My WordPress Experience

Experimenting with WordPress has not been nearly as difficult as I first imagined. Again, I think I have my blogging background to thank for that.

I like how customizable WP is. The widgets are similar to almost every other external application I've encountered in my Tumblr, Macbook Dashboard and even here on Blogger. I liked playing with the appearance of the site, although I wish I could have browsed more themes to find the perfect one. I added the calendar, blogroll, tag cloud widgets and made sure to keep the meta portion very prominent on the page to avoid the confusion many other teams experienced.

I chose the most light-hearted of the plug-ins available to my team: the Hello Dolly plug-in that gives admins a random quote from the famous muscial. It doesn't have a practical purpose, but not all widgets have to. I like to think of it as a "coffee-break" plugin :)

The difficulties I faced where related to uploading. I had trouble resizing a picture, so the picture of me on my page has an ugly white border. Hopefully, one of my team members can help me fix it. I also accidentally kept a link private, but that was easy peasy to fix. Another thing I like about WP is how easy it is to edit and how it automatically saves drafts for you, but these are also common traits of other CMSs.

Wordpress

Last night's class really helped me feel more comfortable with Wordpress. I created my page this morning and even added a picture, but it looked wonky so I took it down. Editing on Wordpress is really easy. I also changed the theme for the blog and played around with the widgets.

This module has more complicated material, but there is less of it, so that's good. I like working in groups too; it helps me feel less "d'oh!" and more "Oh!" haha.

Drupal and Wordpress

This Drupal stuff is mad confusing. I think I barely grasp what a content management system is and I get that you can make really snazzy websites, digital galleries, etc with it. I guess I just wonder the practical application of it. When I worked in public libraries, I was exposed to how very little technology the general public seems to tolerate. The vast majority could barely master Facebook or Monster.com or creating an email address. It seems like complicated stuff that many if not most patrons won't appreciate or even use.

Wordpress is a little easier to stomach, since I have a decent background in blogging. But it's not nearly as intuitive as other platforms I've used. I was disappointed we didn't get to discuss Tumblr during the Web 2.0 discussions, because it is my all-time favorite blogging platform as well as the most user-friendly I've encountered.

Perhaps I'll feel differently after tonight's class. I can definitely see how exciting the possibilities are. But I question the practicality.

YA lit

I found out today that one of my favorite books from early high school, The Perks of being a Wallflower, is being made into a movie with Emma Watson!

I'm so excited. That book meant so much to me when I was 15.

I thought I would use this opportunity to list some of my favorite young adult reads.

1) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty White

2) Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist By Rachel Cohn and David Leviathan

3) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle

4) Cruddy by Lynda Barry

5) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

How about you? What are some of your favorites?

GUGM 2010

Yesterday, I attended the GUGM online conference with my colleagues. GUGM, or Gil User's Group Meeting, is a meeting of the Georgia Interconnected Library consortium. I was able to become acquainted with a new online catalog search option that is currently in beta: Gil Find. It is a really great new interface that allows a more "Google-like" search structure. I found it much more student-friendly than the classic Gil catalog.
I also attended a session about Gil Express, which is the universal borrowing component of USG. I actually learned a lot in that session and got some clarification on some things I've encountered with Gil Express. I usually don't process the callslips for GE, but I do when our regular go-to person is absent.
I also attended two sessions about Ex Libris and Voyager. I found these both dry and not immediately applicable to my daily workflow.
All in all, I'm glad I attended the conference. One of the things I really admire about the library profession is the collaborative nature and resource sharing.

Wiki Assignment

Today I attempted the Wiki portion of Assignment 1.

Here are some stats about my library:

1) We are a mid-sized university library, serving both undergraduate and graduate students.

2) The college has a traditional emphasis on agriculture and veterinary sciences.

3) Library collections: 192, 397 books; 274, 086 e-books; 1,379 microforms; 2,276 a/v materials, 572 current serials titles; 242 electronic sources and aggregation services.

4) Total operating budget: 923, 890

Because I work at a university library, I wanted something versatile, easy to use and free that would help emphasize education. I was a little lost in some of the language (still a little uncertain on things like "domain" and "host support" which are concepts I think I understand but cannot articulate worth a lick), but with some help from a colleague, I was able to narrow down the WikiMatrix choices.

I decided to go with a hosted offer with WYSIWYG editing and a page history so that editing out spam or vandalism is both possible and easy. Most of my users will be English speakers. Out of the 23 options, Wetpaint (which other classmates have also chosen) seemed to be the best fit for my library. It has unlimited storage and bandwidth quotas and is ad-free for educational institutions.

A little bit about me...

For this to be my blog, it doesn't feel very personal, so I suppose I'll write a little bit more about myself.

I'm Jamie. I'm originally from Henry County (Stockbridge) but have been living in middle Georgia for the last 6 years or so. I went to school in Milledgeville at GC&SU, where I majored in Creative Writing. It is a source of the deepest shame that I don't really write that much anymore; I became really disenchanted with the whole circle of academia and how it trains writers, which is ultimately why I chose a MLIS instead of a MFA.

I just moved to Perry about two months ago, from Macon. I started a new job at FVSU's library (leaving behind a youth services position that I loved, but that's another post!) this past February. I really love living in a small town, but I always hoped I'd be closer to my family in the Atlanta area. Hopefully, I can make my way back up there once I finish my MLIS.

I have three lovely kitties (Elliot, Indie, Remus) and a wonderful fella, S. I'm hoping to get a dog in a few months.

I like crafts and cooking, when I have the time of course! I fancy myself a baker, although many of my baking experiments have ended badly (improvisation + cooking= Genius. Improvisation + baking= Disaster.)

Anyway, I think that's a good intro. See y'all in the funny papers!

My RSS feed

This RSS feed assignment has given me such a I'm really really over-thinking this headache. But anywho, here is the link to my feed:
http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/36651

Web 2.0 knowledge and such

I've never really considered myself a "techie" but I've always been interested in technology, especially the internet. I have to say though, that going to college really enhanced my knowledge of web technologies. I became much more involved in web 2.0 based applications such as Facebook and maintained a Livejournal blog, eventually trading in LJ for Tumblr. I have yet to succumb to Twitter, although I have a few favorites I enjoy reading (Amanda Bynes' Twitter account is hilarious to me).I learned about RSS feeds at a library conference a few years ago and use Google Reader to subscribe to a number of feeds (mostly fashion and food blogs). I also LOVE podcasts, especially Radio Lab and This American Life.

I'm hoping this class (Applied Technology in Libraries) will help me navigate the recent explosion in social media and web 2.0 applications and enhance my semi-limited knowledge. I hope to learn a little about web design. I think this class is going to be lots of fun!