Getting ready

for 2010. This will be an intersting year...wedding coming up with all the excitement attached to it. I hope the year beings us all good things.

Ho, ho, ho

We are into the countdown before Christmas. What have I done, so far? Nothing substantial. Feeling very Grinchy. Former student died after a seizure; wife of a good friend diagnosed with liver cancer; children a little huffy about Christmas plans...I feel old.

Electronic Resources

We have gotten 5 schools from the MASLIC group to commit to buying the Gale packaage of ebooks and 1 database. This is really a good thing because it moves us forward in our effort to enlarge our tech offerings. But I still am concerned...What if someone trips over that great extension cord in the sky? As we move forward into the digital universe, I hope that we don't lose sight of the pleasure involved in turning the pages of a book.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Followers

There's  a new person following this.  I hope it isn't too dull!  I found another blog about the Camino.  I think it is really just an online journal that these ladies kept while they traveled.  Funny thing, they were on the Camino at the same time we were.  Small world, I guess.  The more I think about it, I would love to go back to Barcelona and see Pamplona as well.  Next time, I think I may back track.  This journey gets in your blood in a way.  I think for me, it is never finished.  I go back to my original reaction to the journey...I am forever "On the way."

24 days

until Christmas.  We are beginning to get weding information.  September seems a long way away, but I have a feeling that it will be on us before we know it. 

I guess if I'm going to blog, I need to decide if this is personal or professional...can't decide.  But on a personal note, I read a message from Mimi McCaul today and it reminds me of how great the Buttimer experience was.   Buttimer opened the door for me to be more receptive to the Camino.  I think that I'm going to work on having some kind of retreat/reunion for Diane, Katie, Mimi, maybe Sr. Regina and Carol..not to mention Mary and Trish.  It would be so nice to reconnect.

Happy Birthday

Cranberry, the polar bear, is 6 years old today.  MH, Austin, Henry and I went to sing Happy Birthday.

Johnny Mercer

So, I was listening to NPR and heard the story about Johnney Mercer.  I love those old songs.  I had no idea that he was madly in love with Judy Garland, or that some of his best songs were written for and about her. 

Listen to these  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120541054#end
and read the story   http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.phpstoryId=120541054#end

Private v. Public

Well, since nobody is going to see this, I guess it really doesn't matter   if I make it private or not.  I am looking at technology a little differently these days.  I still believe that educationally speaking we are moving too far away from teaching the basics. In a lot of ways, computers are removing independence from the learning process.  Students rely on computers to spell for them, to correct their grammar, to add and stubtract...never mind multiply and divide.  Things that used to be a matter of memorization, like the state capitals for instance, are now a google search.  You may ask yourself, why memorize when your Iphone can give you the answer, but I think there is an element of discipline in thinking that is being lost...maybe I'm archaic, I don't know. 
From my position here in the library, I see a lot of things that happen across the curriculum.  Even teachers take the easy way out.  With the student load and the time constraints...you are being asked to rear some of these children for the parents..it is certainly understandable.  BUT there are some basics that have been lost.  We are producing very few really curious children these days.  It's all about the grade not the pursuit of something new.

Widgets

Somehow or other I managed to add a widget to my blog.  Way to go me!

National Gallery of Art Exhibit: "The Darker Side of Light: Arts Of Privacy, 1850-1900"

National Gallery of Art Exhibit: "The Darker Side of Light: Arts Of Privacy, 1850-1900"

Afterwards

So I finished all the little exercies,but the blogging thing is kind of fun.  I should probably change my setting to "private" and maybe continue.   Let's see what interesting thing did I find out today...In the Tennessean, I read that the Nsville Flying Saucer is sponsoring with Grammar Nation a Shakespearean spelling bee.  How awesome!

Also I discovered on Technorati that the National Gallery has a variety of free podcasts available through itunes.  I was reading about their current exhibition "The Darker side of Light" which is a series of drawings dealing with privacy.."about the world of thought not just sensory experience."

http://technorati.com/entertainment/article/national-gallery-of-art-exhibit-the/

Week 9, # 22 and #23

After all the research I've been doing for the big MASLIC purchase, I feel like this section is redundant.  There  are a lot of sources out ther for e-books if you are interested in the classics.  But for serious research (which is still under copyright) you have to pay.

All in all this has been an interesting exercise.

Week 9, # 21

The Library of Congress has podcasts (and webcasts) that cover the various activities at the Library.  I like this as a source because a lot of filtering has been done and the content covers a variety of topics.  If you look at the American Memory section or the section on Veterans there are all kinds of interesting programs.  Every year the National Book Festival features podcasts of all the authors who speak at the event.  This is one of the most valuable sources we have and it's FREE.

Week 9, # 20

Of course I have seen and used Youtube before.  That's where I found a couple of videos of a speech Sir Ken Robinson gave at TED Talks on critical thinking.  I looked around and found one on progress that is really funny and very ironic.    http://www.youtube.com/frankdruffel
There is a whole series of videos by this guy "I put the 'no' in innovation."
http://www.thepalaceoflight.com/
 
I tried to figure out how to put the video on my blog, but I really don't understand how that works. Iit's like the "handbook" in the previous blog, it would take some time to play with it that I am not able to spend right now.

I looked at Teachertube as well and of course these are more curriculum or teacher training related.  I can see the value of using these sites to produce information/training videos for teachers and students to introduce the library and its components to new users (and old).  If I can ever see how to embed the video onto the library page, and if we had the bandwidth to run the videos, they could also be used for book reviews  or by teachers to explain research projects to their classes. 

Week 8, # 19

I have been a Library Thing member since I attended a technology conference last year.  It is more sophisticated than Shelfari (which I really like better).  But I did create a catalog and I found that a lot of people like the latest Dan Brown a whole lot better than I did.  I found agreement with my other 4 choices though.  There seem to be more conversations about books going on here and I guess if you are doing more than just creating a reading shelf to share with friends this is really the better place to go.  See my catalog at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/edavis1963

Week 8, # 18

I can see the value of a program like ZOHO Writer.  I think it is a little hard to navigate at first.  but once you get into the program and play around with it a little, things clarify. I created a first page for a library handbook (look at the left for the handbook link.)  Ok so now I opened the handbook link and can't close it.

Also, in working with the ZOHO Writer, I wanted to post some more library pictures but I am having a problem with resizing.  I can't decide why the new pictures which are in the same folder as the one on the title page won't fit.  I find this tool in theory to be very helpful, esp. for the person moving from computer to computer or place to place, but in practice, at least for me, too high maintenance.  I'm going to keep working with it because I think it's a neat idea. BUT...

handbook

 

Christian Brothers High School     Pender Library Welcome to the Pender Library at Christian Brothers High School.  The library is named for alumnus,  Gene Pender whose generosity has benefited the faculty and students of CBHS.       Library hours:  7AM-4PM, Monday- Thursday 7 AM-3:30 PM, Friday

Week 7, # 17

I didn't follow the plan exactly.  In order to add a post to the California site  I was supposed to create yet another account...too much  for me.  That's my problem with a lot of this--the fact that there is no standardization.  Every site requires a login and password.  There are different requirements to satisfy and keping it straight is time consuming.  I have created a Ning page for the boys in the writers group.  I'm hoping that this will be a way for them to stay connected and share their work.

Take a look
http://cbhswriters.ning.com/

Week 7, #16

Wikis are an excellent means for students to share book reviews and to develpo profiles on authors, periods of literature, or other curriculum applications.  I looked at various library wikis, and can see how addiding one of these to the library page would be a nice collection development tool and a way for students to share insights.  One thing that would be interesting for alumni is a wiki that is devoted to the history of the school  or of the various classes or organizations ( the band for example or SGA).  I notoce that every wiki I examined requires a login for comments and/or editing.  That would help maintain the integrity  of the site.

Week 6, # 15

Ok, now we're getting somewhere.  these posts from Library 2.0 about the future of libraries lead right to what  we're tryiong to do by moving into the digital media arena.  One of the products that we're looking at for next year is a database that allows students to work together on Facebook or Myspace or other social networking sites.  It is important to note the comment about what kind of "collections" we should be building.

http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

this is really interesting.

Week 6, #14

 Technorati :  instructions are not clear; for someone at my level, it just doesn't work.  Also the link to "claim" the blog for me was a broken link.
Another thing about this is the sheer volume of information being presented on the site.  I get the idea of tagging and can see how a person who wants to know the latest on a specific topic might find it worth the effort...but not me.

Week 6, # 13

I guess 13 is my unlucky number.  I managed to  look around technocrati and to find a couple  of interesting blogs on that site.  I even joined one group and posted a comment ("Where are all the Americans on the Camino").  But after visiting de.lici.ous, I tried to join and the site would not accept my yahoo login.  I know it works other places because I used it earlier to find something for a student, but for some reason the "d" site will not accept me.  I have had an account here once before and I see the benefit of being able to take your bookmarks from computer to computer, but I still think some of these tools require a person to spend an awful lot of time, logging on , remembering passwords, etc. 

I did find some intersting articles about e-books and their impact on libraries, esp. public libraries.  Very thought provoking.  I also suscribed to the library2.0 rss feed.

A little later:  tried one more time and Voila!! I have a de.liici.ous account and 3 bookmarks.  Yea!

Week 5, # 12

I creatyed my Rollyo but then I tried to add it to my blog, and I got a "busy signal" from the site.  I liked the idea of creating a personal search list, but the tool itself is not easy to use.  I wasn't sure that I understood the instructions and it is VERY, VERY slow to save.  I had to try 3 times before I could get anything but the busy message and I wanted almost 10 minutes for my changes to save.  I"m not sure it's worth the effort, although I do see the value for creating a search site for a project.

Week 5, # 11

Since I'm already a Facebook member, I decided to look at WorldCat and Librarything for this exercise.  Both are centered on sharing books.  I had looked at Librarything a couple of years ago but found it a little too busy to be of interest for me.  I still get regular updates from the site, but for informal book-sharing I much prefer Shalfari.  I like the look/layout and find it more focused.  Librarything does offer some curriculum content for school librarians but it is more elementary than secondary in that respect.  I like WorldCat better esp. since some of the MASLIC schools have shared their collections on the site.  it's handy for cataloging and finding a title.

I created a group on Ning fpr the Writers Collective.  I don't know if the boys will be interested in it but it's an idea for other clubs to use.

I got to level 7 on the travel IQ.  I've tried it before...but I don't know my Serbias and African countries!

Week 5, # 10

I tried the word mosaic in honor of the MUS V. CBHS football game tomorrow.  I used http://www.imagechef.com/

I really didn't spend a lot of time looking around these sites, but image chef seemed to be the easiest to use.I still am not sure how to put images like this into the body of the blog.

And this is appropos of nothing, but have you noticed that the time postings on these blog entries are Pacific time?

Week 4 # 9

So I tried looking at some of the other feed lists...FYI "Feedster" is no longer operating.  I went to Edublogs but this is just another blogging site and difficult to navigate, I thought.  Google Reader returned some interesting content, but not exactly what I searched for.  I still think the feeds are hard to find and even harder to subscribe to.

Flickr re-run

Betty says that my slideshow does not appear when she looks at my blog.  What's up with that?  Any ideas?  I can see it.

Week 4, # 8

So I have an RSS feed account with Bloglines, but I'm not sure what happens next.  I found a really interesting article on a book-less  high school library, but it got lost and now I can't find it again.  Oh well.

Week 3 #7

LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE!!!!!!! IT TOOK ME ALL DAY SATURDAY TO FIGURE THIS OUT...I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO DO IT AGAIN.

Week 3, # 6 Still Flickr-ing

I spent from about 7 PM last night until after 11 PM looking at the various incarnations of Flickr.  I actually wanted to see how to create a slide show and post it on the blog...no luck for me.  But this brings up the main problem that I have with all of this.  It's fun; it's fascinating; it's TOO much.  It is difficult to avoid being overwhemed by all of the log ins and passwords and places that you have to create accounts.  Then when I actually get into the business of creating something, for me at least, sometimes the instructions assume more ability than I have.  It can get really frustrating.  Also, soem of these people must live next to or on the computer!!

Still Week 3 on Flickr

I have been looking at some of the "creations" or "mash ups" and I think this is so beyond me.  How much time does it take to play around with this in order to make what you do meaningful?  This is a hard one for me.  I am trying to do some of the creative things but no success.  I need someone to walk me through it I think.  I think I am techno-challenged!

Week 3, # 5

So I've browsed around Flickr...I was a little confused about creating some of the projects.  It all seems beyond me at this point.  But I did blog a photo of SGI beach which made me "homesick." 

Morning star rising and hope alive.

Morning star rising and hope alive.
Originally uploaded by Dreaming in the deep south

I found a St. George Island group on Flickr!! I've stood on the beach and seen this view many times. It makes me nostalgic for "island time." Just wait until christmas break!!

Week 2 # 4

My blog is registered and I recieved some feedback from Connie Williams who is president of the California School Library Association.  Bloggging is a neat exercise and I can see how it can be used for book reviews and for sharing experiences in the library.  I am always coming back to the main issue for me ... TIME

Week 2 still

I notice that my old blog is still around...Tidal Wave...this is an example of the problem.  Sometimes I feel that these "opportunities" to go digital  are really fragmenting my attention.  It's hard to keep up with something like this unless there is a real purpose and right now this feels a little "purpose-less."  Help!

Week 2, # 3 Entering the blogosphere

I think the hardest thing for me is to find the time to get into this kind of exercise.  I have started to blog before as a part of na online class, but I could never get into the habit of posting. 
I have joined FACEBOOK and this is an interesting thing because I have connected with several people from the past.  This opportunity to connect has shown the benefits of the online experience.