Thoughts and Reflections

#blog12 daysxmas 6 Managing Twitter

2012-01-02T21:02:00.003+11:00

I blogged previously about the accounts that I have and about ways I manage information. My Twitter stream is something that I try to keep on top of – because it is in real time, I can’t simply ’catch up’ two days later. I’ve found using my iPad and my phone (HTC Trophy) help with that – checking Twitter is probably the only time I use data when out, I don’t feel the need to be connected 24/7. I find it isn't as easy catching up with tweets using the web version of Twitter because of the way the page refreshes and loads; it starts at the top of the twitter stream and I have to scroll down to get to where I left off. The same happens with my phone app. Using the iPad (or iPod) app is so much simpler. I was previously using Twittelator (when Twitterific wouldn’t work for some reason) and am now back to using Twitterific because the Twittelator app somehow got deleted. Using the app means that the twitter streams loads where I finished, so I don’t need to scroll down to pick up where I left off. I can look at pictures that my friends upload because it opens in a pop up in my twitter stream, rather than going to a new page every time. It shows my tweets in green, mentions or replies in brown and direct messages in blue, all on the same page. I tap on any tweet and it will show me the conversation it relates to. All so much more convenient.

All this being said, I think potentially the most valuable way that I manage my Twitter stream is to manage my followers. I’m conscious of the fact that the more I follow, the faster my page fills and a brief break means that I either miss out on some conversations or it takes me longer to catch up. I don’t always follow those that are following me, although I do try to maintain the status quo there. If I am following someone who is not following me and I find that after several attempts at interaction there are no replies and no requests to follow me, then I stop following them. If the purpose of Twitter is to network and engage with library peers then not being able to have a two way conversation defeats that purpose for me.

How do you manage your Twitter information?

#blog12daysxmas 5 Becoming shewgirl

2012-01-02T17:47:00.002+11:00

I’ve often wondered how some people decide on the handle that they use for their online presence. I’d forgotten how mine came to be but reflecting on my first online foray brought it all back. Shewgirl, which always gets autocorrected to “Showgirl”.

In 2007 the State Library of Victoria offered a Web 2 program for all public library staff in Victoria. It was run by Yarra Plenty Regional Library on behalf of the State Library and hundreds of public library staff took part. The purpose of this was to have staff learn through play and familiarise themselves with the various Web 2 tools that were available at the time, such as photo sharing sites, blogs and wikis. YPRL staff assessed every participant’s progress and anonymity was encouraged to reduce apprehension.

I wanted to keep mine anonymous however still representative of myself in some way but came up blank with ideas. I couldn’t think of anything clever with my first name, surname or initials. I thought of things I liked (Bookgirl – taken; Pengirl – blah; Stationeryaddict – hmmm too long) then came up with Shoegirl. I was quite excited by this one but…it was taken. I was really put out that someone got to Shoegirl before me! Somehow I thought to adapt the spelling and so Shewgirl was born!

What’s the story behind your handle?

#blog12daysxmas 4 Yet more things to do

2011-12-31T19:48:00.003+11:00

Yesterday saw me ~~forced~~ persuaded by @polyxena and @csmramsden to take part in another challenge for 2012. It's the Friday Photos 2012 Flickr Challenge. I've avoided these challenges, not because I can't make the commitment - I can and I have - but because I am not a fan of Flickr (ducks for cover). I find it cumbersome and not very user friendly. Things may have changed though since I experimented with it last (early 2009 for the NLS4 photos) and so I have another challenge - get up to speed with Flickr.

The photo challenge in itself should be fairly easy to do (Flickr gripes not withstanding) because I am also starting Project 365 again from tomorrow (as opposed to my last one which went from April 2009 to April 2010). My plan is to have one of the daily photos incorporate the weekly challenge theme. Of course, in order to do this, I also need to regularly take the images off my camera. As good as I am at taking photos, I am woeful at downloading them! And so there is a third challenge - download photos regularly so I can upload photos weekly.

Thanks @polyxena and @cmsramsden - three challenges in one hit, because one is obviously not enough....

#blog12daysxmas 3 Moving to the dark side

2011-12-29T10:12:00.004+11:00

It happened. I didn't think it would, but it did. I bought an eReader. More so, I am using the eReader. One of the reasons I delayed for so long is one we hear all the time - loving the feel of books, turning pages, cosied up in bed at night, especially in winter. The other reason (and to be honest, the main one) was the inevitable quagmire of information I would need to wade through to find something that suited me and was potentially the most user centric. By user centric I don't mean user friendly; I mean finding an eReader that would allow me to read as many books as possible and not be so proprietary.

So many people tend to use 'Kindle' interchangeably with 'eReader' and I started to get asked quite a few questions about buying a 'Kindle' from people I knew (based on my profession) because they wanted cheap books and they also wanted to have something light and portable. Explaining to them that buying a Kindle did not mean they would have access to all the books they may be after and then trying to further explain that not all books may be released as an eBook and the further complications of DRM made me realise that I needed to increase my own awareness of what was out there and what the suitability is for libraries.

Yarra Plenty is part of a consortia with Brisbane City Libraries offering ebooks and audiobooks for download. Whilst this has taken a while to really become well used, we are now lending out over 2000 eBooks/audio books via Overdrive a month. Unfortunately, not one item is compatible with the Kindle (although I believe it can read a pdf? I need to play more). Because of the tendency of the public to gravitate towards a Kindle as their eReader of choice, I feel we (myself included) needed to find out more about eReaders. I have two staff members who were always very keen to train the public in using eReaders and downloading from Overdrive. They became so proficient that they ran training sessions for the rest of the library service and will be running refreshers later next year. To help facilitate this, Yarra Plenty provided each branch with a 'digital petting zoo', comprising a Sony eReader, iPad and Kindle, for staff to borrow and play with in order to become more familiar with these particular devices. Budget permitting, it’s a wonderful way for staff to learn through play.

I asked flexnib and snail for pointers in starting me off and ended up with more information than I thought originally possible. Even though an eReader may take a particular format (for example .epub), there was no guarantee that actually buying a title in that format would allow me to read it in a device that accepted .epub. Try explaining that to someone who wants a ‘Kindle’!

So what did I end up getting? I bought a cheap Gear2Go from Big W :) It’s compatible with .epub, pdf, .txt, .rtf and .html. It shows pictures in colour and is backlit, although not with the glare of the iPad. Battery life is ok, could be better, but for the price I can live with it.

Who else has gone to the dark side??

#blog12daysxmas 2 Managing my information

2011-12-27T17:50:00.002+11:00

It's starting to get harder and harder for me (and I am sure others) to manage accounts I have with various Web 2 tools that I have been playing with (and I'm mindful that I set a January challenge to play with another 5!)

I use Pinterest, Springpad, Clibe, Dropbox and Google Reader, just to name a few. I log in and to be honest, I stay logged in. While some may be appalled at my lack of security, the truth is, if I had to log in every time I wanted to access them, then I wouldn't bother. Some sites take this out of my hands by logging me out automatically if I don't use it for a few hours. The need to keep checking my information makes me think twice before joining something else 'just in case' I may need it at some point. Let's face it, if I wasn't using this site regularly, would I even remember it was there if the opportunity came to use it? Probably not.

It would be lovely to have an aggregator that could somehow do everything all my Web 2 tools do. There is always just one thing that I would like a tool to do that is done superbly by another tool. And now I have been told about Path, another smart journal. Is it any different to the other sites I visit regularly? Not available as an app for a Windows phone makes me less inclined to try it now, however I do have an iTouch and it is probably available for the iPad...

Maybe this will be a January trial :-)

What Web 2 tools do you use and what have you decided to get rid of?

#blog12daysxmas 1 Catch up

2011-12-26T21:33:00.003+11:00

Today saw me start another blogging challenge, in the hope that it will kick start my writing and reflecting again. I started the #blogeverydayjune challenge with the same hope and that sadly fizzled out by July 1. If however, I can write for the entire 12 days, then I have at least achieved something.

In January this year, as part of the blogging challenge, I wrote about maintaining a healthy balance in life. As I was going to be home for most of 2011 on maternity leave (this changed - more later), I felt I couldn't quite refer to the post as maintaining a 'work/life' balance. I updated my progress here and wanted to see how much on track I have kept up with things.

1. I will continue to avoid buying items for my scrapbooking stash so I can use
what I have faster (this has been in place for almost 4 years and nothing seems
to have depleted...)

This is still well and truly on track. Although one would think that depletion would occur through heavy use, which has not really happened....

2. I will make all my Christmas cards again this year.

Happened and posted before the end of November!

3. Accomplished by June

4. Accomplished by June

5. I will continue with Project 365 for Anthony

This was completed on December 13, Anthony's first birthday.

6. I will finish crocheting my granny stripe blanket.

Yes I will...

7. I will unpick some jumpers that I no longer want and reuse the wool

Accomplished

8. I will finish scrapbooking Project 365 for 2009-2010

Ongoing, however have progressed majorly

9. I will host more crafternoons

Accomplished. Met with Gemma once a month till she went back to work and with Rachel once a week till I started kitchen renovations

10. I will experiment more with PhotoShop

Done and ongoing. Learned how to use digital brushes.

To up the ante (and potentially give me something to blog about) I am setting a challenge to learn about 5 new social networking tools during January.

Post 30, Careers paths

2011-06-30T22:26:00.003+10:00

I was thinking today about the various career paths that are open to librarians, as well as how we ended up where we have. I am going to keep this post short and sweet and finish it by asking some questions of you all.

Why did you decide on librarianship as a career? When did you realise this was the profession you wanted to work in? Did you study as an undergraduate or postgraduate? If PG, is this a second, or even third, career for you?

Looking forward to some discussion!

Post 29 June card challenge, days 25-28

2011-06-30T00:15:00.012+10:00

Day 25 Make a vintage type card inspired by lace. I tried to keep to shades of pink for this one. The pink mat was done using the EK Success daisy border trim punch. I lined it up centrally on each side and just did one punch, so it gave a framed effect. Day 27. Make a card with handmade flowers on it. I used a fabric yoyo I had made that coordinated with the rest of the card.Day 28. Make a card with some fabric on it. I used a design I machine embroidered a while ago. The card was finished off with faux stitching in a pink to match the design.

Post 28 June challenge catch up, cards 17 and 26

2011-06-29T23:41:00.007+10:00

I have finally caught up. Set myself a challenge within this challenge to make use of what was around me and just get it done!Day 17. Use heat embossing on your card. I used a floral background stamp with perfect medium to stamp the image on the black card and then used clear embossing powder over it. It is extremely difficult to see in this picture. I tried several different shots but the embossing barely showed in any of them :( I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the pink paper and a favourite Stamp It dragonfly stamp with a fluid colorbox chalk ink.
Day 26. Make a card with torn paper. I kept this card simple as I wanted to showcase the softness of the paper.

Post 27, What's in a name?

2011-06-29T22:12:00.002+10:00

In Post 16, I blogged about the A-Z of me and under 'P' for "Pet Peeves" I put down people using American spelling. I know many of us have varying peeves, but another one of mine is my name being spelt incorrectly, especially when it is in reply to an email I have sent and clearly signed off as 'TanIa', not TanYa. I acknowledge that mistakes happen and automatic assumptions count a lot for this (ie Tanya is usually more prolific than Tania), but when it happens continually over the course of many, many emails, then it becomes more than just a mistake, it becomes silly. If the purpose of these emails is to get professional advice on a number of topics, then it become more than just silly, it becomes ridiculous. If you want my advice on things, you would think that the least you could do is notice the correct spelling of my name. Surely it isn't hard?

Post 26, Getting there

2011-06-29T21:47:00.003+10:00

Almost at the end of June and almost at the end of the #blogjune challenge. And it has been a challenge. This month has seen me out most days or committed to something that has a top priority (marking) conflicting with something that also has top priority (teaching) conflicting with another top priority (motherhood) conflicting with, lo and behold, a high priority (writing). This has meant that I have been playing catch up with my daily blog post and also with the June card challenge that I have been taking part in. June has been exceptionally frantic and I'm looking forward to July 10 when I've submitted final grades for the semester and there will no longer be a need to play catch up.

Has anyone else had to play catch up this month? How have you managed to stay ahead?

Post 25, Days 21 and 24, June card challenge - filling in the gaps

2011-06-28T22:34:00.010+10:00

So I have finally gotten around to filling in the gaps for most of my missing days.

Day 21. Make a card for a new baby. The stamp I used was from my playdate with Gemma last Thursday to Kaisercraft in Geelong. I coloured the animals in using my copics and edged the white borders with a blue copic.
Day 24. Make a card using your coloured pencils. I was a bit worried about doing this one, as I wasn't quite sure about matching colours, but it seemed to work out ok. I used the Faber Castell watercolour pencils i 'borrowed' from Ms 19. I used some water to soften the colours on the card after I coloured the butterflies in. This is my favourite Hero Arts Heart Butterfly.

Post 24, On choosing a conference committee, part 4

2011-06-28T15:10:00.009+10:00

The NLS4 committee was pretty much set when I received an email from a self confessed conference junkie who was asking, pretty please, if she could join NLS4 as she was having withdrawal symptoms. Who was this junkie? Margie Anderson, ALIA's Victorian Local Liaison Officer (now called the ALIA Victorian State Manager). I had worked with Margie on the alia07 conference committee and knew what she meant when she said she was having withdrawal symptoms. Managing a conference project is such a rewarding and fulfilling experience and I know that there is a sense of anticlimax after the conference finishes. I had NLS4 planning to look forward to so didn't feel as flat as the rest of the committee.

Margie was a powerhouse of knowledge and expertise during alia07. She had been in libraries for many, many years and wanted to be on the committee for her own personal development, not merely as an ALIA employee. It was Margie who suggested we have 15 minute hot spot sessions, to try and fit in as many great presentations as we could and Margie also gave a fabulous professional development seminar on our PD day, the Thursday before the conference. This sessions was free for ALIA members who were registered to attend NLS4.

Margie was worth her weight in gold, even if she is addicted to conferences :)

Post 23, June card challenge, Days 22-24

2011-06-27T23:28:00.007+10:00

And we're onto week 4...

Day 22. Make a Christmas card using non traditional colours. I quite like how this one turned out. I've since played a little more and refined the tree, however those cards were in traditional Christmas colours, so didn't meet the challenge criteria! I used the Fiskars Apron Lace border punch. Day 23. Make a card with some embossing. This is one of my all time favourite Christmas card designs. I embossed the card mat to add some interest using the Cuttlebug swirls folder.

Day 24. Stay tuned...

Post 22, June card challenge, Days18-21

2011-06-27T23:09:00.015+10:00

Here are the last 4 cards for week 3 of the challenge.

Day 18. Make a card with a stamped background. Love, love, love this card. I used similar for my Christmas cards one year. The stamps are all from Paper Squared in Mornington. I think the centre flower is my favourite - I love how there are different designs on each petal. The sponged areas were done using a cosmetic sponge.
Day 19. Make a card using the colours purple and yellow. This is one of my all time favourite Kaszazz stamps - I have it in two sizes :). I used a pale yellow cardstock as my backing and purple ink to stamp the butterfly. As the purple ink looks a bit pink on the yellow, I added a purple envelope. I cut the circle out of the front of the card (it's a trifold card) using my CM custom cutting system. I cut the thin pink circle ring using the same tool. I think it is very effective.

Day 20. Make a card with something metal on it. The squares for this card were punched using the 1 inch CM square punch. I added the sentiment from a stamp set I have and thought the llittle metal dragonfly charm would be cute. I do like dragonflies. :)

Day 21. Stay tuned...

Post 21 June card challenge update Days 15-17

2011-06-27T22:55:00.007+10:00

I've been really behind in taking photos of my cards, but have started making a move so here is my update for week 3 of the challenge. The criteria for Day 15 was to make a gatefold card. I used my cricut to cut out the centre sunburst and my favourite swiss dots folder to emboss the front panels.

Day 16 Make a card using no less than 3 brads/eyelets. I love doing this style of cards with the graduating colours. Very effective.

Day 17 - stay tuned....

Post 20, Colour my world

2011-06-27T08:24:00.019+10:00

This meme was inspired by Fiona. I adapted it to give 3 random facts about me relating to each colour in the rainbow spectrum.

Red

1. I have a lovely red laptop.
2. One of our cars is a red commodore (have to love Holdens).
3. I just bought a pair of red leather gloves. Love!

Orange

1. I like to wear orange as an accent colour. For example a black suit with an orange top. A good, strong contrast.
2. Seeing orange on a webpage always makes me think of the browser RSS button.
3. There is an orange feature wall in our house.

Yellow

1. I own not one yellow item of clothing. This has never occurred to me before.
2. Anthony's favourite rattle at the moment is yellow, with some orange and green.
3. I went to a publishing event once and had yellow nails. I love having feature nails, but these were a bit too out there, even for me.

Green

1. Green is probably my least favourite colour.
2. I am marking at the moment with a lime green pen.
3. I love my lawn being lush and green.

Blue

1. The last card I made had blue on it.
2. l like to write with blue pens.
3. My dressing gown is blue.

Indigo

1. My favourite pair of shoes (which are technically cutaway boots and my avatar on twitter) have indigo mixed in with the violet.
2. l have a lovely scarf in a beautiful shade of indigo. I want to start practicing these styles from Justgirlwithshoes' blog post. I think my scarf may be a little small though.
3. One of my favourite dresses when I first started working was indigo.

Violet

1. See (1) for indigo.
2. Anthony is lying next to me wearing a Winnie the Pooh jumpsuit of a violet hue.
3. My scrapbooking room is violet. It took some getting used to, but I like it now.

A little bit of trivia. The mnemonic I use to remember the rainbow spectrum is Richard Of York Got Boozed In Vienna.

Post 19, Planning for July

2011-06-26T23:06:00.007+10:00

Thanks to Retrokatz and Ballarat Library Chick for this post's inspiration.

I've blogged earlier about things that I want to achieve and did a follow up post to remind me (keep me on track, oops), however thought a more immediate one for July would help me (as Kat put it) come closer to achieving a state of Zen.

Tax - definitely get organised as I have it booked for the end of July. I usually get my tax done about February the next year, so this is very early for me!

Scrapbooking - Start (another) project A week in the life; complete a scrapbooking challenge which will be one layout a week.

Events - Plan for, and enjoy, my mother-in-law's surprise birthday and Anthony's baptism. Help Sarah with her birthday sleep over.

Menus - plan dinner for the coming fortnight so I can shop accordingly.

Exercise - Start using the treadmill.

Craft - Continue working on granny stripe. Plan my square a day blanket.

Writing - Finalise ALJ abstract. Work on current paper. Continue blogging.

Reading - Get my feeds to almost zero. Maintain inbox zero.

Remember to refer to this list :)

Post 18, Why I travel

2011-06-26T10:17:00.008+10:00

The other day a friend of mine, Clare, posted about a day in her life. In it she mentions that she would have to get up at 5.30 if she wanted to have breakfast at home. Obviously she has a long commute to work.

I also travel a fair distance to work. Distance doesn't bother me (but traffic does, as well as unnecessarily imposed speed limits, grrr) and it was something I factored in when applying for my current position. To me, job satisfaction is more appealing than having a job in a convenient location. Sure, both would be good, but that is not always possible. As public transport is not an option, I make the most of my commute by listening to podcasts or audio books that I want to catch up on.

As a manager, I think it's healthy for an organisation to have staff who do not all live locally. To me it shows commitment and dedication and highlights the fact that these staff members really want to work for us. They wouldn't travel if they didn't want to be there. I've been involved in a lot of recruitment and it always rings warning bells when, during an interview, an applicant states that the main reason they have applied for the job is because it is close to home for them. I've seen too many instances of unhappy people who stay in their workplace because it is close to home and so very convenient for them. They become bitter and negative - this is not only demoralising for them, but it is not good for staff morale and not conducive to good working relations. It isn't a situation I would want my staff or colleagues to be in.

Do you have a long commute to work? What are your thoughts on this?

Post 17, Recording history

2011-06-22T21:09:00.007+10:00

I remember being at work one morning, before the library opened, shelving with my colleagues. One of them idly mentioned that there used to be a diary that belonged to her grandmother, a scrapbook of sorts, that had photos, memorabilia, shopping lists, day to day happenings and events and it had been thrown away by her (I think) father. Amidst the synchronous gasp of horror, I just stared. I couldn't believe that someone threw away something with so much social history. When the shock had subsided, my colleague said 'only a roomful of librarians would understand the significance of what happened'.

I don't think that is completely true, I am sure others would have appreciated that glimpse into time, the intricate patchwork that made up life back then, however I do think it is true that librarians take a leadership role in preserving social history.

For me, I take a leadership role in preserving my family's social history. I love looking back on old ephemera and memorabilia that my dad has and want to be able to take snapshots of moments of time in my family's life. I started in December last year by doing Ali Edwards' December Daily album idea which I blogged about here. This year, in July, I will be doing the Week in the Life project which is a photographic and textual documentary of my family's life from July 25 to 31. The aim is to have this project give a representation of my family's life at this particular point in time. I plan to keep shopping receipts, tickets, school memorabilia, anything really that will reflect my family's life at this time. And I'll have fun doing it.

Post 16, the A-Z of me

2011-06-22T20:19:00.005+10:00

I saw this on Craftyminx's blog and thought it would be a fun and different way to blog today

A. Age: ok, already not going there!
B. Bed size: Queen. Pillow top.
C. Chore that you hate: Putting clothes away.
D. Dogs: I like dogs but no longer own any.
E. Essential start to your day: Shower and tea.
F. Favourite colour: Blue I think, or maybe purple. I can never decide.
G. Gold or Silver: Gold!
H. Height: 5' 3 3/4" (when you're short you take every bit you can!).
I. Instruments you play: None.
J. Job title: Branch Manager (professional); Miracle Worker! (personal)
K. Kids: yes! 4.
L. Live: Melbourne.
M. Mother's name: Mary.
N. Nicknames: Tan.
O. Overnight hospital stays: 5. 4 children and appendicitis.
P. Pet peeve: people using American spelling.
Q. Quote from a movie: 'What a beautiful chocolate man ahahahaha'.
R. Right or left handed: Left.
S. Siblings: Two, both younger.
T. Time you wake up: 6.00 am (when I work), 7.00 am (at home).
U. Underwear: Yes. No idea on the point of this question?
V. Vegetable you hate: Tomato (yes I know it is technically a fruit...)
W. What makes you run late: My husband
X. X-Rays you've had: Teeth
Y. Yummy food that you make: Chocolate caramel slice
Z. Zoo animal: Tigers.

Post 15, June card challenge, days 11 to 14

2011-06-21T23:45:00.015+10:00

And here are the last four cards for week 2 of the June card challenge. Day 11. Make a card using the colours pink and orange. This one really baffled me. Putting pink and orange together seemed so unlikely. I pushed different combinations around for a while, then finally decided to go with 1 inch strips in varying pink shades, with a thin strip of orange across the bottom scalloped border. The border punch used was Fiskars Threading Waters.

Day 12. Make a card featuring some chipboard. A simple card using coordinating 1 inch squares, with faux stitching in between. I used a Martha Stewart border punch on the bottom part of the card, on the green patterned paper. The chipboard featured is the gorgeous butterfly by Rachel from Happy Creations.

Day 13. Make a card with lots of distressing. I thought I would also go for a little bit of grunge, along with the distressing. I used three different circles to make the flowers, distressing each edge with my distresser (tip, a thread cutter is a good, cheap alternative :) ). I then added twine to the flowers for stems and put twine around the right hand side of the card to bring it all together.

Day 14. Make a card using paint somewhere. I love this card, made by stamping flourishes on acetate. For the paint component, I used twinkling H2O to change the colour of my flower!

Post 14, choosing a conference committee, part 3

2011-06-21T22:23:00.009+10:00

The academic program - really the guts of any conference, the heart and soul if you will. It doesn't matter how good the food is, how wonderful the networking opportunities (well maybe this does count for a lot!) or how swish the venue is, put on a bad program and reap the results.

Thinking about the academic program was an interesting exercise. Remember planning was happening years in advance; even the initial call for abstracts would be close to two years before potential speakers would be presenting their papers. This could well have meant that something that was new, exciting, innovative and cutting edge in 2007 would be old, dull and tired by the time December 2008 came through. This then meant that the Academic Coordinator had to have a very good knowledge of current trends in the library world (across all sectors), upcoming trends, as well as have the intuitive feeling required to know if a topic was going to be interesting months down the track. Not only this, but I needed the Academic Coordinator to be organised and be able to identify whether the stream selected by the author was an appropriate fit, create a selection system for us to work through together (as Convenor I was part of the decision making process for the program, as well as for the other Coordinator roles) and develop a model for peer review. Sharon was ideal for this role as she had worked in many different sectors and kept up with library literature. She was always very aware of what was happening in library land.

These posts so far over simplify the process I went through, to an extent. The decisions weren't made in 5 minutes; I also didn't actually have a process to follow or selection criteria to guide me - all of it was done through my own analysis plus experience of being on the alia07 committee.

Tomorrow I'll talk about a conference junkie :)

Post 13 Some of my favourite blogs

2011-06-20T21:48:00.008+10:00

This afternoon, Clare crowdsourced potential post topics, having run out of steam (aside here, don't you think 'cloudsourced' would be a good term too??). The suggestion I gave her was the post I had planned to write this evening - some blogs in my reader, under various labels.

Like many, the aggregator I use is Google reader. I did start off with Bloglines, but switched over to Google to simplify things - it was much easier to use one login for everything (good thing, as Bloglines died an untimely death but all of my feeds were in Google by then).

Bear in mind that these are just a few of the blogs that I subscribe to - I literally have hundreds, which is why my feeds constantly seem to be over 1000. These are in no particular order or preference, I am just choosing 3 from each of my labels!

Library related

Librarians Matter, by the ever wonderful Kathryn Greenhill
Libraries Interact - a blog for Australasian libraries
Jenelle

Scrapbooking

Write.Click.Scrapbook - lots of tips and ideas.
Paperclipping.com - love this site. Noell does a paperclipping round table podcast weekly which I bank up and then listen to. There is also one for digital scrapping.
Creating Keepsakes - like the magazine, lots of inspiration here.

Card making

For the love of life - some amazing work here
Daring cardmakers - I so want to make a wobble card
Passionately Artistic - lots of cuttlebug goodness

Peeking into the lives of others

Day to day - also a good craft blog
e - an Aussie living in the US
Attic24 - lovely, lovely stuff. Lots of crochet goodness

Crochet/craft/knitting

Sew ritzy titzy - I SO want to do this challenge - who is up for it??
Creativeyarn
Crochet with Raymond - a cat who crochets?
Hooked on handmade - more on the May challenge

So many more I can share, but think I will call it a night! What are some of your favourite blogs and why?

Post 12, Choosing a conference committee, part 2

2011-06-20T19:03:00.012+10:00

Yesterday I finished my post with the bombshell Jenelle dropped on me, she was moving overseas and would have to withdraw from NLS4. As I said earlier, Jenelle was the ideal choice for Website Coordinator and had also been to NLS1 and NLS2 (NLS2006 had not happened yet) so had lots of insights to share.

Jenelle's withdrawal left a hole in the committee, as I really didn't know anyone else with the skills sets she possessed. Although the need to fill the gap was not critical at this stage, I did need to have something in place fairly soon. I had my lightbulb moment writing a youth strategy (of all things!). I had not long returned from Aurora and met Jill Stephens there. I should say 're-met' Jill :) Jill and I had worked on aliaVIC together a couple of years back and we then lost contact when she resigned from the committee. I offered Jill a place on the NLS4 organising committee and we didn't look back :) She had many great ideas (remember, Web 2 had not quite taken hold back then) and established a wiki for the committee to collaborate in, as well as setting up RSS feeds on the site. Importantly, Jill had the committee take ownership of the website, so no one felt as though they were operating in a vacuum.

Another important part to any NLS, established from previous NLS', is the social program. This was an area that I didn't have a lot of experience in, so needed someone who would be able to pick up the ball and run with it. No better candidate than Gemma! Gemma's excitement when I asked if she was interested still makes me laugh! The first thing I asked her to do was get some preliminary costings for the cocktail party and lunches for the conference to prepare for our initial budget to the ALIA Board. She had figures to me by the end of the week and made her famous (within the committee) comment "Who would have thought food would cost so much???" She was right, catering is one of the biggest expenses with any event.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the Academic program :)

Post 11 Choosing a conference committee, part 1

2011-06-19T18:51:00.020+10:00

With NLS5 approaching, I thought it would be an ideal time to reflect on my choices, as Convenor, for the organising committee for NLS4 in December 2008. There were 2 avenues open to me - one was to put out a call for expressions of interest and the other was to choose committee members based on my personal knowledge of them. As most of you would know, it takes at least 2 years to organise a conference and looking back through my files, I put in my first expression of interest to the ALIA Board in July 2006, with the formal (and much wordier!) bid going to the Board in August 2006, over two years before the actual event. Taking this into account, I felt then (and still do) that knowing a person's qualities ahead of time would be the strength behind the conference's success. Having already been involved in many committees, I had seen first hand what happened when people put their hands up to be involved and then didn't deliver - it put so much more work on the rest of the committee. I wanted to avoid that so, after discussion with the two previous NLS convenors, made the decision to bypass transparency and choose committee members myself. I also wanted to try and have the organising committee cover different sectors, and, being a national conference, have representation from interstate and regional areas.

As this would be a small, relatively small budget conference, I wanted to keep the committee fairly contained and have a limited number of positions. These were:

Treasurer/Trade
Marketing Coordinator
Melbourne Ambassador
Website Coordinator
Social Program Coordinator
Academic Program Coordinator

Because financials are so important and managing a budget critical, I wanted to have someone who already had experience in this. Kevin Dudeney had previously managed the budget for neXt and was able to put together an interim budget for me to supply to the Board with little effort (or so it seemed to me!). Kevin had also dealt with trade and sponsorship which made him an invaluable asset in this regard as we were able to work out compromises which still gave delegates a good program without impacting too much on the budget. It is not commonly known (but should be) that without sponsors costs would be so much higher for delegates. As NLS4 was primarily aimed at new graduates, based on the assumption of being low income earners, keeping costs lower was even more critical.

When managing a budget, reaching the budgeted number of earlybird delegates is essential (as is budgeting an achievable amount) so marketing becomes imperative and I wanted someone personable who could write well and investigate the multitude of promotional opportunities available to us. Ruth Barton, who was the first Coordinator, unfortunately had to withdraw from the committee and was replaced by Andrew Finegan who, as Librarian Idol, was more than able to rise to the challenge. I met Andrew at NLS2006 and loved the way he handled himself during a debate that was part of the program.

Trevor Mackay was an ideal choice to promote beautiful Melbourne to potential delegates, he knew Melbourne inside and out, a critical factor for this role. Importantly, I knew Trevor had the 'stick-to-itness' that I needed.

As the website was going to be our main source of communication, the Website Coordinator had to be techie, to say the least and who better than our own Victorian techie, Jenelle :) I was on aliaVIC with Jenelle and she was also a brilliant convenor and always followed through. Who better for the Website Coordinator role? Early in 2007, Jenelle dropped a bombshell on me - she was moving to the US to live and would have to withdraw from NLS4!

I'll talk more about my choices tomorrow :)

Post 10 - A fun meme :)

2011-06-19T17:19:00.003+10:00

Again courtesy of Fiona, here is a fun meme to kick start the week.

What’s in a name meme…

1. Your real name:

Tania

2. Your Gangsta name:
(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle.)

Tanizzle(please!)

3. Your Detective name:
(fave color and fave animal)

Blue Cat (my cat is black :) )

4. Your Soap Opera name:
(your middle name and street you live on)

Tania Hogan

5. Your Star Wars name:
(For your new first name: first 3 letters of your 1st name + first 2 letters of your surname; For your new last name: first 2 letters of your mother’s maiden name + first 3 letters of the city you were born)

Tankr Azfoo

6. Your Superhero name:
(your 2nd favorite colour, and favourite drink).

Purple Tea

7. Your Iraqi name:
(2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your middle name, 2nd letter of your mother’s maiden name, 3rd letter of your father’s middle name, 1st letter of a sibling’s first name, and last letter of your mother’s middle name)

Aetzala

(hmmmm, not bad)

8. Your Witness Protection name:
(parents’ middle names)

Assunta Frank

9. Your Goth name:
(“Black”, and the name of one of your pets)

Black Gypsy

10. Your Ninja name:
(First two letters of your first name added with “ruto”)

Taruto

11. Your Pirate name:
(Your middle name after the word Captain)

Captain Tania

Post 9 June card challenge - Days 8 to 10

2011-06-19T16:02:00.013+10:00

Here are the first 3 cards for week 2 of the June card challenge.

Day 8 was making a card using no less than 3 buttons. Having sewn for most of my adult life, I have no shortage of buttons in my house. I have so many that I once organised them by colour because it took me so long to find a few that matched. I am always glad to use buttons on my layouts or my cards for this reason :) My love of buttons started at a very young age when I used to go through my mother's button tin and admire the colours all mixed together. I still love walking past rows and rows of buttons in Spotlight, all organised by colour..... For this card I chose contrasting coloured buttons in varying sizes and placed them randomly on my cardstock. When I was happy with the placement, I glued them down and then drew in the stems and leaves. I'd like to make more like this.Day 9. Make a card using glitter. This was a challenge for me, as I tend not to use a lot of glitter on anything, one due to laziness in getting the glitter out and two because I end up wearing a lot of it! The glitter is very hard to see in this picture, but I used a new Kaszazz flourish stamp in the bottom left hand corner with some pearlescent glitter. It was a lovely, understated effect. I used the wrong glue though, and the glitter brushed off, so I will have to revisit this one :) The base card was a pale pink, but I stamped a flourish background in a darker, pearlescent pink ink to give it some more interest.Day 10. Make a card in a shape that is not a square or a rectangle. The hardest part of this challenge was actually deciding on what to do - I had so many different ideas. I ended up going with a telescoping circles card that I learned at a Creative Memories workshop a few years ago. The variation I added to what I learned was using scalloped circles rather than plain circles. I used my Spellbinders nestabilities to cut out 5 circles, 4 of which were in varying sizes, half an inch apart (aside here - I am very much a metric girl, but when scrapbooking, making cards or talking about a baby's weight/person's height, I can't instantly visualise anything unless it is in imperial measurements, not sure why...). See below for a photo of the card opened in all its telescopic glory.

Post 8 On multi tasking

2011-06-19T15:53:00.004+10:00

The other week, on Twitter, someone asked how people with children managed to get everything done and still stay sane. It made me think about how I am managing being at home with 4 children. Granted, 2 of those children can look after themselves, but they are part of the household, and, as such, require me to still be their mother :) I am home at the moment and thought I would be able to fit even more into an already busy schedule, having gained more hours during the day through not being at work and not travelling. I am not quite sure it worked out that way....

I try to be organised so that everything flows as smoothly as it possibly can. I try to find short cuts that I can live with, that won't compromise the way I believe things should be done. Where possible, I simplify things as much as I can and try to declutter (my biggest challenge). I recently completed a 6 or 7 week declutter challenge where we had to focus on one area a week and totally revamp and declutter said area. It did mean I had to find time to work through these tasks, but now that I have done them, it is so much easier to sustain and keep things tidy.

I try to take time out to relax - it doesn't always work (ironically, sometimes giving up that time calms me more, as my overwhelming to do list gets an extra special attack :)). I watch very little TV but try to make time to play catch up my favourite TV shows when I can. Jenelle frequently blogs about getting dinner ready in a record amount of time - I must have a chat to her more about this....

I read somewhere that we need to say no to things more, that juggling too much in our lives means being overwhelmed and stressed. I think that is over simplistic. Working out what I can do and how I manage this takes away stress and yet is still a juggle, just a more efficient one.

Post 7 June card challenge - days 4 to 7

2011-06-15T22:21:00.012+10:00

The final four cards for the first week of the June card challenge.

Day 4. Make a card using no less than 3 ribbons. I cut the heart out of the top layer using my cricut. I stuck ribbon scraps onto the base card so that they showed through the cut out heart when I adhered that layer to the card. I used a white gel pen to do the faux stitching around the base card and the heart layer.

Day 5. Use a die cut. This was my second attempt at this challenge. It took forever to make the first card, which I never really liked, then I made this one in about 5 minutes without even thinking about it! I cut the butterfly out using my cricut and stuck it on the left flap of a gatefold card. The gatefold ends up being 4x4. I love pink and brown together! There are some glitter dots scattered across the patterned paper.

Day 6. Make a card using flowers. The flowers were hand cut from images I stamped (the same stamp set I used for the sympathy card for post 6) - the large and small flowers were both cut twice and then layered over each other. I used a script background stamp to add some interest to the flowers and edged the flowers with dimensional glitter gel. I used a cuttlebug embossing folder to impress a design on the front of the card.

Day 7. Make a card using the colours red, white and black. I like the way this card turned out. Simple but effective. The bird is made using a Stampin' Up punch.

Post 6 June card challenge - Days 1 to 3

2011-06-15T19:21:00.010+10:00

So to add to an already full schedule, I decided I would take part in a June card challenge, put together by the lovely Katherine from Scrap Everything. This post will have my contributions for the first 3 days (mainly because blogger is playing up!) Day 1. Make a square card for a male. The card is a 4x4 card blank (so definitely a square!) with the blue panel made up of coordinating strips placed on a strip of card on the diagonal and then trimmed to size. The red scalloped border was made with an EK Success border punch (love them!). Faux stitching completed the card.Day 2. Make a sympathy card. I created the patterned on the coloured card using a flower stamp and versamark, which creates a tone on tone effect. I then punched out a circle from the pink and brown section and used my Kaszazz dragonfly stamp and punch to place the dragonfly in the centre of the cut out.Day 3. Make a card using the colours blue and brown. This was was harder for me to get my head around, because I couldn't narrow down my ideas enough to start making the card. I'm happy with how it turned out in the end. The scalloped edge is done using a Martha Stewart border punch. The cute little owl is paper pieced using the Stampin' Up punch. I used a white gel pen to free hand a border on the outer edge.

Post 5 Se7en meme

2011-06-14T22:01:00.003+10:00

Memes - I love them! I love doing them and I love reading friends' postings! This meme was taken from Fiona, our very own bun toting librarian :)

Seven things that scare me:

1.Sharks
2.Heights
3.Losing my family
4.Being on a ship in case it sinks (as 1 above)
5.Inequity
6.Favouritism
7.Racism

Seven things I like:

1.My children
2.My husband
3.My family
4.My job
5.Photos
6.My friends
7.Living in Melbourne

Seven random facts about me:

1.I joined ALIA as a student in 2001
2.I have 2 laptops
3.I have very small fingers and wrists
4.I love shoes :)
5.I have recently started watching Glee
6.I used to bite my fingernails till I was 13
7.I used to work for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SEC)

Seven things I want to do before I die:

1.Have lots of grandkids
2.OK, am stumped now
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Seven things I can do well:

1.Listen
2.Make cards
3.Scrapbook
4.Make lasagne
5.Seven things at once :)
6.Over commit!
7.Spell

Seven things I can’t do but wish I could:

1.Drive a manual
2.Run
3.Give up eating chocolate
4.Know Photoshop inside out
5.Take REALLY good photos
6.Build a computer
7.Speak a third language

Seven phrases I’m known to use:

1.Bugger
2.Fruit
3.Nonsense
4.You'll cop it
5.Hang five
6.oh dear
7.I don't think so!

And that, I have to say, was much harder than I thought!

Post 4 - Library and Information Week 2011

2011-06-04T17:46:00.007+10:00

Another Library and Information Week has been and gone. Being home on maternity leave, I wasn't able to do anything for work, mainly because I wasn't there :-) Lots of ideas though, always lots of ideas.

Soooo, being a good advocate for reading to babies, here is my contribution to making Australia a reading nation.

Post 3 Something for me (cont)

2011-06-03T19:35:00.003+10:00

Back in January, as part of the 12 days of Christmas blogging challenge, I did a post on a healthy balance in life, outlining what I wanted to achieve this year. Let's see how on track I am so far....

1. I will continue to avoid buying items for my scrapbooking stash so I can use what I have faster (this has been in place for almost 3 years and nothing seems to have depleted...)

this is still on track

2. I will make all my Christmas cards again this year.

again on track. I have designed one and am making 5 a month

3. I will experiment and make a step card that will fit in a standard size envelope.

Accomplished!

4. I will finish my December Daily album (I really just have to get photos together).

Accomplished

5. I will continue with Project 365 for myself and Anthony.

Ongoing. I have monthly photo challenges that I email to some friends of things to take photos of. It is a great sharing and learning exercise. That reminds me that I need to email out yesterday and today's theme...

6. I will finish crocheting my granny stripe blanket.

er, ongoing still.

7. I will unpick some jumpers that I no longer want and reuse the wool.

Yet to do

8. I will finish scrapbooking Project 365 for 2009-2010.

Still ongoing. Am going to an all day scrapbooking crop next Saturday and hope to make a huge indent into this.

9. I will host some more crafternoons, as I am a little housebound right now (first Twitter one scheduled for Jan 16, yay).

I have scheduled one scrapbooking day a month till August with some friends.

10. I will experiment more with PhotoShop.

Done and ongoing. Looooove PhotoShop!

All in all not a bad effort, considering I forgot about this!

Post 2 - Blog every day of June

2011-06-03T18:13:00.003+10:00

Day 2 and lots and lots of thoughts going around in my head.

Something I do daily is check Facebook and my Twitterstream continuously - so much easier to do with my iTouch and Windows 7 phone (love that phone!) than it was when I had to keep checking a computer to keep up to date. I find my PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter invaluable. I have purposely kept my followers (and those I follow) to a small number (although I think I have gone over 100 now) so that I can easily keep track of tweets as they appear. Following too many people means I lose sight of many of the threads of conversation that are happening simultaneously.

I love the Twittelator app for my iTouch - I actually prefer to use it over twitter.com because it loads where I finished reading the last time I used it, as opposed to the Twitter site, which loads at the most recent tweet, meaning I may need to scroll down pages of tweets to pick up where I left off. Twittelator also colours my tweets green and any replies to my tweets are brown - love it! I wish Twitter would do that - I thought it may have been a feature in the 'new Twitter', however I haven't been able to find it if that is the case.

I do vet those that ask to follow me - they need to be directly associated, somehow, with others in my PLN or be involved in the library industry (apart from Master Chef :) ). If I approve someone following me, then I follow them. I see no point in having followers that can see my tweets and I can't see their's. Likewise, if I follow someone, then I like them to follow me. I regularly compare the two lists and think seriously about removing those I follow that don't follow me.

So what are the benefits, for me, of having a PLN?

collaborative sharing and learning. Ruth, from Creative Circ, blogged here about the way she used Twitter to crowdsource (love that term!) topics for a potential conference paper and how it helped engage her with a future audience. Brilliant.

It's somewhere I can discuss ideas and explore them with others.

I have access to a global learning community of very active library people who are more than happy to share their expertise.

It is another source of information for me. Recently it has been my first port of call.

It may be informal, but it is still a method of learning for me.

It puts some randomness back into my life :) Where else would I hear that someone burned their dinner for the third time in a row because they were busy catching up on tweets? Or about emphysemic pets and how germs cannot live in an alcoholic environment!

I love how, the more I use Twitter, the more creative ways I find that people are using it.

So, how does Twitter benefit you?

Post 1 - Blog every day of June

2011-06-01T23:09:00.003+10:00

Today saw the start of another blogging challenge from my Twitter PLN - blog every day in June. The last time I attempted this was to blog the 12 days of Christmas - something I did manage to achieve. As my blogging is sporadic (and indeed stopped after the 12 days of Christmas effort), I considered paticipating in this challenge and decided against it. However, after being 'encouraged' by Gemma, I thought I would start and see if this would give me the impetus to continue blogging after June ends. Someone tweeted earlier today that there were 58 bloggers taking part - it may be more now. It's an awesome effort and make being part of my PLN more real somehow.

So what am I doing in June? I am also taking part in a card making challenge which involves making a card according to preset criteria every day in June (today's was a square card for a male). As well as this, I need to catch up on my twitter mystery a month post (been so long that I don't remember the hash tag for it, but I have still been reading!), finish co-writing a paper and continue with sessional work at Curtin University and Victoria University. I took on the card making challenge as a way to try and force a little me time during June. My days are so full that I need something to put me into a different head space.

Am I over committed?? Nah, there is no such thing! :)

12 days of Christmas - Post 12 Wrap up 2001-2010

2011-01-06T07:06:00.004+11:00

Final post for the 12 days of Christmas Twitter challenge. Many of the participants have contributed a blog post during this challenge wrapping up 2010, either professionally, personally or both. I had this on the agenda for my final post, then had a change of heart and thought I would blog about one or two professional highlights that occurred each year over the past 10 years.

2001 - Commenced at Charles Sturt University for the Bachelor of Arts (Library and Information Science). I had just missed out on enrolling in 1999 to start in 2000 so completed an elective in 2000 just before I had another baby.
2002 - Learned cataloguing :-)
2003 - Got my first Dean's Award for Academic Excellence.
2004 - Started my first professional role as a Children's Librarian, even though I was not yet qualified.
2005 - Presented my first conference paper at neXt 2005: ALIA National Library and Information Technicians Conference.
2006 - Graduated with Distinction from CSU.
2007 - Attended the Aurora Institute courtesy of the ALIA Aurora Scholarship and the State Library of Victoria.
2008 - Commenced a new role with Yarra Plenty Regional Library and convened the 4th ALIA New Librarians Symposium in Melbourne (NLS4).
2009 - Presented a paper at IFLA on issues impacting on the recruitment of school leavers to the library profession with Gill Hallam. Gill is a wonderful advocate for the profession, someone I admire and look up to.
2010 - Acted for almost a year as Operations Manager at Yarra Plenty, an exceptional professional development opportunity.

12 days of Christmas - Post 11 Something for me

2011-01-06T00:05:00.002+11:00

Reading many of the posts for the 12 days of Christmas, as well as posts on Twitter, has made me aware of the need to have a healthy balance in life (as I won't really be 'working' this year, I can't quite say 'work/life balance').

I thought I would follow Kate's craft meme, also followed by Tony, to reinforce things I want (would like) to achieve this year).

I will continue to avoid buying items for my scrapbooking stash so I can use what I have faster (this has been in place for almost 3 years and nothing seems to have depleted...)
I will make all my Christmas cards again this year.
I will experiment and make a step card that will fit in a standard size envelope.
I will finish my December Daily album (I really just have to get photos together).
I will continue with Project 365 for myself and Anthony.
I will finish crocheting my granny stripe blanket.
I will unpick some jumpers that I no longer want and reuse the wool.
I will finish scrapbooking Project 365 for 2009-2010.
I will host some more crafternoons, as I am a little housebound right now (first Twitter one scheduled for Jan 16, yay).
I will experiment more with Photoshop.

Now I am kind of bound to do these.....

12 days of Christmas - Post 10 On recruiting to the profession

2011-01-04T23:01:00.003+11:00

An issue that is very dear to my heart is that of using well thought out and meaningful work experience programs for secondary school students as a way to recruit more to the profession. There has been a lot of concern expressed internationally about the future of the library and information services profession; there are quite a number of factors that are contributing to an uncertain future. These include: recruitment and retention, changing skill sets and declining numbers of people choosing librarianship as a career. Library professional bodies, such as ALIA and ALA ,have encouraged considerable research into these problems so we can attempt to better understand issues of sustainability, however one area that has not been explored in any depth is the topic of why LIS studies are not perceived, let alone promoted, as a good first professional qualification for school leavers.

There needs to be some sort of development of effective career pathways which will require integrated relationships between the schools, vocational education and higher education sectors, along with employers and professional associations. I think there's quite a bit of scope for the LIS profession to develop career models that might be representative for other areas of employment.

There isn't much in the way of professional literature that examines the uptake of librarianship as a first qualification by school leavers, which is what made me take on a research study of the issues impacting on recruitment of young people. In particular, I like to look at opportunities for inspiring and motivating students through well structured and stimulating work experience programs. This topic is relevant to all librarians who are interested in the future of the LIS profession. After all, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our profession.

12 days of Christmas - Post 9 - Tips for first time conference attendees

2011-01-02T21:18:00.002+11:00

In 2007 I was fortunate enough to be on the organising committee for ALIA07, the ALIA National Library and Technicians Conference 2007. My portfolio was Marketing and Promotions Coordinator, a position I found challenging and rewarding. One of pages I put together for the website was tips for first time conference attendees. With ALIA Information Online approaching, I thought it would be fitting to repost the information here.

Planning before the conference

Plan what presentations you will see in advance by reading the abstracts that are supplied by the conference organisers. Some sessions may require advance booking due to limited numbers, so book in early if you are interested.

Only book for events or tours that you know you are interested in and will attend. It will undermine your credibility if your name is there and you don’t turn up.

Send some emails to the ALIA lists (eg libtec, aliaVIC, aliaNEWGRADS) to see how many others are attending from your state, where the best accommodation might be or the best way to get around the city where the conference is to be held. You may even find a potential room mate!

Attend the first timer’s dinner, if there is one being held.

Before you start

Take comfortable shoes – you will be doing a lot of walking and standing.

Take a bottle of water – air conditioning can make conference venues very dry.

As a mini survival kit, take some aspirin in case you get caught with a headache, and some band aids in case of blisters.

Trade vendors often have giveaways and promotional material regarding new products, so make sure you take a bag that can accommodate your goodies.

Conferences are excellent networking opportunities – handing out business cards is much more professional than writing your details on scrap paper. If you do not have any supplied by your employer, they can be made quite simply using programs such as Microsoft Publisher.

Room temperatures can vary, so try to wear something layered which will allow you to adjust your clothing in accordance with the room comfort level, for example, wearing a short sleeved shirt with a light jacket over the top.

If you are an interstater, remember to do some research about the host city – make the most of this opportunity to visit another city!

Develop some questions to help you break the ice. For example:

*Which presentations are you particularly interested in?
*Have you heard any of these presenters before?
*Are you from Sydney?
*Do you work in a library?

Prepare some good questions to help you liaise with the trade at the venue. For example:

*Are you showcasing anything new this year?
*Can you demonstrate something about this product for me?

At the venue

Turn your mobile phone off or switch it to silent/vibrate mode.

Familiarise yourself with the layout of the conference venue. Find out the way rooms are numbered or named (in the case of concurrent sessions), where the toilets are located and whether there are any water fountains available.

Most conferences provide lanyards for delegate identification – slip some business cards at the back so you always have them with you, even when you are waiting in queues.

Network with the trade vendors, asking some well thought out questions.

Make sure that your name tag is visible to all, not hiding under a jacket or behind your hair. You want people to be able to refer to you by name, which will help them remember you more.

Network with as many people as you can – this is where the business cards will come in very handy!

Fill in the conference evaluation form – it is the way the organising committee can make the conference even better the next time around.

During presentations

A plenary session is usually one attended by all delegates. By attending the plenary, you will have something in common to talk about with the rest of the delegates.

Take plenty of notes. This will help if you need to write up a report for work or study, or if you want to write an article for submission to a journal.

Ensure you know where your next session is going to be held, so you don’t waste time trying to get there.

Try to arrive at the presentation a little early, especially if you need certain seating for a reason, for example to see more clearly or hear better.

If you do arrive late, don’t stress, just take the plunge and sit down! You won’t be the first to be late!

Don’t be hesitant in asking questions. You are among colleagues and friends.

It is common practice to identify yourself, your library, or your place of study prior to asking your question.

The trade exhibition

Make sure that you visit the ALIA stand to meet with local liaison officers and National Office representatives, and learn about the work of our professional association.

Business cards come in handy here. Many booths have competitions where entry is by placing a business card in for a prize draw. You can also hand them out for information to be sent to you at a later date.

If something from one of the exhibitors really attracts your attention, write some brief information on one of their business cards as a prompt for after the conference.

Ask the questions that you have prepared earlier (see above). Don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know anything about a product/vendor – this is their opportunity to inform you!

Even if you are familiar with the trade exhibitors, take the opportunity to see if there is something new on the market that you can learn about.

Remember to thank the vendors – their participation enhances your conference experience and professional knowledge and will also encourage them to continue supporting conferences.

Networking and Social Events

You will be in a lot of queues (tea breaks, lunches, even the restrooms!) so make the most of these opportunities to network with people.

Remember, if you have business cards, bring them with you because they are a useful tool for networking.

If you’re a first timer, try to get accommodation from those recommended by the Committee. This will give you more opportunities to network.

Use the elists to find contacts from your area.

Remember that networking is not only about talking about work-related topics.

If you can, set up dinner groups – gathering around a meal is a great networking opportunity.

Try to attend events that are organised for all delegates, such as the conference dinner or cocktail party. These are designed to bring all delegates together in a fun atmosphere.

Always be positive – try not to put a negative slant to the conversation. You could be talking to a prospective employer!

12 days of Christmas - Post 8 On documenting life and more challenges

2011-01-02T20:51:00.003+11:00

Today @polyxena invited me to a challenge to read a mystery book a month as recommended by Tara Moss. I have been quite slack in my reading since starting work in the library industry, which is a shame as I was so addicted to reading. January's book is Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express which I have reserved at my local library. I used to own almost all Agatha Christie's works, but got rid of them a few years ago in an attempt to declutter.

@polyxena and I are not quite sure how the Tara Moss challenge works (it isn't very clear) but we have undertaken to read the book recommended regardless of whether we get to use our registration to the site or not. @bonitoclub, @katejf and @mt77 have also jumped on board. Not sure whether listening to @polyxena is a wise thing - the last time I did this I became addicted to Cityville...... :-) If you are interested visit the blog post here for more information on how to join #librarytwittermysteryamonth.

In the last few days I have undertaken quite a few challenges. There is :

Fiona's blog post a day for the 12 days of Christmas;
Project365 for Anthony (taking a photo of him every day for 12 months);
Kathryn's #dailyimage2011 where a photo is taken of the individual every day and then uploaded to Flickr (except I wont be uploading);
Anne's reading a recommended mystery book a month.

Anne also recommended I use Goodreads to keep track of the books I have read or that I want to read. I have registered and entered 3 books so far....

12 days of Christmas - Post 7 On documenting life

2010-12-31T23:10:00.006+11:00

Today @sirexkat put a call out for tweeps to join in Daily Image 2011, where anyone participating uploads a daily picture, video or image of themselves to Flickr. This is similar to something I did in 2009-2010 (specifically from April 2009 to April 2010). The project was called Project 365 - you can read more about what it entails here. This is a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo. These photos can be uploaded to Flickr, a personal blog, or printed, as I did, and then scrapbooked (as I am doing). I found it very challenging to remember, but so rewarding to be able to look back and see what my house looked like, my front garden, the car I drove, when my husband got personalised plates - true snapshots in time. I love the social history behind it all. Here are some photos I took as part of the project.

Photo of my nails

Audio book I was listening to at that time (blah)

First layout I submitted for a scrapbooking challenge

Photo I took walking along the beach in Fiji

Will I do a photo a day of myself? Not sure - thinking about it but dont think I will upload to Flickr. I have already started the project for Anthony :-)

12 days of Christmas - Post 6 Ramblings

2010-12-30T22:44:00.003+11:00

Ok, so I was way way behind in my blogging, well in my physical blogging. My mental blogging was really current and cutting edge. I regularly write about 4 posts at 2am in the morning that I am super impressed with-they are usually so good I just know I will remember them. Guess what? I don't, well not much anyway.

So what have I been doing with my time? Quite a fair bit which surprises me, especially since NLS4 is well and truly over with. Totally over. My final report was submitted a loooong time ago to the ALIA Board of Directors - pleased to say that we more than made our forecast budget. The thing with a conference budget is that it is only ever a forecast - it can be very easy to make something look good on paper, whether it is achievable or not is another thing. There are also so many variables that can affect the bottom line - you can try hard to be prepared and anticipate things, but not everything will ever go to plan. I was so lucky to have a fabulous, hardworking committee - made things go so much more smoothly.

Keeping on top of my feeds in my reader - this could honestly just about become a full time job! I just checked and I have 500 subscriptions - is it any wonder? Not all of these have regular postings, some are probably dead and forgotten by now, however many have multiple postings which could make up for those that don't post or don't post regularly (sort of like me....). It does annoy me when it turns out that some blog postings don't fully appear in my reader. I use my reader as a single point of access so I don't have to visit individual blogs. I have unsubscribed from many that do this. Do I read everything in my feeder - yes and no. Most I skim first and then go back to later. There are exceptions to this - I always read CW's, Jenelle's and Steph's. Actually I always read a heap more and they are in my 'must read' folder.... There are others but these are the three that come to mind instantly (random thought - it is late and I need another cuppa).

Working, working, working.... I've been on a huge learning curve since starting work at Yarra Plenty Regional Library, something I have enjoyed immensely. I also acted for 10 months as Operations Manager, which was a very rewarding experience, although I hit the ground running and don't think I stopped in all that time.....It was definitely something I enjoyed and would like to explore further.

And of course my most recent news that is keeping me busy - I had a baby boy 2 weeks ago that is definitely keeping me on my toes. Loving being on maternity leave and catching up with things.....

12 days of Christmas - Post 5 On the benefits of presenting

2010-12-30T20:48:00.003+11:00

Yesterday I blogged about presenting at conferences so today I thought I would follow on from that a little and outline some of the benefits of presenting. So many times people ask me why they should bother, or say that it is too daunting for them to even contemplate. I am hoping that these points will help alleviate some concerns others may have because there is so much to gain from writing and presenting a paper to your peers.

a great networking opportunity - presenting a paper gives your colleagues and peers an opportunity to seek you out to discuss your paper;
demonstrates the value to your employer of funding conference attendance;
there is potential to create opportunities to do further research on a topic of personal interest and then develop a project that can be implemented in the workplace;
asking someone to co-present with you can further build networks in the workplace;
Many senior managers attend conferences to see what 'new blood' (or 'existing blood') is out there and this can be an ideal opportunity to attract the attention of potential employers;
a much higher personal profile (your name will be in conference proceedings, published papers, programs, websites etc);
if you are presenting on an area of research, presenting a paper on your results so far gives an opportunity to test the waters and receive useful feedback;
you will be a more skilled communicator - with a public presentation you need to be able to get your point across without being long winded;
there is, believe it or not, an improved ability to listen. Nothing makes you pay attention more than being asked a question you need to answer on the spot;
increased opportunities for career advancement;
improved self esteem;
and most importantly of all, increased self confidence and self satisfaction.

You can definitely do this!

All these were off the top of my head - are there any I have forgotten?

12 days of Christmas - Post 4 On conferences and presenting

2010-12-30T01:05:00.002+11:00

Frantic day today and had planned to blog twice but this one took longer than I anticipated!

My first conference paper was in 2005 at neXt 2005: ALIA National Library and Information Technicians Conference and focused on creating partnerships with Council departments to facilitate community engagement. I had done a lot of work at my previous workplace and built sustainable partnerships with Council’s Maternal and Child Health Unit and Kindergarten Unit and thought this conference would be an ideal forum for sharing knowledge with others. The buzz i got from presenting was overwhelming (we wont talk about the nausea that was enveloping me 5 minutes prior to my talk :) ) and made me start to think on how to better my presenting skills. I started to observe presenters and noted their styles, what I liked or didn’t like. I took note of the way they interacted and whether there was something in the way they presented that I wanted to emulate. I had three that I particularly admired – Gill Hallam (Queensland University of Technology), Roxanne Missingham (Parliamentary Library) and Chris Kelly (Brimbank Library Service).

Since that first conference presentation in 2005, I have presented at many other events and conferences, including the Learning Communities Conference, NLS2006 and IFLA last year and picked up many tricks along the way. When I was asked to give a talk for the Victorian New Graduates Groups on Presenting to an Audience, I pulled everything that I had learned together and was surprised at what it actually took to make a presentation work seamlessly. I thought I would share my learnings here.

First of all, you need to think about what is important to you – what do you want to achieve from presenting?

Do you want to engage with the audience?

Are you happy to read your paper out loud and get it over with?
Do you want to stimulate discussion and debate?
Do you want to be remembered?
Once these are identified, work out how you can achieve them. I personally feel it is very important to engage with the audience and to remember the message being given. Make it look as though talking to an audience is something that happens naturally.

Engaging with the audience

Start off with polling the audience – ask a question or two – this can be a good lead in to what you are talking about, without starting cold.
Speak to the audience, not at them – try not to read your paper word for word. My presentations are made up of 3 parts, my actual paper, to be published, my notes for the presentation and my slide show.

Read your paper out loud?

As mentioned above, try not to read your paper to your audience – looking down at pieces of paper will not help you engage with the audience. I developed a prompt system that had a print out of a slide on the left hand side and some brief notes, in a large font, on the other. I used a large font so I wouldn’t have to focus too much on my page and so I wouldn’t be caught out if I had to put my notes on something quite low.
Practise talking your paper in your head with your slideshow. Notice I said ‘talking’ not ‘reciting’. Practice as though you are actually talking one on one with someone so it sounds more natural. This will also make you feel that you have identified with the audience more.

Being remembered

You really want what you are presenting to be remembered. The abstract is the first part that will attract people to your session – make your session representative of what your paper is, and take out key points, rather than just reading it out – this way delegates will go to the full paper and read it. This also makes it easier to not go over time.
Leave some time for questions at the end to reinforce your interaction with the audience.

Summing up

Before the event

Ask yourself – what’s important to you – what do you want to achieve?
Observe presenters
Prepare brief notes based around your slideshow
Practise talking your presentation in your head

During the event

Poll the audience – this will ease you into your session
Refer to your notes to prompt you along
Look at the audience frequently
Leave some time for questions

After the session

Leave some way for delegates to be able to contact you

12 days of Christmas - Post 3 On blogs and keeping up with them

2010-12-27T23:13:00.004+11:00

I feel like I am on a roll - 3 posts in 2 days is a pretty big achievement for me at the moment, considering how long it had been previously between posts.

So onto keeping up with all my blogs. I previously used Bloglines to keep up with my blogs, not that I had many that I checked on a regular basis. I eventually decided to switch to Google Reader, mainly for the ease of having one login.

What I like most about reading other people's blogs is the fact that they lead you to more and more blogs, more interesting reading, more things to read that are in my area of interest. Initially I was only adding library related blogs, those that I felt were professionally linked to my career. Over time, blogs related to my hobbies of knitting and scrapbooking were duly added to my reader. Over time, these additions started to spiral out of control! To manage these more efficiently, I added labels to every blog (I guess I catalogued them :) ) and started to cull those I had added on a whim and decided held no interest for me (I weeded them :) ). Any that did not show the full feed in my reader were removed too. I use my reader to save me time and save me blog hopping. If I need to go to a blog to read the entire post, then to me that defeats the purpose of having it in my reader in the first place.

Then came the task of 'keeping' posts that I liked and wanted to refer to later - aaah the beauty of starring an item! Then, of course, the dilemma of TOO MANY starred items! I go through these every now and then and remove stars if I feel a post has outlived its usefulness. It does happen. (Never with @polyxena posts though!)

Using Google Reader has enabled me to check my favourite blogs on a regular basis in a much more efficient and timely manner than previously. This is very good for me, considering how many more blogs I have added to my reader since the 12 days of Christmas challenge started :)

Out of curiosity, how many of you have added my blog to your rss reader?

12 days of Christmas - Post 2

2010-12-27T01:20:00.003+11:00

So onto post 2 for the 12 days of Christmas challenge. Actually I am not sure that Fiona intended it to be a challenge, but it certainly is one for me, as blogging is something I have let slip over the months. There are many, many blogs that I follow, professional ones, as well as hobby ones (what they are and how I organise them may be tomorrow's post?) and I am always amazed at how they manage to find the time to blog, and blog something that can be quite deep.

Maybe I have been a little too focused on only having this blog relate to professional posts - I intend to relax this, at least for this challenge, and see what I can come up with. Today's post is about a photographic project I am doing to document our lives from December 1 to December 25. The Christmas tradition is led by Ali Edwards and is aptly named December Daily. I wanted to do this project last year but found out about it too late. Sometimes something has to give :) I filed the idea away for 2010.

December Daily is a photographic project that documents, with words and photos, the 25 days leading up to Christmas. According to Ali, many people start their documentation earlier and many people go longer. I decided that 25 days would be as long as I would document things we did during that time.

One of the keys to success in this project is getting an album structure together prior to December, the idea being that you can then enjoy the lead up to Christmas. I wanted to get my foundation pages (as Ali calls them) together ahead of time for 2 reasons - one being that if I didn't, it would mean that I would need to, after the event, get photos ready, organise them, journal AND create an album for them to go into as well - the project would be more daunting. The second reason is that I was due to have a baby quite close to when the project would end, which meant that the more I had organised ahead of time, the better for me.

One of the challenges I set myself was to use items from my stash as much as possible, the idea being that my stash would drastically reduce (can I say that this did not happen - I swear this stuff breeds!) I made the album quite similar to Ali's, size 6 inches by 8 inches, with a transparency between each page (each page made from white card). Again, rather than buy preprinted transparencies, I made my own by cutting old overhead projector transparencies down to 6x8 and decorating them with various Christmas items from my stash. Some of the items I used included Christmas shapes, stickers, paper, flocking, design adhesives, tapes and glitter.

My friend Rebecca was over from Tasmania to spend a week with me crafting prior to me having the baby and we managed to get the album done, in between a lot of talking and me having to continually elevate my legs.

I took many, many photos and have used Photoshop to make a collage out of some that I will print out as a 6x8. I am going to try and use three 6x4 photos per day - 2 will go down one page (the album is portrait) and one will go on the page with the date on it. As this page has a 2 inch strip of patterned paper on the bottom, meaning I can't put 2 photos there due to space constraints, I plan to put one photo there and journal in the remaining space.

I had better get more photos organised....

12 days of Christmas - Post 1

2010-12-26T21:04:00.004+11:00

Yes I know, I am already a day behind, but am hoping to put 2 posts up today in order to catch up. What I am really hoping will happen is that I will finally get my momentum with blogging back and not leave it so long between posts. I guess I am hoping to find something meaningful to blog about :)

To ease me back into it, I thought I would use a Christmas meme that I have seen somewhere online.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Wrapping paper. I only use gift bags if the present is a really weird shape.

2. Real tree or artificial?

Usually artificial, but this year we have a real tree, which is just lovely. Will either continue with that or get a new artificial tree next year.

3. When do you put up the tree?

End of November or December 1

4. When do you take the tree down?

After New Year's

5. Do you like eggnog?

Never tried it and don't think I want to

6. Favourite present received as a child?

Fuzzy Pumper Barber Set - until I realised I had to poke all the little bits of play doh out of the holes in the dolls' heads. Gah

7. Hardest person to buy for?

My mother

8. Easiest person to buy for?

Probably my father

9. Do you have a nativity scene?

I do. I have a knitted one that I made over 16 years ago that I thought would be tiny but are actually quite large. The set has 3 Wise Men, 2 shepherds, Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, sheep and cradle. Baby Jesus can go in the cradle or in Mary's arms (she is the only one in a sitting pose). My second son sets it up on the window ledge at the front of the house every year and this year there is a sheep in the cradle and one of the Wise Men is running off with the baby :-) I get comments on it all the time.

10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?

Definitely mail!!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

A gold fabric bow on a clip. Gah again!

12. Favourite Christmas movie?

Don't have one

13. When do you start shopping?

Anytime really. I do start thinking and planning early on in the year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

No

15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas?

My mum's roast potatoes and baked macaroni (Maltese dish called timpana)

16. Lights on the tree?

Coloured LED fairy lights

17. Favourite Christmas song?

Not sure - if it is a hymn maybe 'Oh come all ye faithful'???

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Usually fairly local - by that I mean in Melbourne at least!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

An angel.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

It has become a tradition to open them around 10 pm Christmas Eve

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

People crowding supermarkets like they are running out of food or the supermarkets will be shut for 2 weeks.

23. Favourite ornament theme or color?

No tinsel on tree! Purple and gold baubles, bead strings and some traditional ones my children have made over the years.

24. Favourite for Christmas lunch/dinner?

Mum's roast potatoes and baked macaroni

25. What did you get for Christmas this year?

New Nina perfume, lovely necklace with heart charm saying mum/daughter, new Kathy Reichs book (astounds me that there is another one out and I haven't read Mortal Remains yet - looks like a new series), bath salts, cant remember any more. Probably is no more!

Posting again

2010-06-15T20:02:00.002+10:00

It's been a while between posts - a very long while. Lots of posts simmering in my head that just never seem to get put in writing. I thought picking up on Clare's meme of '2 things about me' would help kick start me.

I know some people frown on memes - too personal, not professional, waste of time, no meaning to them, but I love them. I love the glimpse that they give me into my colleagues lives, both professionally and personally. So here goes:

Two names you go by:

1) Tania
2) Mum

Two things you are wearing right now:

1) pjs
2) engagement ring

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:

1) trust
2) respect

Two things you like to do:

1) Read
2) Scrapbook

Two things you want very badly at the moment:

1) less clutter
2) a week off work

Two things you did last night:

1) marked some papers
2) crocheted

Two things you ate today:

1) toasted ham and cheese sandwhich
2) chicken schnitzel

Two people you last talked to:

1) My daughter
2) My husband

Two things you’re doing tomorrow:

1) work
2) driving

Two Favourite Holidays

1) Fiji 2008
2) Fiji 2009

Two favourite beverages

1) soda water
2) tea

Two things about me! Things you may not have known.

1) I graduated in 2006
2) I wanted to be a hairdresser when in primary school

Two jobs I have had in my life:

1) Data entry supervisor
2) Personal Assistant

Two movies I would watch over and over:

1) White chicks
2) Devil wears Prada

Two places I have lived:

1) Gippsland
2) Yarraville

Two of my favourite foods:

1) olives
2) hot chips

Two places I’d rather be right now:

1) somewhere hot, near water, reading
2) same as 1 :)

Meme

2009-01-05T22:20:00.003+11:00

The 99 things meme

Read CW's

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicise
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to - leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog.
Started this one as I was running a workshop and thought I needed to know what I was talking about :) Also started one for the State Library of Victoria's 23 things program.

2. Slept under the stars.

3. Played in a band.

4. Visited Hawaii.

5. Watched a meteor shower.

6. Given more than you can afford to charity.

7. Been to Disneyland/world.
If I had to do the amusement park thing again would probably just go to the Gold Coast

8. Climbed a mountain.

9. Held a praying mantis.
I DON'T THINK SO

10. Sang a solo.

11. Bungee jumped.
See 9 above!

12. Visited Paris.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
Does scrapbooking count as an art?? or knitting? or am I thinking craft? What about cooking?

15. Adopted a child.
I'd like to help a disadvantaged child. Doubt it will happen.

16. Had food poisoning.

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.

18. Grown your own vegetables.
tomatoes, potatoes, beans, corn, zucchini, pumpkin, lettuce, cucumber.

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.

20. Slept on an overnight train.

21. Had a pillow fight.

22. Hitch hiked.

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.

24. Built a snow fort.
Not been able to scrape enough snow together to make a snowball, much less a fort!

25. Held a lamb.

26. Gone skinny dipping.

27. Run a marathon.

28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
Believe it is overrated.

29. Seen a total eclipse.
Define 'seen' - have not actually looked at one, afraid of dire warnings re the consequences!

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
Sunset (sunrise is probably a tad too early)

31. Hit a home run.

32. Been on a cruise.
Not likely. Ships sink

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
Yes Malta

35. Seen an Amish community.

36. Taught yourself a new language.

37.Had enough money to be truly satisfied.

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
May happen this year!

39. Gone rock climbing.

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person.

41. Sung Karaoke.

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.

43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.

44. Visited Africa.

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
Fiji 2008

46. Been transported in an ambulance.
Twice - ruptured appendix

47. Had your portrait painted.
Would prefer a photo

48. Gone deep sea fishing.
See 32 above

49. Seen the Sistene chapel in person.[sic]

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling.
Snorkelling

52. Kissed in the rain.

53. Played in the mud.

54. Gone to a drive-in theatre.

55. Been in a movie.

56. Visited the Great Wall of China.

57. Started a business.

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia.

60. Served at a soup kitchen.

61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.

62. Gone whale watching.

63. Gotten flowers for no reason.

64. Donated blood.

65. Gone sky diving.

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
Don't think I could, given all the reading I have done about them.

67. Bounced a cheque.

68. Flown in a helicopter.

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
Several actually

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.

71. Eaten Caviar.

72. Pieced a quilt.

73. Stood in Times Square.

74. Toured the Everglades.

75. Been fired from a job.

76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.

77. Broken a bone.

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.

80. Published a book.

81. Visited the Vatican.

82. Bought a brand new car.

83. Walked in Jerusalem.

84. Had your picture in the newspaper.

85. Read the entire Bible.

86. Visited the White House.

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.

88. Had chickenpox.
Have been told I am immune to it

89. Saved someone’s life.
My dad, indirectly

90. Sat on a jury.

91. Met someone famous.

92. Joined a book club.

93. Lost a loved one.

94. Had a baby.
three actually

95. Seen the Alamo in person.

96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake.

97. Been involved in a law suit.

98. Owned a cell phone.
4, about to change for 5th

99. Been stung by a bee.
Twice

Anyone else?

Thoughts and reflections of 2008

2009-01-05T19:35:00.003+11:00

I usually find that the first week in January is the time of year when I reflect on the past one or two years and consider my goals and aspirations for the coming year. I always seem to scratch around trying to think of what I have done, but things then come together as I continue to reflect.

2008 (in no particular order)

Organised a drive knitting jumpers for African AIDS babies (Ok not strictly professionally related but gave me a better focus on how fortunate we are). Drive had over 300 jumpers made;
Wrapped up being on the organising committee for the 2007 ALIA LT Conference;
Gave a guest lecture for RMIT on Reference Services in public libraries;
Convened the successful 4th ALIA New Librarians Symposium;
Was on the organising committee for Leap into Leadership;
Gave a presentation for the ALIA New Graduates Group on presenting for the first time;
Wrote several articles and papers, including 2 abstracts, which were accepted;
Spoke at several seminars and workshops on partnering with the community and early childhood literacy;
Changed jobs, focusing more on staff management;
Continued marking for the School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University;

2009

My plans for 2009 had always been to focus more on writing and research and so far I have already committed myself to a few things, possibly more than I should have for this time of year!

Attending Information Online in 2 weeks;
Taking part in the Australian ePortfolio Project with Margie Anderson (Margie is the doyenne of career development);
Co-presenting a paper with Gill Hallam for IFLA in Milan this year;
Writing paper for IFLA (due end of Jan, not going there!);
Co-authoring 2 articles for publication;
Finalising my application for a research masters (long overdue);
Continue marking for CSU;
Exploring more tech things that are increasingly becoming available and how they can be incorporated into public library services;
Am now on the organising committee for VALA2010 (it will be interesting seeing how another volunteer organisation works, as well as how we operate with a different PCO);
Continue to be involved with aliaVIC - planning a series of ongoing workshops relating to career development;
Continue my exciting role at Yarra Plenty, forging ahead with lots more innovative and exciting programs for my branch in 2009!

This is what I have on the cards so far - I have no doubt that I will take on more professionally, as it seems in my nature to do this - I just need to continue to balance my home life with this.

NLS4 post #1

2009-01-03T19:18:00.003+11:00

It has been a long time between posts and that isn't because I haven't had much to say. A lot of it has been because I have been too busy to put anything together in what I feel would be a coherent form! It is almost embarrassing to find I am posting in reply to people emailing me about posting (or 'not posting').

NLS4 has finally been and gone and in the lead up I had a major change of job positions - now working for the ever fabulous Yarra Plenty Regional Library, as Mill Park Library Branch Manager. I'll discuss that more another time - something that has made such a big impact on me career wise deserves more than a one liner in the middle of a post on another topic.

As indicated by the title of this post, I plan to have a few postings on my thoughts on NLS4 and this one was not supposed to be the first! It has actually come about from many emails I have received in relation to my closing for the conference, which highlighted just how much work goes into preparing and planning for such an event. Not many realise this and some actually thought that it took about 3 months from start to finish (obviously they had not been subscribing to the news feeds!). When reflecting on the entire process of NLS, from start to finish, in preparation for my closing speech, I realised that although I knew it took a lot of work and dedication to make an event such as NLS happen and happen seamlessly and successfully, it may not necessarily be apparent to those attending. Not only this, but the two year timeframe for the committee to put NLS together was not done in isolation to other commitments. During these 2 years, collectively within the committee, there have been:

7 new jobs;
4 promotions;
2 engagements (mine and the ALIA Events Manager, Kamara Schlegal);
3 weddings (Gemma's, Jill's and mine);
2 pregnancies (Gemma and Jill);
2 births (Sharon and Jill);
Over 600 papers marked (by Margie and myself and this is a conservative estimate);
3 Aurorans (Trevor, Jill and myself);
35 attendances at national conferences;
4 attendances at international conferences;
38 papers presented and
36 articles written

Every single one of us works full time and 5 of us have young families, so when factoring all of these into the planning process, you can see just how much more of a challenge things have been!

The reviews of NLS have been great, and I'll end this post with a small snapshot of some blog posts about it.

Connecting Librarian (Michelle live blogged throughout the conference);
ALIA Board Blog
Librarian Idol (Andrew was Marketing and Promotions Coordinator for NLS4)
Libraries Interact
Quilter Jo
Roxanne Missingham

And photos too of course :)

Bored silly

2008-06-25T11:48:00.003+10:00

I had an interesting 'discussion' the other day with a colleague about the recent vacancy we had for a part time Children's and Youth Services Librarian. We had only vaguely discussed a relatively new part time position she had acquired and then the comment was made that 'quite frankly, she would be bored silly with children's librarianship'. Interesting comment, considering that this librarian has worked in a public library for several years (albeit casually, and still is) and should have a solid understanding of the significance of lifelong learning and the important role libraries play in this, but especially the role that children's librarianship plays.

Information literacy starts from an early age and through programs and services developed and delivered in public libraries across Australia, children's librarians are playing a critical role delivering this message to parents. In most instances, a children's librarian is the one who is running and driving the following sorts of programs:

Storytime
Rhyme Time
Information literacy sessions to classes, parents AND university students
Support of the Premier's Reading Challenge in supported states (see what Yarra Plenty has done as one example - there are many others)
Holiday programs (see examples on Darwin City Council Libraries site and Wyndham Library's site)
Outreach programs to educational and family focused places such as schools, kindergartens, playgroups, Family Day Care sessions and RTOs
Family literacy talks to parents
Babies and books talks to new and soon-to-be mothers

Research has shown that literacy levels in children are vastly increased when parents or carers are involved at home. Sure, many of the programs I mention above are for children, but let’s face it, if ADULTS aren’t engaged, they also won’t bring the children to the library. Who, in these instances, is the one dealing with the adults, selling them the library’s services, programs and resources? The children’s librarian.

These programs are not the only duties that form part of the role of a Children’s and Youth Services Librarian – quite often there is selection, weeding, ordering, reader’s advisory, planning, writing proposals, marketing and customer service thrown in for good measure.

Bored silly? I think not. What do others think?

NLS4 - registration is now open!

2008-06-19T20:46:00.007+10:00

It has been a wait, but I believe the wait has been worth it! The link to register to attend the 4th ALIA New Librarians Symposium is finally live. Click here to see the fabulous, high calibre and engaging program and visit our Professional Development Day page to see what we have on offer on the Thursday preceding the conference - most of these are complementary for NLS4 delegates.

We have a fabulous range of keynote speakers lined up, which we will be releasing over the next few weeks - so stay tuned! We have already announced Dr Sherman Young (sponsored by RMIT University Library) and Erik Boekesteijn with Jaap van de Geer (sponsored by Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service, the State Library of Victoria, Brisbane City Council, State Library of Queensland and Viclink).

We will also have the best social program on offer - a night to remember at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (sponsored by Civica), with dinner overlooking the hallowed turf. Our theme will be announced shortly, so get ready for the opportunity to dress up. I know footy season will be over...but...CARN THE PIES!

All this for a really great price! Visit out registration page for more details.

Hope to see you there!

4 of the 5 NLS4 girls!

Paper at dreaming08

2008-06-11T21:02:00.003+10:00

I mentioned in another blog post that I would be presenting a paper on 'Recruiting the next generation' at dreaming08. I have had some email queries about this now and just wanted to say that I withdrew my submission, hence why I am not in the program. So unfortunately, I won't be presenting at the Biennial, but am still writing a paper on this topic (well trying to at any rate) so stay tuned.

What professional involvement means to me

2008-06-09T21:17:00.003+10:00

As the end of the financial year comes closer, ALIA National Office has started to actively promote joining, renewing or rejoining the Association. This of course leads to the usual questions of "why should I join?", "what does ALIA do for me?" or "ALIA does nothing for publics/specials/academics".

Is any of this true? It depends on how you look at it. For me, ALIA gives me exposure to more than just the field I am working in (publics). I go to a lot of PD events that are organised by Viclink and the State Library of Victoria and I enjoy them immensely. They give me the opportunity to network with those who are in the same sector and sometimes the same field. This is not enough for me though. I didn't become a librarian with thoughts of always staying in the same sector. ALIA gives me the opportunity to network extensively with people outside of public libraries - that is important to me. I like the fact that I am involved in an Association that is working for the entire library and information field, not just one particular sector. I see issues such as workforce planning as something that needs to be looked at holistically from a national perspective, not only a local, sectoral one, as it has implications for the profession and industry as a whole.

What else have I gained through my involvement with ALIA?

The Aurora scholarship - by my calculations, I am about 13 years ahead in my subscription fees, just by receiving that scholarship, and that is allowing for inflation. One of the criteria for the scholarship, BTW, is to "provide evidence of personal commitment and contribution to ALIA", so my involvement also helped me get the scholarship.
Confidence to present at conferences and events and share my knowledge with others.
Project management skills.
Budgetary skills - managing a budget with over a $100k turnaround is not something that happens every day.
The ability to be involved, from the beginning, in a tender process that, again, would not have happened easily (and boy can I read fine print now!).

These are just a few things and ALIA President, Derek Whitehead, gives more in his first Frontline as President.

There will always be 'detractors', and they have a right to their opinions, just as members have a right to theirs. What they are not entitled to is to continually criticise those who do actively participate, as it belittles the hard work that is being put in.

For me, the benefit I get from ALIA is that I am not only getting my own professional development, but also giving back to the profession.

Recruiting the next generation

2008-04-01T20:45:00.003+11:00

Those who know me know of my passion for recruiting new blood into the profession and how I feel it is necessary to engage with the younger generation more in order to encourage them into the industry.

The ALIA Promote LIS Career committee is working on this and are establishing a wiki to showcase the professional opportunities available in the library and information industry. See the DestinationLibrary wiki for career options, profiles and workplace examples available.

The Age VCE and Careers Expo will be held in Melbourne from Friday 11 April to Sunday 13 April (10 am to 4 pm) and the Committee would like professional involvement in the event to promote careers in the Library and Information industry. It isn't hard - I did it 3 years ago and it is really rewarding seeing the comprehension in students' eyes when they realise our profession is not just 'pearls and cardigans' and shushing all the time! Yes, I had detractors and yes, there are many that will never believe the library industry is challenging and constantly evolving, but if we do nothing then we never will make a difference. Something to think about.

If you can help with the careers expo for just a couple of hours, contact Dr Bonna Jones from RMIT University for more information. As I have said before, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our profession.

As an aside, I will be presenting a paper at the ALIA Bienniel Conference, dreaming08, on this topic. Hope to see you there.

Aurora - 12 months on

2008-03-30T20:25:00.003+11:00

Ok, more than 12 months have now passed, but the post has been processing mentally for quite some time and I do think it is now time to put it on paper.

Aurora was an experience. It was both the personal and professional experience of a lifetime. It was an experience where future leaders analysed their leadership skills, achievements and perceptions of the profession as a whole. The Aurora Leadership Institute's mission is to help future leaders maximise their potential and position them to be effective voices in our profession.

Although I was looking forward to attending Aurora, my feelings were mixed with apprehension as I was unsure what to expect. How closely scrutinised would all the participants be? Would my performance as a leader come under close scrutiny and be found lacking? I went to Aurora with an open mind, believing this would be the best way to approach such a learning experience.

I explored the changes that are inherent in our professions, and there was the realisation that change needs to come from the top, whether it is for the library or for the profession - we cannot just accept the status quo. Aurora provided affirmation of my beliefs on what leadership should be about and that a stronger, more united approach to workforce planning is needed.

One thing for certain is that Aurora is not a 'quick fix' and doesn't perform miracles overnight. It's a huge learning curve - the processing required to absorb the information is amazing and not, as I just said, fast. The year has gone rapidly and I have achieved many things professionally that I am sure I would have achieved regardless of whether I attended Aurora or not, but I am sure I would have viewed things in a different light had I not attended. The ability to take a 'helicopter view' has been invaluable - being able to understand and think about what I am doing strategically in my position has helped me go forward and also realise that I was not so 'new' that what I was doing was not leadership. Aurora helped me realise that what I saw was not necessarily what others saw - in my position, I see a different picture to my staff and I need to apply my vision and thus influence my colleagues and staff to work towards higher aspirations for my workplace. It was extremely frustrating for me when others did not see the outcomes as clearly as I could. Now I know that this is not my impatience to get there, but is just that not everyone has a bird's eye view. I realised that leaders do lead and sometimes need to have the freedom and confidence to make a final decision. Most importantly for me, I also realised that learning to accept failure is a critical part of professional as well as personal growth.

An important step for me during Aurora was the realisation that I didn't have to be everything to everyone professionally and I made a conscious decision to downsize my committee involvement. During that time I was on six committees and as I took on more roles I didn't want to let other committee members down. I still didn't want to leave any in the lurch, so I drew up a plan and worked out when the best time would be to 'release' myself from various committees without letting any down. Over the next six months I resigned or finished my term with four committees, giving me time to focus more on my two remaining ones - aliaVIC and NLS4 (shameless plug - this promises to be THE event for the 2008!).

I thank ALIA who contributed $4000 towards the Institute fee (I was the recipient of the inaugural ALIA Aurora Scholarship), and also the State Library of Victoria, who, under its Statewide Public Library Development Projects, generously funded the difference between the Scholarship and Institute fees, as well as my airfares to and from Canberra.

Aurora was an amazing experience. Through my involvement I have made friendships and alliances spreading over Australia and New Zealand – an invaluable network that I continuously use for professional and personal support, to sound out new ideas and discuss issues. The Institute allowed me to look at opportunities and threats from a global perspective, instead of just in my backyard, and challenged me to continually aspire to do the best that I can. The inspiration and encouragement I received from all participants and mentors was incredible and I have enjoyed watching the paths that A10 Aurorans have taken over the last 12 months.

ALIA and employer support

2008-02-04T22:15:00.000+11:00

I was talking to a colleague the other day about the amount of support that employers give to employees to conduct professional Association contributory business during work time. She was amazed that some employers do not support ALIA associated work and I was just as astounded at the extent of the support her employer gave her - ALIA committee work is even put into her annual workplan as part of professional development.

A leading library service has made comments that Association related work is not 'real life', budgeting for events that had a turnover of hundreds of thousands of dollars was not applicable to a work scenario and working with volunteer committees had no bearing on staff management in the workplace.

Whilst I am not surprised by this attitude, I am disappointed. If working for a volunteer association does not constitute 'real life' or 'real work', then what does it constitute? Sure it is great professional development and good learning for the participant, but learning such as this has to be better utilised when applied in the workplace.

So what does constitute Association related workplace support? That's an interesting question. Once I would have thought it was something as simple as dialling into a conference call during work time or receiving phone calls in the workplace, but I have been surprised by the level of support from some employers. As I mentioned earlier, one colleague has ALIA related work inserted as an output in her annual workplan, so she is able to dedicate time during her work day to Association related work, others, although having no formal work plan in place, can dial into teleconferences, send and receive emails. write reports and attend meetings during their work day. Of course, I wouldn’t expect that this would be done all day, every day, but obviously there is trust in the staff to be able to deliver their own work objectives.

So what are the worst examples of lack of support that I have heard about? Library staff needing to stay back to 'make up' time used during the day to answer Association related emails, emails being monitored, not encouraging contribution to professional literature, refusing to fund conference attendance yet applying it to a workplace training plan and (perhaps) the most disappointing of all, that a library service is too small to support Association related work. Surely investing staff time in something as important as growing the profession and professional development would outweigh such an outlook?

We owe it to our profession

2007-11-04T12:50:00.000+11:00

I was reading Jill's post the other day about her follow up with work placement students that she hosts. What a great thing she does - following up on students not only allows you to see where you have influenced them in their career, but can also be a way to motivate those that have lost their drive.

Have I followed up on work placement students? Yes I have and it has been very rewarding seeing how the students have grown over time. However, I don't believe that we, as a profession, should only stop there. We need to engage with the younger generation more and encourage them into the profession. In many ways, we are given these opportunities on a platter and don't utilise them. What are the opportunities? Work experience students from high school. We have the potential to create a positive experience for these students, which can in turn influence them to choose librarianship as a potential course of study, and then subsequently a career in libraries. Instead, so many work experience students are given boring repetitive tasks on a daily basis. If they weren't interested in a career in libraries when they started the programme, chances are they are less interested when they finish it!

Yes, tasks such as shelving and shelf reading need to be done but they don't need to be done because a better programme wasn't created. Sitting in on Storytime is ok for one session, but not four - why not turn it around and have the student present a session after sitting in on the first? Or have the student create the next one that they can then deliver? Why not have the student shadow someone on the circulation or reference desk (many libraries are set up in different ways) so they can be exposed to the wide variety of questions that we are asked?

At the moment I am part of a workgroup that is developing a template/guidelines to help create an exciting and worthwhile work experience for the students, so that, at the very least, it changes their perceptions of working in libraries , and at best, they would consider librarianship and/or encourage their friends to consider the same.

After all, we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to our profession.

NLS4 - right on track!

2007-10-26T00:01:00.000+10:00

What can I say? Work and life just seemed to get in the way. Having said that, so many things have happened that I won't enter them all on this post, or it will go on forever! I am not even sure that I can list them in order!!!

NLS4

Last time I posted about NLS4, we had just appointed ICMS as our Professional Conference Organiser. Since then there has been a change in the Committee - Andrew Finegan is now our Marketing and Promotions Coordinator. As well as this **breaking news** the NLS4 website is now officially open and launched! The team decided to launch the site on August 20 (I am behind!) at ALIA's 70th birthday celebrations - we were proud to have one of our milestones linked with such a significant one for the Association.

Something that made me especially proud was the way the team pulled together so we could deliver on time. We all had our own components to deliver to Jill, our fabulous Website Coordinator and we all did it, with time to spare for playing with the aesthetics of the website itself. This is no mean feat, as the committee is spread across four states! Well done Team!

And the latest news - announced yesterday - is that the NLS4 website now is RSS enabled, so anyone can subscribe to the feed and let all the updates come to them, rather than keep checking the site - Andrew and Jill worked well together to get that happening.

We are in negotiations with our preferred venue at the moment - we can't say anything yet, but the team does promise that it will not disappoint!!! What is next? Stay tuned - we will get our patron competition up and running soon....

New books at the library

2007-07-11T16:51:00.001+10:00

New books
Originally uploaded by shewgirl

This is really what I had planned to do - and I doubt there are copyright issues involved! This was done quickly, but with a little more trying I am sure the glare can be removed

What does everyone think now???

Eldest by Christopher Paolini, on iPod!!

2007-07-09T20:10:00.001+10:00

Eldest
Originally uploaded by shewgirl

Well I managed to get this working through Flickr. Wasn't as hard as I thought. Pretty snazzy huh? One of my projects is to try and get a blog happening for the Children's and Youth Library, especially for Young Adult reader's advisory.

When you click on the pciture of "Eldest", it takes you to a link in Flickr. Can you see the hyperlinked mouseover??

Wouldn't this be a great way to advertise new books in the library?

Thoughts, anyone???

Teaching kits

2007-06-24T19:04:00.000+10:00

Had a busy last couple of days at work. Trying to get some Teaching Resource Kits off the ground, and it isn't as easy as one would think. The idea behind the kits is to support topics that are taught by schools in the area. I put together a good list of themes to design the kits around by talking to teachers from local schools. Each kit is supposed to have activities, props, books and AV items to fit around the topic. To make it easier for staff to check, the kits will be limited to 3 of eveything - 3 activities, 3 books, 3 props etc. This is where the difficulty comes in! Try finding only 3 activities and keeping it so that the activities are quite dissimilar. Try finding 3 props, again that are not similar, which will end up consisting of ONLY 3 pieces! For the Farm kit, wouldn't it be great to have kids assemble a farm, complete with fencing? How is that done with three pieces??? Perhaps a large wooden floor puzzle? Nope, they come in more than 3 pieces :) To add to this, I tried buying from an online educational toy supplier. Buying online is timeconsuming, especially when one is just browsing in various areas to see what is available - imagine how much more timeconsuming it is when THE CART DOES NOT SAVE!!!! I must have lost that cart at least 5 times. Phone calls to the supplier did not help at all - would you believe they had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the word 'cart' and 'online'? Frustration plus! I ended up cutting and pasting my cart into a Word document to save the codes but the cart still wouldn't save long enough to enter them all in. I ended up faxing the order instead. I am glad I persevered, because the props are exceptional - now I just need to put them where they belong! Hey, I am getting there....

Meme : 8

2007-06-18T19:37:00.000+10:00

Well I haven't been tagged, but I have a bit of an obsession about memes at the moment, so here are my random 8 things - thanks to CW for suggesting we just do it anyway!

I love shoes, any really, but high heels and classy stilettos really get me in.
I drive a white 4WD Musso.
I got engaged in April.
I love photos and love to scrapbook.
Can't stand tomatoes. YUK
I own a Craft Robo
I loved movies stars from the '40s, '50s and '60s as a teenager (esp Marilyn Monroe and James Dean)
I am listening to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on my iPod shuffle -roll on July 21 and the release of HP and the Deathly Hallows!

I tag Boneygirl

Back on track

2007-06-12T20:36:00.000+10:00

So much has been happening of late, it is easy to think that time has passed and nothing has been achieved.

Sitting and reflecting on things made me realise that quite a lot has happened.

The iPod pilot is finally up and running, after weeks of research for clarification on copyright and licencing issues;

I found out about adding widgets to blogs;

I was involved in interviews to shortlist from a list of Professional Conference Organisers for ALIA's 4th New Librarians Symposium (NLS4) - decision still in the process of being finalised, so stay tuned!

There has been a fair bit of discussion happening between the NLS4 committee regarding our websites - the one in progress (not the one linked to above) is looking superb, thanks to Jill, our Website Coordinator. Big learning curve on what is possible when developing a website!

Figures - oh my god the figures! Who would have thought that delegate fees, trade booths, percentages, management fees and square metres (yes square metres!) would need to be scrutinised as closely they have been. Number crunching is happening more naturally now, but still glad the NLS4 team has such a great treasurer in Kevin;

Worked on getting the July holiday program ready - printed copies finally out and I must say it is looking good!

When you consider I had two weeks leave in the middle of this, then i guess it is a fair bit!!!

Update - this post has been a few days in the making, Since I last wrote, the Team for NLS4 has made its decision for a PCO and selected ICMS, a professional conference organiser with over 30years experience. It was not an easy process, but we got there in the end - thanks to the team who were so supportive during such a mad time.

So tweet me

2007-06-11T21:05:00.000+10:00

I finally couldn't stand it any more - I had to find out what 'Twitter' was. Sent a friend an email asking what the heck Twitter WAS and got a quick link back. By the time she replied with more information, I had checked out her link, made no sense of it so had to join to find out for myself.

So what is Twitter? It's another social networking service that lets users of the site to send text messages to their friends in several ways - via SMS, IM or the Twitter website. The best way I can think to explain it is that it is like web based sms...and can be quite addictive...

You don't 'text' from Twitter, as you do from a mobile, you 'tweet'...

Back after 25 minutes of 'friending' some people that I recognise in Blogland. KathrynG wrote an interesting post on it on her blog - good read.

So have I sparked some more interest in Twitter for you? Hope so - friend me and tweet away!

Playing around

2007-06-11T17:26:00.000+10:00

I thought I would have a little play around with my blog and add a widget or two. I don't really want to overload the blog with widgets everywhere, but I thought the To Do list was cool. Lots more widgets like that at LabPixies.

Being a true cataloguer, I tried to have correct labels on my postings so they could be searched, but I didn't like the way they looked visually. I put them in a label cloud, thanks to Phydeaux's instructions for that. The largest labels in the clouds are the ones that appear the most throughout the blog. Phydeaux also give instructions on how to organise blog archives into a calender - looks pretty neat!

Note scrapbooking is first on my to do list!

Innovation and initiative.

2007-06-07T19:25:00.000+10:00

This posting has been a work in progress for many days. It can take me a while to put an entry on my blog, but it doesn't usually take me days to complete a post.

I have to admit I have been on leave and work was crazy when I got back, with lots to catch up on, meetings to attend and planning for a new library. It's been a bit harder than usual keeping up with my feeds because I seem to be getting caught up in 'being on the edge' and thinking of cutting edge stuff in programming and services, never mind all the technology that keeps coming our way and staying up to date with innovations in library practice.

Reflecting on all this has made me stop and take stock of everything - someone (a very knowledgable someone) told me to take this time as a 'pit stop', to gather my thoughts and see where to go from here. Rather than looking at keeping up with what has been happening in blogland as being essential to everything, I turned it around to look on it as something I wanted to do, rather than something I had to do. It worked and my feeds have come down :) Surprised me no end to find this post from Michelle, where she also talks of taking stock and also of the painful process it can be waiting for your colleagues to catch up with you - too true.

Like Michelle, I want to regain my optimism, and in my case, enthusiasm, for my profession. A bit more encouraging for me now knowing there are others who a having similar struggles. Here's to successful outcomes!

iPods on loan - at last!

2007-05-24T20:54:00.000+10:00

It has been a long time between posts, but things have been moving along. In my last post, I mentioned that I had 3 emails floating around in cyberspace to Audible. One of them was answered and it turned out that we (as a public library) are definitely able to purchase and lend out mp3 audio files. Not only this, but we can actually have 3 copies of the book on loan simultaneously, which was not my original intention. it actually still isnt my intention to have more than one copy available - i will wait and see what this pilot turns out like.

There are geographical restrictions - I am not too sure what they are, but when I registered and specified my country as 'Australia', the website automatically allows me access to only what is available for purchase in Australia.

So far all is good. The iPods are being borrowed and I am sure there will be teething problems soon, but so far all is good.......

Update on mp3 audio books, iPods and libraries

2007-04-11T18:56:00.000+10:00

WOW, I am in 2 people's feeders - doesn't take much to excite me nowadays :)

Since my last posting on the subject, I have been very busy investigating other options for buying mp3 files to lend out on iPods. I found this interesting post on Gordian Knot. It seems Bartlesville Library has been doing what I want to do for a while. Ironically, they found that iTunes was the best way. They were loading audio books onto patrons’ devices but then also purchased their own iPods for loan, in the same way that I would like to. With iPods (not sure on other mp3 players), you can’t synchronise the device to more than one computer. This, to me, is a bonus with relation to the copyright issue. If a patron tries to use the library’s iPod with iTunes on their home computer (eg to copy the audio book for home), the computer will erase all files from the iPod, as it has already been synchronised with the library’s pc.

With my investigating hat still on, I contacted one of the Library’s audio book publishers who are hoping to go down the path of mp3 files for purchase (as opposed to mp3 files on CD). The person I spoke to was under the impression that the licence meant one copy could be loaned out at a time, so if I chose to make a copy of an audio book and lend it out on an iPod, that would be ok as long as I removed the cd copy from the shelves. This seems too good to be true! I would be happy to buy audio books as mp3 files on CD and then transfer them to an iPod and not lend out the actual CDs, but I think this warrants some more investigation.

THEN Boney-girl sent me this doozy. This is the Catholic Ed Office in NSW and they are lending out audio books on iPods! They use Audible.com, which the iTunes person has also referred me to, so I went there. They seemed ok, so I sent them an email outlining what I wanted to do and got this back “In regards to the sharing of audio books, you will only be able to activate 2 iPods on your Audible account. There may also be some geographical restrictions on certain titles on our website due to your location.” I replied back asking what activating only 2 iPods means (useless if it means I can only download to 2 devices – what is the point??) and also asking what the geographical restrictions are. There was no reply regarding geographical isolation, but that copyright meant an account couldn't have more than 2 iPods to download to. I managed to track down another 2 email addresses to contact, so currently have 3 emails floating around somewhere in cyberspace.

I do find it strange that a public library can't lend out an audio book when they can lend out print copies.

Oh, and there are lots of libraries in the US that are loaning iPods with books loaded on them, such as South Huntington Public Library in New York.

So does anyone have any ideas here???

RSS addiction

2007-04-07T21:59:00.000+10:00

I wonder if anyone else is addicted to RSS feeds the way I am at the moment?? As soon as I read a blog, I have to add it to my aggregator. Those of you who read my blog (and I hope that someone does!) will know of the problems I had earlier on when trying out Google Reader and Bloglines for a blooging/RSS workshop I am running during National Youth Week. I really liked Bloglines, but ended up using Google Reader mainly because it is the same account as the one for blogger and gmail - easier when training patrons, I think anyway.

At the moment I have nearly 90 subscriptions, with 7 folders and some loose subs that I am unsure of (unsure of where to slot them for now). Of course this means that, at the moment, I have 100+ feeds to read......

I wonder if I am in someone else's aggregator????

MP3 audio books in libraries

2007-04-06T21:09:00.000+10:00

I have been thinking for ages about the possibility of buying Young Adult audio books as mp3 files and lending them out on iPods. I know that there are ways to have these audio books available for downloading from a library's catalogue, but this can take time and is very costly. So, me being me and not wanting to wait, I thought a quicker way to start this would be to buy the audio books as mp3 files, buy some iPods, then lend out the iPod loaded with the book, pretty much in the same way that public libraries lend out books. I had no plans to lend out a book more than once at a time (after all, with a printed book, only one person can borrow it at once, right?) and thought it would be pretty straightforward for staff and patrons to understand. There would be no need for staff to transfer files, as the iPod would stay preloaded with the same book.

Sounds simple?

well it isn't. I can't get a straight answer from iTunes on whether we can do this. One person told me that he saw no reason why we couldn't and although we were restricted to having the audio book on no more than 5 computers, we could have it on as many devices as we liked. Further enquiries have led to puzzled questions for clarification (obviously lending out an audio book is a foreign concept??), to replies saying that lending out the book for commercial purposes is against the terms of sale. Trying to clarify whether a library lending out an mp3 file on an iPod is commercial still had me going around in circles.

So much for good ideas. sigh.

Major bookstores - strange selling tactics

2007-03-24T20:41:00.000+11:00

Went into work quickly today (yes I know it is a Saturday, but I had to meet someone there for a pickup) and saw that more advertising had landed on my desk. This was a letter from a major bookstore chain (not Collins, Angus and Robertson or Dymocks), addressed to me (although any organisation that sends out blanket letters starting off with 'Dear Tanya [surname] [and spelling my name with a 'y' - bad form] needs to be spoken to seriously about the credibility of their marketing) and letting me know about the bargains that were available to me. If I bought THREE books from their bargain books, I - get this - only had to pay for FOUR. "Pick any three Bargain [sic] books and only pay for four".

What a deal - buy three books and pay for four.

What did I say about marketing credibility???

Blogging workshops - National Youth Week

2007-03-24T17:21:00.000+11:00

Well, I think I am just about ready - still some fine tuning details to get through, but the bulk of it is all done. For those of you just joining in, we will be running a series of blogging workshops during National Youth Week, which is from 14 to 22 April 2007. The workshops cover basic blogging, using blogger, and also an introduction to RSS feeds. We will be using Google Reader, mainly because of people's familiarity with the google name. I was hesitant to go down the 'google only' path - there are many others out there, but as I started using blogger and used my gmail account to login, thought it would be easier to keep going down this path. I did think of trialling some other email addresses to sign in, but didn't want to end up with millions of unused blogs everywhere (and hence clutter up cyber space - hate clutter, even on the net!)

Because (at the time), I was unsure if one could start a blog with blogger using a different email account, I then had to think of whether to say persons doing the workshop needed a gmail account or whether we would run participants through that too. Of course, I couldn't assume all had a gmail account, so now that is in the program too. Then we move onto Google Reader....

Another concern was the age. 12 and up? 13 and up?? Went to Google's terms and conditions and they say that anyone signing up has to be 13 years or older, no provision for parents signing for anyone under, so that settled it - anyone signing up has to be at least 13. Maximum age?? Still undecided. Perhaps 16?? They are probably already blog-savvy by then!

I have put together some basic steps on how to get a gmail account, then start a blog using blogger and using Google Reader as an aggregator. I have been told that getting people to understand RSS feeds can be quite a challenge, which surprised me, maybe because it is so logical to me??? time will tell! The idea is that everyone will start a blog (after getting a gmail account of course), put some posts on their blog, then everyone can use Google Reader to get feeds off the other participants’ blogs. It really seems too easy……

Now the biggest challenge- preparing and educating the staff!! The biggest barrier will be the mindset of this being something run by the Children’s Department – always a challenge! Then preparing something so that staff understand what a blog is, what RSS is and what participants will be doing. They need to understand so hopefully they will be more interested, but also so that they can answer any enquiries made and they can tell patrons what is required (ie an email address will have to be created) and what is also involved.

Had a brilliant flyer created by BoneyGirl – really funky, but very streamlined and classy (appeals to my nature of wanting less clutter!). Need to print these out in the coming week and distribute them. The bookstores have agreed that they will pass them on to their customers. Of course, over promotion can be a problem in itself…. We have just undergone a major refurbishment and the public access PCs are now in clusters, so I can really only give the workshop to about 5 participants. I didn’t want to be over ambitious and assume that we would fill 5 sessions (for the week) so have just put something like ‘Starting April 16, call for more details”. If there is more interest, then we can open up another session. Of course I have to remember to advise staff to take a waiting list…..

More on African AIDS babies

2007-03-18T21:38:00.000+11:00

Since my last post on the subject, I have been in touch with the organisers of this appeal and found more information on the internet. The Malawi project is huge. There are pictures of these cute little jumpers on the site. The march newsletter put out by Ken and Lyn Begley says that now 52 000 jumpers and beanies have either been delivered or on their way. That is massive. I wondered how many would be enough, but it turns out there are over 10 million AIDS orphans in Africa who have lost at least one parent to AIDS. Sometimes they have AIDS themselves. That means there is still a lot more knitting to do! I still haven't taken a photo of one I have made, but I will do it soon....

Blogging session with aliaVIC

2007-03-16T20:26:00.000+11:00

Went to a blogging session last night that was organised by aliaVIC and run by Heather Blakey. She was quite good and a Wordpress fan. Her blog Soulfoodcafe is quite interesting. At the moment she is working for the Victorian Education Department to establish a Global Teacher/Student Resource. Apparently we can go through this and establish a blog that can build communities. Quite interesting. Will certainly look into it.

Have had a play with the page settings in blogger and hit a snag again. It won't give me the options to add page elements - I just keep going back to the dashboard. My friend however, is having a whiz of a time doing so as we speak......I must see if that activeX problem has resurrected itself.

African Aids Jumpers

2007-03-12T18:55:00.000+11:00

I don't only dabble in web 2.0 and library stuff. Sometimes I like to take time out and do some craft things, although I have to admit it isn't often. At the moment I am knitting jumpers for babies in Africa that are born with Aids. Many of these babies are sent home from the hospital wrapped in newspaper for warmth. A Knitting Circle has been formed, with many volunteers either knitting the jumpers or even donating 8 ply wool. The jumpers are great and made in one piece, so simple for even the most challenged knitter. The pattern is on page 2 of this newsletter. The jumpers that I make are also delivered to people at Barongarook Lodge.

Since I started doing this, I have found out that 16 000 jumpers have been delivered! That is amazing! 7000 have been delievered to an orphanage in Blantyre, Malawi's main city, with some going to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre. Another 9000 were delivered in February to Zomba. On top of this, another 2000 went to a mission in Zambia and 1000 to South Africa. There is another 12 000 ready to go as soon as money is raised to send them.

That is such an awesome effort. I don't have a pic of a completed jumper, but will post one as soon as I finish the one i am doing.

More blog testing

2007-03-11T16:09:00.000+11:00

OK, so I can bold and italicise or both - very easy to and it actually displays it as you type, without the need preview the post. This is normal font size, and I can change it to huge, large, back to normal, small and tiny. I can't see an underline button though. Can I underline using html code? testing Yes i can but I can't switch it off! Ok, so I could just press ctrl + u like Word...much easier to do that than editing the html. Clicking on the spell check button highlights words that isn't recognised, so they can be changed if they are wrong.

Now I will try to load an image. Obviously that worked.

Google Reader

2007-03-11T15:57:00.000+11:00

Well, after how many hours I finally have Google Reader (GR) working. Having read extensively, it seemed that GR works best with Firefox. Ordinarily I would have thought this was the case (as I am using IE7), however my friend is also on IE7 and it was working wonderfully for her (evidenced by the screen dumps she kept sending me.....) My wonderful computer guru (aka partner) found that an activeX control was missing. GR is now loaded - yet to be tested.

The other thing I was unable to do was alter the colour settings of the template on my blog. I could change the actual template, but not the colours or fonts. Again my friend was able to. Turns out that java runtime was not installed. All to do with my firewall (which my friend also has, but I am NOT going there!) and now I can further customise the way my blog looks.

This now leads to further complications as I believe Firefox does not allow java applications to run and I think that some of the PCs at work only have Firefox installed. Still, I will cross that bridge later - I still need to get the instructions happening....

Bloglines

2007-03-11T00:13:00.000+11:00

ok, so half an hour later i am now on bloglines. after 3 reboots google Reader still won't display, so I will have to admit defeat for now and find another way - Bloglines will have to be it. so far easy to use, had a couple of glitches trying to subscribe to my own feed for this blog, but then it worked so i think it could have been a bit of downtime on the part of Bloglines, given the strange database message i received.

all the feeds disappear once i clink on the original link in the left hand frame, unless I remember to click on 'keep as new' within the feed. there has to be another way......

back to it

botheration

2007-03-10T23:28:00.000+11:00

i spoke too soon. i think there is something wrong with the settings on my computer. i CAN'T get google reader to display anything. am working in tandem with a friend over the phone and she is doing it but it wont work for me. hmm. she sent me a screen dump and i definitely don't have on my screen what she has on hers.....

knew it was too good to be true....

oh the joy!

2007-03-10T23:04:00.000+11:00

Well, I did create a blog and I have to say it is as easy as they say. I want to run a series of blogging workshops for teens and thought I had better test it all out first. nothing worse than looking like a fool in front of teens.....