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.

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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!!