Ellen's Blog...

WLA Book Cart Drill Team Competition

2008-11-13T07:29:00.000-08:00

Who says librarians can't have fun? Check out this link to Youtube for the Wisconsin Library Association's first annual Book Cart Drill Team competition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3OOf2XpRmI

Am I a Curious Person?

2008-03-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

Am I a curious person? I like to believe I am. I love learning, and I dislike not knowing what people are talking about. For that reason, Project Play was great! While I'd heard of everything that was taught, there were several things I'd never tried, and a few things I just didn't understand. I look forward to constantly learning more, playing more, and fearing less of the world around me!

Mashups

2008-03-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

I guess I don't get it yet....I don't think I'm web savvy enough! Perhaps if the library were to map out locations in the county, or map out school locations in a city so it would be easy to see them all?

YouTube

2008-03-26T09:56:00.001-07:00

I'm a fan of Youtube. I especially enjoy looking at music videos posted there. I have a couple Youtube videos posted on my other blog, choices-ellen-librarian.blogspot.com. The Andrea Bocelli is a huge favorite.

Screencasting

2008-03-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to try making a screencast of how to use Tumblebooks, but I keep forgetting to do it from home where I would need to put in a library card number. So, I'll make up this post. I like the screencasts that have been created by our library's webmaster. Very helpful. I think that we could use screencasts to show how to use databases, and I'd like to try doing that one of these days.

Gabcast

2008-02-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

I tried adding a post to the Project Play account on Gabcast, reading from Beth's email. It is quite simple to post. I understood my post quite well when I went to the Project Play account, but I couldn't hear any of the other posters, and that is with the speakers turned all the way up. Must be my computer. I think I still prefer Audacity, which lets me do a whole lot of editing, add sound effects, and create podcasts which are extremely long. I think that Audacity would be my preference in the library, although the library would most likely have to pay for an account in Podbean unless I was able to save my podcasts on the library server.

Another attempt at using Audacity and Podbean

2008-02-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

In this podcast, I used Audacity to record an echo song. I sing the first part as well as the echo. I did this by creating two podcasts which I then merged into one.

Podcasting

2008-02-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

I learned how to podcast using Audacity software over a year ago. I produced multiple nursery rhymes as mp3 and wav files but never put them online. Now I'm trying and I'm kind of getting there, I think. Let's see if this works. I'm still working on getting the actual podcast on this page instead of the viewer needing to go to my podbean blog.

My Podbean Account

MySpace and the Public Library

2008-02-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

I've visited library MySpace pages before, and am conflicted. I haven't seen very many that I was impressed with. One library's page in particular that I looked at today was incredibly difficult to read. Another library's page had bad links. I don't use MySpace or Facebook to contact my friends, most of us keep in touch via email, or through their blogs. I think MySpace could be helpful for keeping in touch with teens, I liked Denver's teen page the best, even though they had the bad links. The page was easy to read and I liked the features on the page.

Remember the Milk and Jott

2008-02-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, I put this one off long enough. It just didn't interest me. I prefer the task option in Outlook much more, and if I need to remember something when I'm at home, I do better with paper and pencil. I added a task to Remember the Milk, which was easy enough, but I doubt I'll ever make up my own account.

Another attempt to use Google Docs...

2008-01-23T09:15:00.001-08:00

I am putting a PowerPoint presentation in with Google Docs. If I understand correctly, inserting this URL will allow any audience to view my presentation. This would be so handy for getting this kind of document to teachers and/or parents who don't want large documents in their inbox, or don't have PowerPoint software at home.

Hey, trying this out I see that there is a chat box to the right of the presentation. I'll have to try this with more people later on to see if everyone looking at the presentation at the same time can communicate with each other...

Google Docs

2008-01-23T07:55:00.000-08:00

I created a Google Doc from a Library Song I wrote a couple summers ago. Any ideas on additional verses?

The Carnegie Committee!!!

2008-01-22T18:23:00.000-08:00

Last week I returned from ALA's Midwinter Conference held in Philadelphia (what a neat place). I served on my first ALSC committee, and we were charged with selecting winner of the Carnegie Medal, given to the best video produced for children in the preceding year. What an experience this was. I highly recommend the DVD we chose for the medal, Jump In.

The past several years, I have watched the announcement of the winners online via the ALA website. This year, I was in the room!!!! This was incredibly exciting, and I really didn't expect it to be so exciting. Sure, I figured it would be neat to be in the room, but I had no idea!!!!!!! The anticipation in the room was so amazing. The publishers in the room shrieked every time one of their authors won an award, and whenever there was a shock (Caldecott, anyone?) the room burst into stunned applause.

What an experience...

Oh, and the Geisel winner, There is a Bird on Your Head, may be one of my favorite books ever!

Instant Messaging...

2008-01-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

I've used IM in the past with my Yahoo account, but don't use it that much anymore to contact friends. Sometimes if I see that a friend is online at the same time as me, I'll send an IM their way...

I love how the Topeka and Shawnee Library has added a Meebo widget to their library catalog. What a fantastic idea for helping our patrons when they aren't getting the results they are looking for. I'm very interested in seeing how his project progesses. Can Innovative accommodate this type of technology for Infosoup?

One of my favorite songs!

2007-12-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smeyf8nhM5Q
Youtube wouldn't let me embed this one, so I'll share it this way!

2007-12-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

Enjoy! I had a great laugh at this...

Sesame Street Old School

2007-11-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-medium-t.html?ex=1353214800&en=f26b123710ae8691&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I recently checked out Sesame Street Old School Volume 1 and the nostalgia hit me. I remember the Doll House song, I've Got Two, Three of these Things is Not like the Other... Ahh, the memories! The article above though made me rethink all of that! I don't think I turned out too badly!

Wikis

2007-11-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

Several of APL's task forces have used wikis to communicate. Its easy enough to make changes, although I'll admit that it is not easy for me to directly change someone else's work! I was glad to learn that changes don't erase previous words forever! I'd say the best part about using wikis in the task forces was that I could sign up to receive an email every time someone made a change to the wiki. Very nice!

Tagging and del.icio.us

2007-11-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

I already have a del.icio.us account http://del.icio.us/eljepson that I don't use all that often. I'm so used to using the Favorites tool on Internet Explorer, that I forget to use del.icio.us, even though I've put a link where its handy! The biggest advantage I see for using del.icio.us is being able to find my favorites on my work computer and on my home laptop.

While the idea of tagging really doesn't bother me, I can see how it might make our catalog messy if patrons started putting their own tags in. But don't many library catalogs already seem messy to our patrons, because they don't necessarily know what the best search terms are, and have never heard of subject headings?

I didn't know that cookbooks were listed under cookery until I started working in a library. A normal person would search for cookbooks. Did you know that the subject heading for books about Saint Nick is Nicholas, Saint, BP of Myra? Have you ever tried to find books about how to tell time? I would personally tag every book I found in InfoSoup that explained how to tell time, because it is not easy for myself or our patrons to tell from the catalog if books with subject headings of time--juvenile fiction or juvenile literature are about clocks, the concept of time, time travel, calendars, etc...

Library Thing

2007-11-19T17:19:00.000-08:00

Library Thing seems easy enough to use...but I'm not sure how I'd apply it to myself yet... I like that I can link it directly to my blog, and I like that I put all my book club titles into it. However I'm not seeing how its any different from me putting all my book club titles into a word document. :)

Flickr in the library

2007-10-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

I enjoy looking through Flickr, there are many great photos there. Obvious uses I see for Flickr would be to post pictures of our library programs...unfortunately, getting permission for all those photos to be online would be a true challenge.

Harold B. Lee Library--BYU

2007-10-26T13:58:00.001-07:00

041020
Originally uploaded by sudweeks

The same building as below, except it is daytime. The building above ground is the entrance to the library, with two floors below ground and three stories above ground.

Harold B. Lee Library

2007-10-26T13:54:00.001-07:00

Harold B. Lee Library
Originally uploaded by jpstanley

I think the BYU library is one of the most beautiful college libraries around...This addition was finished the year before I graduated. The room you see is actually underground and gets natural sunlight from skylights overhead. (Although this picture is night, of course).

2007-10-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

I was excited to go to WLA this year! The Literary Awards Committee chose Michael Perry's book Truck: a Love Story as the best book of the year by a Wisconsin author. I enjoyed hearing Mike speak, and afterwards worked at his autograph table and got my copies of the book signed as well. My book club met Friday night to discuss Population 485, and all the ladies in the group enjoyed the book, even though it was non-fiction. Excellent book club choice...

2007-10-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sigh...I'm looking at the blogs of others and trying to decide how to comment...and how to invite comments on my blog. I enjoy reading blogs...but I only occasionally leave comments, and writing my own blog is really difficult. I don't know what to say!

So, how about this? I would love to write a blog about the events going on in the children's section at APL, and I would invite comments from patrons before and after the events. SurveyMonkey would also be a great way to find out what our patrons would like to see in the department. I think that being able to post or take a survey anonymously would increase the honesty in patron responses.

Your opinions, please! Are you as a parent/caregiver of children interested in learning more about library services via a blog/RSS feed that you could monitor as you chose? Would you like to be able to communicate directly with a librarian about programs, knowing that your questions would be answered for anyone else who might read this blog?

Creating RSS Feeds...

2007-10-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've been following RSS feeds for awhile now by using the Favorites Center in IE7. Using Bloglines is pretty simple, and its nice that I can export those feeds onto my blog! Putting those links onto my blog was truly easy...after spending much, much more time than I wish to admit to spending...

My First Blog Post Ever!

2007-10-04T14:59:00.001-07:00

Well, not entirely true. Does posting to someone else's blog count?