Storytelling Workshop

Today I went to a storytelling workshop at NEFLIN HQ. One of the exercises was to listen to a person tell about a certain subject. You couldn't comment or interject, only listen! Then you gave an "appreciation" to the talker on something they had said, no negatives, no you could make it better if..., only positive. You also had to give yourself an appreciation when it was your turn to talk - that was a little more difficult. My goal is to start truly listening to people, without turning the conversation about myself or my experiences. I hope people will do that for me sometimes too. We could all be more positive! It was a very good workshop.

Facebook

Stephanie created a Facebook page for the Youth Services Department several weeks ago. We are using it to let people know about upcoming programs and to post pictures of our babies! We used to be able to put pictures from Baby and Me on the Community Bulletin Board (TV) but the software got so old and couldn't handle all the data so we had to stop. Hurray for Facebook! We put new pictures of the babies on today and will start doing more with our other programs.

Thing 23 The Survey!

I completed the survey a few days ago and forgot to blog about it. I'm done, YEAH!!!
23 things was a lot of fun, and I learned a ton of stuff. I have every intention of keeping up with what I've learned and hopefully learn new technology as it comes available. Thanks NEFLIN!

Stretchin' Out!

A quiet street in Monterubbiano Italy

Thing 22 "Keep Up the Good Work"

Thing 22 - Almost Done! In Thing 22 we are encouraged to keep using what we have learned. I certainly have fallen in love with some of the Things and some were just not My Thing. I have learned a ton of stuff and have discussed them with coworkers and my family. I know more about what is available online and how to cut through some of the junk that comes up when I am searching. Most of my old favorite sites are still my favorites, but now I have some new favorites too. Thanks for the experience NEFLIN!

Thing 21: Student 2.0 Tools

Ok, so I thought maybe I was being a little skeptical but I showed this to my son-in-law, a college student and he confirmed my assessment: people wait til their assignments are about to be due and then they do them. A calculator on how to break up the time sounds fantastic! (but in reality, most people don't work that way.) If these tools work for you or anybody you know, that's great. I don't think they'd work for me. ***Loved the Friday Fun cartoon!

Thing 20: Books 2.0

I checked out most of the sites on Thing 20. There are more book related sites than I could have imagined. I thought the one on Facebook was pretty neat, and if I was a person who needs to discuss my books, I would probably join Visual Bookshelf. I checked out the children's book sites and many of them weren't working. I think it's cool to be able to read things online and save money, but snuggling with a book is the way I prefer to read with children. We have already invested a fortune on books for our 12 week old grandaughter and are enjoying storytime daily.

I don't think books are going to get replaced with online, but I do see newspapers and magazines becoming more of an online thing. I was at a Gates workshop last week and the instructor mentioned that People magazine is free on their site - the articles, not the pictures! Anyone who reads People wants to see the pictures so I don't think they will stop printing their magazine, but magazines with more informational articles may be going to online formats.

BookSwim is interesting, but I'm too cheap and I am not a voracious enough reader to pay to read the next best seller. I can wait and check out my books at the library. We looked at it for my son-in-law who is a student and the prices were not enough of a break to make it worthwhile.

Thing 19 Other Social Networks

There are many "other" social networks out there and I enjoyed looking at the suggested sites. Gather was kind of interesting and then I went to Library Ning. Everyone really should read the article on the new cutting edge technology in the library. Here's the link: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2009/04/new-rrils-can-send-search-results-directly-to-brain.html Really, really a must read! I liked the craft site but it was super slow to load on my library computer. Fuzzster was really cute but really, have you seen my Gracie? --She's way cuter than the kitties on fuzzster. See!

Thing 18 Facebook and MySpace

I've purposefully stayed off these sights feeling I was respecting my kids space by not reading about them or their friends. I guess it's not just for college kids anymore. The library is on facebook, a dozen or more of my high school friends are on there along with lots of people I know here in Lake City. Stephanie started a Facebook page for the library youth services and we are able to communicate to our friends when we have programs etc. Since our website is very limited, the facebook page will allow us to post pictures and more attractive notices. Pretty cool!! I was able to send a personal invitation to our egg hunt to a family that friended us! I made my own personal page and posted pictures of our family. Ofcourse I've done that on flickr and on this blog and several other places, all part of 23 Things. I will say that some of my fears about social networking are founded. When you sign in, facebook comes up with a list of people you might know, I clicked on a few and some of the things posted were things I would just as soon not know about.

Thing 17 Podcasts

This Thing was a little frustrating due to the computer here at work. I knew CNN had lots of podcasts but I couldn't get them to work for me. Stephanie showed me her favorite Ricky Gervais (we just googled it!) and that was pretty funny. Everyone in our household has an ipod except for me. One of these days I may get one too and take advantage of podcasts. I guess I'm pretty happy just sitting at my computer and watching news streams and reading the articles that interest me. One good thing about having the 23 Things assignment is that I'm discovering a lot more that I didn't even know was available. I knew what podcasts were, but hadn't used them more than a time or two until now. I went to google reader as part of the Thing 17 assignment and found that all the 23 Things blogs I follow were there for me to look at, so I read some more of everyone elses comments.

Thing 16 Youtube

My family loves youtube. Occasionally my son comes over and all of the adult kids go to the computer(s)and share their favorites. One of my faves is the blonde in the library but neflin has already marked that one. Here's one that Jeremy shared that had us all rolling! Car stuck in snow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PiGQMuT87U Enjoy it!

Thing 15 Rollyo

I read the info on Rollyo and the other sites and did a few searches on Rollyo. Honestly, I got the same results that I would have if I had just gone to my favorite sites so I'm not that excited about Rollyo. I see that it is a bit of a filter, only going to sites I choose so that is kind of cool but so far, I haven't found a practical use for it.

This is how I feel about many of the 23 things!

bevs march mosaic

bevs march mosaic
Originally uploaded by beverlydschulz

New pix!

Grace is my calico, Isabel is the Siamese mix, Spencer is Becky's fluffy tabby and Zoe is the gray fatty. Laila is growing sooo fast, she is smiling, laughing and cooing now. She thinks her daddy is the funniest guy on earth!

Thing 14 Productivity Tools

I created a calendar for myself in googlecalendar. That was fairly easy. I played with countdown and was not successful but I will keep trying. I have some new pictures of Laila and some of my kitties to post so will get back on flickr today. I downloaded PDFConverter at home, thinking it might be something we would use but then I didn't have anything to convert yet. This Thing wasn't as much fun as Thing 13, so I spent a little more time on Library Thing at home.
P.S. I tried countdown again and it doesn't seem to work.

Thing13

Library Thing is a really cool website. Basically it helps you organize your personal library. For me it might help when I go nuts ordering books on Amazon for our new grandaughter, Laila. We started a collection for her when my daughter announced she was pregnant. Right now Laila and her parents are living with us while they build their new house. I have the pleasure of bathing Laila late every night and then we read and sing until she is asleep! So far our favorite story is Clip-Clop. Laila is only 8 weeks old, so she can't tell me what she wants to hear, but she definitely likes that one. I also really love Snuggle Puppy. On Library Thing there is a star rating system and a way to reccomend books. When I started adding my collection, there were other books like mine that other members posted. I will start figuring out all the accessories on Library Thing when I get a few more of my books added!

Thing 12 WIKI

I watched the video and understand what a WIKI is now - sort of an interactive blog, faster than waiting for individual emails (but I still like those --more private and intimate - the whole world doesn't need to know...)anyway I see where WIKIs are valuable. What I don't like is that they seem to be a forum for people who want to talk but don't have much to say and you have to muddle through that stuff to see if there is something valuable in the middle. (Kind of like when someone hits reply all on their email, but it's really only directed at the sender yet we all get the message :(. Guess I'm not sold.

Thing 11

I may have missed the point of this excersize but it just seemed like more work to get the same information I am already getting on google news and the other reputable news sources I'm already looking at. (CNN, NY Times and the many that Google news takes me to.) I looked at the sites recommended and now I'm gonna move to Thing 12.

Thing 10 Delicious

I've created a Delicious account and started tagging some of my favorite sites. I spend a good bit of time trying to remember where I saw an article or where I found some cool thing I would like to buy -- must have been at home, or must have been at work... this could help with that if only I remember to save it on delicious I will be able to find it from any computer hooked to internet. Pretty NEAT!

Thing 9

Thing 8

I have read the thing 8 material. I've used IM to talk with customer service reps and that works great as long as the rep speaks English ok. I've come across some where the company has outsourced and obviously the rep and I do not speak the same language. That's pretty frustrating. The best use of IM for me was when our son-in-law was in Iraq. We used IM or some form of chat all the time. It was great to be able to communicate. We couldn't call so it was really nice. Now that he's home we haven't had occasion to IM socially. I haven't attended any webinars, I'd much rather work with live people. I set up the Twitter acct but I'm not sure why. The photo sharing sites are a lot more fun! On to thing 9.

Thing 7 Image Chef frame. Happy Jamie - Super Bowl Party

Thing 7

Image Chef was kind of fun. Seems like things 5, 6, &7 overlap. The image makers are all kind of fun!

Thing 6

bev's mosaic

This is thing 6.

bev's mosaic
Originally uploaded by beverlydschulz

This was created in Flickr toys. You've met Zoe and Spencer, the grandcats. Laila Becky and Jeremy are sharing family time. Jamie is our little drummer. Jamie can turn any object into a drum. For Christmas we bought him a drum full of toys! Jamie is our friends Anthony and Rene's little boy. He's my almost grandson and I love the time we spend together! This group of photos is all about family.

flickr

Here's my daughter Becky - a really good sport!

She usually volunteers to wear the costume at our big events! Clifford was a huge hit at the P.U.T. children's fair a couple of years ago. He will be coming back for an event in April but I doubt if we will get Becky, who is a new mommy, back for an encore! If I've done thing 5 correctly, you can see more clifford pictures by clicking on the url http://www.flickr.com/photos/librarybevspix

Thing 5

I have opened my FLICKR account and downloaded some pictures. That part was really easy and then I decided I wanted the order of my pictures to change. Two hours later, I was unable to change the order. I've read directions and changed the day and time to make them appear in a different order, taken them off and put them back on but never succeeded. I will return to FLICKR fresh with an open mind and positive attitude in hopes that I will figure out what isn't really the biggest problem in the world but one I would like to be able to solve like a big girl. FLICKR is neat - a great photo album without the storage problem! We just started using photo bucket at home and we like that a lot -- it's the same thing only different.

Thing 4 RSS

I've read through thing 4 again. I guess this is another technology I've been using but didn't know it. I love my igoogle and we have been using it at home. We have had a lot of trouble here at the library with our computers being soooooo slowwwww so I took it off my home page. Having an assignment from 23 things got me to bring it back, but only when I click on google. I love checking google news...feeling connected to the world makes me happy. I've been accused of being a news junkie... beats the other kind. On to Thing 5, which I'm really looking forward to!

Laila Anne 4 days old

Laila Anne is our first grandchild. She was born January 14, 2009. Talk about love at first sight!!! Everyone says that grandchildren are wonderful... they are right! She is absolutely a joy.

This is Zoe. She is my photogenic grandcat. Zoe is very sweet and very FAT. Giving Zoe a hug and having a little lap time is a favorite part of my day!

Thing 3

Ok so I didn't know there were blogpost websites. I did a comparison with technorati and google blog spot. My love for google is proven once again. The google search gave me exactly what I was looking for. Technorati found key words but none of it was what I was looking for. Different search engines, different priorities. I learned something.

Thing 2

KEEP UP! That's pretty much my take on Web 2.0. Keep up with our patrons, keep up with technology --keep up! Aren't we all doing that? I thought so... just hadn't stopped to reflect on it until now. I'm glad to learn new things -- I do wish our equipment would move more rapidly so that I could KEEP UP! Even though 23 things is an assignment -- I'm glad for the opportunity to keep up.

Thing 1

OK I did it! The hardest part was thinking of titles and passwords. On to thing 2.

Things I get a kick out of:
Assisting a patron - helping her find the material she needs to meet her goal. Today is Saturday and this really sweet young teacher came in to find bilingual books. She told me about her plans for the week -- making tacos and pinatas and talking with the children about South America. I found her several books and suggested a few more with songs and fingerplays and found a fun story about making a pinata. I showed her a pinata craft we did here last summer. She left very happy and I feel really good about being able to help her. That's what makes my job fun!