Some thoughts on the impact of this class for me

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. 

 Besides the two items in my proposal, there are other things that I want and need to do based on the things I've learned through 5 Weeks.  I started sharing with my colleagues by "blogging about blogging" in our internal newsletter.  My intent was to do that from week to week but in reality I found I couldn't even keep up with the blogging for the class so my revised plan is to go through each week's material again as I did yesterday and share ideas and examples through our internal blog.

We have a weekly electronic newsletter for members.  I should be able to write in there about some of the things that are going on out in the library world and post links for members to see for themselves.  Our members annually have the opportunity to propose projects for LSTA grants and many of the examples that have been shared through this class are things that they could try to implement for their libraries using grant funds to purchase the needed technologies and help.  Seeing what's happening on the Champaign website, or Ann Arbor, or elsewhere will strike a chord with many of them. 

 Since becoming a System staff member, I've found that whenever attending a conference or workshop or webinar, one of my objectives is to look at who can bring our members the information and inspiration they need to make things happen at their library.  Yesterday going back through the blogging materials, I was able to think about how effective Anne Welsh with her "base it on stuff you do anyway" philosophy would be in reaching our special libary and academic members and how Nanette Donohue's experiences with getting staff members involved in a blog and determing some returns to report back to administration could help our public libraries get a handle on starting an effective blog.  I'm looking forward to reviewing the rest of the materials and hoping to that some of the folks that shared with the Five Weeks group will be willing and able to address our members.  We are already using OPAL for some Continuous Learning so...

I understood taking this on that it was going to be demanding and have tried to set aside enough time to really work with things but it did get ahead of me.  That may be because I was a real beginner-- had only posted twice on a blog, had tried and failed to set up an rss feed, never been to Flickr or MySpace, and knew just a little about the Ref Wiki that my colleague had conceived and created.  And, frankly, wasn't at all sure how all this could/would work for many of our member libraries.  Now I'm excited about the possibilities, convinced that I need to keep taking advantage of opportunities to learn about the technologies, understand that it can make a difference in my work effectivess, and know that it is very important to find ways to introduce our libraries to the possibilities and to support their efforts.  

Thanks to the developers and all the presenters for the time and effort put forth.  I really appreciate it.

Nancy