Firefox and Wiki Wiki Wikis

I use Firefox all the time, at work and at home. While overall I like it, one complaint I have is that many times their updates "cannot be installed" for some reason or other when I try to install them. I now usually wait until they've sent me notices to upgrade this or that at least three or four times before I upgrade, because it never seems to work otherwise.

I had to participate in a wiki when I took my Access class in library school a couple of years ago. While the process was educational, the topics we had to wiki were BORING and I got really tired of posting to the wiki. Thankfully, once I had a grade, I could stop!

I've decided to create a wiki for 21 Things all about youth librarians' favorite topic: Summer Reading!! (I know, I know, try to contain yourselves, lol...)

I figure, Summer Reading never really ends. If you're not actively doing it, you're planning for it somehow. So why not have a wiki where ideas/thoughts/concerns/complaints/brainstorms/braindrizzles/eurekas can be shared?

Right now I'm waiting for PBWorks to send me my confirmation email so I can get started.

(checking her watch, checking her mail, tapping her foot...)

UPDATE: Here is a link to my Wiki: SummerReadingNeverEnds

Excuse me, waiter???

Definitely a kerfluffle with my social mention soup...

I added the social mention widget to my page, but it isn't displaying any "social mentions" of my library. I had my library name in the search box... what gives? I must have messed up somewhere, but exactly where... hmm... Will investigate and see what happens.

Delovely, delightful, delicious

Hey! I signed up for delicious! My address is: http://delicious.com/ek21things

Now, hopefully I can figure out how to bookmark something!

UPDATE: I did figure out how to bookmark. The only speedbump I found was finding the "add new bookmark" link to add more bookmarks. It wasn't really obvious on the page, which made for some temporary frustration.

I have signed up for Google Reader already, so I didn't need to sign up again. It can be useful to track websites, etc... but I always forget about it. That's the thing about all these extras. They're cool, but I have to remember to use them!

Google Earth Technology and Questions

I'm torn about Google Earth. On one hand, the technology that enables me to look at real-life pictures of my neighborhood, the farm I grew up on, etc... is fascinating. How do they piece all those images together so well? The street views can be so helpful, especially if you're trying to locate a business or something and you can view ahead of time what the area looks like.

On the other hand... I value my privacy. Does the world really need to know what my house looks like and that my chimney needs replacing? No. Do I want Google on my street taking pictures of my house? Not really. Do I have a choice?

On to the questions:

• How has technology already changed your job? Your personal life?

Technology has changed my job by making me responsible for more activity in the same time period. This means that, for example, not only do I have to make signs to advertise an upcoming program, I also must put the program on the online calendar, make certain it shows up on the Kid's page of our website, and make certain our Web guy gets the info onto the library TV up at the circulation desk... there's a lot more steps to take.

In my personal life, it has changed a lot of things. Mainly how I contact people--instead of trying to reach my son on the phone, I text him because I know he will look at a text but may not bother to answer his phone.

• How do you think we can best prepare to serve the upcoming generations who are tech-savvy at a very young age?
  

I think the best thing we can do is to encourage exploration beyond the known. You'd think that kids, being so savvy, would just jump on the online catalog and look stuff up for themselves but they don't. They're almost afraid to try and learn anything different from what they already know. I also think that kids today don't have time to process. Information is just jammed in constantly and they need a space to escape, to contemplate... the library can be that haven.

• How could your current library services be enhanced by technology? Or how have they been enhanced already?

In my library we blog, have an online book club, offer online sign-ups for programs, and are expanding our digital book collection for techno-readers and listeners, just to name a few things.

First Post!

Hi everyone! I'm just starting the "21 Things" program and have created my blog!

More to follow...