kids and reptiles mosaic

kids and reptiles mosaic
Originally uploaded by CatyJ

In exploring options for the upcoming Readers Week 2008 I put together this mashup of my favourite reptiles and of course my favourite children....... now, applying that to Reading????

So what if it's all over, the point is to keep going, and growing, and learning - never stop learning!!

Following on from the PLNSW-C Conference 2008 last week at Tamworth - "The Power of Place" (wonderful time had by all even if my feet are still killing me from walking around so much!!), I have been following Chrystie Hill's meanderings through our lovely country and after spending Friday last chatting extensively with her and Marian Koren during a drive from Tamworth to the newly relocated Manilla Library and then for a quick visit back to Tamworth to visit the newly refurbished South Tamworth Library before dropping them off at the airport for their flight to Sydney (complete with more than a few other conference attendees!), I decided to check out Twitter. I'm still trying to work out how it will best help/suit me but from Chrystie's talk I can truly see its possible applications - I just have to work it out a bit more first...... So anyway, I've now dumped it into my 2 blogs and am curious to see how long it will take before I'm Twittering madly each day! I can hardly wait!

Parting is such sweet sorrow.....

It's with a certain degree of reluctance that I face the end of the Learning 2.0 program. In reality there is no end as Learning is ongoing each and every day.
I have spent the last week or two going back across other Learning 2.0 participants' blogs and have found the experience rewarding (and frustrating too at times). Mostly I've enjoyed discovering what others got out of each exercise - I got one thing, they got another. I can see that some weeks I completely ignored particular aspects or I flew over them as quick as I could. Other weeks I got stuck into one tiny aspect and went over board on it. It's all been great and I am so glad to be able to view others' discussions and learnings along the way. This has certainly been a worthwhile journey and I am grateful for the opportunity.

Among a number of the blogs I have read a few disparaging comments from gainsayers to the whole exercise. I guess this is where I feel so discouraged by others' attitudes and narrow perceptions. Lack of funding is not an uncommon catch cry ("surely NSL staff time and effort could be better spent on getting us more for our dollar from the Premier's dept. [sic]") but here we have been opened to a learning concept (Accredited by ALIA) completely free that exposes us to where the world is and helps us help our clients so much better. For someone who has recently completed a Masters (and paid for the privilege) this cannot be ignored. I am disheartened by the lack of foresight in these gainsayers and am concerned for the future of their library services. In many regards exploring Web/Library 2.0 is all about getting on board or getting tossed overboard.
I admit that finding time for all these exercises can be problematic in an already busy world, but it is not an excuse, nor should it be accepted as one. As someone who is just as busy as the next person I simply ensured that Learning 2.0 was given credence within the schedule of my working day. That's right, I scheduled it in just as I would schedule a meeting or desk shift. By valuing my time and valuing this program I was able to then value my contribution and therefore my own learning. It's all about attitude.....

At the recent Imagination to Transformation Futures Conference, President of ALA Leslie Burger made the following comment:
Re-imagine all that libraries can be. The key to the future for libraries is our ability as a community to continually reimagine our service program in a way that makes it fresh and exciting for all of our users.......... if we get too comfortable and unable to get out of our comfort zone, we run the risk of of marginalizing what we do. We have to invest in work teams that are flexible, future focussed and fanatical about their committment to change. (http://www.palinet.org/media/ReflectionsFuture-Burger.pdf)

I'd like to thank the team at PLS for all the effort they put into this learning program and to also credit them for not losing their optimism and high regard for what we aim to achieve through Learning 2.0. Throughout all the comments they made on everyone's blogs they maintained a positive outlook and encouragement to constructively help participants move forward. Well done and thankyou.

Return to Week 8 - Slam the Boards!

After inviting the rest of the Reference e-list along I have spent the day Slamming! I'm currently exhausted and don't know if any of my answers have been chosen as 'Best Answer', but I'm hopeful.
I kept with my favourite category (Arts & Humanities - Books & Authors) and in the process discovered a great little cheat site called Spark Notes, with heaps of free online study guides.
I think it's time for more chocolate and a coffee to get me home.

Week 12 - the end is nigh.

I've come to the end of the program and am struggling to fully verbalise what I've learned and how I can see social networking being used and applied successfully in the library environment. It's not that I don't know the answer to the question, more that I perhaps need a little more time to coalesce my thoughts into a cohesive, relevant, and understandable statement.
So I think I'll go grab a coffee and ponder.

Week 11 - GoogleDocs vs Zoho

I like both these applications. I guess I'm a bit biased towards GoogleDocs as I've used it a lot more than Zoho but I do like the visual advancements of Zoho over GoogleDocs (colour shading of backgrounds, etc and generally the range of toolbar options). I have used GoogleDocs in meetings etc and for that purpose it works well. Were I to be creating a more visual document I'd probably prefer to use Zoho. Though in the long run I will probably use GoogleDocs over Zoho as access is easier (straight from Blogger /My Account) and I tend to use it more already . I'm glad I had the option to try it though.

Week 11 - online applications and tools - GoogleDocs

I like GoogleDocs & GoogleSpreadsheets. I use them so their applications for me are obvious. Being such a long way from NSL and many other libraries GoogleDocs is a great way for me to participate in meetings online, and collaborate in writing submissions and other material (without incurring travel expenses and the like). I can restrict my shared documents to viewers only or open them out to other collaborators who can also edit them. Different versions can be saved and by using coloured text all collaborators can quickly see who did what edit and how it fits overall. It's like having a draft document that everyone writes and from all the edits and suggestions a final document is created. I'm really looking forward to using this tool in some upcoming collaborations with some far-flung colleagues. It should be fun, but more than that it furthers the whole concept of collaboration and inspires each and every edit to be more than the last.

Week 10 - mashups - explore, discover, adventure

The whole idea of a mashup is pretty exciting. I like the idea of taking the map of Australia (or NSW) and overlaying it with book covers of stories set in particular towns, areas, states. Even a mashup showing authors and their home towns, etc. To further this reading map concept have a join-the-dots type scenario where readers can read their way across a state, along a highway, from the Top End to the Bite. Themed mashups have such options and creativity that the sky is reasonably endless - romance in rural NSW, crime across Victoria, early Australian life from discovery to Federation, ...... the possible list is limitless.

Week 9 - podcasts - adventure

Where was the Hannibal podcast from Stanford when I was studying Ancient History????? I feel so betrayed.
This is such a cool thing - the new line in online learning. It's not just visual, it's aural - the combination of the two, from a learning perspective is such a great leap and suits all thos edifferent learning types (I may have remembered a whole lot more about Hannibal if I had listened as well as read and he was one of my favourite characters from Ancient Rome).
I did find navigating the iPod downloads a little tricky - not as straight forward as I would have liked.
The Yahoo search worked a whole lot better and I found a great podcast "Hannibal is at the gates" not to mention a whole lot more on Military History - a wonderful door has now opened that I didn't realise was there. This info is not restricted to the sole domain of Universities and other centres of learning, it's out there for everyone, and gloriously free at that. What a great thing!