I used Twitter Search and Google Alerts for this activity trying to find out information about Elkhorn, Metro Community College, EVC, and a lot of other combinations. Setting up the feeds themselves wasn't hard at all but for the most part I came up with a whole lot of nothing. This just shows that Metro and the Elkhorn Campus Library need to have more of a presence on the web. Twitter search was pretty helpful but Google Alerts seemed to be all over the place when it came to results. So I finally narrowed down what I was searching, my job title, Library Assistant.
Twitter Search brought up a lot of interesting comments when searching for Library Assistant. A comment posted on May 15, 2009 by Amy McDonald said, "library assistant. the swearing must stop. let shhhushing commence." Another interesting comment about library systems and the potential pay they receive was said by Adrian Villagomez on May 7, 2009, "was the front runner for a library assistant position, but i passed so i can make some real $$$ as a bartender, who wants a drink?"
The Google alerts were not extremely helpful and they repeated stuff a lot, most of the time it came up with results but not for the right library or college. One thing that I found and replied to was as series of articles by Lisa Philpotts called So What Exactly Do You Do?, she provided information about many different aspects of libraries and library related jobs. These posts can be found at http://bsn2mls.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/so-what-exactly-do-you-do-part-4-academic-health-sciences-library-tech/.
A way in which I would recommend people use these searches is to find different jobs. I was surprised at the large amount of post I found through Twitter Search that were job posting, that just goes to show you that you can find a job or at least the possibility of one almost anywhere. Many of the results I found were job posting, some blogs, random newspaper articles overall a wide collection of information just sometimes on things that I don't need to know about.
These tools would be very valuable in marketing out library seeing as there were not many results at all about this specific library. Using these tools would let the library successfully reach all of it's patrons including the online student. Using tools like Twitter, Flickr, or other social sites like Facebook would most likely improve the patron library relationship. Now we just have to wait for the college's approval to implement these tools. Hopefully this happens sometime soon seeing as the students here are very technology based.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Lifelong Learning Video
The lifelong learning video, 71/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners was a well done tutorial which accentuated some habits that lifelong learners should have. The presentation was very positive and an effective way to look at learning. I did highly disagree with one statement though, "Don't say it or think it unless you want it to be true." My view on this is that a statement like this makes it sound like people should not have opinions or speak about what is on their mind. Wanting something to happen and talking or thinking about it does in no way mean that it will automatically come true.
There were also some very valid points made about lifelong learning and learning in general. Having confidence in yourself and as a learner is always important. The presentation also emphasized the fact that attitude is everything, which is very true and can influence how someone even views learning in the first place.
The hardest habit for me would have to be Habit 3: View problems as challenges. Seeing problems as challenges versus something to learn from is usually easier to do in retrospective. I am becoming better at viewing problems as something to learn from but sometimes it is hard to get around the challenge and see the lesson to learn.
The easiest habit for me is Habit 7 1/2: Play. As cliche as it is for someone that works in a library, I love to read. My imagination is very active and helps me think outside the proverbial box to find solutions. I like to explore new technologies and learn new things.
There were also some very valid points made about lifelong learning and learning in general. Having confidence in yourself and as a learner is always important. The presentation also emphasized the fact that attitude is everything, which is very true and can influence how someone even views learning in the first place.
The hardest habit for me would have to be Habit 3: View problems as challenges. Seeing problems as challenges versus something to learn from is usually easier to do in retrospective. I am becoming better at viewing problems as something to learn from but sometimes it is hard to get around the challenge and see the lesson to learn.
The easiest habit for me is Habit 7 1/2: Play. As cliche as it is for someone that works in a library, I love to read. My imagination is very active and helps me think outside the proverbial box to find solutions. I like to explore new technologies and learn new things.
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