Week 10 - In Closing...

Project Play tools we are using at our library

• Internal blog
• Newsreaders
• Wikis

The week I liked best - this had to be the Flickr week simply because I conquered some of my fears as far as working with images.

Continue with Project Play? This is still in the think tank. Leaning towards yes since I got so much out of the first semester. I just need to let go of completing tasks in a perfect world and participate to the level that I am able. The program itself is very well-organized and comprehensive. The catch-up weeks were the lifesaver.

Week 9 - Wikis

The library staff at Stoughton have already made use of wikis internally (thanks to our progressive and fearless leaders). In one instance a portion of the staff all needed to add their input to a particular document. If I am remembering correctly, the edited portion was a different color. My memory fails me as to how we differentiated each of our edits.

Here are two comments based on my experience with wikis that were also stated in the lesson:

1. Start with a skeleton of a document that all involved can then edit.
2. Make the time allowed for editing finite, shorter rather than longer.

Week 8 - Tagging & Social Bookmarking

The idea of tagging can be a bit unnerving at first - everyone picking their own subject headings. Yikes! And viewing tags on del.icio.us can make your eyes go a bit buggy (nasty format); but then you come across a site where tags are nicely utilized and you say "Aha!" The tag clouds are very eye catching. They tend to draw you in and make you want to click on one of those tags. I think they might especiialy draw in the YA's. Tags might also be useful if you had a ready reference section to your library's webpage. Patrons could quickly connect with online resources that cover their subject headings of interest; and they would know that they were getting credible websites which were hand-picked by their trusted librarian.

Week 7 - LibraryThing, again

I seem to be having trouble uploading this image from Flickr while I am in Blogger. So I thought I would post it to Blogger while in Flickr. Hmm...not sure how I did this for last week's lesson. Darn that short term memory!

Week 7 - LibraryThing

My present reading log consists of a Word document, accessible from one computer. Need I say that LibraryThing is a quantum leap beyond this? Now the task of entering "all" of my past reads into LibraryThing. Whew!

Strengths of LT: You can look to others tags for help in tagging your titles. Love the Suggester feature. Keying in one of my reads - Love Walked In generated Sunday List of Dreams by Kris Radish, amongst many other titles. Yet another way to add to my list of books to read.

Weaknesses of LT: The tagging is rather subjective; but I guess this helps distinguish what you liked about the book.

Question about LT: This really pertains to any software application that allows for tagging - are there tagging conventions, ie. do you separate tags with a space or a comma? do you enter a multiple word tag as one strung together word? do you worry about capitalization?

Week 6 - Upload an image from Blogger

Now I know that I can upload pictures from Blogger or Flickr into my blog. Yeah me! There's one barrier that would keep me from using images conquered.

Play more. Learn more. Fear less!

Week 6 - Image Sharing & Editing

White Deer Lake
Originally uploaded by hynekamy

I'm finding this process a wee bit confusing. If this works, I'll have posted to my blog from my Flickr login.

The is a picture of one of my favorite places to visit when I am "up north" - White Deer Lake. It was a gorgeous fall day to hike around the lake. Note the killer snapping turtle in the right foreground; or maybe it was just some driftwood.

As for posting personal photos to the public, I'd rather not. With respect to posting library-related photos, I can see this being a handy tool, as long as you've gotten permission from those indiviuals in the photos. I liked seeing the different ways that libraries have used image sharing - PR for library programs, prize winners, sharing ideas with other libraries using "Groups" and more.

Week 4 1/2 - Surveymonkey

Do you have any suggestions or feedback for the Stoughton Public Library? If you do, visit our online suggestion box. Prefer paper and pen? You can find our sugggestion box in this format at the front desk as you enter the library.

Week 4 - Feedback Thingies

Blogs seem like an easy way to solicit feedback from library patrons. Of course, you are only getting feedback from the technologically literate population and those who have computer access. It would be important to provide access via several means, ie. print and electronic. There was recent mention by staff to add a link for patron suggestions to our homepage. This would nicely compliment the paper suggestion box we have at the Circulation Desk. Of course we still would not be obtaining suggestions from non-library users. What ways have other libraries found to acquire feedback from people who are not actively using the library?

Week 3 - RSS & Newsreaders

I had already created an account in Bloglines a while back. So I did some tweeking - adding a few feeds and organizing all of my RSS feeds into folders. I didn't find that the feed I wanted was always the first one when a site had multiple feeds. Still not sure exactly how to determine which feed is "the right one".



To me, setting up my Bloglines account and selecting my feeds helps remind me what I should be keeping up on. Anything that helps me remember is a good thing.



Another handy use for a newsreader would be creating a feed for any comments that I may receive from coworkers on our internal library blog, or from patrons on our book blog, should we choose to create one.

Week 2 - Let's Start Blogging

Welcome to my blog! I love things that are made into three simple steps, like creating my own blog via Blogger. Truthfully, I thought it would be much more difficult. It's entirely helpful that I have already utilized a blog. The Adult Team at Stoughton Public Library uses a blog as a communication tool, since staff generally aren't working at the same time.