TechTracks Rewind

Did you miss attending the State Library's TechTracks sessions on blogging, Instant Messaging, MySpace and Social Networking, etc? We want to make sure you have an introduction to these emerging technologies before Staff Day, April 27th. The TLC is offering two overview sessions of these Web 2.0 technologies Tuesday, April 10, 9:30--11:30 and Thursday, April 12, 2:30--4:30.

Michael Stephens, our Staff Day speaker, is in great demand nationally and internationally. Library 2.0 and its impact on libraries will be his topic. This is exciting stuff and his talk will be much more meaningful if you've seen these sites and learned a little about how they can be used. Come see what this means for libraries and for you.

Call Jennifer Lively at 805-6944 to register. There's plenty of room, so encourage your co-workers to attend one of the two sessions.

CCPL Stars

April 17, 2007, is National Library Workers Day. The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association is sponsoring a contest. The form says "Library Employee ______ is a star because". Nominations may come from library users, students, children, colleagues--you. We all know people who are Stars, so why not take a minute and nominate them? Forms available ALA's web site at:

http://ala-apa.org/about/nlwdstarsform.html and entries will be featured until June 30, 2007.

Send 'em in!

Here's a great couple of shots from Otranto, their 15th Anniversary week celebration and their Read Across America program. Ray Turner and Carolyn Fortson were kind enough to send me several, which I'm adding to the Stafflines Flickr account. Once I get them posted, I'll share the link.

Want to see your branch or department highlighted? Send 'em in!

Speaking of local

Tonight starts the first of 10 musical events at Main. As our web page says, "Local Blend is an opportunity for local and regional artists to gain exposure to the audience in a smoke- and alcohol-free,family-friendly listening environment.
All performances take place in the auditorium at the Main Library at 68 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC."
So come on down and bring your friends. It's a great chance to hear a wide range of music, and it's free! For more information visit www.cppl.org, Services, Media. Each band has a link to their MySpace page. See how this all fits together??

Another local blog

More tech news from John's Island. Jana Jones put together a Children's blog for John's Island and she and Dawn Wacek will work together to keep it updated.
http://johnsislandkids.blogspot.com is a site with inforamtion for parents, teachers and kids.
I think it's great that John's Island now a blog for teens and children. In case you missed the teen one the first time I posted it, here's the link.
http://www.johnsislandteens.blogspot.com

A librarian's social networking site

Unsure about if or why you'd want a MySpace account? What if it was a social networking site for librarians? There is just such a thing, called Library 2.0 that I found, through my Bloglines account, from Jenny Levine's The Shifted Librarian. Bill Drew started this site a couple of months ago and it's growing rapidly. So, if the idea of being able to network with other social librarians is up your alley, check it out. http://library20.ning.com/

TechTracks follow up

Last week before the Podcasting class I sounded less than enthusiastic about the use of podcasts, as far as my personal interest went about my current use of this technology. I have to report that the class was great and inspiring. There are so many ways that we could use podcasts and vodcasts to enhance our services and to share what we're doing with more people. I can think of several applications and I've already been asked about others by some other class attendees. I love the idea of making segments of our programs available online, of having a summer reading promotion on our web page, of having an online story or poetry reading. We're really only limited by our time, assuming our expertise would grow with experimentation. What ideas did you have?

Teen Tech Week

Kudos to John's Island for jumping in to the first annual Teen Tech Week in a big way. They've had a program each day this week and tomorrow's big finale is MySpace in Our Space. I talked to Nancy Wilson yesterday about these programs. She reported that the program attendance has been growing throughout the week, with the MySpace program drawing the most interest. No surprise there! I'll be interested to hear how it went. I commend John's Island hosting these programs and for letting teens know that library staff is aware and using these technologies and for sharing their skills with their community.

more TechTracks

Today's another TechTracks session. This one is on Podcasting. I admit to having very limited knowledge about this, so the class promises to be informative and interesting. I've seen more and more site with links for podcasts of speeches, presentations, interviews, etc. I don't often click on the link to listen, even though I think the concept is great. Wonder if this workshop will convert me? Of course, you're dying to know, aren't you? I'll keep you posted.

15 years and counting

This week marks the 15th anniversary for Otranto Regional Branch Library and they are celebrating with a week's worth of activities. The culmination of the week is this Saturday, with an all ages Happy Birthday, Otranto Library program from 10 a.m-12 p.m. and A Jazzy Celebration featuring Ann Caldwell at 2:00 p.m. I know that various events are planned for Mt. Pleasant, Dorchester and St. Andrews as well. All the Regional libraries, except for John's Island, were opened in 1992, from January to June. It's truly hard to image CCPL without these well used facilities.

Congratulations, Otranto!

Another CCPL blog

A while back I posted links to two CCPL blogs, one from John's Island teen services and one from Main Business Reference. I thought there were probably some more floating out there and recently got the OK to link you to another one. Main's Reference Department has a reference blog that highlights new resources and tips for using exisitng ones. Take a look.
http://charlestonref.blogspot.com/

Any other blogs out there? I'd love to spread the word about your work.