Thing 7

Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?

Well, yes. I'm in a huge library system and we often collaborate with one and other on programming, policy and training. We also sub for each other and receive system wide alerts. We'd be lost without it. LOST.

Does it sometimes waste our time? ...sometimes...we email each other silly pictures and the like. But that creates and fosters good working relationships and a playful work atmosphere, and it certainly hasn't stopped us from creating and working in a very exciting urban library hub! Anyways, how else am I going to get hilarious pictures of wet cats?

Also, I can email information for patron's to use at home. That's very helpful for me, and for my thankful customers.

Share your thoughts on online reference using some of the other Web 2.0 communication tools.
Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools?

OH! I used to IM, but dropped it pretty much after my "single status" moved to "seeing someone," and then "boyfriend-girlfriend" and now "soon to married." My social life is a little less hectic now that I can just talk to my most recent crush...as he is at the other side of the couch! If I were still single, or working in a place where we fielded IM questions, I have no doubt I'd still be using it. We are connected to coworkers in an IM network, but I usually use that to say howdy to folks at other branches whom I haven't seen in a while. I can only recall one time where IMing was more useful to me than the phone or email when connecting to another coworker. We had a tresspassed individual come into our branch, I quickly and quietly requested the customer's name from a librarian who was at the initial trespassing, fifteen miles away. Very modern Dragnet!

Also, during Library school, we held an online class discussion on a day when we were snowed out. Because we students had already spent so much time together, it worked out really well. I would defiantly do it again in such a situation. I wonder if the event would have gone as well if we had never previously met.

Which OPAL or MINITEX Web conference (Webinar) did you attend? How was it? What do you think of this communication tool?

I visited the OPAL conferences. I do think they're cool. I imagine this would be a really great resource for a librarian working in a small library or a small system who doesn't have the same level of collaboration or programming as I am fortunate to have in my own system. I often feel like the opportunities I have are more than I can reasonably handle. I sometimes have that, "someday I'm going to work in a tiny lake community library and fish for my breakfast and pick berries fantasy." I will certainly be glad to have this as a tool for staying current. I'm glad that these kinds of resources give everyone in the library community an opportunity to thrive and grow, even if they have a more limited budget than some of us big guys.

I noticed they collaborate a lot with second life...I'll admit to having a second-life avatar, but I'll also admit to only using it one time. My bad? I don't know, I prefer a nice real-life conference, where I can shake hands and eat mini-muffins and coffee from a big carafe. That isn't very 2.0 of me, but I'm happy to have that one fuddy-duddy opinion. Sometimes, I think my peers think I'm all 2.0. That clearly isn't the case.

Thug's Life

I think we should start getting bling like this to amp up our street cred. We could act all casual about it and when we see each other on the street or at the mall, we could knock knuckles. RAD!

How easy was this? very. I just clicked the link and added my tag line. How useful is this? ummm...well, I could help a customer "pimp" a very cool myspace page...although their myspace pages are already cooler than mine. I'm going for a minimalist look!

Thing 6:

Thing 5 (part duex)

This was too much fun. Also, I am clearly disturbed.

Thing 5 (part one)

Puma meets her match staring down the barrel of a gun! That's the last time she'll bite my ankle as I walk by!

The original photo was taken in poor light and had bad resolution. The Flickr photo editing tools helped me clean it up immensely by changing the heat of the flash and the saturation of color. The image is a lot sharper now. I also added a camera border and tag line. Poor Kitty.

I also posted the original, so you can see how much better the new version is!

Thing 4

I don't have any pictures of my library, but I do have random pictures of cats, zombies, and wild west libraries! They're related, because (in my experience) librarians like cats, have big brains (thus the zombies) and enjoy historical buildings.

I'm glad to have this opportunity to create my own flickr account, it keeps me form piggybacking off the "family account." I'm also glad I'll be able to help someone navigate the process from beginning to end.

Thing 3

RSS feeds: terribly useful and convenient...especially for the bus commute.

I used to use RSS feeds all the time. I like getting weird radio programs sent directly to my Ipod so I could listen to them on the bus. There are great ones like; Coffee Break Spanish, Grammar Girl, Savage Love, etc. I also would get my library account updated and sent to me, so I would know my due dates.

Now that I'm tooling around in the car, though, I find I use them less than my fella. He relies on them so much that he's MISSED his bus updating them before he goes out the door.

Of all of the Library 2.0 concepts I feel this one will become more and more popular as people continue to rely on personal information/communication gadgets like blackberries, Ipods and Iphones, lap-tops, or even the new readers like Kindle. I imagine all sorts of things will resort to RSS feeds to send daily updates...like credit card bills and gym class schedules...homework due dates...the sky is the limit!!!

(I imagine in the future -when we all wear spandex and drive in flying cars- that RSS feeds will be sent directly to the chips we will inevitably install in our brains!)