Week 9 The End? and winner of the MP3 player ;-)

Wow!!!

What an interesting nine weeks is has been!! I am glad that I participated in this discovery program. I found it very time consuming, but very necessary for my lifelong learning. We were often given an hour of project time each day to work on 23things. However, at our Branch we have been so busy with the extra Patrons from the Okeechobee Branch it was not possible to get project time everyday to work on 23things. I am glad that I was introduced to so many new websites. Some I had heard about for example blogging, You Tube, Podcasts and Wikipedia, but, I hadn't taken time to explore them.


What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I enjoyed everything that I discovered during the nine weeks, because, I realized that I need to make it a priority to discover new things on the Internet that could help our patrons with lifelong learning. My favorite week was Week 5 11th thing which was when I discovered LibraryThing. I love the idea of having an electronic list of books that I have read and books that I plan to read in the future. It is also interesting to see what my friends are reading. I think that we should do a story in the Happenings newsletter about LibraryThing because patrons often ask me it there is a list of books that they have read in the past. For patrons who have the Internet it would be great. For patrons who don't have the Internet, maybe a friend or family member could keep the list for them. I am sure that a patron's child living in another state could easily help their parent keep an electronic list.


How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

This program has given me tools that I can go to help me stay up to date with things that other libraries are doing that we may be able to use in our library. Also, with blogging I may be able to find some answers to problems that I come across that will help me do my job better and help me assist patrons better. I have created a favorites folder on my computer with all of the websites that I have been introduced to. I plan to schedule an hour each day to continue my lifelong learning with the websites.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I was surprised that some of my co-workers didn't participate in the program. I offered to stay after work to help a co-worker work on her exercises when our 23things consultant was on vacation, but she did not want to do it. I was also surprised that I had to work on my week 9 exercises at home last weekend because I was determined to finish by the July 15th deadline.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I think the format was great! Some weeks I felt that the exercises were too much, but then I realized that I needed to work on my time management. I realize now that I could have scheduled 30 minutes or an hour before we opened each day to work on my exercises and then I might have not felt so overwhelmed with each exercise task.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

I would definitely participate in another discovery program. Since I earned my library science degree from Florida State University on the Internet in 2002, I am often searching on Google for free library related online classes. 23things was a class that I have been wishing for. I look forward to taking a Fall class.