Jersey Girl Librarian

Hi, My name is Sherry, I am a Librarian working in Charlotte North Carolina. I have recently moved to the Charlotte area from New Jersey. As my blog title shows I am a Jersey Girl at heart and wherever I go, so goes my Jersey pride.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

podcasting

Oh geez, here we go again, new vernacular. Now I have to "sync" my mp3 player? I guess that means synchronize it to play the podcasts. Are you guys going to have an MP3 tutor session at All Staff Day? I think that would be a great idea for us newbies. Although, now that we have accomplished all of the "things" , maybe "syncing" my MP3 player won't be as hard as it sounds.

Searching in Yahoo podcasts for libraries and new jersey I found many interesting podcasts to listen to. The process was pretty easy, just like searching in a search engine.

I first found an hour long podcast from Haunted New Jersey about their investigation of a haunted library in New Jersey. But I couldn't listen to the whole thing at work and since it wasn't really library related I chose to keep looking.

I then found a podcast from an episode of LiSRadio from the University of Missouri entitled, "Library Service to Older Adults and the Baby Boomers". Allan M. Kleiman, head of reference at Westfield Memorial Library, Westfield, New Jersey was the guest speaker of this podcast. Allan is chair of the American Library Association's Committee on Library Service to the Aging, and was only one of four librarians that attended the White House Conference on Aging as an
"official" voting delegate. This was an interesting discussion on public library service and how librarians should be serving this unique population in this technological age. I added the LiSRadio podcasts to my bloglines account and I am looking forward to hearing more from them.

Now I am wondering if Rutgers University has podcasts? My alma mater by the way, and yes it is a "REAL" college as I was asked by a southerner the other day. Apparently you are only a "real" college if you have a winning football team and since Rutgers finally won (GO SCARLET KNIGHTS) a game last weekend, it isn't deemed "Real" down here. Anyway I digress.

Okay I am off to check out Rutgers podcasts.

Web 2.0

Well as you will see by the post before this one I played around with some of the Web 2.0 winners and honorable mentions. While the games were pretty fun I didn't think I should write about them to much because we are supposed to be taking this seriously so I will stick to posting about some of the other sites I visited on my journey this morning.
I am glad to see that 43 things made it on the list of honorable mentions after all it is one of our inspirations. I really need to spend some time and think of 43 things that I want to accomplish in my life. I actually think that it will help me focus more on my career as well as my personal life both of which seems to be in a constant state of chaos since moving to NC earlier this year. So I am personally grateful for this site because I hope it will allow me to focus more on me and my needs instead of others.
Ok, enough of that, lets move on.

I also visited Wayfaring, which I think will give me a great way to create maps for my friends and family when they come visit me. Instead of emailing directions I can just point people to my Wayfaring map and let them figure out how easiest it is to get here. But again I worry about people who I don't want to figure out where I live, coming to visit. I am pretty untrustworthy in general so all of this sharing stuff concerns me and I am very cautious of what I put out on the web.

I know it can all be made private but I know there is some hacker out there trying to figure out how to unprivatize it.

Okay here is another gripe, yahoo! answers, do people really expect to get correct answers from a site like this!!!!?? What are we, as a society, teaching people who think that they can get sound medical advice from some Joe Schmo on the internet? We as librarians are trained not to give medical and legal advice, because we don't have that kind of training, but at least we have some training, you never know who is answering your questions on Yahoo or one of the other feedback sites. I went to a section that was health related because I am interested in that particular subject and one of the first questions I came upon was from someone who CLEARLY should be seeing a doctor for her problem but decided to ask Yahoo users instead? This is exactly why I worry about the future of the Internet.

Ok I am off my soapbox.

And if I had an exciting life and carried a PDA or other mobile device around with me the personal organization sites would be very helpful, no more yellow post-its all over the place, losing their stickiness.

I have already talked about how much I love bloglines which won 3rd place in the blog guides category. Librarything also got an honorary mention in its category as well so congrats goes out to them.

space invaders


Free Online Games brought to you by Arcaplay

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Good news & I'm back!

I know you were wondering if I would come back to Meck. County from my weekend jaunt to New Jersey. Well I have made it back, smooth sailing from start to finish. I ate some delicious food and hung out with my mom. Now it is back to work and finishing up my Learning 2.0 objectives, Hopefully I'll complete them this week and it'll be smooth sailing onto my next techy adventure.

I have some great news! I am very competitive with myself and when I found the hits counter and put it on my blog I set a personal goal of 200 hits before All Staff Day. Well I am happy to announce that I have reached my goofy goal of 200 hits earlier this week, well before my deadline! Yeah!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for visiting my blog and helping me reach my goal!

Do you hear the angels?


Do you hear the angels singing? No? Then you haven't gotten to the end of the or the end of the program. Okay, technically I am not at the end of the rainbow or the end of the program either, but zoho writer is what I have been looking forward to. I can actually see daily work related use out of zoho and other online word processing programs.

I share a closet (oh, I mean office) with a coworker and it is sometimes difficult to get time on the computer. I also work at three different public desks so this type of program makes it much easier to begin a report/project at one place and move to another without having to hope that the information on a disk will still be on it when you come back to work on the report, or remembering to take the disk with you when you move from desk to desk. I don't have a use to share documents with others, yet, but I can see this being an invaluable tool for that type of thing in the future.

I wouldn't use it for personal stuff like journaling or financials, just like I wouldn't use blogger for that kind of stuff either. The world is too invasive as it is, I don't want to make it easier for people to get my personal stuff, but for "safe" stuff that won't come back to haunt you this is a (lifesaver). (This is a stretch on my theme but it will make complete sense to my NEW JERSEY pals. GO Bonza Bottler!)

Look at how much I have learned in just a few weeks. I can import pictures, videos, games, import posts from zoho and so much more. Hmm Maybe this should be my last post. But, alas, I will send it as my post on Zoho instead.

♥Angels- Thanks "meineinstein" for the great video http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=meineinstein

♥Rainbow - Thanks "eggman" for the great Atlantic City rainbow http://www.flickr.com/photos/eqqman/

♥Lifesaver cupcake- Thanks "unsureshot" for the great bonza bottler reference http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsureshot/

wink P.S. For those with a thirst for useless knowledge check out Chase's Calendar of Events ( or use your new found web knowledge and search the Internet) for info on Bonza Bottler day. We celebrated at my last job with creative dessert making.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Friday afternoon

I'm going home! Yep, I'm flying out this evening for a quick trip home to New Jersey! Yeah!!!!!
Getting some good "mom" cooked food and some relaxation with my family and friends. But alas I have to come to work on Monday, so I guess you will see me back here next week to finish up my 23 things. And rest up for my first all staff day in a few weeks.

SEE YA!

mind games

Hi All,

Okay this is what I get for strolling through blogs on a quiet Friday afternoon. I found this teaser on the blog MMA Days (that next blog button is my curse, I get to read what people are thinking all over the world.) Anyhoo, are you 2% or 98% of the population? answer will appear in comments

Mind Game 2% or 98 %

A little different.
MIND GAME

2% or 98%


This is strange...can you figure it out?

Are you the 2% or 98% of the population?
Follow the instructions! NO PEEKING AHEAD!

* Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow.

* There's no trick or surprise.


* Just follow these instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can!
* Again, as quickly as you can but don't advance until you've done each of them ... really. *

Now, scroll down (but not too fast, you might miss something).

Think of a number from 1 to
10
.................................................. ...
Multiply that number by 9
................................................. ...........
If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits
together
.................................................. .............
Now subtract 5
.................................................. ..............................
Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with
(example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)
.................................................. ................................
Think of a country that starts with that letter
.................................................. ............
Remember the last letter of the name of that country
.................................................. ...........
Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter
..................................................
Remember the last letter in the name of that animal
.................................................. ...........................
Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

netlibrary

Well, I just downloaded my first book to my home computer and it was quite satisfying and easy as well. I never realized how many different books we own through this service. I found all sorts of useful books that I can pass on to patrons. Especially useful were the language books. We are always getting patrons who want to learn a foreign language and most of the time the books/tapes are checked out. Now I can refer them to netlibrary so they can study the language at their leisure at home. What a great service. Now I know how to promote it.
Thanks, Learning 2.0

sandbox play

Wow, how easy was that! I added my blog, added some favorites in the music, restaurant, and book category and it was very quick and painless. What I thought was going to be confusing turned out to be an easy pleasant experience. Who knew that technology would be this simple and cool! Sandbox play here I come!!!!

wiki wiki

Just learned all I could about wiki's. Bull Run gave us a nice welcome on their wiki. I understand the concept behind them but I still have concerns about the relevancy of posts as well as the vandalism aspect of the whole thing. But some of my concerns have been addressed in the wiki's that I have read so I am not as leary of them as I had been. I am glad to know that there are protocols in place when posting to wiki's and that there is usually a hierarchy involved in what is posted. When I start posting to the learning 2.0 wiki I will be able to see and understand the whole wiki thing even better. Catch me in the sandbox later!

shiver m' timbrs


Ahoy thar maties!

It's National Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Learn to talk like a swashbuckler @
pirate talk

Saturday, September 16, 2006

hit counters

Okay, now I am really getting into this learning thing. I just went and researched hit counters and actually got one to work on my blog! Yippy Skippy I'm learning now! Check out http://easyhitcounters.com to see how many people visit your blog.

Technorati

Okay so now I have a link on my blog to technorati over on the sidebar. I have added some tags to my blog and added some tags to my watchlist. I guess this is pretty cool. I'll get to see if other people actually look at my blog and see if other people are talking about the same things that I am. I am reserving my right to get enthusiastic about this "thing".

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Views on Library 2.0

My thoughts on Library 2.0 are very mixed. On one hand, I am very excited about what is happening on the Internet and all the emerging technology, but on the other hand, I am old school. In fact, I am so old school that my original draft of this post is with pencil and paper. I find that the easiest way for me to get my thoughts down is with pencil and paper. It is just the most comfortable way for me to write, plus I won’t play games if I write.
I got into this profession because I loved the feel of books; I loved delving into another world. Research is not the same on the Internet as it is in a quiet library full of musty old books. There is no awe, no reverence to a computer as there is to a respected work like the Old English Dictionary. Now, I know there is someone out there saying, “Hey, Technophobe, you can get the O.E.D. online”. And you would be right. The O.E.D., as well as many other resources are on the web and I will even give you the fact that some things are even easier/quicker to find on the web then they are through books. But I worry that we are becoming a society that is relying on technology too much. Wendy Schultz in, “to a temporary place in time...” says that we are not far off from library 3.0 or even 4.0 where she expects to see the library “ as physical places in the library “storefront” , they will also be mobile, as AR (Augmented Reality) overlay we can view via glasses, contacts, or projection anywhere”. This description reminds me of the young adult sci-fi novel by Anderson, M.T., Feed, which created a world where people saw “billboard”, type messages scroll across their eyes. They did not have the ability of independent thought. A character who had enough sense to realize this way of living was not good choose to remove the feed from her head, she subsequently died because she could not survive in this new world. Now I paraphrased the book immensely but the idea is the same, will we become a slave to technology or will technology become our slave. We are at the crossroads to a new way of life, how will we survive, as slave or master?

del.icio.us

I don't get it?! Maybe I am just not using the web the way that you are "supposed" to. I think this is avery confusing site. I read all the tutorials, watched the video, signed up for an account and I just don't get the point? Do you sign on to this site in the morning and then go to the sites you use daily from there? Isn't that the same as bloglines, which is soooooo less confusing to use. Maybe I am to linear of a thinker but this doesn't make any sense. Which is really frustrating since I was getting the hang of everything up until this week. Maybe I should become a history professor like the Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us talked about.

Oh well maybe if I play around with it more I will see some benefit. I let you know if I see any benefit to this chaos.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

You Tube

just visited youtube and found this great video about New Jersey. The video is a rap song about New Jersey and the famous people that are from NJ.

This was a very easy site to use. I just put in my search term and came up with hundreds of hits. What a fun and easy way to see videos that people have posted and shared with the world.

Rollyo

Well I just created my own Rollyo search tool and added it to my blog sidebar. That is a pretty neat tool. I'll have to keep trying it out to see if it will consistently get the information that I need from the places I want to get it from.

image generators

I M A G E S



So apparently I have been experimenting with image generators all along and didn't realize what I was doing. I must be a technical genius and I don't even know it. Apparently, image generators helped me create my name in blocks in this post. And create a motivational poster here. I also created the unofficial seal of the Jersey Girl Librarian blog. These are fun things to fool around with when you have the time. They are what make learning fun, personal and inspirational.

Take a look at some cool sites where you can create your own motivation, seal or blocks.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Unofficial Jersey Girl Librarian seal

oops, I did it

Well I did it, I admit, I performed the sin that all bloggers fear. I grabbed a picture from a site and forgot to give credit to the photographer and/or the site itself. They found out and called me on it this weekend. I have corrected my blunder on that individual post. But I also wanted to remind all of us newbie bloggers to give credit where credit is due.

library thing

While, I like the concept of librarything, I don't think it is for me. It would be great for someone like my mother who has every book she has ever bought. She could finally catalogue them and see how many duplicate books she actually has. Since I deal with books in my work life I try not to purchase alot of books and I already have a low tech pen and notebook method of keeping track of the books that I read I can't see myself using this to much. But if I had a cataloguing or organizing project that I had to complete either for work or "Real" life I can see utilizing this program. With that said I did create a list of books that were meaningful to me throughout different stages of my life. You can see them on the sidebar of my blog.

Friday, September 01, 2006

nerd

Okay I am officially a learning 2.0 nerd. Helene blogs us a hint about the next week and immediately I have to go check it out. I have created a Librarything library of some of my favorite, most memorable books throughout my life. I will add more next week as I think of them and add them to my blog.

Friends

I know this isn't Library 2.0 related but it is New Jersey related so it fits within the confines of my blog. I can't wait. My two best friends in the world are coming to visit me for the weekend! And guess what they are coming from New Jersey! YEAH, and almost as equally as exciting as seeing them is the New Jersey corn they are bringing! I gotta say Harris Teeter corn does not match up to any corn from New Jersey!

If I had a digital camera, I'd paste a picture of us to the blog so you can see us eating our corn this weekend. Actually any camera would be good now. My husband accidentally dropped ours on our honeymoon a few years ago and I never got a new one. Still angry over those lost pictures.

Hey, could a digital camera be a prize on All Staff Day? Hmmm, I wonder, that would be a nice prize. Actually I would love anything techy, I don't have a digital camera, laptop computer, PDA, etc.

Wow, what a sad and shameless plug I just gave myself for winning a drawing. I hope all two of you that actually read this blog will wish me luck on my quest to win a drawing!

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

my favorite blogs

Wow what a daunting task set before us today. I was working up the list from Z-A but I only got to the beginning of S before I had to go to lunch. When I got back the site wouldn't load. I guess alot of people are doing the same thing. I probably won't be able to get back to the list for a few days so I wanted to give you a list of blogs that interested me so far. My criteria for inclusion in my list was simple. Have you been following the course, have you made it interesting and personal so that the course is interesting to you, have you completed all tasks to date?

http://www.spinelabel.blogspot.com This site is helpful, informative, personal and complies with the spirit of the L2 initiative. Congrats!

http://www.talknerd.wordpress.com What a great site. I love all the '80s references. This is a girl after my own heart. Not only has she completed the tasks but she has done it in a fun, cool way. I couldn't see the Mr. T video but that just allows me the opportunity to check out YouTube when I get home and have the video capability.

http://www.morethanlettuce.blogspot.com What can you say about Salad Days. She has a great site. I love the parking game. Great pictures and she has completed all the tasks so far. She is also very actively looking at other blogs and comments freely.

http://www.usefulsoftware.blogspot.com While this site was full of interesting and helpful information it has not really completed all of the tasks so far. I am including it because the information it supplied far outweighed it's incompleteness.

http://www.why-susan.blogspot.com Beautiful pictures, personal and complete so far. Although not absolutely up-to-date I had to include this because I agree with her/him? On the concern about the part-time staff. I know that there are part-time as well as full-timers that don't feel they are being given the time to complete the tasks. I will also note that some of those people don't really want to do it, so complain about the lack of time instead of just saying they don't want to do it. But on the other hand I don't feel there is enough encouragement and support from midlevel staff either. Just my two cents, for what ever it is worth

blog day


Happy Blog Day everyone!

In keeping with my "Celebrate New Jersey" themed blog, I have choosen to share a picture of the New Jersey Cake that Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Mirda's fourth grade class from the Bridgewater-Raritan School District created several years ago.

Who knew that I would actually be able to find a cake shaped like New Jersey by simply doing a search in yahoo images for cake and New Jersey!

Enjoy a piece of cake as you celebrate Blog Day!