Carolyn's Work Notes

Universal Class

2011-08-03T22:34:00.006-05:00

I'm excited about the library's new online classes!

Check it out! http://www.dbrl.org/reference/universalclass
Below is a copy of the announcement for the public.

Through the library’s website, library cardholders now have free access to
over 540 online continuing education courses with real instructors through
a service called UniversalClass.

You can take courses in exercise and fitness, entrepreneurship, arts and
music, home and garden care, cooking, computers and technology, health and
medicine, homeschooling, job assistance, law and legal, parenting and
family, pet and animal care… plus hundreds more. With real instructors
guiding the learning, engaging video-based lessons, a collaborative
learning environment, graded lesson tests, certificates of achievement and
Continuing Education Units available for selected courses, you enjoy an
engaging and measurable learning experience that helps you master and
document your educational goals.

Why has it taken us so long to see this?

2011-05-15T11:40:00.001-05:00

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

KD Easley - a local author

2010-07-04T09:09:00.004-05:00

Where the Dreams End by kd easley

Kd Easley lives in Fulton, Missouri. This is her first published mystery. Another mystery novel, Murder at Timber Bridge, came out this year. I like the way she is able to weave romance and humor into a compelling thriller that keeps you guessing. Brocs Harley, the black sheep of a wealthy family, is a repo man with a degree in Criminal Justice and a background in grand theft and B&E. When his brother, the golden boy who claims all his father's love, is murdered, Brocs is the prime suspect.

You can read excerpts and find out more about Kadi at http://www.kdwrites.com/

GottaBook: Who Reads Your Manuscript -- a poem for writers (and editors)

2010-07-04T00:41:00.000-05:00

GottaBook: Who Reads Your Manuscript -- a poem for writers (and editors): "Who Reads Your Manuscript
By
Gregory K.

Editors were born to read:
They chose their jobs for love, not greed.
Editors are short on time,
And truly they don’t ALL hate rhyme.
Editors have pets, get wed.
Sometimes they stay home sick in bed.
Editors eat writers, true...
But otherwise, they’re just like you!"

Why don't I write?

2010-04-09T21:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a poem by Gregory K. over at GottaBook that explains it all.

REASONS WHY I DON’T WRITE
by
Gregory K.

Errands
Cooking
Cleaning up

Nothing
In my
Coffee cup

Snail mail
E-mail
Blogging, too

Crosswords
Comics
Sudoku

Phone calls
Lunches
Fear of debt

Daydreams
Nap times
Internet

Laundry
Sunsets
Batting cage

“Research”
iTunes
Empty page

30 Poets - 30 days

2010-04-02T16:13:00.002-05:00

Jacqueline Woodson, Walter Dean Myers, and Kathi Appelt are just some of the writers who’ll take part in 30 Poets/30 Days, a celebration of children's poetry during National Poetry Month.

Every day in April, author Gregory K. Pincus’s GottaBook blog and Twitter site will feature a previously unpublished poem by a different poet—and it’s completely free and open 24/7.

Pincus says last year’s inaugural 30 Poets/30 Days was such a huge success, with thousands of people reading poems and schools and education sites participating in the event. “I received wonderful e-mails from teachers and librarians who used the poems as a launching pad to teach poetry or feature different poets,” he says.

Other participants include Alan Katz, whose humorous rhyming books such as Oops (S & S 2008) are hugely entertaining for kids, and Charles R. Smith Jr, the photographer behind My People (Atheneum, 2009), the 2010 winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrations.

“Poetry to me is life, because words are life. The Tao Te Ching says that if we want to be pure of spirit, we must be pure of speech,” Smith says. “When I write poetry, I am looking to get to the truth through words. My mantra is ‘waste no words’ so I can honestly say that my career has been built one word at a time.”

All poems from last yea are available online, including “I Dreamt I Saw a Dinosaur,” submitted by Mary Ann Hoberman, the Poetry Foundation's current Children's Poet Laureate and a recipient of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. )

National Poetry Month sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, which began the event in 1996. More activities can be found at www.Kidlitosphere.com

Social Networking & Online Videos

2010-02-12T09:22:00.004-06:00

The last unit of our NetTrek staff training was all about social networking. I've used this type of site for a long time. The first sites I used were especially for writers, but the basic concept was the same. Some sites were simply forums, ongoing conversations among strangers who gradually became online friends. Other sites encouraged members to make personal pages and post stories or poems for others to read and critique. I still find these site to be the most useful and relevant to my life and interests.

Facebook is great for making contact with old friends you've lost touch with over the years. I have almost 100 FB friends and many are people I went to high school with 45 years ago. It's also a good way to keep in touch with relatives you don't see often. One unexpected benefit has been the ability to get to know professional acquaintances a little better. However, FB can easily become a compulsive time-waster with all its games, surveys, and vapid chitchat. I log in very seldom these days.

LinkedIn is supposed to be the way professional people network. I have several contacts there, but I think it would be more useful for younger people who may be interested in career advancement.

Twitter is another site that *can* be a timewaster. It is useful to be able to choose the people you follow and I've found some great links on tweets. The best thing about Twitter is the timeliness. If some is happening RIGHT NOW and you want to find out the details before CNN does - just log in to Twitter and search.

Online Videos and Podcasts: these are most useful when you're trying to learn how to do something. NO amount of words can replace having someone show you, step-by-step exactly how to get a job done. I've used online videos to learn new software many times. Humorous videos are fun and it is NEVER a waste of time to have a good laugh.

New, Smarter Catalog | Daniel Boone Regional Library

2010-01-30T15:11:00.001-06:00

New, Smarter Catalog | Daniel Boone Regional Library: "New, Smarter Catalog

Searching for Books Becomes Faster, Easier and More Fun
This year the library plans to revolutionize the online catalog you use to look up books, music and more. We’re very excited about the transformation you’ll see this winter.

The Daniel Boone Regional Library will be only the second library system in the U.S. to use this innovative software, called BiblioCommons, that greatly improves searching and offers social networking tools to library users.

Behind the scenes, a smarter search algorithm gives you better results, and the sleek, modern interface provides easy ways to narrow or expand your search or browse for related items. For each book, CD, DVD or other item you’ll have interactive options like adding your own review, tags and rating or sharing the item on Facebook or Twitter. You can also make your own lists of books and follow other users with similar taste.

We’re working hard, along with the staff at BiblioCommons, to finish up all the technical details of customizing the software for DBRL, and we hope to premiere the new catalog in February."

Bibliocommons

2010-01-28T13:19:00.002-06:00

I've been exploring the new DBRL catalog format. Bibliocommons is a great improvement in many ways. I love the pictures! The catalog pages are visually appealing and the immediate movement of the scrolling book covers add excitement. The little blurb that appears below many of the books is a good feature. Playing with the interface, exploring the many features is great fun. If I knew the exact title of a book in the system, it popped right up.

Using it to actually try to find books without an exact title is easier than the old system. What few problems I had, I suspect relate back to the underlying SIRSI catalog, and the old standby: "user error." That is to say, at times, I didn't know exactly what I was looking for....and floundered a bit trying to narrow down my choices. Unfortunately, patrons often are not able to give us an exact title.

The social networking aspects are useful and interesting. I made a list of local Callaway authors and rated a few books I liked. There were times, during the after school busy period, that it seemed a bit slow to handle these additional features. Probably because our internet connection is fully loaded during those periods.

It is absolutely essential that ALL staff who will be working with the public get comfortable with the new system before it is opened to the public. I'm sure we will have many questions, and we don't want to be fumbling for answers.

ResearchBuzz

2009-12-31T14:06:00.002-06:00

Learning about RSS feed by visiting blogs written by librarians was certainly eye-opening. I didn't know there were so many chatty librarians out there! I have read some of them before, of course. I've loved Annoyed Librarian since I first read it a few years ago. She seems to be annoyed by all the same things that annoy ME and it's always great to read someone you agree with. So I subscribed to Annoyed Librarian and another LJ blog called In the bookroom about new books, award books, etc. Useful, but not too exciting.

My favorite so far is Research Buzz:

ResearchBuzz is designed to cover the world of Internet research. To that end this site provides almost daily updates on search engines, new data managing software, browser technology, large compendiums of information, Web directories — whatever. If in doubt, the final question is, “Would a reference librarian find it useful?” If the answer’s yes, in it goes!In the last few years an effort has been made to build tools relevant to researchers and make them available on this site.

I found some great new links browsing this blog. I will definitely keep reading it.

School's Out! Merry Christmas!

2009-12-22T17:28:00.000-06:00

Fulton Schools let out at one o'clock this afternoon and the library was full by 1:20. Boys and girls were sitting on each other's laps at the tables, with social groups gathered around. No caroling - but cherry enough with giggling and squeals. All twelve internet computers were filled, of course, with a waiting list as long as Santa's. It was busy and hectic and once again we were thinking how nice it would be to have special teen space where the kids could cut loose without scaring off the older patrons.

It has quieted down, now, and I expect it will be a little quieter than usual in the late afternoons for the next week or two. When school is out the busy times are more evenly spaced throughout the day.

Lulu.com

2009-12-16T18:24:00.000-06:00

I had fun exploring all the Web 2 Award winners. There are some great sites out there! Several of them I plan to go back and spend more time exploring.

I picked Lulu.com to blog about because it has been my favorite for a long time. I LOVE lulu. This site allows anybody with a modicum of technical know-how to become a published author at absolutely NO cost. If you have ever tried to publish a family history, a cook book, or a collection of poems, you know how totally amazing that is. Traditional self-publishers or printers have always demanded loads of money up front and required a commitment for a print-run of hundreds of copies.

Lulu.com is a print on demand publisher. Your book is published and made available for sale online for free. You don't have to buy a single copy if you don't want to. Pretty amazing.

Yes, I can see Lulu being used in a library setting. In fact, I already have! In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Callaway County Public Library in 2007, we sponsored a writing contest. The winners were collected in an anthology called "Callaway: 100 Years" and the book was published on Lulu.com. I priced it at the moderate printing cost: $8.96, so the winners were able to order copies to give to family and friends.

Google Docs

2009-11-30T11:27:00.001-06:00

I've used Google Docs before as an easy way to access my work as I move between computers. The document is always available at any library workstation or even from home. It was a lifesaver when Callaway didn't have access to the psdesk. Now I use it at home and for backup storage.

I've also used Google Docs to collaborate with others on the board of the Missouri State Genealogical Association and with my local writer's group. The genealogy board uses a google spreadsheet to keep track of work that is passed from member to member thoughout the state. My writing group uses Google docs for critiquing.

But I've never even thought about posting to my blog from Google Docs! So this is something new and I will try to do it.

Online Learning at MIT

2009-11-16T09:59:00.000-06:00

This is the second section of our DBRL training. I just watched a slide show all about inserting an image in a blog. Although I have done this before - I blundered into it using an entirely different method than than the one Brandy described. So, I did learn something new and I will attempt to duplicate Brandy's lesson.

Since Online learning is our theme, I want to post a link and a picture from one of my favorite online learning sites: Online learning at MIT OpenCourseWare. The site offers free lecture notes, exams, and videos from virtually all MIT courses. There is no fee and no required registration. I can drop by the site any time, choose what I want to learn, and stop whenever I decide. There are no credits offered, of course, but what you learn here will serve you well on a physical campus or on the job.

Waiting for the next assignment

2009-11-12T11:01:00.000-06:00

I'm waiting for the next assignment in our NetTrek training. Meanwhile, I thought I would post a photo I took of our library recently. The colorful leaves on the trees are all gone now, but the library is still beautiful. It's also one of the busiest places in town.

7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners

2009-10-26T14:49:00.000-05:00

1. Begin with an end in mind. In learning a new skill , it does help tremendously to have a project you need to do and a date when it must be finished. It's very difficult for me to set the "end" artificially. At one point I wanted to learn how to use Excel. I tried to tell myself I would learn how to use Excel and make up a sample spreadsheet by certain date. It didn't happen. But later I had a real Excel project with a real deadline. I learned enough about the program to do the the project. With that beginning I was able to learn more.

2. Accept responsibility for your own learning. Of course.

3. View problems as challenges. Yes! Nothing is duller than a quiet day just like yesterday!

4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent learner. There have been times when I've been a little too confident.

5. Create your own learning toolbox. Not sure what this means...guess I better read the 7 habits again....

6. Use technology to your advantage. I think I do this in many ways.

7. Teach/Mentor others. Here at CCPL we all help each other learn every day.

71/2. Play! Microsoft didn't put a solitaire game in with every computer by accident. The easiest way to learn to use a mouse is to play cards. Many other tasks get easier when you let yourself play.

Daniel Boone Regional Library Training

2009-10-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

This blog is part of a training program at Daniel Boone Regional Library. We're learning all about Web 2. It seems the administration wants staff members to be more familiar with wikis, social networking, blogging, and other interactive web applications. If we know more, we will be able to help patrons more.

Makes sense. I'm willing to learn new skills in any way possible. Much of it is already familiar to me, but not everything. I already have a personal blog and I use facebook, twitter, linkedin, goodreads...... Okay - so I've been computer junky ever since they lugged that first machine into the library in 1979.

But technology changes so quickly. There is something new to learn every day, and I haven't been able to keep up with half of it. This training program is very much welcome.