Restarting for the good of the books!

 So….it’s been a minute. I started this blog way back, almost a decade ago, when we needed to start one for work. After that series of assignments finished; I fully intended to keep writing and reviewing books and resources, but alas, I did not.

Now, here we are and I am going to try again. I recently applied to be a reviewer for books before they are published. Since I am an avid reader and a librarian by trade this should be a perfect gig, and doing at least short reviews in order to read new exciting books! 

Here we go…!!!

Imagine the images...

So this week we get to play with photos!!!! Why you ask am I so excited? It may have something to do with the fact that I am an amateur photographer! I live and breathe taking photos! In highschool all of my friends were annoyed becasue I was always snapping photos...documenting the good and the bad moments, on family vacations my parents often became impatient at my "just one more" which actually often led to 50 more snaps and today I am still snap happy. I have taken one professional photography class, have had a few impromptu photo shoots here and there and just today I planned a more formal shoot with my best friend! I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY!


Photo: Mary Poppins Musical in New York,
January 2011, N-Lange.de.

The first task this week - finding a random Creative Commons image and share it here! I have been on a Mary Poppins kick lately, so that is what I decided to search for on Wikimedia Commons.
This is actually a shot of the theatre in New York where you can go and watch the very awesome Broadway version! How do I know that you ask? We my bestie and I had the chance to go to New York in August of 2012 and we went and saw Mary Poppins on Bradway! It will forever be one of my favourite moments of life!

The Next task was to create a word cloud with Wordle...so I figured that I would stick to the Mary Poppins theme.

 

 

 

You want a meme, you got it!

 

 

For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. - P.L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins 

Am I a social reader...

So the challenge this week was to play with our own library catalogue and create a user name etc.  Our new catalogue on the Bibliocommons platform is super interactive so we were tasked with trying out a few different things. Once again, the activity this week is something that I have already had experience with in the past. I was fortunate to be able to test out the catalogue before it was launched, and when I saw the capabilities it had I was very exited. Thus, I have had an account and played with it since day 1, and even updated our regional progam "Library Skills 4 You" to include information about the new version of the catalogue. To be honest, I have not spent as much time interacting with our catalogue as I wish, but with a zillion other things on the go, it is something that always gets put aside. The lack of time is precisely why I am excited about the task this week, it is giving me a chance to push and allow myself to spend more time in the catalogue.

After we were instructed to create an account (which I already had), we then were instructed to create a list in Vision. The Lists feature is an excellent thing for sharing content with others, or for making theme and subject lists for your own use. The list that I have been the most excited about, yet not been able to give justice to is my storytime list: http://vision.bibliocommons.com/list/show/92754685_nessamaphone/103850857_storytime_books. It has been very sorely neglected! I threw a bunch of titles on it, and then forgot about it. So while I have not done so yet, I am going to clean it up some and add more titles. There are so many good books out there for storytime that my list could probably go on forever!

We were also instructed to comment on a book in the catalogue - done! This is an excellent feature because not only does it allow for interaction with the books and patrons, but it helps me (sometimes) decide on what to read next. When there is a book that I am not sure about the comments (if there are any) help me out! I encourage everyone to get out there in the catalogue and share your comments about books!

Thing #10 was to follow a reader...I am already following a few! This is another excellent way to find new books to read! I am following people who have the same interests as me, as well as many who do not, that way I get introduced to a whole new world of books!

Cool extra thing - :) Setting up a Goodreads account! I have not yet had the time to do this yet, but I am hoping to make time in the next few days! I have always wanted to set one up and have never taken the time, so 23 Things is going to encourage me to make time to do it! I will get back to you with my thoughts about Goodreads (that is if I do not get swallowed by the fun of it)!

After reflecting on week 3, it has become very clear to me that I am comfortable with new technologies / things online, but I often do not make the time to look into them or use them. To be honest I have a zillion other things on the go and besides Facebook, my emails and a few lost hours to Pinterest I do not tend to spend that much time online....I have other things to do!

In traditional fashion...I leave you with another favourite quote from a children's book! This week it speaks directly about reading, but I want you to see it as - the more things you try out the further you will go!

Blog-a-bye!


“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

And then we Tweeted....

So this week's challenge was to create a Twitter account and Tweet! I created my first Twitter account years ago on Christmas vacation when I was bored. I was actually not that interested in Twitter, but one of my friends told me I should join to look at fun things so I did. I read lots of tweets by other people, but never really Tweeted much myself. It was not until later that I started to use Twitter more often to share random things, or to Tweet my random thoughts. I have the application on my phone now and since it is at my fingertips I use it more often. 

Although I already had a Twitter account, I decided to create a new one for the 23Things excercise. That way I have a personal account to share non-work related stuff, and a more professional one for work. It should be interesting trying to keep track of the two, but I think it works better for me that way.

The 23 Things excercises are fun so far, even though I have already encountered many of the things we have done so far. It is giving me a chance to reflect upon how I could use these tools for work related activites. I am excited to see what is next!

And remember...for those who are unsure of all this new stuff, don't be afraid, you can do it! It is only when we give up or don't try that we cannot do things! Therefore I leave you all with this inspirational and timely literary quote from a classic children's book!

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

So here we go....

Once upon a time I had a blog (well I still have it, I just have not used it in years) and I used it to reflect on a few things here and there. Some days I would be inspired to use it, while at other points I would not feel like posting for an extended period of time. When the 23 Things training was released I had to decide - do I want to revamp my old blog, or do I want to create a new one? I decided that it was time to create a new one (maybe this initiative will inspire me to start writing posts on my old one too) and use it to reflect on this training, as well as other work related things.

I am a Children's Librarian / Acting Library Director in Northern New Brunswick, my home away from home. It is a job that I love and it allows me to live in a place that I love. I am very excited to have this opportunity to write and reflect not only on the training modules for 23 Things, but also to have the time to perhaps reflect upon my profession and my professional life.



Are you ready to witness all the fun I am having? I am definitely ready to experience and reflect upon it!

“As Hagrid had said, what would come would come and he would have to meet it when it did.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

So here we go!