Step 8 - Make life simple with RSS

I have mixed emotions about Bloglines.

It is incredibly easy to set up and utilize, but I'm finding that I don't particularly like the interface. And having all of the blogs that I read in one place is kind of overwhelming. I think I prefer my current system, which is an organized list of bookmarks in my Firefox browser. Of course, that doesn't help me when I'm not on my home computer.

On the other hand, all of the blogs that I read are in one place. I do like the concept, just not Bloglines' execution. I will definitely check out some other feed systems, and will hopefully find one that works for me.

Step 7 - Random Post about Technology

So I was going to write about how I interact with technology in my personal life, but then I had a great experience recently that perfectly illustrates the role it can and sometimes does play in my professional life.

For the past week, I've had various sixth graders ask me for help with an assignment, with wildly different descriptions of what their teacher was requiring. From what I could gather, they had to have a primary source from the Plymouth colony, preferably William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation.

Well, we don't have that book at my branch. Now, of course I could have ordered it, but their assignment was due pretty soon - and besides, there weren't enough copies for everyone in the class. I asked if they could use a different primary source.

"I guess..."

I also made sure to ask if they could use an electronic resource. A fair amount of teachers tell their students that they can't use anything "off the internet" instead of educating them as to why a resource may or may not be appropriate. A couple of the students said that they had to use a book, but the rest said yes.

So off I went to Homework Help, and drilled down to Colonial America 1600-1775 K-12 Resources, which had a good section of links to primary source documents. Early American Colonial Literature to 1700's section on William Bradford redirected me to a section on the first Thanksgiving.

This brought me to MayflowerHistory.com, which has a ton of primary source documents related to the colony, including letters and wills. Great, right? I printed out a bunch of different documents for the kids and bookmarked the page, thinking I was home free.

No dice. The next day, I had a parent come in with the actual assignment handout. It turns out that the primary source had to be a first-hand description of the first Thanksgiving.

So I backtracked to the William Bradford section of Early American Colonial Literature, which has a few chapters from Of Plymouth Plantation, but not the ones that I needed. So I started going through the rest of the links in the section. Mourt's Relation (1622) was the next page on the list.

Bingo! Section 6 had a detailed description of the first Thanksgiving, written by Edward Winslow.

Of course, in retrospect I should have just gone to Google Books. See, here's Of Plymouth Plantation. The first Thanksgiving is mentioned on page 153.

Well, now I have 2 sources for this ref question. The neatest thing about this whole process is that all of these resources are publicly available, at no cost to the library or the patron.

Step 6

librarian trading card
Originally uploaded by aliqaesong

Well, here's my addition to the librarian trading card frenzy.

I had fun looking at other folks' cards - my favorite was definitely Jessamyn West's tribute to Ranganathan!

I started my Flickr page when I came back from Spain this summer with over 600 images in my camera. Since uploading every single one of them isn't exactly my priority right now, I haven't been able to play around as much as I would if I had more free time.

Speaking of free time... I'm procrastinating right now and should definitely be doing my Collection Development homework.

Back to the grind.

Step 5 - In this library there are no....

in this library there are no....
Originally uploaded by aliqaesong

One of the kids at my branch has decided that he wants to be a librarian, so he's been hanging around the ref desk, wearing a set of keys around his neck, asking patrons if they need help, and a bunch of other kind-of-sweet, yet kind-of-annoying things.

When I found this posted prominently in the children's room, I laughed and took it down, but didn't connect him to it. Its been a busy week, and any number of the kids could have put it up as a joke.

However, when I found a replacement copy 2 days later, in the exact same location, I knew exactly who had put it up.

I don't know how to feel about it - on one hand, it's pretty funny and cute. On the other hand, it bums me out that he thinks that being a librarian is about bossing people around and telling them how to act. I mean, "no hanging out", "no cursing"? I am not the behavior police.

But maybe that's how we come off.

While I'm not going to read too much into this, I am going to use it as an opportunity to be more aware of how other people, especially young people, perceive and interpret my behavior - and how they connect it to their larger views of the profession as a whole.

Lifelong Learning - steps 2-4

So I finally got around to watching The 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

I've been trying to watch it at work, but the whole sound aspect wasn't compatible with my desk shift, so I had to wait until I had a free moment at home.

I've been thinking about the concept of "lifelong learning" a lot lately, mainly because I'm about to graduate from my MSLIS program and people keep asking me if I'm excited about being "done with" school. Actually, I'm not. While there are certain things about my current school/work situation that I would of course change (endless commutes, schedule juggling), I love the process of learning new things and feeling progressively more useful and relevant over the course of time. I don't think that school is always the most appropriate way to learn something, but in this case it is one very important half of my journey toward official librarianship - the other half being practical experience, of course.

I've been lucky to have strong role models that are coincidentally lifelong learners. My mother has had a long and varied career, with experience as a sculptor, registered nurse and deacon. Now, at the age of 51, she is about to return to school for her masters - studying the relationship between healing, spirituality and the arts. My mom is amazing, and we always have the most interesting conversations about the books that we are reading, our lives and our relationship to the world around us. She has always encouraged me in my own explorations, and influenced me to believe that "what you do" encompasses far more than just your job.

Keeping that in mind, I suppose that of the 7 1/2 habits listed, the one that comes easiest for me is having confidence in myself "as a competent, effective learner". I generally feel that if I give a new activity or subject a try, providing I'm genuinely interested in learning about it, that I'll be relatively successful in at least acquiring a working knowledge.

The habit that is most difficult for me would have to be "begin with the end in mind". I have definitely been guilty of jumping into a new activity or reading up on a new topic, get past the beginner stage and give up. While I don't think that the giving up part is bad - I mean, who is really good at everything? - I tend to have these unrealistic expectations of myself and my commitment to the new area, when I was really just curious.

So in the spirit of setting some positive learning boundaries, I'd like to state here that my end goal for this program is to have a working knowledge of 2.0, and to continue utilizing these tools in both my personal and professional lives.

test, introduction

This is the inaugural post for a professional blog that tracks my participation in the Queens Library Learning 2.0 program for library employees.

For the next 13 weeks, we will be working our way through an array of tutorials and challenges designed to engage us in new information technologies on the Internet.

That sentence sounds pretty dated! Actually, for the next few months we will be trying out new and/or established social networking tools like Twitter, Flickr, various wikis and blogs and other 2.0-type things. Check out the site:

http://www.queenslibrarylearning.blogspot.com/

While I've been dabbling in most of these activities for the past couple of years, it's kind of exciting to have these activities be officially sanctioned by my workplace. There's been a lot of conversation in the library world about possible applications of 2.0 in public libraries, but aside from telling 8 year-olds to get off of MySpace every day, I haven't been able to incorporate any of this theory into my day-t0-day actions and practices on the job.

I called this blog "No Cellphones" because I spend an overwhelming amount of time, in a variety of ways, asking adults and children to please get off the phone. I'm sure that most librarians can relate!

So enjoy, and stay posted!