Jan P's Pod

Totalitarian state?

2011-04-21T11:31:00.001-07:00

Middle School Book Club read the first book of the Shadow Children - should lead to an interesting discussion covering everything from junk food to totalitarian governments!

Don't Blink

2011-04-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

It's springtime in Minnesota, an incredible fast forward. Whoosh! the snow is finally gone. Pop! the tulips are six inches high. Honk! the geese are flying around everywhere, the redwing blackbirds are back, and it's finally warm enough to have windows open. I love it.

You Can Teach an Old Librarian New Tricks

2011-04-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

You can teach old dog new tricks, but did you know that an old librarian can learn new tricks, too?

A patron asked if we could occasionally put up a list of newer videos. I thought that was a great idea, and decided to give it a try. After all, how hard could it be? I remembered that our library catalog lets you sort out videos, so that’s where I began. Just to see if it would work, I simply typed dvd in the keyword search, and limited the search to the Litchfield collection. Incredibly, this simple search was all I needed to do. (I remembered this all as being more difficult). I had 1161 dvd titles. They happened to be sorted with the newest titles first.

I decided to try making a list with a book cart, which lets you save titles and request them all at once. I clicked on the little icon that looks like a shopping cart. I added the 26 newest titles to my cart; unfortunately, you have to click on each title to add it to the cart. I clicked on view saved titles, and then chose “view and export your saved records.” The result is the information in the citation and even by choosing “brief records,” there was more information given than I needed.

The next step was to get that information into something that I could use. This wasn’t difficult, but it took some time to pare the pages and pages of catalog information down to a usable list. I sent the list to the local disk, which put it into Notepad. I copied that into Word and started deleting. Again, this was not a difficult thing to do, but it took some time, so I’m very happy to share the list with you, and may be persuaded to generate another list - in another three months.

Then there was a second new thing I learned this week. (I know, this is getting to be a lot.) Our library webpage is in transition. We’re grateful to the Litchfield Chamber of Commerce for putting a link to the catalog on their webpage of information about the library. Just go to litch.com/library and click on Litchfield Public Library. Our hours, phone number, fax number and email address are all on the page. We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused by this transition.

The next problem to solve was where to post a library article so my fans (just joking) can read it online. I revived my old blog at blogspot, http://janp23things.blogspot.com/ to have a spot to stash articles. Occasionally I update it with pithy comments, but I have learned once again that I’m really not a blogger.

That’s three things, more than enough for a week. See you at the library!

The List of movies with 2011 in the catalog citation:

127 hours
30 for 30.
The best that never was
Bambi
Black swan
Dogtooth
Downton Abbey
Elmo's World: Penguins and friends
Felicity : an American girl adventure
Howl
Inside job
Journey through the shadows
Complete guide to slowpitch softball [book and dvd]
Secretariat
Skin
Tangled
The Fighter
The Social Network
The Ten Commandments
The Wiggles: Let's eat!
Tintinalli's emergency medicine [book and dvd]
Tron: legacy
VeggieTales: 'Twas the night before Easter
Waste land
Women without men
Yogi Bear

method to my madness

2011-04-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

This was something we had to do for work - librarians call it web 2.0. I did about 8 of the 23 things. I do like the pet cube, though

I was rebellious and never finished. Anyway, I need a place to post articles, so I hope they will fit in this space. I still love my avatar, even after three years.

I'm Baaaaaack

2011-04-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

Time to start again. A lot of water has gone under this particular bridge, but welcome to April of 2011.

Thing 8.

2008-07-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

For thing 8, I've tried a couple of applications. One is more pictures of my cute pets, in Picture Trail. I admired other spinning photo cubes in blogs, so just had to try it. Easy to do, and easy to post.

The other application, in slideshare, seems very, very useful. This is the Power Point slide show I used for older elementary students at their spring library visits.

BTW, I linked to the library online catalog for a live demonstration for all of the elementary classes, which was both fun and effective.

The clever animations didn't post in slideshare, but you get the general idea. This was very easy to do. It took a few minutes to upload, but I like the result.

Recently, a group meeting at the library needed to use our projector with their laptop. The two simply wouldn't communicate. I connected the library laptop with the library projector, and got a live internet connection up; fortunately their information was accessible online. I think online is the way to go - computers may crash, disks may be corrupted, but usually the online stuff seems to work.

Interesting thing, thing 8.

slide presentation 2008

2008-07-06T14:08:00.001-07:00

Litchfield Public Library Gr 5 Class Presentation

From: janmpease, 13 minutes ago

| View | Upload your own

SlideShare Link

Cute Pet Cube for 23 Things

2008-07-06T13:37:00.001-07:00

Thing 7.

2008-07-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

Perhaps my place in life is to question everything. After all, I survived the turbulent 60s and smoke-filled 70s. But all of this warm fuzzy, social networking makes me wonder about things like security, identity theft, malicious content of innocuous looking files, etc. An excellent essay by Igor Pankov can be found on his site, which he describes as "Martial Art of Internet Security." We receive his newsletter because Agnitum is our firewall of choice at home.

http://www.securityteacher.com/2008/06/16/the-perils-of-social-networking/

This thing is one of the times my old style rebellion will show its face.

I no longer IM. I used to, but just kind of dropped off the face of the internet awhile ago. (remember, I'm the Internet addict who has unplugged and unwired) We do have Trillian installed on our home laptop, but we seldom use it.

I was intrigued by the idea of the IM'ing librarian, but I wonder if in our small library it is necessary. We work to know our patrons, and they seem to appreciate the personal service our library provides.

I don't text. I have a cell phone, but use it only when I have to. It is usually turned off, and only one person has the number. I choose not to be constantly available.

I looked at the Webinars listed. To use one of them, software had to be installed. Nope. Not doing that. Nothing was available that looked interesting, or interesting that was available. Maybe I can come back to it.

However, I did sign up for 14 free online classes from the UNT through WebJunction. Does that count? The first one I took, Managing Difficult Patrons, was fairly basic, but interesting enough.

One of my tasks at the library is to manage the staff email. I open it, quickly scan the inbox, and just as quickly move the junk to the junk mail folder without reading any of it. Then I open the few emails that need action. We have a few patrons who have asked questions via email, and I answer them immediately. At home, I do the same thing, but sometimes I don't check my home email daily.

I have accounts in yahoo and gmail; I let the hotmail account close. I have my home email account set up so I can access it through a second account. This lets me easily manage my home account from away; there is also a web based interface provided by our internet provider, but it's clunky.

At the library, we often help patrons begin to use email. We also often help them learn to send attachments. We also often help them use a web based portal to check their home accounts; all pretty basic, all useful, but sometimes a challenge to newbies. A link to email the library is available on our library web page, and a few patrons have used it. Most often, they pick up a phone and call.

Thing 6 part 2

2008-06-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

In playing around with things at big huge labs, I found a neat little thing to make name or photo badges. It would be easy to make name tags for a special story hour. I could have easily printed nametags for Friday's Story Hour with Harley's picture on them. cute. I tried posting an image, but it kept cutting off. I'm not going to spend more time on Thing 6, so I hope I'm done.

Thing 6

2008-06-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, again the pets are proving to be very useful. They really don't care if their photos are plastered all over the Internet. Again, this proved to be very easy to use. I used images on our computer, rather than trying to work between Flickr and Big Labs. If I'd had time to work on this at the library, I would have used Flickr.

I've seen those library staff trading cards that the college librarians use to introduce themselves to students. Cute idea.

Perhaps I could create trading cards of book characters - but then that opens up the copyright questions. The Internet is still pretty well wide open, but I respect copyright restrictions.

At least if someone asked me about using some kind of image generator, I can say that these resources exist and that they are easy to use.

Trading Cards

2008-06-27T18:01:00.000-07:00

Harley scarf sketch

2008-06-25T18:25:00.001-07:00

Harley scarf sketch
Originally uploaded by janmpease

Becca and I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro to change a photo of Harley into a sketch of Harley to use as a coloring page when Harley visits the library on Friday.

Thing 5

2008-06-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Thing 5 involves playing around with photo sharing tools. Some of the "toys" needed a flash download; I am reluctant to download on this shared computer. Others wanted access to all of my flickr account - forget that. Another wanted to store something on the computer. Again, forget that. So I poked around bighugelabs, tried the jigsaw puzzle, made this mosaic. Looked at the lolcats and some others. I like the cube, and may try that, too.

It was slow uploading pictures directly from this computer, so I uploaded some more pictures to Flickr and easily worked from there.

Here is the mosaic from pictures I like best. These were taken by our daughter, Rebecca.

Mosaic: These are a few of my favorite things . . .

2008-06-24T19:20:00.000-07:00

Now we look royal!

2008-06-24T17:34:00.001-07:00

Now we look royal!
Originally uploaded by janmpease

Anna and Kristen put on their tiaras, and changed into these royal representatives of our community. I'm proud of them, especially since they are former Story Hour members!

Thing 4, final post

2008-06-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

First, I have to say how nice our Children's Department looks! Just have to brag a little. We have nearly 280 children participating in the 2008 Summer Reading program. We offer three story hour programs, one program for students in grades K-5, and a monthly book club for students grades 3-6. We also have weekly visits from local day care providers, and we're enjoying a very busy summer.

These pictures, including the one tagged 23 Things on a Stick, were from a special story hour. Our local festival royalty were guests at Family Story Hour, each reading a book to the dazzled little girls.

I am using Flickr to begin to organize my personal and library photos. I can mark photos with children them private and still have easy access to them. I think I'll use Flickr at the library, and will explore ways to link more pictures to our website. The library has used Picasa, which also is easy to use, etc., but now that I've been introduced to Flickr, I might as well stick with it.

Now that the link is set up, it's ridiculously easy to post pictures. I'm still in the mindset of using URLs and code; clicking on a button, with my blog and Flickr linked like that is just amazing.

Of course, the other part of me, the side that learned a bit of code here and there and develops very, very strong, unique, passwords, is uneasy. All of this openness and sharing is a bit too much. A librarian friend calls this my optimistic negativism, an apt description.

Anyway, I've learned a lot with this Thing, since I have tended to leave photos to another staff member who actually enjoys working with them. I like the online editing tools. I can honestly say that I would not have explored Flickr without this assignment.

Queen Anna reads to children

2008-06-24T17:24:00.001-07:00

Queen Anna reads to children
Originally uploaded by janmpease

Watercade Queen Anna Haugo visited Litchfield library for Family Story Hour on June 19th. The children were entranced by Anna, her crown, and her kindness to them!

Early Morning Fog

2008-06-23T17:14:00.001-07:00

IMG_0295
Originally uploaded by janmpease

I used Flickr to edit this picture. It sharpened the trees in the foreground while leaving the fog nice and foggy.

Thing 4.2

2008-06-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Finally! I don't know how I missed doing this on all the other tries, but here it is. Now, when I'm back at work at the library, I'll try uploading the pics from story hour.

The library has a Picasa account, but I don't have the password. I think I'll use Flickr, because it is tied to my existing yahoo account. It's so much easier to use existing gmail and yahoo accounts for things. I'm experimenting with my personal photos. I can see using Flickr at the library, but we'll have to be careful about pictures of minors.

Fog on Lake Superior Beach

2008-06-23T15:16:00.001-07:00

IMG_0294
Originally uploaded by janmpease

One of my favorite pictures, as fog crept in from Lake Superior.

Thing 4.1

2008-06-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

I started slowly adding photos to my flickr account. It was surprisingly easy to edit a picture, set up my first set, etc. and I'm moving slightly from hatred to toleration. I still can't get my flickr account to let me put a picture here. When I grab the code, blogger says it's an invalid url, even though it opens if pasted into a note pad or Word doc. I'll keep trying, although I'm going to move on to thing 5 very, very soon.

It also wants me to make a blog there, which just isn't going to happen. How many blogs is enough? (The answer is: none.)

Thing 4.0

2008-06-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

OK. I've taken several good looks at Flickr, have barely scratched the surface, and may I say again how much I hate working with pictures and graphics?

It just isn't an easy match.

I easily uploaded my first picture, but all the other stuff - the tagging, the licenses, the groups, the pools, the sharing my photos with strangers, all of that just raises my anxiety level.

It was a great big stretch for me to just start taking the occasional digital photo - the previous post mentioned the camera at work, but didn't state that it hadn't visited the library before. Ever. I'm not ready for this much sharing of my private life. Granted, there isn't that much that would be all that interesting.

Thing 3.75

2008-06-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Working on Thing 4, but not very quickly.

As a prelude to blogging about thing 4, I took some photos at story hour. The local royalty from Litchfield's Watercade Festival visited Family Story Hour and read to the children. The children, who happened to all be little girls, were entranced.

The next morning, I took more pictures at Preschool Story Hour. We were rocking to the music from Punk Farm. The author welcomes pictures and letters from young fans, so I might just email him about our story time.

I signed up for an account at flickr, which was very easy since it's part of yahoo now. The ubiquitous yahoo, still a web presence after all these years.

This directly addresses one of my concerns about privacy vs. the new open attitude of web 2.0. I am not comfortable posting pictures from our children's programs online, even with parental permission. The Watercade Royalty I don't worry about, since they are in photos all the time.

Another issue is that currently the library camera isn't working. So I dashed home and brought my digital camera. Whose job is it to make sure a digital camera is available for library use? Not mine. :)

Thing 3.5

2008-06-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

My Daughter introduced me to meez.com. It's a site where you can play around with making an avatar, play games, etc. While I don't plan to be a regular there, this was an interesting exercise! www.meez.com

I'm always a little paranoid about sites offering code; sometimes very nasty little bugs get passed around that way.

I like this picture so much, I think it will be my avatar for awhile. I often dream I'm playing a grand piano, and I like the setting.

Me?

2008-06-18T19:53:00.001-07:00

Thing Three

2008-06-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

As part of Thing #3, I set up my Google Reader account. The first blog I subscribed to was Margaret's, because she is acting as our mentor. Looking around for PLS users, I started randomly adding PLS libraries. I was at a workshop at MLA a couple of years ago that featured the shifted librarian - I think she was there herself. So I added her blog. So far, that makes six.

I've always heard about RSS, but didn't realize how easy it is to use. I haven't been a big fan of blogs; honestly, do we all really have that much to say? But in the spirit of cooperation, I pledge to lay aside my curmudgeon ways and join in.

Just for fun, I joined the PLS user group. Not much action there. :)

23 Things Badge

2008-06-15T16:29:00.001-07:00

Visit 23 Things on a Stick

Thing Two

2008-06-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

My goodness, that was a lot of reading. I found myself waffling back and forth between “Wow! We could do this!” While asking, “what about privacy and confidentiality?”

I’m not ready to really live my life “out there,” but I did post a picture of myself in my profile. It’s a start.

Finding time to do this is difficult. Our supervisor offered us one hour per week to work on it at the library; I find myself working on this at night, sometimes after everyone else is in bed, to minimize distraction and get some time on a shared computer.

To tell the truth, I’m doing the 23 things because our supervisor said we should do them. I looked at them the first round and decided that I just didn’t have time to do them justice. I still don’t.

I am an Internet Junkie in recovery. Virtual life fascinated me for awhile; I even helped moderate a couple of bulletin boards. My real life has become more complicated, and I’m not all that interested in spending more time online.

BUT…….

While doing some prep work for story hour, I happened on an illustrator’s website, which included links to his blog, his My Space page, his Facebook page, the pages he created for characters from his books, and links to pictures posted at flickr. He welcomes pictures and comments from children. This is quite a contrast from the old days of trying to reach a beloved author or illustrator by writing to a publisher. Not surprising, this artist is 25 years younger than I. There is a definite correlation there.

The proverbial old dog learning new tricks comes to mind. It is possible to teach the old dog new tricks, but it takes time, consistency, and some kind of tangible reward. Is knowledge really its own reward?

Thing One: First post, fresh start

2008-06-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

After a workshop on library 2.0, we tried setting up a blog for our library. We ran into all kinds of silly difficulties, couldn't think of anything to say, and gave up.

This blog was extremely easy to set up, seems to be very easy to use, etc. but I still don't really have anything to say.

It looks like I've finished all of Thing One. Blog is set up, played with the template, font, set up an avatar, etc. BTW, Yahoo no longer displays my avatar when I sign in, so now it's preserved here.

I registered the blog with the program, and that's all I'm doing for today.