OK, I'm a little freaked

I thought it was time I put my picture on my blog. But I don't have any of me on my work PC.

So, I went to Google, put in my name and the word "photo" and came up with 4. Yikes!! Pretty interesting and a little freaky.

So now we've got my HS grad picture from XXXX (long, long ago - you can tell by the black drape and pearl). I'm sure I haven't changed a bit :-)

My own "library" collection!

Oh, powers that be, will you keep this 27 things site up longer than the official end date? I don't even care about the flash drive, I'd just love to get through these "thinks"! I enjoy them when I do them, I must admit!!

Here's my bookshelf: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/crokke

Right now, it's titles I can remember that we've read in my book discussion group. What I really like is that I can tag these "Book Club Read", tag something else "On Shelf To Read" and another "Read & Recommend" etc., etc. So it's not dewey, and it's not even arranged topically, but arranged in a way that's useful to ME. I like that part!! I can actually see me going home and working my way through my bookshelves . . ..

Facebook also has a bookshelf & I've really lagged at keeping that up. This seems easier to get to and easier to use.

Wordle was hardly a hurdle (it was fun!)

I'm such a word person that Wordle instantly captivated me. So no images of me on the cover of Cataloging for Dummies :-)

Instead, this Wordle about libraries and what treasures we are. See my play time below.


I'll bet a lot of us could come up with lots more words than this to describe the treasures libraries are, but I gave myself a half-hour to "27 think" (yes I meant the k) today and my time's pretty much up.

What have I learned? I've gotten e-cards from friends with their faces on magazines, or with articles about them in the New York Times or whatever - now I know how they did it and one of these days I'll surprise them with one of my own. The Wordle showed me that this kind of tool can also be used to jazz up the library a little and find fun ways to toot our own horn.

Later!

A Flicker Tale + Technology of the week post (6&7)

I used Flicker two years ago to post all my pictures from my trip to China. Several of us on "Bus 4" posted our pictures places where others of us could find and download them. Then my PC went haywire. Lucky for me I backed up my pictures on CD, but I've never been able to find them on Flicker since. "Bus 4" folks who downloaded them then deleted my email with info on how to access the pictures. So they're floating out there in cyberspace, named in a way I don't remember.

Object lesson - remember what you call things! Not that I've lost anything (I still have my pictures), but I'd have had fun pointing folks to them!

Loved the color wheel and the kinds of pictures (pick an earth tone and voila! there are pictures of sand dunes and old adobe buildings, etc.).

I went to the Digital Bookmobile on April 26. One feature of the vehicle was gadget alley where I played with a Sony Reader and now I'm convinced I want one. They're about $200 though, so I'm not picking one up tomorrow or anything! It was thin & lightweight, had black text on white background like a book, about as much text on a page as a paperback - on a trip, I could carry one of these with several books instead of loading my suitcase (I usually take several books when I travel & often end up buying another one or two at the airport on the way home). Let's hear it for the ability to travel light!!

Turnover Reports

I've been working on turnover reports most of April. I think I even do them in my sleep. What's exciting is that a picture is begininng to emerge of the positive impact of weeding. I'm done with the ITYPE report (formats), but that one doesn't tell the weeding story.

I've done the call-number breakdown report for about half the branches now and often the impact is so visible between the non-fiction areas that have been weeded and those not yet done (the adult 900 figures aren't too impressive, but we haven't weeded there yet).

It just shows that, if a customer can more easily find what they're looking for, they're more likely to check something out.

Just a happy Friday moment. The full report's another week away, but when you feel good about something, it's fun to share.

For those of you who use Title Tales

BWI is entering the blog world, too. Check it out - http://www.titletales.com/articles/

It contains recommendations from their collection development librarians, interviews and more.

First Blog Finally!

Besides friends & family & life's basics, the two other best things in my life are books & cats.
Yes, I'm a reader. I love audio books when I'm in the car, painting a wall, or cleaning the garage but give me words on a page the rest of the time.

When 27 things started, the first suggestion was to read the 7 1/2 habits. Waiting to start until you have the end it mind can be paralyzing, though. More often, I thought I had the end in mind, but when I started I discovered I really didn't. I didn't let that deter me, at least not for long; instead I started re-thinking what was the end I had in mind.

I went to college 4 different times before I had the end in mind I was excited about - to get a Bachelor's Degree in something I was interested in. I dropped my ideas about getting a job (my first 2 years of college that led directly to two years at a job I didn't really like), to thinking I'd get a business degree (I have never felt so apethetic about something as I felt about accounting - sorry all you great folks in Finance!), to becoming a counselor (I was encouraged by the professor, and volunteered at a crisis center for a year but found it too personally draining), to, hey, I'm always reading about history, maybe I should get a degree in it! History, art history, economics - I loved it all.

On the surface, a BA in History is pretty much worth nothing. But I got what I wanted, the coveted Bachelor's degree and great grades to go with it because I was motivated by strong interest.

Later, that degree led to library school and the field where I belong. That was a scary "end in mind" because I had a good job that had nothing to do with libraries. I promised myself that this time I was making a commitment to change careers when I finished. I'm still amazed at how well that all worked out!

So, be stuck on "the end in mind" if it's working for you. If it isn't, stop, look around, and think about where it is you REALLY want to be.

Whew! I was worried about starting on this blog because when I start typing, I don't always know when to stop. So I'm stopping already!