Spooky library video

News from the Commissioners' Meeting

• The number of visitors to Garrett County in FY 2007 was up more than 10% over the number of visitors in FY 2006.
  
• This year will be the 40th anniversary of the Autumn Glory Festival.
  
• The Cooperative Extension Service office has produced a powerpoint presentation on the gypsy moth problem in Garrett County. The presentation discusses the impact of the gypsy moth, the life cycle of the moths, intervention strategies that can eradicate the moths, and a the potential economic impact of problem. I'm hoping that we can help distribute the presentation to citizens and officials.
  
• Community Action received a Community Development Block Grant to construct an early childhood education center in Grantsville.
  

Currently reading: The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Micheal Chabon; The Dangerous Book for Boys by Hal Iggulden; Altered Art for the First Time by Madeline Arendt
Cannot wait to read: The Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke (his first novel set in the post-Katrina era)

Read!

A tribute to Dr. Seuss

23 Things Wrap-up

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
Image generating, creating this blog, ZoHo, and videos online.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This blog in particular has allowed me to experiment and communicate

3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Yes, I plan to keep up this blog to help me communicate with our staff.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?And last but not least…
Weekly meetings with staff to discuss the project.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
Yes!

6. How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
23 Things is a great way to learn about new technologies. I found the most of the "things" to be much more interesting and user friendly than I expected.

Audiobooks

One of the earliest sites that I came to love is Project Gutenburg. Whenever a student is looking for an older classic book and it is not available in the library, I think of Project Gutenburg.
I wish our library had access to downloadable audiobooks. I cannot drive anywhere without a book on CD. I'd love to have an MP3 player with access to an extensive library of downloadable audiobooks.

Podcasting

Podcasting is an excellent way to tell someone how to do something, relate a story or just say what you have to say. To me it seems less useful than using video presentations. The podcasts that introduce topics of the 23 Things are very helpful introductions.

More video sites

I love the humor and the opportunities for learning!!


VideoJug: How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug

Wonder(ful)

I've been a huge fan of YouTube for some time. I think that this type of technology will be the wave of the future. Staff and public training, canned reference interviews and, video pathfinders are all potential uses.

From the Freakonomics Blog

One interesting blog (for nerds) is the Freakonomics Blog
A recent blog entry asks "If Public Libraries Didn't Exist, Could You Start One Today?"

The short answer seems to be no. The blog also points readers to swaptree.
Swaptree is a free swapping service for books, DVD's, games and other materials. Great service, but we do the same thing - online reservations but no swapping is required. Our patrons have already paid for services with their tax dollars.

Currently reading: Final Truth by Mariah Stewart; Traditional crafts of Ireland

Web 2.0 awards

Great exercise! I explored several of the award winning new tools. I particularly liked confabb the conference index that can be searched in a variety of ways including by subject and location. I see a big future for this site.
I tried to insert widgets into my blog but everything seemed to develop a glitch at the last moment. The most common glitch was an error message about not being able to translate the widget into XML.
Laws ever blogger should know

Currently reading: Spicy food lovers bible by Dave DeWitt & Nancy Gerlach; Free disasters by Stuart Woods (not his best work!)

Zoho writer

Wow this is definitely a thumbs way up!! I love the word processor, the ease of use, and the blog and forum entries to help me get a handle on user issues. I posted this directly from ZoHo writer.
Thank you 23 Things for leading me here.

Maryland Libraries Sandbox

So much to do and see. I really like the idea of the sandbox but is it just one more thing to do? Best thing there: reading about other folks favorite books.

Currently reading: Constant Gardener by John LeCarre; The Exceptional Presenter by Timothy Koegel
Just finished reading: Play Dead by David Rosenfelt

Wikis

Exercise number 16 is an interesting look at wikis. It's better than a path finder, more linkable than a subject guide, able to allow all users to make comments and corrections, its a wiki!
I particularly like the Library Success wiki which is limited in scope for now but seems to have unlimited potential.