Holidays are great, but back to work soon

I have returned south of the border, but am still on holidays for one final week. It is definitely cooler, so I have foregone the swims at the beach and the walks while the air is still balmy at sunset. Instead, I have logged on and am tackling my homework for the 21 lunges program. I decided to go back over what I had already done (as I have stretched it out so long) and make sure I had completed all the tasks in order. I had for a while been carried away with practising all the things that were new to me, so ably demonstrated by Daniel, that I realised I hadn't actually commented on them on my blog as I am supposed to.

So, here goes.

Way back in Week 4 (yes, I did complete it earlier this year), I discovered the inner working of podcasts. I think they are great and have seen how useful they already are for the library. There are 21 currently available to listen to, and I think we could add more!. There is a new one for Brunswick Library, how about one for Bundooora? We have some specialised collections eg Childrens, that could rate a special spiel.
I do refer new students to these podcasts, also the vodcasts we have available. They are a great resource. There are only 3 vodcasts at present, I think there should be more and I would be happy to help produce them.

But before I go on...................Just an addtional comment about my progress through the lunges. Daniel had warned me that since the program was no longer actively maintained, a number of the links no longer worked. I found this to be true, but he was one step ahead of me, checking, fixing where possible and suggesting alternatives for others. So thanks for that!

I might add that I had a lot of frustrations throughout the program. A lot of it was definitely self-imposed, as I wanted to read absolutely everything on each topic and found the amount of time involved almost overwhelming and too hard to fit into work time. It spilt over into limited time at home (due to study and community commitments) and stretched the program out almost never endingly. Also, I kept getting side tracked, following up interesting side topics and straying away from the original content. Fascinating, but not productive for finishing the program. I also embraced the new experiences so thoroughly I got distracted - for example by Facebook. But most frustratingly, I had a lot of problems with logins and keeping track of the multitude of applications I got involved in. Sometimes, it all seemed too hard, but Daniel would steer me back on track and I would find it would find perserverance rewarding. Finally, as referred to earlier, time was the most precious commodity that I had trouble managing. Daniel and I discussed this and we endeavoured to schedule regular times to review my progress and for one to one mentoring. It was evident that without this (and I am aware that my motivation wavered), I would not be headed towards the finish line.

Of course, our decision to 'pitch' for a conference paper has focussed me more on the task. I will have finished the program before I return from holidays and then we will concentrate on writing the paper. Some of the thoughts I have just put down may be included!

Moving onto Week 5, I delved into the delight of wikis. I had used one before for a collaborative ATN project, so it wasn't completely new. I have edited a page and it all came back to me easily.

I am just having a short break away from the computer as we have a new member of the family wanting attention. We adopted a cat called Felix yesterday.

Back soon.