The End (or is it the beginning?)

Wow! there really are some cool tools out there in cyberspace & it has been a kick getting to learn about and use them. Now to apply them to my library - this could be the greatest challenge but I look forward to letting my users know about what is available to us. It is all about setting aside the time which, I have found, is easier if you are committed to something like this training. I would love to do this again!!

Wikis

As an avid Sunday LA TImes Crossworder I have a direct link to wikipedia & love it. I also enjoy some of the funny things people post to poke fun at entries but I never imagined, until now, the usefulness to libraries. I mean sure, a site to help navigate your city (I used the SLA Baltimore Wiki when I attended a couple of years ago) could be approipriate for a library but let strangers, or worse scientists, into my website, horrors!! After experiencing some of the other Wikis, however, I am a changed person. I think that my users, especially those who my work supports, may actually have some things to contribute in the dissemination of Montana Water Quality Information, it's their area of speciality, heck I am not a environmental scientist, why not let them do what they do. WHAT A CONCEPT!! I go now to set up a Wiki.

Del.icio.us

Well, I've dinked around the Del.icio.us site, even created an account so I can experience the ease of use but I don't think that it will replace "My Favorites". While I am sure it is of great use to many, I found it time consuming and troublesome. I guess I am still a lover of the KISS principle and don't like the extra steps it takes to tag. I do, however, appreciate that others have taken the time to do this and can see the value in using it as a research tool so I have bookmarked it into my "searching" folder in "My Favorites" for future use.

My Generation

I LOVE THIS!!!! (But I could spend all day watching the Hockey Fights :-))

Podcasts

Whew! This was tough. I finally figured out how to find a couple of podcasts to subscribe to and linked thim on my Bloglines. My problem is that the padcasts I really want (The Mark & Brian Radio Show & KLOS 5 o'clock funnies) don't have RSS feeds. I spent 3 days trying to figure out how to subscribe using webbased aggregators (I can't get iTunes at work) but alas, I couldn't, so I will just listen from their website.

Library Thing

Boy I gotta tell you, this "LibraryThing" thing is great. You can view mine at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/pjarroues I can't wait to get home to add everything in my personal library. I can not tell you how many times I have purchased books I already have not knowing I have them. Now I will be able to double check before I hit the purchase button.

Generators

I can lose myself in these generators all day!!
I've got my wrestling name "Blonde Valkyrie" from http://www.wrestlingname.com/diva/ , Created a variety of effects from one image at http://www79.lunapic.com/editor/?action=photo-spread, Seen my name in chinese at http://www.chinesetools.eu/names/, got the results of my brainscan
and pretended I was Andy Worhol at http://www.shadowfire.de/warholizer

Trading Cards

I placed a couple of pic on the map & I made a trading card of my mom, it was a kick, I can't wait to show it to her. There are soooooo many cool things!! I may never get any work done again.

heart

heart
Originally uploaded by pjarroues

My girls, sending me their love (and trying to make me homesick!)

What beautiful kids

What beautiful kids
Originally uploaded by pjarroues

Well, I couldn't take a picture of my library so I thought I's throw in a picture of the kids.

Makes me miss home

I came across this picture and it reminded me of why, ocassionally, I miss home
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=379011813&size=Large

Adding link to Bloglines

Phew - It tool an hour but I finally figured it out (kind of, I think). The hardes part was finding the correct instructions. I kept trying to add using "Feed" instructions when I should have been using the "Link List" instructions.

Lesson 3

Okay, so I have added a bunch of RSS feeds to Bloglines - now all I have to do is remember to read them. I will try to figure out how to link bloglines to Blogger so I can have "one stop shopping". I'll keep you up to date and let you know how long it takes.

7 1/2 habits

Well, the easiest of the 71/2 habits is to play - I love learning how to do new things and dinking around with what I've learned to make whatever it is suit my needs. It doesn't matter if it's a new technology or learning how to snowboard or knit, I love to lose myself in the process

The hardest has got to be teaching/mentoring others - Most of the time I have dinked around so much that I don't have any idea what I have done, it becomes rote so I find it very difficult to show others how to do things.