#12 Reflection and Evaluation

It's happened again. Technology continually grows and changes and updates, and I'm finding again with Web 2.0 that I have to keep growing and changing and updating with it. I see the contrast very distinctly between two libraries I'm currently working with: my church library and my school library.

The church library has almost 4,000, but only 800 books and videos are less than 20 years old, and most of the materials haven't been touched in years. The collection is circulated manually, and few patrons visit the library or even know what's in it. It has some wonderful resources buried amongst the old. We had a good meeting last night and came up with some short-term and long-term goals, and weeding will be the first major project. I'm excited about working with this small library and coming up with ways to resurrect it, using the librarian's words.

Contrasting that with my school library, I felt like we were really up with the times-- we are automated, our catalog is online where students can use our resources from home, we participate in the K-12 Database program, we have wireless Internet access where guests can bring their laptops and work online. I collaborate with seven other librarians in the district and we work together to improve our collections and services. But now that I've gone through A Dozen Ways to Two-Step Web 2.0 Training, I feel like there is just as big a difference between my library and what it can do with new technologically as there is between my library and the church library. We can be doing so much more, and I hope the twelve steps will continue to remain online so we can refer back to them when needed.

I was most familiar with having a blog because I created one with my own Web site [http://www.donnavancleve.com/ and http://www.blog.donnavancleve.com/] because of the books I've written, but I've only recently posting regularly on library-related purposes. I think I will continue the Shelf Mouse blog and switch the library posts to that blog. As for technologies that I was unfamiliar with--especially using them for library services, just about everything else in the training was new to me, so I definitely benefited from this course. Please keep them coming-- this is such a great idea!

Illustration by Vanessa Roeder, http://www.nessadeeart.blogspot.com/ and http://www.etsy.com/shop/nessadee Used with permission.

#11 The Wide World of Podcasting

I don't know why I hadn't thought about me actually doing a podcast-- I guess I thought it would be too complicated. I listened to some of Nancy Keane's book talks-- she's very expressive and has a wonderful reading voice, and I listened to some of the high school library podcasts-- the students did a great job, and the results looked simple enough to add a podcast. Nancy's podcast simply had the little progress line on a blank screen. The high school students had pictures posted with theirs, which gave me a face or picture to focus on while I'm listening.

I checked out the Library Live Web site and listened to Patrick Heath's and Kathryn Sturtz's podcasts, both of whom I knew some years back when the library I used to managed was a member of the Alamo Area Library System, so I had a mental picture of who was talking. They had some good information for supporting the library by determining its value to the community and tools provided by AALS to put a dollar figure or return on investment library services provide. Great when meeting with those funding sources.

Podcasts are another inexpensive, simple way to share what you know in the library world, which ultimately benefits everyone.

I listened to a song by Lucinda Williams on the Texas Music Matters. Good sound. For the Discovery Exercise I visited The Educational Podcast Directory and looked at the listings, and from there I hit a link to OPAL and took a look at the listings for Information Literacy, and listened to the blog on the Picturing America selections. It threw me for a moment because at first, it seems like it's live-- it even posted a few entries on a text live chat box. And I could hear everything as well as watch the slides of the pictures in the grant that the speaker is talking about and describing, and I had control over the slides. We did get the Picturing America grant so I am familiar with the art work she's referring to. She also shared some ideas on how to use and promote the art with the Picturing America grant, for example, having a mother-daughter tea party in reference to the silver tea service, sending students out with digital cameras to take pictures of architecture comparing and contrasting the architectural images in the collection, or having children make Native American crafts.

As for ways I gleaned that our library could use podcasts, I enjoyed listening to the students' book reviews and the librarian's book talks. I can see our students doing that, and I can imagine me doing a book talk on a podcast when my voice changes to something sultry and expressive instead of sounding like the country hick that I do. I wouldn't want to torture my listeners. : )  I would love for TLA to provide free podcasts of the speakers at the annual convention that we didn't get to hear. That would be great, especially in these days of limited budgets.

At home I'm able to have iTunes on my computer so I practiced subscribing to three different podcasts there.

Illustration by Vanessa Roeder @ http://www.nessadeeart.blogspot.com/ and http://www.etsy.com/shop/nessadee Used with permission.

Method #10 This Wiki World

So many good wikis, and so little time. That's the biggest drawback to me for using all these collaborative Web sites. It's nice to see that some are attempting to link the good ones. Once I start clicking, it's easy to get so far in it's like a virtual maze, but I can always add them to my Delicious account and organize them to be able to find them again.

I was taught to consider Wikipedia okay for casual information seeking, but it was a major no-no as a research source because it was a collaborative online encyclopedia. I asked my nephew Kyle in college last year what he thought of Wikipedia and did he use it for school work. He told me that he uses it as a source for sources. When he pulls up an article, he looks at the information and then scrolls down to see the Reference List or Bibliography for that listing and has found some good authoritative sources that way. I thought that was a great idea, so I've passed that tip on to teachers and students.

Never before in the history of mankind have we had to deal with the magnitude of information as we do now. We have to wade through so much, and often keep re-inventing the wheel again and again when we could save so much time collaborating with others and their successful in best library practices. Huge, huge help for us in the information industry. Wikis play a big role in that; just have to make the time to investigate and use them.