Yesterday, for the first time I was able to take several hours to review the materials we've been interacting with over the past 4 weeks.  I listened for a second time to most of the Week One items.  I've been in the library business more than 30 years and have some pretty ingrained habits.  And a good many of the folks at the libraries I work with also have a large number of years on the job and also their way of doing things.  It is obvious that the demands on libraries and library staff are growing while resources seem stable (if you're lucky) or shrinking.  If there are better, more efficient, more effective ways to do things, then I needed to learn about them with the idea that part of my job involves sharing what I learn with member libraries and arranging for them to have access to that information and training. 

As we come to the end of the class, two definite plans are forming.  I work at the Prairie Area Library System which serves 370+ libraries of all types in 26 counties in northern Illinois with some cooperating members in Iowa.  The first was to propose using a wiki to take on a stalled project that used to be operated on a database by one of our sister systems.  Called Parade of Programs, this was a member library generated listing of people who had provided good programming for libraries.  People submitted the information and a staff member at the System kept the database up to date.  As too often happens, when the person who started the project left a few years ago, it was deemed too labor intensive, and no longer kept up to date.  Our member libraries have not only been asking out that data but even have expressed an interest in expanding the information to include adult programming information. 

Can't believe Week 4 is over already!  I've tried lots of new things and learned from others how they are using them to serve their communities.  There are still a great many readings that I didn't get to yet but the object of the exercise from my point of view was to see this not just as a list of fun technologies but to begin to put into perspective how I could go from seeing a list of terms to actually envisioning how they could make my life and those of the people I work with easier and more effective.  That has started to take shape.  It's been a really great experience thus far.

I came in late on Nanette's presentation but got some good ideas even in that brief time so am looking forward to going back and hearing it from the beginning.  My question was about getting participation in a blog where there is a small library with few or one staff.  I liked the answer about having them work with other libraries but am really interested in hearing who's out there serving 5000 or fewer people who has some experience.  As you all know library directors in small situations wear many hats so giving them some examples of how it's worked for others in similar situat

Since my second attempt at posting seems to have worked, I wanted to tell a little about myself and my background.  I am a Library Services Coordinator at the Prairie Area Library System in Illinois.  I work mainly with public libraries and library trustees.  It's my dream job; people who  work in and are interested in libraries are great!  Our System serves 26 counties and we have 140 public library members (5 are cooperating members in Iowa).  I am really looking forward to better understanding the technologies and how they can help our member libraries more effectively serve their users. 

It has been fun to read the entries posted.  It was especially comforting to know that someone else seemed to have some problems posting.  I am pleased and excited and scared to be in this group.  One of our daughters-in-law recently commented on our oldest grandson (age 7) that he is uncomfortable when he doesn't feel well prepared or think he understands just what's going to happen.  That's how I feel about this experience, especially having already tried to post once.  We'll see where this attempt goes.

 Nancy