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.