What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite discoveries would include:
- Setting up and maintaining the blog. This was my very first blog, and this entire experience has realy helped to cement in my brain how the whole process works.
- Reading other blogs. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the insight and input from all of my classmates. I also realized, both along the way and here at the end, just how many more possibilities there are with regards to creating and maintaining a great blog, thanks to the amazing creativity and know-how of others in our group.
- Library Thing. When the time comes when school, work, family, etc. allow (whenever that may be), I look forward to returning to Library Thing and cataloging all of my books with them.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
Right after going through the initial "Seven Habits for Highly Successful Librarians" tutorial, I decided to re-commit myself to a daily regimen of planning and solitude time - to map out my day, and to use it as a means of working daily toward my personal, professional and educational goals.
Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised how much I enjoyed maintaining a blog. I also would have to admit that although I was certain that much would be learned from beginning to end of this process, the amount of exposure to tools, resources, and applications available, if not vital, to librarians today has really astounded me. The process also is very true to its namesake; that it is the just the beginning of a lifetime of learning.
What could we do differently to improve upon the program's format or concept?
I am not sure if the links we were using are really to blame, as they were certainly meant at least initially for the staff at the PLCMC. But the only thing I would mention is that some of the links to sites, tutorials, sign-up pages, etc. did not work. Again, I am not sure if that could be helped.
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again choose to participate?
I have to be honest, that I probably would not have even known about this program had it not been for taking LIS 635 with Charlet. That said, I am sure glad that this was part of our course. If a follow-up program were part of a course or staff development project in the future, I will be very pleased to go through it, knowing of what great benefit this program has been.
