World's Coolest Mammal

At least in my opinion.

I mean, come on. Doesn't s/he look just too cool?

Week 10: #23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

I've had a really good time on iHCPL. I've done so many things and it's kind of hard to get things sorted out enough to put into words all I've learned. (It's also difficult when regular work gets in the way.)

I printed out the questions given in the lesson, so I hope that helps me sort things out.

My absolute favorite thing was also one of the simplest and silliest: my avatar. It certainly isn't the most important thing, but I've loved changing it. Makes me feel like a little girl again, playing with a Barbie doll.

Okay. I'll be serious. I really enjoyed the podcasts, I think. It was amazing how many are out there and would be fun to explore. Also the videos. I can see so much potential for them. So much info made available at a moment's notice for the library user. The wikis were also great. Another easy -- maybe more accessible way to give library patrons an idea of materials available. They can be used for pleasure reading to homework to business research. I really need to do more with wikis and with social networking, particularly library and librarian based networks.

I was surprised at how much I liked the blog, believe it or not. Just wish I really had more time for it. I'd like to start a more personal one sometime to review books and movies and such.

What's next? Well, I've looked up articles about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and we seem to have covered most of what I see listed. But with the speed of technology what it is, I'm sure there's more to explore.

It's danged cold in Canada!

Here's an avatar of my best friend, T.S. Rambeau, freezing her butt off in her native Saskatchewan, where it was -30 C wind chill today. Hi, T.S.!

How Green Is Your Valley?

I came across the badge at the right on Yahoo. So far I've replaced only one bulb in my place, but even that helps.

(And, yes, the title here is a not-so-clever reference to the old book and movie, "How Green Was My Valley." A very good movie, too. If you're curious, just follow this link to IMDB.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033729/)

Week 9: #22 Downloadable Media

Like others in my department, I was not able to download the Overdrive software so that I could listen to the book I chose. (Pride and Prejudice, just as a way to ease into checking out an audio book.) If I had a computer at home, I'd probably be using the available titles -- both audio and video -- quite often. I think this is a great alternative for libraries to provide titles. While I hope that paper never completely disappears (there's just something very satisfying about holding a book in your hands and turning the pages as you read), I can see a digital collection as more and more a part of a 21st century library.

Week 9: #21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

Well, I'm finally getting around to some of the last lessons. I'm way behind! I really enjoyed the podcasts searching and I found some fun podcasts and some useful podcasts for personal use. I ended up subscribing to a Disney World trivia podcast.

I also subscribed to LibVibe, a regular podcast of library news about the U.S. Their top story for Dec. 6 was the copper theft at Houston Public Library. Really interesting items in a short 6 minute broadcast.

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