Thing 8 IM

First of all, I just want to thank whoever for the "catch-up week". As BM said, we needed it! Could you feel the frustrations and anxieties of learning something new?
OK, so here I am catching up...
Describe how your library uses email. Has it improved productivity?
Our email at work allows us to keep informed with what is happening. I just learned today from our wonderful Information Systems staff that we have IM. I also learned that it has cause some problems in the past. For the work that I am involved with, I really do not see the need for IM. My email gives me the info I need to keep me up to speed and ask the questions when confusion hits. (However things have been known to change.

Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools?
I never thought I would be a text messager...it took me a while to stop saying to my kids "Did you get my email?" meaning my texting. I love text messaging now that I understand it as a way to keep the family informed with out the hassle of interrupting with a phone call. As I said earlier, we have microsoft outlook with windows messanger at work. New technology...a wonderful thing...sometimes...incredible when it makes life less complicated.

Thing 7 - fun times

Finally, something fun and not so intimidating. It was love at first sight- Big Huge Lab - was fun. Using photos I didn't mind sharing, I made some trading cards. Will need more time to really come up with something special. If I had more time, I would definitely explore the endless possibilities Big Huge Lab has to offer, but for now...enjoy. However, the question was to consider how you can use these tools in your library or media center. I have heard that teachers would use trading cards for incentives, so perhaps the library could produce some "Quick tips" trading cards. Not sure what is involved as far as the processing goes...but it might be fun and a great way to get kids to read.

Thing 6...one more time

You know when you think you're doing the right thing, but you're too stubborn to ask for help, and then finally you just gotta know because the results are just not working...well, while I've done this more than three times my way I finally hadto have BM point out the obvious.




I'm giving my age away when I thought electric typewriters were cool. Give me some time for all these changes. Glad to know there are people around us that can explain this stuff, other wise, 'catch up week' will have to be change to 'catch up month'.

Thing 6

Thing 6...still exploring

How can you use any of these tools in your library or media center?

Not sure. I visited Clockr, Flickr Color Pickr, and Spell with Flickr. These were interesting. Big Huge Labs blocked me with access restricted. As I'm typing this, Thing 8 has just been posted and the only source of encouragement came from Defang Scary Technology from 2.0 hints. I attempted to Spell with Flickr, but need more time to process. Also, it being Groundhog Day has revealed more chilly days ahead. Brrrr!

What do you think of sharing photos online? I enjoy looking at photos, and sharing photos is a touchy subject these days. Just this past weekend we had a patron wanting to copy a picture of a building from the Flickr website for a school project. I had to go to copy from Google image to get the photo, so Flickr is great for browsing...it was great to 'participate in the Groundhog Day celebration', but I'm not sure I'm ready for the world to meet me.
Still working on Thing 6 and I'm out of time...