The End! Summary Comments

Wow, I think Playtime 2.0 was really cool and fun - and I learned a lot!
Here are my thoughts - I went by Lynn's suggested points:

• My favorite topics were blogs, rss, social networks, and lifelong learning. I'm not sure if I actually didn't like the others, or if they were confusing topics or just not interesting/applicable to me, but they didn't "do it" for me.
• Playtime helped me feel more comfortable social networking and learning online. I feel like I've explored a lot that I normally wouldn't have, and I have seen a bit of what's out there. That saying "You don't know what you don't know" was very applicable to me in this area - now I at least know that there is a vast cyber-world out there and we've only just touched on the edge of it. I did notice, too, that other libraries are using things like Facebook and Flickr (some keep their photos on Flickr and only link to the site, rather than keeping the photos on their own website).
• Unexpected outcomes? Well, I'm addicted to Facebook - not as much as in the beginning, but I've found that it is an invaluable tool when communicating with friends and family. I always thought that it was just as easy to send an email, but I'm finding that I can post something to my wall and suddenly everyone knows about it. I posted in the morning that Mike's dad passed away (a few weeks ago) and by noon he was getting phone calls from out of state family members who I never would have had time to call to tell, and sometimes writing once to everyone is SO MUCH easier! I've also discovered that I like blogging. How can you not - talking (via typing) with no one to interrupt me, and if someone doesn't want to 'listen' anymore, they can exit the screen and I never have to know! I think I'll continue my blog after playtime, I just don't know if I'll have a theme or just blog about anything I want.
• What could we do differently: I don't know...I enjoyed the format, both working from home and the Library. I didn't care for all of the different incentives - coffee cards are perfect for me, but I didn't do this for the incentives, those were just 'gravy'. I thought it was well thought-out, and we got to explore as little or as much as we wanted based on our interest level. Maybe that scares some people off - maybe some need more specific tasks, like we had on Thing #10, to look up specific info or do a specific task and report on it. Some Things had that, but some were more general in scope.
• Would I participate again? Most definitely. I started this because it was mandatory, so of course I would complete it. But I was excited by the idea and would have done it anyway, especially when given work time to complete the tasks.

I really think this has been helpful. I feel like before Playtime I wouldn't have been able to hold a conversation about any of these topics, and now I think I could help a patron figure out their way around some of these sites or complete some of these tasks based on what I learned. I love the fact that as Library employees I can take classes online for free (I finished the Web Design basics class and even printed a certificate!!) and can just keep taking classes until they tell me to stop!

I'm not sure what we can learn next, but I'm up for it, whatever it is. Thanks!!!

Thing #10: Roselle's Virtual Library

First things first: The Newsbank headline was "Mark Your Calendar Today Thursday 19", which a few sentences in noted the Men's Book Group meeting (but Roselle wasn't listed first in the article). My Heritage Quest search resulted in 2 Abraham Lincolns in Illinois in 1860 - one born in KY and age 51, one born in IL and age 22. Since I know President Abraham Lincoln was not 22 when elected President, was born in KY and lived in Springfield/Sangamon County, President Lincoln was the first choice on the list I was provided.

Other databases I have explored: Grolier Online, World Book Reference, Automotive Repair Maintenance, and NoveList K-8. They were all very easy to use and helpful. Most were to help my kids, either with homework or to find books they might enjoy. I used the Auto Maintenance rather than buying the book for our outdated cars. They were helpful in changing out tail lights, fuses, etc.

For me, the least popular database would be the Thomas Register, although I don't know that I really know what it is. I know my husband used to use the big books, as did purchasing departments in companies I used to work for. Don't know if this is helpful to patrons or not, but personally of no interest to me. The most popular for me, and I would imagine to a large portion of our patrons, would be the educational 'from home' databases, such as Grolier, World Book, NoveList K-8, and Live Homework Help. Hopefully students throughout Roselle know about these databases and use them - and perhaps are taught to use them in the schools (Library outreach?) so that they know about them and can share the knowledge with the parents.

There's nothing our website is lacking to me. However, I DO think that we have too much information and not organized in a clear, concise way. Which is why we're working on a re-design. Personally, I prefer not to have to scroll up and down, and since my monitor settings are even smaller than the average (more can fit on the screen), I can only imagine how much up/down scrolling someone with a 'normal' monitor setting would have to do. I like simple - a few buttons from which to choose, click one, next page, click one, and I'm where I need to be.

One thing that we learned in a safety class in staff training is that our floorplan shouldn't be posted on our website - it's probably enough to let people know that YS is upstairs, and RASD/Teen/computers and study areas are on the 1st floor.

I didn't realize there was so much information (more than a blurb) on the Foundation, Friends and the Board of Trustees. There is a lot of text, but there are also a lot of pictures. Perhaps friendly graphics would make the site appear warmer, but all in all, it works well, makes items easy to find, and is easy to use once you have a PIN. WE ROCK!!!

Webjunction is Cool!

I just finished my Design Concepts for Websites class on WebJunction. It was free, and I feel like I have a bit better understanding of web design. No specifics yet, and most is common-sense to those who have some logical thinking, but it was helpful to see that my ideas were pretty much on target for how to design a logical website. I passed with a 97% (whoo hoo!!).

Now I have to choose between more advanced web design or Photoshop - ugh, I need to know them both ASAP!!! Decisions, decisions!!