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.