gotta love technology...

So I'm trying to figure out how to attach a picture to our intranet discussion board...to no avail. I can do it posting the pics to my blog, so that's what I'll do. I'll figure out a better way eventually. :)

Spiderella

So, remember when the mice sing in Cinderella: "Cinderelly, Cinderelly, hmm...hmm..hmm.hmm... Cinderelly..." I can't remember that middle part.

Anyway, one of my awesome co-workers found a super-cool script for a children's play "Spiderella." It's a take on Cinderella, but with a spider as the main character, 2 ladybug stepsisters, fairy mothmouth, cicada prince, etc. I'm so excited and think this will be a perfect addition to the preschool and up crowd. More details to follow... (thanks Donna!)

Keep on, keeping on...

So, I've pulled every Anansi book possible and I'm whittling down the possibilities of what story to use for a puppet show for preschool and up. I really want to cater to the younger crowd and plan a show that is age appropriate for them, so I came across Mary Murphy's book A Caterpillar's Wish. It's very "toddler friendly," so I'm working on the script for that part. That way, if branches in our system want to use the puppet show box as part of a two's storytime or program, it's there. :)
I'm really having a much more difficult time (than I thought) finding bug-themed songs on CDs. I have plenty of songs and rhymes to sing along to, but I'm looking for an action song on a CD to really get the kids up and moving.
All in all, this has been a fun project so far. Time to go search the catalog for more CDs and other ideas that may light a spark...

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.