Two entries in one day: Bunny's conference day is a blogging opportunity

It's time to try some new things. Sometimes I get busy and get in a rut. Today a new thing is text color for this posting and adding a photo of my spring flower pots from my Kodak Gallery account. I have a Flickr account but thus far use Kodak Gallery for sharing photos with friends and family and ordering prints. I'm working now on Thing #8, creating a slide show. I'm committed to finishing the 23 things and claiming my prize.

Bunny attends a conference

I'm back at my alma mater, Macalester, to attend the Midwest Library Technology Conference 2008. The Web 2.0 session is focusing on several of the 23 things. Fortunately I am familiar with some of them. However, there is so much to learn. Oops, I'd better turn my attention back to the presenter.

Communication: Thing #7

Our library has been using e-mail quite intensely for over 10 years. We answer a lot of reference questions that way, help researchers use our website more effectively, and communicate with each other about news and ongoing issues. I get so many e-mails from colleagues, researchers, and external sources that managing e-mail and finding relevant communications is sometimes challenging.

I haven't done a lot of chat, instant messaging, or text messaging. I've done Google chat via my gmail account at my home. I have received a few text messages on my cell phone, some in error. Without frequently doing it I'm slow to comprehend the shorthand and to enter information. Much of what I do at work is often very involved. I certainly wouldn't want to have complicated interactions about copyright, permissions, or large manuscript collections via text or IM. We've had a few security issues where IM might have been a good way to alert other staff rather than pushing the panic button or making a call that the irate patron may overhear.

I've participated in several Minitex webinars, including the Library 2.0 one and the Best of Online Reference. I find them to be well done professionally, but they don't feel very interactive to me. I'm not one for saying much beyond my name in such a set-up. Web conferencing seems to have good potential for outreach with remote researchers who are unable to attend our classes in the library.

Image Generator: Thing #6

My husband is having a hard time seeing me have so much fun with flickr and the image generator activity and comprehending that this could actually be work-related. I really enjoyed doing the trading cards on Image Generator. One limitation for me is that I'm working on this at home and don't currently have a lot of photographs on my new home computer. I did save a historical photograph of a library to incorporate into a trading card. One of my interests is in historical photograph collections. I liked Image Chef and made a Minnesota license plate, but it's a bit wordy for the road. Bunny

Thing 5: More Fun with Flickr

I looked at two sites: Big Huge Labs and Spell with Flickr. At Big Huge Labs I made a puzzle from a photograph of our library I uploaded to Flickr last week. Spell with Flickr was very cool. I had no idea how easy it was. I especially liked the ability to click on each letter to get the look I wanted. What I had trouble with was taking my words spelled with Flickr and moving them to this blog. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts I've decided to move on for now. I do plan to come back to this feature, because I could see it being very useful in other projects.

Thing 4: Exploring Flickr

Photo: Saint Paul Public Library
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulpubliclibrary/380985103/


I found many Minnesota library photographs on Flickr. I selected one of the Riverview Library in St. Paul , a beautiful classical Carnegie Library that retains its architectural integrity while also offering lots of modern conveniences. Every time I visit I find many people of varying ages from the neighborhood using the computers, reading newspapers, and browsing.