tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63789824488230508372024-03-08T10:44:19.846-08:00Minerva's MusingsMinervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-8753040801811061692009-11-20T06:38:00.001-08:002009-11-20T06:40:18.419-08:00Challenge #6 - OCRWell, better late than never. Even though this was done long past the due date, I did enjoy writing the letter to Ralphie Parker's parent concerning his post Christmas behavior in the library.<br /><br />January 12, 2009<br /><br />Dear Mr. and Mrs. Parker,<br /><br />This is to inform you that Ralphie’s behavior in the Library has been unacceptable and he has been asked to leave the premises three times in the past two weeks.<br /><br />We understand Ralphie’s excitement over the holidays just past, but we must ask that Ralphie not bring any more presents into the library for show and tell. As you already know we had quite an incident with the Farkus’ family when Scut accidently swallowed Ralphie’s Orphan Annie decoder pin. Subsequently Ralphie has brought in a leg lamp, which he says is his father’s major award, which caused quite a stir in the teen area, and of course the recent Red Ryder BB gun incident from which we are still finding BBs embedded in the Children’s Desk. Luckily no one shot their eye out.<br /><br />Everyone who uses the Library has the right to do so without being disturbed. Any person whose conduct disturbs others violates Library policy. I am enclosing a copy of the Ocean County's Rules of Conduct. Please review it with your child. If these incidents don’t stop we will have to set up a conference with you to discuss Ralphie’s behavior. Thank you.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /> <br />Susan Gardiner<br />Branch ManagerMinervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-15030716432630573372009-11-02T09:04:00.000-08:002009-11-02T09:13:08.675-08:00Challenge #7 - Learning more about Outlook -I took the tutorial, Great Outlook features to organize your Inbox, which covered some features I had already recently begun using such as flagging items for followup. The amount of email, coupled with various deadlines is making organization of my mailbox more critical these days. As with most tutorials I always pick up extra tips I hadn't been taking advantage of. One was sorting by "converstion" which I did not have as a field on my email display. Being able to sort this way will make it more efficient when I'm looking for a specific thread of email conversation. I may also try color coding by sender, but I'm not sure at this point I see a need for that. But its nice to know its possible. I may also trying creating folders for spefic topics or senders but I think I would use that sparingly at first.Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-12626700641274755612009-06-15T11:44:00.000-07:002009-06-15T11:46:47.102-07:00Duke Farms Eaglets<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/SjaW0FvEo3I/AAAAAAAAAOY/1bAtN-bKne0/s1600-h/Eagles%2520in%2520nest%2520227.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347627429186020210" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/SjaW0FvEo3I/AAAAAAAAAOY/1bAtN-bKne0/s200/Eagles%2520in%2520nest%2520227.jpg" border="0" /></a> If you haven't looked in on the Duke Farms eaglet cam, don't miss seeing these three little guys before they fly the nest. www.dukefarms.org<br /><div></div>Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-89600587471244956102009-06-15T11:33:00.000-07:002009-06-15T11:43:27.138-07:00Challenge #5 - Newspapers Online - part oneI thought is was time to get back to the challange and pickup where I left off. Since I first started the newspaper challange I had a personal reason to use the newspaper and obituary search. I found out recently that a member of a nonprofit group, in which I'm active, passed away in August 2008. I searched to see if I could find a published obituary or death notice to share with the group. While I won't go into particulars, I wasn't successful in finding an obit, which would explain why we didn't know of his passing. But at least with knowledge learned from the challenge, I felt my search strategies were correct and if there was a death notice to be found - I would have found it.<br /><br />The second part of the assignment was a plus too, as I'd never used Ebsco A-Z. Very nice. I easily found the Regan Inauguration info for 1981 and emailed to oclmanages...Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-88298124442781004192009-04-27T13:54:00.000-07:002009-04-27T14:00:16.543-07:00Google SketchUpInteresting article about 3D modeling with Google SketchUp and children with Autism spectrum disorders. Some children who find it hard to draw in 2D are able to express their world easily using 3D modeling software. Often with spectacular results. Check it out: <a href="http://sketchup.google.com/">http://sketchup.google.com/</a>Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-48292716467220511562009-04-06T08:44:00.000-07:002009-04-06T08:50:03.851-07:00Happy 5th Birthday Gmail!It was five years ago that Gmail launched by giving out a gig. Back then, a typical webmail account could only store about five megabytes of mail -- kind of like our Outlook accounts???????? Hee, hee!Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-30938119593130823222009-03-30T10:01:00.000-07:002009-03-30T10:04:54.238-07:00<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/SdD7gZRw8NI/AAAAAAAAAEY/a1mlHJHdo1c/s1600-h/Brick+Library+008.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319027693884338386" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/SdD7gZRw8NI/AAAAAAAAAEY/a1mlHJHdo1c/s200/Brick+Library+008.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/SdD7AZaSTqI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/7BK8cd5VhAU/s1600-h/Brick+Library+007.jpg"></a><br /><br /><div></div></div><br />Just wanted to share a bit of spring with you! This is the beautiful Amaryllis which is presently blooming in my office. Enjoy...Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-45786875502099289822009-03-30T09:46:00.000-07:002009-03-30T10:06:30.356-07:00Challenge #4 - GoogleI was happy to find I was familiar with (and had used in the past) quite a few of Google's search features, especially time, unit conversion, area code, and definition features. I had never tried out the book search feature, so that is a great tool with which to become familiar. Adding the "site" search was new to me and I hope to utilize that more in the future. The general Google search on O'Neill and PP really brought up a mish-mash of stuff making it hard to zero in the the specific information needed. The book search with far fewer results made for an extremely focused search result with the answer literally at your fingertips. I successfully added the Google Blog RSS feed to my blog, now I have to remember to read it and blog about it!Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-84289656830800628272009-02-24T11:57:00.000-08:002009-02-24T12:07:26.198-08:00Challenge #3 - Gale Virtual Reference LibraryI enjoyed this challenge it. It was a good refresher on all those familiar reference sources that are now web-based. It was excellent the way they could be accessed directly from our public catalog. Of course that feature is not available in Horizon -- and sadly you can't even copy and paste the rather lengthy link. Hopefully all that will be a thing of the past when we migrate to Polaris.<br /><br />I found things very intuitive and easy to find. Citation and translation tools are nice and easy to use.<br /><br />VideoHound -- I had a "D'oh" moment when trying to figure out how to search a particular movie in the web product (I kept looking for the title listing in the table of contents) but fortunately soon found the "search within" box on the left hand side of the contents listing. Some habits die hard....<br /><br />No real life story to tell BUT when I went to the Reference shelves I did discover an older edition of VideoHound which needs to be weeded!!!Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-19609439756228122282008-12-04T13:42:00.000-08:002008-12-04T13:47:00.099-08:00Challenge #2 - Digital projector and Laptop presentationAt Brick's December 4 staff meeting I set up the laptop and digital projector did an overview of the OCL Communication Manual and what a valuable resource it is. I also included a refresher and reminder session for using Brick's meeting room calendar to its full potential. Even though I had to log into the public folders using remote Outlook it was still great to be able to demostrate on screen. What was even better off the hardware, software and wireless worked!Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-74893325598377317262008-11-21T13:49:00.000-08:002008-11-21T13:56:35.989-08:00NJListens download accomplishedI finally got all the pieces and parts (mp3 player, me, free time, and the pcplus) together in one place and was able to accomplish the NJListens download. Once I got WMPlayer updated and Overdrive downloaded and the security update download, yada, yada, yada it was fairly easy to download the audio book and transfer to the MP3 player. It was a very "cumbersome" process compared to so many other types of downloads I've done over the years. I enjoyed listening to a bit of Jane Austin's Persuasion -- didn't download the whole thing (only part 1) or I still be there waiting!Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-11219320149786744212008-10-30T08:55:00.000-07:002008-10-30T09:06:54.407-07:00Here we go again....Minerva's back in business. Who is Minerva, by the way? Minerva was the Roman name of Greek goddess Athena. She was considered to be the virgin goddess of <a title="War" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War"><span style="color:#000000;">warriors</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">, </span><a title="Poetry" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry"><span style="color:#000000;">poetry</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">, </span><a title="Medicine" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine"><span style="color:#000000;">medicine</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">, </span><a title="Wisdom" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom"><span style="color:#000000;">wisdom</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">, </span><a title="Commerce" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce"><span style="color:#000000;">commerce</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">, </span><a title="Craft" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craft"><span style="color:#000000;">crafts</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">,</span> and the<span style="color:#000000;"> </span><a title="Inventor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor"><span style="color:#000000;">inventor</span></a><span style="color:#000000;"> of </span><a title="Music" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music"><span style="color:#000000;">music</span></a>. Probably would have made a great librarian! Matter of fact her statue guarded the door of the university library where I got my MLS!<br /><br />I'm going to work for a better completetion rate this time around! On to conquer to Challenge #1, when I can get to a PC Plus and find an MP3 player....Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-38409966955445460712008-03-19T16:31:00.000-07:002008-03-19T16:44:13.760-07:00Thing #6 - accomplished in #5<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24849560@N06/2346530492/"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 160px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 156px" height="190" alt="" src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24849560@N06/2346530492/" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Well, turns out I already accomplished #6 in doing #5. The picture of the amaryllis was previously taken with the branch camera and downloaded on my computer. I successfully created my Flickr account and uploaded it, but was not able to get Flickr to communicate with Google. </div><div></div><div>So this (to left) is what I get when I try to upload the image to my blog using blogger's upload feature. Huh? It links you to Flickr but it ain't very pretty.</div>Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-54587424966422142992008-03-19T16:18:00.000-07:002008-03-19T16:23:20.048-07:00Thing #5 I give up!<a href="http://bp0.blogger.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/R-GfuRz82uI/AAAAAAAAAAM/r_nX0FFbEkc/s1600-h/Flower+004.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5179596663856880354" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp0.blogger.com/_aiYYTrEDN-I/R-GfuRz82uI/AAAAAAAAAAM/r_nX0FFbEkc/s320/Flower+004.jpg" border="0" /></a> I uploaded this image to Flickr but no way I could get it to "Blog This" with Google. When I tried to upload it using my Blogger upload all I got was a broken graphic. So I just ended uploading it straight from my computer.<br /><br />I will now meditate on it and it will calm my irritated nerves.....Minervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6378982448823050837.post-25407726218399725002008-03-18T07:42:00.000-07:002008-03-18T08:00:04.401-07:00Okay, so now I've got a blog...Well here I am on Thing#3! I listened to the 7 1/2 Things... What does it say about me as a lifelong learner when I had a hard time listening to the 7 1/2 things -- it went so slow! Anyway, the easiest of the things is "Use technology to your advantage." I've never had trouble using technology to help in both my personal and work life -- word processing, graphic design, and the world (shopping!) at your fingertips via the internet!<br /><br />The hardest -- viewing problems as challenges. I'd rather not have the challenges in the first place - but that's life!<br /><br />Well I guess I've become a blogger...<br />MinervaMinervahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02449261476551970493noreply@blogger.com0