10 Random Things about me

1. I'm a true Buckeye.
   I grew up in Columbus, OH and graduated from OSU.


2. I met my husband doing ballroom dancing.


3. I'm addicted to "Dancing with the Stars".
   I go crazy if I get any interruptions while I'm watching it.


4. I have 2 children; a girl and a boy, ages 8 and 6, respectively.


5. I play the clarinet in the Greater Columbus Concert Band.


6. I play handbells in my church's handbell choir.


7. I'm a perfectionist.


8. I installed a garage door opener by myself at my first house.


9. I love baking.
   It's almost time to start baking Christmas cookies. Yeah!


10. I'm a scrapbooker.
    I'm way behind in my scrapbooking but I've got a scrapbooking marathon coming up in January.

Thing 23 - Learn & Play Finale

Well I finally made it to the last "Thing" on Learn & Play and just in the knick of time. I learned a lot along the way; some of which I know I'll use again and some probably not. I got some help along the way from co-workers so some Web 2.0 tools I didn't like so well are a lot more manageable. I loved the Mango Language site as I mentioned in a previous blog. Twitter I didn't like at all at first but with the Firefox toolkit it is a lot easier to follow the tweets. The hardest part about the whole exercise was finding the time to do it (most of it I completed outside of work time). In speaking to others that seemed to be a common problem. It was good that the time to complete the program was extended, otherwise, I'm sure a lot of us wouldn't have been able to finish it in time for the prizes.

I'm always up for a challenge and love to learn new things so if CML decides to offer another discovery program you can count me in.

Thing 22 - MOLDI

This exercise was much easier than the last because I've had to do so much backend work to make sure that MOLDI (Overdrive) and DP work together well. In fact, I'm in the process of getting the Overdrive records added to the catalog (and DP). Customers will be able to search the catalog and, when an Overdrive record is found, they will be able to select the link to go directly to the Overdrive record to download it.

Since I'm not supposed to use past experience for the Learn & Play I did do some general browsing and then did some advanced searching for a technical manual on something that I'm just learning how to do. Although I'm not a big fan of digital copy if I get stuck I just might be downloading a book in the near future.

Thing 21 - Podcasts

This exercise took way longer than I expected. I had to download a couple of things for the one podcast viewer/receiver but I don't think that I really needed to do that step. Of well...
I was able to use one of the podcast directories to find some useful podcast sites. Since I have a hard time remembering to go to my Bloglines account to get the latest and greatest updates for my subscriptions I only subscribed to one podcast site.

I can see how the library could take use of podcasts for storytimes and other library events especially since you can download to an iPod (or its equivalent) or your PC. It seems like it is so hard for people to do everything that they want when trying to juggle work, family activities and housework so this would give them some flexibility.

Only 2 to go!

Thing 20 - YouTube

Well it's safe to say that I'm very familiar with YouTube along with I'm sure a lot of internet users. Just at CML alone it is used in morning messages on CMLsi and on our website. I was in the mood for 80's music and decided to look up Billy Joel. I had quite a few videos and songs to choose from but I decided to use one of his more up-beat songs to showcase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKu2QaytmrM

Next, I was in the mood for a good laugh so I found some of the Friends sitcom bloopers. Check 'm out here:



The YouTube site was really easy to use and because it is used by so many people it is a good way to get exposure to CML and what we're doing. I'm thinking the levy in 2010...

Thing 19 - CML's toolbox

Well I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I was using quite a few of the tools listed in CML's toolbox. I had previously downloaded CML's toolbar so I decided to do the catalog search plug-in. After all, I've spent the past year+ working on the catalog in one way or another so I ought to start taking advantage of being able to get to material that I can get my hands on relatively easy.

I'm so conditioned to doing Google searches so now I just need to remember to use the resources here at CML.

Thing 18 - Web2.0 awards list

I just found my new favorite tool, Mango Languages. When you're married to an Italian and his family doesn't speak much English you kind of need to know how to speak Italian and write in Italian. In the past, I tried the self-paced study courses, beginning Italian class and, of course, listening to my husband and his Italian friends in conversation. I've picked up a lot over the years but, as I always tell people, I'm good with the Italian nouns but to compose a sentence takes a while. Not only do you need to know how to conjugate the verbs but you need to put the words in the right order in the sentence (you need to be really careful with adjectives because you can turn a compliment into an insult).

Mango teaches you how to say Italian words and phrases (and other languages) but better yet I can enter some text and it will translate it for me. WOW!!! Thank you notes and letters are going to be a lot easier now. And to think of the time it will save me when I'm trying to translate an Italian letter to English.

Mango è molto fantastico! (By the way, I did this one on my own.)