End of the semester

Well, my first semester as a graduate student is over. It has been a hectic time. Going back to school after all these years was a big adjust. And to top it off, starting a new job in whole position was not easy either. But somehow everything came together. I managed to turn everything in on time and came to realize how much I was learning all semester. It seems impossible that I read all the books and did the metadata assignments and web assignments in a little over two short months.

So now I have a few weeks to catch up on my teen literature and go on two mini vacations before next semester. But I am looking ahead to the fall semester with anticipation of everything to come.

So what am I going to do now??

My website is pretty completed at this point, my first response to the readings has been written, and the required books have been read. So now what? I'm going to Disney World. Okay, not really, but I am planning a trip to Disney World. I am a Disney World freak! I love it! And for the first EVER, I will be their on my birthday! Which is no easy thing since I was born less than a week before Christmas. But as the Fall semester winds down in December, I will be packing my bags to visit warm sunny Florida and experience Christmas is a warm climate. I cannot wait!!

new website...Carmun

The July/August 2007 iss ue of The CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet led me to a new website that sounds really useful. The website is www.carmun.com. It is a social netowrking site similiar to MySpace and Facebook, but the main focus is that it is a network for students "to hang out and share their research interests". So far there are two groups that sounds interesting to me. One is a literature group and there is one on Web 2.0. Once class is over next week, I can focus on taking a better look at this website.

Libraries of the future

This article goes great with what we talked about in class today. Maybe libraries will abandon Dewey in favor of something more consumer friendly!

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6449104.html

FastTrack week

Can't believe it is Tuesday and I will be heading home in another day. This has been great week. Met lots of cool people and I had fun doing our group discussion in person today. Adn the news that we won't have to do the last paper but will a do a book discussion....well I could have stood up and cheered!! When I get home I have to finish my webpage and read the last books....then the semester will be over and it will be vacation time for me :)

This is very funny!

After hearing all about my copyright talks in the carpool every morning (well almost every morning), the E.D. of our library system sent me this link.

http://www.improveverywhere.com/2002/01/19/writers-against-piracy/

WE both like the quote "Only crooks, check out books!"

I would have loved to have seen the group in action. The patrons reactions were great too! Some agreeable, some not so agreeable.

Great unshelved comic

http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?strip=20070713

This one seems very relevant with all the readings we did two weeks ago. Especially Anarchist in the Library!

FINALLY..maybe

I have a website. After much trial and error it works! WHEW!

check out the link :)

www.pitt.edu/~hla9

Now maybe tonight I can go to bed at a reasonable hour...meaning sometime before midnight!

Looking forward to next week!!

It finally appears everything is falling into place. I am carpooling with other out to campus next week. Which is good because I have never driven that long a distance before. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone who I have been been messaging to on-line.

And I can't believe after next week the semester will be winding down over the next few weeks. It seems as if we barely got started. It has been a tough one, but I feel as though I learned a lot! NOW, if I can only wrap my mind around the html and javascript for the website, I may do okay.

Fun with Koha

Loved the Koha assignment! I feel as if I just made my own little library.


Here are the title I posted in my library :)

Outreach services in academic and special libraries
Serving older teens
A year of programs for teens -- Amy Alessio
Extreme teens -- Sheila B. Anderson
The thriving library -- Marylaine Block
Teen Spaces -- Kimberly Bolan
Serving Teens through Reader's Advisory -- Heather Booth
Hooking Teens with the Net -- Linda W. Braun
Technically involved -- Linda W. Braun
Teens.library -- Linda W. Braun
Booktalking that Works -- Jennifer Bromann
Sex, brain, and videogames -- Jennifer Burek Pierce
Story Telling for Young adults -- Gail De Vos
Teen Book Discussion Groups @ the Library -- Constance B. Dickerson
Teen Volunteer Services in Libraries -- Kellie Gillespie
Get Connected -- RoseMary Honnold


The best part of this assignment was finding new books that I didn't know existed on the subject of teens and libraries.

One Laptop per Child

Last month was the first I had heard about the One Laptop per child iniative. I thought it sounded like a great idea and I still do. My main concern was that the when the laptops were given to the schools, there would not be educational things imposed on the schools.

Never thought about this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070629/od_afp/nigeriaeducationit_070629183418
A Nigerian school just received the gist of laptops for one of schools. However, it seems electricty is a problem in Nigeria.

Second life

I decided on Saturday to take a break from writing my paper and check out Second Life. Like I said in my previous post, I have played several on-line games. I am not sure what to think about second life. I was rather confused in the beginning island..I forget what it was called. But perhaps because I was doing it alone that was the reason. Also, I don't know if it was my computer but my character was very slow and at times it was very hard to make her turn a different way. I kept wanting to get to the part where I could change what my avatar looked like, but I couldn't seem to find it. Overall I was a bit frustrated and bored. Maybe over the summer I will go back into the Second Life and try it again.

Into Cyberspace

By day I am a wife, student, and "collection management coordinator". By night I am a level 29 (almost level 30 thank you very much!) human warlock who roams Azeroth with a level 30 gnome rogue. I fight enemies and explore and do quests. I am a newbie to the gaming world. Last year I took YALSA's teens and technology class and was exposed to many new things, among them was MMOP game by the name of Runescape. I was taking the class with a friend who had never played a game such as this before, so together we bravely entered and played as was required. And we loved it. Months after the class was over we still played. We were talking with a co-worker at one point and he suggested we download the free trial of World of Warcraft. We played that and loved it even more. And the rest is history. It has almost been a year since we began playing WoW. Snow days during the winter were spend on-line playing the game. Recently we both joined a guild and have been receiving tips and lessons from other members of the guild on ways to play better. I didn't realize until this week that I was living a life in cyberspace when I read Lessig's book Code version 2.0. But I am And WoW has become part of my life. With school and work this past month it has been harder to make time to play. But once a week I try and allow myself the pleasure of slipping into cyberspace and becoming another "person".

Last teen program for awhile

Last night was a very fun but very tough night.  I finished up my programming responsibilities at my previous job.  At the beginning of the summer I traditionally do some sort of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants program.  Last year we made pillows from the tops of a pair of jeans....so this year we made bolster pillows from the leftover legs. 

It was fun but hard.  I always have fun with the teens and this was a whole new group coming to one of my programs.  At first it looked as if I was wasn't going to have help but then one of my older teens did show up to help.  So we managed to get through the night with "minor incidences" and finish just as the library was closing.  The hardest thing was to walk at that door at 9:00 and realize I was done working for my old library.  I have so many friends there that I haven't been able to see or talk to with learning a new job in a new place and trying to manage schoolwork.  It's hard to walk away from an incredibly wonderful support system.  I miss that so much!  Lately I need that all the closeness and comradery that comes with working in such a tight group.  But I have plans to go back and see everyone when August rolls around and I have been at my new job long enough to feel comfortable.

Powered by ScribeFire.

finally

Figured out Grazr. Here is the url:
http://grazr.com/data/ambroseh/.opml

Still working on ZoomClouds.

I did manage the Grazr widget badge on the blog too :)

ALA and back!

Whew! Just got back from ALA. What a great convention. Went to workshops, had fabulous food, and trolled around the convention center to see what new books were coming out. Drove home today and now I am exhausted and ready for bed and it's not even 8:30pm.

One of my favorite sessions I attended was the BBYA meetings. I think this years committee if fabulous (no disrespect to previous ones). Holly Koelling is an excellent chair and kept the preceedings going at a great pace. I attended two sessions. The first was just the committee meeting and discussing the books and the second was the when the teens came to give their opinions. This has always been one of my favorite sessions. The teens who come are a great bunch and I give them total credit for standing up in front of not only the committee itself, but also the fifty or so librarians and publishers int he audience. They spook passionately about the books they read and gave positive and negative comments about titles and were not afraid to disagree with each other. I wrote their comments down and I can't wait to attend ALA at midwinter to see what the final list looks like.

More tomorrow......

This Library Kicks Ass!!

So, how to get teen patrons into the library who wouldn't normally use a library. Here's a true story that happened a week ago in one of our branches.

Teen patron walks in library over to circulation desk..about 15 or so..maybe a skater. Tells the circulation clerk he has heard that the library now lends video games to patrons. Circulation clerk responds that yes, the library does indeed carry them and points to the display. Teen patron looks at said display, then declares in a loud voice "This library kicks ass!"

Such a heartwarming story. I think we should now be able to quote him on our library's homepage!

new librarians and the future

So, in one of my previous papers I talked about recruiting new librarians to the profession. Then today, my director handed me Library Journal from June 15, 2007. On page 46 there was an article in the NextGen column from someone who was ready to graduate but was having trouble finding a job because she had no experience yet. Christen Orbanus writes about how few jobs are really out there for new librarians. Plus she writes about how she knows she wants to be a teen librarian.

Up until two weeks ago, I was a reference assistant and teen librarian. Now I have take a new position in the same library system that is more of an administrative position. I did this because I truly want to be a teen librarian, but not part time. I want it to my whole job. And now I miss the teens who I worked with last summer. It wasn't an easy choice to make, but I did make it and I'm fine with it. I decided I should try new things to see if being a teen librarian is something I really want to pursue when I have my degree in hand.

Back to the article, I hope someone give Christen a chance. Teen librarians are few and far between. I would love to trade programming ideas adn talk about teen books with her.

Bloglines

Again, I linked my url to the side for my blog....but here it is again

http://www.bloglines.com/public/ambroseh01

Google Search Engine

I wasn't sure exactly where to publish my search engine. So Ill add the link to this post. But I did successfully add it to my list of websites.

I'm learning..slowly but surely :)

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=017696309732563090316%3Afkqvcdpxeqw

playing around in i google

I have decided that I love i google. I have just made it my home page with my search engine and the weather and a cute little picture of a japanese teahouse. I may just have to put this as the homepage on my work computer. I had fun putting in all the little add-ons.

I have the day off today so I was getting caught up reading my computer textbook. I really do like that book Discovering Computers. Now I feel I can talk to some of my make friends who are computer geeks (and I mean that in the nicest sense) and not feel quite so dumb. Plus, when something doesn't make sense in the book, I have a posse of guys to ask :)

So far behind..but catching up (hopefully)

It has been over a week since I have posted in this blog. I felt last week as if I would never catch-up. The Hot Topic on Professional Publications was a lot fun to do, but it took lots of time. Then my paper was due on Monday and my EndNote assignment which a got more than a little lost in. Luckily the paper got in on time (although I forgot to put my name on it...how stupid) and the EndNote was finsihed last night after much fussing around with things being imported and lack of authors. Now I can try and catch up on my textbook reading and start reading the books for the July 2 paper. PLUS, get ready for ALA.

Also a huge thing in my life is that fact that after working for 14 years in the same library, I resugned and took a totally different job in a different library. I started this past Monday. It's a big change working more in administration rather than on the floor with the patrons. Right now I really miss working with the teens. I feel bad because they didn't take the news well and some are refusing to come help the Children's Librarian with programs now. I hope they change their minds. They are so good at story hour and helping with the younger kids. I am looking forward to Saturday when I go back to my old library and watch the teens put on show but it will be odd NOT working there. But my new jobs feels right and I feel comfortable in it so far so I am sure I'll be okay.

Off to work now...

Book Expo in NYC

Just got home about an hour ago from Book Expo in New York City. What a great thing for librarians to attend. Just being on the floor and hearing all the buzz in enough to get anyone excited about all the great new books coming out. And now I have a HUGE new stack of things to read (at least I will my box arrives home....too heavy to lug all those books on the bus)

I have been to Book Expo before but just to the convention part..never to the seminars. This year I was lucky enough to attend the whole weekend and spend most of Saturday going into the special sessions for librarians. I attended two about graphic novels, one on how to have an author visit your library, and one led by Nancy Pearl with book editors giving the buzz about their new books coming up.

Altogether, I too a lot of useful notes, learned quite a bit, got sore feet, and had very little sleep. I can't wait to go back and do it again when it comes back to the east coast!!

Baker & Double Fold

I am really enjoying Baker's book. While I don't agree with all his theories, I do enjoy the way he writes. The chapter about using mummy linen to make make paper was very appalling to me, but I must admit it was quite fascinating and provided much much discussion at work the other day. Then after reading how the book got it's title from the double fold test libraries were using and then Baker's own test, the double endurance test, I was totally hooked. I can't wait to try and finish the book today. It's makes for great conversations in the workplace!

The Week Ahead.

Today I spent most of the day trying to get a jump on this weeks assignments. I finished my Hot Topic Post on a theme of ALA & YALSA. I visit the YALSA website at least twice a week. I am constantly looking at the updates for the "Best Books for Young Adults" and "Quick Picks". Part of my job involves the purchasing of teen books for not only my library, but also seven other libraries. Looking at current lists of what librarians think are the HOT books of the moment is extremely helpful. And listening to the chatter about books on the listserv is very helpful also.

But I digress here. I have three busy days at work and then late Thursday I leave for Book Expo. I am very excited because for the first time I am attending Friday and Saturday. Saturday is "librarian's day" so I can check out all the workshops and hopefully learn a thing or two. :) Plus, all the free ARC's aren't bad either!

Saturday thoughts from a sunburned student :)

So, I took yesterday off to get caught up on things and so that I might take a little road trip to the shore today. It was hot and I did get a little sunburned. But sitting on the beach reading a new young adult ARC was pure heaven.

I felt pretty good about what I accomplished yesterday...I downloaded all the applications for LIS 2600 and played around with them. I asked around at my library but no one had ever used connotea or zotero. So it was fun to explain to them what they were. I am getting more comfortable with firefox too. I had used it before but didn't really understand about donwloading the extensions which makes it much more user friendly! I loooking forwar dto exploring more of the applications that go with it.

OCLC & Perceptions of Libraries

Imagine my surprise the other night when I went to look at the next article for Info. Technologies and found I had already read it before. I started to read the "Perceptions of Libraries" report and it seemed VERY familiar. So I checked my libraries website and sure enough we owned that particular report. Last year, a representative from OCLC (I forget who) did a workshop at the Free Library of Philadelphia which I attended about the report. I think that was the first time I really saw how library patrons really see the library. With people more and more turning to the web for information, will the library be able to keep it's place or will we need to change into something more current to keep the public visiting.

made it through the first week

Well, I made it through my first week of classes. I think its amazing how I have rearanged my life around classes. My brillant idea of the week was to start downloading any of the podcasts posted and then listen to them during my daily two hour commute to work. I must say it is working fabulously. All my time in the car is actually proving quite useful.

Finished the Kuhn paper on time. That was a tough one. Not only because the book is quite dense, but it was the first paper I have had to write in years!! Hopefully my writing skills will come back to me.

The FIRST Post

Hopefully I can keep up with this blog this summer. I had a blog two years ago but it sorta faded out of existence.

This should be a very busy summer for me. I am taking two on-line classes through the University of Pittsburgh, going to Book Expo, going to ALA, and trying to run a teen summer program at the library where I work at. And in my spare time (ha ha) I hope to get down to the shore a couple times and just sit on the beach and read!