A final thought

I am so greatful to the ALSC Technology Committee for giving me a "kick in the pants" to try some of these 21 things and for opening my eyes to possibilities. I try to be open to change and to at least be aware of new things. I am so busy though, and I usually don't put time aside to play. This class has given me a "legitimate" reason to play. I will have to begin putting some of the new things I read about in journals on my RTM account and continue to schedule time to play!

I don't have time to play games, but...

My kids play online games all the time. The biggest problem I have with the games, besides not having time to play, is how some of the games try to lure kids into a monthly subscription. Club Penguin is a good example of this. You can only do so much with the free version. My nine year old has subscribed to Club Penguin several times for a month. She always gets bored of it after a few days. Then it is always a trial finding out how to cancel the subscription so I don't have to keep paying $6 a month for a game she isn't using. Six months later, she rediscovers it and wants to subscribe again.

This being said, I love all of the free opportunities online for kids to practice reading and math in the guise of playing a game. I love all of the opportunities for kids to develop thinking and creative problem solving skills through gaming. I love the opportunities for learning to work cooperatively through games. This past summer, we began circulating ds games and hosted some share play days where we supplied the games and kids bought their ds. All of the games we supplied were single card-multiplayer games. It was a blast. We also had Scratch classes for kids in fourth grade and up to give them the opportunity to create their own computer games and share them with other kids online. And just think, when I was in library school in 1991, there was this cool new thing called the internet...

Remember to Remember The Milk...

I like the idea of RTM for keeping track of things at work. I am often multitasking and moving from thing to thing at lightning speed. I often verbally passing out tasks and expect my staff to think as quickly as I do. Inevitably mistakes are made. Like today when I am stuck on the YS Reference Desk on a beautiful Saturday because I forgot to make a schedule change for a staff member going out of town. Now, the only problem I see is remembering to put things in RTM. I do not have a smart phone or a blackberry, etc. If I am forgetting to write things down, I can't see myself putting them on RTM. Still, as a busy YS manager, mother of two with a new dog, it's worth a try.

Google Docs, Zoho, etc.

I had been aware of Google Docs and had even recommended it to young people, but I didn't really realize it's potential until after seeing the clip you referenced. Then, you blew my mind away with adding Zoho and the other options. I love Zoho! I am going to begin to use it at home. We have had lots of trouble with students using our Microsoft office suite on our computers and then losing documents because they ran out of computer time and didn't save their document to a thumb drive. I love that they can save everything online and convert the document to the format that they need to access at school. I will also be sharing the idea of using zoho and google docs with our local school librarians. I feel like have stepped out of Plato's "cave."

Catch-up time/weeks 6 & 7

Weeks six and seven I chose to "coast", since I was basically familiar with the subject matter. I have taken many webinars and am familiar with podcasts. You tube and I have a love hate relationship. When the kids are using it after school and mucking up the bandwidth, I would like to ban it. Still, when we had an "Avatar, the last Airbender" party this summer when the movie came out, the kids loved using it to see the voices behind the cartoon characters. I am aware of book trailers and have shown them to kids, but have not yet made any. That is on our department's "to do" list in our copious spare time "cough cough." I appreciated learning about vimeo and the other more specialized sites. I looked briefly and will kep them im mind for the future. Ahhh, back on track and it is the last week. I made it!

I am not a fan of instant messaging...

I use it reluctantly on Facebook. If I want to talk to someone, I call them. As a busy Mom, I don't have time to stop and chat when I am online. I see the value though...

GoodReads is great, but what about COPPA?

I have been on GoodReads for several years but did not really use it until the past six months or so. I enjoy the Mock Newbery group, and it is helping me keep track of the myriad of kid's books I read. The problem I have with GoodReads, all social networking sites really, is the terms of use concerning COPPA. According to this law, social networking sites cannot collect personal information about children under 13 without parental permission. Social networks have found that the easiest way to comply with COPPA is to merely ban kids under 13 from using their site. This technically gets them off the hook legally, but does not really address the real issue of use by children under 13. I an seeing younger and younger children using Facebook to communicate with family and friends and to play games. Sometimes they are doing it with their parent's permission, sometimes not. These sites to not effectively block kids from using them, and even encourage kids to lie about their age. As a youth librarian who spends most of her time serving kids under 13, I want a "GoodReads" that they can use.

If a library is using Library Thing to allow patrons under 13 to review a book in their catalog, aren't they violating the terms of use? I am definitely not arguing the validity of the way social networks use terms of use as a way to avoid assuming any responsibility for under 13's using their site. Neither COPPA or social networks are "getting it right."

Facebook and Twitter

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I use it for personal social networking and have reconnected with people I literally haven't seen in more than 25 years. I get a little frustrated by getting a notice every time a friend plays a game. I learned how to block them, but I still get frustrated by some of the things people deem post-worthy. I also feel a little uncomfortable with the blurring of my personal and professional life, especially with youth. I have honored two requests from high schoolers to allow them to be my friend on Facebook. I really don't post much, I am pretty private. I only respond to them with brief encouraging words. I am seeing their personal life, however. More than I wish to see.

I signed up by YS Department for Twitter and I am immediately drawn to the briefness of the tweets. I don't have a lot of time to read blogs and I don't have enough time to create a well written visually interesting blog for my Department. tweeting about upcoming events to remind people what they have signed up for and informing people about what's going on locally seems to be right up my alley. I just have to decide if it would be better to create a Facebook page for the YS Department, which are patrons seem to be using, or begin tweeting.

Flickr

I am going to use my new flickr account to organize all of this year's summer reading pictures! We always take lots of pictures and some video on the flip camera and then never do anything with it. This thing is proding me to share them with patrons. I am on vacation next week, so I will do the tagging later. I actually found a picture of my library on flickr that someone had taken by searching tags. I am beginning to realize that I know more than I think I do. I still don't think I' a "techie," but I am embracing change and having fun.

ImageChef is yummy!

I had so much fun playing! This can really suck time, but even my daughters (4 and 9) wanted to to get in on it. Here is a video I created to advertise our first selection for our "Girls Rock Book Club"!

Embedding a video

This is a video one of my staff members made to appeal to our state legislators. We are very proud of it. Embedding video was easy to do. I can see using it in the future. I can use videos and pictures to spice up my library blog and try again. Maybe it will catch people's eye better. I have already embedded images, including by "wimpy librarian" avatar when the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" movie came out. This make me happy!

Firefox, my friend, I never knew you...

I have been using firefox for many years at home. We began using firefox at my library two years ago at my prompting. My husband had installed it at home, since IE was full of more holes than swiss cheese and we were always getting viruses. He set up add-ons and and told me what to do with them if I was confused by the look of the screen. Our techie work added it, and I just went along as before. I never knew about the thousands of add-ons available to customize. Right now I will not add any add-ons, because I don't want to mess anything up for my husband at home. This is something I will use after the class. It reminds me of the i phones and all of the available apps. I don't use my cell phone for anything but making phone calls, so I won't go crazy. I may talk to my staff and have my more tech savvy ones pick out some add-ons for the YS Desk.

Wikis

I have used wikispaces before to create wikis. I loved the childlit wiki and I signed up to add to it! I can see the uses for wikis if people get involved and use them. When I last logged on to the wiki for "Every Child Ready to Read," I was disappointed by how little it had been used. Of course I am as guilty as everyone else for not using it. Since I have created wikis before, I have decided for this lesson to create content for the childlit wiki and "Every Child Ready to Read" wiki, since it is a subject I am passionate about!

I'm back finally!

I finally finished week 2! The last two weeks of summer reading intruded on my time to learn. Of the three tracking options, I found google alerts and social mention to be the most interesting. They brought me information specifically about my library. I think the social mention will be the most useful to see how people our interaction to our blogs, facebook pages, etc. Addictomatic brought a lot of stuff not related to our library up. I am on the attempting week three and catching up! I hope to be back on track by the end of the week.

Delicious is delicious...

We already use delicious at our library and have for several years to keep track of useful sites. we have yearly Science and Chicago History Fair projects for the middle schoolers. Delicious has helped us keep track of the best sites to use when helping with these projects.

Googe Reader-this is dangerous...

I deliberately have not subscribed to very many blogs because I am worried about being sucked in the the Internet and spending too much time on the computer! I have two young daughters who need me to read to them and play with them. This could get addictive really fast. My husband, who is also a librarian (We met in library school), is already on the computer for hours at a time. I enjoy this, but I don't think it will help me with organizing information. I will give me more information than I know what to do with.

Library 2.0 OPAC? not in my Illinois Library System yet.

I find the idea of a OPAC that includes user content and access to websites intriguing. Our consortium has 80 different libraries (Public, Special, and Academic) using the same catalog. I have admired Boston PL OPAC, but have been told that we can't have something like that because we are too big. In Illinois, our systems are dissolving due to lack of funding. Consortium members are clinging to SWAN, our OPAC right now. Our customers still want access to traditional print and non-print materials (CDs, DVDs, video games). We have roaming holding where items move from library to library and do not return to the owning library until all holds have been filled.

At the Matteson Public library, where I work, we have online databases for our patrons, an online tutoring source, and Bookflix for the little ones. These are subscription services that many of the libraries surrounding us cannot afford. They are only open to Matteson PL card holders from home. We still need the physical building to serve all patron needs. Also, free access is disappearing in some cases. There are many websites that are beginning to offer limited free access with a premium fee-based service. How libraries will become involved in these websites remains to be seen.

My first post

I have to say, I don't like the new design options, I created a blog earlier in the year for myself to inform the community about things of interest. It's address is mplmrsdavis.blogspot.com. I am not convinced that blogging is right for every library. I have not had much notice or interest from my community and it is hard to find time to blog. We do have many patrons who contact us through Facebook and Good Reads though. I think I know about the most obvious of the web 2.0 technologies and we are using them with varied success. I am looking to go beyond what I already know.