Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Technorati!

Learning to search through the blogging world for info that might be interesting to me is GREAT! As an artist there are specific areas of work that I can't get enough info about. As a children's librarian its very helpful to me to find out whats going on in that world.
Searching through Technorati (I LOVE that name!) probably the most helpful thing is finding out sites that the blogger is listing. For example on the School Library Journal blog there is a whole list of blogs for me to search through, some will interest me others not so much.
I LOVE search tools! I have to play with the advanced search a little more.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Library 2.0, Mystery Term

Whoa!
I read "11 reasons..." at blyberg.net and remained confused so I searched for more articles that might make this term more understandable to me. I really liked this article by Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk. The idea seemed more clear to me.
I am a late-comer librarian, having gotten my MLS at the age of 49 after a career as an art teacher. I was so burned out from public schools that I vowed never to go back. I was very fortunate to be hired as an adult reference librarian at Alachua County Library District. My training there was two-fold: priceless in its emphasis on customer service and continuous focus on technology (which could have left me behind in my previous career).
After reading the Casey and Savastinuk article, I think that the Alachua County Library District is a blossoming "Library 2.0". Here is just a sampling of what is to be found:
netLibrary
downloadable media
extensive database collection
"get answers"
ask a librarian
It seems to me that these services are interactive and meeting the needs of the patrons in ways that 'books only' libraries could not have.
I am no longer a reference librarian at ACLD because I missed the little kid action of an elementary school. So now I am a school librarian and not enough hours in the day.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Rainy Day 23 Things

It started to rain about 20 minutes before the buses came today and then stopped during dismissal. Whew! As school librarian I have car pick up duty every afternoon because I do the morning announcements daily and am never available for morning duty. I like afternoon duty. Funny thing.
I am excited about 23 Things.
I am reading a fascinating book called Hear our cry; boys in crisis by Paul Slocumb. The writing is concise, clear; the info is shocking.