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Written on: February 26th, 2009 in News
Thanks for all of the enthusiasm and approving comments that have been heard in the libraries concerning our new email notices! Not only is this new service providing a new level of convenience to library patrons, it also enables libraries to save money and increase staff efficiencies- two things that are increasingly important during these difficult financial times.
Don’t forget: to sign up for email notices all you have to do is provide a current email address to a staff member the next time you visit one of the Delaware Library Catalog libraries!
Don’t forget that we ALSO offer weekly lists by email of library materials newly added by the libraries, lists of selected web resources, and notices when this webpage is updated. Check out the “connect with us” section on the left-hand side of this page for more details, or to sign up for our “new item feeds“.
Card-holders who provide email addresses may receive following email services:
If you want to receive email notices from your library, please make sure that you have an up-to-date email address on file by updating your patron record next time you are in the library. If you do not want to receive email, you can ask to have your email address removed from your patron record if you have already provided it- if you didn’t provide one, you don’t have to do anything!
If you have junk-mail controls in your email service, you may wish to add sirsi@endeavor.sirsi.net to your list of approved senders. Most library notices will be titled Library Notice (Do not reply to this Email)
Written on: February 26th, 2009 in News
We’re very happy to announce the addition of LibraryThing to our online catalog!
LibraryThing is an online service that helps users list, describe, review, and catalog their own book collections.
(click here to open LibraryThing in a new window)
LibraryThing users have “cataloged” 30 million books, using 40 million+ descriptive, everyday terms to “tag” them. We’ve taken all of that descriptive information, along with the lists of recommended and related titles that are generated by connecting all of the data, and incorporated it into the Delaware Library Catalog.
When you display a book in the online catalog, you will see a lot of useful new information- the descriptive terms (tags) that are most frequently used in the LibraryThing database to describe the content, characters, or genre of the book, along with a list or related or recommended works, all of which can be found in the holdings of one of our member libraries.
Written on: February 26th, 2009 in News
We’re happy to announce that since the launch of the new catalog portal on July 1st, there have been 100,000 visits to this page from library patrons not only in Delaware, but from all over the United States and the World!
We’re also happy to see that visitors are exploring the site and using more and more of the available resources, including links to web resources, information on how to use library services, library maps and calendars and more.
Post a comment in any blog entry to let us know what you think of the new services and how we can improve them.
Written on: February 26th, 2009 in News
Reviews of catalog search activity by Delaware Library Catalog patrons show that one of the main reasons patrons experience unsuccessful book searches or misleading results is from simply mis-spelling title words or author names when using the catalog. The Delaware Division of Libraries, in partnership with Delaware’s libraries, is happy to announce the introduction of the Lucien spell-checking feature, now live in the Delaware Library Catalog.
Previously, an unsuccessful search would only provide a browseable list of terms following alphabetically from the incorrectly-spelled entry. Not so helpful! Lucien checks the mis-spelled word against a constantly updated database and offers a simple and intuitive “did you mean?” choice. Clicking on the alternative spelling will automatically re-run the search and return the results the patron was looking for. We hope that this tool will be helpful for our younger patrons, persons with limited English proficiency, and hasty typists.
Written on: February 24th, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Kathy here…The experiment I referred to last week involves a photo challenge I picked up on another blog. Take a photo a day. That's it. The who, what, when and where of the photograph is up to me. I decided to approach this as simply as possible. Just take a shot each day of the month…no overthinking, no real plan. And, note a short phrase/thought about each photo in my calendar. Then, at the month's end, upload the pictures to my computer and check them out. Welcome to Advanced Chunking! Small bits of time devoted to a large project that comes to life before our eyes.
Well, when I viewed January's photographs, I was floored. Certainly, here was visual documentation of where I was/what I was doing physically. That's useful on many levels. But I was also viewing "where" I was/what I was "doing" intellectually/emotionally as the shot was taken. And, that is useful on those levels we focus upon with the Learning Journeys. I recalled fairly easily what books and magazines I was investigating/relaxing with during the month. Best of all? This effort was effort-LESS. If getting entries into your Learning Journal has been challenging. Consider chunking in some respect…the calendar notation is particularly useful for thoughts about your reading.
Next, I'm considering taking photographs of my reading piles each week. That's one guaranteed way to make sure I don't miss a title for my reading list!
Written on: February 13th, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Kathy here ~ Honoré's last post certainly resonated with me…but I have not been nearly so positive about it. In fact, I think I have been a little grumpy about "no time" to work on even small goals I have set for myself. Since the same 24 hour time period exists whether I feel good or bad about where I am with obligations and desires, I recognized the need to pull out the time manangement tips and techniques that Honoré and I use in our library training session of the same name. And, there it was. Good, old chunking.
In time management,the idea is to block out nuggets of time before someone/something else fills your schedule. You maintain at least some control of what/where you are in your daily life! Plus, the chunking process turns large tasks or projects into more manageable bite-sized pieces. As a memory tool, chunking focuses on grouping information together in a way that allows one to quickly pull it foward. My newest revelation? These two perspectives can work in concert to illustrate my learning/reading path for me!
The experiment is underway…I'll report my progress next week. One final note, chunking is one answer to the tall tale of multitasking. If you want to learn more on that topic, I recommend The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done by Dave Crenshaw.
Written on: February 3rd, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Honoré here: It is February 3, already the second month of the year ~ 34 days have gone by…imagine! I don't know about you but I, as a member of a league of zillions of people, have made v-e-r-y little, if any progress, on my 2009 goals (smile). But why should I fret and declare myself a loser, I still have 331 days and everyday is a new day – another smile. I have been thinking and imagining and gathering and ruminating and contemplating and reading and researching and wishing and basically procrastinating! One of my goals is really not all that complicated and certainly not at all "no fun." The goal is simply to "play at art everyday." One wonders how difficult can that be? Simply a matter of letting the inner child out, sez she.
All of the above brought me to revisit one of my favorite books/authors: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. In my readings over the past 3-4 years, I kept bumping into Anne via other authors' words – she is/was a source of inspiration to them and so, I decided, I'd "meet her, too." And glad that I did. What a great conversation one can/does have with Anne. She's a keeper! This passage that I share from Bird by Bird tells it all:
"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was
trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table, close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder ,and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”p.18.
And having shared the above, guess I'd better get goin' on my own birds. Have you got any "birds" hanging 'roun?
Cheers~
Written on: January 26th, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Laura here: A friend sent this imaginative quote to me to share with Honoré who suggested I share with all of our readers:
"In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes; and though they know us, and have been waiting two, ten, or twenty centuries for us,—some of them,—and are eager to give us a sign and unbosom themselves, it is the law of their limbo that they must not speak until spoken to; and as the enchanter has dressed them, like battalions of infantry, in coat and jacket of one cut, by the thousand and ten thousand, your chance of hitting on the right one is to be computed by the arithmetical rule of Permutation and Combination,—not a choice out of three caskets, but out of half a million caskets, all alike."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Written on: January 19th, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Honoré here: One of my bright ideas for 2008 was to teach my nieces, ages 7 and 16, how to sew and quilt. I believe this idea entered my mind sometime during the summer. I finally got around to setting up a session with and for them the Saturday after Christmas. A part of their Christmas present included a pillow form and the opportunity to select fabrics – from my stash – for a pillowcase and also a "bucket bag." I'd also bought a them a book to read in preparation for the first lesson.
Saturday came and tho' we had a late start, we finally got the "show" underway. The younger niece had her first lesson on threading a needle and making a knot in the "string" – which is what she calls the thread. Eventually she will use the correct nomenclature…I noticed as she threaded the needle and managed not to make a knot , regardless of how hard or as many times she tried, that she was so patient with herself. She just didn't seem to become frustrated. It was a delight to observe that and also, a challenge for both her older sister and me, I must admit, to attain that "being in the moment" state.
How many times do we as adults decide we just can't do something even before we try and definitely after several unsuccessful attempts? How often do we just give up, defeated and/or disgusted or convinced that we aren't creative or we won't ever learn? How many new learning ventures have we abandoned or never really ever started because we're convinced that we aren't creative, can't learn, don't have the time, are klutzes, etc? Count me among the group.
I learned a lot from my 7 year-old niece that day: patience, perseverance, appreciation, admiration, extreme self-care. As I contemplate and embrace my current and new learning experiences, I shall keep her in mind as a role model and try, the very best I can, to be as patient with me as she is with herself.
Cheers~
Written on: January 13th, 2009 in Learning Journeys
Kathy here: We tend to focus on the long view in these conversations. I
mean, the words learning journeys conjure specific images in the mind's eye, don't they? A road meandering over the hill, a sailboat on the horizon…you get the idea. But, what about the learning we do in short bursts? That learning that may not be high – or even listed – in our traditional "learning areas?" My current book list triggered my thinking about this phenomenon. Let's call it Sprint Learning or In-The-Moment Learning, shall we?
I have been feeling a bit behind regarding tech toys and the World Beyond Blogging; so, I dug in and researched news feeds that would keep me in the loop without absorbing my life. Coincidentally, a colleague recommended an aggregator called Tabbloid that sends a digest update of your feeds to…your..email. Great, right? Finally, along the way, I found book reviews for iBrain and Geekspeak…why not check them out too? Sure! I was on a roll!
But now…the point. I can already feel this surge…this sprint…winding down. I have been skimming through Geekspeak, not really reading it.
The next sprint? Who knows…that's where the merriment emerges, isn't it? Have you sprinted through a subject recently? We would love to hear about it!
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