Kimbooktu visits Las Vegas!

One of my favorite bloggers is kimbooktu. A couple of weeks ago she visited Las Vegas and discovered the wonderful Reading Room. It's a great bookstore at the Mandalay Bay.

Nevada Library Association

I will be giving a presentation at the Nevada Library Association in Carson City on October 4, 2007. I am part of a panel and my section is on "Access Denied: Government Web Sites: the disappearing act?" I will be putting up my presentation on this blogsite after the conference.

Carson City is a great town. There are about 50,000 residents but every other year the legislature meets and the population swells. Many of the houses in Carson City are Victorian and have been kept up. Fall is a lovely time to visit as the leaves are turning and there's a crispness in the air. It's a nice place to take long walks.

UPDATE: Here is the link to my powerpoint: http://kendallpapers.pbwiki.com

Spring Mountain Ranch

About 30 minutes from Las Vegas is the state park of Spring Mountain Ranch. During the summer, the Ranch offers outdoor theater. We went to see Jesus Christ Superstar. It was a great production. The only thing that marred total enjoyment were 3 teens next to me. They talked the entire performance -- yes, they talked 90 minutes straight. You would have thought they would stop talking during the crucifixion scene. Oh no, they just kept talking away. I was going to ask them not to talk, but decided that they would have kept on and just made it more miserable for me. Fortunately the sound system was loud enough to keep their talk at the buzzing level.

New fangled thing in Vegas

I know this is really lame. But at the District -- a nice shopping / restaurant area in Green Valley Ranch area, they now have solar powered trash compactors. This picture was taken from a camera phone.

Spamalot in Las Vegas

IMG_7190.JPG
Originally uploaded by FroggyMonkey.

Enjoyed Spamalot in Las Vegas at the Wynn Resort. John O'Hurley was the star and was great. The cast was terrific and the play is Monty Python silliness. We all laughed a lot. The Theater at the Wynn was very comfortable and seemed as if there were no bad views.

Number 14 update on Technorati

Well, I looked at Technorati -- again. I can see the point of tagging, but so many inconsistencies. The lack of a thesaurus really causes many items not to get the same tag. I tried Learning2.0 on all 3 types of search, it was interesting to see the "by the hour" that a person had posted. And I searched other subjects. One thing was the ability to pull up blogs in other languages. That was easy to do.

Number 23 - Thoughts

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
I liked playing around with the image generators. I always wondered how those things were done.
2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
But for work, the google word processor was a find. I was thinking of articles that I've done at work and then at home and wished I had saved it to a disk or attached to email, so I can work on it. The google thing would really help in productivity.
3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Some of the sites were not user friendly, but then again, they were free. Once I was able to work out the glitches, I felt rather empowered.
4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Maybe an "L2 lite" with a few key exercises? I am doing these from home and using a dsl line. Sometimes the connection is very slow which is frustrating.
And last but not least…

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate
Yes -- you can read and read about all of the new technologies, but until you actually do it, you really have no idea of the accomplishments that these programs can do.

Number 22 - Audio / ebooks

World EBook Fair took some hunting to find free downloads. But once found, the site was very simple to use. And the quality was very good. I also tried sjlibrary's ebooks & audio books. Too bad we have no books that are compatible with iPods. I was looking at audio books and none worked with the iPod. Hopefully we will get some books that we can upload to iTunes. Would also like to see more audio books.

Number 21: Podcast experience

I have a lot of podcasts saved to my iTunes account. This was interesting to put one in my bloglines account. I added a podcast from Kaiser Permanente on tips on health. It's rather interesting and nice that I will be getting feeds, not emails. The email updates are too clunky, you have to log in usually, remember your password, etc. The feeds -- just easily come to the bloglines account.

Number 20: YouTube:March of the Librarians

Ok -- If you haven't seen this video it is just too cute for words. Did you see me and my friends Lorene and Eva in this? Besides fun videso, YouTube has a lot of videos on library instruction and library tours. This is a wild media. When this video first posted, within a few hours, I had 3 emails from friends from across the country tell me they saw me in the video. I uploaded March of the Librarians to my site, but it now has decided to disappear. hmmmm

Number 19: Library Thing

This is a lot of fun.

Number 18 -- Using the Google Word Processing

Visiting Las Vegas for the first time

Before visiting Las Vegas, you may want to visit the website for the main newspaper of Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review Journal On this site you can find out major attractions, latest news, weather, hotels, etc. While most people go for the gambling, Las Vegas offers a lot more. For hiking and birding, there are great trails out at the Red Rock state park. In Henderson (a suburb of Las Vegas) there is a great Bird Preserve. The people that work there are friendly and very knowldegable. I like visiting the art museum and flower conservatory at the Bellagio, as well as watching the fountains show (after 3pm). The university there, UNLV, has a great library that uses a robotic storage area for books, an information commons, and rfid technology.

-- Note: I had difficulty uploading this, but the help from Google was perfect. Also I decided to see how a different font would look.

Number 16 Libraries Using Wikis

Doing a search for libraries using wikis, I found a cool site at Ohio University's main library. It's a business wiki that would be so useful to the students -- has databases, books, helpful hints, etc. on the site. While looking at this, the business librarian was online using MEEBO for a chat. What fun this is! I had no idea that you could embed chat into a wiki. That way you could update the wiki if a student asks a question about a new class -- endless possibilities.

Number 17 Wikis

I registered on our pbwiki. I've added a comment under favorite vacation spots, Las Vegas, of course! One favorite that you will see there is a link to The District -- it's like Santana Row but bigger. When LV started the District a lot of people thought it was doomed to fail. Not so, they put in top of the line shops, restaurants and recently added a huge Whole Foods Market. The Green Valley Ranch casino anchors it and it has great restaurants and movies, so The District is a great place to visit.

Number 15 Future of libraries

Just read an article by Helen Spaulding in Library Management. She discusses how state universities are not being funded as they had been in the past. So universities administrators are searching for financial sources just as private universities have always done. The results can be very demanding for libraries. The library has always been viewed in a positive light. Now with so many students using the Internet and finding material (good and not so good), the once prized library is being looked at as a possible revenue cutting source. Dean Spaulding argues that libraries must look at the principles of market research and apply them to the library to help administrators understand the relevance of libraries in the age of the Internet. At a recent conference, Visions of Change, I heard David Lewis present his ideas on the future of libraries.
He presented the paper at CSU-Sacramento. One concept that he discussed was on the window of opportunity available to libraries for funding. But the window is closing if librarians don't address the needs of new generations / emergent technologies / access, etc. As I listened to Dean Lewis, I thought that taking part in the sjlearning2.0 program is one step in answering this complex puzzle of the future of libraries.

Number 14 Technorati

I've let the spiders loose! I think I need to explore this some more, though. It is really hard to stay on one topic as so many great things pop up on these tools.

Number 13 Del.icio.us

The first thing is link to del.icio.us from our website, other possibilities are not exactly what you want. I came across Cross Engine blog http://blog.crossengine.com/ and it is really interesting. I've been a fan of Greg Notess for a long time, so I am definitely adding this site to my bloglines account.
Del.icio.us has some big possibilities with organizing favorite websites. If I'm at the reference desk or away from my computer, it would be helpful to access my favorites. I could see it as a way to see how others look at a topic. Sometimes you focus on one term and the patron is just not "getting it". But a similar term or more current term might just open up the discussion. Hunting around del.icio.us just might do the trick. I need to experiment with this some more.

Number 12 Rollyo

Select Search Engine...Calneva Gov sitesReferenceTech NewsSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

This is really an interesting tool -- still figuring this one out -- could be good for setting up for classroom instruction on specific topic.

Number 11 Web 2.0 Awards

This is a dangerous site -- too many fun things to look at. HousingMaps.com was fantastic for looking at apartments to rent and houses for sale. It takes the rental info and mashes it with Google Maps. Of course Craigslist is so well known that it was fun to go over some of their topics. These sites just remind me that the Internet offers so many opportunities.

Number 10 continued: newbies

newbies
Originally uploaded by skendal_98.

I was able to do this using Generator Blog, then saved it to Flickr.

Number 10: generators

I used generator blog and also fd flickr toys. After I generated some fun pictures -- one was of Christmas in the Park and the King library decorated tree inside a snowglobe -- when I went to save it -- microsoft error and no image :(
I tried 3 times and same message -- guess it's time to stop and come back to this later.

Number 9: Library feeds, etc.

I tried Feedster, topix and technorati. All 3 were easy to use, I was able to find several Nevada Birding sites. I also search for ALA's blog sites. A new thing -- I've added 2 blogs to the right of my blog.

Thing #8 RSS feeds

This has been difficult to do. But I know the value of RSS feeds. I have subscribed to several interesting ones, including one called Kimbooktu which is a great blog on "all things connected with libraries" and the links to other library blogs are terrific!

Number 7: Technology related interests

Instant messaging (IM) has been a hot topic in the news. Keeping up with my California / Nevada theme, I thought that I would comment on IM at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. After some deliberations, the UNLV library decided in late 2005 to jump into IM for a part of their Ask a Librarian program. It has been a successful system and they have discovered that students not only IM from home or other places but also right in the library. They discovered that students with laptops on other floors, just didn't want to pack up their laptops, leave their study space and come down to the reference desk to ask a question.
To learn more about IM and libraries, there is a good "best practices" wiki on IM and libraries that includes definitions and links to libraries (public and academic) that are using IM.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park
Originally uploaded by skendal_98.

My first attempt shows an red cross, but you can still see the pictures. So I tried again. I am using a simple Kodak Digital Camera here.
We (Kathy, Eva & Sue) are looking out from a cave at Zion. The sun just came out as I clicked this picture.

Number 6: Las Vegas Club

Las Vegas Club
Originally uploaded by skendal_98.

This is a mashup using Flickr.

Number 5: Using Flickr

Well I should reconsider my name for this blog and call it CalnevaU to include Utah. This photo is from Zion National Park, just a couple hours east of Las Vegas. Had trouble with Flickr, so I used the Flickr email account and uploaded from there.

Seven and a half habits -- incorporating exercise one and two

The 7 1/2 habits module was very good. It re-iterated that attitude is everything and that you are responsible for your learning new technologies or skills. If you aren't familiar with something, how can you visualize using it? I remember back in the 1980s, the Internet was just beginning to take hold. I went to a meeting on the campus of UNLV, just to see what it was all about. At that point the web had not been introduced and people were using GOPHER and VERONICA. It was so exciting to be there, just as the university was considering "hooking up" with the Internet. One person asked why was I there? What would a library want to do on the Internet. I said that at the least, we would want our library catalog on. Because it was so new, I felt that I had to just jump in and learn what I could. Then I could begin to see what it could offer libraryland. So I guess this is a part of 7 1/2 habits -- take things on to see what's good and how it can be used.

Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire State Park is located about an hour's drive northeast of Las Vegas. There are easy walking trails to visit the colorful sites. Ancient petroglyphs can be seen from the paths. There are areas for picnics and fantastic photographic opportunities.

Nevada Test Site

You've probably heard the phrase "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". Well the Nevada Test Site, about an hour's drive north of town, in the 1950s & 60s was the site of many atomic testing programs. The above ground testing did not stay in Vegas. Fast forward to today and there is a museum in Las Vegas that documents the testing. The Atomic Testing Museum has some interesting albeit eerie links to check out. Rather heavy stuff to consider, eh? I promise -- the next posts will contain "fun" things.

Learning 2.0

This blog has been set up as a part of a program, called Learning 2.0. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and branches of the SJ public library are participating in a series of Internet exercises, called Learning 2.0. This system is based on a program developed at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library by Helene Blowers.

Numbers 3 &4: Calneva goals

Hi!
This blog has been set up to show off some of the great sites in Nevada and California. Books about these great states will also be cited on the blog. Why the title Calneva? Of course one reason is that it is the smashup of the states' names -- California & Nevada, and I have ties in both states. But the second reason was that the Chairman of the Board, that would be old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra owned the Cal-Neva in Crystal Bay. As you can guess, I will have sections devoted to music performed in Nevada and California.

Speaking of music, here's a link to my favorite group, the Las Vegas Club http://www.myspace.com/lasvegasclub and our friend, Jacob Smigel http://www.myspace.com/jacobsmigel
If you haven't guessed the connection to these two myspace groups, send a post and I will elaborate.