Life Long Learners

Topic brainstorming with dots

2010-08-31T05:54:00.000-07:00

From the 2010 State Library CE Coordinators Forum:

Last evening at our introductory session we brainstormed topics to fill out all the free time on our agenda. Sharon did a great job and offered these facilitation tips:

*Have someone else do the note-taking when asking for topic suggestions
*Alternate entries on chart pad with different colors, avoid red
*Divide total # of entries by three and give that number of dots to all attendees to place next to their preferred topics

There were 10 suggested topics; we were able to combine and narrow them down to three lunchtime discussion topics - coping with BTOP madness, WebJunction update, and doing more with less.

Then we went bowling!

July 2010 Statewide Projects Update

2010-07-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

here we go again

2010-07-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

another try with a another mp3 file.

let's try again

2010-07-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

I wonder how come its not working?

GovDocs 1

2010-07-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm practicing for upcoming podcast production. Here I'm using an mp3 file from Jenny Burroughs' spring 2009 great gov docs series. It's rather long, but we'll see how it works...

Montana Library Event Calendar

2010-02-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

View RSS feed

Practice Cut and Paste

2009-12-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

So You Want to Provide Virtual Reference?

Helpful Resources:

Ask Montana website http://askmontana.org/

Core Competencies for Virtual Reference http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/libraries/projects/virtualRef/textdocs/vrscompetencies.pdf

Keys to Organizing your Virtual Reference Desk http://66.212.65.207/textdocs/keysvrd.pdf

RUSA Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Service Providers http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/protools/referenceguide/referenceguidelines.cfm

Anytime, Anywhere, Answers Virtual Reference Training Program http://vrstrain.spl.org/

Library of Congress QuestionPoint User Guidelines http://www.loc.gov/rr/digiref/QP_best_practices.pdf

Green type Advertising

2009-07-06T14:38:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed green color type popping up in their blogs that links to ads? And does anyone know how to stop it? Just wondering...

PS- It seems to have stopped by itself. Maybe it was just a one day/week glitch thing. Thank you anyway! :) -C

WorldCat search box

2009-07-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

Lesson 5 is open

2009-05-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday before-a-three-day-weekend Challengers!

We are opening Lesson 5 of the 2009 Montana Library 2.0 Challenge today, a little early, but since Monday is a holiday, we thought we'd give people a head start. This lesson - Discovering Web 2.0 Tools- is set up to help you find and learn about Apps. You get to choose what you want to use and learn more about. It will be fun to see what people discover and I'm looking forward to learning about interesting new apps that I'm sure the group will find. This lesson, as well as the class, will close June 8. We're giving this module a little more time since it is starting on a holiday. Let me know if you have questions, or you can post them to the Life Long Learners blog and we can all help!

Lesson 4 Final Week

2009-05-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's good to see that many of you have successfully completed the assignments for Lesson 4 - Tagging + RSS = Information Power. I hope this lesson has helped you toward a better understanding of these important tools and that you'll find them useful in both personal and professional life. If you want to earn credit for this lesson and haven't yet completed the assignments, you'll want to get them done this week before Lesson 5 opens on Monday, May 25. That's Memorial Day, so if you have plans for the holiday you'll probably want to finish Lesson 4 before your take off for the weekend. Have a great time!

Using RSS to Add Currency to Your Website

2009-05-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

It's very interesting to see the RSS feeds that some Challengers have embedded on their blogs. Can you imagine using this push technology to provide always-updated information on your library's webpage? What kind of feeds would prove useful to your patrons?

If you have a little extra time (around an hour) and you are interested to learn more, here's a pretty good screencast presentation on the topic: http://blip.tv/file/147822

Facebook

2009-05-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

I have a facebook account now. I have made some friends, I did find myself wondering over the weekend, what was happening on twitter. I did not have time to follow it though. I barely have time to spend on it for class. I like them both as tools and look forward to finding a way to use them for our library. I am currently using my blog skills for our library. I am going to try and connect my Twitter and Facebook now. I'll keep you posted.

Teens & MySpace

2009-05-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm having fun this AM playing around with MySpace. I've added a few friends - students I know from contact in the library, and hope to add more. Features like the calendar and creating events hold great potential. I just invited all my "friends" to a library sponsored event next week. On the calendar I can post which classes will be coming in to the library next week. This might work out to be a good tool, after all.

Twitterfeed?

2009-05-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

It looks like from some of the blog posts and tweets I've seen that I'm not the only one having difficulty getting twitterfeeds to work. Has anyone figured out a solution yet? Or are we all experiencing different problems? My problem is that I can't seem to even create a feed at all - I fill in all the information, tested my RSS feed (which said it was good), and hit the create button. When I do the authentication to Twitter step, it says it's successful, but then it bounces me back to the creation form and all the fields have been cleared. When I click on "my feeds" to see if it's created, there's nothing there. I've tried Authenticating to Twitter both before and after clicking the create button. Am I missing something incredibly obvious?

I did go over to their help forums and it appears there have been some glitches with the system - which are apparently fixed - but I didn't find any mention of the problem I'm having.

Libraries and Twitter

2009-04-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

Twitter is such a short blip that at first I wondered how it could be useful to any library, much less mine. However, after looking at some and following GRPL (Grand Rapids Public Library--my daughter is currently in that community), I can see some very positive uses.

For example, a program date changes at the last minute--a twitter post could help get the word out. Or, if the library has a blog on their website, a twitter post could draw attention to any new blog postings. Or, a short tweet can be a reminder of an activity.

Or, this is the most fun--GRPL had this recent post: New blog post: Rats in the Dumpster http://www.grpl.org/blog/?p

Now of course, anyone with any sense of adventure and/or curiosity is going to look at this tweet and wonder about it. Is the library located in a rat infested area? Doesn't the dumpster get emptied frequently? Now, if either of those are the case, I probably wouldn't want to be a patron there, and if I worked there, I certainly wouldn't want to advertise the fact so that my patrons didn't want to come. So, those two possibilities couldn't be true.

So, of course, I want to learn more and I'll click on the link to their blog and get the full, true story, as well as a great photo. And I'll learn that this "incident" created some great PR even though that was not necessarily the intent.

So, can twitter help my library? Yes, but only if I use it often enough for people to be interested in what is there.

P.S. Did you check out the rat story?

PPS. I did it again and posted to Life Long Learners when I should have posted on my own blog. But hey, this was an interesting read, right?

Twitter feed

2009-04-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

I think I need help figuring out if my feed is working or not? Any ideas?

Twitter

2009-04-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

And trying to sign into twitter and keep getting an over capacity message.

Twitter feed

2009-04-19T17:29:00.000-07:00

Trying to get my twitter feed set up

2009-04-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today I set up my twitter account and posted to it. I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but I am sure finding out how to use it will be interesting. I need to find a 2.0 application to store pictures on, as the one I wanted to use as a profile photo-rather than just a brown box-is currently on another computer. I don't really like to have my picture taken, but I like to take pictures of flowers so I will use one of my flower pictures.

sheep video

2009-04-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

I watched the sheep video...funniest thing i've seen in awhile.

2009-04-18T13:53:00.000-07:00

Getting through twitter but am not sure yet that I will use it very much in the future.

Twittering Newbie

2009-04-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!! This experience is all new to me. I confess it's fun and almost addicting. It could eat into my read and practice guitar time. GRRRR. Best wishes.

Twitter

2009-04-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

I'm having more fun with Twitter than with anything else so far. While I like the immediacy of the short and frequent communications, I miss the freedom of a rambling entry that I can do when blogging. I'm only about halfway through the Twitter lesson and so I sense the application (is Twitter an application?) has lots of features I have yet to discover. Hope to get through it all leaving for MLA next week.

2009-04-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Communication Assignment 2. Wow! I had heard about AskMontana before, but had never tried it or thought about volunteering to participate in it. I tried both the chat and e-mail sections of it and was totally impressed. I'm going to be recommending this to my older elem. students. I enjoyed the chat aspect and the fact that I could look at web pages while the librarian was finding more resources for me.

2009-04-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Assignment 1. In the elementary school library that I work in, e-mail is primarily used when a parent wants to ask a question about library policys, lost books-either whether or not child is missing a book- and how much the replacement cost of lost books is. At this point web 2.0 communication tools are not used much in the elementary library. On rare occasions when students have e-mailed me with a question, I've noticed they tend to use their texting vocabulary rather than correct english. I personally have not used IM much-just in a workshop I attended with some other teachers. I have texted some, but am not proficient with it.

instant messaging

2009-04-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Instant messaging was fun with Lauren and I think if you could get patrons signed onto the idea especially kids needing help with homework it would be great. I also learned that skype is like instant messaging when you don't have a microphone. I was hoping to attend a webinar but they didn't seem to happen during these two weeks. Looking forward to the next lessons.

email

2009-04-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

In Flathead County Library System, we use email to inform customers that they have books on hold, to communicate with each other and branches, to inform each other of up coming events, to tell customers they have interlibrary loans available, to pass along information to others in our department whether it be a concern or a valuable site we found to help with reference questions. I believe productivity has gone up because we can check books in rather than call that many more customers about their books on hold because an automatic email is sent when items are checked in for the customer. We can work on other projects while another department answers our question by using email. Personally, I use instant messaging often I don't use it at work some of my colleagues do askmontana for reference questions. Personally, I have text messaged with friends before but not for reference work.

Communication 2.0 Web Conferencing

2009-04-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

Webinars -- what a wonderful resource! For the past several years, I have been taking advantage of the opportunities offered to learn about new products, tips and techiques for using existing databases, and just keeping up with the library field in general. It is so much easier to schedule an hour to sit at my computer and learn, than it is to travel 2-6 hours (one way) to a face to face workshop to receive the same information. Also, if I can't watch the program at that time, I can watch an archived version at my convienence.

OPAL is one source that I will start keeping an eye on. I found some very interesting programs in the archives. Two other sources that have really good webinars are the SirsiDynix Institute (http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/) and BCR's Free Friday Forums (http://www.bcr.org/training/archives/index.html). Both of these sites have archives, so that you can watch the previous programs.

Probably the biggest drawback to webinars is the lack of interaction with your fellow attendees. At many workshops, you often learn as much from the members of the audience as you do from the speakers. So, webinars shouldn't be seen as a total replacement to traveling to a workshop or a conference, but as another tool for learning.

First Post

2009-04-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

This is all so mind boggling for me! Some of you might have similar feelings but it is really the little things that are holding me back from all of this new technology in social networking - in the library or in my personal life. Seriously, the hardest part so far has been selecting a name!
I have told a couple of you this before but when I asked my teenage daughter just how much personal information I should share on these sites she said "Mom, you're like 40! Who's gonna care?" I looked to see what some of you have chosen and I see that some of you have selected clever names while others have used your given name. I tried to be clever with "librarylady". It turns out that it was already in use so the computer added jlo- to the beginning. Now I show up as Jlo! Who knew?! -Just JodiO.

Which Blog?

2009-04-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve had questions about which blog you are supposed to post to – your individual blog or the group blog “Life Long Learners”. The answer is: use either one or both - I will track your assignments wherever you post them. It’s really in the spirit of 2.0 to use the team blog –sharing your thoughts with the community, so please do that if you are so inclined. But if you’re new to all this and want more practice on your personal blog – or if you want to keep all your posts in one place, then use your own blog for assignments.

Thanks for your thoughtful posts about this lesson’s topic!

p.s. it's lambing season - a time to think about sheep. If you haven't seen the sheep video that Irene posted on her blog, maybe you should take a look: http://imscheid.wordpress.com/

Communications 2 Point 0: Email/Reference

2009-04-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

How did we survive before the days of email? I wonder how many other forms of technology will this question be asked of in the near future?

So, how do I use email? Of course, personal use with family members and friends. But at work? Well, other librarians, via direct and list servs; responses regarding on-line book and supply orders; sending news articles to the local newspaper; communicate with teachers about their class visits; some patron requests or info about previous face-to-face conversations; and solicitations from authors, jobbers, etc. So, yes, there is a lot to discard without opening, others to reply to and then delete, and more to file for later reference. All this takes time--I check it first thing and then frequently throughout the day

The library uses email for genealogy requests and historical questions, ILL requests, and needed dialogue with the State Library staff. We do notify a few patrons regarding their item holds. Between staff? Occasional messages but intercom or face-to-face is generally more reliable.

Has it improved productivity? Yes and no. Takes time, but saved messages can be helpful when a problem occurs with a book order, for example. Being able to track the history can be great.

Web 2.0 communication tools for reference can be useful in the right context. At the college level, where the communication volume is high and students use texting and instant messaging a lot, these tools can be useful. In our small library, not so much. We do not have the personnel to be able to dedicate someone to constant online availability for the random contact. Email is great for delayed reference but phone is still the most helpful for immediate needs.

I recognize that texting and IM may become more in demand in the future, but at this point? No.

First Lesson!

2009-03-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Lesson 1 on Communcations 2.0 started today. The lesson covers instant messaging, text messaging, Skype and webconferencing - and it's meant to get people thinking about how the different communication tools can reach patrons and meet different communication needs.

Three more people signed up this morning, so I'm busy getting them registered...

Chinese writing

2009-03-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Is anyone else seeing Chinese writing on their compatriots' blogs?

Welcome!

2009-03-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

It's the 2009 Montana Library 2.0 Challenge! If you haven’t yet completed your introductory blog post (See Getting Started -step 3), please do it soon so you’ll be ready to start lesson 1 on Monday.

We used a nifty web 2.0 tool to create community page for your blogs, so you can easily follow and connect with your fellow Challengers’ activities. It’s linked at the top of the sidebar on the Challenge website – the link is descriptively titled “2009 Challengers’ Blogs”. Please visit the page and get acquainted by checking out one another’s blogs – you might want to practice commenting on some posts as well.

You will also notice the group blog – “Life Long Learners” in the left column on the blogs page. This blog will be used for program announcements, and as a place to post questions or other discussions. (for example, this email announcement is posted on this very blog!) You will shortly receive an invitation to become an author on the lifelong learners’ blog. Please accept the invitation so you’ll be able to post to the blog if something comes up you that you want to share with everyone.

I hope you're all looking forward to the learning and the fun. If you have any questions or trouble getting started, please contact me – I’m glad to help! See you next week

Second test improves volume

2009-01-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

http://lddtrainer.googlepages.com/SecondTest.mp3

Now it'w on to the next steps...

Creating podcasts

2008-12-30T14:58:00.000-08:00

After the challenge was over I had several requests for a class of some sort on how to produce podcasts. So I'm working on developing a learning module for producing podcasts. So far I have created a digital audio recording (one sentence), saved it as an mp3 file, and put it on the web. Now I must link it on a blog and create an RSS feed, so I'm using this blog/post as a sandbox.

http://lddtrainer.googlepages.com/LaurensTest.mp3 (if this works I'll change the link text/feed name to something more interesting) So far so good...

Concluding Thoughts

2008-08-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

Things seem pretty busy around here, vacations, wrapping up the summer, starting school, feeling the crispness of autumn in the air - especially in the mornings! Some of you have completed all the assignments for the Challenge -- congratulations! And there is still plenty of time for the rest of you to finish up - we're still around until September 15. After that date, we will issue certificates for CE credit to everyone who has completed all assignments (that should be 11 blog posts for 10 lessons).

In the meantime, I'll open all three optional lessons this weekend and you can take a look at them if you like. The only one of them that is time sensitive is the librarian dance party in Second Life. I don't have any plans to reschedule that unless I hear from you - so if you'd like to meet up in SL let me know and we'll do it!

It has been 6 months since the end of the first MT Library 2.0 Challenge (time sure flies!) and I'm planning to survey those participants to find out what, if anything, they have done with 2.0 at their libraries. I'll share the results here. --and I'll survey you six months from now!

I have really appreciated your thoughtful and enthusiastic approach to the material in this program. Your conversations reflected a consideration of the meaning of all this that goes a little deeper than just learning how to operate the technology. Web 2.0 is essentially about user-generated content and that has implications for everyone and (I think) especially for those of us in the library business. During the first round of the challenge I borrowed book from the library that presents another, darker side of Web 2.0: The Cult of the Amateur: How blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the rest of today's user-generated media are destroying our economy, our culture, and our values by Andrew Keen. The author takes the issue beyond concern about the "dumbing down" effect. He's got an axe to grind and I don't entirely agree with him, but he makes some points worth considering...

Library challenge

2008-08-16T13:17:00.001-07:00

I think perhaps the best thing about this whole challenge so far is the familiarity I am getting (however little it may be!) with moving around in the internet. I am able to find much more and use what I find. Thanks for helping me be a better librarian!

Week 9 wikis

2008-08-11T05:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to week 9 of the Montana Library 2.0 Challenge. It’s hard to believe we’ve almost reached the end of the program! Last week you had the opportunity to explore del.icio.us and appreciate its value both as a research tool and as a way to organize an ever growing number of favorite Internet sites.

This week is all about wikis. I’m a great fan of the wiki as a collaboration tool. Suzanne, Tracy and I used free web-based wiki software to create this Library 2.0 program website; we were able to work from different locations, updating and adding content whenever needed. In this lesson, you will be invited to contribute content to a Montana Library wiki if you are so inclined.

Next week we will begin wrapping up the program. Remember there will be plenty of time for you to catch up and complete the program if you are a little behind on the lessons. Actually, I've fallen behind this week too, since I was gone last week doing training in Hays, Sidney, and Baker. So I am looking forward to catching up on your blog posts from last week.

Have a good 2.0 week!

Podcasts3

2008-07-26T12:06:00.001-07:00

OK, that didn't work at all, either. Back to the drawing board...

Podcasts 2

2008-07-26T11:38:00.001-07:00

Well, it certainly helps to have a young brain! I asked a teen about how to view a podcast. In case anyone else is having trouble, you need to open Windows Media Player, choose Media Library, click on Other Media, click +Add, then, leaving the player up, open Firefox (in my case), find a podcast, copy the URL in the box, and paste it into the box on the Media Player. So far, the podcasts I have been interested in don't work that way, but I'm assured that some will. So I'll keep on trying!

Podcasts

2008-07-24T17:37:00.001-07:00

Today I tried to open a podcast, but got this message "Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (itpc) isn't associated with any program."
I switched to IE, and couldn't get through there, either - a page came up saying 'Page cannot be opened'. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do to get the podcast?

Libraries and Flickr

2008-07-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting thing on Flickr that is a great example of how Libraries can use Flickr to make their resources available to the masses. Check out the Commons . It contains photos from a variety of sources including the Library of Congress and number of museums. According to Flickr... "The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer."

More Challengers

2008-07-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

Two more Challengers joined us this week - from the Lincoln County Libraries. You can meet them on their blogs (the two new ones at the bottom of the page). It's getting kind of late in the program to take new registrations, so there probably won't be any more additions to our group.

Welcome Sami and Melody - Have fun!

Challenging Assignments

2008-07-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

We're closing in on week 5 of the Montana Library 2.0 Challenge (summer round) so next week we'll be on the down hill side of the program already! I think you'll find that the hardest part of the Challenge is past you - there aren't as many or as detailed assignments associated with the latter lessons. Hopefully you'll have time to continue exploring and playing and integrating the tools you've already learned about into the upcoming lessons and into your daily lives.

I want to let you know what a pleasure it is for me to open my Google Reader every day to see the fun and exciting things you have been learning and doing in the Challenge. Thanks for this daily dose of inspiration! I hope you also enjoy following the experiences of your colleagues.

I don't know about you, but I think the generator blog is one of the coolest collections of web toys around. Hint: YA family members and library patrons really enjoy being turned on to it.

Flickr uploads?

2008-07-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

So, I tried to use the picture upload feature on Blogger a couple times, but couldn't get a picture from Flickr to actually appear in the blog, so I just used one off my computer... I was trying to actually get the Neil Gaiman picture from MT Libraries Flickr group in my blog posting, but had to settle for just the link. Any ideas?

Pad (aka Book Dude aka Booker)

2008-07-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hi, Lauren - Flickr sure has a lot of possibilities! I just need more time to figure things out. However, I do have a couple of questions for you - first, how do I delete the Flickr test post from my blog (Flickr just says to be sure to delete it!), and second, is it possible to transfer a complete trading card image onto my blog? I would really like to get a physical copy of it, too. Any suggestions?

Spammed!

2008-07-14T05:06:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the comment on last week's post and you will see an example of blog comment spam. I don't know how often this happens; this is only the second time it has happened on a blog of mine. It can be avoided by making a blog private or not allowing comments. Comment spamming may also be dealt with by enabling comment moderation.
For unrelated reasons, the MSL Travelers blog has been temporarily removed from public view, so the link to the post about ALA (in last week's post) is dead. Sorry about that. Watch for ALA information from Montana librarians on the Montana ALA News blog http://mtalanews.blogspot.com/ .

ALA on Flickr

2008-07-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

ALA reported that there were 22,000 librarians in attendance at ALA, it was pretty amazing! I had my camera with me, but forgot to use it except for the last day, when Suzanne, Sarah and I got together for lunch. Sarah's daughter took a snapshot of us in front of the ALA store, which I posted to our department blog along with a brief report of my ALA activities (check out this post on MSL Travelers if you're interested to see us).

Even though I forgot to use my camera, many other librarians were not so remiss and they have shared lots of ALA conference photos on flickr. You can check them out at: http://flickr.com/photos/tags/ala2008 .

In order to track your progress in the Challenge, I have subscribed to RSS feeds for your blogs. I decided to try Google Reader this time (during the last challenge I used Bloglines). I'm not sure if I have a preference for one over the other, but it is convenient to have my reader in the same place as some of my other services, like documents, mail and calendars.

Web 2.0 certainly offers a lot of choices!

Second Hand Blog

2008-07-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a posting from Stephen Abram's blog - Stephen's Lighthouse. The thought of this might be a little overwhelming, but think how fun it would be -

July 9, 2008

Learning Along With Your Library Community

Check out this cool innovation from Yarra Plenty Libraries in Australia:

A Taste of Web 2.0: Connecting Online @ Your Local Library

They link to it from their homepage.

What Yarra Plenty Library is doing is that they're running a 6 week Web 2.0 program for the public. They're starting July 25, and the self-paced online course will introduce their cardholders to some popular Web 2.0 applications. Those locals who complete the program will go into the draw for one of 9 iPods. Here's the sort of tools they're promoting users learn:

Skype
SecondLife
Create a blog
Flickr and photosharing
Image Generators
LibraryThing
Google Maps
Google Book Search
iGoogle
Podcasts
E-Books Audio Books and Overdrive
YouTube
MySpace
Facebook

Cool!

Steal this idea.

Stephen

Challenge Week 4

2008-07-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Week 4 of the Montana Library 2.0 challenge! Most of you have completed last week’s lesson on RSS and shared your thoughts about its usefulness at libraries. If you want to see more examples of libraries using RSS and learn how to do-it-yourself you might want to view the “Using RSS to Add Currency to your Library Website” screen cast at: http://blip.tv/file/147822/ .

This is the week for flickr and photo-sharing; there are two lessons – 4a & 4b - and you have an assignment to complete for each lesson. You don’t need a digital camera to complete the assignments, but if you can get one to use you will really enjoy uploading your own photos, for example to jazz up your blog or to share them with friends.

Don’t forget to check out this blog for additional information about lessons or questions and comments from your fellow Challengers. I hope you enjoy this week’s lessons!

Bloglines Validation E-Mail

2008-06-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Just a heads up for those who are technologically challenged like myself. When I was creating an account with Bloglines, their validation e-mail was sent to my spam folder. So if you can't find it in your inbox, look in your junk mail. :)

Greetings from ALA

2008-06-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

Suzanne and I are at ALA conference in Anaheim, attending some great sessions on web 2.0 and other things. I didn't bring my laptop on this trip - and I'm taking some vacation time until the 4th of July holiday. I wanted to let you all know that a few more folks have joined the Challenge and I'll get their information up as soon as I'm back in the office on July 7, when I will also open the next lessons (flickr and photo sharing). I'll bring back some photos from ALA to share!

Creating RSS Feeds?

2008-06-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm totally enjoying knowing how to subscribe to RSS feeds and having news sent to me. I can see some good reasons for libraries to use RSS to send information to their patrons. My question is how do syndicate the content in the first place? My blog just seems to automatically do it. That's fine, but what if it's not just an automatic thing. Can you create an RSS feed? And if so how?

Montana Library 2.0 Challenge team blog

2008-06-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

For this round of the Challenge, we're going to try something new. We will use this blog to post announcements about program changes, news, and additional resources that might be of interest. We suggest that you subscribe to the RSS feed in order to receive program announcements in a timely manner. You will be invited to become an author on this blog so that you can ask questions and post comments to the whole group if you desire. Posts to this team blog are not required and are not tracked as assignments for CE Credit (all CE credit assignments are completed on your individual blogs.)

To create this blog, I made a few changes in an existing practice blog from the first round of the Challenge, so the earlier posts in this blog provide some examples of completed assignments. You can also look at many other blogs from round 1 of the Challenge to see what some of your fellow librarians discovered about web 2.0 during the previous round.

So, without further ado:

Welcome to Week 3 of the Montana Library 2.0 Challenge! Hopefully you have completed Lessons 1 & 2, created your blog and done some posting, and are ready to learn about how to keep up with other blogs you want to follow. Lesson 3 will show you how to subscribe to RSS feeds, which is a way of getting syndicated content delivered to you. You will be introduced to a few web tools for doing this, and for your assignment we suggest you create an account on Bloglines (or another reader) and subscribe to some feeds of interest. RSS may seem a little confusing at first (I remember it was a head-scratcher for me) so if you still have questions after exploring the discovery resources don’t hesitate to ask a Challenge support team member (see http://mslonline.pbwiki.com/Help!) or ask your questions here on the blog.

Note: When you create your bloglines (or other) account, don’t forget to write down your user name and password so you can get back in later!

Have a good week!

Tagging & Social Bookmarking

2008-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

I took a long break for December and the holidays, and during that time I had a sort of epiphany about the importance of tagging. Tagging in lots of environments, but del.ici.ous in particular. Delicious tagging has obvious beneficial uses:

You can have your favorites available to you on any computer.
It's very useful for resource discovery - try looking up something like "computer tutorials" or "knitting patterns".
You can assign multiple keywords to each item you save, so you can "file" them in different categories.

I'm in the process of tagging all the favorites that are on my computer into a delicious account, and I love the flexibility. There are only 20 items in my account so far, but for example take a look at some of my favorite book blogs: http://del.icio.us/lddtrainer/book_blog.

One thing I would like to learn about in this class is subscribing to RSS feeds for tags. Talk about customizing your information input! I'll keep you posted...

YouTube

2007-11-18T17:05:00.000-08:00

My husband took up the guitar this year and recently we used YouTube to view a large number of performances of "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom". It was great to see so many different interpretations, so later I looked for some other songs. The quality of the videos isn't always very good, but it is fun.

There are some good library-related videos on YouTube, and there are a lot of boring ones. My favorite is still the Betty Glover Library Workout Video Ad. It is a little dated and so am I, but I think it is very funny!

Podcasting

2007-11-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

I'm glad I learned how to listen to podcasts on my computer - both by subscribing through Bloglines and listening there, and by listening in iTunes. I haven't figured out how to put the podcasts on my MP3 player yet. I don't know if I'll get into the practice of creating podcasts anytime soon, but its sure nice to be able to listen!

Playtime

2007-11-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

Its amazing how many toys and image generators there are to play with. Here's my Librarian Trading Card at left. I also Che Guevarized http://jeux.fluctuat.net/cheguevarize/ a friend but was unable to save the picture to post here. That was very funny!

Flickr Fun part b

2007-11-01T18:15:00.000-07:00

I had a good time playing with the flickr toys & tools, spent rather more time in that part than I had planned. Among other things I hockneyed a photo and used bubblr to create a comic strip using some flickr library photos. I "lost" the strip and would like to go back to try to find it or make another one sometime.

Flickr Fun part a

2007-11-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

I know there are a lot of library cats out there and, since cats are such posers, naturally there are lots of terrific library cat photos on flickr. Here's a link to just one of them: http://flickr.com/photos/73516598@N00/90718884/ More library cat photos can be seen by making a search for the term library cat in the search box at upper right (use the drop down menu to search everyone's photos).

RSS Feeds

2007-10-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know why it seems so hard to grasp RSS. The concept makes perfect sense; bring in the information you want through syndication rather than having to run around looking for it. Maybe it's just that the technology is still a little clunky? Or there are too many options for doing the same thing?

It's easy to imagine ways that libraries can use RSS. Librarians are always helping patrons sort through the vast internet landscape, and one thing they could do is provide links to librarian-evaluated & selected RSS feeds on their websites.

For this exercise, I subscribed to some podcasts on my Bloglines account, which I can listen to on the computer.

My Good and Bad Habits

2007-10-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

I think most of my learning habits are pretty good; I take responsibility, have confidence, know how to put together a toolkit, and use technology to advantage. But I don't often have a goal in mind when I start in on learning, don't always view problems as an opportunity for learning, and probably don't play enough. I heartily attest to the value of habit #7 - teach others. Since I started working as a trainer for the State Library I have learned more than I ever expected to know about technology. It's kind of like being on a high speed locomotive...