Letter Dd

October 28th was a Doggone great Day for the Letter Dd

Turquoise Letter Dd's were dotted with dots

Letter Poem
D is for Dinosaur
D is for Dog
D is for Doll
on my log

We read books on dinosaurs, dogs, and a dancing duck.
The action song was Dinosaurs were...
Letter/ Craft Project were Dinosaur rubbings

Next Storytime is October 31st
A Spooktacular StoryTime!!

Halloween Spooktacular StoryTime

Click on the image for larger resolution.

Letter Cc

October 21st the Letter Cc was introduced!
Yellow Letter Cc's were decorated with Candy Corn
Letter Poem
C is for Cow
C is for Cat
C is for Caterpillar
On my hat!
We read about C, Cow , Caterpillar, & Cat books.
Song/ Fingerplay PopCorn!
Craft Candy Corn Man
Next StoryTime October 28 Letter Dd

Letter Bb

October 14th Letter Bb was introduced.
Buttons and Band-Aids adorned the Blue Letter Bb's for all to see!
Letter Poem
B is for Bear
B is for Boat
B is for Buttons
on my coat
We read B, Bugs, Bats & Belly Button Books.
Song/ Finger Play was Big Bugs, Small Bugs.
Crafts we decorated Halloween Bookmarks!
Next StoryTime October 21st Letter Cc

Letter Aa

October 7th the Letter Aa was introduced.
Letter Poem
A is for Alligator
A is for Ants
A is for Apples
on my pants
We decorated red letter Aa's with black fingerprint Ant's and put them up on the Library wall for all the patron's to see.
We read Alligator, Ant and A books. Our Song was Alligator Pie.
Craft was stamping half red and green Apples to make cards.
We finished with Stamping our hands with the letter Aa to show Mom and Dad.
Next StoryTime is October 14 Letter Bb

A-Z StoryTime

Welcome to A-Z StoryTime at Winsted Library!

Tuesdays, October 7, 2008 - December 9, 2008

9:30 AM-10:15 AM

Learn the Alphabet

A New Letter Each Week!

Stories

Finger Play

&

Crafts

All Children are Invited!

Thing 23 Evaluation

I Did It!!! I finished 23 Things on a Stick.

This experience has taught me to not be afraid to try using different tools with the computer and WEB. Normally I'm quite apprehensive and don't like to make mistakes when learning new things. 23 Things on a Stick made me try different things, make mistakes, fix them and found out I didn't crash the computer. My Husband is an engineer and is jealous of all the Things I have learned and can't wait for me to show them to him.

All the tools were interesting to learn about especially Blogging, Flickr, & LibraryThing.

I plan to continue using this blog for our Storytime Section at our Library. I now am more confident with uploading pictures and using the fun tools to display them on my Blog and someday our website.

I certainly would participate in a refresher/ updated Things program. The People behind 23 Things did a great job of setting this up, Thank you!

Thing 22 What Did I learn today?

I plan to keep up with the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 tools by using WebJunction webinars, my RSS Feeds and Lisa (who is at library school). I hope 23 Things on a stick will offer a refresher/ updated tools program once a year. I will continue this Blog to use for StoryTime at our Library and Summer Reading.

Thing 21 Other Social Networking Sites

Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networking Sites

I have been apart of social networking sites and didn't even know it. As a quilter I'm apart of a few site just for quilter's. I like how we discuss issues we are having with our quilts and find solutions or we even have show and tell of our projects. I joined Ning, specifically the Pioneerland Library Group. I see unlimited possibilities for us to share ideas, discuss issues in our system, and recommend solutions to patron issues the list could go on. I've used WebJunction as an observer. After this experience I will become a participant!

Thing 20 Social Networking Sites

MySpace & Facebook

I took the time peruse both sites, meaning signing up for both, and can see the appeal for teens. MySpace was easier to maneuver, but they both seem equally accessible. It would also be a great place to draw teens to your library. For us as a library, we need to keep up our blogs and website consistently to meet our needs. Sometime in the future it might be a possibility to help us draw in teens. Now I'm more prepared for when my daughter gets older and wants to try one of these sites out.

Thing 8 Slide Shows

I decided To use Big Huge Labs to produce my slide show of our 2008 Summer Reading Kick-off Party. It was fast and easy! I viewed the other tools and they are great if you have to give a presentations. I would certainly Recommend Big Huge Labs for it's maneuverability. These tools would certainly be helpful when presenting the budget to the county and showing them the progress we are making during the year.

Thing 6

Thing 6 Online Image Generators

My creation, originally uploaded by winstedlibrary29.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2857108683_4ffd9226fc_o.jpg

These are all very good tools to use to spruce up a libraries website and in the library itself. I find using Big Huge Labs and Image Chef quite easy and a lot of fun.

Thing 5 More Fun with Flickr

My creation, originally uploaded by winstedlibrary29.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2857018429_5546f65623_o.jpg

Thing 5 More Fun with Flickr

These tools/ toys were fun to play around with and explore, plus so easy to use. I used Big Huge Labs puzzlemaker and Spell with Flickr. These applications would be useful in generating interest in upcoming library programing and enhance current programming.

Library sign

Library sign, originally uploaded by winstedlibrary29.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/2816874786_3d3a605a0f_b.jpg

Thing 4 Explore Flickr
Uploaded a picture from our own Flickr Account. It was easy to access, explore and upload the picture to my blog. I can see us organizing a Winsted Library Tour on our website. I would also like to get our Summer Reading Pictures as well as Storytime pictures on my Blog. I do not have an opinion on photosharing, you can either share or make them private.

Thing 17

Thing 17 ELM


In a Google world most times ELM is a forgotten tool. I have had the opportunity to suggest it's use to patrons working on research projects, but forget to use it myself when doing mine or the library projects. Just think of all those databases at your finger tips and you can access it from anywhere as long as you have a library card. I thought it was great that you can subscribe to RSS feeds to follow up on new information coming into the databases. I like developing the folders for use at work so we can all collaborate and decide what we feel is important for our library use.

Thing 16

Thing 16 Assignment Calculators

Where was this when I was going to school! As a parent what wonderful tools Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculator are for helping your children organize their research assignment into manageable parts. As a librarian what a great tool to help us know about their assignment, where they are in the process, and help them locate the necessary materials to help them finish their assignment. Of course you could use this to manage large library projects. It would help in setting those goals and the process in meeting those goals.

Thing 15

Thing 15 Online games

If I may say so, I know about online games because of my children. They both have WebKinz and they spend some time on the computer each day taking care of them, earning kinz cash, working, furnishing their homes, and chatting with friends on this secure site. At our library Webkinz is quite popular. As far as adult online games, I knew about them, because of CSI: NY and SecondLife. I decided to play Puzzle Pirate for my online game. It was fun to dress my pirate, work on the pirate ship, go on missions and furnish my shack. It was interesting trying to figure out how to work with the other crew members. Online games are not for me, but it nice to be aware of them.

Thing 13

Thing 13 Online Productivity Tools

I used igoogle as my permanent home page, because I already was using it before 23things. It helps me remember birthdays, check the weather, and organize my other interest on one page.
Online calendars and to do lists are great as long as you have access to a computer and check it often. I did check out backpack and thought it was a great idea now if I only had the time to organize my life. Backpack looked like a great all in one organizing machine. As far as library use goes we could quit making lists on paper and start making them on the computer in order to save a tree!

Thing 12

Thing 12 Social Media Sites

I have never used any of these sites until now. I've receive my news from TV, Paper or Magazine, because that is all I seem to have time for these days. I perused all the sites and I liked Newsvine, because it seems so organized and possibly a good site for actual article research. This could be a good addition for researching articles at the library.

I really enjoyed using Stumble Upon. I liked setting up my own profile knowing it will help in narrowing down my search for the Websites I'm interested in. I can see this as a beneficial tool in narrowing down websites in doing research.

Both these tools take time to use, but could help make research and pleasure searching faster.

Thing 14

Thing 14 Library Thing

I Love Library Thing!! It was easy and fun to use and I can't wait to explore it some more.

How can you use LibraryThing for your library?
I Can't Wait to use it for when Children's books come in so I can post it on my Blog. The Plan is to Keep this Blog going for our patrons especially in the Storytime category to let them know what is happening at the Library. This tool will help me let them know about new books, award winners, easy readers, and more.
How else do you share book lists, etc. with library patrons? Would LibraryThing offer an alternative?
We share book lists by posters, New book areas in Library, What's coming on the Bulletin Board and handouts. Library Thing would bring our collection alive letting patrons know what we have in our collection, plus we can let them know what is coming and what is new to the library right now.

Thing 11

Thing 11 Tagging and Del.icio.us
As you can see in my Blog I have been tagging from the beginning. It has been a helpful in organizing my Blog. I Liked using Del.icio.us for organizing my bookmark and the ease of using it from any computer. It was easy to setup and I like that you use your own tagging system to organize the bookmarks
Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?
I can see this being helpful in setting up Research assistance in all the major groups of the Dewey Decimal System. By the Library bookmarking sites and tagging them into the different categories, it will help the patrons gain access to those sites faster and in a more organized manner.
How can your library or media center take advantage of tagging and del.icio.us?
We could set up research helps, book reviews, discussion groups, genre helps, gaming sites and more.

Thing 19

Thing 19 Podcasts

1. Which podcast(s) did you listen to?

Nancy Pearls Book Reviews on KUOW 94.9



2. Which of the directories did you find easiest to use?
Podcast.com was the was the easiest for me to use. All I had to do was type in Nancy Pearl's name 12 hits came up and I could browse each one to decide which podcast to choose. I also just typed in Book reviews and found her that way as well.


3. Has this Thing inspired you to do any podcasting yourself or to subscribe to a podcast to listen to it regularly?
Thing 19 hasn't inspired me to do my own podcasting right now, but maybe someday you'll find me podcasting my storytime at the library.
I have subscribed to Nancy Pearls Books Reviews and her videocast BookLust, because she is interesting to listen to as well as informative plus in the videocast she interviews authors which are wonderful for me to see and hear.

Thing 7

Thing 7 Web 2.0 Communication

Describe how your library uses email. We use email to communicate with the other libraries in our system as well as with those patrons that choose to communicate with us in that manner.
Has it improved productivity? At this moment we use it as needed and is not our preferred way of contacting our patrons.
Share your thoughts on online reference using some of the other Web 2.0 communication tools. These are great tools for college or large school campuses that have the staff to man these tools.

Are you an active user of text messaging, IM, or other communication tools? No, I am not, but I do know how to use them if I have to in pinch!

Which OPAL or MINITEX Web conference (Webinar) did you attend? How was it? What do you think o this communication tool? I Love the Webinars and have attended live a couple times. For this exercise I attended an archived Webinar ar WebJunction: 10 Ways to Make Your Library Great in 2008 via Web 2.0. It was interesting although not live you could still add comments.

Thing 18

Storytime with Mercer Mayer

Just A Secret

What did you like or dislike about the sites you explored?

I've already used these sites and they are lots of fun. I used YouTube to choose the video I chose, because it was easy to place it on my Blog. Google Video was interesting, because it draws the videos from other sites as well as its own.

Why did you choose the video that you did?

I chose the StoryTime video, because I'm the Story Lady and I take care of Storytime

Can you see any ways to use video--YouTube or other sites--on your library Web site?

If you make a video tour of your library facilities and services or of the activities going on at your library you could post that on your website use for marketing

Things 9 &10

Thing 9 Web 2.0 Collaboration

Which of these tools is easier for you to use?
Google Docs was easier to use than Zoho Writer

How do the features of each compare? Does one have features that would make you choose it over the other?
With Google Docs when invited to edit page it was like being in Microsoft Word. I could find all the editing tools and could edit right away. Zoho writer I thought was difficult to use because I didn't know what to do and i just stumbled upon some ways of editing.

What would the Founding Fathers think?
I think they would approve this is a great way to work on documents for committees, Boards, and all other kinds of groups that can't always get together .



Thing 10 Wiki's

What did you find interesting about the wiki concept?
Ease of adding and editing the Wiki and how we could use this at our Library

What types of applications within libraries and schools might work well with a wiki?
It would work for Class discussions on subject matter, coordinate student event and meetings.
Library use could be Patron reviews of books , coordinate Friends of the Library, poll library patrons for suggestions, coordinate library programing efforts, and more.

Many teachers/faculty "ban" Wikipedia as a source for student research. What do you think of the practice of limiting information by format?
I wouldn't agree on a ban because it is a good jumping off point for research, but it shouldn't be the only thing used. Students should be wary because you don't know if all the information is true.

Which wiki did you edit?
I edited 23 Things on a Stick wiki

Thing 3 RSS Feeds

What I like about the RSS and feed readers is that you can find and organize your blogs and or news items all in one place or for me in three place, because I tried them out and found not much difference so for as far as ease in use. When you start looking for the feeds they seem to come out of the woodwork and are not that hard to find at all. I have enjoyed this one so much, because it brings the world wide community even closer for me. I found this on the web and thought this is what we can do at the library level with RSS and thought I'd include it on my blog you can find it at
http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2008/technology-how-tos-for-libraries/
10 Ways Libraries Can Use RSS
1. Create an RSS feed for new additions to the online catalog.
2. Create an RSS feed tied to a library card account for hold notifications and/or overdue materials.
3. Create an RSS feed for new programs and events posted on the library website.
4. Create an RSS feed for the library’s electronic newsletter.
5. Create an RSS feed for press releases and other media advisories.
6. Create an RSS feed for library closings, including emergency closings.
7. Create an RSS feed for library job openings.
8. Subscribe to a few RSS feeds, such as local news websites, and share the content on the library’s website. This could be included on a page containing other local resources and local links.
9. Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library customers and share the content on the customer’s personalized library webpage. Customers can choose to access selected RSS feeds, their library account information, subscription databases, and email/chat with a librarian all in one spot.
10. Subscribe to a few professional RSS feeds and share with library staff on the library intranet.

Happy Delayed President's Day !!!

Winsted Storytime was canceled last week due to extremely frigid temperatures. Today we will find out "Who's fine face is on a penny and Who's fine face is on a quarter?" There is so much going on this next month that we will start getting ready for Easter and St. Patrick's Day with songs and finger play.
Come Join us @ Winsted Library on Wednesday's from 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Thing #2

We know time is always an issue--Stephen Abram shares some ideas on where to find the time for 23 Things. Where will you find the time?

I will find the time just like any busy parent here and there plus my kids think it's cool that MOM has home work. It won't be hard to find time, because I find this all very interesting and important to our Libraries future.

Why are you participating in 23 Things On a Stick? What do you hope to learn?

I'm participating in 23 Things on a Stick for Library Certification purposes. I hope to learn more about what the Web has to offer and how I can apply the new knowledge to my home library.

How has the Internet and the vast resource it can be affected your use of time at work and/or at home?
It has been incredibly helpful with accessing different tools for developing our children's programming.

Where are you in your knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools? How about your library?
I have limited knowledge and use of the Web 2.0 tools the same can also be said about our library. We have been working on it slowly, but this program will help tremendously.

What are you looking forward to in 23 Things On a Stick?
All of it!! I hope to learn as much as possible so I can keep up with my 10 and 7 year olds as well as help keep our Library and community up to date with the new technology and tools the Web has to offer.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from Winsted Library!! Yesterday, we celebrated with stories, fingerplay and a messy, but beautiful craft during StoryTime. Come next Wednesday to celebrate President's Day. Find out which President's birthdays are in February with stories, a new song and a craft.


This blog is possible due to my participation in The 23 things on a stick progam for librarians in Minnesota. Thing 1 was setting up a Blog. It has been interesting and sometimes confusing setting up this blog. The more I delve into the different processes the easier it has gotten. I will be keeping you up to date on my progress as well as updating you about our children's programming.

Come Join the Library Fun

StoryTime has begun at Winsted Library.

We celebrated Ground Hog's Day and found out we have 6 more weeks of winter. We did a little Snow Dance and found out what we can do on a Snow Day with sticker fun.
Come next week and celebrate Valentine's Day with stories, songs and crafts. See you at the Library, Wednesday's from 2:00p.m.-2:30p.m.

Spring StoryTime

Spring StoryTime starts February 6th- May 14th
Wednesdays 2:00p.m.-2:30p.m.
All ages welcome-no pre-registration needed
Join in stories, songs, fingerplay and crafts!

For more information call the Winsted Public Library @ 320-485-3909