Office 2007 & Shared Calendars

These are the two mandatory things on the Playground that were left, and I've now finished them! Does that make me officially finished?! (I'd still like to do Podcasts and Audiobooks, #22 & 23). I got a quick peek at Technorati (#11) and have wasted much time over the years watching YouTube (21). (See the "Otters holding hands" viral video above)

Ok, Office 2007: I went through the tutorials for Word 2007, and found them useful. I had been thrown into the pool, so to speak, one day when I sat down at the Info. desk and opened the Word program to find my old familiar friend had disappeared and in its place was a snazzy newcomer. I stumbled around and found the basic commands and was able to produce a document, but only just. The tuorials helped me become more familiar with the "new" Word - I particularly liked the tutorial in which you highlight a command on "old" Word and it shows you where that command is on "new" Word.

"Shared Calendars" My shared calendar consists of a paper copy hanging on my kitchen wall at home, where my husband, my son and I write our appointments, etc. It seems to work for us! But I can see that in a business environment with lots of meetings going on, the ability to look at others' schedule and book meetings via email would be invaluable.

Am I now officially finished the Playground???!!!

#19 Library subscription databases

I think most patrons don't know these databases even exist, and they are woefully underused. The ones I have had occasion to use are:

Auto Repair Centre
Canadian Newstand
Ebscohost (mainly MasterFile Premier)
Novelist
Patron Books in Print
Searchasaurus
World Book

I was rather disappointed when NVDPL cancelled their subscription to NextReads. I found it worked well for finding good books to read, and had recommended it to a number of patrons. But VPL still subscribes to it, so you can get it from them (you need a VPL card)

I have tried to use QPLegalEze, but must confess most legal reference questions defeat me. From now on, when I have a tough reference question, I'm going to use Askaway! (Is that cheating?) I tried Askaway during my last shift, and it was brilliant. I was given a Web address which contained - in a clear and understandable format - just the information I needed.

In my last post, I raved about Flickr. Another great thing from the Playground is LibraryThing. I use it on a regular basis - it's great for quickly and easily keeping track of all the titles I read.

Playground #17-20

These are the remaining items I have left in the Playground to look at. You'd think I'd be able to get through them before March 31st, wouldn't you? Well, stay tuned to see if I do it!

Askaway (#20): I've always been curious about this and would love to receive the training. The whole virtual, live chat, whatever you want to call it, reference model has (of course) good points and bad. From the asker's point of view, the "live but anonymous" aspect of it has the potential be great - but from talking to librarians who have worked on Askaway, it seems a good percentage of the questions are trivial and/or silly. There's a session at the upcoming BC Library Ass'n Conference:

"Seeking Synchronicity – Viewpoints of VRS Users, Librarians, and Non-Users on Live Chat Reference
Sustainability is a critical issue for BC's virtual reference service in this time of extremely tight budgets, rapidly changing technology, and continually evolving service models. "Seeking Synchronicity," is an international study that aims to innovatively address current issues concerning the evaluation, sustainability, and ultimately, relevance of chat reference for libraries."

So, maybe Askaway will be no more? Who can say?!

By the way, I now have a paid account on Flickr. There is a limited amount of storage a free account will provide and I found Flickr such a useful and fun way of storing, sharing and manipulating photos I decided to subscribe. I think Flickr is by far and away the best thing I have learned from the Playground. The photo at the top is from my Flickr "photostream." It's "Ka Lae" ("the point" in Hawaiian), also known as "South Point" and is the southernmost point on the Island of Hawaii and therefore the southernmost point in the United States.

Moving forward

After a quick trip to Las Vegas, where among other things, I saw The Blue Man Group Show (fantastic!), I must move on with the Playground. I have tackled 14 & 15 (wikis) and then realized I'd better get on with the mandatory things, so I read "Email best practices." I was interested in the "All About Phishing" section. It's amazing how much skill the perpetrators of these things will put into making them look legitimate. They must be fooling someone!