Storylines Q150

I was very lucky to be able to attend a two day workshop run by the State Library of Queensland last friday.   The workshop was part of the Q150 celebrations, its aim for participants to create a digital photostory that captures a memory or story somehow relating to Queensland.

Three staff from our library, four retired volunteers from the Milne Bay Military Museum and a partridge in a.. oops and a retired oral historian attended the workshop.

I must say one of the best parts of the workshop was talking with the other attendees.  I learnt heaps from them, and was on the receiving end of some great tech tips!!!  I was also very moved by the amazing war digital stories that they created.

I chose to create a story based on some interviews I had done with some of the parents who attend our storytime.  Due to time constraints, I only used one of the interviews.  We used a free program called Windows Movie Maker, and below is the end result.  And yes, that is me with the ducklings on my fingers!!!!

Good News

I am currently sitting in my local cafe Star gardentown, opposite my work.  I am having morning tea and enjoying using their wifi for the cost of a cup of coffee. My car is in getting serviced, and I had an hour or so before work to fill in.  I am using the time to catch up on emails, RSS feeds and blogging.

I can't believe that I have not blogged about this as yet, but I have a Librarian's job!! Whoo Hooo!!  I am now the Young People's Librarian at the Toowoomba City Library.  It is only two days/week, for a three month contract, but it is my first job!  And so far I love it.  I have worked some reference counters, ordered some books, went through the mending pile to see what can be mended, discarded or reordered, weeded some books, played hopscotch with some kids and begged our council IT guy for help as I stuffed up trying to add an image to our council's webpage.  In my defense, I had a bad head cold, forgot to resize the image and it was my first go.....

Our school holiday library programs were awesome once again, with great feedback from children, teenagers and parents alike.  I created another Animoto of our program, and I know its long, but it was really hard to cull such great photos of the kids enjoying themselves!



So, there you go. A quick catch up on what's been happening in my life lately.

Mashups @ SLQ's Licence to test Drive

View Toowoomba Regional Libraries in a larger map

A mashup is a web application that uses content from more than one source to create a single new service displayed in a single window. - SLQ

Yeah, I have created a mashup of all the libraries that are now part of the Toowoomba Regional Council.  Why on earth would you want to do that I hear you ask.  Week 2 of the SLQ's Licence to test Drive Part B is Mashups, and this week my mission was to create a google maps mashup.  So there you go, done!


I really enjoyed going back and looking at mashups again, and in particular enjoyed viewing Paul Hagan's Flicker and google street view mashup.  It is definitely worth taking the time to follow this link and look at the incredible historical photos of New York and compare them to now.


Just a few weeks ago a fellow twitterer (I call them twerps!) created a mashup of twitter users and the Local Government Network 09 Conference.  Whilst not attending IRL, I followed the conference online using the #LGN09 hashtag, and decided to add my name to the list.  A very cool thing to do, and you can read more about how and why he did it here.

Book Launch @Toowoomba City Library

Local author Deb Pachilke and illustrator Mick Grace, launched their book 'Eric the Echidna Has Lost His Spikes' at the Toowoomba City Library a few weeks ago.

"Eric the Echidna" is a children's book about an Echidna who gets caught in a storm and loses his spikes. Go on a journey with Eric and meet some of his friends who helped him find them.  Beautifully illustrated pencil drawings recreate the Australian bush and animals.

To find out more about the book, its author and illustrator, you can read their blog Eric the Echidna or contact Deb at  harbedinc@internode.on.net


The following animoto is their story:

Harry Potter and the School Holidays

The school holidays are nearly over in Queensland, with most students returning to school this coming Tuesday.  With the much anticipated release of the next Harry Potter Movie this Wednesday, the Young People's team -of which I am a part- decided we would theme our school holiday programs around the 7 Harry Potter books.


We made crystal ball snow globes, sewed owl softies, made Nimbus 2000's and Harry Potter glasses, wands and capes.  We also screen printed HP logos on calico bags, made HP beaded bookmarks, created Meg and Mog collages and made HP themed door hangers.  


Each school holiday we also run a treasure hunt of some sort, and this year it was made up of 21 excerpts from all 7 books.  The younger kids had to find all the hidden excerpts and find the 21 highlighted words within a word search.  The young adults had to find the excerpts and then write down which book the quote came from!


Below is an Animoto video of all of our school holiday activities.



We also hosted two workshops with Gary Clark, the creator of the Swamp cartoons on the last friday of the holidays.  Below is an audioboo interview with some of the teenagers who attended the last session, and a 30 second animoto of his workshop.

Relay for Life

It only seems like yesterday that my Father in Law was diagnosed with Cancer.  We as a family dropped everything and flew to New Zealand to  spend two weeks with him as he started his chemo.  I will never forget watching the nurses get dressed in the many layers of protective clothing and gloves they wear to administer the chemo, and then watching them pump it through an IV tube into his body.  Somehow the irony of that still gets to me.  The above photo is one of my favourites of the trip - our kids teaching their Grandad new skills.  It helped pass the time and allowed him to learn new skills that he soon excelled at!

It was therefore an honour to partake in this year's Relay for Life .  Many thanks to Rory - a shelver at our library - who put the call out for all interested participants. Six staff members answered the call along with two ringins.  Staff who didn't walk participated by cooking, and then eating a delicious fundraising morning tea which raised nearly $80.00.  All together we raised $1000.00.

The opening ceremony was a very moving experience for me watching all the survivors walk proudly past.  It was good to see the Mayor of our Regional Council, local member Ian MacFarlane and some regional councilors participate.  It was also very moving to see many families remember their loved ones with banners, photos and candles lit in their memory.

Some highlights were putting up our tent - see dad, I did learn something from all that camping we did when I was young;  the ever changing weather - we experienced all four seasons in one day with thunder, lightning and rain, strong winds, high humidity and beautiful sunshine; and amazing conversations.  As we walked and talked, we worked out a few statistics.  The track was 1.6 kilometres round.  We walked for approximately 9 hours, it  took us 6 minutes to do one lap of the track, thus walking roughly 144 kilometres give or take a cuppa break or two!!

Thanks to all who donated money, and to those that walked - thanks for the new memories! My thoughts and prayers go out to the many families whose lives are touched by cancer, and to my FIL - I did this for you, here is to continued good health.  I love you.

Author Kate Morton to visit Toowoomba

The popular author Kate Morton will be visiting Toowoomba on Thursday 26th February.  She will be speaking at the Empire Church Theatre at 10.30am.  The Toowoomba City Library has 150 free tickets to this event, and they will be distributed on a 'first in, best dressed' basis.  They can be picked up from the Enquiries Counter on the ground floor of the Library in Victoria Street.

Kate is the author of two very popular books:  The Shifting Fog, and The forgotten Garden.  Please click on the link to read a small extract from her book The Forgotten Garden, or here to read an extract from her book The Shifted Fog.

Hope you can make it for a great morning!

20th Anniversary of Toowoomba City Library

I finally finished my second digital photo story!  This one tells the story of the Toowoomba City Library's 20th Anniversary Celebrations.  It contains photos of staff, local dignitaries, the Friends of the Library group  and customers, all who have played a major role in supporting the Library.  Apparently it was a wonderful night (I was at the NLS4 in Melbourne at the time) and all who attended spoke very favourably about the library and the services we provide.


Toowoomba City Library's 20th Anniversary Celebration from Jo Beazley on Vimeo.

Teenagers' reading?

I would not exchange my love of literature for all the gold in the world

http://www.flickr.com/photos/happyaslarry/436601676/

Am not sure if I have said how excited I am by the fact that Clare Snowball is coming to our library to talk!  She will be talking on Teenagers and Web 2.0 technologies.  I have been following Clare's blog Teenagers' reading? for awhile now, and 'met' her via comments I had placed on her blog.  She will be in Brisbane next week speaking at a seminar for Information Professionals called Reality 2.0, run by SLQ and ALIA. This seminar sold out very quickly, and I was moaning to Clare that I was going to miss her talk, and since she was in the area (Warwick/Toowoomba) did she want to come and talk our library!!  I still can't believe she said yes.  She will be talking at the Toowoomba City Library on Monday 15th September at 9.30 am.  All welcome.

Come to the Library...

I have been thinking about and talking about self promotion for awhile now.  The new council budget was passed down last week and it was decided that the Library would no longer charge for computer and internet classes.  YEAH!  The question then arose of how to attract people to actually attend the classes.  I mentioned Brisbane Square and the way the Learning Lounge has put aside certain times on certain days for this purpose.  This got me thinking, and reminded me of the post by David Lee King on new ways to think about technology and tools.  What I got out of his blog was connections, and our need for them. 

So, this takes me back to promoting what we do, for example our basic computer and internet classes.  Do we try and sell it as the learning of new technology? (well, that is part of it), but for me it is about the connections.  Come to the Library and learn how to keep in contact with friends and family in far away places.  Come to the Library and we'll teach you how to set up an email account.  Come and bring a friend to share your new learning journey. Come along and laugh and play!  Come and learn how to see the photos of the new baby/wedding that they want to send you.  Come and we'll teach you about Flickr.  Just come to the Library!!

So, my goal at work this week is to ask any interested library staff to come up with five free(or very cheap) ways to promote our computer and internet classes.  I have great faith in the answers I will receive from the many assistants, shelvers, casuals and librarians, and it won't cost a thing!  Except the knowledge that staff are thinking and talking about how we 'do' libraries, and what can be better than that?

Feel free to comment!  You can do so anonymously via the comment box below, or feel free to write your name.  Can't wait to hear your thoughts....

Book Week '08 "Fuel your mind"

 

What an amazing job the Young People's team at the Toowoomba City Library have done on Book Week this year.  The theme was "Fuel your Mind", and the staff put together an interactive, multi-media package.  It contained great stories, songs, dancing, shadow puppetry, a powerpoint display and most importantly, active participation from all the students across Toowoomba who attended the show.

My favourite book read was 'Aliens Love Underpants', by Clare Freedman and Ben Cort.  What a wonderful job you guys have done, and all the time and effort you have put in has paid off ! 

May the many children whose lives were touched by Book Week this year become active participants in using libraries as part of their life long learning journey.

Book Launch at the Toowoomba City Library

I attended a book launch of 'The Story of the Swamp' at the Toowoomba City Library today. It was written by Jane M. Smith, one of our Librarians, and edited by Jayne Fitzpatrick, another of our Librarians. The book is a children's history of Toowoomba, and was written with information supplied by Peter Cullen.

The launch was attended by members from the new Toowoomba Regional Council, staff, local historians, interested community members and the media. The book was officially launched by the new Mayor - Peter Taylor.

The above photos taken by Judy, are of the editor Jayne and writer Jane, then one of Jane, then of the actual launch of the book. The book covers a broad range of topics about Toowoomba and is aimed at primary school aged children.

The book is on sale now at the Toowoomba City Library for $6.00 and is a great read. Congratulations on a great job!