Task #13

Using SoundSnap, I downloaded a snippet of ocean water hitting rocks on the Mexican coast. It's a little over a minute, and very soothing. Makes me want to go back to Mexico and sit on the beach.

There are a couple of great ways that Youth Services could use SoundSnap. I bet Shanna will show it to the teens creating their book trailers. I also thought about using it for sounds needed in the puppet show recordings and even during story times. The library as a whole could use it for sound effects on the website, different sounds for different icons. There are a number of cool possibilities.

I also looked at ccMixter and found an artist named _ghost. I was attracted by their name. I've never seen a musician use an underscore in their name. The _ghost song I listened to is called "Ice and Chilli." (It sounds like a poem title to me.) Anyway, the song is an awesome mixture of sound effects and instrumentals. There is a beautiful piano solo at one point and the ending's cool.

Task #12

I've used Novelist a little bit, so I'm glad this was one of our tasks. I learned a number of helpful tools. I will definitely be using the 'Author Read-Alikes' function for my own personal reading. Unfortunately, it appears they do not have this tool on Novelist K-8, which is really too bad because there are many parents and kids who ask about similar authors. However, the 'Recommended Reads' is a helpful resource that I have shown patrons when asked about similar reads, and I plan on using it even more. Also, I was really pleased to be told about the 'Series Title' search. This search seems easier than the KDL's What's Next search. And lastly, I played with the 'Describe a Plot' search. This may come in handy in the future too. I'll have to compare it to All Readers plot search. (I haven't had much success with All Readers.)

Task #11

The Book Report Network is a wonderful resource. I was so impressed by it that I bookmarked it on my computer. I checked out kidsreads.com. There, I clicked on to the link called "Cool and New" and saw all the latest and popular children's books. Kidsreads.com will be a very helpful tool for me as I do reader's advisory and find books for our own collection. I also explored authoryellowpages.com. I looked up some information on Neil Gaiman. His page reminded me that I wanted to read his comic books about the Sandman and his novel American Gods. (I will record them on my goodreads account, as books I would like to read.)

Using the Biography Reference Center, I decided to continue looking up more information on Neil Gaiman. I found out that he first read Alice in Wonderland when he was five, and read the book continuously for the next seven years. He was in a punk band when he was sixteen. As a teen he told his career counselor that he wanted to write American comics and the counselor, dumbfounded, could simply suggest looking at a career as an accountant. Could you imagine if he went into acccounting?! What a loss that would have been! Another interesting tidbit was that he started his writing career as a journalist and wrote his first book about Duran Duran called Duran Duran: The First Four Years of the Fab Five. Not only has Gaiman written comics, plays, children's books for all ages, adult fiction and non-fiction, but he has even written an episode for Babylon 5 - talk about versatile and gifted! Gaiman never ceases to amaze me.

Task #10

I'm glad that I watched the EBSCO search tutorial. I didn't know that we could search for images through EBSCO host. EBSCO image search can be one more resource for those of us in Youth Services, as we create story time kits. I also discovered the notetaking function and the link to the dictionary - both very useful tools. I like that Webolution makes us look at sites more closely. There are numerous gems just waiting to be found.

For my Consumer Reports search, I looked up articles on iPods. In the process I also found some information on iPhones. There is a lot of information on both, and the articles are pretty up-to-date. I found several written in the past two months.

I used the Biography Reference Center to look up information on one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins. I found five articles on him. This surprised me because he is pretty popular, at least for a contemporary poet. One cool fact that I learned about Collins is that that he started publishing later in life, when he was 47 years old. He has been pretty prolific, considering his more recent start in the publishing world. (Of course, he started practicing his craft at twelve and had aspirations to be at least a writer in his tween years.)

Task #9

I made a website with Weebly. At first I found the format a bit clunky and foreign, but with Shanna's help and some tinkering, I was able to upload a picture from jamendo.com and a youtube video. My website is fairly basic right now, but it's a good start.

I decided to incorporate some of my favorite pieces of art. My on-going project will be to start with one of my favorite poems and then find a painting and song that connect with the piece.

Check out my website and the project I did on red poppies at http://dialectsfaves.weebly.com/.

Task #8

I thought Creative Commons was a cool site! I looked up some Dali and Picasso paintings on flickr and found some great Celtic music by an artist named Adragante (he's actually French) on jamendo. I can definitely see myself using flickr and jamendo in the future, for example, when I make a website for Task #9. I think patrons would benefit from CC, when they create websites, upload images onto their Facebook, remix their own music (I'm thinking about Josh now), and produce video (Gail). (Shanna mentioned that she will have the teens use CC when they create their own booktrailers in a couple of weeks.) I love the possibilities that CC has made available.

Task #7

I chose to sign up with goodreads.com. Shanna had already told me about this site and I was planning on exploring it anyways. I like the fact that I can keep track of the books I've read, rate them, and generate a list of the books that I'm intending to read. It's a helpful way to organize all of my personal reading info. Plus, as I read children's literature, I can write up reviews and have a handy place to keep track of all my reader's advisory info. Very cool. I also like the fact that I could find other people who work in children's libraries. They could be a good resource for me.

When I looked at the Boulder Library Good Reads account, I noticed that not many patrons or staff have been using it. Maybe it's a new program, but as far as creating a Good Reads account for our website, I'm not completely convinced that it would get much use. It could be a really cool resource, but we would definitely have to publicize, and publicize it some more, it to get patron response.

Task #6

I like that the Ohio Library mission page points out that every patron maintains a personal meaning of what a library is. My favorite one that they mentioned is that a library, for some, is a place with bad parking. I think that's funny because parking never enters my mind - unless I can't find any. I usually think of the resources inside of a library - shelves of books, helpful librarians, computer labs, study areas, etc. The discussion about individual perceptions regarding libraries is important, because if we know the prevailing opinions of our library, we can either try to modify them or create new ones. We can serve individuals better if we know how they feel about their library experiences.

I also found the Houston Library Customer Service 123 link helpful. I took the Attitude Quotient Test on the Staff Role page and scored high. I guess I like what I'm doing - there's a shock! But seriously, the page brings up an important issue - the staff, the environment we create by our attitudes is what patrons respond to. It doesn't matter how high-tech we are or how many new books and DVDs we have, if no one wants to be around the staff! The library is a community center and it is important to communicate the kinds of behaviors that create a sense of community.