MILI Thing 4: Public Libraries December 14, 2007

Even though I’ve used public libraries all my life, I didn’t realize how much they really offer until I worked at one in Evergreen, CO.  Since I moved back to Minneapolis, I’ve gotten back into using four library systems — Minneapolis, St. Paul, Hennepin, and Ramsey County.  (Don’t think I’m that ambitious — I live right in the corner of all of them.)  After too many times of searching more than one of these catalogs in order to find something, I finally learned to search MnLink so that I could see what was in all four catalogs at once.  It’s a real time-saver.

When a friend asked me about how she could help her 4th grade son improve his reading comprehension, I suggested using audiobooks so he could read and hear stories.  However, when I did a search in Hennepin County’s catalog (their library), I couldn’t figure out a way to search for just audiobooks.  For the first time, I used “Ask a Librarian.”  I quickly got a friendly response which not only explained the way to search for audiobooks, but also a list of suggested books for reluctant readers.  Above and beyond!

Also, in preparation for a Metronet training session, I looked through ALL of the databases MPL offers — egads — there are a lot.  What a wealth of resources!  I bookmarked some language-learning sites in particular.  And I want to learn how to download audiobooks — I wish I had had that option back when I had a long commute!

MILI Thing 8: “Dribbling” Lessons Clarification November 29, 2007

Hi MILI folks (especially St. Paul) . . .

It sounds like there has been some confusion about the “Dribbling” lessons www.metrolibraries.net/pro/dribbling.html.  The main thing to focus on are the lessons at the top of the page which are listed under QUESTION, GATHER, CONCLUDE, COMMUNICATE, EVALUATE.  These are “little” lessons you may be able to add to your already established curriculum, and they focus specifically on research and information literacy skills (such as “Narrowing a Topic” and “Evaluating Websites”).  Beginning in January, I’ll be adding to this section, and I would love to know if you have suggestions of concepts to cover or content to include.

Farther down the main page, there are also links to lessons for some subject areas.  The only subjects currently covered are Art, Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies because those are the subjects the teachers in last year’s project taught.  However, this section is really only meant to show a few examples of lessons which effectively incorporate information literacy skills, and they are broadly organized by each subject’s MN standards.  There’s a chance that a lesson or two could fit into what you already do.  At the top of each page there is a link to additional resources which leads to a page with links to websites which consistently offer great lessons so you can find lessons that fit and incorporate info lit.  Also in January, I plan to add more subject areas so it is more widely applicable.  Again, comments and suggestions always welcome!  Maybe we can eventually add a button for that on the site . . .

 Hope this helps.  Great blogging everyone!!

Zoho Viewer November 5, 2007

The prelude of posts to come . . . .

I had been trying to figure out how to make my blog become the main place I “store” all of the information I acquire as I am “Finding My Way” in the information world, library world, and world in general.  One major source of information I wanted to make available to myself (and others, if interested) was my classwork.  I’ve done  a lot of work for these MLIS classes that are making me a librarian, and much of it could be useful to me in the future.  But computers come and go, so I didn’t want to save everything on my hard drive.  Zip drives and other storage units are great, but they are prone to loss and destruction.  Plus, I didn’t know of an easy way to make these formats available on my blog without copy/pasting the content into a post.

Lo and behold, along comes Zoho Viewer.  As its tagline says, “Get rid of attachments. Just upload your document, grab the URL, and share it with your friends or post it in blogs / forums. No sign up required.”  So, in a way it is like Google Documents, because you can allow others to edit your documents — yet another Web 2.0 tool encouraging and allowing easy collaboration.  OR you can just let others view your document, which is what I’m doing on my blog.

Since I already use it, I tried Google docs, too, after I realized Zoho is similar.  But I like Zoho better for this purpose because it has a “Bulk” upload option which is easier — less clicking.  Plus I like the final view better in Zoho.  Also, Zoho might be a good option for collaborating with people online who do not (for whatever reason) want to set up a Google Account.

1st Semester Classwork November 5, 2007

Introduction to Library Science with Marilyn Cathcart:

Survey of Library Users

Review of Public Libraries Journal

Censorship Bibliography

Acquisitions List

Acquisitions List 

Final Exam Paper

Introduction to Reference with Joyce Yukawa:

Reference Observation

“Walking Minneapolis” Bibliography

Introduction to Cataloging with David Lesniaski:

Paper about Cataloging

Final Exam

Summer Classwork November 5, 2007

Public Relations and Marketing with Chris Olson

Database Publicity Project

          First Mailing and Email

          Second Mailing and Email

          Tent Card Taglines

Branding Paper

    

2nd Semester Classwork November 5, 2007

Young Adult Literature with Heidi Hammond

Response Journal

Walter Dean Myers Paper

Arab-American Literature Bibliography

Curriculum Class with Jim Glazer

The Role of Libraries in Learning Communities Powerpoint and Notes

Review of ”Expert” Kathy Schrock

Lesson Plan about ELM Databases

Media Skills Matrix and Summary

Reading Reflection Log

Self-Evaluation

Searching Electronic Databases with Deb Torres

Client Project Executive Summary

Client Project Bibliography

Client Project Self-Reflection

Animoto October 22, 2007

Animoto  is a “cool tool” I’ve been fooling around with . . . it’s been fun.  Basically you upload some photos from your hard drive or a photo-sharing site (I use Picasa), and then you can choose music from their collection or yours, and then it creates a video which you can keep or remix.  It only takes a couple of minutes! When you are on the page with your photos, note the options for deleting or highlighting selected photos.  Keep in mind that you have to have between 10-15 pics . . . For example, I made a separate ‘album’ of my Eiffel pics rather than uploading all our Europe photos which would have taken forever.  Then you can email the finished product or upload it to your blog — the “Help” section walks you through any questions you might have.  Best of all, these 30-second videos are free!  They seem to have uploaded kind of funny . . . . they are a little too big for their frame and fuzzy. Maybe I’ll figure that out in the future but for now — Enjoy!

Hutch (the dog) Video

Eiffel Tower Video

The VW Van Video

MILI Thing 3 September 20, 2007

I decided to use Google Reader for my aggregator.  (I like to say “aggregator” because it sounds like agitator and alligator.)  Bloglines looks cool, but it wasn’t as intuitive for me as GR; plus, I use Google, GDocs, Gmail, etc. and I want to use Picasa and more.

I’ve added a bunch of feeds . . . I think I’ll have to remove some after I see which I really like.  I put a link to GR on my blog so that I can get to it that way, too.

While doing this, I discovered a cool tool called Pagekeeper.org.  It is a bookmarking site for teachers and students.  It is not RSS, just a “favorites” site that you can organize in a way you can’t organize your desktop or browser favorites.  It is easy to use, you can access it from any computer (instead of saying “Erg, I can’t remember the site, but it is saved on my Favorite’s), and others can view your page if they know your username (no password required for anyone who is not going to edit the page).  So, take a look at it — my username is simply “Karen” . . . you can look at other people’s pages by searching for a particular subject or grade level.  I really love it!

MILI Thing 2 September 17, 2007

Well, here is Thing 2!  Just in case you don’t click into my “About,” I’ll reprint the purpose of my site here:

******I like to hike. When hiking, I enjoy coming upon cairns — piles of rock which help me find my way. They are interesting creations, the products of several people who are helping to lead the way.

I am becoming a librarian. While becoming a librarian, I enjoy coming upon “library cairns” — words of wisdom which help me find my way in the library world. They are interesting creations, the products of several people who are helping to lead the way. 

This blog is a collection of the “cairns” I am discovering as I am FINDING MY WAY in the library world — ideas, articles, blogs, discussions, tools, and more — as well as a few of my own comments ( or “confessions”).  Mainly, I want to create a repository of all the great information out there about the future of libraries so that I will have markers to follow as I am finding my way as a librarian. 

Of course, I hope that others who are interested in going in the same direction might find the information in this blog helpful. And just as real cairns are created by more than one person, I hope that others will add their “rocks” in the form of comments, suggestions, links, and more. My thanks to you in advance.

 And, just in case you didn’t notice, “cairn” sounds like “Karen”    ******* 

MILI Thing 1 September 17, 2007

The Metronet Information Literacy Project is continuing and expanding . . . and becoming the Metronet Information Literacy Initiative.  A great addition to this year’s program is the requirement of “23 Things” — exercises participants will complete in order to become more information/technology literate.

In the first reading I really liked the description of the other literacies: tool, resource, social-structural, research, publishing, media, computer, visual . . .

Fortunately, the second reading  led me to more resources that I can use for the MILI lesson plan website.

The third reading included a great chart: