The Old Man and Fish Story

You know the one: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a life time.

How about this: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for his life time. Teach a man to read, he figures out how to fish, where the best place is to fish, how to cook the fish and how to write long stories about fishing! The big plus is, you don't get slimy teaching him how to bait the hook.

Wrapping up L & P with 10 Random Things

1. It's a good thing that February only has 28 days.

2. Leap day should not be added to February. Why make a bad month longer? Let's add it to June. In that way, each summer month would be 31 days in a Leap Year. Much better, no?

3. I will always prefer reading books to cleaning my house.

4. If it weren't for audio books, I'd never get any cleaning done at all.

5. I would really like a job that paid me to read more. Let me clarify. I do get paid to read reports and email and stuff like that. I would like to be paid to read novels.

6. With winter coming on, I wish we had valet parking at my branch. When I leave at 9 pm, I hate having to clean and defrost my windows.

7. Thank heaven for seat warmers!

8. I'd rather make my own vitamin D, thank you! Keep that sunscreen away from me.

9. Oh yes! I'd also like to be paid to travel.

10. Give me a good book, my passport, a ticket to a warm climate, and I'm out of here!!

The End of Learn and Play

For the most part, I have enjoyed Learn & Play. I've been introduced to some very useful tools (I especially like Wikis) as well as some fun sites. Through helping co-workers, I have definitely improved my own skills, as usually happens.

If CML should decide to have a similar intiative in the future, I think we have all learned that there is a need to allow more time for completion. After all, we know we're one of the busiest library systems around!

MOLDI books

I have downloaded MOLDI audio books to my laptop. Unfortunately, that isn't very convenient for listening purposes. I am looking forward to being able to load these books on my Ipod, since I spend a lot of time listening to books while exercising or driving.

Podcasting

I checked out Google Podcast directory and Podcast alley. While it appears that there is alot of podcasting going on, several of the podcasts I investigated were from 2007 and earlier. I did add one feed to my bloglines account, but I don't think I'll add any more.

As for the library, I suppose it might be kind of fun to promote events using podcasting. Using podcasts for that would give them a limited shelf life. Perhaps they could also be used for tutorials.

YouTube and MyTube

I looked at some of the political junk and decided it was all too depressing. So I looked for fun and found ...Corgis!!!

I can now add Corgi to my language expertise.

Tooling Around the CML toolbox

I was familiar with most of the tools in the toolbox but I had fun playing around with the ones I hadn't encountered before.

StumbleUpon was the most fun, although it might really be more fun to stumble upon the sites by myself. Of course, that would require much more time than I want to devote to the search.

I like that the content in Digg seemed to be refreshed quickly.

MAKE and TechCrunch would be favorites of mine if I were more techie inclined.

All in all, CML has collected a pretty interesting, useful and fun "tools" for the toolbox.

Web 2.0 Apps

It was fun trying out several of these sites. You can tell many of them are still in their "infancy" - they are waiting for more input. As far as the library is concerned, I might use these sites for information or recommendations. I don't think any of them would replace our premium resources.

The sites I tried were Urbanspoon, MyHeritage, Standout Jobs and Biblio. Once Urbanspoon has more reviews, it will be more useful. At present, the resturants by neighborhood is pretty neat. The genealogy site looks like it would be easy to use. I have used both Heritage Quest and Ancestry Plus - at some point I'll have to compare this new site to those. Standout Jobs has some interesting software that looks like it would be useful in searching for employees. As for Biblio, I've used them in the past to find the value of old titles. That was really interesting.

All in all, I'd enjoy trying more of these sites if I had the time.

Documenting Google Docs

I have been using Google docs for almost a year. I find them very handy when I need to create a document or presentation when I'm away from my personal computer. It certainly is handier than carrying a flash drive or a floppy disc. In fact, I have taken to recommending them to customers who need to create something (usually for school) and have no way to save it. I know we have been talking about adding space for our customers to save through their CML account. Until we decide to do something similar, Google docs fills the bill.

That being said, one has to remember that these documents are not under our control. If Google should decide that we need to pay to have access, I'm certain that somewhere in the fine print of all those user agreements there is language to the effect that Google is the ultimate owner.

Learn & Play Wiki finally gave up

its struggle to keep me from editing it. Once I got in, it was surprisingly easy to work with. Looking at blogs, and del.icio.us and now, wikis, I think the wikis may be the way to go with setting up a reader's advisory site for CML. I can envision each person having their own page within the wiki for their favorites, as well as having genre and/or media type pages. Hmmmm. I'll have to consider this some more.

I think I like WIKIs!

After looking at Grand Rapids Public Library's wiki , I am sooooo envious! I really am impressed with all their Readers' Resources. I think this is what I've been hoping to set up at CML for my coworkers. Now that I've seen an example, I want to have my own reader's wiki. So cool!

Library 2.OH NO!

Or rather, Oh Yes!

Rick Anderson's article, "Away from the 'Icebergs'" is right on point. Slowly, our collections are moving away from a "just in case" plan. As I remove last copies that have circulated 5 times since 1983 (and earlier), part of me is sad to see a title someone obviously felt a need to keep, being thrown on the discard heap. At the same time, what does it say that in over 20 years, only 5 people found this title - and then checked it out. Perhaps easily discovered digital copies will end up finding greater readership than print copies. We cannot warehouse every copy, just in case.

Anderson's point about training is also very dear to my heart. While I know that we will always have customers for whom even the most simple web page is a challenge, we certainly do not need to add to their woes or ours by making things needlessly complicated - just because we can.
And then I read Wendy Schultz's article "To a temporary place in time...." Boy, Library 4.0 sounds really cool. It also sounds costly. She mentions partnering with private sponsors who will provide sensory treats. I just hope private partners won't take the public out of the public library.

How Del.Icio.Us!!

This LandP @ CML thing may well be one of the more important sites to explore. I can see it replacing the favorites/links at our Info computers. For reader's advisory alone, this would be a boon to the info staff.

On a personal level, I try to have as few sites to visit as possible. I have too many books to read and I don't need to get sidetracked here. I'm already years behind in my reading.

(Does anyone else think that 'folksonomy' sounds like an economy based on arts and crafts - or maybe folk music?) Just wondering.

Don't Get All Twitter-pated

I've signed up for Twitter (as radnor17). I can't decide whether this is more exhibitionistic or voyeuristic. I guess it depends on whether I'm being followed or I'm doing the following. It also feels a little like stalking. (I know, I know, I've read too many Deaver and Saul novels.)

As far as CML goes, I guess Twitter would be one way for our supervisors to know what we're doing. Of course, they could just look around the branch.

Library Thing

I've had a Library Thing account for several months. I also have a Good Reads account and a Shelfari account. Consequently, I have books cataloged here and cataloged there and some more over yonder. I also have almost 1000 more titles (since 11/2001) I'd like to catalog. Any chance CML will pay me to get them entered?

When I Run for President ...

my campaign will revolve around this issue. Just think, if all Monday holidays were Friday holidays how much better off we would all be.

When you have a Monday off, you have 2 Sundays, Tuesday becomes Monday and the week isn't half over until Wednesday night. No wonder those Monday-off-4-day-weeks seem so much longer than a 5 day week.

When you have a Friday off, Thursday becomes TGIF, Friday is both Friday and Saturday and your week was half over on Tuesday night!

Fishing for Feeds

I still think the easiest way to find the feeds I want is to go to the website and look for the "subscribe" information. I'll have to admit, though, that the quick subscribe feature in bloglines is kind of cool.

I also found it interesting that some of my favorite sites don't have feeds. Oh well, better luck next time.

Feeding the RSS Monster

Of all the feeds I've added to my Bloglines account, the one I'm most likely to find helpful is the feed from the Reader's Advisor on-line blog. This blog is a good clearinghouse for news about new releases, hot titles and all sorts of book buzz. I can see myself using this as a way to keep up with my customers.

Here's the link to my public bloglines account: http://www.bloglines.com/public/radnor

Pondering Technology

As per Thing #7, today's post is ANYTHING about technology. What a difficult assignment. I appreciate a little direction - it saves time.

OK - so - technology. Time saver or time waster? Too many times, I get caught up in messing around with gadgets, new web sites, toys, etc. While tech helps me find answers quickly, it also leads me down the garden path - a touch of this, a sample of that, oooh, look over there. It also throws up roadblocks at the drop of a hat. Most of the time, I'm thankful for the ways I can use technology. Occasionally, the capabilities of technology make me feel that I should be doing more. Enough blather - time to post.

Thing # 6 of L&P@CML - More Flickr-ing

I have fiddled around with Flickr and its services. Of the ones I tried, I'd have to say that the one that sucked me in was retrievr. Some of the pictures chosen to match my doodles were "right on." Others required a little imagination. If you want to try it, check out this link:
http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

Week 3 of L&P@CML - or My Friend Flickr

Hilliard Weeder
Originally uploaded by rrossbach.16

OK, I've checked out Flickr (several times). But since I haven't been taking many photos recently, I didn't have anything to post.




With a little help from a coworker, we captured an image of the wily WMD Weeder that lurks in the stacks at the Hilliard branch. While the shared PC's were a little difficult to manage, we were able to get the image off the camera. Updloading it to Flickr was a breeze. Now let's see if I can get the silly thing onto this post.

I'm Trying to Keep Track, Really I Am

After having (and losing) multiple bits of paper listing all the titles I HOPE to read, I have decided to use Shelfari to keep track of those titles. At the very least, it has to be tidier than what I was doing. However, I have the uneasy feeling that this list will continue to grow and I will never have the time necessary to read all of them.

Lifelong learning

As you can tell from the title of this blog, my biggest difficulty with the 7 1/2 habits is the goal setting. I've never found it easy to set specific goals. There's always so much more that needs to be addressed - hence I meander.

The easiest of the habits for me is the teaching and mentoring of others. There is nothing like teaching others to learn the material. Mentoring is also an excellent way to learn patience. Trying to come up with an explanation that another can grasp can be frustrating. Finding the explanation that clicks is exhilarating.

I have entered the blogosphere

Don't look now, but another blithering idiot has created a blog. Is it only my imagination, or is this the 21st century answer to navel gazing?

I hope to use this spot to keep up with the many titles I am reading/listening to. Maybe I'll be more faithful to this listing than I am to Library Thing or Good Reads. Time, as always, will tell.