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A brief look at librarian land

Alright...update time!
My little 11-year-old poodle passed all three days at the IKC at McCormick place and obtained his Companion Dog title in one weekend! Who said old dogs couldn't learn new tricks? Eat your heart out Lassie. Trek did well, although you could tell his rear leg was starting to bother him by the third day. We're going to lay low on training until we can get this all figured out with a vet. Trek also received his TDI certification in the mail and we have already started to visit some assisted living communities.

Library Land
Our library recently held its DDR finals and we had over 50 participants, plus family members. It was a great success!

In case you didn't know, I recently moved to the children's department at my library. I have also been asked to head a seminar for the teens about podcasting this summer. I was a little scared about this since I only had learned the equivalent of the tip of an iceberg in my LIS 753 (Internet fundamentals and design) class with Michael Stephens. No worries...I quickly emailed Michael in the form of an SOS, and he sent me back some great articles having to do with starting a podcast. And then divine intervention occurred! Sonia Bodi, the teacher of my LIS 724 (media and design) class gave us fliers about an upcoming seminar for the ICE-COLD organization. Guess what happened to be covered? You guessed it, podcasting. The seminar took place at Lisle Junior High School on April 21st from 9-1 pm.

Ann Penstone presented on the podcasting portion and words cannot describe how wonderful she was. Her upbeat attitude coupled with her vast knowledge of technology made for a wonderful presentation. Ann will be retiring this year, but she is keeping up a sort of consulting service that will specialize in helping educators and librarians. Her website and the step-by-step handouts from the podcasting seminar can be found here. If you are ever contemplating creating a podcast, her step-by-step articles details the basics to the advanced on both PCs and Macs.

Our library is also preparing for the summer reading program and school visit to market the program itself. Stay tuned for updates!

This week is finals week and then I only have two classes to complete for my degree; Public Relations and Storytelling. I can see the light!

Long time no blog

Hello everyone!

So a lot has happened since my last post, which happened to be a school assignment. Yet rather than blab on and on about the past, let me tell you about the future.

Trek passed his Therapy Dogs International therapy dog test with flying colors. I am awaiting his official paperwork from TDI.

The most exciting upcoming event is happening this weekend is the International Kennel Club of Chicago Dog Show. Come visit the show and bring along this coupon.
I will be showing Trek, my 4 year old silver standard poodle in Open B and Utility B in obedience Friday through Sunday. Pumpkin, my red miniature poodle, will be making his obedience debut in Novice B all three days. What is so exciting about this, you may ask? Pumpkin is one month shy of his 11th birthday. That just goes to show that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

My kennel club, Stone City Kennel Club (website is under construction), will be demonstrating obedience during lunch time on Saturday and Sunday if time permits. Then after the show, our club has two teams competing in the team obedience competition. This is a lot of fun to watch. Then there will be a heel down, where the last human / dog team left wins a cash prize. It's kind of like a Simon says for the competition obedience world.

Other than that, I am about half way through the semester at Dominican University. After this semester, I only have two classes to finish my masters degree; there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Graduation Aug '07 HERE I COME.

Blog Post # 5 - Second Life

Prior to October, I had never heard of the term "second life." Yet after beginning my Internet Fundamentals and Design class here at Dominican University, I was amazed. Second Life is, in essence, its own world where you can create your own digital person (also known as an avatar). You can talk with other people from around the world, buy real estate and construct buildings. In fact you can also attend classes.

An article entitled Real Learning in a Virtual World talks about students coming together in the virtual realm of Second Life. The article comments that over 60 schools and universities and 800,000 people are learning via Second Life. The typical distance education class usually consists of visiting a website, watching videos and then emailing the teacher or posting to a discussion board. With Second Life, people can actually meet together in one space while still being miles and countries apart.

Harvard University students are even meeting in a replica of the school's law Austin Hall. Students who are registered with the school can take a class in second life for credit, but people may also take some of the Second Life classes from Harvard for free. I might just do that to say I went to Harvard; at least it would look good on a resume!

Blog Post # 4 - My Very Own Trading Card!

I remember from the first weekend of class that we could create a trading card for one of our posts. Well, (and that's a deep subject by the way) here's my very own trading card for your enjoyment!

Blog Post # 3 - Scary Stuff!

Many librarians get freaked out when they hear about adding technology to their library system. Many just shut down completely when something totally new (in the form of technology) is thrown at them. Their initial reaction is to put up a wall and claim that they don't have time to learn or incoporate this new technology into the library.

Technology isn't scary stuff, especially when baby steps are taken towards incorporating it into the library setting. According to the article entitled Online Cool on a Budget, there are new online tools that make it easy to bring technology about. The authors offer very basic, but dynamic ways of becoming tech-savy within our libraries. The authors suggest starting a blog or getting a flickr account or even just upload a google map to the library's website. Almost all of the online tools mentioned in this article are free, and all of them are very easy and user-friendly. We have come so far from the old librarian with a bun and glasses who shushes everyone. Why not continue to change the face of the modern librarian by incorporating web technology?

Blog Post # 2 - www.opal-online.org

For my readers advisory class, I had to visit a library and write about their readers advisory program. I visited the Manhattan Public Library, and one of the first things I discovered was a great online resource entitled opal online. OPAL is an acronym that stands for online programs for all libraries. Despite the small size of this rural library, they were experimenting with this advancement in technology.

I had never heard of OPAL online until my visit with the head librarian at Manhattan P.L. She described to me that they used it at least once a month, if not more, to participate in free online book discussions with other groups of users or online discussions with the author themselves. A few minutes prior to my arrival, they had a small group in their meeting room and they were chatting with an author in Alaska. They had just purchased a new large flat screen tv that they would plug into the computer to serve as a monitor. Then they logged into the opal website and watched the author discuss his/her book. They responded to the author by a form of online chat or instant messaging. I was blown away by this service, and I was even more amazed that it was free to everyone. This especially helped this public library because they had very limited funding.

After I arrived home from my library visit, I decided to check out the website myself. In addition to the live chats with book authors, they also have podcast archives of any previous OPAL event. This website incoporates so many facets of the 2.0 world; podcast, instant messaging, and more! If you have a chance, check out this website; it's worth a look!