Wordpress

I don’t think it was necessarily difficult to learn to use Wordpress, just time consuming.  This is, however, a familiar experience for me when I encounter new technology, not something unique to Wordpress itself.  Working on a site that already had content made me a little bit hesitant to try things that I normally would have.  My usual way of figuring new things out is to just jump right in without really looking at tutorials, just to see how much of it I can understand intuitively.  I think that going about things in this way gives me a better opportunity to get the feel of a website.  However, with this assignment, I was worried about messing up the content for the other group members.  Therefore, I created another Wordpress account to experiment with (though I did do a lot of the less risky experimenting with the one we were supposed to work with). 

It wouldn’t be quite right to say that Wordpress is fun, but it is less stressful than other, similar websites that I have checked out since beginning this assignment (Drupal comes to mind).  Whenever I ran into trouble that I couldn’t figure out on my own, I checked out the available guides.  They usually got me back on track fairly quickly.

I fiddled around as much as I dared with WP.  Sometimes, I had to get creative, like when I couldn't get the custom fields to do what I wanted without just editing the html, and sometimes I would see things that I thought were nifty and then forget where it was that I saw them!  I think that's what I have the worst time with, being able to remember where to find everything.  Oh well, that's something that would eventually work itself out (probably) with enough practice. The drag and drop we use for widgets is nice, and I really liked how easy changing themes was, but I do wish we had more available themes to play with.

My teammates and I got along fairly well, despite one or two accidental setbacks and the late addition of our fourth member.  I do think that with an extra week or two we could do a whole lot more, but for a crash course in WP, I feel we’ve done admirably.  As far as I can tell, everybody in our group is 'getting it' now.

I laugh when I look at how long it took me to figure out how to embed videos into our page though, I can’t believe how slow I am sometimes!

Whew, I'm wiped!

It has occurred to me that using something like Wordpress isn't difficult, exactly, just very time consuming.  For example, when I start looking at things that you can do and trying to figure out how to do them, it tends to take a rather ridiculous amount of time.  Perhaps that's just me though, I'm not sure.

In other news, the library I work at has a DVD thief may their socks get holes and their hair fall out.  Grrr.  Can anyone think of a good way to stop them?  I really don't get why someone would steal something that they can see for free anyway.  Their behavior irks me, whoever they are, and they make bun-bun unhappy too.

I hope we catch them soon!

Add +1 to Bluff

Today I got to close the library by myself!  I was a little bit anxious, but things turned out okay in the end.  Things picked up a little bit about half an hour before closing, but it never got really backed up at the desk.  Though I did have some patrons come in 2 minutes before closing.  They were nice though, got in and got out fairly quickly, so I ended up leaving only about 10 minutes after closing (though most of that was due to my own paranoia and obsessive list double-checking).

I realized, as I was in the parking lot, that I had forgotten to turn off the lights in the bathroom, so I had to go back in and brave the beeping alarm turn them off.  All in all, it was only a little oopsie, and since I remembered before I left for good it hardly counts, right?

Just barely made it back in time for our 7505 guest speaker, Cliff Landis!  He seems like a pretty good guy, and he definitely knows his stuff.  After the class meeting, I spent a little bit of time looking up the various explanations of cloud computing, because it seems to be a very debatable term.  CC appears to be similar to a LAN with online data storage, though I know that's something of an oversimplification. 

I'll get back to schoolwork tomorrow, for now it's time to clean house!

Seriously, xkcd is Spying on Our Class

Tell me that pic isn't hilariously relevant to the new class module.  If it's too small to see, just click on it and it should pop open a bigger version in another window.

In other news, I forgot my keys at the house today.  Not my car keys, my work keys.  Thank goodness J was there to help me close!  It isn't that unusual for me to be a little forgetful, but I can usually remember things I actually need.  Must be nerves, or stress, we did have our first assignment due date...

Oh, and Kona rolled in something dead earlier.  Yuck!  I didn't know until she bounded up to me and I started petting her.  She got a cold bath for that one.  Here's a pic of her, for those interested.  She loved the mostly empty peanut butter jar.  I wish I had been able to get a video...

Expect more dog pictures later.  Possibly on their own page (if I actually get around to making another page to this thing like I keep planning to).

Bye for now!

Wiki Assignment

Assignment 1, Part 4

The library I have chosen to use is the library I work at. It is a public library that is part of a branched library system. As a branch library, when funds are limited, as they are now, the resources available to the staff dry up fairly quickly. The staff at the library consists of the Library Manager and the Branch Assistant, though on Tuesday and Thursday someone from the main library comes to drop off and pick up books. Patrons of the library are primarily people without much computer knowledge.

The library system I work for, the SGRL, has two separate wikis on both pbwiki and wetpaint; however, they are not generally used by patrons and are only sporadically used by staff (such as for specific programs, like the summer reading program). This is because the main form of communication between branches is through e-mail, which is perceived to be more secure and reliable (not to mention checked far more frequently).

Because of this, I took quite a bit of time contemplating this part of the assignment. As I narrowed down the available wikis, the primary concerns I had were with money and how long the wiki would take to create and maintain. Since the budget has been undergoing many cuts recently, it is important that the wiki be free. It is equally important that its upkeep not require much time or energy. I also considered whether or not the primary users of the wiki would be staff or patrons.

In the end, I decided that it would be best to market a library wiki to the pre-teens, teens and young adults that use the library as they seem to be the most likely to take an interest in and be able to utilize one. The goal of the wiki, then, would be to promote programs directed at the above age groups and also to provide a space for them to meet online and discuss books they might be interested in. It would be monitored and updated by the Branch Assistant as time permits. The wiki I would choose for my library would be Wetpaint. Not only does it meet the criteria I mention above, it is free, offers WYSIWYG editing (which enables even non-techies to work on the wiki), and does not have any ads (which might make it seem like our library was promoting products or services when we aren’t).

Why I Dislike Making Plans

I began my day with a decent sort of plan to get homework and some housekeeping done before work in the evening. I even managed to start on some of it before the family van broke down in the parking lot of a Valdosta Wal Mart. I wasn't driving, but I was the only person available to come save the day. What is important to understand here is that I live in the middle of nowhere so going to town takes at least half an hour both ways. Oh time, I know where you’re going, but can do nothing to stop you!

After the trip to town, I washed Bruiser, my adorable but slightly chubby 7 year old beagle. What I thought was a flea problem turned out to be a skin problem, so now he gets medicated baths whenever he starts itching. Poor guy, he hates baths, but I think he hates scratching all the time more!

Later, when I left the house to go to work, I got tapped from behind at a traffic light. It was really bizarre, because I’ve never been in any sort of traffic accident before, and I hardly think this counts as one. My car wasn’t damaged at all, partially because I had my foot off the brake and partially because the guy hit my tow hitch. It probably also helps that the guy had been stopped at the light and just took his foot off the brake by accident while he was fiddling with his radio.

Oh well, I managed to make it to work on time in spite of everything. What an oddly eventful day, surely I can justify putting off schoolwork until tomorrow?

What the Hex?

I just discovered how to change colors using a hex table.  :)  Really, it should not make me this happy every time I figure out how to make something work, but I can't help the feeling of satisfaction that bubbles up.

On the agenda for today is laundry, finishing Module 1 sections 3 and 4, finishing part 4 of  Assignment 1, and then work this evening.  Looks like I'll be pretty busy, especially if I get distracted by something quasi class related (like hex tables) again.

A Bit of Fun

I saw this and thought, how appropriate! I love reading xkcd (even if I do have trouble understanding it sometimes)!

Let’s see, I spent time today reading the material in Module 1 Section 3. Most of the articles seem have similar source material. I always wonder how relevant technology centric info is more than a year or two after it is published. Learned a bit more about RSS feeds today, I think I’ll wait until tomorrow before I do any more with them though. On the other hand, I’m going to dive in to the wiki part of our assignment tonight. Wish me luck!

Also, today was my very first official work day in the SGRL system! J seems really nice, and she’s good at explaining things too! I have tons to remember, but thanks to my previous experience with volunteering, I have less than I would otherwise. This is a very good thing considering the amount of time it seems to be taking me to figure out how to do the 7505 assignments.

It’s funny, I wouldn’t say that the course requirements are difficult, because they seem (IMHO) to actually be fairly simple once you figure out how to accomplish them. It the figuring that takes a lot of time. I’m having flashbacks to cataloging. There’s always info available to help you out, it’ll just take forever and a day to find it. ^_^

I have also just become fascinated by html, which is very bad for me because I really don’t have the time for it right now. I’ve also never been very good with languages (foreign languages, programming languages, take your pick). Oh well, maybe the novelty will wear off quickly and I can go back to being technologically neutral.

Making Progress

I spent this morning watching toddlers in the FBC nursery. L (who is 2) loves being picked up and spun around, which is fun until it’s been going on for over half an hour. @_@

After church, I spent most of the day going through the Module 1 resources and trying to figure out this blog thing. I have had a previous blog, but I never really did anything with it outside of course requirements. Needless to say, it was very boring and only added to under duress. This one I will try to make a little bit different.

I’m also always just the teensiest bit worried about posting my personal information, thoughts, and everyday doings on the web. Is it weird to dislike the idea of posting such things?

Oh well, hopefully this course will help inspire me to be better at keeping up with technology and finding useful ways to implement things that make access to library information easier for patrons. While I do spend quite a bit of time on Facebook, I’ve never really been interested in keeping up with technology for personal reasons. I got on Facebook because all of my friends were on Facebook. I don’t use MySpace because very few of my friends are on MySpace. In the same vein, I don’t have any desire for an iPhone and I don’t use text messaging, MSN, or Twitter. I have created a wiki page before, but that was a few years ago and I’m not entirely certain I remember what I did.

In other news, my experience with html was zero before today, but I modified a little bit of it to remove something from the template I found for my blog. Huzzah for progress!

The beginning

Hello all!

For those who think the title of this blog sounds eerily familiar, it's a nod to former library cat Dewey Readmore Books. For those who haven't heard of him, here's a link that tells his story: http://www.deweyreadmorebooks.com/

I look forward to posting more soon.