Great job, Colette, on this bulletin board for our library that celebrates the 50th anniversary of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

Holiday Book Challenge

Do you know the titles and authors of these Holiday Books?

_____A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus.

_____Grumpy Luther Krank and his sweeter wife, Nora, decide to forgo the gifts, the tree, the decorations, the cards, and the parties this Christmas and spend the dollars saved on a 10-day Caribbean cruise.

_____This is a famous American poem about an important Christmas Eve visitor.

_____This character was created by a gentleman in 1939 as part of his employment with Montgomery Ward.

_____A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.

_____This book is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year! The noisy holiday preparations and infernal singing of the happy little citizens below annoy this grumpy character to no end!

_____When Oswald T. Campbell's doctor orders him to head to the warm South for his health, a chance phone call finds him a room in Lost River, Alabama. In the course of a year there, he has adventures both absurd and touching.

_____The one tall tree has provided smaller Christmas trees for seven homes, from the main character’s mansion, where he dozes contentedly in his parlor, to the cozy mouse hole behind his chair, where three little mice dance around their tiny tree.

_____The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie and steal and smoke cigars. So no one is prepared when they invade church one Sunday and decide to take over the annual Nativity play.

_____The minister of Harmony throws the town into a tizzy when he is absent from home one night a week making excuses. At first his wife thinks he's having an affair but then a chance comment has the inhabitants thinking this man is very ill and going for treatments at this time. What he is doing is attending a class to make a special Christmas present for his wife.

Advice From A Snowman

Be a jolly happy soul.
Spend time outdoors--stay cool.
It's okay to be a little bottom heavy. :)
Avoid meltdowns.
Be well-rounded.
Live well--life is so short.

Happy Thanksgiving!

An Old Irish Blessing

May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!

Endings & Beginnings

Wow, it's hard to believe that Project Play (Semester 1) is winding down. I remember feeling nervous about adding one more thing to my plate. These weeks have been so informative. It has been well worth investing the time to learn these new ideas. I am so IN for the second semester. Kudos to the instructors for a job well done! I relate to the remarks of Stef who is wondering about learning thresholds. As an educator, I know that new learning occurs when the task in not too easy nor is the task too challenging. That is very difficult to gauge when there are so many of us participating with differing prior knowledge bases. I would encourage you, during Semester 2, to keep doing what you are doing. Your assignments were offered to us in a range--try this OR this and also had "extras" that one could try or not. That flexibility,I felt, was both innovative and respectful!
How does one pick a favorite week? All of the weeks were FUN! If forced, I choose week 7. I am enjoying Library Thing very much and I thought the Dummies book template was hilarious! I have been keeping up with Shelfari and Goodreads.com--they are great for learning about reading tastes and great books. They help me both professionally & personally. I would like to utilize Survey Monkey at some point. I use Doodle all the time (not sure if we learned that in class or not) which I feel is a fabulous tool for a person like me who is involved in SO MANY teams.
Sometimes I feel smothered by all the exciting technological opportunities that I have to sift through. Having Project Play give me direction has been marvelous. Imagining all the creative minds that are out there coming up with these social networking opportunities blows me away! Slowly, but surely, I am reaching out there to be a part of these on-line communities. My heart is full to think about all the sharing, generosity, goodwill and peace that happens because of the web!

This wonderful afternoon

I was driving this afternoon and saw this billboard in the country--AWESOME! I love the Dalai Lama. It says, "Doesn't just wish for peace. He works for it. Hope. Pass it on. The Foundation for a Better Life." I felt my spirits uplifted immediately. Then I went to give blood and I have reached the two gallon milestone--yippee--such a great feeling. I encourage everyone to give blood if they are able. Finally, for someone who for the longest time believed that LOL stood for "Lots of Love" I found a great link for e.mail/text messaging shorthand. It is Hints and Things.
Maybe it can help you to get with it, too. Ha ha! TAFN

Back in the Saddle again with wikis!

What an exciting morning! First, I learned a new word, "outlier". I LOVE Wikipedia. It is often my first source for information on anything. I found the Wikipedia page about Seymour, WI (the city, not the town) and added a link to our library website. How empowering! I want to further explore the Library Success wiki. What a neat idea to have a place to share and highlight like that. I like a wiki as a place where information is pooled and at your leisure you can examine that information and alter it, give feedback, etc. (The sandbox is fun!)
I totally get what Beth says about the trust issue, only in reverse. I am a little apprehensive about putting my stuff out there and having it tweaked. However, what really makes me fearful is when I am offering and/or making changes. My stomach starts doing flips--I have questions like, "Am I doing this right?" "Is this worth making a negative comment on?" "Should I choose my battles?" "Will Y's feelings be hurt?" I think maybe I'm learning to be TOO political from being a director. Anyway, I'm just being honest. Sometimes I will be completely passive for fear of making a mistake. Character flaw--I know! I am willing to try new things in a "safe" and "welcoming" environment. I'd say blogs are more comfortable than wikis for me at this juncture. How are the other Project Play participants feeling?!

I'm a week behind!

Yikes! I'm a week behind for Project Play. Last week was filled with all sorts of assorted challenges and Project Play fell to the wayside. It's okay. I'm now back on track. I love the idea of tagging and how many people are working on it at once. (folksonomy) The adage, "Two heads are better than one" comes to mind. Multiply that by several thousand and patterns are bound to emerge--cool! How to use that with our patrons? When patrons begin contributing reviews to Infosoup, perhaps tags could be utilized in some way. Maybe tags are being currently utilized with book recommendations on Infosoup? A teacher friend, Joan, introduced me to delicious in May. Here is my link: http://del.icio.us/Emtimmins
You can see that I didn't get very far! However, I LOVE the tags that are attached to despair.com! I liked seeing that 929 other people have a dark sense of humour like me! Reading their comments was interesting but oppressive--so many people, when I began to really think about it, made me feel claustrophobic!
I am really interested in tag clouds. They are both artistic and informational. It is fascinating to see which tags are in the largest font and are therefore the most frequently explored topics. I am interested in Irish news. This tag cloud intrigues me: Ireland's Current Affairs website

Ms. Bijou!

Here is Ms. Bijou, She loves me unconditionally!

Now I'm a Thingamabrarian and other assorted fun!

I have posted Library Thing on my blog just to the left. I decided to gather some of my favorite children's books for fall since in my dual role I also do Children's Programming and this is such a great time of the year! I think Library Thing is great. The advantage to tagging is that as you get used to it, you relate to what other people of a like mind will be using for tags--e.g. "great read aloud." Inversely, some people, like myself, may not be that great @ tagging at first. I also enjoy the rating scales. I think they are helpful in discerning "quality". The only real downside I can think of is that the project is only as strong as the participants who are involved. Therefore, I understand the desire to have more and more subscribers.
Suggester & Unsuggester I put in "Beach Music" by Pat Conroy (one of my all time favorite books) and for one of the suggestions Library Thing came up with "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". I thought that was so interesting--perhaps the southern connection? I have read that book and enjoyed it. I tried "Beach Music" for the Unsuggester, too. How fun! Library Thing came up with a TON of mathematics related books and yes, there was not a one that I think I would ever pick up! Okay, then I tried a new idea. I typed in a book I DIDN'T like into the Unsuggester and found lots of books that I have read or would like to read. Hmmm...
I had TOO much fun with the Dummies exercise! My first attempt was for my staff (ha ha) and my second attempt was for family & friends (ho ho). Can you tell which is which?! I envision lots of uses for this!

I have been meaning to post a picture of Mark from a gig he played on October 20 so here he is in all his rock and roll glory (he is the honey w/o the hat)! How is it going for you?

Great showing by OWLS!

Thank you so much to my colleagues from OWLS who worked in the Registration Booth for the WLA Conference in Green Bay last week. Heartfelt thanks go to: Leslie Farrell, Carolyn Habeck, Ann Hunt, Val Husom, Holly Ledvina, Kathy Mitchell, Sue Vater Olson, Karen Probst, Becky Rickel, Maggie Waggoner, & Melanie Waldron.

The trees changed color when I wasn't looking!

CIMG1973
Originally uploaded by elizabeth.timmins

I was at the conference for a week, but any runs home were at night. Suddenly, this past Saturday, I realized that the trees on my road had changed color and they looked spectacular!

Okay, I figured out to connect with Flickr and it's cool! I see lots of ways that it would be fun to utilize both a blog and Flickr for library promotion and interaction with patrons. I just got a call from the Green Bay Press Gazette and they are doing an article about our wine event. They wanted some pictures (which I eventually found on my computer) but wouldn't it have been cool if I had an organized group of Friends' pictures & their activities on Flickr? I think I see all the possibilities of getting better organized! Also, if others are familiar with the tool all the better. I know of an Elderhostel tour which encouraged their participants to post to Flickr and see each others' photos--I was helping a patron access her fellow travelers' pictures. Cool! The only downside is that Flickr requires a yahoo account. I have to remind myself to check that account in order to keep it valid. I am excited to try all of the other snazzy tools that were mentioned in this week's lesson, in days to come. I like the idea of tagging a lot--it seems natural for a librarian! I also like the idea of communities being formed in Flickr--e.g. librarian communities--we need to support one another & network to make positive changes for our profession.

WLA Conference this week in Green Bay!

I hope everyone enjoys themselves at the conference. Since Thursday, as I have been preparing for the Registration Booth (with lots of help, I might add--thanks everybody!) I feel like I'm in an episode of Survivor! Hopefully, things will gel now! Enjoy Green Bay.

Funny Onion article

Google Launches 'The Google' For Older Adults

Elizabeth here. I thought I was the only one who had patrons who said things like, "The Google" and "The Yahoo". This made me LOL!!

What's for Dinner?

Tonight, Mark made this recipe and paired it with a Bordeaux wine that was fabulous--yum yum. (The bottle of wine was less than $10 but wonderful--The label reads, "Collection des Chateaux de Bordeaux--Number One")
Ratatouille Nicoise: Vegetable Stew from Nice
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes; 1/2 cup olive oil; 1 pound eggplants, thinly sliced or diced; 1 pound zucchini, sliced; 1 pound onions, thinly sliced; 1 pound sweet green peppers, seeded and thinly sliced; 5 garlic cloves, minced; 5 basil leaves; 2 sprigs of thyme; salt & freshly ground black pepper; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley to garnish.
1--Make a small incision in each tomato with a sharp knife. Put them in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 1-2 minutes, then remove and skin the tomatoes. Chop them roughly.
2--Heat half of the oil in a large heavy saucepan and add the eggplants. Fry them gently over a moderate heat until they are lightly golden, stirring frequently.
3--Add the zucchini and continue frying for 5-6 minutes until they are lightly colored. Remove the eggplants and zucchini from the pan with a slotted spoon, and set aside.
4--Add the remaining oil to the pan. Stir in the onions and fry gently until soft and golden. Add the sweet peppers and garlic, increase the heat and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the eggplants and zucchini, season to taste, and crumble in the thyme. Cook gently, uncovered, for about 40 minutes. Crumble the basil leaves into the ratatouille, and serve it warm or cold, garnished with parsley.
Source: The Essential French Cookbook, edited by Heather Thomas

A Movie I Think Is Really Great!

Feedback Thingies

I think that interactive participation is the hallmark of blogs. I definitely want to be able to utilize "feedback thingies" with my patrons. I liked what was said today about the fact that some patrons will not be reached via computer so we will replicate whatever survey we are doing in a different way for them. I really like the idea of reaching out in a multiple of ways because our patrons are all on different playing fields. I am pleased that this class is arming me with new ways to reach out to the computer/web literate. Just this month, we(my staff & I) were discussing how helpful it is when our patrons assist us with ideas for collection development. We were talking about how we should reach out for help in the area of choosing magazines. Here is something I would try using Survey Monkey. Just for fun, will you take my survey by clicking on Survey Monkey and tell me about a magazine that you really like?

FMPL Wine Beer Cheese & Silent Auction Event--join us on November 3.

The Friends of Muehl Public Library will be hosting their 5th annual Wine & Beer Tasting Event with Silent Auction. Join them at the Crystal Springs Golf Course in Seymour on Saturday, November 3rd, from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tickets are available at the library, Don's Quality Market, and Crystal Springs Golf Course. Advance ticket price is $15 or pay $20 at the door.

Support the Muehl Public Library and attend this fun event!

Will you be able to make it?

Triple Trouble with Tribbles

Last night, my staff members Colette & Megan held a showing of three movies at our library. They are so clever! We watched the original Star Trek, "Trouble with Tribbles". Then we watched a cartoon, "More Tribbles, More Troubles" of Star Trek: The Animated Series. Finally, we watched the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". I had never seen any of them so it was really fun for me! And the trekkies who attended had a ball, also! This is creative programming at its best! What creative programs have you done @ your library?

Working with RSS Feeds

I chose 8 "fun" feeds and 2 "library" feeds. The hardest part for me to post the Blogroll on this blog was to make sure and mark that I gave permission for the Blogroll to be public via Bloglines. After I discovered how to do that, it was a piece of cake! I had fun choosing my feeds--there are certainly a lot of fun postings out there. Also, there is SO MUCH informative material. I'm hoping that I can make time in my schedule to avail myself of some of the feeds. As it is, I have been trying to simplify the information overload rather than add to it. Thoughts?

Orphan Saint--a movie made by my sisters

Christina and Dymphna collaborated on a movie and it was really fabulous!
http://davebelden.com/pastprod/orphansaint.html

My honey, Mark

This is about his professional life. http://www.nsighttel.com/executives/Mark_Naze.html In weeks to come I will show you him rocking out with his band!

Libraries Here & Now

We hope that you are planning to attend the WLA Conference in Green Bay, WI. I was grateful to see that the week of the conference will be a "bye" week for Project Play. I am happily the Registration Chair for the event!

Project Play @ First Blush

I am impressed with the philosophy of the course, Project Play. I believe that play is critical for both learning a new concept and reinforcing it. I am also happy about having an opportunity to learn lots of new things that will enable me to be more helpful to patrons and that will boost me into better communication! :)