Thing #8 and TLA workshops

As geeky as I profess to be, I have to admit that RSS is a new idea for me. The more I looked at the discovery resources, the more excited I became. If I don't count the friends list on my personal blog, I keep track of 38 feedable sites on my off hours. So, in addition to the blogroll I created for our course, I did one for my personal 'net reading as well. I've been using it for a couple of days now, and it's saved me a lot of time since I don't have to go to each website to check for updates.

I still have to add the rest of our staff blogs to my work blogroll, and add it to my sidebar, but I'll get that done this week. :-)

I had the opportunity to go to Brentwood with our Stephanie F for a few TLA workshops. We learned a lot! Like how not constructive it is to tell a patron to "get a grip" and how, according to the Myers-Briggs personality types, our differences don't have to cause conflict and can actually be compatible. The workshop that I was most excited about was "Should You Wiki?" taught by our former intern Maria Sochor who is now the assistant circulation supervisor at Brentwood. I know I'm thinking ahead here, but it was definitely food for thought!

Taken simply, wikis are collaborative websites, built and modified by the users. Maria showed us portions of Brentwood's private circulation wiki and how they use it to work more effectively. Being the book geek I am, I thought about its applications with readers' advisory and book talk as well as the potential for training for new and current employees.

Maria e-mailed the powerpoint presentation and the worksheets to me if anyone wants to look at it when we do Wikis later this fall. She also asked me to give her best to everyone.