Spring Cleaning #30: Take a Load Off Our Drives

The P: drive is a lifesaver for children's librarians! Summer Reading Program (SRP) would be a nightmare without the folders organized for branch usage. A librarian who preceded me in this position kept everything on paper and what there was on the P: drive was not organized. Needless to say, when she had to take emergency leave, the staff left to run SRP were mostly in the dark about the who, what, when, where and how of each program listed in the flyer. Personnel from other branches donated time and had to make do with what they could figure out to make it work. I approach SRP organization as if I would not be available for any occasion, and organize that year's SRP folder on the P: drive, clearly labeled so that each program is a no-brainer. I even have the tickets for the ticketed programs ready to print. I think it is a good practice for everyone who provides programming because you never know when a personal crisis or emergency will pop up.

The S: drive has made the printing procedure process really work. Branch staff keeps our folder really clean so that Admin doesn't have to sort through a lot of files to find the information that we need to have printed. It makes sharing files with other librarians a snap.

I did not need to move and re-organize much on my folder in the P: drive because it is a daily and weekly routine I already follow that sure helps make my life simpler.

Spring Cleaning #29: Email

The articles on GTD were interesting. I thought I was fairly well organized, but I think I will start a tickle file like the one discussed in the article. I can really see the value of the file, especially the part about placing the things you need for a particular date in the corresponding file. That way if you are running behind for whatever reason, all you will need to do is open the folder for that date and grab the itinerary, map, notes or whatever is needed. No more trying to remember where everything is and whether I forgot an essential item.

After reading about organizing email on Clean Out Your Computer Day Tips and Ideas I added a few more folders to my work email that should help clean up a lot of clutter. I spent 30 minutes re-visiting my Inbox, and even though I thought I was getting rid of non-essential emails, I found a lot still sitting there that served no purpose and I got rid of them. Many more found there way to my folders. I was able to get my quota usage back into the green zone, no more yellow!

I registered with Remember the Milk. It was easy to set up and make entries. I don't have any pressing memos for today, so I made a few up and it worked well. I only check my personal email a couple of times a day so I made sure to have reminder notices post at times that I would be accessing email, and the reminders popped up as promised. I'm not sure how often it will be useful for me, I found it just one more site to open, and remember to use. I have been using month-at-a-glance calendars for years and they have served me well.

#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I enjoyed the exploration of wikis and podcasts the most.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
The information in these exercises helped me keep up with some of the technological advances that our patrons are using already. It whet my appetite for some of the new things yet to come.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
The biggest surprise was how much more time some of the exercises took than I expected. It was hard to complete some of them if I had a busy stretch in my work schedule and couldn't complete them in one sitting. I usually had to come back later or another day, re-group and complete the exercise(s).

What ideas do you have for using these technologies at Harris County Public Library?
I think that podcasts or video sharing for some of the tasks on our website could be helpful. Some patrons would benefit from seeing how to place a hold, or how to access a database. for example. Book review wikis could also be fun.

What else do you want to learn about?
First I would like to spend time exploring some of the exercises that I wasn't able to explore to my satisfaction.

What other web 2.0 applications are you interested in?
As new applications come available it would be great if they were added to iHCPL, a training sequel of sorts. Sometimes we get so busy in our jobs that we miss a thing or two that would be beneficial. Yearly updated training could be a possibility.

#22 Downloadable Media

HCPL's version of Overdrive offers something for everyone: ebooks, audio books, music and movies. LibriVox is just ebooks in the public domain. This type of project is being duplicated in other sites like the wiki Project Gutenburg. Pretty soon the libraries won't need to worry if they have enough titles in their Classics section, we can just send them to these sites. Wowio is a Houston-based company that claims to be "the only source where readers can legally download high-quality copyrighted ebooks from leading publishers for free. Readers have access to a wide range of offerings, including works of classic literature, college textbooks, comic books, and popular fiction and non-fiction titles."

Wowio looks intriguing. I found a lot of non-fiction works that I want to explore further. Overdrive is a comprehensive online collection that offers even some of the newest bestsellers. No contest, Overdrive wins!

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

For this segment I started with Podcast.net. I looked for library news and the only result that came up was the SirsiDynix Institute. They had podcasts relating to a lot of topics in librarianship such as marketing, outreach and customer service.

Next I looked for podcasts on dog training and over 100 results popped up on Podcast.com. I switched to Yahoo! podcasts and tried to make the same two searches that I had done previously. I got mixed results. I found Yahoo! more difficult to maneuver so I rapidly lost interest in searching there.

PodcastAlley.com was a treasure trove. When I entered the search terms I had used earlier I got lots more results. Everyone got 200 results, so I'm guessing that each topic holds his 200 most recent episodes. I found an incredible variety of topics available for any term I queried, some educational, some profane, and many that fell in-between.

#20 Discover YouTube and other video sharing sites

I explored YouTube for this exercise. I tried looking for music videos but there are way too many to deal with. I did find a video of the recent Led Zepplin reunion concert that someone apparently shot with a cell phone camera. The lighting was terrible, but the magic was still there in the video despite its poor quality.

One thing that I do not like about YouTube is the tone of the Comments and Responses section. It's one thing when someone make a valid comment or even a mild joke or two. Too often it appears some immature types think it is cool to make a profanity laden comment that has nothing to do with the video, or is insulting an immature contributor who posted earlier.

I think embedding videos into the library website would really add something to it. For example, a video explaining how to use Aquabrowser, or how to search a database, or how to reserve a book online. There are many training possibilities.

Week #19 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Zoho Writer is a great word processing tool. Its best feature is that it is accessible from any computer. I don't have to try and remember where I placed my flash drive last. It is fully loaded with all the features that I want like spellcheck and the formatting tools. It is supposed to make it possible for more than one user to work on, edit, etc. any document created on it. I wasn't able to prove that claim but everything else worked well so I think that will too.

There's a lot to like about this tool, but I felt a little overwhelmed trying to access some of the features, and there are a lot. I think that it will seem more friendly as I get used to the interface and become more familiar with each feature.