Week 7: Microblogging

I got my Twitter account and am following the Unquiet Librarian (she really is!) and Sarah Dressden, one of my daughter's favorite authors. It's interesting to see how they alternate between professional and personal tweets! It makes me realize how we have to juggle work and play in our lives. I like microblogging because it's short and sweet. I can see this being a great way for librarians in a district to stay in touch and to share what's going on in their libraries!

Week 6: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

This week's lesson has been very useful to me so far. It allows me to access my bookmarks and have access to a multitude of other websites that will be very helpful to me. I love the tagging feature that narrows the search and makes it easier to find what you need. What a great way to share websites that are important to you and others with common interests and needs.

Week 5: RSS and Feed Readers

For this week's lesson, I chose to go with an Add to Feed My Inbox RSS feed. I chose to add a MSNBC news feed and some of my friends' blogs. It's nice to have it emailed directly to my account. I think I'm going to have to do something about the MSNBC feeds, there are too many!

Week 4: Photo Sharing

Opening a Flickr account made me realize the possibilities of photosharing within the library community. I'm always trying to find cool and interesting things to do in my library and with sharing our photos, this is the perfect way. I like that you can tag your photos and that you can limit the viewers to your site.

23 Things Kansas

23 Things Kansas
Originally uploaded by Librarian Mary Jane

Our students love to use the SMART Board!

Week 3: Online Meetings

It's amazing how much you can learn just sitting in your own living room! This week's event has serious learning consequences for us. I just got through exploring OPAL: Online Programming for All Libraries, and was amazed at all of the events offered. I retrieved an archived Text -Base Conversation with Tom Peters titled Filbert, a monthly information roundtable discussion of the future of libraries, books, and reading - conducted on Nov. 17, 2oo9. Tom Peters and the audience addressed the future of reading - with new technology options such as the Kindle, Nook, cell phones, Sony e-read, e-book man, PDA's, hypertext novels - WOW! The discussion was very informative and thought-provoking. I see my library as it is now, what will it look like in two years??? I'm sure there will be many changes with technology. They also discussed the prep school in Massachusetts and all are skeptical that it will have a positive effect on student learning. As I listened, the real future in libraries is that we need to follow our readers - it's all about options and we need to provide them! We need to give our readers more power over what they read and how they read it!

I attended a webinar last Thursday through Follet titled What's New in Destiny 9.5, so I experienced my first webinar then. It was a little nerve-wracking trying to make sure I was ready for it at the time it was scheduled to begin, but after it started it was very interesting. I will seek out more opportunities to attend webinars in the future.

Facebook address

Here is my Facebook address:
Mary Jane's Facebook

Week 2: Social Networking

I joined Facebook for this week's lesson. I have been thinking about it, but never took the time. I am amazed at how many of my friends and family are already a part of this online community! I am a very social person, but I prefer to talk to people, so I guess that's why I never joined.

It is amazing how Facebook can connect you to so many different people that you've been associated with in your lifetime.

I can see Facebook being a great way to share ideas on educational issues or keep in touch with your family and friends.

Week 1: Blogging

Here is my first attempt at creating my own blog. I've done this before with one of my favorite colleagues, Linda Bongers and our William Allen White books, but have never set up my own. The blogger.com site is very user friendly.
I am so excited to embark on this 23 Things Kansas endeavor. I have been itching for a learning experience and this is just what I need!