Time Flies Away

It happened to me again.  I picked up a book for the YA class that was the first in a series, and then the next thing I know, I have to finish the series.  I mean, I HAVE to finish the series.  So, a quick read becomes a major undertaking that I just do not have time for...but how else do you know how the story ends?
So this weeks reading:
Foundling, Lamplighter, and Factotum of the Monster Blood Tattoo series by D.M. Cornish
The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary Blackwood
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Pride & Prejudice the graphic novel adapted by Nancy Butler and Hugo Petrus

Plus, a lot more children's books than I can add to the list.
More on the 23 Things and my Library visits tomorrow.

Spring Breakdown

I had every intention of finishing my 23 things and a few papers and projects over spring break, but instead I spent it in bed.  On Sunday, my husband came down with a stomach virus.  On Monday, my youngest came down with a sinus infection.  By Tuesday, mommy had both and has been bedridden since.  (I know, waa waa.)
The point is not sympathy, but to explain my lack of writing or reading or doing anything productive for a whole week.

Now, to play catch up.

 

Reading List and Updated Wiki entries

Books read this week:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Lost Flower Children and Afternoon of the Elves by Janet Taylor Lisle
Avielle of Rhia by Dia Calhoun
Pop! by Aury Wallington
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
The Secret Life of Prince Charming by Deb Caletti

Also, I have finally gotten around to at least posting the reviews of the books used for the reading project in Materials for Young Adults onto my wiki.  The Wiki is thelarvallibrarian at pbworks, which is the wiki I used last semester for my education class in Diversity in Literature.  Links provided, just in case someone is bored.

Library Analysis entries

I will be using this blog to enter my library and information center analysis entries as well.  The tag will be library analysis.  Thanks!

Things 16 and 17...Wikis

I think that we already discussed wikis at the beginning of this exercise.  The discovery for thing 16 was to learn about Wikis, particularly Confluence, which is where the SLA Wiki is.  I have already signed up for Confluence and linked to the (still blank) wiki page in a previous post.   I also mentioned using pbworks wiki with Education classes here at USF.  It is a great way to have students complete projects and enable other students to share the lesson plans and research after the class is over, while still allowing the instructor to have access and follow progress.  I can see this as very useful in an education environment.

I also think that a wiki would be useful in the library environment for keeping up with material, if each librarian posted thoughts about books- say in the Young Adult section- then all of the librarians could access info and know what the book was about without everyone having to read every book. 

Thing 17 was to sign in and add to your home page on the Confluence Wiki for SLA 23 things.  And, done. 

Reading and more Reading

This week's list:
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Ida B by Katherine Hannigan
Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry
The Fortunes of Indigo Sky by Deb Caletti

Thing 14(no2) and 15...

I think I know now what happened to Thing 12...It seems that SLA lists two Thing 14's.  You would think that they would be able to figure this out.  Anyway, Thing 14 (no2) is to build a bookshelf on LibraryThing.  I already have a bookshelf on Living Social's Visual Bookshelf, but I did it anyway.  The objective was to add at least 5 books, so I added the stack of YA novels sitting next to me that I have already read but not yet reviewed for Materials for Young Adults.  Here is the link to my Library Thing.  And in case someone actually cares,  the link to my Visual Bookshelf.

It also suggests you can explore Shelfari and some other similar sites.  I think I may actually have an account on that one too.  I tried a few to decide which I liked best.  I never did decide though I guess.  I promise to pick one and load the books into it, but the trouble is it is hard to remember to go add every book that I read.  I will try to keep them up though.

Oddly enough, Thing 15 is the Rollyo search engine site...Which if you have been reading, I already explored and deemed useless.  So I am not going to write about it again. But I will add, that after exploring it a bit more, I could see that it would be useful for writing an extensive paper, or a thesis perhaps.  Or researching for a book...but not for everyday use for me.  I will however admit that it does have a practical purpose, just no bearing on my life.

Things 13 and 14: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Thing 13 was pretty simple for me- facebook and LinkedIn.  I already have a facebook- you are welcome to add me as a friend if you would like to receive dozens of updates each day regarding what my daughter does or does not do on her farm, in her city, or with her zoo and Smurf village.  Know who else has a facebook you can follow?  USF School of Information, ALA, YALSA, and the American Indian Library Association, for starters.  Also, everyone you ever met or knew in high school and before.  It has its uses.  It can be loads of fun.  It can also be a vortex designed solely to suck away the greater part of your day with no warning, so use caution.

Ironically, I also have a Linked In account as well.  It says that I am an Arts and Crafts Professional.  This is because there was no profession choice for Stay at Home Mom.  I am a member of one group- The USF Alumni Association.  I assume that as my studies progress, I will be using Linked In more often, as it is geared towards professional users, not friends.  It is for making contacts, and job hunting, and networking.  I don't actually do any of those things.  So, I hate to judge Linked In, but it doesn't have any real life application for me right now.

Thing 14, however, I have been dreading.  I don't really want to join Twitter.  I just....don't.  I don't need to tell everyone what I am doing all day, since it usually is not very exciting, and I have found through experience that everyone does not care what my kids are doing all day.  (I know!  I don't really understand it myself, but apparently some things are only interesting to the parents, grandparents, and people who love you enough to not tell you to shut up.)

However, for the sake of completion, I did. I have a twitter account, despite arguing that I would never have one.  It is Krysalid Krysalid75 too.  You can follow that if you want to, but I doubt I will use it.  I signed up, though. And I picked the 10 people to follow- which of course included Neil Gaiman, some other authors, and some book publishers and reviewers...and one friend who was always trying to get me to join Twitter but I wouldn't.  I even went through the process of changing my colors and connecting it to my cell phone, so that I can tweet in style from wherever I happen to be- if I can find my cell phone.  Here is my first Tweet.  Enjoy that.

For the record, I have a new Windows phone and it is Awesome and much cooler than my husband's iPhone...or at least it will be if I ever figure out how to use it properly.  I wonder if there is a Thing on here for how to use your smart phone?  Anyway...I can write papers on Word and do anything you can do in Windows 7 from my phone, if I could find it.  So, I could, hypothetically, even be writing this on my phone while I was driving.  Just kidding.  Don't do that.  Also, if your friends drink, hide their phones (and their keys)...they will thank you in the morning.

ETA:  I actually realized today that I spelled my own twitter name wrong.  It is now Krysalid75.  Silly me.

Thing 12?

Thing 12 is not there.  Trust me, I searched.  And searched.  And searched.  I looked everywhere for Thing 12- but no, it just skips from 11 to 13.

So I searched Google.  And old blogs.

Finally, in what may very well be a fitting definition of paradox, I found that Thing 12 used to be learn to create your own search engine with Rollyo.  Ha. But it is NOT there now.  Now either someone else has the same dry sense of humor that made me choose Sinatra's "The Last Dance" as my first dance at my wedding, or they have removed this for some other reason.

I went ahead and looked at the Rollyo site, and decided that the reason probably just was that it isn't really that practical.  And I would never use it anyway.

Here is why- everything is already, at this point, of course, tagged and labeled and bookmarked and defined and linked together seamlessly, right?  All the information and metadata is there!  Hypothetically, of course.  All of my information is still on 15 different tabs and 2 different browsers and piles of papers and notes and books all around me, because that is how I like it.  I feel more at home that way!  But this isn't about me, it's about....okay.  It is supposed to be about me.  And I don't need a special personal search engine, because there is a search tab on all of those sites.  They built it right in for me.  So there.

Either way, the idea that I spent all that time searching for an entry on how to build a search engine made me laugh.   Still, I think it would have been nice if SLA had put some kind of explanation for why 12 was missing- unless they really did just want me to search for it.  Librarians are a funny bunch, after all...

Thing 11: Adding feeds to your Reader

Thing 11 provides lists and lists of useful blogs and links to add to your reader- Oh my!  This is going to be a long day of exploring.  Many of the feeds would be more useful for different types of librarians.  Government documents and news from think tanks are interesting, sure, but they do not actually apply to my life right now so I think I will have to pass.

LISNews, though, is a keeper!

Internet public library, gets a bookmark for future reference.

Several of the librarian blogs were funny and/or intriguing, but the trouble is they link to other blogs, which are also...and those link to other blogs, which are also.  This could go on all day, so I am going to have to just stop it here!

I have added several new blogs to my bookmarks for later reading, and added a few to my feeder.  I skipped the law library and government documents links, although the reading was interesting- because they just don't fit my life right now.  Maybe I will have to remember this page though when I grow up and get a job (Ha!) in case they do apply at a later date.

Thing 10: Google Reader and iGoogle; RSS feeds

Thing 10 directed me to read about RSS feeds, and their history, and to watch a few videos on using RSS feeds.  Next, the project was to set up a myYahoo or iGoogle page.  Since I was using Google blogger for this blog, I chose to stick with Google this time.  My new home page is set up- with the content changed slightly from its original form.  I added the Google reader to the page.  I subscribed to some feeds, and put those on my page.  I still can't get the "quick blog" links to work from my Google page, but I am sure it will eventually get figured out. 
I also found that when I click to subscribe to a site, it automatically puts that RSS feed into my task bar, not my google page- so I have to go back and move it, and then delete from the task bar.  I don't know how to solve this yet, but it isn't really that big of a deal.  I am excited to figure out how to organize the blogs as well, so that I can keep the library blogs separate from the blogs of friends and former classmates that I follow- and also perhaps a tab for author blogs too, since I follow some of those.  I think this will certainly make it easier to keep track of things- especially since I often forget to check someone's blogs, and then end up with months worth of reading at once.  It is going to take a little more practice, though.