But Wait, There's More...

Paper Flower Tutorial

2012-01-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

There was a program a couple years ago at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference demonstration what could be done with old books, in terms of recycling them. Last summer we had a teen craft program and paper flowers from old book pages was just one of the stations. It is a pretty easy craft, so here's a quick tutorial.

Start with the following:

1. An old book that has lived its life to the fullest. Yes, you will be destroying it, but turning it into a thing of beauty. However, a flower will have text visible, so be careful in your choice of books--that realistic language may be featured on your flower.

2. A template for a circle--anything will do. I've just got the red cup here.
3. Pencil for drawing circles. A pencil doesn't show up too horribly if you cut outside of the lines.
4. Decorative edge scissors--or you could free-hand some edge pattern for your flower pedals.
5. A good stapler.

Next extract some pages from the book you've selected. You will need 8 circles. And don't be afraid of what's in your circles--just text, or a photo or graphic, or whatever.

Now use those craft-edged scissors--can buy these just about anywhere. Pick an edge pattern you might like. Different edges do give the finished flower a certain look. Cut out your 8 circles, staying within the penciled lines.

Take your 8 circles and start stacking them. Make sure that the text does not all line up the same way--it looks much better when you've got them varied.

Get that good stapler, even if you have to snatch it off someone else's desk. Staple twice to an "X" in the center of your flower circles. No, it doesn't have to be perfect.

Starting with the top layer, scrunch it up as illustrated above. This is no time to be delicate--be mean to that paper--really scrunch it, but don't tear or pull out the staples.

Continue scrunching up the layers, one at a time. By the time you're finished, your flower should look something like the illustration above. If not, you haven't scrunched hard enough!

Now peel your flower appart, starting with the bottom layer, and then one layer at the time up towards the top. The idea is not to completey flatten each layer, and in fact the closer to the top layer, the more they should remain scrunched up. It should look something like the illustrated flower above.

Hurray! You have a paper flower from a recycled book page. Now you know the technique, there's nothing stopping you from making this flower in different sizes, or out of different types of paper. An old recycled map makes a fantastic paper flower. You need to stay away from glossy paper--it isn't too forgiving when you scrunch your layers. You can also make a flower pin or apply your paper flower to anything else.

To make the flower pin pictured above--get some appropriately colored craft felt, cut it out for leaves. Hot glue the felt to the bottom of the paper flower. Next, find a pin back and hot glue that to the felt. Best to let the glue cool between applications.

Now go forth and create!

But it's in the catalog!

2012-01-25T17:31:00.000-08:00

Recently on the Central Texas Library System listserv, there was a thread on what unually collections public libraries had. Cake pans seemed to be predominent--Georgetown Public Library and Liberty Hill Library had them. Really, how many times are you going to use that Big Bird cake pan? Years ago at Harris County Public Library in the Houston area, I was at a branch library that had a cataloged set of car jumper cables. They were mostly used in the library's parking lot.

MsRuby's Flickr

So, what else is out there? Ohio libraries have some unique holdings. There's a educational toy collection at the Champaign County Library in Ohio, and also at the Cuyahoga County Public Library. Another cake pan collection is available at Montpelier Public Library, and at the Hubbard Public Library. Canal Fulton Library has some equipment for check out--typical gaming stuff, but then there are the humane animal traps, binoculars, short wave radio and sewing machine.

There's more out there--I just know it. But I just have to find it.

Dusting off the blog

2012-01-24T13:48:00.000-08:00

From Wisconsin Historical Images

As part of ever-necessary continuing education, we're tackling this blog with a bit more ernest. That means re-learning some things and starting fresh. But hey, we're all about education and self improvement.

So, I'll be doing some blog housekeeping and getting everything spick and span and shiny.

"Spick and span" refers to an old sailing term, where a spick and span ship had all new nails or a spike/spick and all new wooden chips or spans. Altogether, it means something is all brand new.
(Facts on File Dictionary of Cliches, 2nd edition.)

Future of Texas Library Systems

2011-08-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Flickr: Kat.

Thanks to the Texas State legislature and the incredibly shortsighted budget cuts that shortly be felt by all, the 10 public library systems that support public libraries in Texas will dissolve. The systems have been in place for decades, serving as a midwife to the birth of new, small public libraries. The systems would also assist their member libraries with continuing education, consulting, resources and grants. This hand-holding and networking was vital to both the libraries and the communities they serve.

However, the 10 systems are extensions of the Texas State Library. To balance the state budget the Texas State Library was told they must revert back to their original purpose--to be an archive, nothing more.

So what is the future of public libraries in Texas, without the help and assistance of the systems? For the bigger public libraries, they already have a large talent base. But for the smaller & isolated libraries, they are to be left on their own. They will struggle, they may eventually close or be stripped bare of usefulness. For many communities, a public library is a benchmark of success, of local pride.

Can we survive without the regional systems? Maybe. But it's not going to be pretty.

All about the Old Stuff

2011-08-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Flickr image from Super Furry Librarian

Nothing like a class to discover how little you actually know on a topic. Thanks to staff at the Texas State Library & Archives Collection, a class was offered on Archival Basics presented by David Gracy, professor emeritus in archives at UT School of Information. A very engaging speaker, Dr. Gracy was the Director of the Texas State Archives.

Archivists have a different point of view and orientation to the retention and organization of materials. Librarians are all about access--making sure people find things they want, organized to that end. Archivists are more focused on the material, keeping collections intact. So if Bob Smith's family donated Bob's letters, diaries and scapebooks on Bob's hobbies, it is important to an archive to keep all of Bob's stuff together. If Bob's stuff went to a public library, more than likely, it would all be split up according to topic and arranged by subject.

It's like there are cat people and there are dog people. They both like four legged furry friends, but then things split.

Freezer Paper Stencils

2011-06-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Turns out this is actually pretty easy. If you want to see a bit more tutorial, please click here.

Freezer paper can be found in the plastic wrap/sandwich bag section of your local grocery store or Walmart. One side is paper, the other side is waxed. You can find stencils or silhouettes anywhere on the Internet or clip art sites. Transfer your design and then cut out the space that you want painted. Fabric paints specifically for screen printing work the best--look for these at your local craft store. They tend to be a bit thinner and don't clump on the surface.

100% cotton works best for your surface. Always pre-wash to get the sizing out of the fabric.

Iron your cut-out on what you want to stencil, glossy wax side down. It will now stick to your fabric and create a moisture barrier so the paint spreads no further than desired. Let it dry for a few hours (2-4) and then peel off the paper. Give it a few more hours and then heat-set the paint with an iron. Use a cloth over the stencil when ironing. You can wash your item after a couple of days. I'd probably turn the item inside out and be careful when drying.

Cool custom designs await you, but a freezer stencil is only one time use.

Summer fun at the public library...

2011-06-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

The library is so busy during the summer time. Now that school is out the kids from around the neighborhood find air conditioning and entertainment at the library. You know that their parents aren't at home--these kids are left to their own devices. It's a push-pull: we want kids to want to come to the library, but we don't want them here all day with no parental supervision.

We put all sorts of programming on during the summer, offer reading incentives, show movies, etc., at our library. But we don't want to be babysitters. It is a real issue--to the point that we had to adopt an Unattended Children policy. Why can't parents be parents?

Flickr: Rishi Menon's photostream

Crossing the finish line...

2009-01-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed exploring the CTLS 23 Things. I had no idea of many of the tools available online. I now know how to navigate them better, and even though I don't consider myself an expert by any stretch, at least I have familiarity. I really loved all the applications online, like the word processing & file saving/sharing. As long as you can connect to the Internet, you have a home office that goes with you everywhere. I still don't quite understand the appeal of some other things, like social networking. Still, the exercises forced me to learn by doing, which is the best way for me to retain it. The organization and indexing of some of the sites could have been very much improved, but that's where libraries shine. Tagging as a form of indexing is definately a direction libraries can take, and this was eyeopening to me. I would be interested if CTLS offered similar training, focusing on a specific online topic in more depth--such as podcasting or online applications.

Thanks, CTLS!

Audio Books

2009-01-21T08:09:00.000-08:00

I poked around on LibriVox. Didn't see a whole lot I really wanted to look at until I clicked on the advance search in the catalog. The I pulled up poetry, which is always great to listen to, especially if the reader doesn't get too dramatic. I listened to some poems by Robert Frost--one of my favorite poets. I could see downloading a batch of poetry and listening to is--I find poetry very soothing. If I had lots of time on my hands, I could see volunteering as a reader...

Podcasts

2009-01-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

I don't have an Ipod or mp3 player, so I'm pretty far behind the trendy crowd. I did some podcast sampling via Podcast.com. I love science, so I found a Nova podcast on the Mars Phoenix lander mission. This was all audio interviews, but still interesting. I also listened to President Obama's Inauguration speech, which I missed yesterday. Searching for things seemed to be a bit cumbersome, especially on some of the other podcasting sites.

Fun with Video

2009-01-21T06:25:00.000-08:00

I've little experience with YouTube, other than watching my son pull up amazing videos. Some of my favorites are Christmas lights synchonized to Trans-Siberian Orchestra music. These are really amazing. Click here to check them out. I've added a cute video clip of a chickadee singing too. I could see adding library tutorials or maybe a sampling of fingerplays for the storytime moms to practice. Now if only we could afford a camcorder...

Web 2.0 Tools

2009-01-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

There are so many cool Web 2.0 sites to explore. Food, of course, is always a draw. I tried Urban Spoon, searching for restaurants by area and by food type. So, I go looking for vegetarian restaurants in the Austin area--this is much better than the phone book. I also tried Im Cooked, searching the submitted instructional cooking videos for diet cookery. I found that the videos loaded really poorly, leaving much to be desired. Yes, yes, I was supposed to explore only one site, but it was too hard!

Online Applications

2009-01-20T13:05:00.000-08:00

No longer are you shackled to your hard drive! Be truly mobile with online applications. I played with Zoho Writer through my Google account. I was really, really amazed. Where was this when I was doing conference presentations, trying to get speakers to collaborate? When the Internet is your computer, it really makes collaboration and presentation so much easier!

Wiki Sandbox

2009-01-20T12:42:00.000-08:00

I've spent some time playing in the CTLS 23 Things Sandbox Wiki. I added my blog, added some links to some favorite online reference sites and some travel links. It really is easy to add content.

What about Wiki?

2009-01-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

I've been poking at different wiki's, per our CTLS 23 Things assignment. I really liked some of the library staff wiki's and found myself going down different tangents. The Memphis Public Library wiki has some great staff training information out there--angry patrons, customer care, etc. I was a little less impressed with some of a library's community wiki--it didn't seem to have a lot of entries or contributions, so it looked rather skeletal. I worry a bit about inappropriate posts, but if log-ins are required and an administrator is looking over the page, that might be okay.

Library 2.0

2009-01-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

I've read through the article prescribed: "Technology Trends for a 2.0 World" in Library Technology Reports, Sep/Oct 2007. While still indignantly hanging on to the belief that libraries should keep to the high road, I do agree that we must adapt to remain relevant. I liked the idea of facilitating our patrons with web publishing. While I don't know about the funding to do it, it would be nice to allow for video editing, pod casting and cool software for our web savvy patrons. Since we already have hardware and software, this merely takes it a step further. I can see this progression. However, if we are to be trendsetting in libraryland we need to do things much, much better when it comes to webpublishing, etc. It's going to take more education and some toys to make that happen.

Technorati Tango

2008-12-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

Bloggers, following blogs that follow blogs. At least Technorati has some organization and searchability, or you'd never find anything in blogdom. I did my poking around in Technorati, looking for "learning 2.0" and discovered that tags seem to link to more blog sites than searching in the directory. I did some exploring and found a pretty good library-ish site that I enjoyed: Librarian by Day. This blog did come up when I searched tags on Technorati for "learning 2.0" but didn't appear in other searches elsewhere. Hmmm. I did not claim my blog on Technorati as it required a sign-in/registration. But I did ping my blog.

Tag, You're It!

2008-12-24T07:04:00.000-08:00

It took a while for me to figure out tagging. Sure, I listened to the tutorials, and I did poke around in delicious, but it looked like mostly computer technology and web design related stuff. Tagging sounds like a great way to better correlate the Web, but it may be too little too late. Since the web design and development links on delicious were sometimes over my head, I tried "travel" as a tag. I found one link, "Hotels to Stay In Before You Die," that was interesting. I think I'm going to need to explore further to get a better handle on tagging.

Gaming

2008-12-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

Just read an interesting & appropriate article from the BBC News feed on gaming. According to the article, it's not just geeky, overweight guys gaming--40% of gamers are female.

For simple gaming, nothing beats Bejeweled, which I play at home a bit too frequently, usually late at night when insomnia hits me. I prefer Bejeweled 2 through the Yahoo Games link, however. Better sound effects & animation. Next I played an interactive game, Free Rice. I tried language subject German, harking back to high school German class. Didn't do too horrifyingly, and I think someone might get a small bowl of rice for my efforts.

7 Degrees of Separation...

2008-12-22T17:42:00.000-08:00

Social networking looks like a terrible investment of time. Not sure this is really for me, but I did create a MyFace account. It just looked a lot easier than MySpace. What was weird was all the people it pulled up that matched my educational profile. My high school was huge, and I graduated a year early, so I don't know these people. College--well, my graduation year was for my Masters degree, so there's even more folks I didn't go to class with. It just feels a little creepy that MyFace automatically pulled these profiles all together with what little information I gave for my profile.

Chatter

2008-12-22T13:01:00.001-08:00

Did you know that the word "chat" has its root in "chattering" as in the noisy chirping of birds? The word evolved to mean "idle conversation."

I did try to chat, really. But my son--who is ALWAYS chatting on his computer--would not respond, so I don't know if I did something wrong, or if he freaked because his mom was inviting him to chat. So I had to phone him and he talked me through chat. How redundant! But yes, assignment completed. I did actually chat.

More Feeding...

2008-12-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

I finally found another feed that I like--sewing! It's got crafty hints and sewing projects, which is great. Appropriately, for creating the perfect multi-loop bow just in time for Christmas, click here.

Feed Me!

2008-12-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

RSS feeds are not exactly new to me, but I've never really subscribed and kept track before. I didn't know that there were sites to actually facilitate keeping track of the feeds. I subscribed to BBC World News--the only place where you will really find out what the world thinks about America; then to Librarian.net, which I've been reading for years; next Unshelved--the library comic strip that is altogether too real sometimes. Looking at this really short list, I realize I need to do more poking around and find some more interesting feeds...Suggestions, anyone?

It's All About Image...

2008-12-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

Today I played with image generators. There were almost too many to chose from. Some of the magazine cover generators looked fun, but everytime I tried to upload a photo from my files, the program complained that it was too big. So I explored some more and found this interesting effect called Hockneyizer. It didn't cry uncle when I uploaded a library picture, so this is my project for this exercise.

Flickr Tools

2008-12-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

I found this cool tool called Motivator that lets you create motivation posters with your photos. So I gave it a try, just to see. Here's my cat Peaches incorporated into a "motivational" poster. I'm sure she's motivated by it. More of my Flickr photos are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mychickadee/

Flickr Fun...

2008-12-12T09:27:00.003-08:00

Per our CTLS 23 challenges, I've created a Flickr account. It seems that there are a lot of really good photographers out there, but I'm not one of them. I've included one of my photos from Flickr here.

There is a bird feeder at the Library right outside the north window. This little garden area was created as an Eagle Scout project. At the beginning, I was the one to refill the birdfood and add water to the bird bath. Last spring, as I was doing my weekly birdfood re-fill, I heard a couple of mockingbirds up in the trees behind the Library. They were hissing at me--very angry. I ignored them to my peril. As soon as I was standing still at the birdfeeder, they began to dive at me. One came at my head, causing me to duck and squawk. The second mockingbird aimed lower and actully hit me on the side of my back. That really made me squeal and jump. After that, I fled.

Did I mention that the birdfeed was just outside of a very large window? While I was dancing around getting attacked by birds, everyone in the Library had a view to the show.

Fun with Google

2008-11-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

Playing around with Google, finding so much more than just a search engine. I am starting to see how people can spend all day on the Internet, though. SketchUp looks quite cool--I'm going to have to play with that some more. Google Earth doesn't show my house, however, just an empty field. Also, if you aren't too lazy in your searching, you can set up preferences in the general Google Search to cull out things you don't want.

In the beginning...

2008-11-20T21:39:00.000-08:00

Blogging is a bit foreign to me, like trying on clothes in a department store dressing room without a door. Others may have no fears about revealing how they feel moment by moment, or what's on their mind about any particular topic. But part of the CTLS 23 Things is going to push me into stuff outside my comfort zone. Which is good, right....?

Being lifelong learner certainly is a nice fit. Working in a library, there's always something new to learn. But this process pushes me away from the books and into more of the newer technology that I'm only passingly familiar with. Time is a giant factor, as the day is full of constant interruptions. Perhaps accepting that my pace may not be as fast as I'd like is just one thing I'll have to accept.