I've decided to use my blog as both a commentary on The Things and The Process. I've also decided it's pretty much useless for me to remain anonymous. I'm
Karen. I'm the
YA teen librarian at Forest Hills. I live in Sunnyside, almost exactly between the Woodside and Sunnyside libraries. Like many of you, I attended
Stephen Abram's talk last March. The only difference between
you and me is that I sent an e-mail asking if we could bring Learning 2.0/23 Things to Queens Library. Six months later, here we are. The beauty of the
PLCMC program is how easy it is to replicate. We kept pretty much everything the same except we added "Explore
Facebook."
As one of the adapters of the QL L2.0 program, I have experience with most of the
Things. Even though I won't be experiencing them for the first time, I hope I'll still be able to look at them as opportunities to think about how we can use these applications with each other and our patrons. One of my goals for this program is to figure out better ways to communicate with my colleagues, or at least figure out a way to gather us for an unofficial happy hour.
I don't have much to say about Thing #1 other than it seemed to be very confusing for people that although the program started this week, they wouldn't register until next week. Someone even left a comment that it seemed counter-intuitive -- which I completely understand -- but I knew it would make things easier on the QL L.20 Team's end if we had the blog links at the time of registration. It was selfish and the process will probably be changed if we repeat the program.
As for Thing #2, I think I wanted to be a librarian because I am in love with lifelong learning. You cannot work at a library and not learn something new every day. I liked the tutorial because it highlighted how important it is to commit oneself to learning new things. Out of all the habits, it is probably hardest for me to set goals and to maintain confidence. Learning new things puts you in a vulnerable position, and no one likes to feel stupid.
I have absolutely no issue with seeing learning as "play" or fun, and I love teaching other people new things. I am very much about tricking people into learning and disguising it as fun. I did school visits near the end of the year and I gave seventh and eight graders a blank "library" bingo card. I told them to fill in the squares with all the things you might find or do in the Forest Hills Library. I had prepared slips of paper with about possible 40 responses. As each slip of paper was pulled (Community Service, DVDs, Read Down Your Fines), I explained it. By the end of the visit, (hopefully) they knew all the things the library had to offer them.
As a
YA teen librarian, one becomes accustomed to building things people might not come to. I am happy to see it looks like my colleagues will be participating in this program. Yay for QL L2.0!
