Thing #26 WorldCat

Learning about the social part of WorldCat was indeed interesting. Using this feature of WorldCat allows more social interactions and makes the catalog feel more personal especially with the ability to add the WorldCat search widget to your blog or facebook.

Creating lists is a lot of fun I made one about gnomes. After making one list I went ahead and made a couple more. Having the lists be search able is also a great feature because you can see what is out there or add your own information. Watching lists is helpful so you can keep track of changes and get new information.

This aspect of WorldCat could be very useful to libraries and library patrons. The best feature for librarians and library patrons is the ability to make lists. I know these lists were helpful to me and would likely be helpful to library patrons or librarians who are searching for materials. Searching through lists may show someone a starting point to what they are researching or may even lead them to a new idea. Another use for libraries would be using lists to show patrons the wide variety of resources available on a variety of themes or topics.

Overall trying out the social aspect of WorldCat was informative, educational and even a little fun. This thing could indeed be very useful in any library setting.

Thing #25 Google Maps

The address 1445 K St. 68509 is the Nebraska State Capitol. Using satellite view you can indeed zoom in close enough to see the color of the cars parked around the capitol. Using the different features is relatively easy and lets you get a great view of a lot of different places especially when you use Street View because the picture is very clear.

I really like the get directions feature of being able to choose how you are getting there: by car, walking or public transportation. It’s pretty entertaining seeing just exactly how long it would take to walk to some places you would normally not walk to. I am the kind of navigator that gets lost very easily. I think the Street View option is the best because you can use buildings as landmarks which makes it harder to get lost.

I found my library by typing in the words, metro community college Elkhorn campus library. The marker for the library was placed correctly because it was edited by Kristen who also works here. In the information window I edited it to include the name of the library and the proper web site address so now it goes to the libraries web site instead of just Metros. There are three of us here taking part in Nebraska Learns 2.0 so I will let one of them claim the library.

Overall Google Maps was easy to use and would be a great tool to recommend to others. The feature I liked the best was Street View because I like to see what’s around before I drive somewhere. There are plenty of ideas that would be good for customized maps like how to actually get to the library and for any place that would need more publicity. I didn’t embed a map on the website because I don’t have access to change the website. I think the library could use Google Maps to promote itself more and for the patrons themselves for whatever maps or directions they need. I know if someone is looking for directions or maps I will recommend Google Maps because of all of the different options it has compared to other map or direction based sites.

Thing #24

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.

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.