I love using pictures in my work. They brighten up a blog entry, advertise programs or add pop to a book display. I usually just save them onto the hard drive of my computer, but putting them on Flickr definitely makes sense because they are easily accessible and can be shared with the world.
This is a photo of the booths in the teen activity center (The Edge) at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Online Meetings
I have attended webinars and online meetings during work and for my library science classes. It seems like the amount of enjoyment that I get out of them is directly proportional to how much interest I have in the topic. The lack of personal interaction in a webinar can make a boring topic even more snooze-inducing, especially since the presenter can't see you dozing off.
However, I would love to try an online meeting with an interesting author. Since it costs so much to bring an author in for a face to face presentation, I know of libraries connecting with authors online. I think that the teens that I work with would really respond to talking with their favorite author, even if it's not face to face.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Thoughts on Facebook
The 23 Things lesson for this week will be easy for me since I’ve been using facebook for a very long time. It was only open to college students with an .edu email address when I created my profile in 2005. Over the past 5 years, facebook has turned into a sort of digital diary of what has happened in my life. When my old laptop fried and I lost all of the pictures on the hard drive, it was a relief to know that I had posted the best ones on facebook and they weren’t completely lost. Facebook has been a good way to keep in touch with my high school friends when I went away to college, and now my college friends after everyone graduated. It’s strange to think of facebook as a professional networking tool after using it for personal reasons for so long.
I have a personal facebook account- Lena Wolf, and a separate one for the YA librarians at TSCPL to interact with local teens- Lena YALib. It has been a successful way to reach teens and I’ve found a lot of music performers for our Open Mic Night programs through facebook. It is by far the fastest way to reach the teens and they respond to messages more quickly than email.
Since I work with teens, I’m very interested in the ways that they use social networking tools. The immediacy and magnitude of facebook reshapes traditional teen experiences in a lot of ways. When I was in high school, I remember looking at pictures of the boy I had a crush on in the yearbook and imagining what his life was like. Now a teen can add their crush as a friend and see hundreds of pictures and a vast amount of information with a click of the mouse. Instead of doodling “me + dreamy boy” on a personal notebook, teens can declare their love online for everyone to see. There is also extra pressure to make your profile look good and look cute in all posted pictures. I hear teens going to myspace or facebook profiles and making fun of the person all the time. Cyber-bullying is a problem that is much harder to detect and stop than name calling in person, which is one of the reasons that it's important for parents and educators to become familiar with the tools that kids use.
I have a personal facebook account- Lena Wolf, and a separate one for the YA librarians at TSCPL to interact with local teens- Lena YALib. It has been a successful way to reach teens and I’ve found a lot of music performers for our Open Mic Night programs through facebook. It is by far the fastest way to reach the teens and they respond to messages more quickly than email.
Since I work with teens, I’m very interested in the ways that they use social networking tools. The immediacy and magnitude of facebook reshapes traditional teen experiences in a lot of ways. When I was in high school, I remember looking at pictures of the boy I had a crush on in the yearbook and imagining what his life was like. Now a teen can add their crush as a friend and see hundreds of pictures and a vast amount of information with a click of the mouse. Instead of doodling “me + dreamy boy” on a personal notebook, teens can declare their love online for everyone to see. There is also extra pressure to make your profile look good and look cute in all posted pictures. I hear teens going to myspace or facebook profiles and making fun of the person all the time. Cyber-bullying is a problem that is much harder to detect and stop than name calling in person, which is one of the reasons that it's important for parents and educators to become familiar with the tools that kids use.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Creativity is Contagious
I'm a Teen Services Specialist at a the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and one of my duties is to plan engaging programs for 12-18 year olds. It can be frustrating at times- like planning a program and having nobody show up, or feeling like everything cool costs too much money. A lot of teens don't show a lot of enthusiasm for library programs and their surly attitudes can be discouraging.
This is where technology comes in. The internet is a wonderful place to look for inspiration and support from other librarians and tools like blogs make collaboration easy. Seeing the creative ideas of others seems to ignite my own creativity.
The thing that made me go wow today is this amazing video by the band OK Go. Maybe a teen program about making music videos is in the future?
This is where technology comes in. The internet is a wonderful place to look for inspiration and support from other librarians and tools like blogs make collaboration easy. Seeing the creative ideas of others seems to ignite my own creativity.
The thing that made me go wow today is this amazing video by the band OK Go. Maybe a teen program about making music videos is in the future?
OK Go - WTF? from OK Go on Vimeo.
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