MLA 2008

What a conference. There were great sessions and awesome folk. Thank you to all who made the 2008 MLA a rousing success. It was great to see friends and mentors from all parts of Montana. Every session had pearls of wisdom to share. The presenters knew their stuff. I appreciate the Library Commission for the work they do. It was great that they were willing to have a panel discussion and listen to concerns of librarians. I do have some more books to read now. Todd Strasser was great. I will have to read more of his books. "Hattie Big Sky" is the One Book Montana. I have been wanting to read that book. "Red Rover" by Deidre McNamer was the winner of the Montana Book Award. We have other books of hers, but not that one. I will get it and read it soon. One of the photographers that I really appreciate is Evelyn Cameron. What a wonderful story. There is a new book about her that I need to read.
Keep Reading!

Conclusional Beginnings

Wow! I have learned a lot during this "class". It was too fun to be called a class. I not only learned from the assignments, but I have also learned from my fellow participants. Great jobs, folks. You gave me many ideas.

I have looked up information on wikis, but it was fun to learn more about them. I have been podcasting for a while, but it was fun to hear others suggestions.

Yes, I would do another class in the future. I would also encourage other librarians to get on board. It is a fun program. I have done most of it at home. With students in the library all day, it is pretty difficult to do any kind of a class during the day.

We don't have a lot of staff to cover.

Thank you to all of our participants and particularly, our leaders and teachers.
Thank you!!

Wiki's and the future

I really enjoyed the wiki presentations. You chose some excellent presentations for us to explore. I have explored Wiki's a little bit before this exploration class. The Princeton Book Wiki is really good. I chose a couple of books from that Wiki to add to our collection at the library.
I still have a bit to learn about the wiki. I had an interesting discussion with my seventh graders today about wiki's. They had used them, but didn't really understand how they worked.
Sometimes, I have used the Wikipedia to begin research. If I need some quick info., I may access a wiki. But, I am still a bit of a purist, being a former World Book Encyclopedia salesman. The World Book Encyclopedia, or others, are good places to start research also.
I have also enjoyed exploring the Montana Librarians Wiki. I will probably register and input in the near future.
This has been an absolutely eye-opening class for me.

del.icio.us

Wow! del.icio.us is pretty cool. I can see patrons using this site when they are accessing public computers. They will still have their bookmarks, whichever computer is available. Plus, somebody else hasn't added to or deleted from the bookmark list. Thank you for adding this to our learning schedule. I have heard of del.icio.us several times and never had taken the time to explore it and see how it might work for me.

Happy Leap Year this week!

YouTube

I have been exploring YouTube this week and previously. I often wonder if people have asked permission to put other people or other people's kids on their YouTube videos. I found some interesting presentations in my discovery. There is an interesting library musical from Seneca Libraries. It is done by Michael London. I hope I am imbedding it correctly here.


We will see how this works. I may delete it if it isn't working. It is a bit of a long video, but it is well done.

Podcasts

I discovered podcasts last year. Wow! What a joy. I have subscribed to about 25 different podcasts. They cover a wide range of topics: Reading, authors, sports, baseball, Yellowstone Park, my son's church in Denver, fiction, photography, NPR, StoryCorps, Story of the Day, American Life, etc. Some of them are video podcasts, but most are audio. Being a radio sports commentator myself, I really enjoy listening to the audio. There have been some that I have tried and not enjoyed. But, there are always new podcasts available.

Some of my favorites are:
Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac from NPR
Book Lust with Nancy Pearl
Barnes and Noble's Meet the Writers
NPR's StoryCorps
NPR's Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me

Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me is a news show on Sunday's that is an enjoyable, humorous look at the week's news with interesting guests and fun little pieces of news.

A couple of the authors on the Barnes and Noble Meet the Writers' podcasts have been authors from our MLA conferences. There was a great interview with Greg Mortenson about his book: "Three Cups of Tea..." One of my wife's reading discussion groups was discussing that book the week after I listened to the podcast, so I put it on CD so that the whole group could listen to the interview. It also introduced most of them to what a podcast was. Podcast is a new term to many.

The other author interviewed from our conferences was last year's fun speaker, Nancy Pearl. I really enjoyed that interview also.

READ

motivator3703904
Originally uploaded by algerphotog

Making a motivational poster was fun. The photograph is a wonderful harpist that I had the pleasure of listening to in Fairfield MT. He was amazing.

You can even buy the motivational poster after you have created it. They are available in a variety of sizes. You can also save it to your computer.

Here is the link for this fun activity: Motivation Poster Generator

Librarian Trading Card

Librarian Trading Card
Originally uploaded by algerphotog

This was fun to look at some of the Flickr toys that I have noticed, but never spent much time exploring. I had put some of my photos on the map of Montana this summer. I have always enjoyed going into Flickr and exploring others photos. There are some awesome photographers on Flickr and other websites also. I believe I will look at some of the other toys tomorrow night.

Roundup Community Library Dragon

Roundup Community Library Dragon
Originally uploaded by algerphotog

Our dragon welcomes readers to the Roundup Community Library. The dragon was originally created by Sherrill Funk with a classroom, I think. When the library was being recarpeted in 2003, Sherrill took the dragon home and repaired and improved it. She changed the eyes and the tongue. She also added the wings and changed other features. It is a beautiful example of her work, that has been loved by many children and adults visiting our library. She also creates other papier mache creations, including carousel horses for a Wyoming gallery.

RSS Feeds

Wow! I have learned a lot this week.  There are some great blogs out there.  There are so many new technologies.  A lady came to church all excited about the video phone she and her daughter are communicating with.  "It is just like being in the same room", she said.  I am not sure what the brand is or what she is using to connect, because she doesn't have the internet at her house.  She really doesn't want to give up her typewriter.  I think she called it her GoJo.  

I am really looking forward to learn more about Flickr.  I already have an account and have put in a few photos.  There is much to learn.  

Keep up the good work everybody.  I have enjoyed reading blogs of our participants.

Blogging RSS feeds

Patience is sometimes hard for me.  I rushed through Lesson 2 Blogging and started on RSS feeds.  But, then I realized that I needed to learn more about blogs before I worked too hard on RSS feeds.  So, I took a step back this week and began to explore the blogging lesson some more.  I appreciate those who have put something in their profiles for the blogs.  That helps me to see the amazing diversity of our group.  I have always known that because we are librarians and have so many different interests.  The library needs all kinds.  Also, the Montana Library Association needs all kinds.  They can use all of our talents and interests.

thank you to everyone for joining us.

blogging

I can see how you could spend a lot of time reading others blogs.  We have a pretty good list of participants with a wide variety of interests.  Thank you to everybody who is taking part in this program with me.  Keep up the good writing.  I don't necessarily feel like a published author even though  each time I finish a blog, I hit the button that says Publish Post.  My 88-year old mother would say "Which place do I poke?"  But, she is learning how to utilize her new Mac.

RSS Feeds

I have played with bloglines a bit in the past year.  It is interesting to find what is available.  I had not attempted to find any photography on any RSS.  It is fun to see what photos are added.  I looked at a group of deer today and was not terribly impressed with the photo.  I guess maybe I am not a hunter.  Most of been excellent photos.  

Subscribing to a personal blog is new to me.  I have always thought that I don't have time for any blogging.  But, maybe this class will help me.

In a non-related note, I just read a little book by Cynthia Rylant, "I had seen Castles."  It was an interesting book about World War II and how war changes people.  I have always liked Cynthia Rylant's children's books.  She is a favorite of mine.

7 1/2 habits

I think this will be fun.  I hope everybody else is enjoying it also.

The hardest of the Habits is to begin with the end in mind.  Sometimes, I want to just go with the flow and see what happens by the end.  It isn't always easy for me to see the correct goal at the end.  

The two easiest habits are the last two.  I have always been able to show others what I have learned.  I am sometimes amazed when people come to me to get help with almost anything.  One time, a patron asked me to go out to his car to set the correct time on the clock.  That time, he did not want me to teach him, he just wanted it set.

Playing with technology comes easy to me.  I have become an avid podcast fan.  Mostly audio, but some video podcasts also.  I think I prefer the audio because of my work with the radio.

The radio work also helped me to learn more about the history of radio.  I have read a couple of great books.  some evenings I don't turn on the TV.  I listen to podcasts, radio or music and of course, read.

2008 2.0

Here we are in a brand new year.  I appreciate the chance to learn more with the rest of you.  I have done some of our tasks, but not all.  I was introduced to Flickr at MLA.  Thank you.

Good luck to all.