Curiosity

I just watched the video by Seth Grodin. This is just what I needed to hear as I was getting frustrated with Mapbuilder. I do sometimes get little feelings like why can't I just stay where I am. I am like one of the people in the middle that want to keep things the way they are sometimes and not move ahead so fast. This was an inspiring little clip to listen to and I need to remind myself to keep on listening to things like this. It opens whole new worlds and hope for change where it's needed.
I always want to support our educational systems. My parents were involved in the educational system and I always felt proud of them for it. Part of why I went into my field was to continue to learn and educate myself. But Seth is right, a lot of our curiosity does get squelched along the way. Being curious and open to new ideas and being able to help other people with what you learn is the way to go. (Helping people was the other part of why I went into this field.)

Project Play has been a really great experience. I have learned so much and there is still so much to learn. I want to keep up by exploring the optional assignments that I haven't been able to get to yet. I'm really sorry that I didn't sign up for first semester but I will continue to catch up with the things that I've missed. I really appreciate all that's been put into this program. I feel like I'm taking baby steps into this new world, becoming inspired and losing my fear. I feel that soon I will get to the point and may have already started to be where I'm comfortable enough to start realizing that yes I can use what I've learned to think outside the box as far as my daily work.

Mapbuilder

I played with Mapbuilder today but was having a little trouble with it. The words along the top are overlapping each other. I must not have the proper updates on the computer I'm using. I tried adding my library which showed up on the map right away but I wasn't sure if it was going to stay there. I didn't see the add tab the first time, just the update tab. Then I tried again, starting all over and saw an add tab that time but the map didn't change from someplace in Pennsylvania.

I was excited the first time when the map location and the latitude and longitude were showing up right away, but became a little frustrated not knowing if my entry was getting added to the sandbox. I have to look at it some more.
All in all I think Mash-ups are pretty nice in being able to bring things together. I'm a little overwhelmed about it all right now but am trying to let it all sink in. I was literally amazed by all the links you gave us and am alternating between feeling excited and feeling worried about keeping up with everything.

Would our library homepage with the little Google search box be considered a mash-up? The possibilities would be endless of what one could pair up with.


I tried again using Mapbuilder on our computer at home. This time the letters at the top weren't overlapping and this time I am in the sandbox. I think I hit search first and then update, but it still wasn't at all clear to me.

YouTube

I like the examples of how libraries are using YouTube. The Calgary Public Library's Storytime video was very cute. I loved how they promoted titles along with their narration. It was very creative and represented hard work to come up with all of those. The Harper College library tour was another great way to use YouTube. Walking around with the coffee cup was a nice touch to show the library as a comfortable non-threatening place. The Q and ANJ video on library hours would be especially appealing to a young crowd. It's a great idea to have video contests to promote services or for advertising because people love to make movies and it widens the pool of creative ideas.

Here'a a cute video of a dachshund and cat playing. My dachshund would love it if our cat would be this agreeable to playing like this.

Screencasts

I really like the idea of screencasts for libraries. I was very impressed with the University of Calgary and all they've done. It would be great if we could have screencasts imbedded to show people how to do Ebsco for instance or maybe signing up for Telus. The problem would be that we'd need to have earphones handy at each station which we don't currently have.

I liked the casual, comfortable instruction for Screencast-o-matic. The Allen County Genealogy Center also used a very friendly, personal approach. I think something to think about if making screencasts would be to use this approach to try and engage people in what you're talking about.