I'm Back

After a miserable spring and summer, I've returned to OELMA NW's "23 Things" project. I hope to complete the project within the next couple of weeks and I hope that other OELMA members with come on board!

Week 3, Thing #7

"Simply blog about anything technology related," is the cue for this 'thing' so I'll write about learning to transfer audio cassettes and LPs to CD or to iTunes. I spent a good bit of last weekend on this and probably got a few more gray hairs in the process, but at last I got it figured out. I'm so grateful to techies who share their knowledge online with those of us who are not so knowledgable. This is a good skill for a school librarian to have. I've already transferred a couple of cassettes for a teacher (note to the copyright police: the content of the cassettes is not available on CD). And I've learned to love my USB turntable--although looking through my lp collection, I can't imagine why I bought a lot of that stuff. :)

Another tech related blessing to me is the automation of our libraries. Most of us have been automated for so long--or never worked in a non-automated library--that I think we take it too much for granted. This weekend I created reports on new fiction, non-fiction, and video in my library...painlessly and from home! Earlier today I read a review in the newspaper of a book I'd like to read, so I went online and requested it from the local public library (and I'm only 4th in line!).

One of the coolest applications I've heard of in a while is the video lessons our computer apps teacher creates for his substitute when he has to be away from school.

That's enough of this--on to thing #8.

Week 3, Thing #6

Here's the trading card I made with FD Toy's Trading Card Maker. I also made one for one of the other OELMA Board members and it will be featured on the association's web site. This is fun!

Week 3, Thing #5

Emerald Lake, Yukon
Originally uploaded by Night Reading

This is a photo I took on a trip to Alaska last summer. There are at least 494 photos of the same lake on Flickr and a lot of them look just like mine! I guess we all took the same tour bus. Attaching the photo to the blog was difficult for me, until I figured out that I had to give Flickr permission to post to my Blogger account.

Week 1, Thing 2

This is the post about lifelong learning--what's easiest and what's most difficult about it for me. Identifying the most difficult aspect is easy--it's an almost paralyzing lack of confidence when faced with new technologies. I want to know exactly how to do everything properly before I begin...which really doesn't happen, does it? Even beginning this blog is upsetting for me because I don't know exactly how it will look when finished. I'm counting on the company of friends, as we work through this program to keep me going.

The easiest thing for me regarding lifelong learning is the will to never stay still. Of course, in this profession staying still is not an option, but I least it's a fun part of the job.