all the fishes :-)

I have used flickr on and off, I have never kept up with it. I like the aspect of online sharing especially with family and friends. But I have always kept my accounts private.

The Commoncraft video talked about sharing photos with everyone / make the account public so anyone can see- perhaps it might be fine to use it for a library that way - but yet again as mentioned with children in pictures we have to be careful when posting them on Flickr. That has kept me from posting program pictures on line.

Image Generator

Very interesting indeed.

There is so much possible on the Image Generator website.

Time and creativity is all that matters.

Enticing world of pictures

Eric Carle fabric

Welcome to the world of pictures, images , paintings or picture book art. Perhaps because I am a Children's Librarian my most favorite art form is picture book art.
If I have not already mentioned I would one day love to visit the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.
I love Artist to Artist: 23 major illustrators talk to children about their art.

Another secret I have never shared in public is I would love to be on the Caldecott committee one day. I wonder what it takes???


If you are looking for a presentation @ your library by an illustrator I found a cool website

Thing7 Wikis

Our library does have a Wiki for the staff and the reference librarians use it more than us.

Before summer reading I did brave going in their exploring and adding something, but it took too much of my time and I have not visited it since.

I liked the description, introduction and the different platforms for wikis on 21 things blog. I created on using WikiSpaces. Here is the url:

http://bookhorizon.wikispaces.com/

I have to work on it, but thanks to this program I am exploring and playing. It does take time and at time frustrating, but what I like is that I am learning.

Thanks 21 Things for 21st Century KidLibs.

Thing 6: Could not get social mention widget to work

I was trying to incorporate it in my blog as a widget, perhaps I am doing something wrong.

Google alerts was fine.
I have Social Mention on my browser toolbar- search engines choice- that is cool. But
I thought it might be cool to see if I can in corporate it in my blog- it is not working- any suggestions.

I still have to try Addictomatic and see if I will get addicted :-)

What is bit.ly?

I have been seeing bit.ly in some journals now, I never took the time to find out what it was. I have to confess it was easy to key in the website url this way. Today I was going through School Library Journal and again came across these- I searched on google- tda this is what I learnt-

About bit.ly

bit.ly allows users to shorten, share, and track links (URLs). Reducing the URL length makes sharing easier. bit.ly can be accessed through our website, bookmarklets and a robust and open API. bit.ly is also integrated into several popular third-party tools such as Tweetdeck. A more full list of third party tools can be found on the bit.ly blog. Unique user-level and aggregate links are created, allowing users to view complete, real-time traffic and referrer data, as well as location and metadata. Tracking stats are available after users shorten their long links with bit.ly by clicking on the “Info+” link on bit.ly, or just adding a “+” sign to the end of any bit.ly link (for example, http://bit.ly/n0og+).

From: http://bit.ly/pages/about

Something new every day

I always subscribed to blogs by clicking on follow on their blogs. If there are RSS feeds available I subscribed to them. Today I got to know a new trick of subscribing to a blog from my reader. YEAH!!!!

Interesting find on 21 things for kids blog

Little Passports- A Global Adventure (http://www.littlepassports.com/)

Little Passport is an online subscription game and sounds interesting and fun. I like the description and all the unique souvenirs and gifts that come along with playing this game. It definitely has piqued my interest and I would like to play it. Though I am not sure how many parents will subscribe to this for their children.

It has won the iParenting Media Award.

I wonder if we can use it as a library program- but it does seem a little expensive for one progam and then there is the issue of the library promoting this website.

Here are some of the ways we are using technology in my department:

• We have been circulating Nintendo DS and Wii games since last December, they are very popular.

• We use google documents to keep track of all the children registered in Summer Reading program. We can open the document from any computer in the library. The teen volunteers help us with updating it too.

Keeping up with the current technological trends and introducing them in the library and department would be helpful in serving the upcoming generations.

Thinking hard on something Techy to post

Ok I am working on coming up with something clever and techy, I use technology but to post and share why does it sound so scary- almost vulnerable.

Librarian 2.0 Manifesto

After reading Librarian 2.0 manifesto, I no longer have an excuse to not blog. This is fun and there is so much to learn and share.