Friday, May 7, 2010
Acceptance Letter
Having written an acceptance letter for a classmate's OPAC proposal, I can appreciate the value of the assignment. I found it enlightening to have to go through the thought process involved from the opposite perspective; having moved from a proposal writer to a proposal evaluator.
Most Valuable Part
The most valuable part of this course for me is that just about everything in it is directly applicable to my job as a school librarian. It is not often one can say that. I have gained perspective of what other school librarians' library programs are like; including the elementary level, and the middle and high school levels. I have learned of many great ideas from others that I either have already, or plan to implement in my library. I feel I could easily approach any one of the members of this class, including Barb, to discuss just about anything.
... all very good outcomes for the physically isolated, sole librarian in a school.
I also must acknowledge the comfort factor I have gained. I was well aware of my own limitations regarding all the latest technology; not a good thing. I feel much more confident in my position now, a very good thing :)
... all very good outcomes for the physically isolated, sole librarian in a school.
I also must acknowledge the comfort factor I have gained. I was well aware of my own limitations regarding all the latest technology; not a good thing. I feel much more confident in my position now, a very good thing :)
Top 10 Things Teachers Should Know About Technology
Having revisited the subject, here is my Top 10 Things Teachers Should Know About Technology.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Google Docs
I said it before, but I have to say it again. Google Docs is the best thing ever. It is so easy and intuitive to use. I have used it for documents, slide presentations and spreadsheets for this course. It is so easy to share the links. Best of all, when/if you see an error just after you have posted (distributed) the document, you can get right in there and fix it, and everyone's link will automatically point to the corrected version.
Discussion Board
I realized this week, thanks to a classmate's posting, that the discussion board in Blackboard for this course will be going away. I have been going along merrily thinking I have access to all the valuable information in it for future reference. It would have been one thing to realize this at the start of the course and have been saving useful tidbits all along. It is quite another to be in the last few weeks of the course and not have saved anything. There must be a better way!
Library OPAC Proposal
Investigating library OPACs this week has been one of those topics where I realize how much I have to learn. Unfortunately, all my experience both as a librarian and as a library patron have been with the SAILS/SirsiDynix Symphony iBistro online catalog interface. This made it difficult to "read about" other library OPACs and try to picture actually using them. I did find a few demos but this is a task that I would really want to visit libraries and be able to log in and really use the interfaces.
I was frustrated with the Breeding Library Automation website. I found it confusing with all the company logos just displayed on a page. Then there was not much useful information on the links themselves. It was all very high-level.
I also had to get beyond my own confusion that SAILS is not providing all the library management functionality. It had come to feel that way due to the fact that SAILS is the only company that I ever interact with - for training, circulation and cataloging, reports, technical support, etc. I barely noticed the name of the Workflows software application that SAILS showed me how to use was Symphony from SirsiDynix.
My OPAC proposal looks at keeping SAILS/SirsiDynix or moving to Koha/LibLime/MassCat in the Norfolk elementary schools.
I was frustrated with the Breeding Library Automation website. I found it confusing with all the company logos just displayed on a page. Then there was not much useful information on the links themselves. It was all very high-level.
I also had to get beyond my own confusion that SAILS is not providing all the library management functionality. It had come to feel that way due to the fact that SAILS is the only company that I ever interact with - for training, circulation and cataloging, reports, technical support, etc. I barely noticed the name of the Workflows software application that SAILS showed me how to use was Symphony from SirsiDynix.
My OPAC proposal looks at keeping SAILS/SirsiDynix or moving to Koha/LibLime/MassCat in the Norfolk elementary schools.
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