my contribution to learning 2 wiki

I edited a page by adding a little story about a mouse in the 100 year old building that I work in. It is on a page that was added by someone else and is titled animals in the library. I am pleased to see that others have had interesting animals visit them in their libraries as I was feeling very country cousin. It is great to read of other's experiences and makes me feel more a part of a community of library staff who all experience such different things.

wikis

I edited some typos in a wiki about the town I live and work in. Added some capital letters where needed. I found the Montana history wiki very interesting. There are only 9 disasters listed for Montana and in comparison to some of the American disasters that have made the news in the last couple of years they seem not quite on the same monumental scale, although I'm sure bad enough for the people involved. I enjoyed reading about things such as the 1st automobile in Butte, the first electric light and the cost of the first typewriter ($235 in 1885).
The book lovers wiki was most interesting and a good resource for reading book reviews - I've already discovered a couple of books I'd like to read. The Library Success wiki was a source of some great ideas for Adult Programming - and I especially liked the idea for the Cookie Swap/Tasting with a prize of a $20 gift voucher from a local bakery for the winner of best cookie (the winner of the best choc chip cookie's secret ingredient was bourbon!!). Other ideas were an altered book workshop (something to do with all those leftover unsold book fair books!), selling your library, technology, services for specific groups and access to links for training.
I can see benefits to having a closed wiki (with passworded access for staff) to allow access to training data and standard operating instructions and policies etc. Our library has 2 separate drives on their server with all sorts of documents on but they are not accessible to branch library staff. A wiki on someone else's server would get around those access problems really well and allow acess at any time not just when in the main library.

links from rss feeds

Well I have been exploring some of my rss feeds. I have deleted some that I initially had. I actually subscribed to them by category rather than individual sites and some were just a waste of space. I can see benefits to some libraries who have the time to devote to maintaining relevance, but in a small one person branch there just never seems to be enough time. I will probably search out some sites which will keep me in touch with library doings and which I can check out at home. Small branches tend to be a little isolating and insular. I regularly keep in touch with my co branch worker at Wang library and more recently we both work one shift a week at our main library which allows us to be more in touch with stock, staff and all other comings and goings.
I am finding that coming out of my computer comfort zone is generating lots of ideas. As well as Learning 2.0 I am studying computers at our local high school. I have finished yr 11 and am currently working on yr 12 and computers for business studies.

The links below are from 2 of my rss feeds and I'm sure I'll find lots more. Check out the talent on the envelopes on the 1st link.

http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i26/26b01401.htm - this link is to a very interesting 'back-of-the-envelope' contest for a George W Bush library - some very clever 'tongue-in-cheek' entries.

http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/ - an interesting word document using callouts with 50 reasons not to change

happy easter

it seems a while since I last posted. I had trouble finding time and concentration for week 4 (rss feeds) and I promised myself I'd look at it this weekend. I actually started week 5 (wikis) without finishing week 4 so I hope that as long as all weeks are completed by the end that it doesn't matter if they are done slightly out of order. The easter weekend is flying by and it's Sunday already. I have both my boys home (1 from Canberra and the other just back from 2 years in Canada). I will go to Campbelltown on Monday to visit my daughter and that's the end of the weekend. Tuesday night is my school computer class as well. I have finished Year 11 computers and am currently working on Year 12 as well as Computers for business. Hope to find more time this week for homework, but I doubt it lol.

bike flip

awkward moment - bike crash caught in action shot
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charliel/290496276/

glad it wasn't one of my kids

flickr possum link

Hope this works - here is a link to one of my flickr photos of a possum on top of my bookshelf at home. He came in through the cat door looking for a way back into the roof of our house.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/krazykat_aus/2307781880/

krazykat

I have uploaded an image of my cat (Krazykat). As you can see he has a tale to tell. The short version is that he got up inside the motor of my 4wd Maverick on a cold winter's day. A nasty sounding crunch and a trip to the vet resulted in half a tail. I use his name as my online persona because it's easy to remember. I had to resize the image as the first time I tried it was too large and took too much time. My camera saves images at 10 megapixels so I used paint and reduced the image until it was only 167 kb in size.

Last night for leap year some of the staff from our regional library met for dinner at our local Chinese restaurant and followed that up with a visit to the Portland Art Purchase Show. There were some interesting works on display, with the trend of recent years being towards realism. Previous years had a fair proportion of abstract works, but in a small country town the realistic works obviously sell better.