Roadblocks

When writing a draft of a story or poem, it's really important to keep writing and not look back on the work and start editing. Once the editing begins, it's possible for a person to lose the real story to the turn of a phrase or the flip of a sentence. The idea should be the primary goal during the draft process, the process of discovery. I haven’t always perceived my role as a learner similarly, but as I write this, the goal of this class becomes clearer. This is a class for discovery and for experimentation. It is about the possibilities.
Once we are actually working in libraries, however, we move from the draft phase to the editing. The reality of editing makes it hard for me to embrace the exploration of technological possibility. In my head, I keep hearing the voices of my school’s Tech Chair and administrators. I am taken aback by my naturally skeptical nature and my own hesitations about technology and change.

I want to be enthusiastic and optimistic, but I find myself focused on the ways in which things can’t work. I think about the physical roadblocks: the cables that aren’t movable, the tables that just won’t fit anywhere else, the computers that HAVE to be somewhere else. I remember the logistical issues that make adding software or updating the card catalog long, difficult processes. In my position, I have not been given the privileges that would make these tasks under my immediate control. I have to put my requests to others and justify every decision. I have to decide what is truly worth entering the bureaucratic maze.

I also face additional human roadblocks in the form of teachers who are too overworked or old-fashioned or scared to embrace new technology. So, in this class, when I should be charging forward, dazzled by the prospect of new ways of teaching and learning, I find myself imagining the glazed over faces of the teachers to whom I’ll be introducing ANOTHER new way of doing things.

Some of these roadblocks are just plain out of my control, others require a little bit of patience and perseverance, and still others reflect my own insecurities, perspective, and understanding that there is only so much that can be accomplished in a day or week or year. As I challenge the editor within myself who keeps trying to revise the draft before it’s done, I realize part of my frustration is because I LOVE some of the things I’ve been learning. I can see the potential of where we can take students—if the conditions are just right. I have to remember to keep being the writer, the learner, the explorer. I wish my mind didn’t echo “roadblock” each time I hear a new idea because I really want to put some of these ideas into action. I want to be more open to the ideas, to push my library work and myself.

I’m hoping that I’m making at least a baby step with my innovative project. I could really see it working, and hope it does. I’m starting with something small and focusing on a perceived need which might be resolved via del.icio.us. Since none of the school computers can hold bookmarks on their computers, I can use technology to help teachers and students easily access the items they often refer back to. Enter del.icio.us/Feehanlibrary. It's a start at turning roadblocks into speedbumps.

I think my realistic (okay, and somewhat skeptical) nature has a place in library science and particularly in terms of technology. I just have to be sure to use it to a positive end. I need to ask questions such as: What is the greatest need in my academic setting? Where can I make a positive difference? What is possible within the given constraints? If I ask the right questions and don’t let myself become overwhelmed with thoughts of “this will be more trouble than it's worth”, I think I can make the process of learning more powerful and efficient for the students and teachers at my school. Who knows? We could all be surprised.

My library and facebook?

Among our classmates, there have been discussions about how facebook pages link in with Twitter and other aps. I don't have a Facebook or a MySpace page, and I'm not sure I want one or need one. It is interesting to me, though, to think that libraries could use these tools to advocate for themselves.

Apparently some bookstores already do it, according to this article from the New York Time about MySpaces pages for City Lights and Square Books. The article ends up focusing more on how the stores are described in the profile (are bookstores male or female?, etc.) than what it means for bookstores to have a face on MySpace (in this case). Sadly, the comments for the NYT article follow this same train of thought, no debate of necessity for their presence on social networking sites, only their question of a bookstore's gender. Yes, world, this is the important stuff. The comments on the MySpace pages are filled with buy my book and thanks for adding me comments, and again, I think I must be missing something. City Lights has a website, though it doesn't seem to acknowledge the MySpace presence. I find it all very confusing. So confusing, in fact, I can't really articulate myself well.

I guess I'm just asking: what are your thoughts on stores or places (or ideas even) having a "face" on Facebook or MySpace? In what way does their presence there fill a need of the user that another resource couldn't?

Long time no blog

Finally, I've found the time to read all the articles that have been piling up in my Google Reader. Yeah to scanning what the NYT is talking about. Yeah to reading articles on Pottermania including those in the Boston area. Yeah to reading comments by other classmates. (Though I wish my Reader could easily allow me to comment on those blogs via the reader.) Yeah to seeing the current additions to Threadless.

In addition, I've finally gotten a chance to read the articles about hipster librarians, and check my work email, and my library moodle page. I've even made progress on one tech encyclopedia entry. This weekend definitely had some great moments of accomplishment.

Maybe I'm getting back into the swing of things for this class. It's not as though I stopped working on it/ for it (I haven't), but the immediate thrill of the blog is gone. Now it's time for consistency, follow-up, regular maintenance. Like reading shelves, it can be necessary but daunting. And once I'm off the track for a while, where do I start in getting back on?

One of my classmates, librarygirl101, suggested that the library teacher should send daily tech emails to teachers. Perhaps this would be a great service, but I can honestly say that finding a new tech advancement to daily email about would be a challenge for me. In addition, I don't know if I could succeed with that kind of regularity. Last year, I did send messages to teachers, regarding new materials and new databases, but not daily. I tried for every quarter, and felt lucky to get that much done. Now that I've finished my first year in a school I can honestly say, the first year is a bear. There is so much I wanted to do that I still haven't done, and so much that landed on my plate that I had no idea would be there. Perhaps the best advice I got before starting was from my mom who said,

"don't do anything in the first year you won't be willing to do in the future."

It's another version of first impressions stick, I suppose, but it's helpful to remember that a base can be created and built upon, but much of the first year is about establishing the base.

I want to write more on RSS feeds and my impression of Google docs, but I feel they need their own entry. I figure this is enough for now. Also, I put a twitter feed on my blog page when trying to arrange a podcast badge for a friends show, and I want to take it off, so I should do that now.

Daemon update

My Golden Compass daemon, Zotius underwent some serious changes over the time it could shift. It started as a Jackal but as ended as something else. During the time it could shift it was a cat-thing, a mouse, and a jackrabbit. Those are the three other shapes I remember most specifically. It's settled on ocelot, and I'll take that, because that's a pretty sweet animal really, and also fierce.

Ha, I just realized...I've essentially gone from being a dog person to being a cat person. Funny.

Podthoughts

After finishing my podcast, I have all these thoughts, here are just a few, in no particular order.

1. After listening to the podcasts of my classmates, I really wished I got the music sites to play properly so I could incorporate that into my podcast. Those intros/outros really helped set the tone of a piece.

2. I thought I sounded so great when I was doing my bit, but then listening to the finished product, it was all right, but not as great as I wanted it to be. Maybe using a script would be a better option.

3. I could really do a weed-of-the-month podcast. The library world could really use a podcast like that...It could be called, "What Not to Keep" or "Weed Wise" or "Weed Away" or "Something Weeded This Way Goes."

4.Weeding advice for specific sections could be the main focus of podcasts but a few podcasts could be set aside for more general weeding issues. The first episode could answer the question "why weed." Another podcast could be about general criteria for weeding. Another podcast could give suggestions on where to go to find replacements. Another could share ideas on what to do with books/materials once they have been weeded from the collection. Another podcast could include ways to "sell weeding" to the school population since it can be something that has to be defended." Those nuggets could be really useful, and the program could be created by several librarians, not just me.

Could I make this work?...I don't know...Hmm...

p.s. I've postdated this entry because I want it to be near my published podcast, and these are thoughts I woke up with last Sunday morning, so I figure it was better to put them by that date.

Look Ma! a Podcast!

I know she'll be proud. I also know she knows a lot about my podcast topic since she helped me in my library for two days straight! Thanks for all the hard work, Momma!
In my podcast I talk about weeding a library collection, plus I got to make "weed" a tag, which could disgruntle some listeners in search of something else.

Hear the work of students in LIS 460, including me!

Weed Wise: Atlases





Enjoy! And this below is my Podcast criteria, based on listening to several and trying my own hand at it. What do you think? Kudos to all those those succeed at this on a regular basis!

Good Podcasts ...

• are well paced, with little to no dead air
  
• if the podcast is too slow, a listener will lose interest
• if too fast, the listener won't be able to keep up
  
• are well edited
  
• with few ums, ahs, audible breaths, and/or dead space
• sections can be moved, shifted, deleted to fit the main idea of the podcast
  
• follow a logical progression
  
• it's less important that podcasters tell me what they are going to do then that they lead me on a journey in which I become invested
• stay focused and on topic
• include voices that are clear and articulate
• have a conversational manner or other persona
  
• allow us all to become This American Life documentarians
• voices are animated, not monotone
  
• engage the listener in some manner
  
• podcasters are aware that someone else is listening
• elicit listener response
• can make people laugh out loud or shiver or think
• stay within the allotted time
  
• good podcasts edit information to meet the podcast length.
  
• Grammar Girl just does ONE lesson in a podcast, one soundbite of information, not several
  
• take advantage of the form itself
• follow the Boy Scout Motto "Be Prepared"
  
• even if it is just lose notes, prep and planning is needed before the record button is ever pushed
• make all aspects of the podcast relevant
  
• if music is included it should support the main ideas or goals or tenor of the podcast program
  

the 2.0

I've just realized that some people might think that my covs2.0 is an homage to Brotherhood2.0, but that wasn't my intention. In fact I didn't think of that connection until a friend mentioned it. My 2.0 was meant to reference the discussions in the world of the library of Library2.0 and Web2.0, which I understand to be the upgrades of these systems into the rest of the world.

Here I am in this class using a Wiki regularly, reading blog posts, discussing servers and FTP...all under the guise of the library! In some ways, it makes me feel really lucky that I decided to become a librarian now, because I am beginning to understand that this "upgrade" is here to stay and so we must alter the way we think about libraries and reconsider what it means to research, to locate information, and to serve patrons.

In all this new technology (and even the old stuff), I still can't get my head around some of it. I can't quite figure out what to do with the "public" aspects of so much of it. If I make a del.icio.us page for my teachers and students, would I need to reconsider what I have on my own, if perchance they found mine? My name is out there now in the blogosphere and interweb. Does 2.0 mean more individual exposure? If so, are we always aware of what image we put out? It makes me think that more of us (but especially schools and libraries and libraries in schools) need publicists. Perhaps social networking is a type of backlash toward the society pages of the 40s, 50s, and 60's. Now there's a thesis for someone? Is social networking more than a society page upgrade?