Week 4, Thing 8

Since I already have Google Reader account, I decided not to reinvent the wheel and will be using it for this week's things. It has the same features as Bloglines, so I don't think it'll be a problem.

Anyway, Here's the link to my public reader: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/17228962398786083812

or you can add my public reader to your feeds by pasting the following link into your reader! http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/17228962398786083812/state/com.google/broadcast

I love my feeds. It makes it so easy to get all the stuff I want to. As a matter of fact, pages that I love that don't have feeds make me bummed because I find myself not checking them that often. I think we should definitely develop a library news blog with a feed. We could embed it right on our homepage!

ALA Day 4

Had a nice last day. My first session was good. It was about using technology for outreach. It talked a lot about the Web 2.0 technologies and how we can integrate them, so good stuff. The next session was a clunker. It was programming on a shoestring budget, and though I got a couple ideas, overall it was kind of useless. The problem was that it was presented by librarians from Chicago, and the whole thing was talking about talking famous people into donating their time. Well, that's great if you have a bunch of famous people where you are, but Salisbury ain't got no Oprah! ;) I've blogged in the programming team blog with a bunch of ideas.
Incidentally, today I saw the funniest thing that happened to me the entire conference. I decide to eat lunch in Chinatown (which is only a couple blocks from the convention center. I'm sitting there eating in a packed restaurant. There were about 25-30 tables, and a bunch of people waiting to be seated. All of a sudden, the door flies open and a boy (probably about 11 or 12) comes running in screaming at the top of his lungs as if he'd been injured. Of course, all heads turn. The kid grabs himself, continues screaming, runs through the restaurant and into the restroom. The room went dead silent for about five seconds while everyone just looked at one another, then every person in the restaurant started cracking up laughing. I have never seen anything like it. Incidentally, the kid eventually came out of the restroom and casually walked out as if nothing had happened. But I digress. Overall it was a great conference. I really enjoyed myself and I appreciate that I had the opportunity to go. Next year's in California, so maybe I can talk my husband into going out there for it with the promise of visiting his relatives.!

ALA Day 3

Lots of good stuff today. Spent some time in the exhibit hall. Got a bunch of stuff. Amy, you're going to be sooo jealous of my sweet new Shonen Jump tote bag. My first session was a follow up for the Spanish Outreach workshop I attended a couple of months ago. It was pretty interesting. I definitely got some ideas. I really liked the second session I went to. It was programs and marketing for Generation X. Got lots of cool ideas fen getting Gen X into the library, which I'll detail in the programming blog when I get back.

ALA Day 2

I'm full of cool ideas! I wait to one mediocre session and one really great one. This morning. I went to a session on programs for small and medium sized libraries. The first speaker was pretty good. She talked about their teen area. T got a line on a contest where the prize is Demco coming in and redecorating the teen area. I'm going to call Rosemary on Monday to talk about it because the applications are due by the end of the conference. The second speaker was not so good. All she talked about was her library's circ stats and their booth at the 4-H fair, so I cut out and caught the last hour of Patricia Cornwell. She was great. It was interesting hearing about how she writes, and she took a lot of questions from the audience. Unfortunately, she answered my question before I got to ask it. It was a good one, too. after that I worked my way through some of the exibition hall and got all kinds of cool freebies. after lunch, I went to ''Programming not just for Boomers." It was excellent. I took tons of notes, and got some really great ideas for programs for older seniors, and some ideas for Generation X too. I'll detail it all in the programming team blog when I get back. After that I hit some more vendors, then headed back to the hotel to decompress. More tomorrow!

ALA Day 1

Well, I arrived here in D.C. with no problem. It was a nice, uneventful drive. I really enjoyed the Rural Sustainability session today. I got some really good ideas, especially for some things we could implement at the Pittsville Branch. There was one hiccup, however. On the schedule for the Centre Branch, Steph took me off for Monday, but I guess she missed today, because nobody opened the branch. Luckily. Tom was able to get in touch with Amy. who rode her white horse over to the mall and saved the day. Love you Amy! You're my hero! Heading off to the Webjunction reception now, so more tomorrow!

Week 3, Thing 7

I stole Amy's idea for this thing, and I'm going to blog about Second Life. When I first started in SL, I was totally addicted. Now it seems like I never go on. I suppose it's because I'm unwilling to spend real money to buy property and build and decorate a house, and I don't have enough time to get a SL job, so there's only so much you can do with no income. I'd like to get back into it, though. It was really fun. Anyway, friend me if you're on there. My name is Isbeth Yoshikawa.

This is my avatar (I'm getting my groove on if you're wondering):

Week 3, Thing 6

My favorite flickr 3rd party tool so far is the movie poster maker. I had a lot of fun with that one. It would be a cool resource for making program posters.

Here's one I made:

Week 3, Thing 5

I decided to take some photos around the Main to post on flickr. I found it very easy to upload photos to flickr, but then, I'm very comfortable with uploading to the web. The first one is my favorite; it's a view down one of the stacks. It really looks a lot longer than it is. The second one, well, I couldn't help but have a little fun once I got back to my desk...

Non-Fiction Stacks

Under Attack!

Week 1, Thing 2

So, what's easy and hard about lifelong learning? I suppose the easiest thing is using technology for learning. I love technology, and use it whenever possible to make life easier. As far as what's difficult, that's hard to say, but I suppose viewing problems as challenges. I tend to think of problems as just something to be dealt with.

First Post

Though I've been blogging for several years now, I decided to create a new blog for the 23 Things Class, and here it is. More later...