You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2008.
I’m so glad that I had a couple of scheduled posts… Those really come in handy when you can’t update often because…
- You’re swamped at work because of the summer reading game and you start having 9 or 10 hour days
- Your laptop harddrive is being RMA’d
- Your in the middle of moving.
I made some tweaks to the summer reading game which seem like they’ll really pay off, such as letting the kids choose whatever books they’d like to read instead of choosing the type of book from a jar. The reading logs were turned into game boards which have all the spots numbered which #1: keep the kids enthusiastic and #2: makes counting the number of books read for me a LOT easier.
It’s too early to tell how the thermometer is going to work out; as of Tues. morning, my kids were up to 1,066 books, but now we’ve had 2 programs and a rush of readers come and visit the library, so I’ll update my counts tomorrow. Our goal this year is to read 10,000 books (we read well over 9,000 last year), so I put up a thermometer to track our progress. I told the kids that if we reached our goal of 10,000 books, we’d make our end-of-summer party a pizza party.
I want to get the kids some really cool prizes though, for our top readers, but I don’t know what to get them. I’ll have to do some shopping around.
One thing that’s been kind of a ‘miss’ for me is staying on top of supplies for the craft programs – I wind up doing a lot of last minute shopping. Something I’ve really improved on is keeping our in-library event posters up to date.
On the professional development note, I have not been doing Web 2.0-ing because of the laptop situation, but I’ve still been brainstorming, thinking, and writing notes. There’s a sorta-volunteer/consultant opportunity that I’m working on right now that is library related, and there is another job opportunity I am seriously considering, but I don’t know as of this moment what my decision is going to be and what the results would be either way. It’s a little hard to think when your home’s in upheaval.
And even with all this moving, I am determined to get back to reading, so I have 5 or 6 books at home. I am proud to say I have FINALLY started Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight.
That is all.
Happy Reading, Happy Wednesday!
This is my favorite librarian-related video. EVER!
It’s amazing how much we take for granted even the simplest things. If you think about it, even books were a “new technology” at one time.
Thanks to Bonnie, the creator of the Young New Librarians group on Ning for highlighting this video!
I have a couple of irritations going on right now. One of them being related to my blog/etc. is that my laptop hard drive is dying which makes me very upset because now I can’t access or do things at home and on my own time. Everything in life is nuts right now. Oie! And it’s going to take time until I can get my Precious back to be. *sigh*
So anyway, last night while driving around running errands, I heard on NPR that Verizon (and I think other internet providers) made a statement admitting that they were going to block access to websites that posted child pornographic content.
Now this made me think: I’ll admit – I like that idea. I don’t think all porn should be blocked, but I think content that exploits children should be. But then… call it thinking ahead, thinking progressively, or playing devil’s advocate… but it seems that at first it’s all good and awesome that they’ll block such content, but then something else will be blocked, and something else, and initially we may all agree, but if it keeps going, lines are going to get blurred…
It made me stop and think, that that’s precisely how these big conglomerates are going to market their censorship: they’re going to market to concerned and protective parents and adults saying “Look, we want to protect your children too, and we’ll block sites for you. We’re the good guys!”
But I say, it’s the parent’s responsibility to protect and keep an eye on their kids -it shouldn’t be shirked off to anyone/anything else, and we shouldn’t keep creating opportunities for parents to hand over that responsibility. That’s why there’s filtering software available… for you to install as you see fit, so you still have the choice to say what’s acceptable for your children and what’s not.
I found a related article on Wired News and I’m looking for other related information as well. I’m curious to see how people on Net Neutrality sites will respond.
Since earlier this week, I have been taking time each day to learn something new with technology, the web, or within this fabulous field of librarianship. I already knew of a few professional librarian blogs, but I am looking for others who I either relate to or am personally inspired by. I’ve introduced myself to a number of web tools, too. One is the Google Reader and I am utilizing it to subscribe to said blogs. I’ve been dedicating a little time each day to read any new entries. As a result, I’ve come across a number of great suggestions, perspectives, links, and new things to try.
I have also gone out on a limb and am now using del.icio.us after hearing about and seeing it all over the place. It is a rather useful thing and quite easy to pick up. I have the browser tags installed on both my personal laptop and my desktop at work.
In a lot of blog entries, I’ve been hearing a lot about social networking on the web and utilizing those outlets to the libraries advantage both as outreach and a resource. I’m already on Facebook, but Twitter is one that seems to be the latest buzz, so I went to check it out and now have an account. It’s really simple and straightforward… So much so, that I’m not sure if that’s it or if I’m not really understanding or making full use of it’s potential. I’ll just have to keep checking back and give it some time.
Other than that, things have been really busy at work. I’ve been prepping endlessly for the upcoming Summer Reading Program, and today was our last day going to the schools and presenting our promotional puppet show. And let me tell you, 8 puppet shows in a day complete with enthusiastic and energetic promotional spiels after each one takes a LOT out of a gal! For the most part, 4th and 5th graders were our toughest crowds, but all in all the whole thing went well. But good heavens… I needed a nap as soon as I got home!
That’s about it for now… My three-day break from the library is here, and I’m off to relax!
