Author Archive
True Confession of a WOHM
I got home from the ALA conference in DC last Wednesday afternoon and I have yet to fully unpack my suitcase — only the essentials have been removed and a few other items. In fact, it is unlikely that it will be fully unpacked until this coming Wednesday when I have the day off for the 4th of July. This was really bugging me this morning as I like to feel organized and on top of everything.
In my defense, I got off the train last Wednesday at 2 pm and was in the library by 5 pm to work the closing shift. I also chose to spend Thursday and Friday evening having fun with my son instead of doing laundry. What happened during the weekend you ask? We had a huge BBQ bash on Sunday in honour of Canada Day, so I spent Saturday cleaning house and grocery shopping (and having Alex help me make patriotic cookies and the special bouquet pictured here). Hence the suitcase got ignored once again.
As I dug around in my suitcase this morning trying to find my favourite black sandals (they were on the bottom, of course) I felt really down on myself for having been home nearly 5 days and still having an almost untouched suitcase on the bedroom floor… not to mention a tote bag full of flair in the family room that still needs sorting and distributing. But then I remembered the look of joy on Alex’s face as he played with his friends at the BBQ yesterday and I felt a bit better about my state of disorganization this morning.
I am often asked how I “do it all”, a question that I am never certain how to answer. Some days I feel like I really can do it all and other days I feel like I am an imposter only pretending to really have it all together. Today is an imposter day, so I am posting this as insight in to the fact that I don’t always manage to do it all and sometimes I have to choose between having clean clothes and enjoying time with family and friends.
Note: I edited the title after the caffeine kicked in. My original title of “Working Mom” is not meant to implicate that SAHMs don’t work hard, as I know many SAHMs that work very hard. WOHM is much better term.
DIY Book Scanner
A colleague sent me a link today that is too good not to share — instructions on how to build your own book scanner using Lego and a variety of other items that most geeks will have on hand or be able to get easily.
Dick Eastman found the same instructions after his return from the ALA conference earlier this week where he had watched the Kirtas APT BookScan 2400 in action, but suffered sticker shock from the $120,000 price tag.
If anyone else in libraryland gets inspired and builds their own scanner from Lego and kite string, be sure to let me know and post the pictures on flickr!
Friday Fun: #1 Song the Day You were Born
A friend just sent me this fun site: The #1 Song on this Date in History.
It is easy to use and you can have lots of fun looking up what was #1 on the day you were born, the day you got married, or any other occasion.
For me, the #1 song on the day I was born was “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” by The Righteous Brothers. I have also looked up the #1 songs for everyone in my family. It is fun! Give it a try!
I think I am going to incorporate this site in to my Introduction to the Internet class (I just happen to be updating it this month). The song lists go back to 1890 so even older adults will be able to find their #1 song and it will be a fun exercise for practicing mouse skills, following links and scrolling.
So, now we can all share — What was the #1 song on the day you were born? (then we can all have fun guessing what year it was!)
8 Things (Janie)
Since our entire blog has been tagged (and since I have been too overwhelmed lately to post), this is a good reason to play along with the 8 random things meme. Posts of substance are in the works, I just need a few more hours in my days.
1. In 7th grade I wanted to be a cruise director like Julie on The Love Boat. The funny thing is that being the program coordinator at a public library is very similar in many ways, so I guess I achieved this aspiration.
2. My first childhood pet was a goldfish named Goldie. Apparently I was not terribly original when it came to names as a child because I also had a teddy bear named Bear-Bear and a doll named Dollie.
3. I am terrified of bats. This fear is not without reason, but the story is too complex for this post.
4. I used to be able to sing along to the entire soundtrack of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and can still make it through all of the Time Warp without prompts.
5. I have read every single book by Margaret Atwood, some more than once.
6. I am happiest when I am at the family cottage in the Kawartha Region of Ontario. I could happily spend my entire summer on the lake with nothing but a pile of books, jigsaw puzzles and a canoe or kayak.
7. My family is planning a trip to Disney World this September. The last time I was there was in 1975, the year that Space Mountain opened and it was a really big deal. My husband has not been there since 1977 and this will be Alex’s first trip. I hope it is not 30+ years before we go again.
8. I think Parker Posey is absolutely brilliant and many of her films are among my all time favorites. Party Girl should be required viewing in library school. In fact, when it first came out I was in library school and about 40 of us went to theatre to see it together — including the dean of the school and several professors.
Now my turn to tag. I think this meme requires 8 people to tag, so I am going to tag Pop Goes the Library and all of their blogging team (that takes care of 5 with one) as well as Helene Blowers, Karen Schneider, and Christopher Harris (who was an undergrad at HWS when I worked there as a Reference Librarian… makes me feel old).
CIL2007 Photos Finally on Flickr
Life has been in overdrive lately and I have good intentions of going back to edit the post with my CIL slides (maybe tomorrow is what I keep saying, so don’t hold your breath). My big accomplishment for the day is that it took me less than a month to find time to download and upload my CIL photos and organize them in a set on my flickr account. I took a whole lot less pictures than I normally do at conferences — I was too busy learning and having fun (which is a good thing). Thanks for the memories everyone, I had a blast.
WJ’s Technology Competencies for Public Access Computing
WebJunction recently published a very thorough and detailed set of technology competencies that will be useful to libraries of all types and sizes. I have been meaning to post about this for a few weeks, but conferences and a bit of vacation time got in the way.
This is a project that I and several others have been working on with WebJunction for a few years and it is so wonderful to see it finally published and available for free download!
Congratulations to Betha Gutsche for her ability to see this project through to completion after many changes, debates, iterations and struggles. The final layout is extremely easy to read and hopefully this document will be the jumping point for many libraries to start assessing the skill levels of the staff who work with the public and need to assist patrons with computers (which should be just about everybody who works at a public desk).
On a side note, my involvement on this project was also my introduction to using a wiki for a collaborative project. The work of the original “MPAC Technology Competencies Expert Group” was done primarily through a wiki that was hosted at WebJunction. We had occasional conference calls, but most of the editing of the first drafts of this was done via the wiki and also on a discussion forum.
As I was writing this post I got curious as I was unsure about how long this project has been brewing at WJ , so I just double-checked our super-secret forum for this project and it was November 2005 that we began the discussions… wow, nearly 18 months in the making, but oh so worth the wait! Download the complete Technology Competencies for Public Access Computing in PDF and start assessing!
Speaking of technology competencies, I am still patiently awaiting the arrival of Sarah Houghton-Jan’s recently published Library Technology Report, Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries — I think it will be the perfect companion to the work done by WJ.
A Serendipitous Stumble: Social Computing Magazine
I was just surfing around looking for information on several topics for a variety of reasons when I came across Social Computing Magazine and had to share my serendipitous find.
Actually, I did not find the site directly but rather the article Wikis, Collective Intelligence and Libraries written by Laura B. Cohen. The article challenges academic librarians to create more subject-based wikis and to collaborate with students in order to take advantage of the collective intelligence of students and to keep their sites current. I think that public libraries should also be trying to harness the collective intelligence of their community via the use of wikis and this article gave me some great food for thought for a future post on this topic.
It is hard to tell how long the “magazine” has been around — I would say no more than two months given the dates of the articles in their online archives and the fact that some of the topics have yet to be written about. The articles and topics on the site look promising, but when I went to the message boards it seems as if they are just getting going with them.
While I was exploring, I read the article on The Blogger’s Code of Conduct and bookmarked it separately for future reference and use in blogging classes … oh, and though it took some doing, I finally discovered the crucial information I was wanting to know — who is the person/people behind this venture. I finally found it at the bottom of the article Is ‘Social Computing” a Breakthrough — or an Oxymoron?
Jeremy Geelan is Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of Social Computing Magazine. He blogs at The New Web Blog and is Executive Director of The Social Computing Foundation.
It will be interesting to keep tabs on this in the months to come.
Edited to add:
Jeremy Geelan emailed me today to thank me for the positive review (and it is a positive review, I found the content useful and the overall site design easy to navigate). My one complaint about not easily finding the information about who was behind the site was a lot more visible than I originally thought — I will blame it on the fact that I was posting late on a Sunday night after spending the day in the garden and chasing after my toddler 😉
In any event, here is some text from the email Jeremy sent that will help clear up the issue:
… As to prime movers, there is one other link on the SCM main page that would have helped you, at the bottom left: http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com/editboard.cfm . We probably need to move that up above the fold, but we wanted content to come first, and personalities onl a distant second.Between them, these guys are some of the most forward-thinking, savvy minds involved anywhere in and on the Web today. I am just the (lucky) conductor… they each play their instruments far better than I ever shall!
Thanks for the good thoughts,…and don’t forget, either, that SCM is a participatory site, so the more folks become involved the merrier: http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com/submitnews.cfm
I for one plan to become involved and encourage others in the biblioblogosphere to do the same and give a librarian voice to this new venture.
Thanks for emailing me Jeremy!
Computers in Libraries 2007 — Slides and Comments
While at Computers in Libraries this year I gave two CyberTours and one presentation. This is just a quick post that will be edited very soon with more details. I just want to get the slides up here before speaking at the NJLA conference tomorrow. I am demonstrating SlideShare, a new addition to our Fantastic Freebies portfolio — one I learned about at CIL07!
Stay tuned for more… here are the slides:
CIL 2007 LInk Dump
Computers in Libraries is as awesome as always this year. Record attendance means standing room only at lot of sessions, hence my lack of live blogging (not to mention the rather sporadic wireless connection in certain rooms). Also, since I am giving 2 cybertours and a presentation, I need some down time.
Nonetheless, over the last few days I have jotted down lots of little scribbled notes, and as I look them over they are mostly the names of sites, apps and gadgets to play with later. Many of the sites I have heard about before and haven’t yet had time to explore, but there are also many that are new to me. I am posting all the links to everything (with my commentary). This is the list of what I plan to investigate more fully upon my return to reality and I need them here so that I don’t forget — and so that you can explore too.
In no particular order and from the multiple presentations over the last few days I now present “CIL 2007 Links Dump”:
Open Clip Art Library (one can never have too many options for finding public domain clip art)
Joomla! (Content Management)
MyBlogLog (get detailed stats about your blog)
Free Digital Photos (might be a good example for the Fantastic Freebies repertoire)
Podcast Pickle (too much fun to say … thanks Davc!)
Slideshare ( a trainer’s delight)
Pixer.us and Picnik (these will be the basis for a new class at PPL)
gvisit.com (a little spooky in the level of detail, but oh so cool)
dbWiz (Open Source Federated Searching — see it in action at SFU)
tumblr (John LeMasney gave a demo at my last Tech Talk… gotta take a serious look)
popurls (I always want to stay current… this looks promising)
Podzinger (several mentions, worth investigating)
SuprGlu (been on my radar for a long time, must play with it soon)
Okay… I have more, but I need to get some sleep as I am doing a cybertour tomorrow morning and presenting in the afternoon. I will edit this post with more links later.
Library Garden 