Koehler Poetry

A Writer Writes
AWriter writes.
That is what they always recommend
There are the weekly bills to deal with.
Shopping lists to compose.
His children's homework to correct.
A quarterly report overdue.
All those song lyrics to improve when
sung aloud in the shower.
Daily emails to be answered on the fly.
Birthday cards to send.
A page of New Year's Resolutions that
keeps growing longer.
Those letters those letters home the child inside
hopes to smuggle out
asking someone to come rescue him.
Every Christmas then note
he leaves with the cookies and mild
for Santa to peruse.
Nightly, the grand epic he unspools
behind closed eyes.
What does it matter if his notebook
remains a blank white.
He still carries it wherever he goes.

#16 and 17 -- Wikis

Wikis. I am somewhat familiar with these. We learned a bit more about Wikipedia in 451. We chose a "stub", searched for 25 citations and wrote a 25 page paper to fix that stub. During that same semester, we used a Wiki for the Youth Services class. When doing this exercise, I did not need to create an account. I already have an account at PB works because of that Wiki. I did log in and add a post to a two of the "favorites" -- books and physical activities. I wasn't able to add my blog to the list, however, because there was no "edit" button to click. I noticed that another class member had added her link in the comment section. We have also created a Wiki for a volunteer group that I am part of -- the Reach Out and Read Program at the American Family Children's Hospital here in Madison. On December 1, the new in-patient reading library was officially opened with over 600 new, high-quality books available for the pediatric patients to read and be read to. Wisconsin's First Lady, Jessica Doyle participated and read to the children Opening. We are using the Wiki to mobilize the volunteers. This blog is getting a bit lengthy but I should mention that I visited several of the library wikis highlighted at the Learning 2.0 site, all of which illustrated how this tool can be valuable for libraries and their patrons.

#14 - Technorati

Before this class, I wasn't very cognizant of "blogs". I had heard of them, of course, and often visited my daughter-in-law's blog -- where she frequently posted pictures of the family. Here I am creating my own blog -- and am writing about blogs. I found the explanation of the title "technorati" enlightening ("technology" + "literati"). I assume the writers of blogs are the "educated class" using technology to publish their wisdom. Although I should be amazed at the number of blogs in existence, I am not. I can believe the the number grows exponentially daily.
My exploration of the site leads me to believe that updates have occurred since the podcast at the "learning 2.0 23 things" Web site. I did look at the blog directory, the keyword search box of blog posts and the tag pages. There is also a list of the Top 100 bloggers and the "State of the Blogosphere". I wonder if there is any topic about which a blog has not been written? I suspect that this particular tool could actually be useful in reference. Even though there is no peer review to create the reliability, a search here may just lead you to the correct answer. Just out of curiosity, I wondered if anyone had written blogs about Tiger Woods and the mysterious Thanksgiving accident. Indeed they had! I also noted that there is an entire section devoted to political blogs -- this could be interesting for my husband.

I'm back

It's been some time since I've been here. I have finally been successful in not only getting into Rollyo, but also creating an account and creating a search roll. After getting that very helpful "sharing" list of reference web sites from Charlet, I knew how I could keep many of them handy. I created a "roll" of Reference Favorites. OK - an account, a search roll -- then of course try it out. I picked a rather popular topic at first. A search for "H1N1" returned thousands of hits. Whoa.
So then, I tried something a bit more obscure. We just watched the final episode of "Monk", the TV show. I couldn't remember when it started. I searched -- and boom, immediate answer. It premiered in 2002. Can it really be seven years? I have to admit, I had my doubts about this one. But I'm pretty sure I can find uses for this tool -- especially in a library setting.

#12 ROLLYO (Later) -- #13 - Del.icio.us

There is a lot of social networking going on -- many, many ways to keep me connected with others -- for many different reasons. There are my Twitter followers (well, actually my Facebook friends), my photo friends (Flickr), my LibraryThing friends, and now my Folksonomy (tagging) friends. I must admit, my first reaction to Del.icio.us was - I already have lots of bookmarks - all alphabetized and easy to find, why another technology? I dutifully listened to the both the podcast and the tutorial. Light began to dawn. Then, I followed the link to PLCMCL2's account, clicked on "tags", then on "reference" :). I went out and back a few times and discovered that the tags change very quickly. It's necessary to grab that link and save the bookmark. I could see that this could be useful - especially for sharing links with collaborators. I did not set up my own account at this time, but could definitely envision doing so in the future. Do you know I immediately found sites that I didn't know existed and certainly don't want to forget about. I found the comments and think they could be useful. Sharing tags with other librarians can help to keep up with reference resources -- but one does have to wonder how to keep up with the bookmarks?
P.S. I haven't been able to get into ROLLYO. But I will keep trying.

Library Thing (#11)

Learning 2.0: a discovery learning tool for librarians. I confess that I am finding too many personal uses for these tools. I'm sure that almost everyone else already probably knew about this, but I didn't. I am elated. Reading is a favorite pastime for many members of our family. Because my children know that I like to read certain authors, they like to give me gifts of those books. I actually have a rather large collection of Agatha Christie books started probably 35 years ago or so. At times, even I run across a book and wonder - do I have that one. I also enjoy reading Alexander McCall Smith (as well as many others). This is great! I can "catalog" my books, share the link (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Suneydew) with my family, and they will know (and so will I) whether I have a certain book or not. Not only that, but they can do the same, since I also am known to give books as gifts -- and often have to consult with them to see if they have the book, thereby entirely removing the element of surprise. With a group forum for librarians, reviews and recommendations, plus the huge and growing number of cataloged books, the value to the librarian is obvious. Kudos to Tim Spalding for creating this tool.

Image Generator

It has been way too long since I have been here. I actually probably spent too much time with #10 -- online image generators. I can foresee that when I have a minute to breathe again, I will want to spend a little more time with this. There seems to be a tremendous amount of things you can do with this and I have only touched the surface. I am including a few motivational posters -- all family members (except that strange character who has taken my daughter hostage). This particular exercise reminds me of Flickr a great deal. I also noticed that the site where I created these (http://bighugelabs.com), one of the resources provided is "home of fd's Flickr Toys. I found sites where I could for instance, put my head on another body -- don't think that would help. I can think of a lot of ways these types of techniques could be useful for the library. How about READ posters, invitations to a book club, a mosaic of storytime children?