Yipee! The Friends of the Isanti Area library have been working hard to create a public library presence in the Isanti area. We are making baby steps toward the big goal and really happy to have achieved nonprofit status (501c3) and now a library link site to East Central Regional Library will become a reality. The plans are to be open on Wednesday 10am-4pm. The big question is what day will it begin? Can we be up and running by Oct. 21st to correspond with National Friends of Libraries Week? Stay tuned to find out!

a new blog - Cutting Above

Time to share the second item I am wishing to win...a gypsy - for scappin' on the go, and also because I don't have DS and it looks fun after watching a couple of videos. So the big chattering right now is the airing of the gypsy on the HSN Sept. 24. Should be interesting viewing at 12am! so how did I find out about this shopping opportunity (being that I don't watch much of the TV)? Well one blog link lead to another and another and eventually I discovered Cutting Above a blog that just lauched! To celebrate the great blog, Cutting Above is offering two Gypsys, generously donated by Provocraft. If you want a chance to win, visit the blog Cutting Above. Better yet, visit the blog to discover all kinds of crafty news, tutorials, and videos!

I survived the first two weeks of school. The students are settling into the routine and the brains are humming. Personally I am exhausted. I helped extra at bus time with the Kindergarten kids and keeping them together is like moving frogs in a wheelbarrow! Eventually everyone made it to the right place/person and I am embracing the weekend. I had a blast at the Cricut swarm last week and want to keep the momentum going on scrapbooking. So, this evening I started to catch up on some blogs I like to visit and checked out the cricut message board. Well I am excited to have found a couple ways to win cricut stuff! Provo craft is celebrating it's 100th cricut cartridge release by giving away 100 carts. You can help with the celebration by clicking here to see the 100th cart. Winter Woodlands. Click here to visit the MB and for details on the give away.

Back to School!

It is time, school starts tomorrow and I will begin again the fun of hanging out with primary students in the library. My lessons are planned, books are shelved - I am totally ready, but as always a little leap of nerves and excitement creeps in on the eve of the first day of school. To add to my excitement, I am going to my first ever Cricut swarm on Friday and don't know what to take! Okay, the toothbrush and jammies for the overnight at my sister-in-laws, but what supplies will I need? How much scrapbook paper? Do I have enough adhesives? And I still need to organize the photos I want to scrapbook...mostily my daughter's because here graduation party will be at the end of this year! Welcome fall and the new school year!

OK, summer came and went, twice! scince I first started this blog for the express purpose of completing the 23 things for web 2.0. Yikes! I put many other things as higher priorities, such as completing the course work for my master's degree, prepping the house for graduation open house (this past May) of first born, getting second born off on a Germany trip and helping the "baby" get his diver's permit and giving driving lessons! Whew. Time ran out for the 23 things but I may explore them slowly as time permits. Now my focus is turning toward getting my school library ready for all the smiling faces of students. I also have to help my own children get ready for school, one for college, one for college PSEO and another for high school. Somewhere in the mix I do say hello to my DH as we enjoy the rollercoaster of parenthood. Right now most of our conversation seems to be about cars as our oldest is car shopping for the college commute. I usally steal away for some scrapbook time or computer searching about scrapbooking techniques when the car talk gets too overwelming (which is often as I don't know much about cars, just where the gas tank is and maybe how to check the oil).

Thing 3 RSS

I have been exploring RSS feeds and using my iGoggle page. My challenge is to discover how to add audio/video rss feeds (podcasts) and not just text. My hope is to use igoogle as a one page stop to link to all the new web tools I am learning about. Of course, as we all keep hearing, if I would just take time to read the instructions I might get more accomplished. Summer is fast coming to a close and the pressure is on because I know once school starts my mind will be on other things such as getting my media center up and running for all the wonderful students!
I have not subscribed to many rss feeds but that is because I haven't found lots of things I want to spend time reading on a regular basis. As time goes on I know I will utilize it more but I don't want to clutter my things to do/read list just because the ability is there. Okay onto thing 4...

Thing 2

My mind has been spinning with all the new terminology I have been acquiring. I found the dictionary link of web related words very useful and plan to refer back because I certainly couldn't go thru. them all and remember. I think the older I get the less I remember (or is it because I keep adding to my store of info that it is getting full?!)
Web 2.0 - is that the best term? I don't think so, because it indicates a new version has been released but it is the current verbiage and when used, we understand (at least I hope to understand!) So what is it, and how is it different from the first go around? My best understanding is that it is interactive. The world wide web has been a place where I can mine for information and now I can deposit information also. The really fun part is the sharing of info can be done with word, pictures and even movies. So, we don't all have to be creative writers to share creatively. I still like using the term world wide web because it reminds me not to be egocentric. There are people all over the world that enjoy the same things my family does here in small town Minnesota. Just playing backgammon online can give a person an international experience!
Now we need to take the mindset that everyone has valuable things to share and as a library create the environment, or means for patrons to share. I am hoping to do that with my your users at the primary school I work at, the task is for me to be an effective user so I can help my students be meaningful users of the tools.