Berry Iii, John N. "Library 2.0 Comes into View." Library Journal 2007, 132 ed.: 10-10.
Written by the renowned and revered John Berry of Library Journal this op-ed piece is a reliable fixture in each magazine issue. This particular piece focuses on the horizon or future of libraries as they embrace 2.0 methodology.
Barry feels compeled to convey his insights after reading Laura Cohen, of University of Albany Library, blog titled "Library 2.0 Manifesto". In the piece, which Barry quotes several lines from, Cohen makes goal statements as to how she will work with her library, staff, and services to better understand and evolve towards 2.0 changes. Interesting to note is Cohen's admission that change in libraries is a slow process. I found the quoted piece ironic because change is mentioned yet the impression of giving up hope or discounting the speed or efficiency of change to take place.
Barry cites the recent decision of U. Michigan library to offer six specializations in their SLIS program, all falling under the umbrella of "social networking". Barry makes claim that this move while embracing 2.0 changes is also ironic as social networking is all around students in an academic world.
Barry's closing focuses on the change brought about by newer institutions who push the envelope of change. Barry believes the current changes are no different than prior generations of change. The blending of the old and new, usually with the new pushing the old, develops, instills, and affirms the need for library services.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Article #5
"Mashing up the Library 2006: Announcing the Winners." Computers in Libraries 26.9 (2006): 59-59.
Written by Paul Miller, this piece is a recap of a competition sponsered by Talis Company. This article annouces winners of a recent library mashup competition. Defined by Wikipedia, a mashup is "a website or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service."
Miller explains the logic of the competition stating that information specialists (librarians) must take content and create systems that create interlocking mechanisms rather than stand alone entities. Creating a networked information tool better alllows users the ability to thread several information sources into one portal for practical use. In the end these tools should add value to the user experience wherever and whenever they access the web from. Miller cites examples of Google, MySpace, and Amazon.com as places where such tools could be beneficial.
First place in the 2006 competition went to John Blyberg of Ann Arbor District Library, Michigan. His creation Go Go Google Gadget shows how Google gadgets can be added to a users Google homepage to mesh topics and services together.
Second place was awarded to the Alliance Library System from Peoria, IL. Their creation Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 was a combination of international collaboration among librarians with a shot of traditional services through non traditional means.
The concept of a mashup is a relatively new concept for users. However anyone with a login page at a portal such as Yahoo or Google are probably familiar with the tools of building one's homepage to suit their needs. Many of these such service / search engines have provided such service for years. The concept of libraries using this "mashup" concept is central to the Library 2.0 movement.
When I started to develop the PPL homepage for my intern project I attempted to mashup the page with static elements as much as possible. Case in point the WorldCat search mechanism and the Google search. The Google search tool I created was a true element in that I created code to copy and paste into my design. I made sure my element searched just the pages in the "...plymouth.lib.in.us" domain. Hence users could keyword search the entire PPL website for what they were looking for.
Written by Paul Miller, this piece is a recap of a competition sponsered by Talis Company. This article annouces winners of a recent library mashup competition. Defined by Wikipedia, a mashup is "a website or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service."
Miller explains the logic of the competition stating that information specialists (librarians) must take content and create systems that create interlocking mechanisms rather than stand alone entities. Creating a networked information tool better alllows users the ability to thread several information sources into one portal for practical use. In the end these tools should add value to the user experience wherever and whenever they access the web from. Miller cites examples of Google, MySpace, and Amazon.com as places where such tools could be beneficial.
First place in the 2006 competition went to John Blyberg of Ann Arbor District Library, Michigan. His creation Go Go Google Gadget shows how Google gadgets can be added to a users Google homepage to mesh topics and services together.
Second place was awarded to the Alliance Library System from Peoria, IL. Their creation Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 was a combination of international collaboration among librarians with a shot of traditional services through non traditional means.
The concept of a mashup is a relatively new concept for users. However anyone with a login page at a portal such as Yahoo or Google are probably familiar with the tools of building one's homepage to suit their needs. Many of these such service / search engines have provided such service for years. The concept of libraries using this "mashup" concept is central to the Library 2.0 movement.
When I started to develop the PPL homepage for my intern project I attempted to mashup the page with static elements as much as possible. Case in point the WorldCat search mechanism and the Google search. The Google search tool I created was a true element in that I created code to copy and paste into my design. I made sure my element searched just the pages in the "...plymouth.lib.in.us" domain. Hence users could keyword search the entire PPL website for what they were looking for.
Article #4
"Putting Your Library "Out There."" Library Technology Reports 42.4 (2006): 63-66.
Written in a David Letterman Top 10 fashion, this article speaks to library managers looking to "put their library out there". There refers to the newest trends of Library 2.0. This new trend is a focus of many libraries struggling to find their niche in an ever changing technological world.
1. Listen To Your Staff
2. Involve Staff in Planning
3. Tell Stories
4. Be Transparent
5. Report and Debrief
6. Do Your Research
7. Manage Projects Well
8. Formally Convene the Emerging Technology Group
9. Training 2.0: Let Everyone Play and Experience
10. Celebrate Successes
Much of these examples are common management skills and long standing advice / practices. However what makes this piece stand out is its deliberate attention to Web 2.0 technologies and their impact on libraries and librarians. Examples such as IM, wikis, blogs, and photo sharing sites like Flickr and listed.
Much of the advice hinges on the involvement, interconnectedness, and communication between top level and bottom level employees. While time is a constant and forever obstacle in the networking of staff, use of 2.0 technologies can be leveraged to create opportunities for communication.
The author makes it clear that however "change" is implemented or rolled out attention must be paid to staff as they take the major brunt of the new methods. The affect while it may be subtle to some may seem like a major obstacle to others. Listening to staff as they transition and learning where and how assistance in this change can be added is essential to the success of the process.
Written in a David Letterman Top 10 fashion, this article speaks to library managers looking to "put their library out there". There refers to the newest trends of Library 2.0. This new trend is a focus of many libraries struggling to find their niche in an ever changing technological world.
1. Listen To Your Staff
2. Involve Staff in Planning
3. Tell Stories
4. Be Transparent
5. Report and Debrief
6. Do Your Research
7. Manage Projects Well
8. Formally Convene the Emerging Technology Group
9. Training 2.0: Let Everyone Play and Experience
10. Celebrate Successes
Much of these examples are common management skills and long standing advice / practices. However what makes this piece stand out is its deliberate attention to Web 2.0 technologies and their impact on libraries and librarians. Examples such as IM, wikis, blogs, and photo sharing sites like Flickr and listed.
Much of the advice hinges on the involvement, interconnectedness, and communication between top level and bottom level employees. While time is a constant and forever obstacle in the networking of staff, use of 2.0 technologies can be leveraged to create opportunities for communication.
The author makes it clear that however "change" is implemented or rolled out attention must be paid to staff as they take the major brunt of the new methods. The affect while it may be subtle to some may seem like a major obstacle to others. Listening to staff as they transition and learning where and how assistance in this change can be added is essential to the success of the process.
Friday, June 22, 2007
DAILY - WEEKLY REFLECTION
Well today is my last day!! Yipee!
Linda is off today and tomorrow. I'm unable to chat with her and finalize plans for the upgrade. I decided to write her and email and let her know where things stand. I also took the opportunity to thank her for her help this summer through my entire internship.
After writing her I felt the need to send the other department heads a thank you as well. I drafted emails and will wait to send them till later this evening after I'm off work.
I stopped in Susie's office to chat and find out what the next steps are for long range planning; follow-up from the staff meeting we had a couple weeks ago. She filled me in on the process and what needs to take place next. Interesting to find out the library board consists of 7 members all of which are non-elected officials; appointed. I found that interesting. For a fleeting moment I thought of asking if a position was going to become available. Turns out members can only serve 16 years maximum; guess I better wait till I'm retired :)
I feel as if I could work here full time if I needed employment however I'd want to work somewhere other than children's. I could easily see myself as the webmaster or handling ILL or Reference. There seems to be so many clerk positions and not a lot of administrative workload. I'm not sure if folks hide that aspect well or maybe I've not been involved in those matters. I was hoping to get a feel for those types of things however only one day did Debbie share that aspect of her work. I'm wondering when the people actually have time to do their ordering, selection, weeding, and such. I asked Debbie about this and she commented "when I can". I assume this means piece-meal or during the day when I'm working summer school. I know the department heads report to Susie with stats and such. Just tonight when I was in Susie's office Debbie stopped by to deliver the latest summer reading program info.
The numbers she shared were since the 4th of this month. Not quite 20 days into the program. I think there's some time yet for kids to get involved and into the program. However the July 4th holiday is a week and a half away. I'm wondering if next week is the pinnacle of the signups and activity. The entire summer program concludes the last week of July. With the numbers so far, signups are less than last summer's totals. Conclusions remain if this decrease in numbers is due to the new computerized signup / management. In talking with Susie and Debbie they are both confident the program they purchased to handle the summer reading is a good thing. I concure; having seen their previous system. The fact parents can involve their kids without having to drive to the library (at $3 a gallon) to record provides great feasibility / flexibility!
I was able to gather numbers from 06 and 05 on the auction:
Last year there was a statistical increase in every category. More signups, more pages read, more kids showed for the auction, more books read, and more total pages read. If this trend remains this summer's stats should look just as good!
I put my finishing touches on the website tonight. It's a bonafide deliverable. I showed it to a co-worker tonight who'd yet to see it; she was thoroughly impressed. I value her opinion as she's one of the most tech savvy folks in the building. Her main role is lab supervisor and ILL coordinator.
The shift tonight is dedicated to gathering my paperwork and working on this blog / journal. I've had a difficult time finding time after work of a day to complete the article annotations. When I'm at school each day I'm working on "my" library stuff. The one hour off to travel and eat lunch and then report uptown isn't enough to get anything done. When I finally arrive at home around 9:30 each night I've yet to eat dinner and I'm ready to call it a day!
I've got three more articles to crank out. These will be my next few pieces posted on the blog.
Linda is off today and tomorrow. I'm unable to chat with her and finalize plans for the upgrade. I decided to write her and email and let her know where things stand. I also took the opportunity to thank her for her help this summer through my entire internship.
After writing her I felt the need to send the other department heads a thank you as well. I drafted emails and will wait to send them till later this evening after I'm off work.
I stopped in Susie's office to chat and find out what the next steps are for long range planning; follow-up from the staff meeting we had a couple weeks ago. She filled me in on the process and what needs to take place next. Interesting to find out the library board consists of 7 members all of which are non-elected officials; appointed. I found that interesting. For a fleeting moment I thought of asking if a position was going to become available. Turns out members can only serve 16 years maximum; guess I better wait till I'm retired :)
I feel as if I could work here full time if I needed employment however I'd want to work somewhere other than children's. I could easily see myself as the webmaster or handling ILL or Reference. There seems to be so many clerk positions and not a lot of administrative workload. I'm not sure if folks hide that aspect well or maybe I've not been involved in those matters. I was hoping to get a feel for those types of things however only one day did Debbie share that aspect of her work. I'm wondering when the people actually have time to do their ordering, selection, weeding, and such. I asked Debbie about this and she commented "when I can". I assume this means piece-meal or during the day when I'm working summer school. I know the department heads report to Susie with stats and such. Just tonight when I was in Susie's office Debbie stopped by to deliver the latest summer reading program info.
The numbers she shared were since the 4th of this month. Not quite 20 days into the program. I think there's some time yet for kids to get involved and into the program. However the July 4th holiday is a week and a half away. I'm wondering if next week is the pinnacle of the signups and activity. The entire summer program concludes the last week of July. With the numbers so far, signups are less than last summer's totals. Conclusions remain if this decrease in numbers is due to the new computerized signup / management. In talking with Susie and Debbie they are both confident the program they purchased to handle the summer reading is a good thing. I concure; having seen their previous system. The fact parents can involve their kids without having to drive to the library (at $3 a gallon) to record provides great feasibility / flexibility!
I was able to gather numbers from 06 and 05 on the auction:
Last year there was a statistical increase in every category. More signups, more pages read, more kids showed for the auction, more books read, and more total pages read. If this trend remains this summer's stats should look just as good!
I put my finishing touches on the website tonight. It's a bonafide deliverable. I showed it to a co-worker tonight who'd yet to see it; she was thoroughly impressed. I value her opinion as she's one of the most tech savvy folks in the building. Her main role is lab supervisor and ILL coordinator.
The shift tonight is dedicated to gathering my paperwork and working on this blog / journal. I've had a difficult time finding time after work of a day to complete the article annotations. When I'm at school each day I'm working on "my" library stuff. The one hour off to travel and eat lunch and then report uptown isn't enough to get anything done. When I finally arrive at home around 9:30 each night I've yet to eat dinner and I'm ready to call it a day!
I've got three more articles to crank out. These will be my next few pieces posted on the blog.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Article #3
This piece was handed out to PPL staff by Susie (director) the week I was working on the website redesign. I've enjoyed her handouts and find them very much on target with what's going on in the library and informative for her staff.
"Reference on the Web: A (Mostly Free) Digital Reference Library for Teens." Booklist 103.18 (2007): 78-80.
Fast paced is an understatement! Maren Ostergard and Shauna Yusko set a breakneck pace of reference topics, senarios, coupled with solutions and locations in this quick reference piece.
Formatted by the hundreds of the Dewey decimal system this piece gives librarians practical and useful resources. As the title suggests most items are free of charge however some pieces require a subscription to access.
An opening paragraph gives readers an understanding of the types of resources mentioned and the specific audience the suggested sites were geared towards. Interesting to note the 100's were omitted because the amount of demand on that section is limited. Each section offers a couple nuggets of high quality web information.
000's
Mid-Continent Public Library - Series and Sequels
This site, while the only one mentioned from 0-200 was a plethora of titles. Particularly helpful was the age appropriateness of the suggestion. Students of all ages are able to navigate the site as the design was simple, straightforward, yet the amount of information is amazing! I'm going to use it next Fall!
200's
Windows to the Universe
This site is a great source of information on Greek and Roman mythology; good for typical high school researchers. Most helpful is the sites viewability in Spanish & English!
World Religions - from the BBC
This site offers links and reference / research materials for all major world religions. Truly a great place for students to start research. The link mentioned in the article was changed by my web browser to a much simpler and short URL.
I found the brevity of details for each religion combined with the "multi-faith calendar of holy days" to be a gold mine!
300's
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
Offers research and references on tons of topics and social issues.
http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/
I was unable to open this URL - according to the authors this site offers
http://www.classroom.com/community/connection/howto/citeresources.jhtml
This is a wonderful site for student works cited pages. Most helpful is the descriptors above the citation telling users what each "piece" of the citation is and in the correct order.
State Government Information
Offers information on each state government. Offers local links and maps for each state as well.
THOMAS
Home of the Library of Congress. Useful for anything Governmental at any level. As mentioned by the authors links to Congressional proceedings and bill status are easily obtained.
CQ Researcher
Like the Opposing Viewpoints this database is a paid service. Having a subscription for my school students I believe this is one of the most valuable research pieces for social issues / social science reference.
Testing and Education Reference Center
Like the Opposing Viewpoints this database is a paid service. It provides test prep opportunities for students and older library patrons.
400's
YourDictionary
Like other similar dictionary sites this site is free and offers many extras for users for example 400 languages to pick from.
Rhyme Zone
I'm writing poetry and need a word that rhymes with ____. This site is a great tool for speech students and writers alike.
NASA
One of the most complex and deep websites on the planet! Particularly useful on this site is its ability to offer multi-language information for non-English students. The link provided by the authors is to their Spanish info page.
Oxford English Dictionary
My personal favorite. The OED offers background and explanation of word usage. Deeper than a general definition; usage, intended, historical, contextual meaning.
Rosetta Stone
A great tool for learning foreign languages. Students can use this site to brush up and or prepare for an upcoming exam.
500's
WebElements http://www.webelements.com/
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Chemistry Division http://periodic.lanl.gov/default.htm
It’s Elemental—Element Flash Cards http://education.jlab.org/elementflashcards/index.html
Science Niche http://scienceniche.com/science/science.cfm
Virtual Frog Dissection Kit http://froggy.lbl.gov/virtual/
Facts On File’s Science Online http://www.factsonfile.com/
Gale’s ScienceResource Center http://www.gale.com/sciRC/
600's
http://www.innerbody.com/index.html
Rosen’s Teen Health & Wellness http://www.teenhealthandwellnes.com/
700's
National Gallery of Art http://www.nga.gov/
Art History Resources on the Web http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
Grove Art On-line http://www.groveart.com/
800's
MIT’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare http://shakespeare.mit.edu/
http://www.monologuearchive.com/
http://www.speech-topics-help.com/
http://www.teenreads.com/clubs/index.asp
Multnomah County Library’s discussion guides http://www.multcolib.org/talk/guides.html
Bloom’s Literary Reference Online http://www.factsonfile.com/
Books in Print http://www.booksinprint.com/
The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry http://www.columbiagrangers.org/grangers/
NoveList http://www.ebscohost.com/
900's
American Memory http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/home.html
InfoNation http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation/info.asp
Country Reports http://www.countryreports.org/
Gale’s History ResourceCenter: U.S. and History Resource Center: World http://www.gale.com/
Daily Life through History http://www.greenwood.com/dailylife/
The authors make some compelling points at the end of the article. Teens want something virtual that fits their schedule and on their terms. Showing them something they can navigate late at night from the comfort of their PC will make them value your information knowledge and create return reference questions. I try to instill this in my own students.
Having the benefit of virtual resources also creates flexibility for users. The important emphasis of this resource is the "teaching" factor. Instructing users is essential to empowering them.
"...teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime..."
"Reference on the Web: A (Mostly Free) Digital Reference Library for Teens." Booklist 103.18 (2007): 78-80.
Fast paced is an understatement! Maren Ostergard and Shauna Yusko set a breakneck pace of reference topics, senarios, coupled with solutions and locations in this quick reference piece.
Formatted by the hundreds of the Dewey decimal system this piece gives librarians practical and useful resources. As the title suggests most items are free of charge however some pieces require a subscription to access.
An opening paragraph gives readers an understanding of the types of resources mentioned and the specific audience the suggested sites were geared towards. Interesting to note the 100's were omitted because the amount of demand on that section is limited. Each section offers a couple nuggets of high quality web information.
000's
Mid-Continent Public Library - Series and Sequels
This site, while the only one mentioned from 0-200 was a plethora of titles. Particularly helpful was the age appropriateness of the suggestion. Students of all ages are able to navigate the site as the design was simple, straightforward, yet the amount of information is amazing! I'm going to use it next Fall!
200's
Windows to the Universe
This site is a great source of information on Greek and Roman mythology; good for typical high school researchers. Most helpful is the sites viewability in Spanish & English!
World Religions - from the BBC
This site offers links and reference / research materials for all major world religions. Truly a great place for students to start research. The link mentioned in the article was changed by my web browser to a much simpler and short URL.
I found the brevity of details for each religion combined with the "multi-faith calendar of holy days" to be a gold mine!
300's
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
Offers research and references on tons of topics and social issues.
http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/
I was unable to open this URL - according to the authors this site offers
http://www.classroom.com/community/connection/howto/citeresources.jhtml
This is a wonderful site for student works cited pages. Most helpful is the descriptors above the citation telling users what each "piece" of the citation is and in the correct order.
State Government Information
Offers information on each state government. Offers local links and maps for each state as well.
THOMAS
Home of the Library of Congress. Useful for anything Governmental at any level. As mentioned by the authors links to Congressional proceedings and bill status are easily obtained.
CQ Researcher
Like the Opposing Viewpoints this database is a paid service. Having a subscription for my school students I believe this is one of the most valuable research pieces for social issues / social science reference.
Testing and Education Reference Center
Like the Opposing Viewpoints this database is a paid service. It provides test prep opportunities for students and older library patrons.
400's
YourDictionary
Like other similar dictionary sites this site is free and offers many extras for users for example 400 languages to pick from.
Rhyme Zone
I'm writing poetry and need a word that rhymes with ____. This site is a great tool for speech students and writers alike.
NASA
One of the most complex and deep websites on the planet! Particularly useful on this site is its ability to offer multi-language information for non-English students. The link provided by the authors is to their Spanish info page.
Oxford English Dictionary
My personal favorite. The OED offers background and explanation of word usage. Deeper than a general definition; usage, intended, historical, contextual meaning.
Rosetta Stone
A great tool for learning foreign languages. Students can use this site to brush up and or prepare for an upcoming exam.
500's
WebElements http://www.webelements.com/
Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Chemistry Division http://periodic.lanl.gov/default.htm
It’s Elemental—Element Flash Cards http://education.jlab.org/elementflashcards/index.html
Science Niche http://scienceniche.com/science/science.cfm
Virtual Frog Dissection Kit http://froggy.lbl.gov/virtual/
Facts On File’s Science Online http://www.factsonfile.com/
Gale’s ScienceResource Center http://www.gale.com/sciRC/
600's
http://www.innerbody.com/index.html
Rosen’s Teen Health & Wellness http://www.teenhealthandwellnes.com/
700's
National Gallery of Art http://www.nga.gov/
Art History Resources on the Web http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
Grove Art On-line http://www.groveart.com/
800's
MIT’s Complete Works of William Shakespeare http://shakespeare.mit.edu/
http://www.monologuearchive.com/
http://www.speech-topics-help.com/
http://www.teenreads.com/clubs/index.asp
Multnomah County Library’s discussion guides http://www.multcolib.org/talk/guides.html
Bloom’s Literary Reference Online http://www.factsonfile.com/
Books in Print http://www.booksinprint.com/
The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry http://www.columbiagrangers.org/grangers/
NoveList http://www.ebscohost.com/
900's
American Memory http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
http://americanhistory.si.edu/presidency/home.html
InfoNation http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation/info.asp
Country Reports http://www.countryreports.org/
Gale’s History ResourceCenter: U.S. and History Resource Center: World http://www.gale.com/
Daily Life through History http://www.greenwood.com/dailylife/
The authors make some compelling points at the end of the article. Teens want something virtual that fits their schedule and on their terms. Showing them something they can navigate late at night from the comfort of their PC will make them value your information knowledge and create return reference questions. I try to instill this in my own students.
Having the benefit of virtual resources also creates flexibility for users. The important emphasis of this resource is the "teaching" factor. Instructing users is essential to empowering them.
"...teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime..."
DAILY
Today was day three of the site design. I did some work this morning before my shift to soften the contrast of the background. I adjusted the width of the main table to fit 800x600 displays too. Cranking it down to 760 pixels wide.
I did some real technical coding tonight to get the mashups to work. My mashups were two search mechanisms - WorldCat and Google. I created a custom Google search for our website domain. This was done after Linda left for the day. Before she left I asked about doing a Google search link; she didn't think it was important. After exploring it a bit I was able to create a search of the "...plymouth.lib.in.us" domain. The code was really tricky to work with and I encountered 4 failed attempts before I got it working correctly. The WorldCat code was much easier. Essentially patrons can search the entire website / domain for something if they can't find it on the homepage.
All in all I was really pleased at the outcome. I really banked on the coding experience from L571 last semester. I impressed myself as I was able to internalize everything on their "soon to be" homepage.
I tried out my piece on two of the younger staff people to get their immediate reactions. They both liked it! I even showed my page to Miss Marie...she was even impressed! Albeit her skills are very limited :)
I'm not sure when Linda will make the big switch over. There's tons of work to be done on the subpages. With tomorrow my last day I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to accomplish.
I did some real technical coding tonight to get the mashups to work. My mashups were two search mechanisms - WorldCat and Google. I created a custom Google search for our website domain. This was done after Linda left for the day. Before she left I asked about doing a Google search link; she didn't think it was important. After exploring it a bit I was able to create a search of the "...plymouth.lib.in.us" domain. The code was really tricky to work with and I encountered 4 failed attempts before I got it working correctly. The WorldCat code was much easier. Essentially patrons can search the entire website / domain for something if they can't find it on the homepage.
All in all I was really pleased at the outcome. I really banked on the coding experience from L571 last semester. I impressed myself as I was able to internalize everything on their "soon to be" homepage.
I tried out my piece on two of the younger staff people to get their immediate reactions. They both liked it! I even showed my page to Miss Marie...she was even impressed! Albeit her skills are very limited :)
I'm not sure when Linda will make the big switch over. There's tons of work to be done on the subpages. With tomorrow my last day I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to accomplish.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
DAILY
I went into today with my own laptop. I made myself available to the children's folks. I'm at a point where they really don't need my help. Plus today they were overstaffed with the Polish papercutting program going on this afternoon. The fact it was in the afternoon and I needed the morning to work on my redesign made things work perfectly.
I took a study room and started working. Having my own PC and a quiet room made for a great environment. I worked non-stop till 12:30. With Linda coming on at 1:00 I wanted to squeeze in lunch prior to working with her in the afternoon.
When I arrived back from lunch around 1:30 Linda was very receptive to my efforts. She didn't seem hesitant at all and was anxious to see what I'd assembled.
We worked the remainder of the afternoon tweaking things...in between interruptions from patrons for needs, questions, etc. I ended up doing most of the tweaking she watched over my shoulder. It didn't take much to convince her of Dreamweaver's prowess.
I was really proud of the work I'd assembled. I was worried Linda would'nt be as receptive. She was really interested and genuine. I wonder if she realizes all the sub pages need to be consistent with the index page? This will take a lot of work for her to transfer stuff however the template is well in place.
I took the liberty of choosing a background color and creating a new banner graphic. I tried to be tasteful in each and every way. I constantly was reminding myself of the scope of the public library...its different than teens. Trying to appeal to a HUGE array of users and tastes was a challenge. Ultimately my background color choice was changed to sky blue instead of a deep maroon. I
spent the remainder of my shift working on getting links to work and tidying things up. There's a lot of tweaking to be done before I'm ready to say its done.
I took a study room and started working. Having my own PC and a quiet room made for a great environment. I worked non-stop till 12:30. With Linda coming on at 1:00 I wanted to squeeze in lunch prior to working with her in the afternoon.
When I arrived back from lunch around 1:30 Linda was very receptive to my efforts. She didn't seem hesitant at all and was anxious to see what I'd assembled.
We worked the remainder of the afternoon tweaking things...in between interruptions from patrons for needs, questions, etc. I ended up doing most of the tweaking she watched over my shoulder. It didn't take much to convince her of Dreamweaver's prowess.
I was really proud of the work I'd assembled. I was worried Linda would'nt be as receptive. She was really interested and genuine. I wonder if she realizes all the sub pages need to be consistent with the index page? This will take a lot of work for her to transfer stuff however the template is well in place.
I took the liberty of choosing a background color and creating a new banner graphic. I tried to be tasteful in each and every way. I constantly was reminding myself of the scope of the public library...its different than teens. Trying to appeal to a HUGE array of users and tastes was a challenge. Ultimately my background color choice was changed to sky blue instead of a deep maroon. I
spent the remainder of my shift working on getting links to work and tidying things up. There's a lot of tweaking to be done before I'm ready to say its done.
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