Story Generator

We Tell Stories is a fun online story generator. I particularly like the fairy tale generator.

PSA: Beware of Pirates

As you can see, I've been having fun with image generators. A little too much fun. ^_~. I found this doing a search for a read poster generator. It's technically a motivational poster generator, but it works. I had a lot of fun messing with it.

Also, in the spirit of reading (because you don't want pirates to get you), I also looked at LibraryThing. I was on LibraryThing for all of a month before I found Goodreads, which I like much better. Check out what I'm reading:

Digging for Dinos

What was I thinking?! Honestly, I think I was crazy when I thought pasta fossils would be a good craft. I knew it when I saw the kid drop his entire tray dirt and all onto the floor. The dig itself went well. One kid was upset that they weren't actually digging, but everyone else had fun. Also, they liked the stories. So, that was good. But yeah, whoever said pasta fossils were good for 5-8 only had like 3 kids or something. With 51 people in the story time room, it was a certified zoo. The floor is trashed and I'm going to continue working on it on Sunday. Cindi said that she is going to ask the cleaning people to clean our carpets early. I hope it works. The kids seemed to enjoy it though. I guess that is a good thing, and Cindi wasn't mad. She laughed when I asked her that and said it would all wash out and that I was the most adventurous of all of us when it came to programming.

I was proud of that, but also felt a little bad because I know if anyone else were planning something like this, they would have figured out the contingencies. Like, there was no way that the dirt was staying on the trays. I just thought "WOW! That's a really fun idea. I want to do that." That's why I like working with Amanda. She always points out the dangers of what I think will be an awesome program, and if we can't find a way around it, then it's tabled until we can.

Also, I got my b-day cupcake today. It looks incredibly yummy. Thank you everyone!!

My Thoughts on Bloglines

I guess it's useful. I mean, when I did a search of RSS feeds I found a few sites that I visit outside my normal sites that had RSS feeds that I would be interested in, but really... if it has an RSS feed, it probably has one on livejournal too. To me, it would have been just easier instead of getting 8 million different accounts to use a site like livejournal. Then, you can access not only your friends blogs easily but also RSS feeds. Really, outside of work, LJ/Facebook/Gmail are my one-stop (ok, I guess technically 3 stop) shop for all my internet needs. In fact, as a paid member, you can even create syndicated accounts using the RSS address of the feed that you are interested in. The only advantage of a site like bloglines is if there wasn't already a community or feed on lj that you were interested in, you would have to pay on lj to gain access as opposed to having it all lined up for free on bloglines. Still, with such a huge community, I'm sure lj has something for everyone, and the few feeds/communities that you couldn't find, how hard would it be to just visit those sites?

Taking a page out of Kate-monster's notebook

The internet is really really great
I’ve got a fast connection so I don’t have to wait
There's always some new site
I browse all day and night
It's like I’m surfing at the speed of light

I’m glad we have this new technology
Which gives us untold opportunity
Right from you own desktop
You can research browse and shop
Until you’ve had enough and you're ready to stop

~Avenue Q

That being said, I'm not one of those people who believe that the digital revolution is going to kill the printed page. I think that as far as reliable information goes, you should always look in a book. (A bias passed down from many a history professor with good reason.) And there's something about cracking open a book and reading it that will never lose its charm.

But the internet is pretty amazing. Current, pop culture information that wouldn't necessarily appear in books, like song lyrics or cast-lists for upcoming movies are at your fingertips if you know where to look. You can make friends from all over the world or keep in touch with people over long distances at the push of a button. That's awesome.

I actually had a conversation with my husband about this. We were talking about how we didn't really grow up with internet, but as teenagers, we quickly adapted to it. It's weird, how often I am online. I can't imagine when I was not, even though I know that I only got the internet in 8th grade. I can only imagine what it's like to grow up with it at your fingertips.

Sometimes, this worries me. I don't necessarily think it's good for kids to be plugged in at a young age. I mean, I think computer skills will be important to them in the future, but at the same time, I can't imagine allowing a kid to play something like an MMO-- it worries me. Things like too dangerous, who knows who they could be talking to, and too addictive pop into my head. Which is hypocritical to say the least, as I play MMO's.

I suppose, the answer, as with most things, is parenting and setting boundaries. I'm glad that even though I didn't necessarily grow up with the technology, I am familiar enough with it to know both the benefits and the dangers.

Anti Prom Pix

These are just the ones that had me. ^_^ If you want to see more fun pictures of anti-prom, check out this link.

Anti-prom was a rocking cool program. Thank you to the cool branch that organized it. ^_^ Just know, that I might actually have to steal this program idea.

Study Questions

Neal Shusterman is one of the most awesome YA authors out there. Not only did he call when he heard about our book discussion of Everlost, and spent a good amount of time on the phone with our teens answering their questions about the book, but also, he put our book discussion questions up on his website.



Everlost under "Discussion Guide".

An Evening of Great and Terrible Beauty

After a bit of a rocky start (aloe vera gel stuck in funnels), the Great and Terrible Beauty program went really well. We made after-shower mist and body glitter from the book Girl's World Book of Bath and Beauty. That book is a great resource for creating a spa-day soapmaking program/party.

The after shower mist went quick and easy once we figured out that pumping the aloe vera gel directly into the bottles worked just as well. The body glitter was fun for everyone. It was incredibly goopy and messy which the boys loved.

Then, we made henna tattoos. I still have mine. I wil have to take a picture. This was also fun. Amanda did mine, and several people had really neat designs. All in all, it was a fun evening.

Teen Book Discussion: Rules of Survival

(May Contain Spoilers)

The discussion was very interesting. On the subject of which family they would rather live with, they were decidedly divided. Both groups brought up good points. For the DuBois', the point was that as long as you were not a step member and went along with the party line, you weren't really in harm's way. For the Walsh's, at least it wasn't forever.

The discussion about who was most evil out of the books that we read was also a good point. The majority decided that Lisette from Locked in Time was the most evil. Although, there were some votes for the warden from Holes and Mary from Everlost. Honestly, I didn't even think about the warden when I was coming up with questions. So, that whole part of the discussion came as quite a shock to me. Nikki from Rules of Survival was voted "has the most problems".

Also amusing was when we talked about which family you would rather live with, the Walshes got a lot of votes simply because Nikki got mad at the kids for doing housework, and a lot of people said it would be nice not to have to do chores.

All in all, a fun night. Next is: Evening of A Great and Terrible Beauty.

Twilight Trailier

This is the official teaser trailer for Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. It's coming out in December. I think my whole dept. is excited for it.

Blogging in Libraries

How can blogging be effective for libraries?

Well, for one, blogs can connect us to other library professionals, paraprofessionals and students. I know of several online library blogging communities where people who work for libraries share problems, ask for advice, or just talk about their jobs.

Blogging can be useful in many ways. If library employees blog about programs at their libraries, someone might see them and either want to come to a program or create a similar program of their own. If a library employee posts the plot of a specific book that a patron is looking for but never heard of, someone out in the great wide world might see the post, and be able to help.

This has actually happened to me. At my library we had a patron looking for a specific book about a family that eats nothing but rocks and sticks, and the youngest member of the family tries to convince them to eat better. The book was written in the 60's, before I was born, and I'd never heard of it. But, I posted the description to community, and got several responses, including the title of the book that the patron was looking for: Little Brute Family by Russel Hoban.

These are just a few examples of the way blogging can be useful for libraries.

7.5 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

I realized after playing with Blogger that I needed to actually post about specific things. The first being the subject of this post.

This was an interesting, quick course. I think I'm a lifelong learner anyway. I love to read. I always love learning new things. There are at least 3 languages that I'd like to learn, and this fall, I'm going back to school for my MLS.

I definitely don't think I'll have a problem with step 7 1/2, which was play. I'm a big kid at heart. I don't think you can do what I do and not play. It's one of the many many reasons I love my job.

As far as difficulties go, I guess it would be setting a timeline for myself. I like the idea of the task list. In fact, I always have a to-do list on hand, several, in fact-- one for each aspect of my life. But, as far as pacing them out with specific deadlines... that's rough.

Still, I feel as long as I have an idea of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by, it will be accomplished. And as the 71/2 habits tell us, "Attitude is everything."

Teen Book Discussion

Tonight, at our Pizza and Pages Book Discussion, we'll be talking about Nancy Werlin's Rules of Survival. This book was awesome, very intense. I highly recommend it. One patron told me yesterday that it was her favorite of the one's we'd picked so far. That was cool to hear, especially as this is the last P&P until fall.

I had a bunch of questions about the book, especially because I like to tie the current books that we are discussing to books that we have previously discussed. I think, for that purpose, Rules of Survival was a good follow-up to Locked in Time by Lois Duncan. There were a lot of comparisons to be made. I hope the teens feel the same way.

Hello Blogger!

This is going to be interesting. I've blogged before, but I've never used Blogger. Now, as part of our library's 23 Things program, I'm going to be using Blogger to track my progress with Web 2.0 technologies. Also, we are getting a blog for "Battle of the Books". I am co-coaching the WEL team with a co-worker. The idea is to use the blog to post calls for questions, similar to an icontest community. Then, at the end of each week, allow users to answer the questions. I am very excited about it. Getting the BOB-blog has kind of been a pet project for me. I'm interested to see how it will turn out.

Anyway, I will post next week as well, when I find out what new and exciting topic we will be covering. ^_^