I am almost caught up. That is what happens when you do three tasks in one afternoon. If you go to the very bottom of my blog, you will see my Rollyo list.

Eventually, I will stop hoping that hand weaving and computers have any links to each other. I know that there are looms that are operated by computers, but there are very few links on the web to actual weaving and weavers. So my first Rollyo was not very helpful.

However I made a Rollyo on RA. I am hoping I find that more useful.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

My creation
Originally uploaded by weavinglibrarian

Three tries must be the charm. This is what I created with FD toys.

I played with Cool Text and the Generator Blog. As you can see to the left, I have managed to post a date from the Generator Blog. I made an image on the Cool Text generator, but could not make it do what I wanted it to do.

I wanted to post it here. I just couldn't make it work. So instead I tried another generator and I did no better with that one. I guess I will come back to this after I talk to some other staff.

At least I got the countdown to work.

So now, I am working on the 9th thing which makes me about four weeks behind on Pamunkey's 20 things. The 9th thing was feeds - again. I am not sure what I was supposed to gain here. I tried all four tools that were suggested and the first time round I used the term public libraries.

To be honest, I did not find much that interested me. I think it was the terms I used. Maybe public libraries are just not of great interest except to librarians. ;>)

So I went back and tried books and reading. Much, much better. I found a number of blogs to read; some best of 2007 lists and a couple of news articles. Obviously I have learned two things - try several terms and when people talk about libraries they may not mean a library like PRL.

I am so glad we have gotten to Library Thing. I never wanted to be a cataloger, but I love Library Thing. I have been a lifetime member since May 2007. I do not have all of my books in my library yet, but what is in there might surprise you.

I buy adult fiction for Pamunkey and have a great time doing it. Also if you looked at my reading log, you would see that I read mostly fiction. So wouldn't it make sense that my library at Library Thing would tend to be fiction?

I have put random books on the left hand side of this page. I think this service from Library Thing is fun. Plus it proves that I have added at least five books so I have completed my 8th thing.

However, when you look over there - what do you see? I have 271 books in my library and 260 of them have the tag non-fiction. This is a good reflection of my personal library. SO, what books did you add to Library Thing?

I suspect that I will eventually catch up on my 20 Things, I think I am only a couple of weeks behind.
Has anyone found that having the RSS feeds are helping them keep up with the world? I am subscribed to these feeds through Bloglines:
About Contemporary Literature
Blogging for a Good Book
Bloglines News
LibraryCrunch
NYT Book Review
The Shifted Librarian
Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology
But now I have to remember to go and read them. How have you integrated RSS into your life? I am really looking for some help here. Thanks, Patty

Well, I am trying to catch up with our 20 things. So I just spent time on My Space. It is not the place for me, unfortunately.

There are plenty of people with my name, but no real way for me to find my favorite hobby - weaving. I tried weaving, handweaving, looms and even yarn. I suspect that looms and handweaving are not something that many My Spacers lists.

I have many family members on Facebook. Some day maybe I will try there.

Although I can see the attraction of all these places, I will save my computer time for some other sites, blogs, wikis, etc.

office 001
Originally uploaded by weavinglibrarian

Finally, I get around to task #5 on Pamunkey's 20 things.
Flickr is very easy to use and I had no trouble becoming a member. I can see lots of uses for this site - maybe I will post my pictures from Israel. If I ever get there and back again.

I took two pictures of my office. One highlighting the candy jar. This is everyone's favorite part of my desk and the one place I try to keep uncovered.

Hope that the rest of you all had fun with this.

I wish I had thought of this video. I am now going to think about which books I would use if I did a similar thing.




I had played around on YouTube before - mostly when someone sent me a link. Today, I entered lots of different terms into the search box. This is the best video I found. I am not about to show you the worst.

Once again, this was fun!

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had finished The gods drink whiskey : stumbling toward enlightenment in the land of the tattered Buddha, which I had found by looking for a different book. Another book that I found at the same time, is called Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

This has been one of the books that I learn so much that I go around annoying everyone with factoids. The dust jacket says Gilbert "describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to misconceive our tomorrow and misestimate our satisfactions." This is better than any introduction I could give you. Gilbert has a wealth of information at his fingertips and he uses it all to teach and entertain us.

I have a habit of judging a book by the first sentence (although the cover is often a help) and Gilbert starts his foreword with this sentence, "What would you do right now if you learned that you were going to die in ten minutes." It got me hooked.

If you are interested in psychology, imagination, happiness or humor (Gilbert is very funny, I think) try this book.

Now I am off to try the third book with stumbling in the title: Stumbling and raging : more politically inspired fiction.

So now I am supposed to tell you all which of the 71/2 habits of life long learners is the hardest and which is the easiest for me.

The easy one for me is creating a toolbox especially if it includes information. I love to gather facts and tidbits about a subject. (This is one of the reasons I am a librarian.)

Over the years, as I have taught myself various weaving techniques, I have gathered lots of books, magazines, websites, etc. that have been useful as I have learned double warps, overshot, and other things about weaving. Of course, besides lots of how-to information, I have gathered yarn (a closet full), two looms and lots of other tools. It would be better not to discuss all the stuff that I have accumulated with my family! They think my tool box is much too big.

The hardest life long learner skill for me is having confidence in myself as a learner. I am often second guessing my abilities and even though I have been weaving since 1978, I would hestiate and look up more information before I would offer to teach you to weave. Not that I would refuse, I just would want to brush up on those skills one more time before sitting down with a student.

Thanks for the opportunity to think this out. And thanks also to Pamunkey for the opportunity to play. This is fun.

I am so impressed by the number of staff that have gotten their blogs up and running. We are close to 60 by my count.

Thanks to Fiction_L, a listserve I belong to, I found a link to another library whose staff are also doing a 20 (or 23) Things project. This library is somewhere deep in Texas. If you want to see what they are doing go here:

http://ihcpl.blogspot.com/2007/08/training-hours-ihcpl-bling.html

I went so far as to look at their participant list and it looks like they are just like us. Some of their blogs are long, some short, some people admit to their stuggles and others found blogging to be an easy part of their 23 things.

I suppose I should go get ready for my next meeting...

So do you believe in synchonicity? Or maybe it is just serendipity. I am reading the second of three books that I found in PamCat by searching under the word "stumbling" as a title word.

The first book (with stumbling in the title) would be a great book for our Readers' advisory group when we do Travel books. That book, The Gods Drink Whiskey: Stumbling Toward Enlightenment In The Land Of The Tattered Buddha, was a fasinating look into Buddhism in Cambodia. I don't know much about either Buddhism or Cambodia, but thanks to Steve Asma, I now know more.

Asma has a great sense of humor, which is useful when you have been hired to teach Buddhism in a country that has believed in this religion much longer than the US has existed. Thanks to the politics of Cambodia over the last 30 years, the average person knows little about their native religion.

I would recommend this book to any one interested in religion, history and foreign politics.

The second book, which I am reading now is Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. I will let you all know if this book is as good.

So here is the sychronicity or serendipity or whatever. Asma quotes Gilbert in his book on Buddhism. Doesn't that seem odd to you? Did Asma deliberately use the word stumbling? And will the third book have any relationship to these two.

By the way, I was looking for a book that I thought had stumbling in the title. It did not, apparently, and I don't ever think I found the title I was looking for. However, it was a good way to find at least two good reads.

If you have ever stumbled on good reads through our catalog or another library catalog, please leave me a comment.

It is about time I post something on this blog. I have had it since 2005, but never posted often. I have sent the old blog posts off to wherever old blogs go.

Now with the 20 things we are doing at Pamunkey, I am going to try to post as I work my way through the 20 things in 24 weeks.

I am looking forward to seeing what other staff do on their blogs.

I will be back soon, Patty