Are you doing tech training for your staff? What challenges are you facing? What successes have you had? I would love to hear your story and thoughts. Please comment or email me at reedlori “at” gmail.com. I’ll be glad to read your responses or set up a time to call you.

By the way Sarah Houghton-Jan gave another fabulous OPAL presentation today on Technology Training and Competencies for Libraries. If you missed it check the OPAL Archives to view a recording. Sarah had a lot of great ideas to share whether you are just beginning or have an established technology competencies program.

Day 7: Reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

Hmmm. I will start out by saying this is a lot of work! All of it. Blogging, reading blogs, and providing meaningful comments. Luckily a wise person once told me to stop watching TV. I took her advice and I have lots of time for fun things like this.

I think the key to being successful in this community is you have to manage your time well. It’s so funny how often this world reflects the real world. In the real world I would not spend hours flipping through hundreds of magazines looking for interesting articles. Instead I would pick a few favorites, read them thoroughly, and occasionally try a new one out.

For me I think blogging needs to be the same. For the past year I have subscribed to almost every library or training blog I’ve come across. That might help explain my 611 feeds. I will admit I don’t read all of them. There are a few that I read daily. The rest I skim for information. I have this fear of missing out on something. But I’ve come to realize that as long as I subscribe to a few select blogs I won’t miss anything! The biblioblogosphere is good about sharing information!

So my task will be to pare down the feeds. I am not going to unsubscribe. Instead I am going to rearrange my folders so that my favorite blogs are in their own folder and focus my time on those. I’ll also work on narrowing down my search feeds. Do I really need to see every post that has the words library and training? Probably not.

So while my reflection has little to do with the comment challenge, it sets me on the path to being able to be a better commenter by focusing my attention.

I’d love to hear from some of the other bibliobloggers who I’m sure have massive amounts of feeds. How much time do you spend a day reading feeds? Do you read all of them? Do you filter feeds with searches? What other tips can you share with the rest of us who suffer from too many blogs, too little time?

Michael Stephens, Meredith Farkas, Helene Blowers, Sarah Houghton-Jan, Jenny Levine just to name a few. Anyone else please feel free to comment too!

I’m a bit behind in the comment challenge. I’m so excited that other library folks are joining in. Meredith, Lauren, Marianne. There may be other librarians who I haven’t found yet. There are over 100 bloggers participating!

Day 1: Self Audit

• How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week? It really depends. Normally I only comment when I have something of value to say. I rarely comment just to comment. I abhor comment spam! Sometimes I’ll do a short “nice job” comment to let someone know I am reading. I found when I first started blogging that small gesture helped motivate me to keep blogging. It’s important to let people know that you are reading. Blogging is a lot of work! Here it is 10:30pm and I could be asleep but I’m here blogging. It’s nice to know that someone reads this.
• Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking? This has been a huge frustration of mine. If I comment on a blog and want to see if I have a response I either subscribe to the comment RSS feed (if there is one), or tag the post in delicious to follow up (the challenge is remembering to check my follow up tags). I’m happy to be trying a new tool as part of this challenge coComment. It seems like a lot of extra work, but maybe it will get easier as I become more familiar with it.
• Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week? It varies. There is no rhyme or reason to it.
• Review Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments and ask yourself how well you’re doing in each of the different areas. Are there any specific areas where you think you need to do some work? What do you want to do to address these issues? Yeah I’m guilty of a few of these but for the most part I’m on track. My challenge is more in finding time! I have over 600 feeds and 784 unread posts in bloglines right now. Maybe it’s time to weed my feeds!

Day 2: Comment on a new blog

I commented on EdTech Workshop. Andrea wrote about her challenges with coComment and I replied to let her know I’d had the same challenges. Not the most exciting comment in the world but at least she knows she is not alone. It’s all about community! It’s also cool that she is a teacher in the area where I went to school. It’s a small world!

Day 3: Sign up for a comment tracking service

Signed up for coComment. You can find me here if you have an account. If you don’t have an account, it’s free.

Day 4: Ask a question

I asked a question on Michele’s site about getting coComment to work. It turned out that Marianne Lenox and I tested things among ourselves and we answered my question. This is the thing about comments on blogs. If you allow them, you need to read them and respond to them. I was in the habit of emailing each new commenter to thank him or her for commenting. I need to get back on track with that. It’s a good habit and helps build community!

Day 5: Comment on a post you disagree with

Ironically I commented on Meredith’s post about the comment challenge and what started out as a “hey cool your doing the comment challenge” turned into me sharing a different point of view about a comment Meredith made on another blog. Maybe this shouldn’t count. I don’t disagree with her, but I like to play devil’s advocate sometimes.

Day 6: Engage another commenter in a discussion

I’m still working on that. Originally I thought this was engage the blogger in a discussion via comments. But as I type this I realize it is engage another commenter. That’s more challenging because you don’t want to hijack a post. Here are two discussions that I have tried to generate in comments: Banning Babies from the Library, Staying Organized. If you have time, please join in!

With that I think I’m caught up for the week! p.s. It’s not too late to join the challenge and become a better blogger.

From Indexed:

So many people have told me this throughout my career, “Don’t go to management with problems; go with solutions.”

Innovation is finding a solution to a problem but I would also add it is finding a solution to a problem that you did not know exists!

Today is the primary in Indiana and North Carolina. Record numbers of crowds turned out for early voting at the library last week. Normally I vote during early voting, but this year is different. This year I am an undecided voter.

Registered as unaffiliated, I get to choose which primary I vote in. It’s a toss up this year. The Republican candidate is pretty much already a given, and I am all for both of the Democratic front runners. Part of me feels it really doesn’t matter. It’s just a primary.

But something happened on the way to work this morning. I thought about all the women who came before me who fought so hard for our right to vote. Would I be doing them a disservice by not voting? Does apathy ever result in anything good?

I turned my car around and drove to my precinct. The parking lot was full, but I went in anyway. I knew that if I did not go first thing this morning I would keep finding an excuse not to do it. I only waited in line for about 15 minutes. While I was waiting I reflected on the excitement I felt when I turned 18 and registered to vote and felt even more so the first election I voted in.

I quickly but carefully cast my ballot and silently gave thanks to the many volunteers who work at precincts around the country.

To all my friends in Indiana and North Carolina, please go out and vote today!

I-voted-sticker, originally uploaded by voidmstr.

From Craigslist today:

South County Library Saturday afternoon - m4w (quiet room)

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Reply to: pers-667790072@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-05-04, 7:12PM EDTYou: in green w/ ipod headphones on.me: i sat down late in the eve at a table on the other side of the computer kiosk. i think we caught each other looking at the other a few times.

i would have liked to said hi - but it’s a library and not a bar - so here i am.

hit me back if you’re interested.

I love the line here, “it’s a library and not a bar.” If only he knew how many hook ups and hit ons take place on a given day. I hope she sees your ad!

From one of my favorite bloggers Michele Martin comes the 31 day comment challenge. Michele writes,

Comments are the lifeblood of blogging and for new bloggers, they can be the difference between sticking it out for the long haul and throwing in the towel.

I couldn’t agree more with this! Comments, linkbacks, and trackbacks are how I’ve “met” many of friends out in the biblioblogosphere. Most library systems are lucky to have one or even two dedicated trainers for staff. I remember being so frustrated a few years ago about not having anyone to bounce ideas around with. That’s why I am so thankful that I have been able to connect with other library trainers learning facilitators through all the cool Web 2.0 tools.

So I hope you will join Marianne and me in the challenge. Details about the 2008 31 Day Comment Challenge can be found here. There are a lot of educators and a few marketing professionals participating so this is a great chance to read about a variety of topics. There are even a few classes participating. I can’t wait to see what the students blog about.

Looks like May will be busy!

From ProBlogger comes this post from Michelle Mitchell Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs Are the Blogs to Watch. It’s an interesting post (even if you’re not a mom ).

In Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point he writes of the importance of mavens–those who are trusted for their opinions and who pass along information on what products, services and ideas are the best–and mom blogs are the maven nesting grounds. Moms want to know which products work and which don’t; they want to give an opinion on what’s worked for them and share their experiences with others and advertisers are just beginning to discover this advertising pot of gold.

You’ve heard “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”? Well she who does the shopping then blogs about it rules the net.

We seem to be doing a great job targeting and reaching out to teens and children with programs, but here is a demographic ripe for the picking. I know we’ve offered a few classes in online scrapbooking, but how about a moms’ blogging club while the older kids are in programs or storytimes or run a Daddy and Me storytime on the weekend and a simultaneous Mommy Blogging program. Summer reading is almost here!

If you haven’t heard of Geek and Poke take a look! Hilarious cartoons about Web 2.0 and technology and best of all they are Creative Commons licensed!

This one is for all my tweeps out there.

From Web Junction:

Upcoming Learning Webinars

Cultivating a Culture of Learning in the Library
6/10/08 11 AM - 12 PM PT / 2 - 3 PM ET
How much time does your library spend on “training?” Statistics show that most learning takes place on the job or with a coworker, yet as trainers we spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for and delivering classroom training. In this webinar you will learn why you need to get your staff out of the classroom and instead focus on creating a culture of learning in your library.

We will explore:

• The differences between training and learning
• The benefits to libraries for creating a culture of learning
• The key elements of a learning organization
• Tips for creating a culture of learning in any size library

Presented by guest speaker Lori Reed, Training Specialist for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County.