Vampire Energy

Thanks to Techsoup for pointing me to Lifehacker that pointed me to this interesting chart from Good Magazine. Lifehacker sums it up well:

"Good magazine has an interesting chart in their latest issue that details how much energy your vampire devices use, and how much it costs you to keep them plugged in. The guide differentiates between devices that are in "active" (ready to leap to life) and "passive" (just plugged in) standby modes, and some items are real shockers. A plasma TV, for instance, can cost about $160 per year just to keep plugged in. That Wii you got your hands on? $25 before you even hit one virtual tennis ball. The takeaway for me, at least, is thinking about putting some devices on power strips and turning them off if I know I won't be using them for a day or more.

Vampire Energy [Good Magazine via CNET News]"

Online Library Learning Games

Check out Carnegie Mellon University's Library Arcade. The site states:

"The Library Arcade features games designed to help students develop research skills through entertaining and easy-to-repeat activities. At this stage, we are testing each game to better understand how to present them to our users and work through any technical glitches we may find."

I bombed the I'll Get It! game, but did pretty well with Within Range.

Death by Meeting?

Read in Training Doctor News - Dec 2007

"Check out the Meeting Miser from PayScale, a
Seattle based online benefits and compensation company.
Meeting Miser will cacluate just how much you are
losing via ineffective workplace meetings. It's not
a bad idea to have this running and projected on the
screen during your next meeting - to keep people
focused, of course, and to make a point as well."

I tried this out by putting in all of the people present at the last meeting I attended, VERY enlightening!

Way Back When

In my daily email from Smartcomputing, I was directed to a cool site where you can type in a web address and then choose from a date in the past and see what the Web Site looked like.

Here's what my email states:

"Styles change. Fluffy bangs and stonewashed jeans aren't the height of fashion they used to be. Styles of Web site designs change too. Take a look at the awkward adolescent picture of your favorite Web sites at The WayBack Machine. Just type in a URL and you'll find links to snapshots of the Web site from years past.

Way Back When"

I found one of the first incarnations of the Systems's site. Go find something for yourself!

Upcoming WebJunction Webinars

WebJunction has some great Webinars coming up in the new year. Click the links below to register for the webinars. This is a great way to continue your professional learning for free!

USCIS Civics and Citizenship Toolkit for Public Libraries In Depth Webinar
When: Tuesday January 8th, 2008 - 12:00 PM
Where: WebJunction at Central Time

Containing a range of useful materials, the Civics and Citizenship Toolkit is the perfect resource to help your library begin or enhance a collection for immigrants. The free collection comprises immigration and civics publications, handbooks, guidance on product usage, and multimedia tools. Listen to a presentation, meet, and ask questions of the project coordinator during the January In Depth Webinar. The Spanish Language Outreach Program presents a free hour-long webinar focused on the work of libraries who are finding ways to do better outreach to Spanish-speaking communities. Registration is NOT required for this event, but to receive a reminder via email, you may register below. For details about this month's topic and other information on past or future webinar sessions, visit: Spanish Outreach In Depth Webinars

10 Ways to Make Your Library Great in 2008
When: Wednesday January 16th, 2008 - 01:00 PM
Where: WebJunction at Central Time

The E-Learning Institute presents a free hour-long webinar focused on helping library managers, trainers and front-line staff succeed with online learning. Registration is NOT required for this event, but to receive a reminder via email, you may register below. For details about this month's topic and other information on past or future webinar sessions, visit: Learning Webinars.

Rural In Focus Webinar on Collaboration
When: Thursday January 24th, 2008 - 01:00 PM
Where: WebJunction at Central Time

WebJunction and the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) present a free hour-long webinar focused on a topic important to the work of sustaining Rural and Small libraries. Registration is NOT required for this event, but to receive a reminder via email, you may register below. For details about this month's topic and other information on past or future webinar sessions, visit: Rural In Focus Webinars.

Lookybook

Here is a great resource to help you when deciding what picture books to add to your collection: Lookybook.

Their About Page begins:

"Picture books are for looking at. Lookybook allows you to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover, at your own pace. We know that nothing will replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but we aim to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids."

Spanish Outreach Workshops in Full Swing

I now have two of the Spanish Outreach Workshops under my belt. To learn more about these workshops, go here and here. Remember, I will be doing this at the Lancaster Public Library on 5/21/08 - hope to see a lot of you there! Ineavelle Ruiz (one of the other trainers) and I completed our workshops at Berks County Library System and Grove Family Library in Chambersburg PA. They went very well and the guest speakers for the panel portion of the workshop were wonderful.

I have set up a del.icio.us page filled with great links to all of the resources we use or refer to during the workshop. Be sure to check it out if you are doing any Spanish Outreach activities.

I will leave you with some photos from the Chambersburg workshop (sadly, we forgot to take pictures in Berks).

Ineavelle welcomes the participants:

I keep the momentum going during a group activity:

Our wonderful panel:

The New Pequea Valley Public Library

Congratulations to Margie Perella and the staff of the Pequea Valley Public Library. I guess congrats to their volunteers, board, trustees and the whole town are in order! What a wonderful new building. This shows that dedication and hard word DO pay off.

Here is Margie in her new space:

If you'd like to see my family's visit to the library, click here.