Your very own Blog bookshelf

I found this site while reading a fellow librarian's blog (Big Red)....had to have one myself!
http://www.shelfari.com/widget?WidgetId=42429

What is on your bookshelf?

Smiley

I loved Lee Ann's smiley so I had to add one to my blog!!!


Here is the link she provided:
http://www.happyfacegenerator.com/

Thanks Lee Ann!

I Graduated!!!

In case you are looking for the link to my blog on the Learn2Play homepage I have been moved to 2009 Graduates!!!

I am just about to finish a photostory and attach it to Thing 21. It is a booktalk/review for The Lion Boy...feel free to use it. My 4th graders love this trilogy. Each book can be read independently but it is OH SO MUCH BETTER if these 3 books are read in order.

Thanks to all for playing with me this summer.
Oh...I am sitting exactly where the picture on my blog is this morning while I work or should I say play on my photostory!

Regards,
RiverLibraryGal

Thing #23

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I learned so much but have to say the RSS feed will “feed my professional needs” and make me a more efficient information scientist specialist as will Rollyo. I loved creating my own blog and all the features you guys introduced me to!

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

Lifelong learning insinuates that we are continually learning. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 are great examples of why librarians MUST be lifelong learners. We must more than keep up with our users’ needs but keep ahead of them. Thanks for providing a road map through all of the 23 activities that leads us to our next destination on the road to lifelong learning.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I quickly saw the need for me to more than just be a librarian but keep abreast of the latest Web 2.0 sources so that I better serve my users. I was not surprised but reminded how quickly technology changes…got to keep on my toes!
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

How about creating a yearly update. It would make it so simple for librians like me to keep abreast of new technology…I would just love to add you to my RSS feed now that I have created one!!!
5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?

Well I guess I answered that in #5 by making my request for a yearly update!
6. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?

Learn2Play makes keeping abreast of current 2.0 techology informative while learning to “play life’s games!”
7. Now go and comment on some of the other Players' blogs?

Thing #22

I see such the possibility for such a profound professional resource that I immediately joined the TeacherLibrarian Ning. (I am waiting for my approval by the administrator.) I think that Nings may serve as a better platform than typical blogs as they create a subject/topic specific site where multiple users can come together. The tags make searching for a Ning that is relevant to the user makes locating one easy. I was curious about the name “Ning” so if you are too here is the answer:
http://blog.ning.com/2007/04/the_story_behind_the_ning_name.html

I am guessing if elementary students can “Facebook” then Ninging will be a breeze!

Thing #21

I decided to create my own booktalk using Photostory.
When it says it "takes awhile" to upload the project....it should say it "TAKES A VERY LONG TIME!!"

Here is a booktalk for the trilogy beginning with The Lion Boy by Zizou Corder.

Here is a link to the authors' webpage:

http://www.zizoucorder.co.uk/

Thing #20

Great TeachTube video for evaluating search engines/sources....uses an analogy to American Idol...This will definitely catch the students' attention.

I do find that the descriptions/synopsis on TeacherTube are not very easy to quickly browse. If anyone has some suggestions I will appreciate the help.

http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=5637&title=America_Idle__Information_Resources

Thing #19

I am going to be the bomb with my 4th grade teachers when I share with them Writeboard. It is a collaborative writing site…can you say “group writing”?! This site will be useful to so many of my users and I can see where it would be even more useful to the middle school, junior high, and high school users not to mention what college professors could do with this tool. The ability to compare different versions and do so through an RSS feed makes it very user friendly. Check this one out!

Thing #18

I can see that Open Office offers some advantages...FREE being the most obvious. Navigating and using it is fairly straight forward and easy. The ability to save in many formats and have the product read a variety of formats is a definite advantage.

Disadvantage...I do question why one would want to use an web based product when a suite such as Microsoft Office already exists and provides 24/7 access while the web based version may not be always accessible.

I will be curious to see if Open Office will start to give other products a run for their money and charge for future upgraded versions.

Thing #17

This is an elementary librarian's dream come true. While my goal is to create independent researchers I always begin with a guaranteed successful search assignment. I use to just create a list of sites and bookmark them...thanks to Rollyo it will be oh so much easier!
Here a link to a Rollyo for anyone needing great sites for researching endangered animals!!
http://rollyo.com/cstanford/animal_research/

I cannot wait to see the lists you guys create!

Thing #16

I love Wiki's! I had not until this experience view Wikipedia as a Wiki but a very "unauthoratative source"! Even Wikipedia refers to itself as a "Free Encyclopeida". I still believe we need to teach our users about the authenticity of sites but see the value of Wiki's now that I am a little more educated on the topic.

Thing #15

I totally agree with Rick Anderson’s 3 icebergs that threaten libraries. We must ALWAYS be cognizant of meeting the users’ needs at their point of service…kind of scary not only for libraries but for society as well!

Michael Stephen’s verbage of a “librarian 2.0…” is where we all need to set our sites! It is hard to wrap my brain around Dr. Schultz’s “…Library 3.0 and 4.0”…we are so busy trying to keep our head above water with the current user needs that planning for the future is tough. That isn’t to say we should give up but continue to increase the librarian fold so that we can move into the future equipped to serve.

Thing #14

1. I had great success searching via “tags”. Even found some Library2Play blogs! I did not like the results of the Blog directory search…too broad. I got NO results searching via an exact word search in the Blog posts.
I love that originator Joshua Schachter saw the need to organize information/blogs/sites, etc.
2. I was not surprised to see the Top Searches. It was interesting to see the Top Searches. Curious who rates the Top Blogs…it looks like it is based on hits to that blog…we need to make sure students know this is a SOCIAL bookmark…not necessarily a research based discussion. The discussion may be a launch pad for new ideas or directions but is just a launch pad.
3. The tagging features are an organizational tool and access tool that is handy. I think students will find these sites (Technorati, del.icio.us, Flickr) fun.

Thing #13

Today our group was discussing not having the time to access-use all of the 2.0 sources we are learning about. I was glad to see a term that describes this frustration…”…finding the magic middle”. While each of these resources have their use, social bookmarking is unusual due to the many tags used to describe/find sites…I feel that as a librarian I have learned to apply subject headings that are short and concise and del.icio.us simply expands the chances of me finding info that I am looking for. Students researching would benefit greatly from this resource…however, I must say when I was in grad school just a few years back EBSCO “tagged” articles/sources and enable students the same type of bookmarking, sorting, and saving articles while limiting search results to authoritative sources. So…I am glad I know about social bookmarking but can probably live without it personally but will gladly offer it to students as an option.

Thing #12

1…. explain two of the points that you think are important.

“3)If you have a blog, share some about yourself when you comment”
Important because the personal info adds validity or authority to the comments being made. I probably would probably value an information science student’s comments on innovative uses of Web 2.0 but would value the expertise given by a veteran librarian on collection development.

“7)Remember the power of words”
Since I have been commenting lately about the wordiness of blogs I need to remember within these words I can quickly judge the value of the blog to both participant’s world.
2. I have already been commenting because I thought it would show our group that is participating in the “playground” how much I value their opinions. These are some fantastic folks I work with!
3. I think this one is self-explanatory…”Beating the Summer Reading Slump”The other interesting blog was “Discover…R.L. Brown’s Library” because the synopsis caught my attention. This librarian has already posted what innovative ideas he/she will be attempting in the 09-2010 school year! Remember “…imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Thing #11

LibraryThing is somewhat useful. The facts that members can decide the tags will make searching for books outside of an OPAC more flexible and could be used when the search terms(subject headings) in OPAC do not match the user’s terminology. Curious about what professional cataloguers think of this site...the skit was okay.
I checked out these groups:
Aurthor’s Chat
Children’s Fiction
I will access these in the future as they meet my needs and interests.

Thing #10

Of course this elementary librarian had to use "Kid Friendly Image Generator"....my library newsletters will never be boring again!!

Thing #9

*Which Search tool was the easiest….they are all pretty easy to navigate….I liked Edublogs, Atomic Learning and Technorati…
*I do find all the verbosity frustrating…it will make me cognizant of staying on topic which is a challenge for me…SEE!!! Edublogs helps me narrow down what I am interested in and weed out the other “stuff”.
*The useful feeds included School Library Blogs on Suprglu…like that it narrows it down to the “stuff I want”….I am still getting frustrated with all the wordiness of entries….

Thing #8

*RSS Readers/Google Reader are awesome....is there anything Google can't do?
I set up my account and it automatically added all the blogs I am following that have Gmail accounts...Love it!
*Personal use--I added one of the sites suggested (Librarian Philospher)...have great links for 2.0. I also added my local newspaper.
*Administrator/teacher/libraries's usage---My teachers are going to love me when I help them set up an RSS feed when they are researching with students...they can get the latest info from sites without having to use their shortcuts....
I think the term "navigation" needs to be addressed....this playground offers so many ways to navigate to different resources and with Reader have the resources navigate to me! I love when someone/something else does all the work!

Oh...didn't do the public post since our little BISD group got added automatically....but we could!

Thing #7

Okay....I have now put a time limit of 1 hour on playing....I am not getting any of my housework done and i am igoring my children!!!

Anyway....I set up a calendar and put our next meeting in Google Calendar. I invited Michelle to the meeting using the BISD email address...I would like to find out how to include all of our blog addresses so that we can have yet another means of communications!!!

I want the 2.0 poster Michelle....give me the URL pretty please!!!

Having fun playing!

Thing #6

I want to use Flickr and a mashup to create a trading card with my 3rd graders of their favorite books...actually they would make 2 identical cards and then we would combine them into a "Memory Game" to quickly do booktalks by using the kids' book summaries on the trading cards.

Thing #5

The computer would be great to share with my 4th graders during my tech classes with them!!

1

I love Flickr....what a great way to make tech projects even more fun for kids

Thing #4

Registered my blog with the requested email....I am feeling successful and quite cute thanks to the Avatar Me!!

Thing #1

Had to crank up the brain to read after only 2 weeks of summer!

Thing #3

Fun! Fun! Fun!
I cannot wait to post/blog and read other's blogs!!!
Let's go....oh it will have to wait until I mow the yard!
River Library Gal

Thing 2

7 1/2 Things

Easiest step for me is Step 7--I love to talk and share

Hardest step for me is the "dive"...Step 1 Setting the Goal because it makes me commit!