Just to make sure I got ALL the information I read all the recommended articles on Library 2.0 & Web 2.0. A LOT to absorb, so my thoughts expressed here will be rather random.
[1.] Libraries ARE changing & computers and easier access to information are a big part of that change.
[2.] All this 2.0 stuff seems to mean librarians will spend an awful lot of time on the computer. What about acquisitions, cataloging, processing books for the shelf, circulation, reference, in other words, everything we've always done & much of which we will continue to do for the foreseeable future. Where will all the time come from? Not to mention all the new skills. I don't think we can get time from a government bailout.
[3.] What about our patrons & their skills? For any number of years yet, we'll have two groups of them -- Generation Y, the young people who have never known a world without computer technology, cell phones, IM, texting, social websites, downloadable music, etc., and the older group, some of whom are still struggling to learn basic computer skills & e-mail. That group is used to a library geared to books. It's what they know & it's what they want.
[4.] I think we need to pick and choose what 2.0 things we can make use of in our libraries. Introducing them slowly will make the younger people think we're not completely hopeless and will allow the older patrons to learn a little at a time and not feel totally overwhelmed, which is how I'm feeling a little bit right now.
Last night about 10:30 I went to my sewing room and cut the strips for the framing pieces for my Happy Blocks. I should have gone ahead and done the sub-cutting because once I got into bed I just laid there and listened to the wind howl. I always have a hard time getting to sleep when the wind blows so hard. I can sleep like a baby through the worst thunder & lightning storm, but a little wind keeps me awake. Strange, I know. But then I think mice are cute too. Don't want 'em in my house, but they're cute. :-)
These two piles are fabrics I dug out of my stash this morning to make Happy Blocks for the Heartstrings New Year's Happy Block party. The request is for bright, cheery fabrics for quilts for children, with novelty prints in the center and solids or tone-on-tones for the outsides of the blocks. The pile on the left is novelty fabrics left over from the alphabet quilts I made for my grandchildren, with coordinating TOTs. The pile on the right is bright cat prints with my hand-dyes for the outside strips. I'll make a complete set out of the cat prints and as many as I can out of the other novelties. This project starts out on New Year's Eve day and continues through February so there's plenty of time for making blocks. The blocks collected by Heartstrings for this project will make quilts for children who need something to brighten their days.
Here's the quilt on my "design floor" that I put together on Friday. The blocks and pieced border pieces had been done for a couple months. I showed parts & pieces of it in an earlier post. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to put borders on it out of the fabric I bought for that purpose or just quit with the pieced borders and bind it in either black or strips of the hand-dyes pieced together scrappy fashion. Here's a couple pictures with the border fabric laid beside the quilt. What do you think?
The "camper quilt" was a hit. And until it goes in the camper next summer they thought it would look pretty good in the living room too. Here's a few other pictures of our Christmas.
If Ashley saw this she would wish she'd given Grandma a nicer smile.
My old one is at least 25 yr. old and is very slow to come on, plus the start button doesn't always work right. I think it was time for a new one, don't you? And I don't THINK it's even my Christmas present.
