Puttin' My Wiki to Work

I've taken a short break from my learning 2.0 lessons due to a lack of time. But, I'm back in the game as of today. Instead of starting where I stopped, I jumped ahead to the Wiki lessons. In mid-July I offered to investigate how a Wiki might help a new state wide task force. It should be a perfect application of my new found knowledge.

Discovery #1: Developing a Wiki is not brain surgery! In about one hour, I developed a Wiki for the task force complete with a front page and two additional pages (with movie clips and documents). Very fun! Now let's see how it works to facilitate our process of developing a collaborative proposal to eventually share with librarian colleagues across the state.

Cheeseburger at the Reference Desk

I got a lot of mileage out of the Mercedes Benz commercial this fall. If you haven't seen the blond co-ed try to order a cheeseburger and french fries at the reference desk, you have to watch and laugh. I showed the clip to new faculty at Eastern Kentucky University just after introducing myself during their day-long orientation. They laughed and it seemed to wake them up just in time to hear me brag about the library: our collections, our people and our services. The clip was a perfect segway into the generalizations we make about the Millenial student. Students today often choose to search the free web rather than ask for research help at the reference desk. And, doesn't the desk look like the perfect place to put in an order for a late night snack?

Mercedes Benz Commercial: The Library Blonde Girl Disturbs !