Far too long

It's been a long time since I've written in here, with Thanksgiving and then having to do my presentation, somehow I forgot all about blogging. And it's always such a welcome break from normal schoolwork. I was definitely frazzled during my presentation, and looking back I know I didn't cover all that I wanted to do. I thought I had at least 5 more minutes to conjure my thoughts, but somehow Dr Mon got our order mixed up and I had to go and it was like a train on the tracks and it just kept steamrolling. I hope it came off better than I think it did. I did get some good feedback, and made some extreme errors on my page that I had no clue how they occurred. I'm usually super fact checker but dropped the ball. Oh well. I'm certainly open to the suggestions....

I knew I would have to spend a good portion of my time justifying my choices in adding Friends on MySpace, and this is a fight I was planned to fight. But like I said I got caught off guard and didn't do as good a job explaining myself as I wanted. Oh well. It was my first time speaking in a chat room and I guess I didn't do too badly. I've listened to it...I don' t know. Frustrating. But at least I didn't have the technical difficulties that some had. I really like looking through everyones slides and pathfinders, they have such good resources! It must have been so fun looking for quality resources on something you're really interested in. Such good work. It's always nice to be able to see what others, in the same program, are doing. It's such an impersonal program, but refreshing when you do get to touch base. When I hand in my papers I have no clue if they're even setup the same as anyone elses. Oh WELL. My frustration with the semester will be done in a week. I hope I feel better when the week is done.

What to do what to do...

So I've created my group, but in hindsight it became more of a group that I want to see on MySpace rather than a group that the IPL would benefit from. And. we now have 14 members in the group. I'm not sure what to do about this. If I should keep it and find a way so that my own MySpace is the moderator and not the IPL or what. I'm starting to fall behind in my work, and creating another group might add on to my struggle, but it would surely be more beneficial. But maybe the IPL doesn't need to host a group anyways, seeing as nobody knows who'll be moderating the group next semester....So much to think about.

A lot to get done this week. Plus the weather has finally changed, so it's nice and cold and all I feel like doing is snuggling under one of my mother's afghans and reading my latest books from the library. Hopefully schoolwork wins over relaxation. I'll have to let you know.

MYSPACE and the IPL are getting along fabulously, if only in my mind. We're up to 64 friends, some who have added us. I'm in the process of creating a group for libraries with myspace pages, but I'm sure they're probably a little leery of joining the group since it's is still so elemental.

I've been struggling, but have ultimately settled on only adding libraries to the friend section. Except for some class members and Dr. Mon. I don't even have myself added as a friend, because I'm a 25 year old who blogs on her myspace, and everything that is said is not always a good representation of myself and I don't want my negative qualities associated with the IPL. And that's because, in looking at some of the 'librarians' who have attempted to add us, I have come across some objectional content. If I am supposed to be creating this site as a method of promoting the IPL, I don't want anyone to click on any of our friends and find things that are inappropriate. I am curious though, if other members of the class or the IPL feel the same way as I do. I know Glynis is doing hers more as an outreach to people who work with the IPL, but I think Facebook is set up differently. As far as i know, in order to see someones page on facebook you have to be their friend, but this is not the case with myspace. Anyone can look at our page and see who our friends are. It's something I'm not completely sure on, and I haven't deleted and friend requests we've received. But.....I think I'm gonna stick with this decision so far.

On another note, I'm sitting in the practice eluminate session, realizing I have no clue how I wish to present. So there's no point in me being in it. ..

We talked in class this week a lot about virtual environments like Second Life. These areas fascinate but scare me at the same time. It's seems like an amazing way to meet up with people around the world. But what happened to real life interactions? Where are they? I succeed way more in face to face interactions than I do in online environments, and I'm in the age bracket that is supposed to succeed at this stuff. I can only imagine how lost people of older generations might feel...

Happy Halloween!!!

So this Halloween, even though class was cancelled, I'm firmly ensconced in schoolwork. Thank goodness I live in the boondocks of Western NY, and there is not a trick-or-treater to be fed. I got my grade back on my Flickr paper, and I couldn't be happier. Sometimes it's good to get the feedback that you really can write a decent paper, and that maybe you are doing this for a reason. I would like to point out that the IPL now has 14 friends on MySpace!!! A few were added and I'm not sure they will be kept, as friends. And that's only because I want the page to be used as a Reference tool more than a method to make cutesy friends. I do have to say that the majority are libraries that have pages geared towards teens. Which are exactly what I want. Other than that, I've emailed Dr. Mon my date to present, which will give me plenty of time to get that ready (especially since it's only 5 minutes of torture :)) and I'm all caught up with this class. I am, however, fast and furiously writing a paper on Dublin Core, which is another torture all on its own....
Melanie the future madame librarian

A hectic week

So I haven't focused too much on this class since handing in the paper last week, but only because I had a paper due yesterday for another class, I will be flying to Savannah to visit my family on Thursday, and I have a big paper due next Friday on Dublin Core.

I managed to send out a few friend requests last night on MySpace for the IPL, and we officially have one friend. The Denver Public Library has a MySpace page that is geared towards teenagers, and is a great example of what I want our MySpace page to be. I'm going to attempt to send out more requests shortly, as I don't have much time to edit this week.

Class was interesting this week, talking about how technology is changing the environments in which we all hope to work. I know I'm not what people imagine when they think of librarian, and maybe it's time to start breaking predetermined notions wherever we can. That reminds me, I have to renew a library book before I get charged for it.


Ohhhh and if anyone out there watches The Office, Dwight is going to be spending some time in SecondLife this week, I'll be on a plane to Georgia so I'll miss it, but I'm still super excited!!!

Melanie

Web 2.0 and an interesting experience

So far, for our web 2.0 paper, I've started writing papers on about 5 different topics. But by the end of the day, one of those will be done. I think I've narrowed in on writing about Flickr and all that it has to offer. I was going to do a paper on MySpace, but I feel like that's all I do, but that it's not all that I'm interested in. So I'm reaching outside of my box, or comfort zone, and exploring a new aspect of the all that is web 2.o. Hopefully it works out for me.

I did want to write about a positive experience that I had for the IPL recently. My best friend teaches 7th grade in a city school in Rochester NY. We were talking about how hard it is to find quality resources for kids that made them do the work to find the source but helped teach them how to search in a meaningful way. I told her to have them give the IPL a shot, and that if they couldn't find answers to their questions that they had a service which would help them answer their questions or get started searching. Friday night, she told me her kids loved the IPL. They really enjoyed how Kidspace was set up and had even asked a question and gotten a response right away. Score one for the IPL :) I'm helping with Outreach in methods I apparently had forgotten about----word of mouth. How old fashioned of me.

The MySpace page is coming along, for the IPL. I really want to get together with Glynis to figure out how we should write the About Me section. I don't want it to come across too Librarianesque, but I don't want it to seem so casual that people don't think that it is really sanctioned by the IPL. So I'll have to work on that as soon as I get the paper done...Wish me lucK!!!!
Melanie

IPL on MySpace

In lieu of class tonite, I'm attempting to work on my MySpace page for the IPL. Visit www.myspace.com/internetpubliclibrary to see how it's coming along. It's a tedious process, getting it to look right, let alone to get started on the print for the page. And then I will start attempting to add friends. I don't want to get to that stage until the page looks professional. Otherwise people might think I'm pranking them.