Blog Scavenger Hunt

Cat, of Caterwaulling, has challenged me to yet another meme! Check out her post: http://caterwauller.blogspot.com/2008/11/blog-scavenger-hunt.html#links

And the rules are:

• Use a different blog to answer each question.
• Be sure to include hot links in your answers, and if you’re referencing a specific post, be sure you’re linking to the permalink for that post.
• Not every linked blog needs to be a library person or a L&P participant.
• If you do this meme, please come back here and give me a link so I can read it!

The Things to Find Are:

1. A blog written by someone who lives close to you physically.
2. A blog you read written by someone you’ve never met, but would like to.
3. A blog written by someone who has the job you used to have, or the job you want to have someday.
4. A blog entry that made you think about something a new way.
5. A blog entry that made you laugh so hard your co-workers and/or family asked to know what was going on.
6. A blog from someone you’ve known a long time but haven’t hung out with in a long time.
7. A blog or post that inspired you to start blogging (or just written by the person who got you going).
8. A blog from someone you never thought would be blogging.
9. An article/post/site that you think could change the library world.
10. A blog you’ve found that makes you feel great every time you read it.

My Scavenger Hunt Finds:

1. (drumroll please…) It’s Caterwauller herself! We just realized we are neighbors a couple of months ago. I was out walking the dog and she was (somewhat groggily) on her way out to the car for work!
2. I have never met Library Joy, but I’d like to. I get her Twitter updates and she seems really funny and into some cool things like yoga, craftiness, and dogs!
3. I envy the job of Christina Katz, the Writer Mama. I surely don’t have her talents or skills, but I think her profession of writing, blogging, and conducting writing workshops would be a fun one.
4. Hmmmm, a blog that makes me think about things in a new way quite often is my friend Katie’s Travelpod blog. She’s a volunteer in the Peace Corps working in Guatemala. Her blog brings a completely different part of the world into my home as well as my mind and my heart.
5. This post made me laugh out loud when I read it.
6. I’ve known this blogger a long time. He’s a former CML-er now living in Germany with his lovely wife and son. We used to get together when he came to Columbus to visit, but it’s been quite awhile… He’s hilarious.
7. There are several bloggers I can point to who got me interested in writing a blog of my own. But, there’s one blogger who is the author of the first blog I started to follow: The Artful Parent. Her posts are beautifully written, her artwork and creativity with her daughter are inspiring, and I just feel happy when I visit her little corner of the web.
8. A blogger I never thought would blog. I am going to cheat and call this one a tie. Girlbrariana and mnbtiu.
9. Instead of a blog that could change the library world, I chose one that no doubt already has: Tame the Web.
10. And, last but not least, a blog that makes me feel great: Everyday Baby Studios. We have our first photo session with Jessi this weekend!

Wow, would you look at that? I linked up to 5 CML staff blogs and 2 former-CML-staff blogs! This was fun!

Image by Free-StockPhotos.com

Meme from Caterwaulling

 

Cat has this meme posted on her blog, and it’s easy and kind of cool. Not completely “me”, but definitely some merit to it. Give it a try!

Katie’s Dewey Decimal Section:

105 Serial publications

Katie’s birthday: 12/7/1978 = 127+1978 = 2105

Class:
100 Philosophy & Psychology

Contains:
Books on metaphysics, logic, ethics and philosophy.

What it says about you:
You’re a careful thinker, but your life can be complicated and hard for others to understand at times. You try to explain things and strive to express yourself.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Bonus Thing

1. OK, the CML stuff first. I was a Page before there were LSA’s and a Clerk before CSA’s and CSS’s. I’ve been in the system 12 years.
2. My husband and I met at the library, although he was not an employee. (We’re actually kind of the result of a set-up.) We’ve been married 8 1/2 years. If not for him, I would not have absorbed so much Seinfeld trivia nor developed an interest in the Tour de France.
3. My retirement dream is to move to Maine, buy an old farmhouse, and open a bed & breakfast.
4. I have naturally curly hair and it drives me crazy when people ask me about it – I don’t like the implication that I might possibly have a perm!
5. I love to travel. A few years ago, the husband and I took a cross-country 3-week trip out West, visiting St. Louis, MO; Moab, UT; Sedona, Flagstaff and Grand Canyon, AZ; Santa Fe and Taos, NM before looping back home. The kicker–we made the trip in my ‘94 standard transmission, NO cruise control Saturn. Yeah, that made the Rockies interesting. Still, it’s our favorite trip.
6. I can’t stand the word ‘whatnot’.
7. Typos, misprints, grammatical errors, the stuff on Jay Leno’s Headlines are my worst pet-peeves. That’s why I enjoy reading this blog.
8. Garden gnomes freak me out.
9. As a child, I was i n c r e d i b l y shy. I hated talking to ’strangers’ like my parents friends, employees at stores or restaurants, doctors, etc., even on the telephone. I’m not sure when I got over all that…maybe not until high school.
10. I love mail. As much as I enjoy and feel thankful for email, blogging, IM, chat, etc., I still love sending and receiving handwritten notes and letters. Besides feeling special and more personal, one of the best things about mail is that it combines two things that I love/am fascinated by: stationery and people’s handwriting.

OK, that’s it, that’s all! I invite readers to post a comment with a link to your 10 random things.

Circulating Book Discussion Kits

“Can a public library proactively affect a community’s literary reading?”

Scrolling through an electronic newsletter from NoveList tonight, I came upon a reference to an interesting article about a public library that circulates book discussion kits for their patrons to use. It was a very interesting article, which I’m linking here. I’ll also post a few of my takeaways from the article.

WHAT: Johnson County (Kansas) Public Library has created 149 book discussion kits since 2004 that are available for check-out by library patrons. The kits, aptly named Book Club To Go Kits, consist of 10 paperback copies of a title that lends itself to group discussion. Kits are equipped with discussion guides and also must have alternative formats available through the library (ie. Large Print copies or audiobooks).

WHY: The kits are one aspect of JCPL’s strategic plan item that charges staff with providing convenient and personalized materials for patrons. Its an endeavor that originated in response to the Reading at Risk Report compiled by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. One of the study findings is that individuals with a higher income are more inclined to literary reading. The Book Club To Go Kits offer convenience and, more importantly, attempt to remove the monetary barrier that sometimes may prevent individuals from participating in book clubs.

GOALS/RELATED RESEARCH: The article quotes Andrew Solomon of the New York Times regarding literary reading. According to Solomon, “literary reading is an entry into dialogue” and has marked differences and results compared with spending the same amount of time reading electronic formats. In its study, the NEA identifies a parallel between reading and civic participation. With its programs and services, JCPL embraces the research and findings of Solomon and the Reading at Risk study, and is attempting the lofty goals of making reading a social rather than solitary activity, encouraging people to want to read more, and increasing library and community involvement.

Getting Results with Google

I was flipping through my monthly planner this morning and I came across some old notes about a presentation I was interested in but unable to attend earlier this year. The presentation, entitled ‘Getting Results with Google’, was presented at the Columbus Metropolitan Library by Glen Horton, of SouthWest Ohio and Neighboring Libraries. You can view the presentation here. It includes some helpful tips on conducting efficient searches with Google.

Social networking & Web 2.0

Go With the Flow: Selling Social Networking

 

Do your peers run the other way when you mention blogs and wikis? These talking points can help turn the tide.

 

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6610498.html

Web site recommendations

I need to check out these web sites (mentioned in either the October SLJ or the Nov. 1 LJ – I forget!)

www.weebly.com

www.onemorestory.com

www.biguniverse.com

The 23rd Thing

Well, here we are at the end of 23 Things. The time has really flown by, and as I look back over my blog posts I am amazed at how much we covered (and discovered). To keep this one simple and organized, I am going to use libraryjoy’s prompts:

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

• RSS (once I got the hang of it)
• Google docs – I am using these like crazy now
• CML’s Power Tools
• Twitter (a surprise favorite – I didn’t think I’d be interested in it at all!)

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

• The program has served to remind me that exploring new technologies and trends is, in fact, work-related and is certainly a large part of the daily on-the-job learning I do. It has also made me realize that lifelong goals can be quite small and simple (ie. exploring twitter or leaving a post or comment on a blog). I think the exercises in this program have also enabled me to see learning/discovery opportunities more readily and encouraged me to apply these to what we at the library do or to what I myself do in my daily work.

3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

• Yes – that I actually like blogging! Before beginning Learn & Play I had never considered that I might have anything to post on a blog. But, it’s amazing all the things you come up with once you get started.
• I also feel I’ve gotten to know some of CML’s staff better (through blogging and twitter).

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

• Hmmm, it was really done quite well! The Learn & Play team listened to staff when we said we needed more time. The right balance was struck in offering staff encouragement/reminders/updates without overkill or making us feel bombarded.
• Maybe next time there could be more “featured participants”. This seems to have become a trend over the last week or two, and I really like it. In the future, maybe that can be incorporated throughout the entire program. The videos that the Learn & Play team have done with various participants have enabled me to check out some of the many staff blogs with the bonus of being able to put a face to the post.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you participate?

• Yes, I would definitely participate in something like this again.

downloadable books

Since InfoLine receives a fair number of phone calls from customers regarding MOLDI, I try to occasionally scope it out and see what has changed. This afternoon, however, I delved a little deeper: viewed the tutorial, took some notes, logged in with my library card number, and browsed all of the formats. Here are a few of the things I learned from the tutorial:

• you need to download the OverDrive Media Console before you are able to download any material
• the quick search option offers ISBN searches
• the advanced search option lets you combine fields (ie. you can search by subject and date added to site)
• Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a term that refers to technologies used to control access to software, music, movies, or other digital media. DRM prevents illegal file-sharing. Some parameters are set by publishers. By clicking on a title, you can view the digital rights associated with it. These rights will explain what you can and cannot do with the title once you have downloaded it.

And here are my discoveries after spending some time browsing:

• MOLDI offers study guides on various topics (like foreign languages) as well as Sparknotes
• there is an “always available” collection of movies – lots of comedy titles here, including the hilarious Jim Gaffigan show Beyond the Pale (“hot pocket!”)
• the audiobook collection seems pretty extensive; I found classics, early readers, chapter books, middle school and teen titles (John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines), and even graphic novels. I wonder what the statistics are for child and teen users.
• the music collection is comprised of mostly classical music – wonder if this has anything to do with music-downloading sites like limewire and iTunes…

My overall impression of MOLDI is a favorable one. If I had a portable player, I’m sure I would download titles frequently. There is the option of just downloading materials to my computer, but I’m not compelled to sit at my computer and read or listen to a book. I suppose I could see myself downloading an e-book that was some sort of study guide or reference material, but you’ll never find me sitting at my desk downloading a big fat novel.

Printz Discussion

I’m very excited to be participating in the Printz discussion at the Youth Services meeting next month! This is the first opportunity I’ve had to be involved in one of these round-table discussions. Two years ago, I was all set to participate until I realized that the meeting was to be held on my pregnancy due date! Needless to say, I didn’t want to commit myself to participating only to find myself in labor when the day finally rolled around. (As it turns out, I was not in labor that day, but 2 short days later!)

Anyway, each year for the December YS meeting, we rotate through either the Printz, Newbery, or Caldecott Awards. This year, we’re taking a look at possible Printz Award winners. I’ve been assigned 5 teen titles to either read or read reviews of, in order to be informed enough to participate in the discussion. I’m very much looking foward to my assignments:

• Shift by Jennifer Bradbury
• The Compound by S. A. Bodeen
• Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen
• The Fold by An Na
• Ringside, 1925 by Jen Bryant

I read Shift over the summer and was quite captivated with it. (I actually included it with my Columbus Parent book reviews.) Sarah Dessen is an author who is always on my to-read list although I never seem to get around to her. Her books circulate so well with teens so I’m interested to see what her writing style is like. Of course, An na is brilliant and I’m sure I’ll be engrossed in The Fold. Not only is Ringside, 1925 a work of historical fiction, but also a story in free verse, told by various spectators of the Scopes “monkey trial”. I enjoy reading books in this format, as with Day of Tears by Julius Lester, Bull Run by Paul Fleischman. And, lastly, The Compound was already on my to-read list on goodreads, which also bodes well for my enjoyment of it!

I’ll post about these again, once I’ve had a chance to get started on all this reading!