RSS feeds continued

After some technical issues, I think I've finally got some of the RSS feeds I want on my Blog roll.  It's quite eclectic; South View for one, and others I thought were interesting.  It isn't necessarily easy; teachers who don't have time and/or inclination to do these may have some problems.  Many of the students (but not all!) will find it just one more "fun" thing to do.  I remain concerned however about network security and response time issues, as well as the need for adequate computer memory (school and home).  It's all still a work in progress.

RSS feeds Google reader

I'm now deep into RSS feeds, for better or worse.  I like the idea of having an automatic update of "stuff" I'm interested in.  However, it can add a lot of other unnecessary information and ads I don't want.  I can really see a use for this as part of the library webpage.  The catch is of course to make it so fascinating (or unpredictable maybe?) that the target audience (teachers? students?) will want to tune in.  Last year I used Bloglines so I tried Google Reader this year.  There are a LOT of feeds available now, one for everything you could think of.  I'm beginning to look for author/reading feeds.  

thank you metronet

It looks like I'll be part of the 23 things blogosphere after all.  Thank you Metronet!

Adding a blog post; registering

I'm still working on getting this blog registered with Metronet.  So far, no luck, but I'll keep on trying.  I did start adding links to other blogs (the art one for example, which wasn't too terribly difficult).  Also added a reading list that I want to develop into something to use with students and/or teachers.  Right now it's empty, but I'll start adding to it.  I'm not necessarily doing each "Thing" in order.  I've added Sitemeter and also subscribed to Google analytics.  

Sharon's art blog: Cameron Falls

Sharon's art blog: Cameron Falls

Why am I here

Why am I part of this, especially since I only have until vacation July 17 to finish and I already took a similar course last summer?  As I mentioned before, I benefit from repetition and the field changes so rapidly.  More importantly, this is "library-oriented" which isn't something you find too often in K-12 school settings.  I don't feel as much of a need to "translate" every idea and activity into something to do with the teachers and/or kids-for once, the library media center is the focus!

Thing 2 Perspectives

Whew!  OK, I'm already exhausted and I've just started!  A few comments on these perspectives:  Having worked 11 years in Michigan (public library cataloging would you believe), I'm familiar with where these folks are coming from.  The "future of libraries" has been the great professional debate for many years-in 1976 for instance-would books still be here 30 years from now (yes)?  Would we deliver information (and what information and how) in the same way to the same people?  Would librarians (AKA information specialists) drive the information revolution or just hang on for the ride?  Would we "rock the boat" and challenge ourselves and others to do more, often with less money?  It doesn't surprise me at all that someone (Blyberg) from Ann Arbor (U of Mich country) is leading the charge, since the library there and the University library school are known as leaders in the field.   Blyberg's wall of books is great-something newer online catalogs are doing.  I look forward to the day (this spring??!) that the Edina Schools will have a new online catalog that incorporates some of this new technology.  

I also agree that technology can be addicting-it seems there's no end to it, no matter how passionately you delve into the subject.  It's especially tough when you work with the "2.0 and beyond" generation every day as we do.  Many (but not all) of the kids are already there, technically, but they still need to be taught how to reason and think of their own solutions using all the new "gee whiz" gadgetry.

Finally, this also reminds me of Tom Peters' book Thriving on Chaos (thanks Frank for looking it up for me...) businesses needing to understand the world won't be still, that chaos (i.e., constant change everywhere) offers opportunity, but only for those who are flexible, nimble, who can identify trends and take advantage of them.

Enough for now.