23 Things: Thing #9 - Locate a few useful library related blogs and/or news feeds

I looked into Google Reader.  It helps you find and keep track of things you’re interested in on the web.  By using it, you no longer have to visit individual sites to find out if something new has been posted, because when new content is posted, it comes straight to your Google Reader.  It also keeps track of which items you’ve viewed/read, so when you come back you don’t have to sift through those items again; instead you just see unread items.  Reader lets you subscribe to your favorite websites and keep track of what’s popular.  It is described as “a magazine you design.”  The Reader gives you recommended sources and items.  You can comment on items shared by friends.  You can also star items and take notes on them.  There’s a very interesting “Trends” tab which tracks how many subscriptions you have, how many you’ve read in the last thirty days, and how many you’ve clicked on, starred, shared, and emailed.  It will also break it down to time of day and day of week for your viewing and activities.  It also includes a mobile option, so you can see what items you’ve read on your mobile device—just visit Google Reader on your phone to try it.  Reader shows frequently updated, inactive, and obscure subscription trends, as well as the most active and most popular “friend trends.”  Tags allow you organize your items and subscriptions, enabling your items that are more heavily tagged to stand out more prominently. 

Google Reader seems to be an excellent tool for managing news, subscriptions, blogs, etc.  It is a handy one-stop information source that I can see as helpful in keeping track of my professional news and interests.  In one visit, I can read up on the newest events, updates, and professional opinions and advice in my field.  For example, my subscriptions include: 

1.       ALA Annual.  This gives me updates on ALA’s Annual Conference & Exhibit.

2.       ALA-APA.  This gives me news on the APA’s advocacy for the professional interests of librarians.

3.       ALAN Online.  This delivers updates on the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents.

4.       BleedingCool.com.  A blogsite about the comic book/graphic novel industry.

5.       BoingBoing.net.  A webzine/blog with tons of neat information on tech gadgets, entertainment, art/design, culture, news, and more.

6.       Copyright Advisory Network.  The Network is sponsored by the ALA, and exists to encourage librarians to discuss copyright concerns with copyright specialists.

7.       Heyjude blog.  This is a blog at wordpress written by an educational consultant , specifically interested in library and web 2.0 and library and information services.

8.       Flickr.com/photos/ala_members/.  This is the American Library Association’s flickr photostream.

9.       Ilovelibraries.org.  This is the ALA’s website for the public, “designed to keep America informed about what's happening in today's libraries.”

10.   Schoollibrarylearning2.csla.net/.  I subscribed to this because of my pursuit of the “23 Things” activity for my own coursework.  It is produced by the California School Library Association (CSLA) 2.0 Team and helps you learn the tools of the new Internet including social networking, wikis, video, podcasting, and gaming sites.

11.   VOYA.com.  This is the magazine of the Voice of Youth Advocates, serving those who serve young adults.

12.   NCTE.org.  This is the National Council of Teachers of English.  I’m subscribed to the Middle Level Section of NCTE, which has tons of resources for educators at the middle school level.

13.   Youngadultbookreviews.com.  Self explanatory.

14.   YALR Blog.  This is the Young Adult Literature Review blog at blogspot.  Also pretty self explanatory.

15.   The ALA’s channel on YouTube.  This has news and information from the ALA, and is especially helpful in following the ALA’s annual conference.

As one can imagine, visiting all of these sites daily, or regularly, and scouring the entire website to note new additions/news would be massively time consuming.  That’s precisely where Google Reader comes in and is so useful.  Google streams the new stuff strait to your Reader, making it a user-friendly time saver.  It is true that with the Reader, you don’t get all of the “bells and whistles” of the individual sites, but you can always visit the sites directly at any time by clicking on their title on the Reader, and what’s really nice is that they open in a new window, so you do not lose your place and have to navigate back to the Reader.  I think this will be an indispensable tool for keeping me up-to-date in my professional interests.  It also keeps me focused, because when I’m reading the newest updates in Reader, I’m not distracted by those “bells and whistles” and tempted to get off-topic. 

23 Things: Thing #11-Take a look at LibraryThing and catalog some of your favorite books

LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site that allows book lovers to create a library-quality catalog of books in any kind of category they wish.  For example, the user can create a catalog of books they own, books they wish they owned, books they’re reading, books they’ve lent out, and well, you get the idea.  Since it’s a whole network of catalogers, anyone can contribute tags, reviews, evaluations, ratings, and so on.  There are also members’ forums and an Early Reviewers program.  It is free, and all you have to do to sign up is visit http://www.librarything.com/ and create either a personal or organizational account with a user name and password.  Sharing your e-mail is optional, but recommended, should you forget your password.  When creating your catalog using LibraryThing, you can add books by using title, keyword, author, or ISBN, and if your particular book is not on the results list, you can manually add it.  LibraryThing states that it “gets its book data from Amazon.com and over 700 libraries around the world, including the Library of Congress.”  You have the ability to choose which source to pick from too.  Once you have your catalog up and running, there’s so much you can do, including:  review books, tag, converse with other book lovers about books, customize your catalog view, get recommendations, see what other members think about the same books, connect with other people who share your book interests, find interesting data about your books, and share about your favorite authors, bookstores, and libraries.  LibraryThing even keeps statistics on nearly everything imaginable.  On their “Zeitgeist” page, one learns that there are over 1 million members, over 63 million books cataloged, over 76 million tags, over 1 million reviews, and over 10 million ratings.  Authors also use LibraryThing, and it is a resource for following their scheduled events such as book signings and visits, reading their biographies, learning of their works (including upcoming ones), linking to their homepages, seeing their member ratings, and even chatting with them in scheduled discussions.  LibraryThing even shows related book awards, related people/characters, and related places for authors.  The Zeitgeist also lists the twenty-five most reviewed books (#1 is currently Twilight), the most prolific reviewers (#1 is currently user “bluetyson” with 35,613!), 50-top rated authors , 50-lowest rated authors, and the 25 top languages (for translations from—and #1 is currently French).  As for the top-rated and lowest-rated authors, one must carefully take note of how the ratings are come by.  For example, the top-rated author is currently listed as Jeannie Fulbright, but this is based upon her five-star rating from eight (yes, 8) raters.  Likewise, the lowest-rated author is currently Robyn Donald, who comes in with a 1.2 rating based on 4 raters. 

There’s a fun and interesting “Common Knowledge” tab which gives the user many of the “Tops.”  For example, Top 200 Places Mentioned in Works, Top 200 People/Character Names, Top 200 Events Mentioned in Works, Top 200 Places of Residence for Authors, Top 100 Places Where Authors are Buried, and so forth.  It is interesting that LibraryThing includes a “Top 200 Occupations for Authors,” because we might just say “um…author?” to that one, but it really shows what a diverse field authors come from, and how they really wear many hats—from author to teacher, lawyer, soldier, painter, actor, political activist, and so on.  I think it is analogous to how books sometimes fit into several categories at once, and people can too.  I got a laugh from the first year listed under the Top 300 Birth Dates for Authors:   “19??.”  This was the same for the Top 300 Death Dates for Authors.  There are numerous groups a person could join and be active in, including (just to name a few):

·         Librarians Who LibraryThing

·         Science Fiction Fans

·         What Are You Reading Now?

·         1001 Books to Read Before You Die

·         Crime, Thriller, & Mystery

·         Tea!

·         Hogwarts Express

·         BBC Radio 3 Listeners

·         LibraryThing Series

The “Local” tab is really helpful because you can find local members and local events.  You can type in your location, or a location where you’ll be traveling, and choose a search radius (10 miles, 20 miles, etc.).  It includes bookstores, fairs/festivals, libraries, societies, et cetera. 

LibraryThing connects you to people like you who read what you read.  Or, you can use it to branch out and find new interests.  …Or further pursue your current ones.  It has a lot to offer, but keep in mind that it has millions of contributors making tens of thousands of contributions daily.  You could become one of them too, like I did.  Among the cool features that come with your own LibraryThing are tailored recommendations, the usernames of members with your books, and your own Zeitgeist for your collection, allowing you to know at a glance how many books are in your collection, how many tags, and even how many characters!  Check out my LibraryThing via this blog.  Enjoy!

23 Things: Thing #13-Social Bookmarking with Delicious

Delicious is a social bookmarking site which allows you to bookmark and share your favorite websites and access those bookmarks from any computer, at any time, from anywhere.  This means you can access all of your bookmarks at work, home, or on a computer that may not be your own.  Through notes and tags, you can also keep track of why you bookmark certain pages, and attach key terms to categorize them for yourself and others.  You can also share your bookmarks with other Delicious users, through Twitter, or via e-mail.  You can even keep up with interesting tags through subscriptions and Network features.  Delicious appears to be an excellent tool for helping you find and share a site that you may not be able to remember while you’re away from you primary computer, as your bookmarks would now be accessible anywhere you go.  Also, the feature of having a network of other users, such as your coworkers or other colleagues, interesting people in your field, and even bloggers that you may follow, would be helpful to stay up-to-date on pertinent information. 

It is essentially an address book, which is very helpful to correlate with colleagues on projects, keep up-to-date in your field, and share the newest information or points of interest with like-minded individuals who may also find it useful.  To better organize your network, you can utilize network bundles, such as bundling all your coworkers’ bookmarks separately from all your friends’ or family’s.  Likewise, you can also bundle your subscriptions, such as professional in one place, hobbies in another.  You can decide whether to make bookmarks private (only you can see them) or public (everyone can see them), although it does not yet offer the option of allowing only your network to see them.  When searching bookmarks, you can view based on a timeline, such as within the last day, month, six months, or year.  As a LIS professional, I could see using Delicious for all of the aforementioned reasons.  I also could see using it on my library’s Facebook page to add professional bookmarks and tags.  Likewise, our library website and blog could add a “Bookmark on Delicious” button to make sharing easier and thus attract more viewership/followers.  Also, the more people in your field who save a bookmark may prove its usefulness to you too.  I mean, if a thousand people in your field found it important enough to bookmark to revisit, it might be important to you as well.  Another helpful feature of Delicious is that you can search bookmarks of certain file types to help you quickly and easily find what you’re looking for.  For example, you can separately search tags for audio, video, image, or documents.  The tags, which are like keywords, are one word labels to help you remember and organize your bookmarks.  They also help you build a “collaborative repository of related information, driven by personal interests and creative organization.”

I found it simple and easy to create a Delicious account.  It only required a little information, a username and password, and a little reading to acquaint myself with setup.  You can quickly install Delicious on your web browser, such as Firefox.  Doing this put user-friendly buttons on my browser’s toolbar so that I can visit Delicious, see my bookmarks, or tag with just one easy click of the mouse.  When using the tag button, it automatically offers popular tags for each website, based on content.  You can peruse my bookmarks at:

http://www.delicious.com/ChristyH3

Library Analysis #2: Academic Library

1.        Name of Library:

Easter Library

Clearwater Christian College

3400 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd.

Clearwater, FL  33759

http://www.clearwater.edu/library/

2.       Name of Librarian:  Elizabeth Werner

3.       Background of Librarian:  Mrs. Werner attended Mills College in Oakland, CA.  She holds a Master’s degree in Spanish from Indiana University and a Masters in Library Science from the University of Maryland at College Park.  She taught Spanish for four years at Western Maryland College.  She also taught French and Spanish for Clearwater Christian College for nine years, but when the college became accredited, she did not have the number of graduate level coursework necessary to teach French.  She felt becoming the library director was a good way to be an educator, and would be a better match of her abilities and time.  She chose this type of library after the experience of setting up a library at her church.  She has been here since 1975, and says that there were 142 students when she arrived, and now there are approximately 600 total (540 full-time).  She is a member of the Florida Library Association, an active member of the Association of Christian Librarians, and has previously been a member of the American Library Association, but found it more geared toward public librarians.  Her community service includes her church choir and being an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, helping with projects and fundraising for the chapter.  Her continuing education has included quite a few online courses through the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC), refresher webinars, conferences and workshops of the Association of Christian Librarians, workshops at the University of South Florida (USF), and reading professional journals and articles. 

4.       Library:  The Easter Library, on the campus of Clearwater Christian College, is appealingly set back from the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Clearwater, Florida.  It is a quiet campus, especially between semesters as it was on the day of this visit (May 25, 2011).  The campus has five main buildings:  Easter Library, Dambach Hall, Steele Hall, a music building, and a gym.  The library has an inviting veranda with tables and chairs, as well as outdoor ceiling fans.   Upon entering, the front of the facility is arranged with comfortable tables and chairs, a grandfather clock, and magazine racks.  There is a study room with study carols for students and a reading machine for visually impaired patrons.  Additionally, there is a conference room for class meetings and so forth.  The archives room contains old books and college history.  Vertical files hold maps, bibliographies, and teachers’ resources.  A bookshelf is devoted to graduate school information for the career/guidance counselor and interested parties.  Built in 1970, it was expanded in ’89 with gracious gifts from Dr. and Mrs. Lowell Easter and others.  The college archives were provided in part by a gift from Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Murray.  It is recognized for its outstanding holdings in creationism, Biblical studies, Native Americans, official American Civil War records, and American presidents and wives.  It is open to the public as well as the campus population, with its holdings accessible onsite as well as online.  The Easter library is a member of three professional networks:  the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC), the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), and the Association of Christian Libraries (ACL), which expands the available resources to over 194 million records from libraries in 112 countries and territories. 

a.       What type of library is it?  Academic

b.      What type of community does it serve?  What special information needs do they have?  It serves a Liberal Arts College consisting mainly of undergraduate degree seeking students.  It mainly serves these students’ course needs, but also some public members, mainly those pursuing a seminary degree or doing online seminary coursework.  It also serves some women’s Bible studies groups, and some professors working on their doctorate dissertations and research. 

c.       Is the library open to the public?  If so, on what basis?  Yes, it is open to the public the same operating hours as it is available to the campus population.  A library card for community patrons is $35. 

d.      How many patrons are eligible for service?  How many patrons are served?  It serves approximately 700 patrons, consisting of students, alumni, faculty, and the public. 

e.      To which governing body or to which official does the head of the library report?  Mrs. Werner reports to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Mary Draper, with whom she meets with approximately once a week during the academic year.  There is also a library committee, which performs an advisory role. 

f.        What special services are offered to the patrons?  Help with assignments, administration of test make-ups for missed classes, laminating services, bibliographies (example:  books on Native Americans), die cuts, photocopy services, Interlibrary Loan (ILL), computers for student use, curriculum books, electronic resources on the internet (the two major ones are EBSCO Host and ProQuest), and library instruction, including tours, presentations in classrooms, and orientations.  In addition, the Easter library has over 2,000 LPs, and turntables for utilizing them.  Other services include AV equipment booking for classrooms, conference room reservations, and an electric typewriter.

g.       What hours is the library open?  Summer hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  During the school year, the hours are Monday through Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and closed on Sunday. 

h.      Describe the size and scope of the collection, including circulation statistics.  It contains over 112,000 volumes, over 16,000 regularly received paper and electronic periodical titles, thousands of music scores and multimedia materials, collections of children’s literature, curriculum materials, and pamphlets.  There is a media center within the library, holding Elementary and Secondary textbooks for grades k-12.  The largest circulation is in Bible related materials in the BR-BX field with 3,610 items borrowed to date in the 2010-2011college fiscal year (College Fiscal Year=July 1-June 30).  These statistics were pulled on May 25, 2011 and included statistics through April 2011.  The following is a breakdown of remaining collection statistics:

Collection Statistics, 2010-2011

Class	Total	Class	Total
A-BQ	583	L-N	408
BR-BX	3610	P-PZ	763
C-D	468	Q-Z	600
E-G	565	Audiocassettes	12
H-K	735	CD’s	93
Curriculum k-12	337	CD-ROM	4
DVD	132	Games	0
Indexes	0	Children’s/YA	948
Kits	1	LPs	1
Reference	18	Hourly Reserve	370
Overnight Reserves	257	Scores	554
Make-Up Tests	2075	Video	104
Unknown	18	ILL	470
AV Equip.	119	RARF	2

Total:  13,247

i.         What is the size of the staff?  Number of professional and support staff?  What staff did you observe?  What impression did you get of the staff?  Were they businesslike, courteous, and friendly?  There are four staff members.  Mrs. Martin is the Library Technical Assistant, Mrs. Lyons is the Associate Librarian, Mrs. Olson is the Library Technician, and Mrs. Werner is the director.  I observed Mrs. Olson and Mrs. Werner on my visit, and both were very courteous and businesslike, offering me assistance.  Mrs. Werner gave me approximately 90 minutes of her time, and hand wrote out the category titles on the statistics printout for me, as I was unfamiliar with the abbreviations (for example, “FYBAC”=Audiocassettes and “FYBT”=Make-up Tests, et cetera).  They both appeared happy to help me with my inquiries.

j.        What technology is used?  The library has a black & white printer, color printer, color copier, black & white copier, scanner, laminator, and classroom equipment including Elmos and Smartboards.

k.       What type and level of visibility in social media (Facebook, Flickr, etc.) does the library have?  Mrs. Werner would like to get the library on Facebook, but has not yet found time to do so.  A lot of departments on campus, she pointed out, are on Facebook, as is she personally.  The library is most visible via its website.

l.         Do you think you would like to work here?  Itemize the plusses and minuses.  I believe I would like to work here.  Mrs. Werner stated that her favorite part of her job was “working with college students” and she enjoys the variety of her role, as she does everything from acquisitions to cataloging.  Her least favorite part was when she has to get students to pay their bills.  Also, as a director, she said you have to make unpopular decisions, such as with the budget—what gets cut?  Additionally, she cited the “grunt” work, saying “We do everything—the shelving, the books, et cetera.”  Mrs. Werner mentioned that there are also unlimited calls from vendors trying to sell products that the budget simply cannot afford.  I believe the plusses outweigh the minuses, as these drawbacks appear to be prevalent in all types of libraries. 

5.       What did you leave with?  I liked this library.  I was impressed that it is recognized for outstanding holdings in several areas, especially creationism and Biblical studies.  I was intrigued by it’s over 2,000 LPs, and found myself wanting to browse them and perhaps give a few a spin on the turntable.  I would love to lounge with a book outside on its veranda, under a fan.

6.       Reflections:  I now see Academic libraries as a possible avenue for me, whereas I had been totally opposed to the idea before this visit.  I believe part of my opposition had been that I perceived them as too anonymous, too impersonal, in the sense that I didn’t that librarians would come to know the students on a personal basis, as they would in a school library.  I seek a professional home where I can relate to and know my clientele, and I now see an academic library at a small college as a definite possibility for me.

Library Analysis #1: Special Library

1.      Name of Library: 

Witt Research Center

801 Old Water Street

Tampa, FL  33602

http://tampabayhistorycenter.org

2.      Name of Librarian:  Jennifer Dietz

3.      Background of Librarian:

Ms. Dietz holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Utah, and an MLIS from the University of South Florida (2006).  She intended to attend law school.  However, her mom was a school librarian and she had previously worked for the Sundance Film Festival Archive so, while in school, she took a library assistant job in Hillsborough County for experience.  Thus, she eventually became a children’s librarian.  After two-and-a-half years, a promotion came up and she went for it.  The county doesn’t tell candidates where the promotion to director is, but Ms. Dietz ended up at the Witt Research Center and, as they say, the rest is history.  She now has a total of six years in the county.

Ms. Dietz is a member of the Society of Florida Archivists (SFA) and the Society of American Archivists (SAA), attending meetings and conferences.  She also attends SFA classes at USF and Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC) workshops. 

Ms. Dietz’s favorite part of her job is that it is never boring; there are always projects to do, including cataloging, programming, and research.  It’s always new each day.  When asked her least favorite part, she replies, “Libraries are always under fire with budget cuts.  You always have to prove the worth of the library; you have to continually justify its worthiness.”

4.    Library:  It is a well lit, well air-conditioned, small library housed on the third floor of the Tampa Bay History Center, right next door to the St. Pete Times Forum.  It has a large wall of windows and a glass door to minimize the impediment of the beautiful downtown view of water, boats, and condominiums.  The stacks room is small, but utilizes the space well, allowing for room to grow by employing rolling shelving.  Patrons are not allowed to browse the stacks, but instead tell Mrs. Dietz what they need and she retrieves it for them.  Patrons can utilize the resources on site.  As I roam the facility, I notice a guestbook, signed by many patrons.  I notice extra-large books on special narrow shelving titled Pioneer Florida, a table of literature including “Facts & Figures for Hillsborough County,” “Hillsborough Reads” pamphlets, and advertisements for public library programs such as homework assistance for kids.  On the walls, I find historic newspapers and advertisements, a Lord’s Indexed Street Map of Greater Tampa, a “Florida Works Progress Administration, Creation of Counties in Florida 1820 to 1936,” a “Plan of Tampa 1886,” and a painting of a Florida road by Nettie Gates, circa 1930s.  On the magazine rack I find American Libraries, AASLH History News, History Magazine, and Cigar City Magazine, among others.  Among the pamphlets are TRAILS Tampa History & Obit. Index, What the Census Tells, City Directories of the US, and FL Vital Records Combined Index.  Informational flyers include “Getting Started…Genealogy Basics” and “How to Find Military Records.”

a.       What type of library is it?  It is a research library of closed stacks, i.e., nothing circulates, and no one goes into the stacks.

b.      What type of community does it serve?  What special information needs do they have?  Mainly researchers writing articles and books, and individuals searching genealogy.  They come for specific reasons, and stay a long time.  There is a book club every month, and almost all authors have been in for research.  On an aside, author Nick Wynne, co-writer of Florida in the Spanish American War, credited Ms. Dietz in his acknowledgements.  The two biggest things patrons are looking for are Tampa local history and genealogy.

c.       Is the library open to the public?  If so, on what basis?  Yes.  It is open to the public, free of charge, in a partnership with Hillsborough County.

d.      How many patrons are eligible for service?  How many patrons are served?  Patrons number approximately 111 per month.  The databases require a card, which is provided for free.  It is a branch location of the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative, with branch code TBH.

e.      To which governing body or to which official does the head of the library report?  Ms. Dietz, as head librarian, personally reports to Hillsborough County Library Services.

f.        What special services are offered to the patrons?  Patrons have access to special databases and help with research.  The librarian really partners with patrons to assist them along their way.  Additionally, a microfilm reader, copier, and scanner are provided for their needs.

g.       What hours is the library open?  It is open 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and again 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays by appointment with one week notice (same weekday hours apply on Saturdays).

h.      Describe the size and scope of the collection, including circulation statistics.  The collection is 3,000 books and 2,000 family files.  It has a budget of about $12,000 beyond donations.  Each book has a session number, consisting of the year it came in, the donor number, and the item number.  It has Sanborn maps from the 1930s to 1950s, yearbooks of local high schools and colleges, rare first editions and signed copies, subject files, maps and atlases of Hillsborough County, the Tampa Tribune from 1900, and aerial maps from the 1930s.  They are in the process of cataloging everything for the public library catalog.  It is a non-circulating research library.

i.         What is the size of the staff?  Number of professional and support staff?  What staff did you observe?  What impression did you get of the staff?  Were they businesslike, courteous, and friendly?  The staff consists of head librarian Jennifer Dietz, and currently one graduate assistant completing her fieldwork for the USF MLIS program.  The graduate assistant assists Ms. Dietz one day a week for six hours, splitting time between the Witt Research Center and the John F. Germany Public Library.  There are also six library volunteers helping Ms. Dietz; they work approximately four hours per week.  In total, including the volunteers and the graduate assistant, there are approximately thirty total hours of assistance per week.  There are also eight staff members at the John F. Germany Public Library who are trained to substitute for Ms. Dietz on an occasion when she may be out.  On my visit, I met the graduate assistant, who was currently working on the process of cataloging everything for the public library catalog.  Both the GA and head librarian were very friendly, courteous, and businesslike, inquiring about my pursuit of my own MLIS degree, and offering any assistance I may need with my tour and interview.  It was a relaxed but very professional environment.

j.        What technology is used?  There is a copier, scanner, and microfilm reader.  The staff and patrons utilize Excel, Word, Office products, and PastPerfect Software for patron sign on.  The computer databases are very independent, showing what the history center has on a given subject, allowing patrons to browse the museum collection.  It includes the Burgert Brothers Photographic Collection of 15,000 images.  Patrons can order prints, such as an historic picture of their house—a very popular service! 

k.       What type and level of visibility in social media (Facebook, Flickr, etc.) does the library have?  The library itself does not yet have a blog, but hopes to soon.  The public library (Hillsborough County) has all forms of social media.  Ms. Dietz contributes regularly to the Library History Roadshow Blog, for which she wrote a contribution the morning of this interview.

l.         Do you think you would like to work here?  Itemize the plusses and minuses.  I think I would like to work here.  I would get to meet an array of people, from the curious genealogy investigator to the intent researcher, published and unpublished writers, and history lovers.  As Ms. Dietz said, it would never lack new projects and new patrons.  For example, one current patron is researching Florida breweries.  “A lot is like a treasure hunt,” said Ms. Dietz.  I think it would be fun to say that about your career.  Granted, constantly justifying your existence in already too-tight budgets is never fun, but sadly it is a trait of many important professions now, and I believe it is valuable to remind everyone, especially oneself, of how important you really are.

5.       What did you leave with?  Ms. Dietz’s advice was to be flexible—a key, she said, for librarians to get to where they want to be.  Additionally, I found it interesting that the collection of this library is often used by educational curators for planning their programs.  Lastly, the Witt Research Center has first editions, autographed copies, and rare books.  It has hand-written ledgers, journals, and old receipt books.  It also has Grismer’s Tampa, which the public library just digitized because of demand. 

6.       Reflections:  I don’t think that I would have even known a library might be housed in a history museum, had it not been for this project.  I am realizing that people, like me, come to this profession via a multitude of backgrounds, and with a variety of experiences.  I’m beginning to see that my chosen path of librarianship can take many, many avenues.  And I like that.

Test Blog: 7 1/2 Habits Tutorial

I highly recommend checking out the "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners" tutorial at:
http://www.cmlibrary.org/public/learning/player.html.  The seven habits are as follows: 

Habit 1:  Begin with the end in mind.  This means knowing what it will take to reach your goals, so you can outline a path to attain them.
Habit 2:  Accept responsibility for your own learning.  This includes asking someone who can help you if you have a question.  (Sometimes this is hard for me.)
Habit 3:  View problems as challenges.  When a problem comes up, do you typically think of it as another crisis that must be dealt with or a challenge that you can learn from?
Habit 4:  Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.  This, I believe, goes hand-in-hand with habits two and three.  After all, you have to have confidence to accept responsibility and deal with challenges.
Habit 5:  Create your own learning toolbox.  This includes the things you need to accomplish your goals.  I would also add that this includes what you already possess, such as communication skills, technology fluency, and so on.
Habit 6:  Use technology to your advantage.  (I'm still working on seeing technology as my friend.)

Habit 7:  Teach/mentor others.  This is the best way to learn something--by teaching it!
Habit 7 1/2:  Play!  Play, be curious, and read!  (I also have trouble with this play part.  Although I'm curious and I read all the time, days go by and I realize that I haven't played.  I must make it a priority.)

So, obviously, I have some difficulty with a few of these habits.  Overall, I would have to say that the easiest for me is habit #1.  I seem to set goals easily, and I have a generally healthy grasp on knowing what goes into achieving my goals.  The absolute hardest for me?:  #3.  And #4 goes right along with it.  I must learn to view problems as challenges, and learn to go to my toolbox and colleagues as resources for help in overcoming the challenges.