A Few Things I Learned This Week

My Wimba presentation was high on my priorities list this week,

and yet I was unprepared.

This was partially because I spilled my pop about ten minutes before the session,

which ruined my slide notes and copies of my project.

By the time I cleaned it up and reprinted my notes I had 

no time to import my presentation before the session began.

Lesson learned: put the lid back on the pop even if you are busy! 

I enjoyed looking at the others' presentations. 

I hope others put their presentations in our course wiki so I can see them.

I mentioned on an earlier post that I posted to a discussion board on LibraryThing.

So far the only response has been tell me that I used the wrong verb tense for a word;

not really the response I was anticipating!

I have only tweeted eight times.

Sandra sent me a tweet and it was nice to receive one from someone talking to me!

I stopped following some of my interests because they took up to much space.

I added my fellow students, and a couple more library people.

I was down to following 15 people/organizations, but I am back up to 20.

I have not had a response to my tweets so I am far from developing a "hive." 

I found a few tweets that I had to look at the URL provided.

One was from Random House; an opportunity to win the entire Jane Austin collection

by entering a sweepstakes.

I could also answer 10 trivia questions about Jane Austin and her books and

I discovered I do not know a lot about Jane Austin.

Another was "Top 6 Archives Myths" from Smithsonian,

such as them having an underground storage facility under the National Mall.

I have not tried Second Life again as of yet.

A couple of my other courses are keeping me busy as well as this one.

I have my grandson this weekend,

so I believe this will be a good time for this activity.

Picasa Photos: Public Libraries

Amazing Building Around the World 
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/     

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=malvinder.virdi&target=ALBUM&id=5309757591411985089

Does anyone know where this building is located? 

I agree with the license owner, this is an amazing building.

---------

Urbandale Public Library pet show June 11, 2009

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

https://picasaweb.google.com/rjkenagy?authuser=0

 -------

I retrieved these photos from: https://picasaweb.google.com/

I searched for "public library" and specified "creative commons" for the license. 

This post completes the Picasa section of my Photo Sharing project.

Next week I move on to Flickr...be prepared ;-)

Book Reviews on GoodReads

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book to my three year old daughter. She has just recently developed the ability to sit through books that take more than a couple minutes to read. I was surprised when she not only stayed interested during some of the longer pages, but also wanted me to reread it as soon as I had finished it. It is an imaginative story that takes a known icon of the library and brings it to life. My daughter held her ears when the lion ROARED very loudly. I had as much fun reading the book to my daugther as she did in listening to this charming story.

I really like this book and it is almost a five star book for me.

I really have a hard time giving 5 star ratings!

View all my reviews

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The beginning of the book is very slow and I found the author's teenspeak a little hard to take at times. If I had not been reading this book for a class I may have stopped before it became interesting. A teenage boy sees the worst in his family and feels extremely sorry for himself. He becomes ill and begins to hallucinate. He starts to live in another reality as his disease progresses. He sees the moments of clarity, filled with pain and suffering, as the hallucinations. I know this sounds very morbid but it becomes almost light-hearted and funny. He learns to hope; which is refreshing after the depressing beginning. The conclusion is satisfying and uplifting, despite is inevitable end. I reread the last two-thirds of the book a couple times before returning it to the library, which is always a good sign!

I hope I do not offend anyone with my review. I did like the book and the storyline stayed with me for a long time after I had finished the book.

I think I even dreamed about it!

View all my reviews

GoodReads and LibraryThing

I really like GoodReads. They give me a lot of choices of books to give ratings. These help make recommendations for books I may wish to read. I have discovered a lot of books that I want to read; now I just need the time! I have only reviewed these two books at this point in time.

I think LibraryThing is better for people who have a lot of books they wish to catalog. I do not have a large collection of books but I do like to read when I have time. I prefer to get them free at my local libraries ;-)

I did not add more books to LibraryThing but I did contribute to a discussion thread. I am the last one out of 102 people. Hopefully I will have some direct comments to my post and I can post some of these next week.

The topic is if William Shakespeare wrote his plays; an old debate. I did a research paper on the "Wooden O" and I have an opinion about the debate. 

My New Projects and Skype

Photo-sharing:

I uploaded some of my pictures from my honeymoon in 2007 to Picasa

and these are on my blog as a slide-show.

Twitter:

I opened an account with Twitter. 

I added over twenty people to my list, but it is a bit overwhelming!

My twitter name is ChristinaDawnH.

LibraryThing:

I joined LibraryThing and GoodReads.

I wanted to join both and see the differences between the two.

So far I find GoodReads easier to use. 

I got to rate a lot of books. 

I found that I do not give 5 star ratings, 

even for books I really like.

LibraryThing so far seems better suited

for people with larger collections of books.

I tried Second Life last week but found it confusing.

Someone recommended new users go to Orientation Island.

Although I am not officially on this project,

I thought I might go back and see if this helps me.

Skype:

We role-played this week;

once as a patron and once as a staff member.

I learned a lot from the experience

and would like to thank both of my project members.

Picasa/Flickr Project:: Phase One

A few pictures from my honeymoon in the Tuscany region of Italy in 2007. 

My husband took hundreds of pictures; here are a few of them.

Following Sources: the End?

Resource Shelf-6 new postings on a short week. 

An interesting post today:

"Alexander Street Press Launches Free Search Platform"

Alexander Street Press has a video collection and

libraries who have access to Alexander Street video can

now search the collection in one place.

 ALA Tech Source-3 new postings this week.

A posting from today:

ALA is extending a special price for the ALA Tech Source online subscription.

From October 14th:

Overdrive already has a 200% increase of eBook checkouts 

over all eBook checkouts of 2010.

---

We officially wrap-up following our sources this week. 

Resource Shelf was very productive.

I always had quite a few posts to pick from for my blog.

The topics had a lot of variety and were interesting.

ALA Tech Source usually had between one to three posts.

Most of the topics were about workshops from ALA.

Many of them sounded interesting but I am not a member.

A source I found through Delicious was the ALSC blog.

(Association for Library Service to Children)

I believe all my sources had helpful and interesting information.

ALA Tech Source had the fewest postings; 

Resource Shelf the most postings;

but ALSC was the blog that I personally found the most interesting.

I did learn some new information from following these sources, 

that I feel will benefit me in the future.

It led me to find out more about items that I did not understand. 

I will leave the sources on my Google Reader,

and occasionally read something that catches my attention,

or my curiosity.

Goldilocks and Me

My professor in my ECED class took videos of us last Monday,

during our storytelling project.

She showed them last night as video clips,
so I thought I would try to upload mine into my blog.

It would not just load, possibly because it was in high-def video?

So I tried using Windows Live Movie Maker,

saving the setting for "computer," which still did not work!

So I tried saving it for an "e-mail" and it worked!

Yea!

Originally my professor said we would all be sitting in

a circle/semi-circle on the floor. 

She changed this and everyone is in their chairs. 

I have already introduced the story to everyone at this point

and sat on the floor, since this is what I practiced!

A New Beginning

The Delicious project came to a wrap this week,

and Following Sources will be done next week.

We sign up for new projects this week.

My choices are: LibraryThing, Photosharing, and Twitter;

expect to hear more about these as the semester moves on!

We have a Skype session next week,

I am not sure what to expect, as I have never used Skype 

and I am not sure what we are doing with the it.  

 

 I hear next week will be very full, so wish me luck!

Following Sources: Week 6

As of Thursday, October 13:

Resource Shelf Blog – http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog

18 new postings! I will discuss two briefly:

October 6:

From the blog:

ALA's 135th Birthday!

A "Convention of Librarians" was held in Pennsylvania during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia  in 1876. 

A register was signed for all who wished to become charter members. 

Melvil Dewey was one of the signers. 

October 11: 

From the press release:

"Entire eBook Catologs to be Available for Discovery, Sampling & Links to Booksellers"

90% or more of the eBooks in the WIN catalog are not available in libraries for lending.

Libraries who show Overdrive's WIN catalog will "earn affiliate fees for all sales referred" from their website.

ALA Tech Source - http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/

1 new postings:

October 13-Daniel E. Freeman

Continuing the Conversation: Integrating iPads and Tablet Computers into the Library Services

The first session of this workshop has finished. 

Presenters: Rebecca Miller, Carolyn Meier, and Heather Moorefield-Lang

There are lists of Discussion Questions, Resources for Today's Event,

Preliminary Readings, and Today's Slides.

One of the preliminary readings is recent Delicious link for me;

one of 7 Things You Should Know About...

http://educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutiPadA/223289

My Delicious Experience

This is my final blog about Delicious!

I added one more bookmark:

http://www.webology.org/2006/v3n2/a25.html

“Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries”

The article is good for anyone who wants a better understanding of Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 and how they affect the library.

---

My favorite bookmark/link I added was:

http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm

 

A more direct connection to libraries use of Web 2.0 is Webjunction.com

http://www.webjunction.org/events/webinars

 

The free webinars available on this website keep libraries informed of new information, without the time and expense of travel.

Some rights reserved by aussiegall   

---

Searching for tagged bookmarks/links that are pertinent to the information you want can be tricky.

What is a word that many people would use to describe your topic?

If you have a term that is too vague you will have to search through tons of websites.

If you use a tag that is too specific, you may get few items with that tag.

I found it best to start with a generic tag.

Once I had results, I would look for websites that were close to what I wanted and I would add tags from these to my search terms.

I also looked at some of the links of other people who had similar tags as me and from other students in my class.

This was easier before the change from Yahoo! and I lost my network.

---

I like the idea of having all my bookmarks in one area.

Many times I have bookmarked something one semester and then deleted them,

only to find I need them in another class.

But I am uncertain of how much I will use Delicious after today.

I am almost done with my degree,

but I am sure there will be more things I want to save for future reference.

There are personal thing I would like to bookmark on the website.

I have not used the “private” button,

 but I am not sure how comfortable I am in having these bookmarks on Delicious.

Overview of Assignments

I continue to Follow My Sources and Adding to Delicious.

I finally have answers for my Search Skills Test,

but I am unsure if they are the answer my teacher is seeking!

I think I am pretty good at finding things on the web and

I can usually figure out key terms, as well as print items.

I rarely think about using truncation, or Boolean terms.

I think I am slightly above the average person when it comes to finding items,

but not nearly as knowledgeable as I would like to be 

before showing someone else how to do something.

We needed to read three chapters this week 

and post a discussion board question/answer over one aspect of the chapters,

plus take a quiz over the terminology.

I am responsible for the summary of the discussion board posts this week

and I have yet to take the quiz.

Honestly I have not given it a thought since Wednesday

and I need to study more today before taking the quiz.

I took my connector's quiz last week and did okay. 

 I think I could go back and do better

but I think I am satisfied with the grade.

It has been one of those weeks, and honestly,
I am just trying to get through it!

Following Sources: Week 5

As of Tuesday, October 4:

Resource Shelf Blog – http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog

13 new postings! I will discuss two briefly: 

September 29:

From the press release:

"Springer Grants Haitian Students and Researchers Free Access"

Haiti is still rebuilding from the 2010 earthquake. 

Springer Science + Business Media is granting free access 

to 15,000 students and researcher at

the State University of Haiti through 2013.

October 4:

From the press release:

"Project MUSE Book Collections Coming in 2012" 

Starting January 1st, the collection of over 14,000 electronic titles will go live.

These come from "66 university press and scholarly publishers. " 

 ALA Tech Source - http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/

 2 new postings, I will discuss 1 briefly:

October 4-Kate Sheehan

The article states some of the pros and cons of robots in our lives, 

particularly when it comes to the library. 

It has a hint of paranoia and fear of robots taking over our jobs,

but also discusses how technology and automation has helped us.

Adding to Delicious: Week 5

Delicious seems smaller. 

When I put in search terms I feel that I find fewer results,

so perhaps they could not recover many of the links.

I added two websites this week,

from the sources we could follow at the beginning of the semester.

http://webjunction.org/

“WebJunction is a learning community working together

to ensure that all library staff have the resources

they need to power relevant,

vibrant libraries.”

I interviewed a cataloger for Lib 201

and she says she has taken a few webinars through WebJunction.

These are free, live audiovisual programs offered by the website.

“These free events allow you to meet

and learn from library leaders and fellow library practitioners.”

http://www.educause.edu/ELI7Things

 

“The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's)

 7 Things You Should Know About...

series provides concise information

 on emerging learning technologies and related practices.”

I found these interesting when I looked for sources to follow

but they only come out once a year.

The topics covered this year are: WordPress, Gamification,

Personalized Digital Magazines, Organizing Files in the Cloud,

LMS Evaluation, Open Textbook Publishing, 

and iPad Apps for Learning.

Some of the last years topics included:

Android, and Web 2.0 Learning Environments.

Quizzes, Projects, Sources, Delicious. Oh my!

I had numerous dreams about my class project this week.

I knew what I was going to do on my project and had studied the subject in some depth

but had nothing actually on paper yet. 

Thankfully I have a completed version as of this afternoon. 

I have two quizzes this week. 

One is not due until next week and I do not feel ready for it yet.

I may take it tomorrow and see how I do since we can take it twice.

I took the terminology quiz and did well.

I wanted to get the quizzes and project out of the way this week 

since I glanced at next week's assignments and it is FULL! 

Three chapters next week with a terminology quiz over all chapters,
plus other assignments. 
Should be fun!

Following Sources: Week 4

As of Tuesday, Sept 27th

Resource Shelf Blog – http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog

12 new posting! I will discuss two briefly:

September 27:

From eBookNewser:

Overdrive, a "Global Distribution eBooks, audiobooks & more," has started adding Kindle compatibility to school and public libraries in the United States.
I am hoping my local library will join Overdrive soon since I have a Kindle.
I just do not have time to read for fun at the moment,
but I am hoping once I finish my studies I will have more leisure time!

September 27:

From Library Journal:
Limited Time Free Access to OED OnlineConcise Oxford English Dictionary has turned 100.
Free access the the dictionary is available through October 1st.
http://www.oed.com/
Username: libjournalreader
Password: libjournalreader

ALA Tech Source - http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/

September 21st-Daniel A. Freeman

Continuing the Conversation: Creating Subject Guides for a 21st Century Library.

I discussed this a couple weeks ago; they were getting ready to start the workshop.  

They have completed the workshop and are very positive about the experience.

It posts the preliminary readings for the workshop
and also lists 10 resources from today's event, 

such as http:livebinders.com and http:kwout.com