Library Pills

Phoebe

2011-11-13T08:40:00.002-06:00

What a week! Phoebe Mae was born on Wednesday, 11-9-11 and now home with her sister and brother. She's being pampered by lots of family locally and at a distance. We are farther away that we like, but with technology we can see her from afar. Our plan is to be all together at Christmas with our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren! What an anticipation :-)

Database Basics Workshops

2011-10-12T05:31:00.003-05:00

Each semester our library provides research training for our English 102 students preparing to write their required research paper. This semester we created an online sign-up form that made contacting the students much easier. Communication with both students and faculty has been superb. Introducing the wealth of information that our students have available both on and off campus is one of the enjoyable duties that I have each semester. We set aside time for 28 workshops over a 2-week period and staff the sessions with librarians who enjoy the challenge. We are now down to the last 2 days. Fall 2011 has been a success and I look forward to recording the stats. The next added value will be a rubric to track use of resources used in the papers. Maybe next semester.

Steven James

2011-08-18T10:15:00.003-05:00

I've been reading Steven James: The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, etc. He writes thrillers with cutting edge information.

http://www.amazon.com/Steven-James/e/B001IU0RQS/ref=sr_tc_ep?qid=1313680965

The Road from Coorain

2011-06-18T12:24:00.003-05:00

On the recommendation of my daughter, Tricia, I'm reading Jill Ker Conway's book, The Road from Coorain, about her growing up years and schooling in Australia to be followed by True North, her memoir in the academic world of America. I borrowed both books via PASCAL, our academic library consortia in South Carolina.

LibGuides

2011-03-06T06:27:00.002-06:00

Up early on a Sunday morning working on a LibGuide for a class workshop I'm presenting on Monday. I'm always looking for ways to make the information easier for the students to access. Welcome to the life of an academic librarian! Love it!

Snow

2011-01-10T07:04:00.002-06:00

Snow in Greenville, SC is quite the event. We just received an emergency call saying that the campus is closed! Woohoo! We can enjoy the 6+ inches from our warm apartment :-) In a city that rarely gets more than a dusting, this is quite the snow emergency. Even though we as northerners think we know how to drive, we don't want to be on the road with those who don't!!! I just saw a semi stop on the side of the road. The snow is now coming down heavy again; I'm curious to find out how much we'll actually get.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

2010-12-06T17:34:00.000-06:00

Too funny

2010-09-23T10:58:00.002-05:00

Here we go again!

Weekend

2010-08-28T07:09:00.003-05:00

Ahhh the weekend before school begins on Wednesday. Students and parents have been arriving nonstop filling the campus with life once again! Our Saturday is consumed with laundry and preparation for the coming week and an occasional excursion away from Greenville. We live in a gorgeous area of the country. In South Carolina the mountains beckon us to visit. In Minnesota it was the expanse of blue sky and the Twin Cities; we often said when driving to the Cities that our "lines had fallen in pleasant places." Now we live that life virtually through our children and grandchildren who live in the north while we enjoy the south.

I'm listening to Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, an amazing story that my daughter suggested I read. Our freedom in the USA takes on a whole new meaning when contrasted with the oppression in Iran.

We're looking forward to a good year with new challenges.

LibGuides

2010-08-23T22:00:00.001-05:00

I'm working on a LibGuide presentation to demo all the neat ways to share information and websites for teachers and librarians.

Librarians and Conservatives

2010-08-09T19:40:00.004-05:00

Comment on Will Manley's blog by me: "My experience in Minnesota as the Library Director of Pillsbury Baptist Bible College was always positive and gracious with my librarian friends at SELCO (Southeast Libraries Cooperating) and MINITEX at the University of Minnesota. They may have had liberal viewpoints and I certainly had conservative viewpoints, but that was never an issue in our relationships. The state librarian and I regularly shared ideas on a number of occasions. We benefited from a grant to bring us into the regional system that would have been a win-win for us and the state, but we closed at the end of 2008. They were just as disappointed as we were."

Let me also add on my blog: In 2005, I was given a grant to attend the ACRL Conference in Minneapolis. The leadership of ACRL certainly recognized that I was from Pillsbury Baptist Bible College and still granted me a scholarship to attend for the week. My conservatism was not an issue. Yes, there were comments made from the platform of a liberal nature, but I knew that would happen and expected it. My hosts for the conference were always gracious and wanted my input at the sessions I attended. I would attend another ACRL Conference in a minute. I always take the beneficial ideas, and ignore the less helpful ones.

I miss my colleagues in Minnesota and the camaraderie we had together.

Lunch Break

2010-07-15T11:19:00.002-05:00

We're halfway through July and getting ready for another school year. The summer is going too fast, but we're having good times with friends and family. Oscar is now 6 and Peyton will be 12 in September. Cynthia celebrates her birthday on Sunday and our anniversary is the next week. It's hard to believe that we've been married for 40 years.

2010-02-21T14:07:00.001-06:00

Our car is getting a much needed bath and vacuum at Canopy - they do an excellent job!

2010-02-21T08:45:00.001-06:00

Testing my new mobile set-up. Love mobile access.

Christmas House 2009

2009-12-25T19:49:00.000-06:00

Here are the pictures from our house on Christmas Day.

Clearing Snow from the Deck

2009-12-24T15:04:00.002-06:00

Cynthia and I cleared the deck of snow before the next wave expected later this afternoon!

Charter

2009-10-15T21:10:00.004-05:00

Starting last Friday we had a problem with our Internet access. It died and nothing we did following instructions from the Charter phone service helped. After having no connection all weekend, it came back on Monday morning. We thought all was well, but no service again on Monday night - frustrating! We scheduled a tech to come, but of course, he couldn't come until Wednesday morning. Maurice came and changed the modem; we were connected and thought all was well, but alas, we came home from work, and no service. We scheduled another visit for Thursday morning, this one thought we had a problem with our Macintosh computers connecting - WHAT?!? Our second tech on Thursday was scheduled to drop off a new cable box for our TV, and this cable guy knew what to do. Apparently, there is a sequence that has to be followed when replacing the modem : Unplug wireless router, turn Airport off, replug wireless router (WAN solid and Internet Blinking fast), then turn on Airport. We learned something new!! No problems! The moment of truth will be tomorrow morning!

Family

2009-08-15T08:26:00.004-05:00

Happy birthday to my sister, Marcia, today. We had a good talk this morning catching up on our lives. Family is important in our lives. Our adult children are in Greenville, SC, Owatonna, MN, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Mankato, MN, Janesville, MN, and Owatonna, MN (in that order :-). Andy will be heading to Watertown, WI this coming week for his senior year at Maranatha Baptist Bible College. We will miss going to his football games, since we're involved at our new school with a totally different schedule. You can be assured we'll be perusing all the football pictures once the season begins.

Oscar and Peyton begin school after Labor Day in Minnesota, and they are buying school supplies in anticipation of new schools. Oscar will go to an all-day kindergarten in Waseca near Tricia's workplace and Peyton will begin 5th grade at McKinley Elementary School near our home in Owatonna. She had attended Washington Elementary School from K5-4, but when they moved to our home, she had to transfer to the neighborhood school and she'll do fine.

I also had a great visit with my sister, Darlene, this morning and caught up on her family. What a glorious day! I'm sure by day's end, I will call my mother to get her updates on my 97-year-old Great Aunt Edith living nearby in a care facility. What a span of generations.

Now off to lunch with friends in anticipation of a new week.

Cousins and Siblings

2009-07-05T06:38:00.004-05:00

My cousin, Brenda, just posted a July 4, 1959 photograph showing several of us on the porch swing at the Crane Farm in Orleans, Indiana. The family reunions at the farm were wonderful playing games with our cousins, going to the barn with Grandpa Crane to milk the cows, and feeding the pigs. Grandma Crane always had lots of sweet tea and persimmon pudding plus lots of other food. I remember playing croquet after all food supplies were put away and then my dad, Roy Crane, would walk around the house on his hands to our delight! What great memories. Darlene and Marcia are my sisters, Nathan is my brother, and Brenda and Deborah are my cousins.
(L-R) Nancy Crane McGuire, Nathan Crane, Brenda Chastain Shepple, Marcia Crane Schmuck, Deborah Crane Barrows, and Darlene Crane Sylvia.

Thing 47 Evaluation

2009-06-18T21:37:00.002-05:00

I'm delighted that I took time to finish the More Things on a Stick before moving next Tuesday. It has been a delightful experience of learning tools that will benefit me in my new position as Reference Librarian in a much larger school. As I shared with a friend just minutes ago, we are just a plane ride away from our beloved Minnesota and our many friends and family who we are leaving behind. I'm glad we have ways of keeping in contact virtually. Have a fabulous summer and we'll be back during Christmas vacation.

Thing 46 WJMN

2009-06-18T18:54:00.002-05:00

I've had my membership for a while. I tried to change my email from the pillsbury.edu email that will disappear mid-August, but at some point, I must have another identity in WJ with my Charter email. The course availability is welcome for growth in librarianship.

Thing 45 Cloud Computing

2009-06-18T18:18:00.002-05:00

I've used Cloud Computing when working on the yearbook. All work for the yearbook was created from any computer, but saved on servers elsewhere. It was fantastic. The students were able to work from home or anywhere. The big issue is trusting the company to protect your information. I set up a G.ho.st account and will load items to access anywhere. Since I'm a Macintosh user, I'll watch my files carefully.

Thing 44 The economy

2009-06-18T16:50:00.002-05:00

I appreciated Frugal Dad and already do many of his suggestions. I've registered for the Frugal Dad forum and look forward to many more hints. Since our school closed at the end of December and we without 2 salaries, we had personal experience at cutting back and living frugally. Our children are moving into our house to maintain it, so we don't have to sell in this sad economy. We will be back at Christmas to visit grandchildren and children!

Thing 43 Online TV and Video

2009-06-18T14:36:00.003-05:00

I created a Hulu account and was amazed at the ease and speed of viewing a movie via the web. The letterbox viewing is fab! I like the fact that one can go in and view an episode that one has missed; what a nice benefit. A drawback would be the addictive nature of continually having a video or TV available! Sometimes I just like to listen to the dialogue, and can do that while doing other things. I set up a queue for viewing House episodes.

Hulu allows connection to other sites, and I shared a hippo video on my FB that shows that hippos like their space!!

Thing 42 Music 2.0

2009-06-18T13:55:00.002-05:00

I've been listening to radio via Internet for several years and love the versatility. I have both a Pandora and Live.fm account. When we moved here from SC, we missed our WMUU FM classical music station and were delighted when we were again able to listen via web.

Thing 41 Mashup Your Life

2009-06-18T13:06:00.001-05:00

I set up a LifeStream account and will try it. After the initial set-up, it seems to work well.

Thing 40 Mash-Up the Web

2009-06-18T08:23:00.002-05:00

I'm listening to KingSingers on Pandora and love it! I checked out the Lunchbox, Ping.fm, Interestingness, Flickr Memari, and let me Google that for you. The best is Pandora.

I used Bubblr and loved the ease of adding a cartoon caption to any picture:

Thing 39 Digital Storytelling

2009-06-17T21:18:00.002-05:00

As a yearbook adviser, I've used yearbook programs to create books for the past 11 years. For this thing, I used Smile Box to create a book to commemorate our Library Open House June 17, 2008 exactly one year ago.

Make a Smilebox photobook

Thing 38: Screencasting

2009-05-14T21:29:00.005-05:00

I worked on Grab, ScreenToaster, Skitch, and then got involved with packing, packing, and more packing. I'm trying to finish my last 9 in 3 days! I look forward to delving more in depth into screencasting; perhaps in my new position.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Thing 37: Photo Tales

2009-05-03T21:34:00.002-05:00

After looking at several of the photo programs, I used Photobucket and Slide to create a slide show of my daughter's apartment that will be nearly the same as ours with the same view from the balcony! Exciting. The slide shows can be used for tours of the library, or anything that requires a sequential group of pictures to inform. I enjoyed working with this thing.

Grandchildren

2009-04-30T21:34:00.001-05:00

Precious in God's Sight

Thing 36: Comic Relief: Generate some fun

2009-04-30T06:46:00.003-05:00

Even though I had fun viewing the generators, the ToonDo wasn't operating correctly and just stuck when attempting to create a Toon. The generators I especially liked were those that make life easier for college students including the Son of Citation Machine and EasyBib. I appreciated the tag cloud creator and posted two on my blog to see which one I like the best. I added the email icons to my signature line in Entourage. I added a ToonDoo to my blog, but got an error message; I'm not sure what was the problem.

Thing 35: Books 2.0

2009-04-27T20:37:00.002-05:00

I love the fact that I have 15 digital books on my Palm that save my place so I can start where I left off. My IPod has digital books from Audible so that when I walk I can plug into books. My observation of people at work is that the book is alive and well; everyone reads on their breaks and lunches. The library was always the gathering place for people to gather and discuss ideas, and yes, books. I think digital media enhances our reading experience for the better. I had college students that were absolutely dumbfounded that they could tap into the digital books online to read or research. I love the fact that the digital book has full search ability by key word or phrase. Fantastic. I can hardly wait for the Kindle to be available in color! I've tapped into LibraryThing and Shelfari and linked them to my blog and FaceBook. I added WorldCat and shared all the neat features with my students. Sites where group discussions of books take place are similar to the discussions we have around the dinner table with our adult children. Fun!

Thing 34 Is This Our Competition--Online Answer Sites

2009-04-27T06:52:00.002-05:00

The appeal of a Q/A site would be frustration in not being able to find the answer on the person's own IMHO. I personally don't think that the sites are our competition, but then I've only been involved in an academic library and reference questions that we get are primarily project/paper specific. I didn't participate in the Slam the Boards event, but perhaps will in the future.

Thing 33: Travel 2.0

2009-04-26T20:26:00.002-05:00

Travel sites are always helpful in college settings with students traveling to and from home, trips for school credit, and vacations. The Lost Girls was fun to read with nuggets of helpful hints. Boo.com was well organized. My Life of Travel is a nice set-up for creating a travel blog. Fastfood Maps is a helpful tool especially for traveling young adults.

Thing 32: Maps and Mashups

2009-04-26T13:16:00.004-05:00

I created a map of my walk to work beginning in June at BJU. What an excellent tool! When I have pictures, I plan to add photos to the walk. This can be useful in numerous ways on a university campus by creating maps of sports teams and their year of games and dates, or classes and tours abroad.

Thing 31 More Twitter

2009-04-26T07:09:00.005-05:00

What fun! I added the Firefox add-ons Twitbin, Twitter Fox, and Power Twitter. Excellent! I had already linked Twitter to my blog, but now I have added Twitterfeed to link my blog to Twitter. I had already added Twitter to Facebook, but now I've also linked my update to Twitter. Fun stuff! I tried the TweetSnap, but prefer my Twitter Updates that I linked months ago; it is cleaner looking. I added BeTwittered to my homepage and love it! I could spend hours checking out all the possibilities. I added my name to the Twitter Directory under librarians.

I think I'm at the Conversing stage and enjoy the process and looking forward to expanding further. Twitter is another connection to other people and ideas. I receive my Tweets on my phone and love the fact that I can stay connected even at work where our personal use of the computers is restricted during working hours!

Thing 30: More ways to use RSS and Delicious

2009-04-25T19:40:00.003-05:00

My RSS feeds appearing in Bloglines have kept me up-to-date on several areas of interest since early 2008. The articles I regularly get from Ebsco-Host are the result of several searches I set up to come to my feeder. I exported all of my feeds, transferred them to Google Reader, and linked them to my IGoogle home page. I also linked all of my delicious links to my IGoogle home page and put a badge on my blog inviting people to my bookmarks.

Thing 29 Google Tools

2009-04-25T12:50:00.003-05:00

I set up Google alerts long ago to track certain topics important to me - excellent tool. My G-mail account has been tremendously helpful to me at various times. I synced my calendar to my cell phone a year ago and have been delighted with the service.

The 800-GOOG411 is awesome!! Will definitely use it :-).

Thing 28 Customized Home Pages

2009-04-24T22:49:00.002-05:00

I've created both an IGoogle page and a My Yahoo. Each one has a variety of services. On My Yahoo I linked my Facebook account and I like the fact that I can send cell phone messages from Yahoo - helpful for contacting students. Both were easy to set up. I've added games, puzzles, clocks, counters, etc. Widgets and gadgets are fun to add.

Thing 27 Twitter

2009-04-24T21:57:00.003-05:00

I created a Twitter account last summer when I started following a friend. I enjoy getting tweets on my phone keeping me linked to others wherever I am. I changed my Twitter background and have a number of people I follow. I have a link on my blog. Come follow me.

I look at Twitter as yet another tool to connect with friends. Students benefit from following a library twitter to keep them informed of services and research helps.

Thing 26 Join the Ning

2009-04-24T19:31:00.003-05:00

I joined the Ning in the first round of 23 Things on a Stick. I've changed the look of my home page, brought it up-to-date, and added a fun video. A Ning can be used in the library to communicate with staff in a fun way. I joined knitting in the library and look forward to communicating with the group.

Thing 25 Blogger Toolkit

2009-04-24T06:56:00.003-05:00

I had fun with this thing adding widgets or gadgets. I started this months ago and just came back to it deciding that I really want to finish this before moving to Greenville, SC. I added the search box, clock, Meebo, slide show, and several other widgets. I decided not to pursue the tag cloud since it looked cumbersome, but I may decide to go back to it at another time. I spent a couple of hours on this thing, but could have lost myself in all of the choices. Fortunately, I have a temp job that is keeping us afloat until we begin our new positions.

BJU

2009-03-22T09:30:00.002-05:00

Praise the Lord, Dave and I both have positions at BJU beginning this summer. We are looking forward to being near our daughter, Cynthia, who lives in the same building where our apartment will be. What a blessing!

We will certainly miss our home in Owatonna, but sometimes God has to make us content to leave a place where we have been content. It is tougher to move away from our children and grandchildren who live in the vicinity, but we'll just be a plane ride away. After 25 years in Owatonna, we will be leaving the ice, snow, clean air, good friends, lovely blue sky for the Smokey Mountains, azaleas, warmth, and lots of friends.

What an adventure!!

Thing 24 Refresh my blog

2009-01-21T20:14:00.003-06:00

I changed the template on my blog to one I really like! It has more room with a cleaner line. My avatar was easy to change into a classy pantsuit at the airport - I love it! I changed my profile to reflect the fact that I'm looking for a new position. Changing the color to pink every chance I get is fun and makes me happy in the winter thinking about the pastels of spring.

House

2009-01-21T13:09:00.003-06:00

I'm trying to think ahead about what we would take if we had to move from Minnesota. While making the list, I'm easily distracted to do something else. Hence writing in this blog. This is a difficult time in our lives : wanting to stay here in MN in our home and near our children and grandchildren, but knowing that we need jobs. One position will be near our oldest daughter - she would like us to come and join her, but both of us need jobs. Another possibility would take us to a place we've never been, but has positions for both of us in the academic world. We shall see. Until then, I better get back to sorting out our lives and deciding what would go and what we can part with in the event that we'll have to sell and move. Decisions, decisions .........

Daughter

2009-01-17T09:56:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful visit with our daughter while interviewing for jobs on campus at BJU. They have a Reference Librarian available for me, but Dave's possibilities are still pending. We shall see. I would have liked to have stayed in the sunny south while Dave came back home, but married couples of 38 years don't usually do that :-). Cynthia and I would have had a blast during our down times. Alas, we're back in the Tundra of Minnesota and glad that we're in the southern part of the state!!! We're interviewing locally and in Arizona while praying for wisdom as to what and where God has positions for us. We'd love to be near our daughter, but both of us need positions in order for that to work. We're looking in town as well as on campus. Decisions, decisions!!

ABC news link

2008-10-23T20:37:00.003-05:00

Here's the report on ABC news 10-23-08 : here

You will see video clips that include wonderful clips of the library.

Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

2008-10-23T06:40:00.007-05:00

This is our 25th year at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, MN. After this semester, we will be looking for other positions. We were told on Tuesday that our school will close at the end of the semester. Sad news for us and our students who will also have to transfer to other schools. See our website at http://pillsbury.edu for the announcement.

Yearbooks

2008-10-02T13:59:00.002-05:00

I just sent a box of yearbooks to the mail room to be shipped. If you're looking for your yearbook, it will be in the mail shortly.

Mike and Anna

2008-07-19T15:04:00.001-05:00

Mike and Anna visited us this week from Florida; we had a great time with them.

Oscar is 4

2008-06-22T20:04:00.002-05:00

What fun to celebrate our grandson's birthday and see him in action :-) I remember the 4s as being high energy and soaking up everything they are taught. We had a delightful time with him and his sister.

Multitype Librarian: Part of the process

2008-06-20T21:03:00.001-05:00

Multitype Librarian: Part of the process

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

2008-06-20T16:15:00.001-05:00

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College,
originally uploaded by SELCO.

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

2008-06-20T16:13:00.001-05:00

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College,
originally uploaded by SELCO.

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

2008-06-20T16:12:00.001-05:00

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College,
originally uploaded by SELCO.

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College

2008-06-20T16:11:00.001-05:00

Go-Live Celebration at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College,
originally uploaded by SELCO.

SELCO

2008-06-14T08:34:00.001-05:00

PILLSBURY BAPTIST BIBLE COLLEGE JOINS THE SELCO INTEGRATED LIBRARY SYSTEM

On June 17, the library catalog at Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna will be networked with 84 other public, school, academic and special library catalogs throughout Southeastern Minnesota as part of the SELCO Integrated Library System. Students and staff using the college library’s online catalog or going to www.selco.info will be able to search and select books and materials from the 2,000,000 items listed in the combined SELCO member catalogs. SELCO’s delivery service will convey requested items to the Pillsbury College Library for pick-up. The SELCO catalog also provides a MnLINK gateway for borrowing materials from other Minnesota colleges and universities.

SELCO Director Ann B. Hutton believes that the more libraries that share their resources via the combined online catalog, the greater the benefit to 220,000 registered borrowers in the SELCO region. The SELCO (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating) Regional Library System, with headquarters in Rochester, serves Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha and Winona counties.

Pillsbury College, www.pillsbury.edu, offers subjects in arts and sciences leading to a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Associates Degree, or Certificate of Bible Studies. Pillsbury also offers a post-secondary education program. The college campus is located at 315 South Grove Avenue in Owatonna. About 150 students are currently enrolled at Pillsbury.

Funding for the project was provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a Federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership and a lifetime of learning, through the Minnesota State Library Agency under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.

# # #

Contacts: Mollie Pherson, SELCO Regional Librarian, mpherson@selco.info, (507) 288-5513
Nancy McGuire, Pillsbury College Librarian, nancymcguire@pillsbury.edu, (507) 451-2710

SELCO - 2600 19th St. NW Rochester MN 55901 (507) 288-5513

Cell phone and Facebook

2008-05-07T08:38:00.003-05:00

I discovered a neat feature recently when I added the mobile Facebook to my phone. When a post comes into my phone from Facebook, I can respond to the message on my phone and it shows up as a post on my online page. Cool!

I also love the fact that my orthodontist sends me a text message on my phone an hour before my appointment that I can forward to remind my husband that he is covering for me in the library - Neat! The orthodontist even automates the reminder to my email 2 days ahead to confirm the appointment and the day before to send a voice reminder. I wish the rest of medical profession would "go and do likewise." Can you tell that I like the techy stuff with more bells and whistles? The word is that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg of mobile possibilities for the future.

Another school year

2008-05-01T14:52:00.002-05:00

Graduation is Saturday, May 3, and we will rejoice that another graduating class has been launched to careers or further education. Our son, Andy, is home from school and finishing his last project this afternoon. He'll post his assignment via the web while enjoying the comforts of home. Isn't technology wonderful!

Peyton

2008-04-02T16:14:00.002-05:00

I have to share the picture that Peyton created for me after school today. She comes in each afternoon and heads to the nearest computer to create pictures or check on her online programs. Gone are the days of mindlessly watching after school TV. She has equal delight working on tests for school online. Fun stuff!

Aunt Ruth

2008-03-24T10:40:00.008-05:00

My Aunt Ruth Clark, 98,(on the right in the picture) died yesterday on Easter Sunday. What a glorious day to pass into the presence of our Lord. I will be flying home to Detroit for the funeral this week. Aunt Ruth and her sister, Aunt Edith (95), retired from working at an insurance company and owned a house together. Neither of them ever married, but rather had a full life of work and travel together. Aunt Edith is now living with my mother until a suitable care facility is found. Aunt Ruth was caring for Aunt Edith before having a stroke two weeks ago. The picture was taken at my father's funeral February 2007. Aunt Edith, on the left, was recovering from hip surgery, hence the walker.

Give Blood

2008-02-25T14:11:00.002-06:00

Last Monday I gave blood for the third time. I was successful with no bruising for the first time!! The first time I gave, the blood clotted before the bag was full and I had a huge hematoma on my arm. The second time I gave, the nurse poked through my vein and I had another bruised arm. I then gave permission to use the other arm and the tech was successful and I was able to fill the bag for the first time with no bruise. This past time, I set up a time online and mentioned that I didn't mind giving blood, but that I needed to have someone who would be careful. They pulled in the best person at the site and I left there feeling great about the experience. Now I don't dread the next time. Communication is the key to a successful blood draw :-)!

Library Thing

2008-02-16T09:50:00.002-06:00

I was amazed at the possibilities of Library Thing. I ran a list of 87 books that I cataloged since January 1 and proceeded to enter the titles in Library Thing. I went to my blog and they showed up there - Wow! What a neat feature! I love it!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T15:51:00.002-06:00

The first day after finishing my odyssey, I've been going back through all the things and adding blogs to my aggregator and checking to find out what others are doing and saying about their treks into Library 2.0. I've been sharing information with others on our campus and seeing excitement for the possibilities. Have a wonderful day and enjoy your loved ones' company.

Thing 23

2008-02-13T15:43:00.002-06:00

I finished the survey, but plan to go back and work through the challenges - at least the ones that I haven't done. I've had a lot of fun working through 23 Things on a Stick and look forward to more projects like this that help us experience programs available to make our lives more productive. The aggregator was a god send.

Thing 22

2008-02-13T15:28:00.002-06:00

I am committed to checking my blogs and adding to them regularly. I've added many blogs to my aggregator. I've been a member of Web Junction for a while with its awesome information. Checking my Bloglines each morning has become a good habit and making note of ones I want to spend more time on. I may go back and start working through some of the challenges now. I'm hooked :-)

Thing 21 - Other Social Networking Sites

2008-02-12T21:33:00.002-06:00

What a neat thing! I really enjoying the 23 Things on a Stick Ning and it was amazingly user friendly. Then I joined Shelfari and was able to change my url to something that was recognizable to others : http://www.shelfari.com/librarypills

I'm working on a class for the fall and planning to incorporate information learned during this odyssey in my class; I think the students will be delighted and will look on the classwork as fun!

I've added pictures easily to the sites and added books. What fun!

Thing 20 - Facebook

2008-02-11T16:16:00.000-06:00

I've had a Facebook account for a couple of years, but started viewing regularly this year. I have 139 friends and relatives, pictures, wall posts, and joined the ALA group. Fun stuff. Our students are always checking their facebook to see who is on and what they are doing. The fact is that social networking is the way students communicate and they have to recognize that what they post may come back and bite them. I'll be looking forward to being friends with you on Facebook :-).

Thing 19 - Podcasts

2008-02-11T15:46:00.000-06:00

I've been researching podcasting and talking to faculty about the possibility of making podcasts available for the students. I'm listening to a USC communication officer about how they are using podcasts and youtube to make lectures available to students. Amazing.

Podcast.net didn't work when I tried it. The others worked fine. I prefer ones with a search box, but the Educational Podcast Directory with lists was interesting and easy to navigate.

I'm a lecture junkie so I love this stuff! I listen while I'm doing more mundane activities and have for years. My IPod has audio books, no music :-).

Thing 18 - Video

2008-02-11T11:42:00.000-06:00

Alas, we have youtube blocked on campus. I'll have to do this one at home. I've been in and searched the videos and came across the good, the bad, and the ugly. Some entertaining videos that got a lot of press was the Mom video and the opera-singing Welsh guy. I played those over and over again.

I was able to view the library orientation for USC on VodPod. It was tastefully done and picturesque. Just enough information was given to create interest without being overwhelming.

Thing 17 - ELM Productivity Tools

2008-02-11T10:56:00.000-06:00

Creating a web page in Ebsco Host was easy and I can see where that would be beneficial for sending information to a student or making the information available for a class project. I created a search alert RSS feed and am pleased that it works perfectly. I'm planning to share these tools with our faculty. Great features. One thing that held me up was the fact that I had created a folder in EbscoHost some time ago and it wouldn't let me access it. I contacted tech support and was finally able to get into the folder this morning when everything clicked perfectly.

NetLibrary is an awesome resource that we have bought into 3 times through MINITEX. Rather than buy current event books that sit on the shelf to be replaced in 3 years, I bought ebooks that are fully searchable 24/7. We even had a situation a year ago when one of the ebooks was the textbook for a course - nice!

We've added Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center and Science Resource Center to InfoTrac and the ATLA Religion Database to EbscoHost. Electronic resources are mainstay of the college library.

Webinars are a must and I enjoy getting information via my desktop. I usually have two laptops in front of me at any given time. Searching one while waiting on the other. My world and I love it!

Thing 16 - Research Project Calculator

2008-02-08T15:52:00.000-06:00

The Research Project Calculator can be a great benefit to the students. I sent the url to all of our faculty. I know I sent it in the past, but this was a good reminder to do it again. I'll plan to add it to my class discussion with the students and add it to the links on all of our computers. It is an amazing tool with excellent handouts. I can see where it would be beneficial for tracking a project.

Thing 15 - Gaming

2008-02-08T14:36:00.000-06:00

I looked at the Pirates and the Second Life and listened to the interview with the teens. Students benefit from collaborating on a project and planning out virtual areas. Very interesting. I know some libraries have done their library orientation in Second Life. I enjoy doing Sudoko puzzles and jigsaw puzzles online. Role-playing games are definitely popular with students and young adults. We have a Wii in the dorm and it was a popular addition to the dorm environment. With computers games will always be part of the world - simple to complex.

Soaring to Excellence

2008-02-08T11:20:00.000-06:00

People Watching with a Purpose: Meeting Needs is on and streaming to my office computer. I was just sharing with a student that it is so cool to be able to connect with a conference while at work. I'm definitely multi-tasking here: reference desk monitoring, blogging, and attending this conference.

Thing 14 - The Library Thing

2008-02-08T09:06:00.000-06:00

I created an account with The Library Thing and it was easy. Adding 5 books was also easy and it was interesting to see how many others had added the same books. I have a friend, Jamie Langston Turner, who has written 5-6 books. I entered 4 of those titles and Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, one of my many favorite authors of fantasy. Linking to the blog was amazingly easy! What a cool feature. I can see using this for new books added to the library and the cover picture showing up is an added bonus.

Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools

2008-02-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

The counter didn't work until I went back to the site and changed the year to 2009 - something isn't quite right. I set up an online calendar for my students and gave them permission to add to it. I tweaked My Yahoo page and added my Facebook link to it and changed the color to a lovely rose. Some tools I already use on my MAC like the stickies for notes and saving information in .pdf. Our copy machine will also save scanned documents in .pdf that can be emailed - nice feature. I sent a copy of a thesis to Japan by scanning it in .pdf and then sending the file to the owner teaching English in Japan. Quite the time saver. Creating a list was useful, but I've been doing that for years. With 7 children, our lists for getting jobs done was a must and I created them on my old 512 MAC. The online tools are nice and easy.

Thing 12 - Newsvine

2008-02-07T13:08:00.002-06:00

I created an account in Newsvine and look forward to learning more about its capabilities. I'm interested in news about health issues and see this as a possibility for making information known. One of my passions right now is orthodontics and cessation of neck pain. Odd, I know, but since I got my braces in November, my neck pain has ceased. I think it is because with Invisalign braces, I can no longer clamp my teeth at night. Now you know more about me than you wanted to know. If I can find information and share it in this venue, perhaps more people will be interested in sharing their experiences. My experience would be more of a personal thing, but introducing the site to students could help with their research.

Thing 11 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

2008-02-06T16:09:00.000-06:00

I started an account with Del.icio.us 2 years ago and went in and updated it. The useful part of social tagging is seeing what others are using. It will be a lot easier to make a list available to students in Del.icio.us. I will make more use of this tool after getting used to it again.

Thing 10 - Wikis

2008-02-06T13:44:00.000-06:00

The Wiki is a unique way of collaborating on information that in the past has been "word of mouth." I would liken it to story-telling where each person has an opportunity to add to the information. I like the fact that one is able to go back in the history and find out what information was changed.

My first time editing a Wiki was to comment on the Future Things to consider page in the 23 Things on a Stick Wiki.

As an academic librarian, we don't ban Wikipedia for use by the students, but rather caution them about the information that may appear. They are encouraged to seek out peer-reviewed sources for their papers. The faculty may advise the students to avoid using Wikipedia as one of their resources. We also caution them about using information gleaned from the Internet.

Thing 9 - Collaboration Tools

2008-02-05T15:29:00.000-06:00

I looked at both Zoho and Google Docs. The Google Docs was nicely user-friendly and would be beneficial for working in a group project. I'll plan to share it with our faculty for use with the students.

Thing 8.5 - E-Folio Minnesota

2008-02-04T11:16:00.000-06:00

I created my Electronic folio with E-Folio in 2006. I was able to go in and change my picture to the new me and discovered something interesting. When you work on the admin section of your page to make changes and then click on Live Site tab, it remembers that you were working in Admin and shows up with a shortcut back to the working page. It is helpful for continuing to update the page, but I was concerned that it would show up on my live page. I called tech support and the person at the help desk made sense by saying that the computer added a cookie that remembered the user name and password. You can either remove the cookie or go to another computer to check it. I then made sure by going to another computer and looking at my page and it was fine.

Thing 8 - Slideshare

2008-02-04T09:13:00.000-06:00

Slideshare is amazing and easy to use. I was able to upload a presentation from my hard drive and made it available on my blog in about 2 minutes.

Thing 7 Communication Tools

2008-02-02T15:50:00.000-06:00

Wow! This was the best one so far! We use email in the library regularly to send overdue notices and to communicate with the students. I've used IM before, but Yahoo! Messenger had a great feature for communicating with cell phones - WOW! I set up our 7 children and my husband and sent several messages. I also communicated with one of our deaf students who use their mobile phones for text messages all day. Other than sign language, it is the best way to communicate with them.

I regularly attend the MINITEX Conferences and love the format for instruction. For those of us who find it difficult to get away from the library, it gives us instant access to instruction.

Dave at computer

2008-02-01T16:27:00.001-06:00

Dave at computer,
originally uploaded by nancyrmcguire.

This is my experience with the card maker feature. Nice and easy.

Thing 6 - Image Chef

2008-02-01T16:14:00.000-06:00

I used Image Chef to create a button with Owatonna on a snowflake - appropriate for this time of year. The image possibilities are endless. Carleton did a great job on their trading cards to introduce their staff to the students. That would be a fun activity to think about for the future.

I'm not sure what happened to my counter, but it was working fine before I added the Image Chef button. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Owatonna

2008-02-01T16:08:00.001-06:00

Thing 5 - More Flickr

2008-02-01T14:59:00.000-06:00

More play with Flickr was the way to spend a Friday afternoon when few students come to the library. Using Jigsaw, I was able to create a jigsaw image of Old Main, our oldest building on campus dating from the later 1800s. It features a rose window that when lit is stunning.

Old Main

2008-02-01T14:14:00.001-06:00

Old Main,
originally uploaded by nancyrmcguire.

Thing 4 - Flickr

2008-02-01T08:21:00.000-06:00

I set up an account with Flickr and then uploaded a picture I took of the library building on campus. It was an enjoyable experience and one that I can see using often. Our 1911 building is lovely with embedded tiles in the brick walls with arched windows holding its original glass, except where panes have been replaced. Of course, the building is not energy efficient and needs AC in the summer, but we're on the strategic plan for that in the future.

Pillsbury College Library - Jefts Hall

2008-02-01T08:16:00.001-06:00

Pillsbury College Library - Jefts Hall,
originally uploaded by nancyrmcguire.

Thing 3

2008-01-31T13:26:00.000-06:00

RSS Feeds are useful for efficiency. I love the "one stop shop" of checking the updates. I've added 55 entries and like the ease of checking for new posts.

I went back and added a room for my avatar to reside in. Playing with the new tools and sharing them with the students and faculty is too much fun! I'm looking forward to the next thing.

Thing 2 - Library 2.0

2008-01-30T15:46:00.000-06:00

Finding the time to learn is always a challenge, but rewarding. The opportunity to learn new ways to connect with students and faculty helps all of us learn to respect each other.

I was sharing with a board member earlier today the exciting times we are operating in today with electronic resources and information being available 24/7. Choices have to be made where money will be spent; where will we get the most bang for our buck. Our opportunity to become part of Selco will be a win win for our students and the community we serve.

Picture

2008-01-30T14:49:00.000-06:00

When I attempted to load my picture, the message appeared indicating that it was invalid. I went into my index and renamed the picture with no spaces and punctuation and it loaded fine.

Thing 1.5 Avatar

2008-01-30T14:38:00.000-06:00

Now that was fun! I went back to the list of 23 things and realized that I hadn't completed the assignment. What fun to create a caricature of oneself! My granddaughter will love it!

Thing 1 - Creating a Blog

2008-01-22T14:54:00.000-06:00

The most difficult thing about creating the blog was deciding what to name it. I decided on Library Pills as a play on our library name and plan to use it for fun. We'll see. I'm not really that creative, I assure you.