Gaiman makes me fluttery and Thing 21

I loved The Graveyard Book and developed an author crush on Neil Gaiman as a result (though Coraline, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and The Wolves in the Walls helped). Here's a podcast interview with him!

Interview with Neil Gaiman

Posted using ShareThis

Thing 20 is sweet; I must share this!

YouTube is so ubiquitous, it seems absurd to share about it. But this is my very favorite video, sent to me by a Twitter follower after I posted about reading Richard Simmons' autobiography. This video makes me laugh until I choke and cry. Please enjoy! (This would be a useful tool for the library when doing storytimes. Record them for access later online! Like Dial-a-Book but with pictures. Thanks, Cathy!)

Twitter will be my Thing 19

Web 2.0 award-winning site for "social networking mainstays" - TWITTER! I have a personal Twitter with a widget on my blog page and I started a Twitter account for my library. I love this tool because it provides immediate status updates which can be very applicable in the library setting. "Just got a copy of Twilight in" or "Our bellydance program will be starting in half an hour; come join us for a free lesson". This is also a medium in which an increasing amount patrons are working. Libraries must adapt to serve their patrons. Also, limiting characters requires a poster to ensure they remain succinct in their posting and convey information quickly and clearly.

And moving on to Thing 18

Okay, now that I look at Thing 18, I see that Google Docs is an option for exploration. Well, clearly I am a fan of all things Google, as evidenced by previous posts. I adore Google Docs. A close friend was writing a screenplay with a director in New York. She lived in Vegas, he was in New York, yet they were able to access the same document and make changes without emailing back and forth, spending hours on the phone or worrying about incompatible formatting. I use it to write blog posts so I can edit and save them before posting. I use it for uploading work information, that I might bring it up anywhere. I use it to keep documents private, that no one may access them without a password, since I share my laptop at times. I think web-based apps are amazing and a definite technological perk.

Thing 17! A real sandbox would have been more fun . . .

A wiki could be very useful for the library district. For the Youth Services Librarians, we could have shared storytime and craft ideas, to be edited by all to create the best possible resource. I love the collaborative nature of Google Docs, allowing the participation of multiple authors in a single document but again I return to the issue of authority control. i don't like when things degenerate into a bunch of nonsense. Like many of the posts during my schooling, that started as a student asking the professor a homework question, devolving into a series of chatter about children or just "yes" and "i agree". People seem to value their own input far more highly than is appropriate. That being said, yay Wiki!

Thing 16! Wikis are FUN!

But not authoritative sources, kids. Be warned. My favorite is WikiHow, a site that provides me with endless craft ideas (and entertainment!). On to Thing 17.

Thing 15! But I want Web 3.0

In my recently completed tour through library school, I had to do a HUGE project on Web 3.0, the Semantic Web. Web 2.0 is nice, folksonomies and all the sharing but Web 3.0 is awesome and terrifying. This is where Isaac Asimov comes in - computers that can book a dental appointment by synchronizing your calendar with the dentist's and ensuring you find an office nearby and in your insurance plan. Spooooooky. But the purpose of Thing 15 is to discuss 2.0 so . . . tagging. Tagging with Web 2.0 makes me simultaneously happy and sad. It is good to allow users to tag materials because they will be easily found using natural language and people get an understanding of how to classify things. It is bad because there is no authority control, tags can be assigned that are completely irrelevant or that are just variations or misspellings of an accurate tag, things may never be found because no one was able to describe it accurately. I specialized during my degree process in information organization and so spent a lot of time with the AACR2 and LOC Subject Headings. I love cataloging and think that good catalogers are both highly trained and aware of the audience for whom the materials are being cataloged. What a librarian would look up is often different from what a patron would look up - enter the reference interview. But, as we venture forth into a new world of communication via Twitter and online/text message reference, Web 2.0 will ensure everyone communicates successfully.

Pink! So many things: an Aerosmith song, an obscene slang term, Barbie's favorite color . . .

I made my blog pink! I love pink. No, seriously. I do.

Thing 12! and derby. Lots of derby.

Naturally, when creating my own search tool with Rollyo, I did a subject that is recently dear to my heart. http://rollyo.com/bibliofemme/derby_grrrl_gear/ ROLLER DERBY! Hooray! I am now a Sac City Roller! If I succeed in surviving my probation period, I will become a full-fledged team member and get to select my derby name. Which I already chose: The Dewey Decimation System. My number will be 796.21 (look it up). Back to Thing 12 - using Rollyo is incredibly easy but I am not really a fan. I can see the potential for use within the library but I have no interest in doing so really. I prefer Google for all things. But my love affair with Google is well-established so . . . But if anyone needs derby gear, use the above search. I need to stretch more than anything else.

Thing 11: the LibraryThing

I do REALLY like LibraryThing. Mmm, sharing books is a great source of joy. One of my favorite people back in Vegas, a girl with a "Jack Skellington holding books" tattoo, was a major collaborator in my reading preferences. She shared with me and I with her, the most recent suggestion from her being The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. Yum. Here's my quick catalog.

Thing 10!

I entered the Paul Eluard poem "La Terre est Bleue . . . " into Wordle and made an entertaining word cloud. I can see how this might be interesting to make signs in the library for poetry programs. Oh, and if you click on the image, it will direct you to the website where you can make your own. Fun. Check off Thing 10!

Things 1-9 (from a busy little beaver!)

27 Things for SPL, Part 1:

Thing 1 - well, I'm here, aren't I?

Thing 2 - (I'm beginning to feel a little Seuss-y) The easiest of the "7 1/2 Habits" is definitely the play habit. Being a Youth Services Librarian makes a girl very familiar with work as play. The hardest is the teaching of others. I am not a teacher. I tend to figure it will be easier to do things myself.

Thing 3 - Set up a blog or, in this case, continue with my existing blog, left over from library school.

Thing 4 - I did indeed email SPL 27 Things to let them know of my participating ways.

Thing 5 - See previous post.

Thing 6 - HA! I made a "me" trading card! Now that interests me. Maybe I can convince the rest of the Sac City Rollers that they need to make a team deck of cards . . .

Thing 7 - I have an RSS feed for LifeHacker in my iGoogle. And I read it daily. Though my favorite for work (and not necessarily technological but work with me here) is the WikiHow site. This has such a huge variety of things to do in and out of the library, for kids and adults. The program for Mother's Day will be making recycled plastic vases found on WikiHow. Hooray for technology!

Thing 8 - I have a significant amount of RSS feeds on my iGoogle. In a variety of topics. Feminist feeds, vegetarian recipes, BUST magazine, trashy stuff like The Superficial and DListed, School Library Journal, and a cavalcade of others. Plus . . .

Thing 9 - . . . I have news feeds, like CNN, Gay News and Unshelved (naturally).

Okay. I have completed 1/3 of the 27 Things.

Jumping through hoops in the name of participation

Bored and Horny,
originally uploaded by agitprop.

Requirements for ensuring I am an active participant in the Web 2.0 community and my current library district necessitate my blogging about a Flickr image. Hence the Glenn Barr image of a woman (apparently Betty Rubble of "The Flintstones") looking bored to death. I ADORE Glenn Barr's work and have a framed print of his. Fabulous. Okay, this ought to suffice. On to hoop 6!

Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air… - Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is nothing more bliss-inducing to me than a sweetly-scented desert breeze that feels warm and silky to my sunshine-starved skin. I have spent my day on a back porch in Tucson, reading and drinking icy drinks, enjoying myself completely. Coming to AZ always makes me feel like an amber-trapped insect; I immediately revert to the teen I was when I used to live here. Suddenly all my responsibilities melt off my shoulders and I can feel my bones loosen, letting the heat flow between them in that peculiar alchemy that always occurs when others get too hot but I remain comfortable. I read Goldengrove by Francine Prose, quite possibly the ideal book for my vacation situation today. I recommend it highly. But back to the desert. I believe my home will ALWAYS be in the desert, nestled in the dust amidst the spiky plants and bird chirps. I really like living in Northern CA, I like being able to walk everywhere I want to go from my apartment, I like the fresh and local food at the farmers' market, I like the girl I am dating who can melt me with a sidelong glance, I like my job, my bedroom, my cats, but it isn't me. Hmm, typing that, it sounds a little trite. Regardless, I truly feel at home in the desert, completely myself. Or perhaps it is Sam who does it to me. I cannot separate the desert from Sam or myself from either of them. Suffice it to say, I am reminded of who I am and completely refreshed. Exactly what one hopes to accomplish with a vacation. Though I was unsettled by my brief layover in San Diego. I realized I haven't been there since I moved away after college. I was submerged under a huge wave of nostalgia and now feel I must plan a trip there. Plus I began missing Mr Jon immensely the day before I left for this trip. I was folding origami tulips at the reference desk (no, seriously, this is part of my job) and the last time I did that was to help him create a springtime display in Vegas. This swelled into missing Jane and Zelda, our marathon Sundays of swimming until starved, then chowing on Athens fries at Paymons, then laying around on the king-sized bed that was our couch because we were too exhausted to move. Those times are relegated to the realm of memory and new things are ahead. Perhaps the coming of Spring and warmer weather will cure my melancholy.

My blog writing was put on hold while I occupied myself with the business of living. I started dating a girl who makes the whole landscape glitter when we are together so I imagine I will have to devise a suitable pseudonym for her. My work has occupied much of my time as well, performing a huge amount of community outreach and other obligations. Plus I try to sneak some time alone because, while I enjoy the company of aforementioned girl (woman, really), she is very intent on spending lots of time together and I thrive on lots of time alone. We are navigating that concern. For now, I will return to my reading in the open air to extract the last morsels of indolence from my time off.