Warholizer

Here's the lovely Warholized picture I created using fdflicker toys. Take a look!

Bloglines

I already have a Bloglines account that I created last year for one of MLIS classes. I hadn't actually been using it too much recently, so it was nice go back and revisit what I had feeds of. I had all of my classmates blogs on there as well as my teacher's. I have a wide area of interests, so I had some pop culture blogs in there as well as some fun websites of games and web cartoons. I should start adding other PBCLS blogs to my feed as well. I'd forgotten how fun something like this can be and now I'll be keeping up with my feeds more regularly!!

Slideshow fun

Well, I decided that since I like everyone else's fun slide shows so much that I'd add one of my own. I couldn't seem to get Blogger to find my specific Flickr photos, so I have Chicago architecture, which is one of my interests. Chicago is great city and a great city for libraries. After all, it is the headquarters for ALA!

Technology and Libraries

I think the most intriguing mix of technology and libraries is the new trend of libraries creating their own Facebook pages. Many libraries around the world have done this. Some are more creative than others, but at least it gets a presence out in the web. For an example, Baylor University Libraries has a Facebook page that connects the user to the catalog, allows them to IM a librarian and provides basic information about the library. Facebook users can become "fans" of these libraries, which brings more attention to them. This is not exclusive to academic libraries either. Arlington Heights Memorial PL, in Chicago, also has a great Facebook page that promotes programming and even has video postings that are intended to help others learn about Web 2.0. This could be the next frontier of library promotion and publicity.

Flickr and fd toys

Since I already had a Flickr account, I decided to use the fd Flickr toys to create this photo mosaic for my blog. There are some other really cool toys out there to play with your Flickr pictures. I even made a librarian trading card last year that can be found in my Flickr photostream. For some reason I couldn't make the "blog it" feature work between Flickr and Blogger, so I'm just going to post the mosaice I created this way. Any how, fd Toys are fun to play with one's own pictures or by searching tags, the way I did. I thought this was interesting almagam considering the keywords that I used to create my mosaic. I used books, libraries, and trees to create this. And I ended up with mostly pictures of tree related subject matter.

Flickr is a full of all kinds of pictures. I had a professor that goes to Chipotle at least once a week and then takes a picture of his meal and then uploads into his Flickr account. If you do a search for food pictures, you will find that many more people have done the same thing with all kinds of food!

Blogging in libraries

In library school I took an Internet Fundamentals and Design class. In this class we discussed many of these 23 things that will be coming in the weeks ahead. I participated in a group project about blogging and how it could be used in libraries. We decided to created a fictional librarian who was interested in using her blog to speak to other young librarians out in cyberspace, but also as a way to interact with patrons. We posted various things about Reader's Advisory, library programs, book reviews and general information about upcoming events that others might be interested in. I think this is a good way to promote the library as an information place on multiple levels. So I think the most successful library blogs that I've seen were well advertised, updated regularly and contained pertinent information.

Another good way to utilize blogs in a library setting is setting one up for the librarians and staff in a particular department. This way that can access the information they may need to know about from home or work. A blog is a less formal way to discuss things that are going on in a department. A blog can also be used to foster a stronger sense of community in a library as well. These are some ideas that I have about blogging and libraries.

7 1\2 Habits

In reviewing my assignment for blogging, I've realized that I forgot to discuss the 7 1\2 habits of life long learners. I really think that anybody is going to become a librarian is going to have these habits. After all, librarians spend most of their time learning from books as well as from each other and from patrons too! Really, this is what libraries have been about since Carnegie's time. His whole purpose for helping build libraries was to help out his fellow man by providing a learning space. He saw the library as the people's university.

Of these 7 1\2 habits, I think number 6 is the most important. Helping each other and teaching each other is the best way to learn and utilize our new Web 2.0 skills. This will also be greatest challenge, even though I believe strongly in it. I enjoy sharing knowledge with others, but I also tend to get easily frustrated if someone's knowledge level isn't as high as my own. So I know I am going to need patience fostering and teaching others at times.

Reader's Advisory

I have been working in on a list for a book talk that I am giving in June. It's all about Chick lit. I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. I have high hopes of bringing in a diverse group of people. I think it would be really great if I could get a few young mothers in too. Since chick lit has exploded into many sub genres, I feel that I have gathered a little bit of everything, including "mommy" lit. In fact my list includes the classic chick lit books, multi-cultural lit and also "matron" or "hen" lit, which has older main characters. I've got some snazzy looking handouts and I'm starting to gather the titles that I'd like to actually talk about.

Yay!

Blogger has unblocked my blog, so now I can post again. It's strange how they thought that I was spam...

My first Blog Post

This is my first blog post for my Web 2.o project here at the library. I'm excited to be able to play and learn about some these great new technologies. We often hear about how exciting these new things are but rarely seem to really dig into new technology, so this experience should be rewarding on many levels. Each person who participates is going to learn some really cool new stuff and the library system is bound to get some fantastic products from the many employees contributing. While this is by no means my first experience with blogging, I am eager to see what will be coming up next!