Thing 2: Library 2.0

I Love the idea of library 2.0. As a library user, I think L2 implementations help me to help myself and I like that. It means that I can reserve books and videos, request ILL, and view my borrowed materials and due dates online at any time without coming into the library. I feel trusted and competent, and any institution that makes me feel like that will get my business. I also like checking myself out. And I love the comfortable reading space (some with fireplaces!) at many of the Anoka and Ramsey County libraries and the coffee shop at Roseville. But I also think that enhancing service in the library means extending library hours. It boggles my mind to think that so many of the Minneapolis libraries are closed two days a week and are only open 8 hours a day. For me, Library 2.0 also has to embrace a commitment to libraries as community public spaces and to advocate for increased hours in addition to new technology. While promoting new services for those with the technology at home, L2 shouldn't forget about all those in the community who depend on the library for the very hardware on which those new technologies depend.

As a librarian-in-training, I'm a little anxious about keeping up with the technology. 23 Things is helping to alleviate some of that fear by encouraging exploration and letting me have a dress rehearsal before I get into a library. But where to find time? I think Stephen Abram makes a good point about finding 5 minutes blocks throughout the day to do these things. On the other hand, its easy to spend a hour browsing the blogs with nothing to show for it, at least in the traditional notion of productivity as accomplishing a work goal or serving a customer. For me, L2 suggests that community is first, something which many libraries and librarians have been embodying forever!

Thing 1: It's a Blog!

Creating a blog was fairly simple, after reading the instructions. And what I created even has a title, a description, an avatar and a couple of posts with tags. I did it!!!

Here are the rest of the pack for the booktalk on amazing animals:

• Scruffy: A Wolf Finds His Place in the Pack by Jim Brandenburg. This is a color photo essay for kids by the Northern Minnesota photographer famous for his wolf photos. It tracks a rumpled yearling wolf in a pack on Ellsmere Island.

• Peterson’s Field Guides for Young Adults: Birds of Prey by Jonathan P. Latimer and Karen Stray Nolting with illustrations by Roger Tory Peterson. Kids can be naturalists too and this mini-guidebook will introduce them to the methods that bird watchers use to identify birds. It also includes an abbreviated section of birds of prey common in North America.

• Poppy by Avi; illustrations by Brian Floca. This is a really exciting tale of a young deer mouse who faces the great horned owl, Mr. Ocax, who imagines himself the supreme ruler of Dinwood Forest. The mouse community has outgrown its home and wants to move half of their members to New House where the fields are supposed to be full of grain. Mr. Ocax refuses to let them move, citing Poppy and Ragweed's disobedience as his reason. Poppy undertakes a great journey through the dark forest to see if New House is really all that it's said to be, to find out why Mr. Ocax wants to keep the mice out, and to restore her reputation. Poppy learns to judge friends and enemies for herself rather than relying on the opinions of others and that she possesses all the strength and courage that she needs to survive.
  

• A Bear Named Trouble by Marion Dane Bauer. A young brown bear or grizzly, his jaw broken by a savage kick from a moose, wanders into Anchorage in search of soft food, like that found in bird feeders and garbage cans. He encounters Jonathan, a young boy, one evening in the boy's backyard. Enthralled, Jonathan continues to watch for the brownie, following him into the Anchorage Zoo, where the bear kills his favorite animal, Mama Goose. Incensed, Jonathan reports the bear to the local TV station. Trouble is now a nuisance animal and is being hunted by the game wardens. Jonathan is torn between his desire that the bear pay for hurting the goose and the realization that "taking care" of a bear who is not afraid of humans means that it will be killed. Jonathan is there in the middle of the action when Trouble is finally captured. It all works out in the end. Trouble gets his jaw patched up and a new home at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth where Jonathan is able to visit him when he returns to Minnesota to help his mother and sister move to Alaska.
  

• Garden of the Spirit Bear: Life in the Great Northern Rainforest by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent with illustrations by Deborah Milton. This is an absolutely beautiful book. Full of rich watercolors depicting life in the rainforests of the Pacific northwest. The pale gold or white spirit bears, which First Nation's people believe are a reminder from the great creator that the earth was once covered with ice and snow, are becoming increasingly rare due to clearcut logging in the area. This book explains the interdependence of the bears, the trees of the forest in which they are born and seek protection, and the rivers which their food source, the salmon, use for laying eggs.

Now to make sure that my booktalk stays within the 13-15 minute time limit.

Booktalking

I'm working on a book talk for my children's library materials course. I would like to focus on books about animals, especially heroic ones, because I remember how much I liked to read about animals as a child. I remember absolutely loving Where the Red Fern Grows. Here's what I've got so far:

• Lewis and Clark and Me (Laurie Myers) about the big black Newfoundland named Seaman who hunted, guided, and practiced diplomacy on the exploratory expedition to the Pacific.
  
• The Great Serum Race: Blazing the Iditarod Trail (Debbie S. Miller) about the gruelling serum relay to Nome in 1925 to stem the diptheria outbreak. This relay is commemorated annually with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
  
• Runt (Marion Dane Bauer) about a undersized wolf pup who learns about the world, life and death, and his place in the pack. It's a rocky journey but he eventually finds his voice, and his particular gifts for the hunt.
  
• Tiger with Wings: The Great Horned Owl (Barbara Juster Esbensen) is the story of the silent hunter of the sky. Beautiful colored illustrations show the how the owl's body is uniquely adapted for the hunt, with silent feathers, the facial disk which funnels sound to its hidden ears, and the ability to turn its head almost 180 degrees. Lots of interesting information about courtship behavior, nesting, and raising owlets too.
  

As a library school student in the final phase of study, I'm creating this blog as part of Minnesota's 23 Things on a Stick project. Looking forward to launching myself as a digital librarian, hopefully with lots of learning and some laughs too.