WORD CLOUDS

Isn't "word clouds" a lovely term? My daughter introduced me to http://www.wordle.net/, and I had a lot of fun playing around.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Part 2

The Sheldons, the Howleys, and Mr. Williams take a trip to the lovely Boyce Thompson Arboretum to view the lovely changing leaves, the lovely birds, and the lovely ice cream sundaes at the lovely Dairy Queen in lovely Superior. A lovely time was had by all.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Part 1

Sheena, Richard and I did this hike, and we had a great time--there were more butterflies than I'd ever seen there, and a great treat at the Superior Dairy Queen--wish you all could have come!

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Guess who went to see Maureen McCormick's book talk at Changing Hands Bookstore! Blurry photo courtesy of me; photoshop work courtesy of Kerry!

Veit Springs Hike in Flagstaff

A DREAM OF A VACATION

Here's where the Howleys stayed on the coast north of Mendocino, California. It was thrillingly relaxing (if that's not an oxymoron!), and here's a link to more excitingly stress-free pix--http://www.flickr.com/photos/24015643@N03/sets/72157606566179611/

WALK ACROSS ARIZONA WRAP-UP

Our Walk Across Arizona challenge is officially over. For 16 weeks, fifty of us did our best to walk (or do other equivalent exercise) as much as we could. Besides walking, we biked, belly danced, gardened, shifted ranges of books in the library, did aerobics, used treadmills and elliptical machines, cleaned city streets, and more! And we did these things not only here in the Valley of the Sun, but also in San Francisco and San Diego, Hawaii, Michigan, Flagstaff, and who knows what other exotic places! We were sometimes waylaid by illness, injury, surgery, and distressing circumstances--but we kept on going. In fact, we kept on going for 7,144.3 incredible miles! I cannot adequately express how proud I am of each and every one of us, and how honored I feel to have been a part of this group--let's do it again NEXT YEAR!
This whole experience is such fun, and I'd like to end with a laugh! Below is a sketch I love from Monty Python, "Ministry of Silly Walks"--

GOLDEN DELICIOUS

Thanks to Dan Haskell, I have discovered an actual use for Del.icio.us.com, the bookmarking tool that was covered in lesson #13 of Library 2.0! Out at our information desk, we are now limited in the number of favorites we can have bookmarked on the two computers, so I opened an account in Del.icio.us, loaded all the favorites off my computer at my desk, and all the favorites that looked good to me from both Info desk computers and the Call Center computer. Now when I'm on the desk, I just log in to Del.icio.us, put it on a tab, and have instant access to all the sites I want, without having to remember them all, or go to something like Google to look them up. I love it--thank you, Dan, for the suggestion!!

Slideshow Experiment--California Coast Trip

I decided that I could teach myself to insert a slideshow into my blog--but it turned out to be extraordinarily time-consuming and difficult. I don't know exactly why, but I just couldn't get Flickr and Blogspot to cooperate, so if you click on the little red x above, you will see a presentation of our photos in random order. Thank you, and if anybody out there wants to give me a personal one-on-one tutorial on how to accomplish this, I'd be thrilled to learn!

Computer Use Is Fun!

If anyone is still reading these--I particularly wanted to emphasize how much I enjoy reading my colleagues' blogs that you have all done for this Learning 2.0 tutorial. They are by turns funny (yeah!), thought-provoking, beautiful, encouraging, and helpful--plus they give an insight into people that I've not had before, or provide a way to get to know some staff members I'm not well acquainted with. Sometimes when I read things I comment, but most of the time I just enjoy the blog without commenting. But even if you never see any remarks from me, for sure I have read your blog and got a kick out of it!

Cool picture of my home computer from the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonirvine/414517495/

Blogging Benefits

I can never resist something funny! But what I really want to say is that creating a blog is actually the Learning 2.0 lesson I enjoyed the most. I kind of said these things before, but I feel it bears repeating. When I first finished, I thought maybe it was using Flickr, or something like that. But my blog incorporates elements of almost everything I learned, and it is what I plan to keep working on, as time permits. One other thought I'd like to add about our Learning 2.0 experience is that I am already seeing benefits. The main benefit (other than having my blog as an outlet) is the rise in my self-confidence in regard to technology, which of course bleeds over in to other areas also. I have also been able to help several people, like my supervisor, for instance, so that I do keep using what I've learned--and that's great! One of the reasons that I want to keep working on my blog is so that I won't lose what I've learned through inactivity.

Phoenix Mountain Preserves Hike with Walk Across Arizona Teammates

Going up the trail to the saddle and back with Deanna Adams, Paula Crossman, Kathryn Morrison, Richard Howley, and Alisa Hawthorne.

Flickr Vs. Picasa

On my lunch hours, I am loading some of my photos onto Flickr, and I think I'm going to really enjoy having online access to my pictures. However, the process is so slow. If I try to upload more than one photo at a time, my computer gets hung up. I don't even dare try it on the prehistoric computer I have at home! Plus without upgrading, it doesn't seem like there is that much initial storage space on Flickr. I've been told that Picasa is easier to work with, and also has other advantages, but I can't access Picasa through my work computer, don't want to be using the public pcs to be doing this, and see above for my at-home situation. Dear Tackies, can you as a committee get us clearance from the City to use Picasa for the same purposes that we might use Flickr in our jobs? I've heard that the Learning 2.0 lesson series will run again sometime in the future, and maybe Picasa could be included as an alternative to Flickr?

Exploring, Adventures, Discoveries

Captain Cook, Amelia Earhart, Christopher Columbus, Chris Howley...what do all these people have in common? Great voyages of discovery! Library 2.0 has been just that for me. I appreciate having had the chance to take this voyage and would be willing to sail again. To be able to chart new courses for myself and explore new territory was very valuable--I feel MUCH more capable and knowledgeable about technology than before. Hands on was definitely a better way for me to learn than attending lectures or just reading about these things. I loved having a blog wherein I demonstrated the various techniques I had learned. And by also covering areas that I'm not that interested in, the tutorials widened my horizons. My favorite lessons were Flickr, image generators, YouTube, blogs, Web2.0 tools, Facebook. But whether I personally enjoyed every lesson or thought every tool was useful for me, I still am glad to have had to opportunity to get acquainted with them all. Thank you Tackies!

Audiobooks

I regret to say that doing this exercise is not an option for me at this time. I have had tutorials on Overdrive, and understand the basic concepts, and I hope that will count as completion for step #22.

Podcast Puzzles

While this assignment seemed straightforward enough--it is essentially a copy and paste operation--it turned out to be overly complicated and difficult. When I went to Podcastalley.com, chose something to add, and added it to my Bloglines feed, I couldn't actually play the podcast without downloading software that I did not want to download. So I tried going through the NPR link. I picked something and added it. It worked perfectly, so I left the site. Then I went back to try it again, and could never get back to it, or any other podcast for that matter. I eventually discovered that I missed a step the second time around that I did not miss the first time, but it was all JUST BY CHANCE! Anyhow, I had a pretty high frustration level with this one, and I think it is mainly because I am feeling the deadline looming and also because this topic is not as interesting to me. That doesn't surprise, because I didn't much enjoy the topic of RSS feeds, and this one seems rather similar. Good to know about, of course, but not where I want to spend a lot of time.

Google Docs

I decided to try Google Docs to make a chart, which I am not very skilled at doing, as you can see from the above example. If this chart is extremely rudimentary, it is my fault not Google Docs.

#19...And the WINNER is...

This was one of the sites I liked the most, http://www.farecast.com/, but frankly I love exploring this kind of stuff and could spend hours looking at the Web 2.0 award winner nominees. I love that someone else has already sifted through all the entries and chosen the jewels, and I get to come along and dig my hands into the treasure chest!

splslearning wiki / Favorite Vacation Spots

>splslearning wiki / Favorite Vacation Spots: "I would like to nominate an under-rated spot here in Arizona. It's not technically a 'vacation spot,' I guess, but it is a beauty spot--Montezuma's Well. This national monument has lots of water, both gushing and still, desert and riparian environments, Native American ruins, animals, and hardly any humans! What's not to love? It's close enough for a day trip, just north of Montezuma's Castle, and I think it's free.

splslearning wiki / Favorite Books

splslearning wiki / Favorite Books: "If I reveal the name of my favorite book, I would also reveal my password, so instead I'll talk about a book that I just love and re-read about once a year--Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel! (I think all the sequels are a big disappointment.) It combines several of my interests--prehistoric peoples, language, plant lore, survival, etc. into a riveting adventure story about the ultimate outsider and her desire to belong. I know it's not classic literature, but I just don't care--I plan to keep on reading it annually! In fact, I think I'll get back into the world of shamans and sabertooths (or is that saberteeth) tonight!

Wikis

The use and usefulness of wikis as applied in a library situation would seem to me to depend on how "open" a system wanted to be. And would participants (both external and internal) get to post with or without a gatekeeper? No gatekeeper or filter opens a library to all comments, not just positive ones, and they are out there for the public to see. Gatekeepers mean extra time and staff. (I'm not sure gatekeeper is the correct term.) But the variety of topics or focuses looks like it could be unlimited: in addition to publicizing events and reviewing materials, there could be wikis devoted to different age groups (even preschoolers can have their parents post their comments or photos of pictures they've drawn, etc.), to different interests from authors to genealogy to tough reference questions to poetry favorites, and on and on and on. Here's a link I found when looking for wikis through Google: http://librarygoddesses.pbwiki.com/

Kitty picture link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevlar/1152595430/

Just for fun--video of Big Audio Dynamite doing my favorite song of theirs, "E=MC2"

The founder of B A D is Mick Jones, formerly of the Clash, and the video features brief clips from various Nicholas Roeg films.

The "Icebergs" of 2.0

Rick Anderson of the University of Nevada at Reno library system proposes an analogy where we are in a "library boat" trying to row toward Web 2.0 and faced with the disastrous "icebergs" of 1)the "just in case" collection, 2)reliance on user education, and 3)the "come to us" model of library service. It's a fun and interesting analogy, and he makes good points. But to continue with this analogy a little bit, there's more to it than that. As an excellent librarian just pointed out to me, we're in the Titanic, not a rowboat, and you can't turn a ship that size on a dime--these things take time! And while consensus in a rowboat may be relatively easy (although I doubt that; everyone's got an opinion!), forging common goals and plans gets really tough when you're on the Titanic! And that's just among the crew! What about all the passengers (aka the customers)on all the various decks, from the upper-deck technophiles with all the matched luggage (MP3 players, fabulous computers, broadband, iPhones, etc.)to the souls in steerage with little more than a mouse for company? Ok, I'm getting silly now, but it is a very complicated process that will take lots of time. Maybe if we stay alert and focused, keep in radio contact with other ships, consult our charts and look out the window, embrace the workable new without sacrificing the lifeboats, and above all, keep our heads and not panic, we can keep from foundering on any icebergs! (Please see iceberg collision video below)

Iceberg Collision

Technorati Surprise

When I looked into Technorati, I used a particular search term that eventually led me to http://freepoemsonline.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-02-01T04%3A29%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=10 where there were posted several poems by one of my favorite poets, and here is one of the poems:

Water Falls
The water is cold where I lie, but no matter.
Its frigidity pleases me and soothes my wearied soul.
I have gone far, and now I am here and here only.
Up hills and over long, rocky roads that jam pebbles into the soft, precious spots of the feet.
Down ravines and over bones of old, indistinguishable prey,
Eaten by something, God knows what, and left to drain of existence in the sun.
The water gushes over my head, forcing it down.
My arms flail with the will of the falls, bouncing and dancing like life.
A single, endless noise rushes past my ears, but in a moment it is gone;
Replaced by a silence of familiarity and peace.
I place my chin on the top of the boulder over which passes the eloquent stream.
Now I know what it feels like to be the rock over which the river flows
For thousands and thousands of years without end or memory.
- Written by Karen Howley

This image of Middle North Falls at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon came from the following spot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exalthim/2145674312/

Res.ult.swi.th.del.icio.us

As with many of the lessons, in order to reap big rewards with Del.icio.us one would need to invest quite a bit of time, which I don't seem to have. Everything feels more comfortable and easier the more you play around with it, so I won't presume that this tool could not become more comfortable for me--but in my bit of exploring I wasn't overwhelmed. For instance, I searched for Northern Arizona University, and one of the tags proffered was nau. So I clicked on that tag, but none of the subsequent offerings had anything to do with Northern Arizona University. That's one of the drawbacks to folksonomies (which, by the way, seems to be spelled incorrectly on PLCMCL2's tutorial) as opposed to taxonomies. The plus side is that you can type in basically any word and get hits, and then be given a choice of similar tags to choose from. So I typed in meerkats (my favorite wild animal), and got these cute and funny photos at the following spot: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/05/nmeer105.xml

Facebook Fun?

I went with Facebook for this exercise, because I've heard that it is more secure than MySpace, and because I know some people on Facebook. When I was registering I filled out some of my profile, then became nervous and deleted most of it. Face to face I am apt to tell just about anyone just about anything--probably too much so, but yet I am not as comfortable with internet intimacy as some people are (and by this I mean young people!). I refer to the internet as being intimate, but paradoxically relationships on the internet can also by extremely anonymous, deceitful even, and distancing. My goodness, I'm philosophical today. Anyhow, in regard to libraries, if movies and songs can have pages, why not libraries. In fact, I bet some libraries are already in Facebook, and I think I'll go back and check!

What a cool picture of a library!!

The old library of the Muntmuseum in Utrecht (The Netherlands)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikvanhannen/2143007559/

Library Thing

Library Thing was one of the easiest lessons we've had so far! And while I thought I would put in a minimum of 5 titles, it was so much fun that I just kept going. I especially enjoyed seeing how many other people chose the same books as me, and then following the link to them and their other choices. Anyway, you can find my list, so far, at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/chowley

Image Generators

As you can see below, I was successful in using an image generator offered by http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ for creating mosaics. It was fascinating, but time consuming. This was partly because the site didn't give complete instructions, so some things I had to figure out by trial and error; and partly because I wanted to use photos I had taken--and that entailed not only coercing my colleagues into letting me take their pictures in the first place (thank you colleagues), but then also figuring out how to download the pix to my computer (thank you, Rossan), and then upload them to Big Huge Labs!

Mustang Reffies

RSS Feeds Redux

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RSS Feeds

Since I have trouble finishing the paper I subscribe to daily, this was a step on our road to technological savvy that I felt I could live without. However, working on it was still fun and I was able to locate some feeds that I felt I could enjoy, without its being an onerous burden! In fact, I may just have a great time!

"On the Wings of a Nightingale" written by Paul McCartney for the Everly Brothers

I said I loved the Everly Brothers, and I mean it!

Orange Co. (CA) PL funny commercial

Tabula Rossan--roving librarians using tablet PCs will bless Rossan for her set-up work!

Don't Fear Technology!

I found this on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=don%27t+fear+technology

Techno Thoughts

I'm a schiztech! Or a techschiz--I'm not sure which because I just made it up. A) I love technology and its uses. Technology is vital, fun, fascinating! B) I don't love technology. It's time consuming, can be expensive, and is frustrating! C) I don't know what I think--check back with me in the next nanosecond! Right now, it's B, because I've been trying to add an image to this post but when I click on the add image button nothing happens!

This is one of my current fave photos of my girl--I may have to make trading cards of past favorites!

Here are a couple of interesting Flickr mashup urls that intrigue me, both of which I use to do what?--look at pictures of beautiful places I am planning to visit, or exploring where I might want to visit. I just bought my first digital camera, and while I'm no artist, I do plan to post things on Flickr! Try these urls: http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app/
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/tiltviewer/app/ and
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/flickr_postcard_browser/app/

Mendocino area coastline

It's obvious that I'm very interested in beautiful scenery, and love to picture myself in particular places, especially when I'm having trouble sleeping. Some of my friends call me "Nature Girl," and it's true that I find being out of doors especially soul-satisfying and renewing!

Ok, here's another gorgeous picture of MacKerricher State Park:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51094678@N00/2199695701

Fun with Flickr

If I have done this correctly, here is a link to a beautiful picture of a tiny piece of MacKerricher State Park on the northern coastline of California, a place my family and I plan to visit this summer! Here is the url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eleganthack/3066972/

The ReillyCam shows the scene from the top of Reilly Hall at NAU

Richard and I were up at NAU this past weekend to visit Karen and almost got snowed in! On the drive down the mountain, it took all Richard's skill to just find the road sometimes--I was glad he was driving. But the drive reminded me of Kerry's comparison of being a lifelong learner to walking on hot gravel, which she often did as a child. The drive was definitely a challenge, definitely necessary, and the feeling of accomplishment at its successful completion was a shot in the arm!

Lifelong Learning

• Begin with the end in mind
• Accept responsibility for your own learning
• View problems as challenges
• Have confidence in self as competent, effective learner
• Create your own learning toolbox
• Use technology to your advantage
• Teach/mentor others
• Play

If these are the seven and one-half steps to being a lifelong learner, then I would have to say that having confidence in myself as a competent learner is the tenet that is easiest for me because I think I'm good at all the steps! Therefore, the hardest thing for me is to find one of the tenets that I think is the hardest for me--that's logical, isn't it? Now I know this declaration doesn't sound too modest, and I'm not really trying to toot my horn, but I do like to learn and hey! I have tons of experience at it--lots of times I get the chance to learn the same things over and over again!