Week 9, Thing 23

I can't believe that I'm done with O! What a Geek!!!!! I think that this was a great way for the staff at Omaha Public Library to continue life long learning. I felt like everytime that I attempted an exercise, I was either honing a skill I already knew I had or learning something new. Sometimes when I was learning something new, I got frustrated and had to put it on the back burner for awhile, but eventually I figured most things There were some parts I thoroughly enjoyed and other parts that I utterly detested. I think that my favorite exercise was the image generating exercise where we could use Wordle and makemebabies.com. I loved manipulating the images! Now that I'm done with O! What a Geek, I don't think I'll blog much on this blog, but I will continue to blog on my myspace. As for life long learning, I will always be an advocate and do what I can to try and learn something new every day.

Week 9, Thing 22

For this exercise, I decided to check out Tumblebooks since I have never checked it out before. At first, I was frustrated but then I actually started to enjoy exploring. I ended up looking at a Spanish book called "La Estacion De Los Bomberos" just to see how well I could understand it since I'm taking a Spanish class. I realized I have a long way to go to understanding Spanish, but that I do understand a little. I think that Tumblebooks is a good resource for parents to know about and also for us to know about. Since our remodel at Sorensen, we have had some complaints that our children's computers don't have the games that they had before we closed. In particular, we don't have as many read-along Arthur books. From now on, if a patron wants a read-along book I will refer them to Tumblebooks!

Week 9, Thing 21

I have never dealt with podcasts much before. I knew what podcasts were of course, but I never paid much attention to them. Podcasts are really a neat bit of technology. For this exercise, I decided to check out podcastalley.com. At first, I was really confused, but then I became a little bit more comfortable. I'm still not sure though that I like podcasts. Anyway, I discovered a podcast called "PotterCast: The Harry Potter Podcast". I thought that this podcast was funny and interesting especially since today is Halloween and I'm dressed up as Hermione! I liked the fact that subscribing to this feed was really easy, and I do think that podcasts could be used in the library. You would definitely need someone who understands them better than me though. Podcasts would add an element to our webpage that might interest teens and other technology savy people.

Week 9, Thing 20

I've experimented with YouTube before, and I have to admit that I've always enjoyed YouTube. There is so much on there that you can pretty much find whatever you are looking for! I tried looking up Laurie Halse Anderson since we had our Young Adult Author event last night and came up with numerous Speak videos and a couple of interviews. I also decided to look up some M*A*S*H videos and found this Klinger Tribute that I thought was pretty funny! I've always been a fan of M*A*S*H and even went to the exhibit at SAC when it was here a couple of years ago. I got to see Klinger's Cleopatra costume! Anyway, I think that it would be neat for the library to have some videos on their website of events that we hold within the library. It would have been nice to record a video last night of Laurie Halse Anderson and then post it to our site.

Week 8, Thing 19

I decided to check out allrecipes.com since I love finding new recipes and am constantly checking out new cookbooks that come into the library. Signing up for an account with allrecipes.com was really easy. As I explored allrecipes.com further, I discovered alot of features that I liked. I liked how you could search for recipes by name or by ingredient. Another feature that I really liked was the budget cooking section. In this section, you can find recipes if you are on a budget and can even browse slow cooker recipes. This section also has numerous acticles on saving money while cooking and meals for a certain amount of money. In addition, you can input your own recipes and use tools to organize them which is definitely a feature that I will utilize. The only trouble is finding the time to put the recipes in!

Week 8, Thing 18

I really enjoyed playing around with Google Docs, and I plan on playing around with it more later on. I think that this is a really neat web-based application. I can see myself using this as a bridge between home and work and as a bridge between my family and me. When I type up something at home that I might use at work, I run into the problem of the fact that at home I have the newest version of Microsoft Word and the library computers will not open it. This is such a pain! Google Docs will definitely help with this. I can also see myself using Google Docs when I'm working on family-related things like geneaology research. I could share the document I created and get input from family members.

Week 7, Thing 17

I did not like this exercise. I spent alot of time trying to figure it out and got nowhere. I read up on PBWiki and even created an account for myself using my work email. I got the confirmation email and clicked on the link it told me to and then it wouldn't load the page. So I tried opening a new page and going to the Favorite Blogs Page and tried to add my blog so everyone would know that I visited it, but it said I needed a wiki password/invite key which I never received. I finally ended up giving up. Maybe someone at my branch will figure it out and then will help me.

Week 7, Thing 16

I've taken a training class on wikis and now I've read about them for this week and I have to admit that I'm still confused. Wikis are something that I feel you really need to know what you are doing to be able to utilize. I've honestly never played around with wikis before and have been kind of leary of them because anyone can change a wiki and how do you know if the information in the wiki is correct? Anyway, I really liked the "Book Lovers Wiki" which was developed by the Princeton Public Library for their 2006 Summer Reading Club. I think that this was a really neat way to keep track of what they were reading for the Summer Reading Club. I thought the reviews were nice to have at hand, and I wish that they had continued to add reviews to this wiki.

Week 6, Thing 15

In this blog, I guess I'm supposed to talk about some of my thoughts on Library 2.0 and what it means to me. I think Library 2.0 is a wonderful tool for us to learn about and utilize. To me, Library 2.0 means keeping in touch with family and friends. Myspace and Facebook are part of Library 2.0 and are the main way I keep in touch with alot of my friends and family who don't live in Omaha. Most of my family lives out of state and I only get to see them once a year if that so Myspace and Facebook are two great ways to stay in touch and communicate with them. As for my friends, it seems like life can be so busy so it's nice to be able to keep in touch with them on Myspace and Facebook. I like stopping by their page and leaving a comment or even subscribing to their blog so I can get updates if they write anything.

Week 6, Thing 14

I have to start out by admitting that I'm not really that impressed with Technorati. I honestly won't use Technorati after I'm done with O! What a Geek, but it is nice to at least know about it so that I can know what people are talking about if they mention Technorati. When I played around with Technorati, I liked that searching was pretty easy, but the results weren't always what I wanted. As I explored more, I seemed to always pick blogs that had advertising on them which was really annoying to me. I'd click on a blog that sounded normal and end up with x-rated ad attached to it!

Week 6, Thing 13

Wikipedia defines del.icio.us as a social bookmarking service for sharing web links. I created a del.icio.us account a long time ago and promptly forgot my account login and my password because I have so many accounts at different sites online. I can't seem to remember them all, and I don't seem to have enough time to check them all. Anyway, I think Delicious is a neat idea because it can help you keep track of neat links that you find while browsing the web. I am constantly finding interesting sites online, writing them down on a sheet of paper, and then I always seem to lose the paper so Delicious could help me with this particular issue. Delicious is also pretty easy to use. If you have a Delicious account and have downloaded the Delicious bookmarklets, all you have to do is click on post to delicious link. Then it will be posted on your Delicious account.

Week 5, Thing 12

I wasn't all that impressed with Rollyo. It was very easy to sign up and start a search roll, but personally I would not find much use for Rollyo. It feels like I'm signed up for so many things online that I can't remember them all. On the other hand, I can see how some people may find Rollyo helpful. The following link is for the Rollyo account I created. Just cut and paste it.

http://www.rollyo.com/index.html

Week 5, Thing 11

I've known about Library Thing for awhile. I've even attended a lecture on Library Thing while at the Youth Services Retreat in Ashland. In fact, I think I actually had an account a long time ago, but I couldn't remember which email I used and what my password was so I had to create a new one. I found the sign-up process very easy and not confusing at all. I think that Library Thing is a really neat tool to utilize at home or for a library that serves the public, but you definitely have to have time to mess around with it. On one hand, I guess you could not spend alot of time and make it very simple, but you could also get very involved and very detailed. For me, I could get very detailed with my personal collection at home if I had the time because I have hundreds of books, dvds, and VHS tapes on my bookshelves. I just picked a couple of books out for this exercise though just to play around with Library Thing and experiment a little. The following link is to my library. For some reason, it won't link by clicking on it, but you can cut and paste it and then go to my library.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=khoefer0284&shelf=list

My new sweet baby - Colby!

What do you think about my little new baby Colby?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

My new sweet baby - Hope!

What do you think about my little new baby Hope?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

Week 5, Thing 10

This is probably the most fun I've had so fun with O! What a Geek! I loved being able to manipulate different images. I was browsing some of the blobs and saw that Manya has used www.makemebabies.com. I thought that this sounded pretty interesting so I went to this site to try it out. I uploaded one of my photos and one of my finace's photos to see what our kids would look like. Then I decided to play around with my photo and one of a celebrity. I picked Bruce Willis who happens to be one of my favorite actors. I played around a lot more with different pictures,different celebrities and had a great time, but I think the previous two pictures are my favorites. When I tried posting these two pictures to my blog, I had a little bit of a problem and messed up a couple of times. In the end though, I figured out it out and got both of my pictures posted to my blog.

Cool Gadgets

As you can probably tell, I've been playing around with adding new gadgets. I never realized that there were so many gadgets that you could add. It's kind of like all the applications that you can add on Myspace and Facebook in a way. Anyway, I think some of the gadgets I've found are pretty cool!

#9 Finding Feeds

I love Kasey Kahne! I used the bloglines.com search bar and found an ESPN - Kasey Kahne Feed that I subscribed to which is awesome. I actually found this exercise pretty fun and not as confusing as the last exercise. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt! I never realized how many sites out there have RSS feeds that you can subscribe to. I started out by going to some of my favorite sites and trying to find the RSS feed icon. At cnn.com, I subscribed to the entertainment feed and the U.S. news feed because those are the two links that I frequent the most at cnn.com. Then I decided to try huskers.com because I'm a big Husker football and volleyball fan. I found both RSS feeds very easily. I thought it was nice that you could specify just one sport or more if that was what you wanted.

#8 RSS Feeds

I have to start out by saying that I'm still confused about RSS feeds even after reading about them and trying some out. I think that it is a good idea for us to learn about RSS feeds and that once we do learn more, it will help save time so that we don't have to check multiple sites. RSS feeds could help people who work at the library to keep up on new and current library information. The discovery exercises for this week were a little confusing, but I stumbled on through them. I liked how the sign-up for bloglines.com was very easy. Once I created my account, I subscribed to 2 different RSS Feeds. I subscribed to Unshelved and Library of Congress "New on the Web". I've always liked Unshelved comics becaue I find them extremely funny, and I thought that the Library of Congress feed would be interesting to be subscribed too because it will help me keep up with new things. After I subscribed to these two feeds, I couldn't find where I went after I subscribed to them. I thought that they would be on my bloglines.com account, but they ended up being in my favorites tab. After I figured this out, I subscribed to Tim's (Insert Blog Title Here) and Suzan's "Suzan Sorensen". Both Tim & Suzan work at Sorensen with me so I figured it was probably a good idea to see what they were blogging about.

#7 Technology

Technology is everywhere! There are two sides to technology for me. Some of it is confusing to me because I've never dealt with it and it seems like I never have time to try and figure it out. And then there is other technology that I use everyday that some people probably find confusing, but I find fun because I make the time everyday to play around with it. For example, I've blogged before. Never in this particular setting, but I have blogged on Myspace before so blogging wasn't totally foreign to me. I haven't blogged on Myspace in awhile, but when I was blogging alot it was so that I could get my thoughts out there. Sometimes it seemed like I had so many thoughts in my head that I just needed to write them down somewhere so that I could sort through them easier. I liked how, on Myspace, you could make your blog public so anyone could read it, friend-only so just your friends could read it, preferred-list so just specific friends could read it or diary so that just you could read it. The last option was nice because you could vent your feelings if that was what you felt like.

#6 More Flickr Fun

I'd like to start off by saying that I never realized just how much you can do on Flickr. There is so much there! There's Mappr which sounds kinda cool especially if you went on a trip and want your family to check out the different places you visited through photos you took while on your trip. The Flickr Color Pickr might help us come up with neat ideas for displays using just one color. I liked the trading cards. The Librarian Trading Cards would be cool for a staff day event and a fun way to get to know everyone from the different branches if everyone made their own and brought it with them. We could play a game guessing whose card was whose. I'm sure that this would get alot of laughs!

#5 Flickr

I forgot in my beginning blogs to say which prize I prefer. It's been so crazy at Sorensen unpacking and getting ready to open that it completely slipped my mind. So I guess I'll start off this post by saying that I prefer an MP3 Player since I don't currently own one. Anyway, I think Flickr is a pretty neat tool to know about and utilize when you have time to play around with it. You can edit your photos in so many ways and end up creating some really great images that you couldn't have made otherwise. One photo caught my eye in particular when I was browsing images on Flickr. It's called the Tree of Life, and the photographer used LED flashlights to draw these cool people in different colors. The photographer even altered the base of the tree. These alterations to the photo really drew my attention. You should check it out by clicking on the link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostsoul/2466466173/ There are so many other things that you can do on Flickr besides just editing your photos. I really like the option where you can make different things like blurb photo books, prints, QOOP Photo Books and Calendars, and HP PhotoCubes and Books. This has given me some ideas for wedding things that I might try out.

The Sorensen Remodel

A Couple Pictures of the Sorensen Remodel

Ignore the date, my camera hates me! lol

Week 1 & Week 2

Week 1 was a little confusing to me. I wasn't sure how much material I was actually supposed to read. I figured it out eventually by talking to everyone else to see what they had done. Anyway, life-long learning is important to me b/c I think everyone should learn something new everyday. That is part of what I like about my job, the fact that I do get to learn something new each and every day that I come to work. Yesterday for the first time, I attended a Youth Services Retreat in Ashland. It was a totally new experience for me, and I really enjoyed getting to meet librarians from other libraries in the state. It was interesting to hear their opinions and their ideas.

A Day in the Life of Kris

Most people know at the library that I'm getting married next year in April. I've got alot accomplished, but it seems neverending sometimes. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my finacè & I signed up for marriage counseling. He had to make the call since I was at work at Sorensen unpacking books. He wrote down on our marker board "September 8th @ 9am". So Sunday night, we were watching a movie and I told him to set the alarm for 8am. The next morning I woke up, looked at the alarm clock, and freaked out b/c the clock said 8:51! So we jumped out of bed, threw some clothes on and, rushed out the door. Somehow we ended up in two separate cars with him thinking I was going with him and me thinking he was going to hop in my car. So we each took off in our cars, trying to make it there as soon as possible and probably breaking some speed limits along the way. In traffic, we got separated and arrived at the church at different times. I looked around for him and couldn't find him. I then tried his cell phone and it was turned off. By this time, I was seriously freaking out thinking, "OMG! We're late to marriage counseling on our first day! This is not a good way to start out!" I finally found Tony and we headed into church only to find out that mass was going on at that time. We sat outside waiting for mass to be done and hoping that we weren't supposed to attend it. Mass got over at 9:30am and we finally got to talk to Fr. Pat who was going to be counseling us. Here we were sitting there nervous b/c we were late, when Fr. Pat tells us that we weren't even supposed to start until 9:30 anyway. So we ended up not being late after all. I guess that goes to show you that not everything is as bad as it might seem at first and that you should wait awhile before you freak out!