Beyond Method #12: Library Technology

Beyond Method #12: Last Dance: Evaluation. I finished!!!
1. My favorite exercises include Smilebox and Shelfari. I'll be using those most of all. i can use them personally as well as professionally.
2. My lifelong learning goals include trying to keep up with technology changes, even though they proliferate exponentially! Even though I retired in June, after 43 years in libraries, I will continue to be involved with libraries as a volunteer, and as a member of TLA. If I want to keep myself relevant to the daily changes in information technology, I need to continue learning through webinars like this.
3. One of the take-aways I really like is Skype an Author. This has such great possibilities -- why didn't I know about it sooner!
4. Improvements for the course? I like the self paced learning and the exercises to hold myself accountable for actually doing the hands-on learning. Improve by continuing to provide this kind of tech training.
5. Yes, I would definitely participate if you have a similar program.

Beyond Method #11: Library Technology

Beyond Method #11 concerns use of online surveys. I have participated in many surveys using several of these tools although I haven't devised such a survey myself. I can think of several ways to use these tools. I plan to use SurveyMonkey to poll visitors to the Gunter Library & Museum facebook page to see how many would be interested in forming a historical society in Gunter. PollEverywhere is a new tool to me. I can see where it could be useful in a library focus group, and perhaps could be used in some YA activity where they are game playing.

Beyond Method #10: Library Technology

Method #10 concerns tools to help conferencing or continuing education online. I have used Go-to-meeting. This was useful when a tech needed to take over my computer remotely and fix a problem we were having. I've also attended many webinars for continuing education. I used this extensively for staff training, and now that state library finances have been cut so drastically, I expect we will all be relying on this more and more.

I participated in a podcast set up by NETLS to discuss with other librarians how we liked using Discover Pods. NETLS also set up an online conference to discuss the feasability of KOHO as an online automation system. I have never organized an online meeting or training session.

I really liked the idea of using SKYPE to connect authors with children, or even with a book discussion group. I've never used SKYPE, but my laptop can use it, so I will be trying that out soon. Connecting families with soldiers overseas sounds like an excellent program, one that all libraries should have.

Beyond Method #9: Tell a Digital Story

Photo album generated with Smilebox">Southern Caribbean Cruise

This photo album was created using smilebox. It was really simple to build. Libraries should be able to use similar tools to promote and present summer reading programs, YA activities, other library programs. You just need to have the photos and in a few minutes you can build a quality album, with music.

Beyond Method #8: Library Technology

Method # 8 talks about screencasting and shows the many tools available to do screencasting. Screencasting looks like a very useful tool. Libraries could use it easily to explain how to do something. On the Van Alstyne Library's webpage there needs to be an explanation of how to use e-books. The three steps involved could be explained with a screencast embedded. I used Screenr to make a screencast inviting people to join Van Alstyne Voices Toastmasters. The flyer showed up, but the audio did not. I need to use my laptop instead of my desktop because it has a better speaker.

Beyond method #7: Library Technology

I've been having fun looking at all the possibilities for presentations. There are so many! I tried slideshare and it seemed really easy. I will try to embed the Fake Presentation. Yahoo! It worked! I will have to do some presentations of my own now. This is so simple. A library could easily make a presentation for one of their programs, to advertise it, or could make one at the program and report about it, then embed it in their web page. I like it!

Beyond Method #6 Library Technology

This technology step concerns use of e-books. It's a lot more complicated than I ever thought. I haven't had an opportunity to download anything from Overdrive since the Van Alstyne Library doesn't own a subscription. I need a membership card in the McKinney Library to use their subscription. I do use my Kindle daily to download my personal book choices. But it is not possible for libraries to circulate Kindles yet, if ever. There are too many restrictions for libraries to loan out e-book readers. So the great technology that allows users of Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc to purchase books and read them instantly is closed to libraries until some future technology adjustment is made. Definitely libraries are in danger of being superceded by this technology. Fortunately there are still plenty of readers who want the book in hand, or, don't like or understand the technology.

Project Gutenberg has thousands of free downloads. All are in the public domain. I downloaded Andy Adams "Log of a Cowboy" formatted for Kindle to my PC to see if I could transfer it to my Kindle. I was also able to read it easily online at the Project Gutenburg site. Go to "Log of a Cowboy" to link to Project Gutenberg. Many of the files are for audio books also. The key is that the copyright must have expired before a book can be digitized on Project Gutenberg. Click here to try looking up one of your own old favorite books.

Library Technology: Beyond Method #5

Method #5 in the State Library webinar "Beyond Two-Steppin'" looks at social sites for reading lists and book reviews. I was already familiar with "LibraryThing" and have an account there although a seldom used account. I am not personally a list keeper. My husband however, always a list keeper, would love some of these sites. I set up an account in "Shelfari." I like the ability to link to it from my blog and have book covers of my favorite reads show up on a shelf in my blog. it was very easy to set up the widget. I can see where this would be a useful link to have on a library website where librarians and patrons both could link to their favorite books and recommend them. "Goodreads" helped me decide if I wanted to pursue the reading of other books since there are plenty of pro and con reviews available. This is also a very useful tool for a library webpage. So far I have only rated a few books with stars and not written any reviews myself.

I tried "What Should I Read Next.com" also. Of the book titles I searched, only one showed any recommendations other than other titles in the series. I would hope this site would grow in size so it could become a useful tool for helping readers find similar books to the one they are researching. "Answerboards" is a great showcase for reference librarians. I can see a lot of potential uses for that link on a library site. "BookLamp" analyzes the structure of a book and its language, then recomends books on a similar level. Reading teachers might find this useful in prescribing reading lists for challenged readers.

Local History: Obituary File

One of the things I'm creating as a resource at the Gunter Library & Museum is an obituary file. I will be clipping obituaries from local newspapers and placing them in a file box at the library. If anyone has any to contribute, please drop them by the Gunter Library when possible. Most libraries that have local history departments have obituary files. Family researchers use them to verify family dates and relationships. Some libraries have digitized their files and others keep them in file boxes alphabetically. Such files are sometimes the only records available for family researchers.

The Obituary Times on rootsweb.com has an index of obituaries. Go to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~obituary/ and type in the name you are looking for. I put in a search for "Gunter" and brought up not only all those with a surname of Gunter, but names of all those who had died in Gunter, Texas. This list seems to go back only to the year 2000. However, when I searched my father's surname, it included surnames for 1998 and 1999. It did not include my mother who died in May 2010. Each citation includes name, age, place of death, name of newspaper where obituary was published and the date it was published.

Beyond Method #4 Job searching

Technology training: Beyond Method #4 was on job searching tools. I'm a member of Linkedin which is a great networking tool. The two resume building tools, visualcv at visualcv.com and Emurse at www.emurse.com were two I wasn't familiar with. Both help you improve your resume and Emurse actually lets you job search. Other job searching tools I looked at were indeed.com, Careerbuilder.com, and Tweetmyjobs.com
All three of these brought up many library jobs when I searched them. Texas Workskills Development in Libraries http://twdl.org is a very comprehensive site that has a section where you can take short tutorials online to build computer skills. This one I have used extensively with patrons. The New Jersey State library is an excellent resource for job seekers. Go to http://getjobs.njlibraries.org/
computerresources.html. I liked the section for seniors wanting to return to the workforce or start their own businesses. Goodwill has an excellent training site on computer basics at www.gcflearnfree.org/computer basics.
Libraries should have links to all of these sources for their patrons, as well as a physical list at each patron computer. While it is true that your best job search tool is your personal network, all of these tools help you locate available jobs and improve your skills.

Gunter Star newspaper 1916

Gunter History: I was checking out the possibilities in my Netvibes private experimental genealogy page this morning and found a link to Library of Congress: Chronicling America Newspaper Archive. I followed up some search terms for Gunter, but didn't find a lot useful. I did go to the list of newspapers archived and found the Gunter Star. It began publication in 1916 and has only a question mark for the end date. J.O. Nash was the first publisher of the weekly newspaper. Microfilm copies of the Gunter Star are available in two places. The Panhandle-Plains History Museum at Canyon, Texas has microfilm copies of the Gunter Star, 1940-1943, and 1945. The University of Texas at Austin has a microfilm master of the 1918 Gunter Star.

Does anyone have any copies of any issue of the Gunter Star tucked away in family keepsakes? Maybe you are re-doing an old house and find parts of an old issue used as wallpaper? Don't destroy such an historical treasure. Let someone on the staff of the Gunter Library & Museum know about it, or someone from the North Texas History Center at McKinney. Useful local history files grow from bits and pieces and one man's trash is another's treasure.