Give Blood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dave at computer,
originally uploaded by nancyrmcguire.

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

Thing 6 - Image Chef

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

Thing 5 - More Flickr

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

Old Main,
originally uploaded by nancyrmcguire.

Thing 4 - Flickr

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

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