LATI project: Starting to post my progress...

For my LATI project, I am going to create a traveling puppet show for Summer Reading Club 2008. Over the past six months, a few colleagues of mine and I created a puppet show, "The Gruffalo," and we traveled to the various branches in our county to perform our show. The puppet show was well-received and we loved putting it on for many children in Frederick County.
I'd like to keep the tradition, while making a few changes.
With the traveling puppet show, I plan on sticking to our Summer Reading Club theme for 2008, "Catch the Reading Bug @ Your Library."
I plan on creating a script from a bug-themed story, recording the dialogue, gathering all of the necessarily props for the puppet show, and including activities to encourage audience participation (action songs, fingerplays, movement activities). This traveling puppet show will fit into a box (Rubbermaid tub) and can travel around to the different branches. Branches who request the box will be able to open it up, review the materials, and present the show without too much preparation.
One of the suggestions in our project assignment is to keep track of our progress. I plan on using my blog to do so. More to come!

Thing 23: I think I can, I think I can...

Wow! I can't believe this is the last post for 23 Things...or, I should put it this way, I can't believe I'm actually finished with my posts for 23 Things. :)

This project was truly one of the best learning experiences I've had in any profession to date. I really liked that it was self-paced and the project was all about trying out new web technologies in an entirely hands-on process. I probably would not have created a blog on my own or would have even known where to begin when it came to trying out the latest/most useful sites on the web.

Toward the middle of the program, I was hoping that we would be assigned one Thing per week/e-mail so that we could really delve into the technology, but in looking back on that thought...I don't know if sticking with it for 23 weeks (half a year), would have been wise. I think I understand now why we would have a couple tasks each week! :)

If given the option to do this again, I would definitely sign up for it. The big question - where do we go from here? Golly gracious...hopefully doing more of these kinds of things.

Thing 6: Mashups & Third-Party Sites

So, in looking back on my 23 Things, I realized I never posted about this particular Thing, so here we go:

It took me awhile to figure out what in the world I was doing with mash-ups and such. I do like to play around online, but I kinda thought this was a bit of a time-waster. (Probably because it definitely took me forever to "get it.") I'm also not the biggest Flickr fan as I use a different program to organize my pictures, so maybe that's also why I'm not really into this particular Thing. Oh well, it's still nice to explore different web technologies. :)

Thing 20: YouTube

Thank you Mary Ann! I just happened to be hunting YouTube for a funny video, when Mary Ann came into the workroom and showed me this one. I apologize in advance, as you will probably get this song stuck in your head. :)

This 'lil diddy is library-related (Harry Potter = book = library = cool place to be = you get my drift). I think libraries could definitely take advantage of the YouTube phenomenon. Some ideas could include:

-a video showcasing the various branches with an overall welcome
-a video demonstrating how to use the catalog or how to request an interlibrary loan at home
-sharing video from an event, such as the Harry Potter party (and/or an advertisement leading up to an event)

Or a mixture of these rotating quarterly or so.

I know I'm a YouTube junkie, but come on...if someone saw a YouTube video on our homepage, chances are, they would probably click on it. It would also be in two places - YouTube and our homepage. Other than the resources needed for production, this is free marketing! :) Plus, it's keeping up with a current trend - and that, would definitely peak some interest in our patrons.

Thing 21: Podcasts

When I saw "Ask a Ninja" on the Maryland Libraries 2.0 task page, I was super excited. If you're having a bad day and you need a pick-me-up, just type in "Ask a Ninja" into a YouTube search and prepare to feel better than you did previously...

On to podcasting - this is something I've listened to off of iTunes a couple of times and I know there's a category on my iPod for these, but I haven't used it as much as I'd like to thus far. After searching through some podcast topics, I decided to add The Animation Podcast to my Bloglines account. Animation is a topic discussed quite a bit in our house, so this will help me keep up with the conversation. :)

One of the neatest things from attending the MLA conference was a podcasting station where you could give feedback on the conference. Robyn, James and I made a podcast on a session we attended and it was posted on the 2007 MLA conference wiki. I was going to see if I could try to post it here, but I can't seem to find it. At any rate, it was really neat to see how instant and easy it is to create a podcast.

Thing 22: Audiobooks

Ugg...I know I said viewing problems as challenges is an easier thing for me, but I'll be honest. I really was not looking forward to playing with Net Library again. I've used it in the past, to no avail, but I tried to keep an open mind and start from scratch like I was using it for the first time.

After playing with it again...

I still can't download to my iPod (which I know from researching this has to do primarily with Apple, and while I -heart- Apple, this kinda ticks me off). Since I don't have a different MP3 player, I'd have to sit at the computer and listen to a book. No thanks -- I'm not really a big audiobook fan. My mind wanders when I try to listen to them. I can't tell you how many I've tried to listen to in the car...I mean everything from Freckle Juice to Janet Evanovich to a variety of biographies.

I also couldn't find some of the books I was searching for. Not to be a "Debbie Downer," but Net Library? Not for me.

Thing 19: Web 2.0 Awards

The Web 2.0 awards are pretty neat, especially if you're looking for the best of the best and don't have/want to spend a lot of time just searching yourself for great sites.

I was immediately drawn toward the music category and I am now...not ashamed at all...to admit I'm hooked on Pandora. Register for free (unless you want to take your music with you, i.e. iPod, etc.-- then there's a charge), choose a favorite artist, and they will create a radio "playlist" of artists similar to the one you've selected.

The really cool part is that Pandora will save your choices so you can revisit them. While listening, if you don't care for a particular song/artist, you can take them out of your list. I'm loving this site!

Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

Good idea! Since I have a Google account, I registered with Google Docs. This is really going to help on those days when I want to work on something at home and I forget my flash drive. I used Google Docs to add the work I've already created for my fall storybox and now I can tweak and add things to it, if I get inspired (or am procrastinating doing laundry). Nice!

Thing 17: Sandbox Wiki

I added a favorite food to the Sandbox Wiki and read a couple of the other posts. While I'm crazy about Wikipedia, this wiki didn't really peak my interest as much as the "Wiki of all wikis." No biggie...not every Thing can be a favorite. :)