Google Documents

I've played around with Google docs several times before. This time, I found it useful to copy some recipes from my OWH RSS feeds so I can access them wherever I am. I also decided to start my son's "groom guest list" since he also uses gmail and this would be a convenient place for both of us to check and add to the list. March is definitely getting closer.

I've recommended Google docs to several patrons that don't bring removable storage media to the library. They can save documents they create here, using Google Documents to start out with or upload the documents they have created using our office software. The only problem is that Google docs can't upload docx file formats that Word 2007 creates. Since we have Office 2007, that makes it less convenient. Obviously, we can save documents so they open in older versions, but we have discovered that there is enough difference that the page layout can change when we save the 2007 documents that way. To avoid that problem, I've encouraged some people to save their document right away as a Word 97-2003 document. Of course, you lose some of the bells and whistles of the Office version.

Maybe as our library budgets get tighter, we will all have to use online applications and not pay for Microsoft licenses. Who knows!

Family barndance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself

Our family have become elves! We received an e-mail with family member "elves" doing a barn dance. After watching the little video, we decided that we, too, could become elves and dance! After creating our own video, the site gave me the option to embed the video. I e-mailed the first video and played with a few others, then accidently embedded the wrong one on my blog. I recreated the one with five of us, but the original kept embedding instead of my new one. So I deleted both, but on blogs, the post still remains, saying I deleted the video. Oh well, try and try again. I did learn that I could edit out the image section. Some day I will be a blogging "pro". Ha!

PBwiki favorites

Again, our city firewall doesn't like social networking. We currently don't have control over what it is blocking. It also likes to confuse us. In PBwiki, it said it couldn't connect when I was trying to edit pages, but when I logged in at home to try again, my original attempt was there. Hmmmm..

With our current firewall situation, I will probably not use a wiki as a work tool. I like the idea of it and will enjoy reading the one created by the particpants in Nebraska Learns 2.0. I can envision using wikis for making family plans. It would be great to have everyone's thoughts in one place instead of sifting through multiple e-mails.

I think the idea of adding a travel review page could be fun. I'll ponder that over the holidays.

Wiki Wiki

I think I should really do this blog quickly because of the meaning of the word Wiki. The concept of wikis sounds great and a simple way to share and collaborate information. Hmm..maybe this would be the easiest way for exchanging thoughts with my son and fiancee about March wedding rehearsal plans. We could do a wiki.! The Wikis in Plain English made it look so easy, but when I look at the examples of existing wikis I feel intimidated by all of the information listed. Wow! I think the ALA example was a good example for a Wiki for a limited use-one location to find out all sorts of information about the conference but again, there was all sorts of information to go through.

I think I will feel more comfortable if I actually try using a wiki. I'm the new secretary/treasurer for the NLA Para section and we have exchanged lots of ideas using e-mails. I was told that it was part of my job to keep track of the discussions that go on between meetings and I felt that moment of panic, especially learning about it after we had already done bunches of e-mails. Having all of it in a wiki could be a better idea but we would all have to remember to constantly check the wiki. I already check my e-mail. This will definitely take more thought.

Thinking about Library 2.0 and beyond

After reading the the different perspectives on Library 2.0, I feel that the term definitely should not just be just applied to technology. I think our libraries need to be constantly adapting to the changing needs of our consumers, as well as the continuing needs of our consumers which really vary from one consumer to another. Not all of our consumers want to be online, but many do, even though they don't have computers or Internet access in their homes. We have our savvy computer users but many of our computer users still need some "hand-holding" to use the services online and I'm glad our library keeps our computer center staffed for that purpose.

I like the idea that our library is friendly to social networking, whether that is on the web, or simply friendly areas for seating and conversation in the physical library. We need to keep materials available for consumers that like having a written book in their hands and also accomodate those who want a book on their MP3 player. I would love to see a cataloging system where readers could add their own tags to our collection.

As far as Internet social networking, I like knowing what's out there, although I doubt if I will utilize all of the sites myself-not enough time in a day! I will however, make suggestions to other people about using them, now that I know they are out there.

Slideshare

Grrr..to firewalls that keep me from doing things. This isn't our library's firewall but the city's firewall that is outside ours. It blocked me from making a comment on slideshare. Oh, I could make the comment, see it on the page and then see it disappear when the little message window popped-up. Now I'm attempting to embed a presentation. We'll see. http://www.slideshare.net/cranefarm

I did enjoy using slideshare otherwise, uploaded one presentation I had done for our library, and marked two favorites. Viewing some of the slides made me want to hear the spoken presentation that went along with the slides.

Who Moved My Cheese

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: cheese change)

Exploring Delicious.com makes me think of fresh baked bread!

I like bookmarks and I think the ability to tag them will be incredibly useful. At home, I try to organize my bookmarks into folders, but often am lazy and just bookmark them. For library use, I will probably check what NLC has bookmarked when I'm doing a reference question before starting a search myself. Why do the work when it might have been done already? I created a delicious.com account under the name of cranefarm, of course, and added the NLC_reference to my network. I like the tagging aspect so I added all my current computer favorites and added tags. I explored the NebraskAccess tags and thought that I would have added full-text and peer-reviewed as tags.

Ok, delicious.com reminds me of food so I added a photo of my sourdough bread. My son gave me the starter last Christmas and I've been enjoying sourdough bread ever since. Making sourdough bread reminds me that patience does have its rewards!

Tweets

I'm still not sure about Twitter. I definitely like following the NLC reference questions on Twitter-do you ever post the answers to some of the questions? As far as personal use, I'm not sure what I'm doing minute by minute is of much interest to other people. The search feature wasn't functioning so I couldn't play with that yet. I had created my twitter account back in July and have followed Michael and last night I added Allana. I had previously added a link on my blog page to my Twitter page, primarily to check the NLC reference questions.


I had an interesting comment on my LibraryThing post. I mentioned Visual Bookshelf and I got a comment back from Adam L from Livingsocial.com, the site behind the Visual Bookshelf. It reminded me that our public blogs are searchable. In August when I was searching for more information on Bammental, Germany, our primary destination for our September trip, my google search hit on my niece's blog about her 2007 visit to Bammental.

Thing #12: Using Librarything

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/cranefarm is the location of the beginning of my book list on LibraryThing. I think it could be a good place to keep track of the books that I've read and the odd assortment of books that we own. I primarily use the library as my source for reading material and the library book sale for paperbacks I can take on vacation without worry of loss or damage. Today I took a brief look at Visual Bookshelf from a Facebook link, another way of sharing what you read with friends.

As I add memberships to the various things, I do wonder where I will find the time to keep up with them. I'm squeezing in time to look at this at home today, but I really want to go do other things-like read my current book. I'm sure I will eventually make choices of what I like and don't like, but it is good to at least explore all of them and be able to know which things I can recommend to our computer-using public at our library. I spend most of my hours in our computer center but we don't tend to get into book talks with our patrons up there as much as when we are on the circulation desk or shelving.

Once I decide If I will use LibraryThing on a regular basis, I want to link it to my blog. I like going one place and finding my social networking links all there for easy access and quick checks.

Farmer or Farmer's Wife and a little more about my life

We went to the annual Farmer Rancher Banquet last night in North Platte. The banquet is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and tables are hosted by various businesses in the county. At one point, the emcee asked the agricultural producers in the audience to stand. I stood with Tim, but was surprised to see several wives remain seated while their husbands stood. Maybe there are women that are able to completely stay apart from their husband's agricultural operation but it's hard to imagine, especially if you live right on the farm. I honestly think that most "farmers' wives" are truly farmers too.

From day 1 of our marriage, I have been involved in one way or another, filling in when another "guy" was needed for harvest, milking cows, cleaning the barn, etc. etc. I didn't always smell very nice after a day of working with cattle, but they were "our girls" and our primary source of income. I don't think I would want it any other way.

We kept our farm small, using the land that has been in Tim's family for decades. Tim wanted to be a farmer, not an employer. It's a way of life, living on a family farm, managing and caring for the animals and land in your care. Our kids learned to help on the farm as well, making sacrifices sometimes because of farm work and sometimes because of fluctuating farm income. It's not an easy way of life-you can't get away unless you can find someone else to do your work and we don't live in an area of lots of dairymen-even a few times of not milking the cows correctly can effect their production. The rewards by far outweigh the sacrifices. There is such a sense of closeness with nature as you watch the birth of a new calf or kitten, or even seeing the first plants pop up in the field. You learn a sense of responsibility-you do what has to be done, no matter how unpleasant it sometimes is-that carries over to other parts of your life. Maybe that's why I can work with our more "fragrant" patrons at the library. One time our daughter had to help deliver a calf that wasn't quite in the right position to come out. Yes, that means sticking your arm into the cow. She said she wondered what some of her classmates would say if she told them how she spent her morning. Of course, now she is on her way to becoming a doctor. We always strove for balance in our lives-we were married to each other, not the farm, so we found ways to get away with our kids when Tim's parents were able to do all of the chores, sometimes with supervised helpers. Later, the kids took over to allow the two of us to get away.

Last year we sold our cows that were already milking and yes, I cried to see our "girls" leave. It wasn't an easy decision. High fuel and feed costs and the need to remodel our milking parlor prompted the decision. And yes, we were ready for the freedom to travel a little more, and get to special events of family and friends. We kept our younger animals to raise to sell when they were ready to enter milking herds. We changed what crops we raise and are on the look out for other agricultural niche markets we might enter. My library job with insurance benefits has taken on more importance. We fully intend to keep our family farm for the younger generations to enjoy, even if just for visits.

Change is healthy and keeps life interesting..I wonder what's next!

My walk through technology history

I'm just over 50 and I'm sometimes in awe of the technological changes that I've experienced. In high school, we weren't allowed to use calculators and our exposure to computers were punched cards that were taken out to the college computer. In college, we could use calculators so I got a really cool Texas Instrument calculator that could be programed for certain functions-ouch!-it set me back over $100. Unfortunately, it also quit working after 1-2 years-wiped out by STATIC ELECTRICITY! Replacing it cost me half the money and it could almost do twice as much. Unless you were going to be a computer programmer, about the only thing we did with computers in college was use dumb terminals to connect to the university computers for a few assignments.

Now, I like technology-we got our first computer in 1987, a Tandy, that required a 3 1/2 in. floppy inserted in the a: drive to run its desktop operating system and a b: drive to store things on another floppy. One of our teenage babysitters made a simple superman computer game using DOS for our kids, although soon there were computer games such as Wheel of Fortune that could be played on the computer. By about 1991, I was volunteering at the school and they had access through the ESU unit to the Internet. I remember using Gopher and later Veronica to access information on the Internet. I questioned my memory about these names so I looked and found this interesting website; http://www.webreference.com/authoring/search_history. Sure enough, Veronica had followed Archie and Jughead got involved too. (I read Archie comic books in my younger years)

We had promised our kids a new computer the summer of 1995. Windows 95 had been delayed a little so we went ahead and bought a Windows 3.1 computer. We accessed the web, first through AOL, paying long-distance charges since local numbers stopped at Grand Island and skipped to Cheyenne WY. Then we went with AT&T before our little Hershey Cooperative phone company contracted with a IP in North Platte to get us dial-up access without long-distance. We bought our next computer in 2000, having to get Windows 98 because some important software we were using for our dairy farm hadn't progressed past Windows 98 compatibility (this sounds a little like Vista and XP, doesn't it). That computer had a standard 5 year warranty with no extra surcharge. We progressed to a DSL connection when it was offered, mostly because our modem died and the new modem didn't seem happy either. Our kids appreciated the speed because they could more easily access their assignments from their college network during holidays and for online classes in the summer.

And now, we are on Windows XP and our DSL has dropped considerably in price; we have wireless for our relatives that come visiting with their laptops.

Having gone through my personal history of computers, I ponder, however, that our new and improved technology, is going the way of other things-they aren't made to last (my daughter's laptop had issues from the start)-so we will be forced to either increase our spending to include extended warranties or count on replacing these much more frequently than we had to in the past. Just a thought.

Wow, my own motivational posters!

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php is the image generator that I played with. I've played with some before and I know that I will be playing again. Here's a few of the images I created using pictures I've taken.

White on white

Originally uploaded by Mark Strozier

I used Flickr color pickr to find this interesting photo. There was a macro photo of a flower that I loved, but it had all rights protected so I couldn't blog with it. I also explored the Flickr Montager-it opened to making a collage of faces, but also had a Flickr image next to it-a word cloud-for Obama's acceptance speech-how timely. Clicking on the image, opened the original Flickr photo page. I then uploaded the photo to my computer so I could add it to this blog, rather than start a new blog with it.

This makes me hungry

Portugal-Day-4-0700
Originally uploaded by remotezygote

I already have a free Flickr account but had filled it up so I haven't worked with it for awhile. Today, prompted by by Nebraska Learns 2.0 assignment, I deleted some older photos and then went exploring. Isn't this a delicious photo. I actually found it when I was searching for Germany pictures. I have a few photos from NLA conference that I will upload and tag when I'm home. later.

Thing #7-more feeds

Ok, I had so much fun exploring feeds that I didn't get my post done until this week. Of course, I also spent Saturday at work, preparing class material from CustomGuide for teaching an MS 2007 Excel class, but that's another story.

I decided to search out feeds for food related items as well as exploring some of the news sites. I discovered a "bakers challenge" that was geared more for Vegan cooking so I passed on that one. As I explored, I added feeds to Google Reader which I will eventually organize. I think my favorite will be a blog I found when doing a search for sourdough bread: http://feedingmyenthusiasms.blogspot.com/2008/11/go-vote-if-you-live-in-usa-then-have.html. You have to love even the title. This posting had a great recipe for herbed sourdough bread, so guess what I may make the next time I bake bread from my sourdough starter.

As I gather feeds, I think I will probably put those that are specifically blogs onto my blogger Dashboard "blogs that I am following", rather than in Google Reader, especially if they are more for my personal use. I think that will be handier.

I think blogs are great for so many purposes. Jen, my son's fiancee is using a blog to keep us current on her trip to China this week.

RSS feeds in My Yahoo and more

I'm trying to make my life simpler. Adding a Bloglines account really just gives me one more website to open. In addition, there seems to be something in our city firewall that is blocking my subscribed blogs. I can search for blogs there but not view my own selections. Oh well.

I've opted to use Google Reader for my work related RSS feeds since we use Google calendar already at the library and I can be logged in to Google and simply click over to Reader. I keep my family blogs on My Yahoo, since Yahoo is my primary personal e-mail address for friends and family.

When I was adding feed from the World Herald, a little window popped up in Internet Explorer 7.0 with link, Subscribe to this feed, so I tried it. Now I can check the OWH feeds from my Outlook page. Very sweet!

So, you may ponder the question of whether I made life simpler using 3 different services for my feeds. I would argue that I did since they work with my schedule. I can briefly check news (I like the OWH better than my local NP Telegraph) when I check my mail first thing at work; I can periodically jump into Google Reader during the day; and I can view family blogs at home.

I added feed from 3 other people in our class and will enjoy exploring their posts and blog layout.

IM at the library -from bad to good

The bad:
Instant Messaging has really improved since I started working at the library in 1999. At that time, the standard IM products such as MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger or AIM (AOL) required software downloads. MSN messenger seemed to be the popular choice and it would "sit" in the system tray waiting for a user. Unfortunately for the public environment, the default setting was "log in when Windows was started" and patrons would also tend to tell the computer to remember them so it didn't really log out or they would simply leave and not log out. The next person would sit down and, to their surprise, a little message window would pop up and the first person's friend would try to start a conversation, thinking their friend was still there. The worst case we encountered was when the online friend would start writing obscenities if the second person attempted to write something in the message window. NOT GOOD! And of course, people didn't want to leave when their time was up because they were in the middle of an "important" conversation. The decision was made to get rid of messenger because of the problems.
Getting Better:
Meebo made the situation better because computer users could go to Meebo, log into the IM accounts and when they closed the Internet, the conversations would go away. No problems for the non-IM-savvy patrons who didn't want messages to keep popping up, and we didn't have to play with settings.
Even Better: We have a shortcut on the desktop labeled Meebo IM to direct our patrons directly to that website.
My Preference: I like Yahoo because I can be in my Inbox page and see which of my contacts are online and click on their name without downloading any software. Gmail works the same.

More about blogs

I got distracted by the Settings tab when I started this posting. I haven't done much with the settings since I started this blog. I need to explore these as well as layout choices, but time is flying by tonight.

7 1/2 Habits of HIghly Successful Lifelong Learners

I'd like to think of myself as a lifelong learner. There is always something out there to be discovered. We were asked to think about the 7 1/2 habits in terms of what was easiest and hardest for us. For me, the easiest would be #7: teach/mentor others. Once I learn a new skill well, I like to share the knowledge with others. I use that now as a computer class instructor, but in my past life, I was a 4-H leader, teaching cooking and baking skills. My 4-H demonstration skills led to another section of my teaching life-I had a 5-10 minute TV spot, eventually named "Cooking with Terri". For 12 years, I faithfully drove up to the North Platte TV station on Tuesday mornings, my car packed with food ingredients and cooking utensils to be a regular guest on the station's noontime "Newsmakers." Unfortunately, I wasn't paid like Julia Child so I can't say I did it for the money. I think I kept doing it for the people who would tell me how much they liked making the recipes I prepared on the show.

My hardest is Habit #3: View problems as challenges. I'm a born worrier so problems kick in my worry mode. I'm working on this one.

Library 2.0 Nebraska-style

I started this blog in May 2007 when I was working my way through the original 23 things from another institution. I stalled out when I was experimenting with image generators. I found one that let you create book cover images similar to the For Dummies series. I tried to follow the instructions to either link to the image I created or copy it so I could show it off. I obviously did the wrong thing because my image changed to a book cover that basically called me a dummie in less than polite terms. Hmmm..I didn't do very well about making that problem a challenge, did I?

So here I am again. I did start blogging again this summer and two nieces, both avid bloggers encouraged me. I want to start adding pictures or at least links to my online pictures this time.

Starting countdown to Vacation

In two weeks, Tim and I will be in the air on the first leg of our trip to Germany. I have so much to get done before we leave that isn't even related to the trip. I think our dog, Zoe, suspects something is coming up because she has been demanding lots of attention. She really misses moving the cows into the milking parlor twice a day. Most days, Mulberry comes up on her own so no chasing involved. Tim says Mulberry isn't quite as eager this month so I guess she is definitely ready for her "vacation!" We'll dry her up right before we leave in preparation for her calving date in mid-October. The garden is yielding large numbers of big tomatoes. This morning we canned 11 pints of salsa. I can't do the HOT HOT salsa anymore so I used more tomatoes to jalapeno peppers. I'm hoping it will make a nice tasting salsa. My regular peppers quit producing during the super hot weather and then cool days so are just starting up again with little peppers. We still have green beans producing so we will enjoy those until we leave.

We start computer classes September 2nd so I have to have the class handouts ready before I leave. I've put together new material since our upgrade to Office 2007 so hopefully, I've balanced the material amount to the 2-hour class time. There are two of us who teach so Carolyn will have to do all of the classes while I'm gone. I have to get the practice exercises organized and get press releases out to the media this week. Back to the grindstone.

Olympics or Sleep?

Tim and I have been watching the Olympics every night, trying to squeeze in some DVDs on Germany when we can. I really enjoy watching the Olympics but am not quite enthused with all of the USA commentary. If we're watching events with lots of stuff in-between, we play scrabble at the same time. Our scores vary alot, but we've regularly got scores over 300 this year. Sometimes it's hard to resist playing a cool word even though the points aren't great. Twice last week, I was able to use all seven tiles in one turn, scoring over 70 points each time.

Tim picked a purple pepper in the garden. I think we will have to eat that tonight to see if this variety tastes any different. The plants quit producing during the extremely hot spell but have bounced back a little this past week.

It's finally a little cooler

Although I'm not complaining since it is after all, summer, I'm relieved that the temperature has dropped at least 10 degrees since the weekend. Luckily most of our Saturday "to do" list was working in our basement so we could avoid the 100 + degrees outside. We really appreciate the lack of cement on our farm as we saw the temperature at the North Platte airport was 107 degrees.

The library computer center was incredibly busy yesterday. Not only were our 12 computers in use most of the day, but we had a higher than normal number of people needing assistance with what they were doing on the computers. I do enjoy the busyness of helping people but did it all have to come at once? If I wasn't assisting someone in person, I was on the phone helping people find phone numbers. It is frustrating that several companies will not provide telephone numbers in the contact information on their websites.

Today, the computer center is slow. I'm assuming that people are enjoying being outside since the weather service is reporting 76 degrees. This gives me a breather and time to work further on our computer class materials. Our computer classes will start again in September. Since we pay a subscription to Custom Guide, we are trying to adapt their materials to teach our classes, rather than writing the classes from scratch. Microsoft Office 2007's ribbon has certainly been a challenge to adjust to after using the menus of previous versions.

Back to the grindstone

Time has flown by

Obviously, I stalled out while working on the "23 Things". I spent as much time as possibly preparing for the transition to Windows Vista and MS Office 2007. Little did we know that the December recarpeting project would take longer than we anticipated. The 2nd floor wood railing overlay had to be completely removed and reinstalled before the 2nd floor could be reopened. Then rebuilding and separating the library and public networks was a chaotic process with servers failing and Vista incompatibility, etc. etc.

After trial and error and error and error with using our security software and Vista, Sara reformated the operating system to Windows XP. This has worked for the most part except for the computers locking up sporadically. We are using Office 2007 and I'm pulling together new class handouts for the computer classes we teach.

Now, I'm exploring Facebook and MySpace and even ventured into Twitter today.