Interesting web tidbits

Nelnet is giving away $1 million dollars in scholarship money. Go thttp://www.sweepsadvantage.com/search.php?keyword=win+million

Parents parting ways? Check out www.survivingyourparentsdivorce.com
This site offers youth practical information on coping with the challenges of being the child in the middle. Writen by a divorce survivor, Max graduated from college this year. So there is life (a good one) after your parents break up.

MatthewsPlace.com is a website that is highly polished, slick, and is stuffed with the kinds of important information that GLBT teens and those who love them need. There is a page on how to come out in your particular community and a suicide prevention link among the its many offerings. A great resource for teen librarian's to have in their arsenal.

Nothing could be finer...

Greetings all,

I am in the beautiful Old North State (why it is called that, I don't know. You should ask a "good" librarian) and am currently on the road in lovely Smithfield, NC assisting in the facilitation of a workshop by Michele Gorman-uber teen librarian for PLCMC.

Michele's workshop is entitled "This Ain't Your Mama's Library." This is a must attend for anyone in teen librarianship and it would be even more valuable for everyone NOT in teen librarianship. Her points are spot-on and could assist in increasing the value of your library to your community and keeping it relevant for future taxpayers.

This job is great so far (I'm only on day 3). I've met some great YA librarians at this workshop who are passionate about providing the best for their teen customers. I LOVE THAT! Now we must assimilate the rest of library world to our way of thinking.

Adult services librarians look out -- RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

and now, the end is near...

Okay, so I have 1.5 weeks to go before my last day at HCPL North. I am totally ambivalent about leaving, but there are new things to learn and new challenges to meet.

I have had a wonderful experience at HCPL North and am truly greatful for the opportunity to work here (I'm not gone yet).

I visited my new office and am so nervous about joining the suits again. Being in a branch and hanging with the people is so laid back. Now, I'll have the Secretary of Cultural Resources right down the hall. Rumor has it she already tried to give away my office because it is still empty.

Well. I always wanted to seek out new life and new civilizations and short of going into space, this is my trek.

Thing 23-So Long Thou Dreaded Drudgery

OK, so doing this wasn't that bad once I got into it and I probably could have finished faster if I had gon the the HCPL Participant website and used the links under the various weeks.

I am glad that I was exposed to all of these various tools. Some I will used with impunity (Library Thing), some not at all (Rollyo). It was, however, good to find out about these things, if only for the cultural literacy value.

Thanks to the person who decided to do this...it wasn't all bad.

Thing 22-Overdrive and Net Library

I really would have liked for them to put the fact that these resources are not available to the hip and happening Mac/Apple crowd.

The tutorials were really easy to understand and the video was clear. But the disappointment at the end when one is shown the ipod with the big x through is is crushing.

Are overdrive and netlibrary pawns of Mr. Gates? Conspiracy theory? Maybe...

Now, Project Gutenberg is very interesting. There are almost no books that I want to read, but my sister who is a medievalist might find something to her liking. I tried the Kama Sutra, but there were no pictures.

Thing 21-Podcasting

I already have my NPR podcasts set up. I think I may add speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet since I ususally miss it on Sunday mornings.

My son and I are going to do a podcast so my sister's children can listen to us and maybe get them to podcast back to us.

Thing 20 - Youtube

My son has been making me watch Harry Potter Bananphone for weeks now. I really like Youtube for all of the old Saturday morning tv shows that I watched as a child. Lancelot Link Secret Chimp, Big Blue Marble, The Great Space Coaster, the Banana Splits. My husband even found some weird guy called Bananaman that he loved as a kid. He pulled bananas and cardboard mandolins, watermelons, and other items out of big pockets in his coat while making strange mewing noises. Very scary

Thing 19-Web 2.0 Awards List

There are some really cool things on the awards list site. Zoho is really cool. I needed has spent all of the money on software for my new computer if I had known that there was free stuff out there. I really will have to play with the software some more, but until we start using free software at work, I think Mr. Gates has nothing to worry about.

Also, my son is really interested in the award winners and we plan to play around this weekend. A Mac makes some of this stuff so easy to use.

Untitled

Think 18-On-line Productivity Tools

 

This could be really great for writing a document in commitee.

Thing 17-Sandbox

I think wikis could be a lot of fun!

I want one. I don't know what I'd wiki yet, but I want one.

Thing 16-Wikis

I really love the idea of doing a wiki, but again, for me this is something that would require me to schedule the time into my day.

I really liked "So you want to build a Wiki?" The information was easy to follow for the non-techie that I am and Meredith Farkas refrained from using jargon that I would have to look on on another "tech" website.

Thing 15-Library 2.0 Perspectives

Tom Storey suggests in his Next Space article in the OCLC newsletter that "...the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives..." I think he is correct--to a point.

The web lifestyle really is for those who have the leisure time to devote to sitting in front of a computer screen. In libraries that time is limited to "off-desk" hours for those of us with public service duties and to specifically scheduled time for those of us who serve mainly internal customers.

At home a digital lifestyle, at least for me, is less attainable. As a mother, wife, and owner of an old home, much of my time is spent in low-tech, old-school activities, like cooking, cleaning, bathing children, and sitting with them while they do their homework on MY computer. My son has a digital lifestyle, in that he has the limited responsibilities of youth to devote the time to sufing the web and finding out all of its "hot" and new offerings; while his mother is downstairs doing laundry, painting the livingroom, or grocery shopping.

Well, I guess that is why we have retirement. At that time, I will have the time to sit and fiddle on the computer while my adult children will have the day-to-day responsibilies of jobs and family to eat into their leisure time. The grandchildren and I can do whatever iteration of text messaging and web surfing that will then be in vogue.

Thing 14 Technorati @ Blog Posts

I don't spend much time on the computer, let alone reading blogs, because my spare time is spent being a mom (and my son hogs my computer).

Tagging is most useful in Library Thing (my new best friend), but until I have the time to compute for fun, tagging has no real use for me.

NOTE: I have tagged this post.

Netlibrary, Overdrive, et. al

Well, the downloadable books are not going to be listened to by me unless I complete Library 2.0. Since I own an Ipod and a Macbook, those are still unavailable.

THe tutorial by PLCMC was the best one of the lot. I do think it would be helpful if the tutorials all told what machines are compatible with the downloads BEFORE you spent what seemed like a long time watching and then finding out that what you own won't work with the software. Very frustratig.

Also, I think it was overdrive offer bait and switch advertising. THey showed a guy with an ipod (got my hopes up) and then at the end said that apple products were not compatible. Very BAD!

Delicious

Well, this is really worthwhile. I can have my bookmarks follow me wherever I go. Cool

Thing 12-Rollyo

Is a very interesting site. I found a great recipe site that will calculate and post all of the nutritional information on a recipe you input (www.recipezaar.com).

Now you really can know how many calories are in Mema's Sweet Potato Pie or Bubbe's Borscht...but it may be better not to know.

Thing 8-RSS Feed

I love NPR. Now with my RSS feed I can have all of the breaking news and top stories...fast.

Maybe I'll add--OOOOOO-Diane Rheme.

Thing 9-Library Related Blogs

This has been a very interesting looking at the various library blogs. "Alternative Teen Services" seems like it might be interesting, but it doesn't look like very many participate in posting. The comments made on the Ypulse blog were very enlightening, especially the "prostitots" article.

Technology Growing in Family Life

I read "something technology related" on the Pew Internet and American Life website. Very interesting site.

There is this report about the internets growing role in family life. It's really catching up to me. My cousin in Arizona saw the myspace page (made so my teens could talk to me) and got back in touch with me. My 11 year old now has his own blog that he wants me to regularly check.

He has always been communicative, but this is another way of keeping my finger on the "pulse" of his life away from home.

Fashionista

Express Yourself with Gizmoz Video Clips

Thing 6-Gizmos

Fun. Fun. Fun. I have had a great time "altering" my image on gimoz.com. I even showed some of the teens. We had a great time.

Thing 5- Flickr

Learned Flickr to explain at Tech Fair last week. It's great. Now all I need is a digital camera and a computer at home to use.

Thing 4-Tracking

Registered and am traking

Set up blog and add post

Duh!

Thing 2

Well, the info about life long learning was interesting. I find lots of things interesting, so I continue to learn in formal and informal ways. Although, I'd really rather be outside.

I'm SOOOO Special!

I've read the blog.