Time to party

It's called www.meetup.com ...

a perfect combo of online social networking and meeting people in the physical world.

If you haven't tried it you should, at least once. Pick a hobby you really enjoy. I chose drawing. Go to meetup.com and enter your city and hobby or interest and hit search. It will pull up groups in your area that are oriented around your interest and when and where they meet. My first meetup experience was "Drink and Draw Sketch group". Basically a group that gathers a local bistros and restaraunts in the area for dinner, drawing, and conversation. I had a great time.

There are book clubs and wilderness survival interest groups. Night life meetup and movie-goers clubs are prominent in the area too. It is a great way to meet people and fill in some free time. Take a chance ad have some fun.

Lay back enjoy the pool and listen to the tunes

PANDORA'S BOX IS OPEN!

http://www.pandora.com/

Coolest website ever. Not sure how we can use it in the libraries, especially with the no speaker connection on public PCs, but other than that... very cool. Hey maybe it would help with the sales of headsets for the Friends?

FUN Photos make a splash!

It's Mini Me as Mona Lisa... I love www.faceinhole.com as a way to make interesting and hilarious pictures of friends. They have all sorts of scenarios and you can even order T-shirts of your designs!

Create your own FACEinHOLE

I think I just got water up my nose.

OK ... Being Productive Online... Kind of a strange concept.

I am used to surfing the websites like TV channels, idlely skipping from site to site skimming the information highway for something that catches my attention (OOooh shiney object) before going onto the next, usually unrelated subject...

To use the internet for something other than frivolous entertainment? My what an intriguing idea.

I can see where Google docs may benefit the commitees, especially those in charge of writing class scripts and "How-tos" for the public. Also the Public Relations department would benefit as they have constant editing.

Perhaps the Teen groups, would like it as well, since it would allow the kids to communicate with the staff as well as each other in a public format.

Yeah, I can see how Google docs would be beneficial even just on a basic level.

Who's up for a game of Water Tag?

Tag - You're IT!

Ok. I really like tagging... I mean, really like it. It makes complete sense to me that a library would use it for searching. Most people use plain English (generally not the librarians, but most people) and when searching for something the patrons don't remember the author, or title, but (hopefully) they do remember general storylines for the books they are looking for.

Here is where tagging helps. If you can tag a book with descriptive words based on the story, you're golden. Suddenly your online catalog becomes ten times more powerful than ever before. I think every library should start tagging its collection for the online catalog, makes it that much easier to use.

My Fingers are Turning Pruney

So I have been using Networking sites like Myspace and Facebook for a few years and I guess I could see where the benefits would be for an organization like the Library system. Promotion of the Summer Reading Club and the "What to Read" would be pretty easy on sites like these.

I guess my only hesitation would be that a library would have no say in what their "Friends" had on their sites so if you had a child say age 8 or so looking at the library site on Facebook and start clicking on the "Friends" on said library who knows what that kid could come across connected to that libary's page. But I guess that is something you always have to worry about with the web, can't filter everything out.

Belly flop!... Ouch! (that had to hurt)

OK... so I understand that kids love games and therefore encouraging reading through games is pretty much a no-brainer.

However, I would still strongly argue that there is no substitute for a good book and imagination, so as long as we us it as a secondary teaching tool for reading I think it's a good idea.

I do wonder though... there have been countless studies about how watching TV turns kid's brains to mush, I can't imagine how a computer can be that much better. I guess that's why we only allow two hours per card... to prevent brain-mush. Who knew?

Hrmmm...I wonder if I can do a cannon-ball...