I'm finally finished with my picture/video tour of what a typical day looks like for me. You can see my first participation in the Library Day in the Life Project at these previous 5 posts. Sadly, I missed out in Rounds 2 and 3, but I'm back for Round 4. Thanks to Bobbi Newman for all of her efforts on this project!!
(Per Lori Reed's advice, for best results after clicking play, click the full screen icon in the bottom right corner, then click Show Info in the upper right corner to view my captions for each photo/video).
Showing posts with label librarydayinthelife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label librarydayinthelife. Show all posts
Monday, February 8, 2010
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Day in the Life #5 - LAST ONE
Well, it's Friday already. I'm always amazed at how quickly the weeks go by at this job. The best part is I'm not waiting for Friday on Monday morning like some previous jobs. I truly enjoy what I do and that is such a blessing.
I have to say I was a little nervous about the Webinar when I got to work this morning. I logged in 45 minutes early to do some more practicing just to make sure I was ready. Gratefully, there were no major technical snafus on the part of the participants, the other presenters, or myself. Woo hoo!! You just never know with the Internet; know what I mean? Everything flowed very smoothly and the presenters and participants all did great. Now there's a big check mark off of my list of things to do!
That took up the whole morning, so I went home for lunch, but Xia was sleeping :-( When I got back to work it was email ciy since I hadn't touched it all morning.
I have to say I was a little nervous about the Webinar when I got to work this morning. I logged in 45 minutes early to do some more practicing just to make sure I was ready. Gratefully, there were no major technical snafus on the part of the participants, the other presenters, or myself. Woo hoo!! You just never know with the Internet; know what I mean? Everything flowed very smoothly and the presenters and participants all did great. Now there's a big check mark off of my list of things to do!
That took up the whole morning, so I went home for lunch, but Xia was sleeping :-( When I got back to work it was email ciy since I hadn't touched it all morning.
- I scheduled some one on one training for a new branch manager starting next week
- I entered in some training hours for a coworker (I keep track of all continuing ed taken by the people who work here at the system on top of a list of all of the attendees of trainings we conduct or coordinate)
- Helped with some Spanish Translation (no I do not do this well but offered input on some translation we received back)
- Closed a couple of Work Orders that finally were finished: A name correction for a user of our intranet wiki, you'd be amazed how difficult that was to do. It took a couple of weeks to work it out with support and our IT Manager and Asst Manager did it, not me - way over my head. Also closed a couple of work orders asking for reports. I sure wish Millennium's reporting modules were easier to use. I offer trainings and people take them, but it's still very difficult for the users to do this on their own. If only we had a programmer on staff that could make it magic by pushing a couple of buttons and getting canned reports like they do at NOBLE. Ahhh, wishful thinking.
- And of course, then I jumped back into the world of Outlook Exchange. I just wish I could get a big chunk of time on this!
Well, I appreciate you all joining me for the ride. Don't know how exciting you may find my week, but I'm so glad I have a job that continuously challenges me and makes me keep on learnin! Have a great weekend :-)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A Day in the Life #4
Before I get rolling on my day today, let me say that I FINALLY made it to an episode of Uncontrolled Vocabulary last night. I've been wanting to dial in and be a part of this live podcast done by Greg Schwartz using TalkShoe, but 10pm is pretty late for me. I really enjoyed it, but I don't know if I'll be able to do it again. I usually listen to the archived podcast of the show. I stayed pretty quiet; in fact, I didn't really do much more than introduce myself. I was hoping to just sneak in and mute my phone, but Greg caught me and I got pulled in. It's pretty heady dialog for me, but I learn so much from it just by listening.
So, today - Thursday - Day 4 - has been pretty exciting. I did my first official screencast today because so many people are having trouble with logging in to our intranet wiki called LILLY. You can see what I did here. I had Jing bookmarked as something to try and I finally downloaded it today. My only gripe is that I had to install Microsoft's .NET frameword for it to work, but it works so easily. I had it done within 20 minutes after download. Their blog has great how-tos with videos of it all (of course). I still don't think I'd use something like this for official online tutorials to put on our OPAC or anything like that, but for quick and dirty stuff it was great.
Got caught up on email and finally devised a system to keep track of sites I want to review and videos I need to catch up on, archived webcasts etc. Tried tagging in del.icio.us as dowhentime, but never got around to it. So I started sending myself emails with the links, but they were just piling up in my inbox. So I created 3 folders in Outlook (since I don't use gmail for my work email, bummer, love the labels in gmail)- "Links to listen or watch when time" (which means over my lunch hour), "Links to look at when time" and "Links-suff to blog". Whew, that cleaned up my inbox as it was all very confusing. I use very detailed subject headings on these to help me know what's what. This really seems to be working well.
After that I received word from WebJunction that my ppt for tomorrow's webinar had been loaded and polls added where I wanted them. So, we're ready to roll. I'm a little nervous about the start of tomorrow's web conference. I used to do these all of the time at my last job with Spectra Marketing, but that was almost 5 years ago now. Wimba is really easy to use so I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about getting everyone in to the conference. I remember that was always the hardest part. If they haven't run the test wizard; if this is their first webinar; if they aren't real tech savvy; don't have admin rights, etc it can get kind of hairy. I'll let you know how it goes.
Worked on my new "Links.." folders in Outlook over my lunch hour as I couldn't go home for lunch yet again today. Hubby and daughter off to a playdate at the Choo Choo Barn today. Again, severe jealousy! My husband and I had one of our very first dates there. I knew I would marry him when he leaned in for a kiss as the lights went out and the mini train display mimicked evening with twinkling Christmas lights on the ceiling as stars. Come on, it doesn't get more romantic than that, right? LOL
Next I got cracking on the survey that needed to be finished today in surveymonkey. Got it done. Then I had a request to help someone create a complex list in our ILS system, Millennium, using the Create Lists mode. That ended up taking almost 2 hours, so here I am at the end of the day. Until tomorrow...
So, today - Thursday - Day 4 - has been pretty exciting. I did my first official screencast today because so many people are having trouble with logging in to our intranet wiki called LILLY. You can see what I did here. I had Jing bookmarked as something to try and I finally downloaded it today. My only gripe is that I had to install Microsoft's .NET frameword for it to work, but it works so easily. I had it done within 20 minutes after download. Their blog has great how-tos with videos of it all (of course). I still don't think I'd use something like this for official online tutorials to put on our OPAC or anything like that, but for quick and dirty stuff it was great.
Got caught up on email and finally devised a system to keep track of sites I want to review and videos I need to catch up on, archived webcasts etc. Tried tagging in del.icio.us as dowhentime, but never got around to it. So I started sending myself emails with the links, but they were just piling up in my inbox. So I created 3 folders in Outlook (since I don't use gmail for my work email, bummer, love the labels in gmail)- "Links to listen or watch when time" (which means over my lunch hour), "Links to look at when time" and "Links-suff to blog". Whew, that cleaned up my inbox as it was all very confusing. I use very detailed subject headings on these to help me know what's what. This really seems to be working well.
After that I received word from WebJunction that my ppt for tomorrow's webinar had been loaded and polls added where I wanted them. So, we're ready to roll. I'm a little nervous about the start of tomorrow's web conference. I used to do these all of the time at my last job with Spectra Marketing, but that was almost 5 years ago now. Wimba is really easy to use so I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about getting everyone in to the conference. I remember that was always the hardest part. If they haven't run the test wizard; if this is their first webinar; if they aren't real tech savvy; don't have admin rights, etc it can get kind of hairy. I'll let you know how it goes.
Worked on my new "Links.." folders in Outlook over my lunch hour as I couldn't go home for lunch yet again today. Hubby and daughter off to a playdate at the Choo Choo Barn today. Again, severe jealousy! My husband and I had one of our very first dates there. I knew I would marry him when he leaned in for a kiss as the lights went out and the mini train display mimicked evening with twinkling Christmas lights on the ceiling as stars. Come on, it doesn't get more romantic than that, right? LOL
Next I got cracking on the survey that needed to be finished today in surveymonkey. Got it done. Then I had a request to help someone create a complex list in our ILS system, Millennium, using the Create Lists mode. That ended up taking almost 2 hours, so here I am at the end of the day. Until tomorrow...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A Day in the Life #3
Helpdesk Wednesday. Yep, today was my day to cover the helpdesk. We usually get this duty once/wk within the department. We have an email address that all member libraries use to submit their helpdesk requests. So once/wk one of us monitors all the incoming email and then logs the information into our help desk management solution called Track-It! We haven't gotten to the point yet of having the member libraries do the submitting themselves through the online client, though I sure hope we do some day.
The issues that came up today varied from, all Millennium ports being used, an OPAC not working, how to set up a vacation message in our IMail system, adding a laptop to a networked printer, etc. Needless to say it's hard to focus on a project with all the interruptions that come in on your helpdesk day, but hey, it's only one day a week.
Still finalizing some parts of the ppt we'll be using for the web conference on Friday. Met with our PR Coordinator and will get to create yet another survey in surveymonkey. She is going to survey all of the staff and volunteers of the libraries to find out what types of database and OPAC trainings are needed to help us better serve the patrons. I think this is a very exciting initiative. I also hope there will be time some day when I and the system staff have enough time for me to train them how to do this themselves. For now, it's faster for me to just do it for them.
I entered in some names to our training database as I was getting a little behind from the last month's worth of classes. So that's now all up to date.
Had a discussion with the IT Asst Mgr, Mark about all of the details he has learned about Exchange this week. Lots of confusing stuff to sort out. My goal now is to just learn the whole thing inside and out and be ready for the questions rather than try to create some big training document. It's too big to do that. I hope to just make some quick job aids people can refer to for the basics and then serve as a resource for the more complex stuff. This first wave of training is just showing people how to send/check mail and manage contacts, we'll delve deeper later.
Lastly, I've been meaning to try out ping.fm and there was a post about it on techsoup so I finally went over there and realized I needed a "beta code" to get in. The site states "Ping.fm is a simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap". Wanting to get this off my checklist today, I threw out a share on FriendFeed and literally within 5 minutes got the code from David. Thanks David. If anyone else needs to know, for today it is pingbewithyou. So now I can just post in one place and it goes out to all of my social networks. Pretty cool. Just another example of how social networks DO help you. I can instantly get answers to my questions without using email - do you need more incentive than that?
Lastly, I am doing some contract work on my own time for the PA Commonwealth Libraries and the invitation to come to a Web2.0 Hands On Workshop went out to the PADLC and PASYS listserves today. I'm very excited to be able to do these workshops across the state as I've been waiting a long time to be able to train on Social Software. My goal for the workshop is to begin by creating a blog in Blogger; then create an account in Bloglines to subscribe to the blogs we created; then set up a del.icio.us account for social bookmarking (and show how to incorporate that into the blog) and show a little Flickr and YouTube along the way (also incorporating that into the blog). I haven't been able to do such a workshop at the system as this will be a full day workshop (my trainings aren't to go over 3 hours at a time) and there are other projects that have always taken precedence. So, I'm burning a lot of midnight oil to do something I love :-) By the way, if anyone in PA reading this wants to register, please check those listserves for the post sent today from Bonnie Young. This is the only way to get at the registration form. They don't have online registration :-(
Well, that's a wrap for the day. I didn't get to go home for lunch today as my husband and daughter went to the wonderful Family Place program at the Quarryville Library. She LOVES that. You can see how much she loves it here.
The issues that came up today varied from, all Millennium ports being used, an OPAC not working, how to set up a vacation message in our IMail system, adding a laptop to a networked printer, etc. Needless to say it's hard to focus on a project with all the interruptions that come in on your helpdesk day, but hey, it's only one day a week.
Still finalizing some parts of the ppt we'll be using for the web conference on Friday. Met with our PR Coordinator and will get to create yet another survey in surveymonkey. She is going to survey all of the staff and volunteers of the libraries to find out what types of database and OPAC trainings are needed to help us better serve the patrons. I think this is a very exciting initiative. I also hope there will be time some day when I and the system staff have enough time for me to train them how to do this themselves. For now, it's faster for me to just do it for them.
I entered in some names to our training database as I was getting a little behind from the last month's worth of classes. So that's now all up to date.
Had a discussion with the IT Asst Mgr, Mark about all of the details he has learned about Exchange this week. Lots of confusing stuff to sort out. My goal now is to just learn the whole thing inside and out and be ready for the questions rather than try to create some big training document. It's too big to do that. I hope to just make some quick job aids people can refer to for the basics and then serve as a resource for the more complex stuff. This first wave of training is just showing people how to send/check mail and manage contacts, we'll delve deeper later.
Lastly, I've been meaning to try out ping.fm and there was a post about it on techsoup so I finally went over there and realized I needed a "beta code" to get in. The site states "Ping.fm is a simple service that makes updating your social networks a snap". Wanting to get this off my checklist today, I threw out a share on FriendFeed and literally within 5 minutes got the code from David. Thanks David. If anyone else needs to know, for today it is pingbewithyou. So now I can just post in one place and it goes out to all of my social networks. Pretty cool. Just another example of how social networks DO help you. I can instantly get answers to my questions without using email - do you need more incentive than that?
Lastly, I am doing some contract work on my own time for the PA Commonwealth Libraries and the invitation to come to a Web2.0 Hands On Workshop went out to the PADLC and PASYS listserves today. I'm very excited to be able to do these workshops across the state as I've been waiting a long time to be able to train on Social Software. My goal for the workshop is to begin by creating a blog in Blogger; then create an account in Bloglines to subscribe to the blogs we created; then set up a del.icio.us account for social bookmarking (and show how to incorporate that into the blog) and show a little Flickr and YouTube along the way (also incorporating that into the blog). I haven't been able to do such a workshop at the system as this will be a full day workshop (my trainings aren't to go over 3 hours at a time) and there are other projects that have always taken precedence. So, I'm burning a lot of midnight oil to do something I love :-) By the way, if anyone in PA reading this wants to register, please check those listserves for the post sent today from Bonnie Young. This is the only way to get at the registration form. They don't have online registration :-(
Well, that's a wrap for the day. I didn't get to go home for lunch today as my husband and daughter went to the wonderful Family Place program at the Quarryville Library. She LOVES that. You can see how much she loves it here.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
A Day in the Life #2
Helloooo Tuesday. This was quite an interesting day. Let's see what I can remember of the day...
- more email to sift through as usual
- helped organize some training dates for new staff coming to the Pequea Valley Public Library's new branch, Salisbury Township
- blocked some dates for a new Branch Manager that will be coming to the Mountville branch of Lancaster Public Library.
- stayed in for lunch today as Grammy is taking care of my daughter today
- watched my favorite video blogs during lunch:
Tekzilla Daily
Rocketboom
Mobuzz TV
Geekbrief - Also followed an online chat during lunch hour from Philanthropy Today titled "Building Your Online Presence on a Tight Budget". Didn't get to follow it too well and hope to read the transcript at another time.
- created the survey for the mini-grant being offered by the PA Spanish Outreach mentioned yesterday.
- received approval for the final version of the ppt we will be using during Friday's web conference and sent it off to the Webjunction folks
- chatted with Lori Reed about Outlook training
- figured out I DON'T have to train two different versions of Outlook Web Access - just one! A consultant was in last week and got rid of some legacy stuff so what I was actually seeing was OWA 2003 interface and in reality EVERYONE will now see OWA 2007 interface. Yippee! I'm so glad I hadn't done too much documenting already
Hope you'll stay for the ride for day 3 tomorrow...
Monday, July 14, 2008
A Day in the Life #1
So, welcome to Monday. The day always begins with a catch up of all the email that came in over the weekend. First task, help a few people learn how to log into our intranet, LILLY. We use Mindtouch's DekiWiki for our intranet, and this is still a fairly new process. Now everyone can comment on pages or even create their own pages. It's a great way to exchange information and build internal communication. However, you must log in to use it, and a lot of people are still struggling with how exactly to do that. I'm hoping we can create a screencast that we can post on the entry page that demos how it's done.
Every Monday morning the IT Department, which I am a part of, has a meeting at 9:30am. Today, it was pushed back to 10:00am. Then, we received an emergency helpdesk call in the middle of the meeting. It's always tough to get all 6 of us together. The department is made up of:
Every Monday morning the IT Department, which I am a part of, has a meeting at 9:30am. Today, it was pushed back to 10:00am. Then, we received an emergency helpdesk call in the middle of the meeting. It's always tough to get all 6 of us together. The department is made up of:
- IT Manager/Deputy Administrator - Bill Hudson
- Assistant Manager - Mark Sandblade
- PC/Systems Specialist - Jordan Binkley
- PC/LAN Technician - John Ditmore
- Webmaster/System Specialist - Jeff Somerfield
- Training Coordinaotr - Stephanie Zimmerman (hey, that's me!)
We have a lot of projects going on right now, so it's always good to get together and figure out where everyone is and what needs to happen next.
I helped someone unlock a record in our Millennium ILS (Integrated Library System), helped someone figure out how to edit a header in a Word document, then off to lunch. I try to go home as often as I can over my lunch hour to spend some time with my daughter, Xia.
When I got back, I did some prep work for a web conference I'll be running with the rest of the PA Spanish Outreach team this Friday. We're going to be using WebJunction's Horizon Wimba client and I'm really enjoying that system. Our state coordinator realized she had some LSTA monies left over in her budget, so we're going to offer some mini grants out to people who come to the web conference. There are lots of criteria to work out and it has to be done quickly, but this is a great incentive for people to come and a great way to reach Latinos for our state's libraries. I will be creating a survey in surveymonkey that they will use to submit their proposals.
So now it's 3:30pm, and as soon as I post this, I'm off to work on getting ready for Outlook Exchange Training for our first library that is going to be migrated at the end of this month. For some reason, I am finding this to be more difficult than when I had to create training materials for Millennium! The main hurdle is that I really have to create a training plan and brief documentation for 2 separate groups. One group will ONLY use the Outlook Web Access 2007 interface. The other group will use Outlook 2003 on their desktop with Outlook Web Access 2007. What's so frustrating is that the interface for OWA for those who DON'T have Outlook 2003 on their desktop looks and acts differently than the OWA interface for those that DO have Outlook 2003 on their desktop. Go figure! If anyone out there has lived through this already, PLEASE share with me how you did your training in the comments.
See you tomorrow as you journey with me in A Day in the Life of a "Librarian".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
