#8: MyUA Portal

It must be a Friday during the summer for here I am posting yet another account of a lesson accomplished. (I wrote in an earlier post about technology issues. Well, here's another: I'm working on my laptop near the living room window looking out over our front yard and our black cat spread against the black rocks in our flower bed--1/2 his body in the shade. Had to log into the VPN, a "technology" not part of this lesson, in order to access Learning 2.0. Other than that, I've been working away!)

MyUA Portal: sometimes when I'm acting like a dean, I'm invited to dean-like meetings. Had the opportunity to sit in on discussions about the Portal. Frustration from the administrators at Statewide that more people don't use it. Why don't we like it? Well, where do I begin? The design thing first--I'd really like my screen to have tiny snapshots of each of the functions. What I've been doing recently is minimizing the windows--what's the different between that and accessing a site and keeping it up all day? Outside of the one login, I'm not real moved by this thing.

I'd been here before, so already had my pages set up. Interesting to get back and see that nothing had changed and I didn't miss it.

#7: RSS Feeds

Well, if I had read the last sentence, perhaps I wouldn't have spent time with my frustrations. Yes, this has been the most difficult discovery--I couldn't figure out how to download the bloglines notifier. Ok, stop right there--that to me is a discovery. It's fine to have RSS feeds, one place to read the condensed information I'm seeking, but if I have to remind myself to look at the feeds it isn't going to work. I was determined to get the notifier and finally did--perhaps it was all the sweets @ coffee hour that helped!

I added some co-workers--ooh, the sound of that little bell indicating I've got new items. So exciting! But geez, that whole public bloglines thang--I tried. Will see what happens!

How can libraries take advantage of feeds? Well, we could encourage RSS feeds through Goldmine so patrons could receive updates in the system. The operative word is ENCOURAGE. It's up to the patron to set these up, but we certainly need to offer it as a service.

#6: Technology web sites and news

Not to pretend that I'm anywhere close to being as "fanny" as Robyn, but hubby and I are plowing our way through the Star Trek: The Next Generation series--1-2 episodes a night, more on the weekend. In last night's episode, an alien wipes the short term memory of the Enterprise crew in order to use their expertise and the Enterprise's technological/weaponry advances. (It also creates the opportunity for Riker and Ensign Ro to have relations; since their memory has been erased, they don't remember they don't like each other.) The crew spends most of the episode attempting to recreate who they are and the nature of their mission--turning first to the ship's computer.

So, that's a logical first move--everything about the ship is stored in the computer's or Data's memory. I was fascinated by how quickly they turned to the computer, because I think it reflects an acceptance that is easy to incorporate in every aspect of human life. But, as we find out in the episode, Data is flawed and so is the computer: the alien has corrupted or deleted most of the data/files. It is human intuition that saves the day--hey, it's Picard, he always saves the day!

I'm reminded of some advice about technology I read recently. In his column Three Hard Things in the latest issue of Library Journal, Roy Tennant lists three things that are crucial in staying abreast of technological advances: take time to learn, try something new, and stop doing something. I appreciated Tennant's comment that while he has tried new technology, he doesn't embrace all of it (he tried social networking but found it didn't work for him), but at least he's aware of what it is and how it can be used. There it is, the idea that I will take with me throughout the rest of my career.

P.S. I'm not looking forward to flickr, but am working my way up to it!

#11: LibraryThing

No, I don't have an obsession with books. Well, I have an obsession with reading them, but not collecting them or trying to remember what I've read. Lately I've found the amount I have in my home disturbing, so I've stopped buying them and use libraries instead.

That said, I did enjoy this lesson. I'm on a committee that is comprising a list of memoir, biography/autobiography about Alaska (part of Alaska 67), and today I began inputting the first list of suggested titles from participants at the meeting held during AkLA 2007 in Juneau. I created a group called 80 below list, a place to begin discussing the suggestions made. Hopefully other committee members will join LibraryThing so they can participate fully.

I'm hearing from others that we can't do widgets in WordPress, so let's see if this link will work.

#16: wikis

Since I use wikis quite a bit @ Rasmsuon, I thought I'd skip ahead and get this assignment done. I actually learned something!! I've been attempting to use a blog to communicate with UAF's English Department and have been disheartened by the lack of response by that department. Looking through the wiki examples, I think this is the most appropriate route to take. All that is needed is a place to host information, there's no real reason to respond to what I've been posting on the blog. I'll be working on a new design too, surprised to see how flexible the wiki can be.

So, I'll be creating a wiki to replace my blog Library Bytes.

Podcasts: Grammar Girl

I found a blurb about the podcast "Grammar Girl's Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing" (gdnow.com/grammar) in the July 2007 issue of WRITER magazine. Listened to the episode about ellipses . . . yes, you'd think it would be boring, but it wasn't too bad. Podcaster Mignon Fogerty receives emails regarding grammar faux paus and spends about 8 1/2 minutes analyzing the issue.

My fave from the ellipses episode: "Aardvark is coming home on Thursday!" becomes "Aardvark is coming home . . . !"

I also went out to Bloglines and registered. Interesting . . .

So far I've. . .

gone through the Lifelong Learning presentation. What is the most challenging for me? Finding the time. . . or maybe staying motivated. . . or perhaps staying focused! Thank goodness for Meeting Maker--I've gotten very good at color coordinating my events!

Here I Go!

On to Learning 2.0, the Rasmsuon Library program that all staff are invited to participate in.