Yeeee---Haw!!!!!

I am flying high after my presentation last night--talking about yarn and knitting can really get me going. I just don't have a receptive audience very often (except maybe for the dogs.) All I know is that it was around 7 and I started and then Dr. Mon said "this is a really nice yarn tour but we have to move on sometime" and it was 7:20. I have no idea if I talked only part of that time, all of that time.....its a YARN BLACKOUT!

You cannot get much past Mitch, he did call me on my re-using of a few slides (only three! I love the bulldozer joke!) from a class we had together in the summer. I did add more slides, but I really wanted to bore the class with bits of my life story and it WAS my five minutes of fame.

I was surprised that no one knew how cool knitting is. Someone even commented on one of the photos, it was some Pomatamus socks inside some very modern patent pumps. Good times!

I am really happy with my resources. I created two Subject Headings (knititng and knitting blogs) and one even had sub-groups after it, genius suggestion on Cheryl and Mike's part. Knitblogs right now has 21 entries; knitting has 17. I have also cross-referenced some of them with the teen site (like Knitty and the Anti-craft); teens need knitting too!

I know that the semester is winding down; it seems so long since I answered those reference questions for Slam the Boards back in September. I am trying to concentrate and celebrate my successes.....and maybe build up some momentum for finishing my Collection Development paper. Now if I could only write it about yarn.....

Those resources, they keep rolling along!

I am on a bit of a roll with the resources--in the past week I have brought my total added to 36. I have two entire headings that I am "in charge" of--Knitting and Knitting Blogs. My goal is 40, but I will most likely over-reach that. I can add a few more blogs, but then I need to go back to the Knitting resources. I had wanted each to have about 20 and Knitting itself has only about 12.
The problem.....many of the "free" pattern and knitting sites out there just aren't any good! They have free stuff, but they are so full of ads and popups that its hardly worth going there. The surfing is just too frustrating. I might include some from yarn companies; Berocco still has free ones but Lion Brand Yarn requires registration. Say NO to registration!

FaveSpouse is on the schedule for helping me tomorrow with my Say Hello site. Things are really coming together (not to mention most of the research is done for the massive Collection Development paper I have been working on. That is considerably less fun than working on knitting resources.)

I lost a few days this week to illness. My stomach was unhappy at work on Monday night and I was having trouble concentrating.....it developed into full-blown stomach flu with all of the bells and whistles. I took some medicine I had hoarded from my morning sickness days and it helped. I slept through most of Tuesday (thank goodness it was a work day and the kids were at the sitter's; it would have been very difficult to care for the preschoolers in that state!) I hate being ill, but with small kids and working with the public I am bound to catch as few nasty bugs. I'll cross my fingers for the last few weeks of school!

Digital Divide getting smaller?

I spend a lot of my days helping students cross the Digital Divide--especially mature students. In this tiny community college library we have 103 computers and they get A LOT of use. Many mature students have no confidence (I'm not good with computers) and the staff helps out a lot.

Online life is more and more important..."check online" or "apply online" is said more often.

What about the rest of the world?

I've been following the $100 laptop story for a few years now; look at the promotion that is going on now!

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php

If I were a wealthy internet millionaire--or even a prosperous one, and not a lowly grad student--I'd purchase one of these for every kid on my list. They could play with it--I could play with it--and kids in the rest of the world would get a chance as well. I can see the extended family "chatting" on these all around the Xmas tree.....playing games from across the room....

A bit of a thrill......!

.....well, at least to a knitting librarian.

I am starting to load my resources to the IPL. Why did I not do this sooner? ITS SO COOL!

For some reason I thought I would have to collect all my resources and then get only one chance to load them up. Why did I think that? It's much more fun to see them loaded....kinda in person. And more official! This weekend I loaded a chunk I had found and written the abstracts for, maybe 25 or so. Its not done yet.

A few steps that need to be taken:

1. Some of my resources are also listed in the TeenSpace. Mike Galloway suggested that I cross-reference them with the adult one. I have done this for some of them--I'll probably add more. Knitting is ageless!

2. Waiting for approval. I have made all of my posts PENDING and emailed Mike about them. He needs to check them before I can be more ACTIVE!

3. More sites. Surprisingly, good, non-commercial knitting sites are tough to find. So many are just terrible, and one of my faves, the Dishcloth Boutique, is offline. I dug up some more really great knitting blogs (with the help of Alexa for rankings) and have written their abstracts. I'll then post those after I receive the green light for my past posts. I am aiming for at least 30 sites total.

I cannot wait to see my sites approved.....Its like I am archiving for the ages, controlling the flow of craft information for the ages, increasing good knitting and good writing about knitting.....for the good of mankind.....!

Or maybe just for fun.

Where are we going?

The question on everyone's minds and lips is Where are Libraries Going? That has been an issue since I began library school, and is still an issue now as I finish.

As pointed out by Jessamyn Librarian.net, many library articles are about four topics:
1. Crisis: no library jobs for young librarians!
2. Crisis: no young librarians to fill jobs of retiring librarians!
3. Crisis: libraries are closing due to budget/Google/disuse/pick a scenario!
4. Crisis: libraries are the hot spot for everyone!

Somehow I think this is more about READ MY ARTICLE than about need-to-know information. Plus, I find this general panic mongering exhausting. I have plenty in my normal life to panic about without questioning and regretting the last 2.5 years of my life spent in library school (to the exclusion of more hobbies and time with my kids and spouse than I wanted.)

But the world of information is changing, and its tough to know where its all going to go. Is Google books going to replace libraries and turn into the Evil Empire? Maybe. Are brick and mortar libraries and books dying? Maybe. I still read. Will the Millennial Generation drive libraries--and the world--into a need for speed and digitalization? Probably (and not a bad thing, we all benefit when tools are easy to use and understand.)

This is all more than Web and Library 2.0. Digital Reference is part of it, and we are still in the infancy stages of the art. I am still waiting for the AHA! tool. Second Life is cool, but the world is not there yet. Chat Reference is not popular (in my very PERSONAL experience.) Blogs are fun, but its not reference as we knew it. Digital Libraries are getting there.....as are databases. For me, there is still a perfect tool on the horizon to integrate everything and really make it sing. Knowing loads about everything we have worked on in class helps us to be ready, but its just not here yet.

I remember the first time I played Donkey Kong; it blew my mind. Pictures and sound, things moving around, the joystick--it was amazing. Pong was fun, but it was nothing like Donkey Kong. Nintendo was the AHA! tool. Play video games at home without quarters? WOW!

I'll keep playing library Pong and wait for my Donkey Kong.