Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day, a day intended to remember and thank our Veterans for their love of country, willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good of our nation. Please take a few moments today to remember and thank them.



Thanks to all our Veterans for perserving our liberty and our nation. God Bless You.

Congratulations President-elect Obama

Once more the masses have spoken and we have a new President-elect. Let's hope the next four years prove him to be a man of his word.

Maximum Ride

It's taken me awhile to get around to reading the James Patterson series Maximum Ride, but I am just finishing book three this weekend.

I highly recommend this series for teens. The books are fast pace, enjoyable stories, which follow the adventures of six children who grew up in a laboratory. They are 98% human and 2% bird, part of an experiment. The young girl named Max is the leader of this tiny flock, and is destined to save the world. I found them hard to put down.

Shana Tova

September 29, for those of you that are not aware, is Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, and a Day of Judgement. Shana Tova is the traditional greeting for Rosh Hashanah, it means good year.

Rosh Hashanah is both a solemn and a happy day. It's a time for introspection, the asking and the giving of forgiveness, resolving to to better in the new year, remembering God is King, and praying for a happy and healthy new year to come.

Jews are commanded to hear the Shofar or Ram's Horn, blown on Rosh Hashanah. It is blown during prayer services to remind them that God is King.


The origin of Rosh Hashanah is Biblical (Lev. 23:23-25): "a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts (of the Shofar, the ram's horn)." The Bible refers to the holiday as Yom Teruah (the day of the sounding of the Shofar) and Yom Zikaron Teruah (the day of remembering the sounding of the shofar).

Rosh Hashanah begins the ten days of repentance that end on Yom Kippur.


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Are you being naughty or nice?

Are you being naughty or nice?
Originally uploaded by CNS2008

Look who I met wandering about the library yesterday! The holidays are on the way, I hope you are being nice =D.

He is a regular visitor to the Little Falls Library and was nice enough to let me snap this photo before he left.

How long does it take to complete 23 things on a stick?

One of my co-workers asked me at our meeting last Wednesday, how long did it take to complete the 23 things on a stick. My answer to her was around 40 hours, plus. She looked at me a bit confused and I explained to her 23 things on a stick has no set amount of time. I worked about 40 hours to complete the program for the requirements, and have since added quit a few more hours to it. I explained it is a on going education tool, it gives you the basics, where you take it from there and how much you achieve with it is up to you. I have found it very valuable not only at work but also in my personal life.

Annual Little Falls Arts and Crafts Fair

This weekend is the annual Little Falls Arts and Crafts Fair. For those who have no idea what that is it's one of the largest Arts and Crafts Fair in the country. The town fills to overflowing with campers, trailers and tents. The towns population, which is around 8,000 will grow to over 25,000 over night. It's quite an adventure. The Crafters come from all over the country, bringing just about any kind of craft item you can imagine.

Someone asked me once why would someone drive a camper all the way from California just to sell stuff for two days in Minnesota? Well one of the crafters I talked with told me she made about 10,000 dollars a day at the fair. One of our local crafters that makes wooden furniture told me he made over 50,000 in sales for the two day period.

Why do we get so many people coming to the fair? OMG it's the biggest shopping marathon around lol. It's great fun and the food is fabulous. So if you are not busy this weekend, feel free to come join in the fun.

My Favorite book this month

I have just read a wonderful book, it's, "Mister Pip", by Lloyd Jones. It's a story about a girl named Matilda, who lives in New Guinea, and what her life was like in the middle of a brutal civil war. The story tells how her teacher Mr. Watts, gives the gift of love of great literature to the children of the island by reading aloud to them, "Great Expectations", by Charles Dickens. Matilda's story tells how Mr Watts and Charles Dickens' book have a profound and lasting effect on her life.

Mr Jones has crafted a wonderful book, that should be read by anyone who loves great literature.

One of my favorite quotes from the book: "You cannot pretend to read a book. Your eyes will give you away. So will your breathing. A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe. The house can catch alight and a reader deep in a book will not look up until the wallpaper is in flames."

Bored? Nothing to do?

I was a tad bored and looking for something to do, online. I found this site that is perfect for those of us, who are bored with nothing better to do. Check this out: http://bomomo.com/ .

No, I am not suggesting you do this at work. LOL However, I will warn you ahead of time it's fun and a bit addicting. Enjoy!

Prehistory book for children

I found a wonderful new book in our collection on prehistory for children. It is "DK Online Prehistory" by Peter Chrisp. The book has its own website that was created by DK and Google.
It gives children a chance to get more information on the articles in the book, by going to the website and typing in the keywords from the book. I was very pleased with the website, it is easy to use and would be a great help to children for study or doing reports. What a great idea to combine books with the web. I have always liked DK books (Dorling Kindersley), they have a great format, kudos to them for a great idea.

A tumble down the stairs

Have you ever had one of those days, where you just want to crawl in bed and stay there until its over. lol That is a bit what my Monday was like. It started out to be a normal Monday, I was ready for work and doing a last minute chore before leaving that house. I started down the stairs and missed a step, yep you got it, my keys, purse, books went one way and I went the other. Strange the things that pass through your mind as you tumble down the stairs, my first thought was, nuts I am going to be late for work. I was lucky, nothing was broken, I did manage to pull a muscle in my back, bruise my posterior, and bang my head. I made it back up the stairs, called the boss and said sorry I will not be in today. I am blessed with an understanding boss, and after I related my adventure to him he said get some rest. I am not sure of the content of the conversation, it's all a bit foggy, could have been the bump on the head.
Now you are probably thinking what a terrible story, well I try to find something good in all things. In this instance, thank the Lord, for the extra padding on my backside, I will no longer complain about it. LOL
I am well and back to work, almost as good as new. Keep smiling everyone!

Traveling the Swamp Road

Well the promised road construction has begun, which leaves me with only one route to town, the swamp road. Now I know some people would complain, our swamp road is a minimum maintenance road, (minimum maintenance road=travel at your own risk!). I view it as a challenge, how many miles of wash board road does it take to shake the muffler off the truck, or how far can you pull over to let someone pass without needing someone to pull you out. These and many more thoughts rush through my mind each night on the drive home. Aside from all that the good thing about it is, you have to slow down, which gives you time to observe. I wish I had taken my camera with today, because it was absolutely beautiful this evening. The sky was pure fire, red orange and glowing. There was a low mist rising over the swamp, with just the tips of the cat tails showing, and circling over head was an eagle. I would have missed all that had there not been road construction. =D

Collaboration Tools

My sister and I have started a new project together, we are writing a collection of family stories for our genealogy. We have been having a great time using Google Docs. Google Docs is perfect for this project, it makes it so convenient for us to work on the stories when time permits. It is not always possible for us to have time to work together in person, but this tool lets each of us add, delete, or edit the others work. Thanks 23 things on a stick for introducing it to me.

The mystery of the missing checker

Here's a strange but true tale: Our library has a checkers game in the children's area, with oversize checkers for little people to use. Monday one of the black checkers mysteriously disappeared, we searched all over the building hoping to locate the missing checker, but were unable to locate it. On Monday evening one of our library staff was returning home with her family, it was her day off, she saw something black on the side of a gravel road several miles from town. She pulled over to see what it was and it was a black checker. She brought it into work on Tuesday because she said it looked like a piece from our checker set.
Sometimes truth is stranger then fiction.

Reflections on Sundays

Sundays were always a family day when I was growing up. It was a time for children, parents, grandparents and sometimes aunts, uncles, and cousins to meet and spend time being a family.
We would all meet at a relatives home after church for a nice, large, sit down dinner. After dinner the adults would sit down and talk, catch up on what was going on in each others lives, while the kids would go out and play soft ball, kick the can or a million other activities. TV's were turned off for the day. There was no rushing off to the Mal to shop, because all stores, restaurants, gas stations, bars, public offices, libraries etc. were closed on Sundays. Did we miss having these places open NO. You knew that all work, all shopping, etc. had to be taken care of before Sunday. I know there are some people out there moaning, and saying but how terrible that must have been. Well, it was not terrible at all. Sunday was the day of the week I loved best because it was OUR DAY. The one day of the week, that everyone had time for God and for family activities. The day was filled with laughter, fun and bound the family together. I still love Sunday, it's my favorite day of the week. I make a point of keeping Sunday, OUR DAY at my house, some would say wow that is so behind the times, hmm, perhaps, but the family is still together, something that can not be said for many American families today.

End of July

I can hardly believe it is the last day of July, summer is flying. Now if we could just get January to pass this quickly wouldn't that be great. Oh each of the seasons has it's beauty here and I guess I would miss the changes we see each year if I moved to a warmer climate; however, I still must tell you, summers seem to pass the fastest. Perhaps it is because we try to cram so very many activities into such a short period of time.

Missing my blogging

I have had such a busy week so far that I have not had time to blog. I find I miss it. When I started 23 things on a stick, I would never have imagined myself to be a blogger, but somehow that is exactly what has happened. Thanks 23 things on a stick for pushing me, to expand my horizons. We all need a "nudge" once in awhile.

I have been rewriting my notes for my adult beginning computer class. They need to be updated because we have changed the software on the computers to Microsoft Office 2007. The great thing about being a beginner with computers is you do not have to forget all the old stuff you learned that is no longer current. lol Wish me luck!

X-Dream follow up

Well the good news is the X-Dream finished the race from San Fransisco to Hawaii, all on board are safe and sound. I received the call from Charles Bohlig's parents Monday, to let me know he made it to Hawaii. The X-Dream did well, they finished in 4th place for their division. Congrats!

Cute Story of the Day

We are having a scavenger hunt this week at our library. The children need to find letters that are hidden around the building and then unscramble them to get a tootsie pop. The clue on the sheet is "What is Minnesota's un-official state bird?"(answer: Mosquito). I had two young girls working on it today and finally they came over to the desk and said can you give us another clue. I said to them well, its something that flies and bites you in the summer when you go outside in Minnesota. One of the little girls starts jumping and says very loudly "Alligators"! I smiled and said to her, we don"t have alligators in Minnesota. She leans close to me and says," We do have alligators in Minnesota, they just have not found them yet". I explained to them that the correct answer is the Mosquito, but because they worked so hard on it they both received the prize.

Beware everyone, of Minnesota's un-official state bird, the flying alligator, while you are enjoying your weekend. =D

We have a sucess story

Graphic novels, don't get me started on my opinion of them, however, I wish to report a success story. One of our teen patrons, who has been reading non stop only graphic novels, today surprised me and checked out 3 non-graphic novels, (yes real books). I said wow, nice choice of books today, and she said to me "Yeah, the manga are getting boring". Words of joy to my Librarian's heart. (Doing the Librarian happy dance!)

I will tell you what I have told countless worried Mom's and Dad's, when they come in the Library and say to me, how do we get our kids to read good books instead of junk. I always tell them be patient, and happy that they are reading, in time they will move on to bigger and better things.

2008 Pacific Cup Race

For the last week we have had a couple coming in each day to check the progress of the boat their son is on in the Pacific Cup Race. They are not good with computers so I have had the privilege to be the one helping them get to the web site each day. I have found I too am cheering his boat on, must be the enthusiasm of his parents.

The Pacific Cup Race is a sail boat race from San Fransisco to Hawaii. The Bohlig's told me it will take about 10 to 11 days for the boats to reach Hawaii. The expected arrival date for the boats is July 26.

Their son, Charles Bohlig is on board the X-Dream, in Division D. When we checked today, the X-Dream is ranked 5th in D division. GO X-DREAM!

For more information on the Pacific Cup Race, go to http://www.pacificcup.org/. to see a picture of the X-Dream go to http://pacificcup.org/08/entries/pc08-yacht_bio.php?yacht_id=60

Cook Books

I love cook books, in fact I have a large collection of them. This week I found a new one that I really enjoyed reading. It's called "Eating Royally, recipes and remembrances from a palace kitchen", by Darren McGrady. Mr McGrady, for those of you that don't know, was the private chef to Princess Diana. It's a lovely book, it was a joy to read. The Recipes are great, I have tried a few of them. Warning: they use a lot of butter and cream. LOL

Thanks to Joe Moore

Thanks Joe for leaving a comment on my blog, what a wonderful surprise that was. I love your books and can't wait to read your new one "The 731 Legacy". I have read all the books in your series of Cotton Stone Thrillers. Keep them coming Joe, they are great reads. =D

Fruit Salsa

One of our staff made fruit salsa and cinnamon chips as a treat for us today. It got rave reviews from everyone and so I asked her for the recipe. She gave me the web site she found the recipe on and so I am passing it along to anyone out there that would like to try it. The web address is:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Annies-Fruit-Salsa-and-Cinnamon-Chips/Detail.aspx

Warning about Facebook and MySpace

I was reading msn news and found an article called : "Don't Drink and Drive, then post on Facebook", by Eric Tucker, Friday, July 18, 2008. Places like Facebook and MySpace have become places detectives, prosecutor's, as well as employers are gathering information on people. Photos as well as statements you post on Facebook, MySpace and other social sites can be used in a court of law, and by your employer as character references.

The article talks about teens drinking, partying and driving; then posting the photos of the drunken party's and unfortunate statements. These teens were in auto accidents and their comments online as well as the photos were used in court.

Yes Virginia, you have the freedom of speech, however anything you blog, or post online can be used against you by your employers as well as in a court of law.

Free Counter

I just wanted to thank Ms Peterson for the link to a free counter to add to my blog. Blogger lets you see how many people have checked out your profile but this way I have a count of how many times someone just stops in to read the blog. Adding the counter was very quick and easy to do.

Rain

What a glorious day, it's been raining for several hours now. While a lot of people would think rain is not a glorious day at all, I have to say I enjoy a good rainy day. We need the moisture around the area and it makes the air smell so wonderful. You can almost feel the earth rejoicing!


I have been curled up on the couch with a cup of earl grey tea and my latest book, "The Hades Project ", by Lynn Sholes and Joe Moore. It's a good novel, dark, suspenseful with apocalyptic horror thrown in, how can you miss with that. Nothing like a mystery on a rainy day. =D


I watched "Sweeney Todd" starring Johnny Depp last night. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised he has a rather good singing voice and did a wonderful job of playing Sweeney Todd.
I had watched the Broadway performance long, long ago. What a morbid idea for a musical! A perfect choice for Tim Burton to make into a film.

Well the rain has seemed to stopped and I have two dogs that are insisting on going out to play fetch.

Teen Blog

I have been sharing my newly discovered tools with my colleagues at work. I have made a few suggestions for ideas such as setting up a blog for our teen book club. There seems to be a bit of reluctance at the moment, one objection was it would take too much time to maintain. I will continue to nudge the idea along slowly. I have tried to explain to them that maintaining a blog is not a difficult chore, and I believe the teens would welcome it. I was inspired to suggest this from reading a blog by a high school library in the USA, that started a blog and have made a connection with another high school library that was blogging from Australia. How cool is that?
Wish me luck in convincing them blogging is good. =D

Monday

Monday has come and gone, it was a dilly of a day. Mondays always seem to be the busiest day of the week here. We had a steady stream of patrons all day. The Internet computers were book solid by 1pm.

Summers bring us a variety of interesting people, we are on the edge of the lake area of Minnesota and have our fair share of tourists stopping in to both look at the building and e-mail home. One gentleman was bicycling across country to Seattle, stopped in to blog about his trip so far. Another lady was from British Columbia and needed to e-mail home, she was visiting relatives here.

We are also the closest library to Camp Ripley and get a lot of Army personnel coming in. It warmed my heart to see one of our young guards come in to see us today. He lives in our area and we were the second place he went after arriving home yesterday from Iraq, the first being home to visit his family. He has been coming to our library for years and is a familiar face around here. He laughed and said he had to stop and see his second family, the library staff.
Everyone was happy to see him home safe and in one piece.

The summer reading program is moving along nicely we had several children finish today. Hooray! We always have at least one activity per week for the kids to do, this week we have a mystery box with two holes for your hands, inside there are 6 items from the kitchen that you need to id by feel. One young man worked on that for 30 minutes, now that is determination.

At closing time tonight, as we were locking the doors, there was a little boy about 8 standing outside the door. He was waiting for his parents to pick him up. I always worry when parents are late to pick up a child. We talked to him awhile and asked him if he had called his parents and was sure they were coming to get him. He said yes, but he seemed a little scared. Rose and I talked a bit and she said she would wait in her car until his parents came, he seemed a bit relieved to know he was not there alone. Sometimes parents forget, that when you are small, it's very frightening to wait alone and wonder if they have forgotten you. Children are not little adults they are children.

Road Construction

It must be summer in Minnesota, road construction is everywhere. The Little Falls area now has road construction to the North and East. I live East of town and will for the next few months be enjoying the lovely swamp trail detour. Let's hope the water levels don't rise to much, I have not yet found a boat route to town.

Is it just me or dose it seem to you too that no matter where in the state you want to go during our short but lovely summers, you can't get there from here, without a detour somewhere along the way. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned there, slow down and enjoy the trip. =D

Storm Damage 2

Storm Damage
Originally uploaded by CNS2008

This is a picture of some of the strom damage in my back yard. We were fortunate no trees damaged the house. Some of the trees were uprooted completely. I have been told we had wind speeds of up to 65 mph. It will take a while to clean up my yard, but it's not all bad, we have a great start on firewood for the winter.

There was no damage to the library, which was good news. We did however have a screen from someones house laying on the front lawn and a few wet books in the book return from the rain being blown in the book drop slot.

Little Falls is still cleaning up the mess and many people are still without power this evening.

Storm Damage

The Little Falls area was hit with high winds and heavy rains last night. I was at home at the time and at one point you couldn't see out of the windows it was like someone pointed a fire hose at the house. There luckily was no damage to the house, but we lost several trees. I will be cleaning up for awhile. I counted 11 trees down just in the yard, I have not ventured into the woods yet.

Nokassissippi

Nokassissippi
Originally uploaded by CNS2008

This is one of my favorite spots, but hard to get to. You need a four wheel drive and nerves of steel, but worth it for the view. Great spot to picnic.

Boomers Go Home

While I was exploring blog sites online for Libraries I happened upon one http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com/ . There is a lot of anger there, but what caught my attention was the plight of the new MLS grads that are angry at us boomers for still working, while they are unable to find jobs in the field. It was sad but funny at the same time. This is one of the comments that was posted on the section called "Those Darn Boomers":


Minks said...
First, I want to state that what I am about to talk about is what I have seen. You can tell me what I have seen all you want, but that will not alter what I have seen. Keep that in mind when you all start flaming away. =PThere are a lot of problems with a significant number of old librarians that everybody is afraid to touch on. They fact they they will not retire is just a simple solution, not really the problem. I will explain it all in far more detail in my next blog,, but in summary...1) They tend to not have relevant skillsets needed to function properly in todays libraries. 70% of our librarians over 50 are pathetically under skilled in technology. Including, but not limited to, computer use (burning CD's for example), internet searching, powerpoint, excel, database usage, online commerce, and online content technology/delivery. In comparison, about 90% of our under 50 crowd have it down just fine (very few support calls from them). Am I bitter? Yes. Why? The same percentage of my "I need help calls" are generated from these two groups. Learn it or Retire is becoming my mantra.2) They do not want to learn the new skills. Like you said AL, they never get fired (or rarely do). They know full well they can coast for a freaking decade. And do. Boy-howdy they do. Would not happen in the real world. They would get fired or forced to retire. But in the wondrous fantasy world of libraries they just keep on hanging on.... making their support calls.... to me.3) They can not learn the new skills. They just cant. We had one here, bless her heart, just could not grasp the stuff no matter how much training. She was quite willing to try and train. Just.... well... could not manage. Other staff swore senility was kicking in.4) They set up a bad example in the marketplace for librarianship. People come into the libraries and see these geriatric technophobes and make little mental notes. The notes have to do with the desirably of librarians. The stereotype if you will. This type of stereotype is not helping the demand for librarians.Now, we have one librarian here that is almost 70 and actually pretty darn good. I am not saying ALL librarians over 50 are negligent in their skillsets. I am saying 70% are. 3 out of 10 are just fine. No need for you guys over 50 to lecture me on how good you are. Odds are, if you are reading and posting on a blog and you are over 50, you are one of the 3. =)

SAY WHAT! LOL Well I know we are a little slower then we were when we were 30 but please don't tell me that we are senile geriatric technophobes lol. Sometimes my humor is too much to contain, I just have to keep that phrase to use someday again "senile geriatric technophobes". Try to say that ten times, fast, lol. I feel the inspiration for a poem lol.

Too many irons in the fire

This is the first time blogging was at the end of my list of things to do. It has been a very busy day. I had a paper to write for my religion class I am taking online and today was my day to work until 8 pm, so that cut down on the time. No worries, I managed to complete the paper on time. My poor brain is on overload so I am calling it a day.

Splendid day

Greetings everyone, wow what an absolutely splendid day we have. It's a warm 87 degrees and sunny. I hope you are enjoying it as much as my family and I. My quote for the day for you is one of my favorites:

Psalms 118:24 "This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

PictureTrail revisited

I went into PictureTrail to add a few photo's to my creation. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that editing it was very, very easy. I m finding that Flickr has so very much to offer and is so wonderful to work with, it is one of my favorite tools. In fact it has inspired me to take my camera out more often.

Happy 232nd Birthday America!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Fourth of July! While I was reflecting on it today, and thinking what I could blog about, I decided to add a little bit of history. I remembered reading part of a letter John Adams had written to his wife Abigail. It took a bit of searching but I managed to find it : "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.["

In case you are wondering about the date 02 July 1776 in the above quotation, July 2, 1776, was the day when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a Resolution of Independence. After voting for Independence the congress debated and revised the Declaration of Independence, and gave it final approval on July 4, 1776.

The largest celebration of America's Independence Day outside the United States takes place every year at Rebild Bakker, Denmark. Danes and Americans of Danish decent gather at Rebild National Park each year for public speakers, bands and fireworks as they have since 1912.

Congratulations Drill Team

Congratulations to Great River Regional Library's Book Cart Drill Team, for winning the mayors award in the Granite City Parade! That was exceptional book carting! Keep up the good work.

Heading picture

Well after a bit of trial and error I have managed to add a photo to my Heading. I may not keep it but at least I know how to do it now. My very dear best friend told me once, the best way to learn something new on the computer is just do it, and don't worry if you mess up a few times.
I have learned that he was correct, we learn from our mistakes.

Cheeriest Place in the World

I just read an article online for the cheeriest place in the world, amazing as it seems I had it right on my first try, DENMARK! Was it a lucky guess? NO. Growing up with a Danish background the answer was "elementary my dear Watson". I never have met a happier person then my own Grandfather, born in Denmark, but grew up in America.

Though his life was far from easy, he always had a smile on his face. He was a farmer for most of his life, spent time working in logging camps up North, Graduated from the University of Minnesota, raised seven children on his own after the early loss of his wife. Worked hard up to the last day of his life at age 88.

He taught me to milk cows by hand when I was 5, the secret is to lean your head on the cows stomach and sing to it. lol It always seemed to work.

He told us the biggest, whopper stories you have ever heard, and would have us laughing until we cried. An art that he learned from his father, and working in those logging camps. One of my favorites was: "In Denmark they have the best farms in the world. The cows give such rich milk that when the farmers make butter they have to pile it in the yard. When someone comes to buy a pound of butter from them, the farmers wife has to climb up a ladder to the top of the butter hill, she tucks up her skirt and slides down the hill. Every thing you scrap off her bottom is a pound of butter."

What he taught us was, never take life or yourself to seriously. Life is short, enjoy everyday of it. A smile is the best gift you can give anyone.

Big Huge Labs Revisitied

I went back to the Big Huge Labs site and played around a bit. My best effort was a Warholizer picture of my Grandmother. I have saved it to my Flickr photos. I m sure Grandmother would have loved it. I have not added it to my blog and I m not sure I will. I really love working with Flickr and Big Huge Labs. I will continue useing these tools for a long time. Thanks for introducing them to me.

EBSCO

The EBSCO representative stopped in the Library today. She was visiting all the branches at GRRL to let us know that EBSCO is getting an update. I had a nice talk with her, about some of the changes that will be coming up in July 2008. The new user interface is very nice, it looks modern and user friendly. I checked out some of the changes online at : http://www.ebscohost.com/ . EBSCOhost 2.0 is almost here, the future has arrived!

TOAS #4 Revisited

I m taking some advice from the Common Craft video "Online Photo Sharing In Plain English", and putting my family photos online as a back up. I really like this idea, this is coming from a person that has had her computer crash and has lost a lot of photos. I will not be making them public, at least not all of them. If you scroll down to #4 I have a picture of my Great Grandfather Rasmus you can view.


Tragedy and Violence In Little Falls Today

We don't think of violence in my little town, that is something that only happens in big cities. Today an armed man, walked into the Morrison County Court House and held the county Commissioners hostage at gun point. The Morrison County Court House had to be evacuated, the police went in, the man was shot and killed. The Library is located 1/2 block from the Court House

One person that came in said to me, what a relief no one else was hurt. I didn't reply to that. I wanted to say, everyone involved was hurt, the emotional trauma can last a life time. This desperate act of violence left no winners today, and has taken away the communities feeling of security. The feeling of security that we in small towns take for granted.

Summer List

Well I have set up a new Ta Da list for myself, that should cover the rest of the summer. I find I enjoy being able to cross off items on my list as done. I will be going back over the 23 things on a stick listings and try to complete the challenges. That should be helpful to keep me current on things, it's a great reminder that learning never ends.

George Carlin - May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008
Bye George thanks for the laughs.

Bolg Searching

Today I did some blog searching, wow is that fun. I m adding a My Favorite Blogs to this blog, and will post blogs that I find of interest. Some of them will be Library related and some not.
I hope you will take some time and check them out.

Today is Sunday, a busy day for a minister and also my family day. This being the case my blogs will be short on Sundays. The weather is perfect and the family and I are heading out to the lake for a picnic. How lucky we are to live in Minnesota on such a day. I hope you will all have a chance to be out and enjoy it.

23 TOAS

I did it! I have enjoyed working on 23 things on a stick. It has been a wonderful experience. I have learned so much, and done things such as blogging that without taking this course I would never have done. I have been introduced to some wonderful tools, such as RSS, Flickr, and the list just goes on. I look forward to using them at our Library, and at home.

Library 2.0 is not coming, it's arrived. We need to work together and discover how Libraries can use this new technology to benefit our patrons. I hope you continue the program and if you have a second 23 things on a stick, sign me up.

This course was a real eye opener for me. There were parts that were a real challenge, and some that were pure joy. I feel I have grown both in knowledge and in confidence.

22 TOAS

I can't believe I am at the end of 23 things on a stick.

I plan on continuing my blogging, I find I quit like it now. There are many tools I have learned about that I want to explore more and become proficient at. Keeping up with technology is a challenge, I like challenges. Being a member of WebJunction and Ning's 23 things on a stick group should be helpful to keep me on course.

They say to break a bad habit you need to stop doing it for 21 days, well then the reverse must also be true. I have developed a new habit of working on 23 things on a stick everyday. I hope to continue to do that, and will continue to set aside a few minutes a day to continue growing with Library 2.0.

21 TOAS

I have become a member of Ning. I have to say this Social Network appeals much more to me then Facebook or MySpace. I find I am not overly impressed with the Social Networks and see little difference with them and chat rooms that I have seen. They are a little more controlled I guess because of interest groups, but not much. I find the 23 things on a stick group more appealing because we have a common goal. Well that and the fact that Librarians are just a great group of people to hang around with.

I tried to sign up for Gather but it was not working correctly or something, I kept getting the registration form coming back up to do over. I didn't get a conformation of my registration so, I will have to try this one at another time. You can use some of the features without being a member. Features I liked were, the articles and the group Minnesota Readers.

I signed up for WebJunction. It has a lot of information for Libraries, that I look forward to spending time exploring. One thing I just need to say, the home page is BLAND, for a community of Techies. I like the idea of having a spot for courses you can take listed on the site.

19 TOAS

I liked pod casts, I can see it being very useful, for listening to interviews, educational lectures or radio broadcasts. I m a fan of NPR but only catch bits an pieces of the programs while I m driving. Pod casts are a way for me to listen to the entire program. The amount of things out there is mind boggling.


I listened to several pod casts some were good, some were boring. I listened to Tom's Podcast from On the road with Minitex. I also listened to" New study: Brain can't handle driving while talking on a cell phone", from March 2008.

I tried out all the directories, well all but Podcast.net which I couldn't get to load on my computer. I found I prefer Podcast.com, to me it seems the easiest to use, it has two nice features, a subject listing that shows on the entry page and a easy to find and use search box.

20 TOAS

I have signed up for an account with Facebook. It seems very easy to work with and I can see the value of having a place to post questions to other Librarians etc. I can see the appeal for adolescents, who want to be a part of a group.

I have joined two groups on Facebook, one is 23 things on a stick, the other is Library 2.0 Interest Group. I like the idea of having a support group you can contact with questions or to share comments with. Of course you can just leave a message on 23 things on a stick's blog lol.

I left a message on the wall in each group, the process is very simple. I was a little surprised to have my full name and other personal info posted for others to read. I can see security issues with that.

I m glad to have had the experience of using Facebook, I think as librarians we need to know what interests our adolescent patrons and have at least a basic knowledge of how things like Facebook work.

Library of the Future

I found this video interesting for Libraries.

18 TOAS

Well I have to say I enjoyed this thing more then I thought I would. I used the key word "orchestra" and found a lot of videos. The Final Countdown cello and orchestra is my favorite.
I really enjoyed it and put it on my blog . I set up my blog for one click video sharing and added the video. It was a very easy process. The video I choose is not a Library 2.0 but I will add one a bit later. This one is so cool I just had to share it with you.

When I began this thing I was thinking of You Tube only as a place where people put silly videos online. I have learned since exploring You Tube there are a lot of interesting and educational things on it as well as the silly entertaining ones. I spent two hours just watching videos!

Thank you for opening my eyes.

Final Countdown cello and orchestra

I love this, hope you do too.

17 TOAS

I have experience using some of the ELM Databases/references. We use OCLC almost everyday. ProQuest is the one our patrons use most from ELM searching for articles. I have not used the alert feature before so I set up an alert. It was an easy process and took very little time. This is a nice feature and I can see it being very useful to patrons, example ones following the latest news on the up coming elections.

I had not used my EBSCO account to set up a web page before. I did some exploring of this tool, and spent about an hour playing around with the page composer. It is not the worse one I have worked with but it seemed to be slow. I really am pressed to come up with a good use for it, other then giving people the experience of setting up a web page.

We have had several patrons interested in ebooks on NetLibrary. I suspect that number will increase as time passes.

ELM has a lot to offer students doing research. I guess my concern is, most students doing a research paper are only allowed one or two sources from the Internet. SO, are news articles from Pro Quest considered Internet or news. LOL

ELM is a wonderful source of information for the public. WAY TO GO MINNESOTA!

16 TOAS

The University of Minnesota Assignment Calculator and the RPC are wonderful tools. This is something I will be pointing out to students that are working on research papers. It's a great tool for helping the student manage their time on a research project. I would like to see a link to the sites put on the teen page as well as the main library page.

I will be using the Minnesota Assignment Calculator for some of my religious study classes.

15 TOAS

Second Life is almost the same as the old Active Worlds site. I was a member there for a few years, long ago lol. Virtual settings are great fun, and I can see the appeal to teens. I m happy to see they are using it for more then just entertainment now, love the idea of the library in a virtual world. I love the creativity that you can express on sites like Second Life.

Virtual worlds like Active Worlds, and Second Life are great fun. It gives you a chance to express yourself in things you can create. What a wonderful art form! I m all for kids of all ages learning to use technology in a creative way. It's a bit expensive for kids that really want to be involved with it though. They charge for the membership (without which you can't build a house). There is a charge for virtual land, (does this bother anyone else). I was happy to see the Library was free =D. I know the company that produces the site needs to have income to cover their expenses

I will be very interested in seeing where they go with the concept of virtual classrooms. Very cool idea! Let's hope they keep them free.

Does Second life have a place in the library? I think it is worth a web link on the teen page, as long as you can use it free as a guest. Call me old fashion but Libraries should be free and things we link to, or give a library endorsement should also be free to everyone.

This blog is coming from a WOW (World of Warcraft) fanatic!

The graphics are what sell me on MMOPRGs. There is no comparison with the graphics from Second Life and World of Warcraft. The social aspects are similar, you meet alot of people in either setting. For me personally I would rather be in a virtual setting in a game then on a chat.
Second Life is basicly a virtual chat room. Second Life does let you be creative and actually create your environment, that I really like. You are probibly wondering but what can you learn on a game like WOW, you learn to work with other people together as a group to reach a goal.
The environment for Second Life is aimed at the teenage person, while WOW is for any age. My Guild in Wow has memebers from age 12 to 79, in fact we have several families that play together.

Would I recommend Wow for the library? NO.

14 TOAS

I enjoyed exploring Library Thing, I signed up for an account which was very easy to do. I have added some of my books to my blog, this was also very easy to do.

It's fun seeing how the books you read rate with other people. It's also nice to find other people with the same reading interests, it's great for finding new books to enjoy. Some of my books have no ratings lol, guess I am the only one reading them.

I can see this being useful to patrons for recommendations, for good books to read. We have a special shelf where we display "staff picks", this is very popular with the patrons at our library.

13 TOAS

The start page I chose was Google, my reasons were I already have a Google account and I liked the artist themes. I think I will be making it my new home page because it has all the features I want right at my finger tips. It's also very easy to work with.

Ta-da list I can see myself using for my personal to do lists.


My favorite tool was Backpack, it has so many good features. The calendar is perfect for Library use for setting up schedules for library activities, and staffing schedules. I really like that you can use different colors for each person on the calendar, much easier to work with. The comment page is great for sending messages to the staff.

My stickies is one I would recommend everyone check out. WOW, this tool is great for my research work. It allows you to put a post it on web pages when you run across something important on the page. You also can leave a note so you know what you had found on the page of interest. This tool will save me a lot of time.

I liked the PDF converter, its easy to use, however I would not use it much.

Zamzar, very easy to use, and you have a large selection of files you can convert to. I would recommend this one.

12 TOAS

I have signed up with Digg for an account. Sign up is easy, using Digg is easy and fun. I have an odd love of weird news stories and think this is great. It will save me doing a lot of online searching for my favorite news lol. I was happy and surprised to note there is a category just for weird news lol. I submitted a news article from BBC News, only to discover someone else had also submitted the same article.

In the Library I can see using these tools to keep up on all the latest Library related news. Also all the latest top news stories from around the world. At home this will be a time saver for me looking up odd news items and archeology articles.

I think these tools are a productivity enhancer simply because it saves so much time.

I have read articles that I have found posted on Digg because I have them listed by my interests. It's a cool tool.

I also liked Newsvine and plan on getting an account with them also.

11 TOAS

I had fun with this TOAS. The tagging was very easy to use and helpful for people that are just skimming over blogs. It makes is a snap to find exactly what subject you are looking for on the blogs. I plan on tagging the rest of my entries on this blog later.

I spent alot of time exploring on the Minn 23 account in Del.icio.us. There are some really interesting sites to explore. Del.icio.us is easy to use, the tags are great to help you navagate all the information that is on the site.

One of the best features I think of Del.icio.us is that you can veiw your bookmarks from any computer, how wonderful is that. When you are at a library doing research you can bookmark articles and sites you want to use for your research, so when you get home there they are right at your finger tips. What a wonderful tool for students!

I can see this tool being a big asset to libraries.

10 TOAS

Wiki's, Wiki's, Wiki's, where do you start.

I Thought the "Common Craft video on Wikis" was great, short and to the point. Very easy to get the basic idea of what a wiki is.

I was having so much fun exploring the wikis that I lost track of the time and it's now midnight. I will be a bit tired at work tomorrow but also better informed.

SJCPL Wiki: I thought St Joseph County Libraries Subject Guide was awesome. What a wonderful use of a Wiki. It is a great way to get rid of the "old rolodex" of frequently requested information we hide behind the desk. (I can hear you laughing!)

Book Lovers Wiki: I found this a nice idea also for reading clubs to use a wiki. I am going to pass this idea along to our Teen Reading Club. I think they would love a spot to review the books they read for other teens.

Library Success: I was sad to see the site had a vandalism problem. What a wonderful use again for a wiki, sharing ideas with other libraries around the world.

The Albany County Public Library Staff wiki: It's a fine idea. Not sure it would be useful with our library, simply because we have our procedures manual online and a daily news spot to keep us informed on what is happening in our 32 branches. I did find it interesting to look at though.

The Library Blogger's Wiki: This was one of my favorites, and took up a lot of my time lol. It was fun seeing how many libraries are blogging and to be able to see what they are blogging about.

The most interesting thing about the Wiki concept to me was that you can interact with the site.
You can post comments and thoughts, or add some information to the site, wow.

I can understand why the faculty at many schools would ban "Wikipedia" as a research source. How trust worthy is a site that can be added to and changed by anyone?

I went in to the 23 things on a stick wiki, (try saying that fast 3 times) and added a note or two for fun. It was very easy to do, and reading the comments was great.

9 TOAS part 2

Thank you team for the invitation to collaborate and edit the Declaration of Independence. I am sure our Founding Fathers would have loved using Zoho Writer, I know I did.

I have shared this information on how to use the Zoho Writer with my co workers and we are all looking forward to trying it out at work.

9 TOAS

Oh how I wish I would have known about this a few weeks ago. Our library, along with 3 others and the youth initiative for the county made up a listing of all the youth activities for the summer. We spent days sending information back and forth to get the listing ready. Online collaboration tools would have made it so much easier.

Google Docs seems to be the easier of the two to use, but has less features. Zoho Writer has more features such as photos. I liked them both. The project I would be working on would detemine which of these tools I would use.

The Founding Fathers would have been in heaven, with tools like these. Our Nations Independence would have been much earlier.

8 TOAS part 2

WOW it worked, I have my slide show on my blog. I found the hardest part for me was uploading the photos. My connection, as I have said, is very slow, uploading each picture took over an hour. Once the photos were in my album it was a snap! I selected the peel format from Picture Trail. The instructions on picture trail were very easy to follow. I would recommend Picture Trail very highly.

8 TOAS

I will be making two posts on my Blog about this thing. I find the sharing of thoughts, ideas, plans photos, videos etc. a wonderful tool. I can see many uses for this; I am working on uploading photos at the moment on Picture Trail. I am finding it slow because as I have said before I live on "the dark side of the Moon", and my connections is killing me here. Some of these tools are so much fun, I can see myself coming back to this "thing" many many times. It will be great for library programs, and program promotions. Well, I am going to do some more uploading and hopefully will have a presentation on my blog soon. Keep smiling everyone!

7 TOAS part 2

Our Library has been using e-mail for a long time it is great for getting messages to other staff fast. We have 32 branches that are spread out over 3 counties, so anything that improves communications is a big plus. Some would think, why not just call, well sometimes the person you need to contact is not working the same hours as you are. E-mail makes is so easy to leave a message, and everyone checks their messages at least once a day. We love it.

OPAL is wonderful, what a great idea! It is a wonderful tool for training. I really like the fact that it is interactive, so you can ask questions. I also like the fact that most of the programs are free to anyone.

Webinars are also a great tool for libraries. You can get training online, from instructors anywhere in the country.

The only problem that I see for using either of these tools is for people with slow or dial up connections. If you live on the "Dark Side Of The Moon" like I do, and have dial up connecting is a problem. Wouldn't it be great if the state of Minnesota could work on making sure all areas of the state are wired for internet use. Maybe someday =D

7 TOAS

I M ing is not new to me, I have been using it for years. I use both Yahoo and the MSN messenger to talk with friends of mine in Canada almost everyday. I have downloaded the
Google Talk for this class to see what it is like compared to the others I have. It is my opinion that MSN has the best messenger, Google seems a little low tech. I M's are really nice for sending files, pictures, music and you can even play games with friends on them. Video calls are also possible with IM's, I have used that with my friends in Canada and hey NO LONG DISTANCE CHARGES.

6 TOAS

This was the most fun so far, I love being creative. I can see many uses for this at work, such as projects for the Summer Reading Program for children. Children will just love the trading cards.
I am planning a surprise puzzle for the next program we do, featuring one of the library staff.
I can now customize posters for our story hours. This is a wonderful tool for any library and has unlimited potential.

Big Huge Labs was great fun to work with, can't wait to have more time to work with it.

So much to explore, so little time. LOL

5 TOAS

I have been exploring the tools and other programs for flickr. I could spend a week just doing this. I added a matte to my favorite picture of my Grandfather and put the link on my blog. Flickr is great for organizing photos, you can add tags to your photos to make it easier to find them later. I was surprised to find out you can add up to 75 tags per photo! I can't wait to get my family photos put in albums on Flickr, it's going to be great to share them with family online.
I can think of alot of uses for these tools for the library: making posters, custom puzzles, card games, just to name a few. My favorites were Creat puzzles and Big Huge Labs.

4 TOAS

Had a wonderful time playing around with Flickr. I uploaded a few photos and can see I will have a lot of use for this program. Flickr allows you to manage your digital photos, by putting them in albums. It gives you a way to share your photos with friends, family or the world. It's a great way to share photos. At last a way for us to put all the library photos into a public album.

I added a few photos of the Library in Little Falls, to my Flickr album. I hope you enjoy them. I only have three up at the moment but will try to add a few more later. This is a great tool, I love it.

Rasmus on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Rasmus on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Rasmus was my Great Grandfather, and one of my hero's. I never got to meet him, he died two years before I was born, but I know him well from all the stories my Grandfather and Mother told me about him. He immigrated to America from Denmark in 1896, with his pregnant wife Marie and three children, the youngest was my Grandfather. They couldn't speak English and the only possessions they had were packed in a trunk. He learned English from his brother in Chicago, where they stayed for six months while Marie recovered from child birth. They bought a farm by Elmdale Minnesota. They traveled by train as far as Little Falls and walked to their home following the old Indian trail. Rasmus went on to become a farmer, served on the school board, and on the Church board. The proudest day of his life was the day he became a United States Citizen. His Citizenship papers he had framed and hung on the wall of his home.

3 TOAS

Setting up the RSS or Really Simple Syndication was very easy for me. I have found several sites to subscribe to and find I really love this tool. It saves so much time for me, rather then searching for sites that interest me they are right there. It's great!

I have set up an aggregator account using Google Reader. The best reason I can give for my choice of Google Reader over Bloglines is just the fact that I always am on the Google page.

I have several subscriptions already coming in. This is great not having to do all that searching. Can't wait to work with it more. Thanks for the great information!

I found this site when I was doing my blog search, hope you find it useful.
http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/05/29/100-free-library-20-webinars-and-tutorials/

2nd TOAS

I found Mr. Blyberg's thoughts on Library 2.0 interesting, I can't say I agree 100%. I agree we must keep up with patrons needs. I disagree with his shifting funding for a coder instead of
another Reference Librarian. We will always need Librarians!

The Library 2.0 concept is pushing us forward to the future. Libraries are not only repositories of knowledge, they are community centers, entertainment centers, and institutions of learning.
If we are to continue to be of value to our patrons we need to be "aware" and keep abreast of the changing technology as well as the needs of our patrons. All Librarians know that we are continually learning and passing on new ideas, new concepts, new ways of doing things to our patrons. Library 2.0 shows us what is possible. What we choose to use from it, is yet to be seen.
Budget and the economy as you all know decide how far we will go.

I really believe in better inter-library cooperation as being the biggest plus in Library 2.0.
The pooling of Library resources, benefits us all. Technology is helping to bring that about.

I have signed up for 23 things on a stick because I m curious about what is new for Libraries in the Technology area. I have a strong interest in computers, and spend a lot of time online at home. I will be giving up some of my gaming time for 23 things on a stick. Though game withdrawal is painful, I need to expand my knowledge for work and for my self.

Greetings

My quest for 23 things on a stick had a bumpy start, when I created my blog I was notified that my blog was "identified as a potential spam blog". My blog was "locked", I was unable to publish any posts. I had to request a review, and happily they decided my site was not a spam blog, so here I am. Sometimes you need to take a step back to take two steps forward, but it's all good.