Thing 2

I always like to share one of my first independent library experiences growing up.
I was in the 7th grade (I did mention that I was much younger, right) and my mom dropped me off to pick out a classic book to do a book report on. We were not avid library "goers" growing up and the whole "doing it by myself" was already pretty intimidating. I didn't even know what made a book a "classic" and I had no knowledge of how to go about finding one in the library, either. So, my plan was to go to the librarian and ask her to help me find one. As I walked around the corner towards to the information desk (exact locations are a little blurry), a lady who looked to me to be the "library dragon" was sitting behind the desk just waiting for someone to dare ask her a question so she could gobble them up (okay maybe not that bad). Anyways, I lost all nerve to go and ask her for a book and ended up doing my report on the first "classic chapter book" called "The Shadow Club" by Neal Schusterman, it really wasn't even a classic at all (I still got a B+). The point is, I found the library to be a very intimidating and unfriendly place to be that particular day.
Way down the road when I started working at the library, I knew that I wanted to be as nice and approachable as could be because of that one experience. If I have even one off day towards a patron it could change the way that persons views the library and cause them, A: to not want to use our services and/or, B: give the patron a bad experience to share with friends and family. With budget cuts here and there,this is the time when we we need support from every single person who walks through our doors. I strongly believe that customer service is the one thing that we can provide that, let's face it, is not the "norm" as a consumer anymore.
Library 2.0 is really appealing to me because I am all for allowing patrons more freedom with online access while enhancing the dynamics of what a library is. I like the concept that we can go into their "space", whether it be from home or from one of the library terminals and further enhance the importance of the library.

Thing 1

I kind of got a little ahead of myself, which I tend to do sometimes. I am on Thing 4 (due to time constraints) and was wondering how anyone is supposed to know where I'm at on my "things". As I started looking at other 23 Thing blogs, I realized that I am supposed to be talking about the "things" that I'm currently doing. :)
So for "thing one", I have set up my blog and had a really fun time doing so.
I think that Myspace has spoiled me because there are so many page setting layouts to choose from that you're bound to find something that fits your personality. There aren't as many choices with this blog setup.

So . . . What is a blog anyway?

According to reference.com, the definition of a blog is as follows . . .
Blog: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a web page; also called Weblog, Web

So, are you wondering why I sent you to this blog? Well, a blog can be your personal diary or a collection of links. A blog can be a place to share your own thoughts. In short, a blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them that come with a variety of of different personalities and characters.
The hope and aspiration of all of this is that as time goes by you will gain more and more information about libraries and the services that are available to you. That you can come in with ease and get all of the information that is at your fingertips (be it the library catalog or internet resources).
This blog was created to help "beginners" navigate through the web with a little more ease. A lot of stuff you read about you may already know, but that's okay. You don't have to read that post. Just click on a different post and you will probably find some other information that could be helpful. So now that the reasons for this blog is established, it is time to learn something new.
If you notice on the right side of the screen, there are news links for a variety of different subjects. If you click on one of these, it will take you to the article on that website and allow you to read the entire article. When you're ready to come back to this blog just press the back button at the top left section of the screen and it will take you right back to the happy and helpful librarian. Try it. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Are you looking for that next book in the series and you're not sure what book comes next? At the bottom of this blog there are some good links for finding book lists and some other book resources that are operator friendly.
Fantastic Fiction is my all time favorite, so try out some of those links as well.
Well, that's all for our lessons today, until next time . . .

Let's Just Get This Started

We are sometimes given projects that require us to learn something new, fun and exciting at the library and I am always ready and willing to participate in anything new that comes my way. So when I found out about a project that NEFLIN (which stands for Northeast Florida Library Information Network) has started called 23 Things @ NEFLIN, I was surprised by myself. I was not as excited as I should have been. I know, I know, shame on me, but at first I thought it would be difficult to just come up with something off the top of my head to "blog" about.
My personality is the type, though, that makes the best out of most situations. So I started thinking about what is it about my job that I enjoy the most. Above all, I truly enjoy helping out patrons and empowering them with the tools to come into the library and make the most out of their visit. That means making our patrons independent enough to find the their own books, renew their items themselves using the online catalog, overall just giving them as much information about our services so that when they need something their first thought is to come to library to get their information.
So, most of my blogging is for you . . .
if you want to know more about the library services offered,
if you want to know how to get that book that we don't have,
if you just want to find a phone number or person,
if you want to go to one "spot" and find out what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, or what is going on in the world around us, or what the stocks look like,
if you want to go to one place for your needs than this will be the blogspot for you. This blog is designed to help anyone who is willing to learn something new, used and blue. Okay, maybe not something blue, after all I am the happy & helpful librarian (assistant)! Needless to say, this project has redirected my determination to share as much information about the library services available and provide a tool for our users to link with the online community.