Monday, March 17, 2008

Spring Cleaning # 30 Load off drives

I checked the Z drive and I do not have anything hanging out there. I have posted pictures and printing request there so I understand how it works and why it needs to be used sparingly.

I checked my S drive and was surprised to find that I had stuff on the drive. I did not realize that I used to use it the oldest thing I found was from 2002. I cleared off the files that I had stored there.

I spent time today cleaning up and organizing the Children's files that we use regularly that are stored on the P drive. It will more than one shot but I have been working on getting the files we use organized so that others can find stuff we have stored.

This has been a an interesting process. I am learning about organizing and am becoming more aware of what I have and it's impact on others.

Spring Cleaning #28 GTD

Oops. My notes aren't in the right order. Anyway, I like the ideas proposed in GTD and plan to implement them in my regular work day. I use google calendar for my personal stuff and will extend that to my professional time as well. I have also signed up for a tada account which I will be using to keep projects organized and timely.

Spring cleaning #29 E-mail

I have cleaned out my e-mail. I deleted folders that were no longer required and emptied those whose content was no longer relevant.

The one thing that was not mentioned was deleting sent mail. I don't send a lot of stuff by it does pile up. I cleaned out my sent and will make a practice of emptying the trash and sent mail regularly.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Week 10 #23

The Finale---

The 23 things learning module was really much more difficult and more time consumming than we were led to believe it would be. I was a bit whiny during the process when I got bogged down on week 6 and thought I would never finish but now that I'm finished I can look on the bright side of the learning process.

I'm glad I learned about Flickr although I recently sign-up for a picassa account with google and like it better. I never would have tried that if I hadn't be exposed to a photo site through this process.

I am also glad that I found out about Zoho. I will be using this or something similar through google to help me with my ongoing projects for work. I suspect that I might find it useful with family projects as well.

This learning opportunity has exposed more staff to new technology and services provided by Harris County. I think that is a real positive feature. More staff will be comfortable helping customers with technology based questions.

The YouTube may provide us with a better way of teaching techniques for doing searches and other services available in Harris County.

All in all, I think the 23 things were valuable if not pain free.

Week 9 #22

Downloadable Media. I am a big fan of downloadable books. I always have something checked out from our Overdrive collection. I'm a big mystery fan but of course I listen to many children's books too.

Today we had someone who needed an audio book that we had in our downloadable collection so I was able to help them check it out and be a NEW user of a great service that we offer here. I love being able to introduce people to downloadable media.

I had not looked at any free or commercial sites before doing this exercise. I checked out LibriVox and found that there are many children's classics that I would like to try. I'm sure that I will be visiting that site often.

Week 9 #21

Podcasts. I looked at podcast.net. I searched knitting, Harry Potter, book reviews and generally browsed the available feeds. I was somewhat confused by the fact that the feeds listed on the site were from 2005 and 2006. When I finally subscribed to the feeds 2007 feeds were listed.

I ended up subscribing to feeds with book reviews in them. I also subscribed to NPR and a Harry Potter feed just for fun. I think if I had time to find the 1 or 2 "perfect" feeds I would enjoy the whole process. I do not think that I have found exactly what I want to spend time listening to yet. I will continue the search because I do enjoy learning through auditory content.

Week 9 #20

YouTube: I explored YouTube a bit. I frequently receive links to YouTube videos and was unable to find any that I liked more than those sent to me. I love the funny animal videos: the piano playing cat or the dancing dog they are always a "day brightener."

When I did a search on Knitting, I found lots of little videos about knitting techniques, types of yarn and equipment. It looks like there are also some silly videos about knitting for a little comedy relief when your knitting isn't going well.

I can visualize using this technique for teaching quick searching techniques or transmitting other information to library users when a short video would be a useful option.