The Birthday Bash

I was whisked away to very plush Crowne Plaza Hotel. Staying in very noise suite on the executive floor. I could have easily spent my morning parading up and down the grand staircase, but no time for that now! So after a couple of quick laps I rushed off to the nearby NLS4 planning meeting.

Spent the next hour and a bit at a planning meeting for next New Librarians Symposium (NLS4) with Librarian Idol, Ballarat Library Chick, Tania, et.al. (Just to clarify for Daysofourlibraries, I'm using Latin and not misspelling 'petal'). I thought I had kept my birthday secret, but throught the wonders of Facebook, the secret was out. Celebratory green lolipops were consumed ... not necesarily a good idea when you're teleconferencing ... all those slurpy noises!!!

Back across the river and up to The Rialto Observation deck for pre lunch drinks. Regualr readers will realise my penchant for observation decks...

Zooming back down 54 floors to the ground, it was off to lunch in the tres chic Cervos on Southbank.

Off on a river cruise accross to Williamstown to have late afternoon drinks with the 'rents. I would be regretting the decision to stay on the upper deck for the two hour round trip on a 30+ summer afternoon. Man, my face, neck, arms, amd chest are so sore!!! Tying up my tie for work on Monday had my wincing in agony! the trip back was interesting too - our party was sharing the boat with a hens night whio had obviosuly made a head start on the festivites. Those straws for the mixed drinks were just a little too much (I won't share the details in this G rated blog, except to say the bride-to-be was getting some practice for the honeymoon)

Back on dry land and it was back up to the hotel suite to get changed for the actual birthday party.

Exercise 25

This week's exercise is investigating Newsletter Pop. I have to say I was so impressed with how intuitive this site is. It took me under five minutes to have a very basic newsletter in place... the hardest part was choosing a template (note how I've coordinated my newsetter template with my blog!!)! Three simple steps:

(1) Select a template

(2) Enter text and graphics where prompted

(3) Publish

How easy is that???

Whilst I did find this exercies to be a bit of fun, it's not really a pracitcial tool for most workplaces where there are strict style and formatting guidelines. Nevermind, check out my little news announcement

Exercise 24

Days Of Our Libraries and I both received email notification this morning that we're a week behind in our 2.1 learning!! So a mad learning scramble ensued (well by me, anyway)...

I mentioned in a previous post that I was intrigued with Zamzar, and it is the focus of Exercise 24. I'm sure that is happens in every library... a PC user comes to the Reference desk with a problem -- the PC won't read their file. Normally, this involves summoning the IT Man In Library Land (aka Freeloading Phill)... but with Zamzar the front desk staff and PC users may be more empowered to help themselves!

I've tried converting a couple of files (a word docuemnt, and a PDF file) and was very impressed at how smooth the whole process was. I selected the file I wanted to convert (pdf), chose the format I wanted it converted to (html) and entered my email address. Seconds later I had a link in my email to the converted file.

Maybe we could investiagte creating a link to Zamzar on our public access PCs?? Have other libraries done this? Thoughts??

Phew... am back on track again.

The Playboy Librarian .... or a slow news year!!

I think Library 2.1 is going to be more fun for staff than Web 2.0. Just at a quick glance I can see a lot of useful resources for helping borrowers with those pesky PC problems ... Zamzar looks great for converting those PDfs that just won't print!!



Those who know me will realise that ever the narcisstist I just had to jump straight to this exercise...

What the heck is a 'ning'?

I've just joined the City of Boroondara Library Services 'ning'. I had to then go and research excatly what 'ning' is?? Who names these Web 2 applications? I chose to ignore my "inner librarian" and promptly went to Wikipedia to find this definition "Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks".

Am satisfied I know now (vaguely) what a ning is.... where is Freeloading Phill when you nee him to explain?

New Year...New Exercises

Web 2.1 has made it to Bayside Library Service! So stay tuned as I work my way through the next lot of 23 things...

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe 2007 is over already ... hmmm I think the years get faster the older I get!

This year we decided to escape the city and spend New Years away for a long weekend in Ballarat ... and whoever said that Ballarat is cooler than the rest of the state was fibbing! New Years Eve was a scorching 44C, but luckily the resort we were staying at was very well air conditioned and so I spent the afternoon bar hopping between the three icy cold bars, before finally braving the heat to go and see the celebrations in town - which was basically some bell ringing at the town hall ... fireworks, anyone??

Went for dinner at a very lovely restaurant, but managed to get completely lost in the car park and after doing three circuits of the parking lot trying to find the exit, I eventually pulled out onto the road to promptly be pulled over for a breath test after my "erratic driving" was noticed by a passing cop! Thankfully I was too out of breath after the test to be indignant about that comment!

Spent a very hot New Years Day exploring Ballarat and it's stunning Victorian era buildings. Truly a very beautiful city.

I was laughed at mercilessly after spotting the tourist tram around Lake Wendouree and declaring that we should do that .... yes this is the same person who loathes Melbourne's trams and resolutely refuseses to drive down any road that has them ... hello hook turns? Does any other city in the world have such a needless complicated system???

Rant over.... Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for 2008